Securing the Local Circles

Before heading to the South to start my search for Issara’s tomb, I must first warn the surrounding circles of Redhaven and Lost Rock of the danger.  I speak to Overseer Eos in Redhaven and she has been aware of the events of the past month.  She will maintain communication with Overseer Oline to secure the area. She is not keen on finding more Skulde as the suspicion of the people is still strong in the communities.  She does tell me of a man who entered town a few days ago speaking of a looming danger. She was at first going to dismiss him, but with the recent events, decided to hold onto him for questioning.  She has allowed me to meet this man.

His name is Torvald from the Ragged Coast.  He tells us the circle of Sidan where his is from has begun working with an evil presence in the area.  The Warden, Finnr, has been working with this evil and they have overthrown the Overseer there.  I resisted their authority, but was driven out of town.  I’ve spent the past several months wondering the lands trying to warn any circles who will listen.  When he heard of some of the activity in this area he decided to try to investigate more.  

We do not know if the people who have taken over Sidan are the same Dream Masters, but it might be a place to investigate. Torvald has agreed to help Eos and will share what information he has with her.  But the Ragged Coast is a great distance from the Tempest Hills and if the threat is not the same, there may be very little good he can do for us.

Asbjorn and I move toward Lost Rock to warn the circle there.  Lost Rock is where all the iron we mine is taken and shipped out to Ravenfalls.  The Overseer, Zahn is very much like Eos and they have made a good team over the past several years of their leadership.  Over the past few days the people have seen a robed man in the area and his clothing matches what I have described to them.  They have been attempting to track his movements, but over the past day many of the cattle have become ill and this has taken manpower away from the search to care for the animals.  The Warden had tracked the man to the river, but the bridge had been destroyed and he was not able to continue his search.

I swear an Iron Vow to the town of Lost Rock, but I fail my roll and Zahn is not convinced I’ll be able to do any more than his Warden.  I receive no help from the community and I move out with Asbjorn to see if we can track this man down.  As we received no help, we become lost and find the river, but we are significantly downstream from where the bridge is.  The rope bridge we brought is useless here as we had intended on using what was left of the structure to secure our bridge. 

We find a good place to ford the river but we spend several days searching and finding nothing.  In Game Mechanics I have several failed rolls and the menace track is almost at 10.  As we prepaid for camp a cheap a Horror comes over the hills at us.  This creature is all bones and the bones have an ashen look with streaks of bright colors here and there.  It has two antennae on top of it’s skull which are fleshy and dart around as it moves.  The creature starts to make a clicking sound that turns into a high pitched wail which causes us pain.

I engage the creature in combat with a bone axe I have been working on.  I’m able to avoid the creature’s attacks and score several strong hits against it.  Then the antennae strike me and send a pulse of muscle numbing pain through me.  I realize I can’t take many hits like that and try to put an end to this fight.  I take another hit from the antennae and while I’m able to stay in the fight, I nearly lose consciousness.  I’m able to get behind the thing and sever it’s head.

We’ve been lost for days and I’m now badly injured.  We venture back to Lost Rock and our failure is immediately apparent and we are forced out of town without receiving any assistance.  We begin to take the road to Ravenfalls for the next portion of our journey