In the wake of the devastation wrought by the fire giants in their attack, there was much to be done. Fortunately, the giants and most of the orcs were held at the fringes of
town. Several of those small, fiery creatures slipped through to wreak
havoc, but, by and large the town and the population have survived
relatively unscathed. Among other things, there was a massive piece of
adamantium to be concerned with.
A Zhentarim officer by the name of Urlam Stockspool, I believe, made an appearance to offer the Lord Protector a sizeable amount in exchange for the purchase of the metal. As much as the Zhentarim seem to have been making an effort to be different from the incarnation of them in old tales of Phlan and Zhentil Keep, this still felt like something I could let pass. That amount of adamantium represents a strategic asset in the region. What's more, we cannot allow the giants to recover it. As such, I made the offer of having the fragment taken south to Waterdeep.
My obvious preference would have been to take it to Silverymoon, but that would require passing across the Evermoors with the piece in tow. Neverwinter was also close, but it is still in the process of rebuilding and I do not yet trust that it has the necessary forces to withstand a determined assault by giants.As such, sending the fragment south along the Long Road seemed the most logical direction to take. However, Meister Carlstag had a suggestion of his own.
The wizard has offered to have an adamantine golem built and has pledged to use it in the defense of the town. This would serve to ruin the fragment for the giant's use and also insure that the Zhentarim do not receive control over the adamantium, at least for the moment. The choice of the matter was entirely up to Lord Protector Shendrel, however, so my offered support of this option was something of a paper tiger given my lack of authority. Fortunately, she seemed to be as doubtful of the Zhentish offer as I was and opted to take up Carlstag on his plan at which point, the wizard concealed the piece of adamantium within some alternate plane of existence.
Darather Shendrel did have a task for us after that, asking us to take a report of this matter to a colleague of hers in Everlund, promising that presenting her badge to a Drau Thelev at Danovar's house would earn us a reward for the report. I originally wanted to head into the hills to seek out these reported hill giants and the orcs that seemed to serve them, but Lord Protector Shendrel and my party mates made a strong case that word must be delivered regarding the matter of the giants.
We ended up leaving with that and one other task as well as a potential lead. The rake at the Lion's Shield Coster asked us to deliver a crate to Noanor's Hold, a place which Gwenfys seems to consider with a healthy degree of caution. Likewise there is the possibility of a weapon that could be used to fight giants in Zymorven's Hall, a bit of information coming to us from the inn-keeper and retired adventurer, Urgala. Before that, however, we would be making our stop in Silverymoon to have the crag cat skins made into cloaks and enchanted among other things.
Traveling East from Triboar we encountered a jovial halfling by the name of Vordana upon the road who was making her away along with her tressym and an old mule. We had a brief but pleasant encounter with her, which Tarnish mostly slept through even though the winged cat decided to rest upon her face. She gave us the name of an inn in Yartar called Beldebar's Rest and suggested that we might get a good price if we mention her name.
Our stay in Yartar was brief, but we did manage to pass off the knucklebones and skull fragments to a Kelemvorite priest in the city. Beldebar's Rest was every bit as good as Vordana had implied it would be and the proprietors were quite happy to give friends of the halfling a quality experience. The one thing I regret is that we passed through Yartar without reporting the matter of the giants to the Waterbaron of the city. We only thought about that later as we were again traveling east along the Evermoor Way and encountered a small stream of battered refugees heading west.
Giants, ogres, and possibly trolls had ransacked their village, killing many and force the others to abandon their homes. We directed them to head on to Yartar, a day or two's march behind us at this point, and proceeded eastward until we could find sign of their passage alongside that of the giants'.
It did not take Gwenfys long to find sign of some ogres whom we came upon in the middle of an argument. Apparently they had gotten lost and separated from the other members of their raiding party. Their argument was distracting enough that they failed to notice the four of us getting into position. At least, not until the ambush began. It was an incredibly brief battle. Even as tough as ogres are, the six of them where taken down swiftly by the combined assault of myself and my comrades.
It took very little effort to realize that the ogres were raiding for food. Their sacks lacked the clutter of odds and ends of the giants we had faced in Triboar, but instead were filled with horses, goats, and the bodies of two humans, whom we immediately gave a decent burial. Further tracking the signs of the giants' destruction brought us to the carnage of a small village. There were far too many bodies here to give the same respectful treatment, but the state of the village confirmed the conclusion that this raiding party had been focused on food once it was confirmed that none of the villager's other valuables had been taken.
With little else that we can do, we have since returned to the road and the travel east to Silverymoon.
It has been...sometime since I was last in Silverymoon. Almost ten
years, in fact, not since a little bit after the dwarves retook
Sundabar. It will be good to see the family again, but I fear the advent
of complications. We shall see if these fears are founded when we
arrive.
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