A3: Ch2: The Sleeping Dragon

As the party set off from Chey in a pilgrimage that would take them to the top of the Badur Mountain Range, they stumble upon the whereabouts of a large encampment of Arruce soldiers. Unseen they plan to make a wide loop around, adding a day to their travel, to remain unseen. Along the way they see a lone Arruce Rider in the forest coming their direction and Xar uses his gift of the wilds to entangle the horse mid gallop, throwing the rider who unfortunately lands on his head and breaking his neck. They put the horse out of it's misery, take a letter from the rider who they now know to be a messenger, and Shen buries the two of them. The letter is a normal relaying of info between the camp and troops headed to the fort near Chey which the party had recently cleared out, but an Inquisitor had be sent there and would have arrived by now. Again, the bottom of the page contained the phrase "We cannot be sure of what we create." and the signature of the Ritter, Casar Bruhns.   As they got closer to Badur and gained in elevation, the air grew colder and snow began to cover the ground. They run into a Dwarf hunter and help him take down a rare albino stag. He informs them of the safety of the road to Badur and that it is neutral territory where the Arruce, though they travel through the area, have no jurisdiction. They make their way to the large Adamant doors of the entrance to Badur, and among the stares of Arruce soldiers, make their way inside the mountain. They pay to board their horse and carriage and sleep at the nearest inn. That morning they buy some winter clothes and make their way up the trail up the mountain to a supposed last stop inn about two days journey up. The first night Shen makes an Igloo like dwelling for the team to sleep in and in the middle of the night sir stuffed awakens Shen due to a knocking on the structure. Shen looks out to see a young Arruce human on the verge of freezing to death asking for assistance. Shen lets him in and upon seeing the party and recognizing who they takes a blanket Shen offers and tries his best to sleep.    The next morning on the way to the mountaintop inn they talk to the young man and eventually find out he is a soldier who was fed up with the mundane everyday life of preparing for his first battle and decided to take a short adventure up the mountain. His name is Stren Versk, part of a prominent Arrucian family whose father is a general. At the mountaintop inn, Stren agrees to head down the mountain first thing the next morning after he sees the party leave, buys a room, and locks himself in. The party buys supplies for the trip and get rooms for the night. The next morning, Shen goes outside to a window outside Stren's room and uses suggestion to coerce him to eat breakfast with them. Under Shen's charm he complies and once Shen ends his spell Stren immediately runs back to his room.   The party makes their way up the mountain and after a few days of climbing comes to an areas that looked to be inhabited with two cairns each leaning seemingly pointing in a direction. One of the cairns had one more rock than the other and Bink reading the runes etched nearby and on the cairns discerns that this camp is called Starlight, the cairn with one more rock is called Howling Wolf, and the Cairn with one less stone is called Crest. They decide to head toward Howling Wolf. Along the way they find traces that people had traveled through there recently. Eventually they started to hear the howls of nearby wolves just before they were attacked. These wolves appeared larger than normal and one of them even emitted a magical frost like breath. Finally they came to another couple cairns at the mouth of a cave where light and shadows could be seen inside. Deciding to yell into the cave they are greeted by an imposing man with a tuft of braided red hair and markings on his face and body, a goliath.   His name is Vimok and he is the leader of the group called the Elenath Clan. He introduces him to the rest of the members of the clan and invites them to stay and enjoy their hospitality, in return, they would help with tomorrows hunt. That night, upon the full moon Aire has a vision of a young tattooed Orc in Ghandon robes making his way along a large crevasse coming to a point where across the crevasse he sees a small camp next to a giant stone spire that rises high into the sky with the silhouette of someone sitting atop.    The next day the clan is split into two groups, group one would contain Vimok, the party, and one of the clan elders Sitir. The other group would be lead by Vimok's rival, Zatham. They would be hunting for something the clan called "Mirka" which roughly translates to Wild Man. It has killed many from the clan and any attempts to hunt it thus far have failed. They find a trap that had been triggered but only managed to snag a tuft of fur. Shen using his magically enhanced tracking technique was able to use this and find the general area of the creature. They hear a terrible howl sweep down the slopes and with it brought an icy wind. Only able to see 5ft in front of them they huddles up and prepared to defend themselves. Out of the blizzard a claw came out and dug into the side of Sitir who then used the opportunity to sink one of her blades deep into the creatures (yeti's) arm. After a hard fought battle, and with a surprisingly strong village elder helping them, they overcame the yeti and brought home their prize. That night they celebrated and to commemorate the occasion, the group who took down the beat would receive a special hunter's marking (tattoo). Talking to Vimok, they learned of where this crevasse was and got directions to it. They received their tattoos, rested, then head out the next morning.   They followed Vimok's direction for a few days, surviving an avalanche, and eventually making it to the same area Aire saw in his vision with the spire and the camp on the other side. However, the bridge had been cut on one room on the other side and would need to be reattached in order to cross it safely. Aire using his mark of the frog jumped the crevasse and reattached the bridge allowing the rest of the party to cross safely. They went inside the tent to find a person bundled up in furs on a bed sound asleep. They decide not to wake the person and wait. Shen gets impatient and wakes her up and hears the person does not come out of the covers and instead just says "Whoever does not respect you, insults you. You must leave". Afterwards they decide to wait again and after a 24hr period, Sitir, the village elder from the Elenath clan emerges and reveals herself to be the sleeping dragon.    She talks to the party and wants to speak with each of them individually atop her perch, she jumps up and waits. After each of them finds a way up the perch they each have a talk with Sitir about underlying issues each of them has and gives them wisdom on each subject. Aire's impatience/uncaring nature, Bink's hate, Shen's lust for power, and Xar's ego. Afterward she comes down from her perch to answer questions the party may have. She answers as an unbiased source and knows things that she shouldn't know having been on these mountains this entire time. On questions relating to what they should do about the stones, etc she leaves those decisions to them as she cannot tell them what they should or should not do, their decisions are their own. As a parting gift she takes 1 items from each of them, Xar's Katana, Bink's family journal, Aire's Ghandon sash, and Shen's Staff and awakens hidden power within them. She then does the same to their minds opening them to their new potential. She then has the party close their eyes and snaps, when they opens them they are back at the mountain top inn.