Traveling the Smuggler's Road

Summary

After a relatively quick journey to Coreth and down through a surprisingly non-hostile Trollmire, the party arrived at the old road leading up to the top of Wyvern Mountain - the "Smuggler's Road". Sheer mountain sides, dangerous cliffs, and no handrail combine on the road to almost force travelers to follow a very specific route, as if the hand of destiny had decided that there was only one way to go...

About a mile and a half along the road the heroes came across a 70 feet deep ravine. A wooden bridge that appeared to be fairly sturdy crossed the ravine, promising an easy traversal. Shashank took the lead to cross, followed by his sister Miandra. Everything seemed fine until about halfway across, when almost the entire bridge collapsed! The Venora siblings plunged to what should have been certain doom! At the same time, some mechanism on the far end of the bridge flung a torch high into the air - high enough to be seen by any who might be watching farther up the road.

Fortunately, some great power or deific entity must have taken pity on the two, and they survived - albeit in very bad shape. With the bridge out, the two worked their way up the other side of the ravine, followed by the others. Drakken took his sweet time climbing down and up, though, delaying the group and possibly allowing for any who might be lying in wait to reinforce their positions...

After a switchback, the champions came upon a large rock pile in the road. A bloody corpse lie in the open area to the left of the pile, signaling that perhaps the rocks concealed more than just...more rocks. Sure enough, as the PCs approached a volley of arrows was launched by a group of Nalgrim hiding in the rubble. A bloody battle ensued, though fortunately the heroes of Venora won the day.

Another half-mile down the road, a small band of grimlocks through a boulder at the party and attacked. They were killed quickly, easily, and with little to remark on.

The road continued on - another mile, another switchback. In short order, the group came upon the remnants of a watchtower near a copse of pine trees. A light emanated from the tower, presumably a sign of life.

The group approached, with Wylan opening the door of the ruin to see what lay within. He and his new animal friend entered to find little more than debris and an old table with a single candle standing on it.

It was then that an ambush was sprung! From the trees a dire wolf leaped, to tear into the flesh of the swordmage! It was followed by the shrieks of an eagle and a stern dwarven woman wielding an ax in each hand. The woman proclaimed herself an emissary of the "Mountain King" and demanded the heroes' surrender. The PCs, however, would give no quarter and in short order eviscerated the wolf. This seemed to drive the dwarf into a vengeful frenzy; she dropped any talk of surrender and sought to destroy those that slew her beloved pet.

Despite her elite skills, the dwarf was laid low with little damage to the PCs. Her eagle fought by her side until her death; it then flew off and escaped with its life, despite the party's efforts to stop it.

The road continues on...will the danger increase? And when will they find the lair they seek? Will they achieve victory, or will their corpses little the slopes of...

...Wyvern Mountain!'

Memorable Events

• n/a

Creatures Encountered

• Dire wolf
• Grimlocks
• Nalgrim

Treasures Discovered

• Leather armor +1 (dwarf)
• +1 hand axes (dwarf)

Locations Visited

• Smuggler's Road

NPCs Encountered

• n/a