After their third adventure at Losnoth, the party returned to Breathy Footsore’s inn near the citadel of Elwood the Blue.
Days #2-17 through #2-22 (Waterday, 17th Thawmist, through Waterday, 2nd Dewsnap): Once back at Breathy’s inn, most of the party stayed in their two cabins, with the women, Falafela, Opalent, and their guests, Flenda and Gwenette, staying in the nicer of the two cabins, while Lightstep, Vandin, and Vox shared the more run-down cabin with Persis and Tureg. Since the party didn’t totally trust the two brothers they rescued, Jorgio and Fredo bunked upstairs in the dormitory at Breathy’s inn. On 18th Thawmist, Elwood interviewed the party, and was interested to hear about the large stone idol in the sacrifice room. Pangborn left Elwood’s citadel on the next supply wagon that returned to Popinjay so he could give his personal report to Hawkmoon. Tureg slowly regained his strength, and by the 2nd Dewsnap he was in pretty good shape once again.
While the party was resting in order for Tureg to heal, Flenda and Gwenette filled in the party as to how they came to be captured by the orcs. Gwenette did most of the speaking. “We come from a village about 15 miles north of Losnoth. That village is named Crystal Shores, and it is on the south shore of a lake named Crystal Lake which is just south of the Marshes of Rust. The lake is not that large, but is a wide spot in the south branch of the River Bushkill that flows to the River Trollhraun, which itself flows to the Winedark Sea. Flenda and I decided to go berry and herb and mushroom gathering in the nearby Alder Thicket, which are some thick woods to the southeast of our village. Some folks call it a jungle. Anyway, it was a nice spring day a couple of weeks ago, and although my sister and I are skilled in the use of swords and such, we decided there would be no danger to us, so we took no weapons with us. Hah! That was our mistake. We wandered into the woods around mid-morning, when suddenly we were surrounded by eight orcs. We were astonished to see them in the daylight, but seeing as we had a thick canopy of tree leaves over us, the light was not strong and so it bothered not the orcs. We were quickly bound and marched through the woods to the south, then made a camp at the edge of the forest until dusk.”
Gwenette continued, “When it got dark enough the orcs blindfolded us, then marched us to the west. They probably thought we wouldn’t know which way we were headed, but since we were out of the trees it had to be to the west as the other three directions would have all been still in the trees. Finally, we were marched up a hill covered with rock rubble, then down into the dungeon. Although still blindfolded, we could tell we were underground as footsteps echoed off of the hard rock walls in the corridors. After a number of turns, we were finally shoved into the room in which you found me.”
Both girls then spoke of the long hours and days spent in the room, when finally a party of orcs came and fetched Flenda, after having first given her the white silk gown and white slippers to wear. They marched her off to the sacrificial chamber, tied her down, and were preparing a ritual sacrifice. Flenda then said, “I was trying to uphold my heritage of being descended from a tribe of fierce warriors, and tried to maintain my silence, but when it looked like I was well and truly doomed, I let out a yell like I was trying to summon any nearby kin to my aid. Then a miracle happened as the next thing I knew some unknown party was laying into the orcs and felling them about. Then a tall elven princess, at least I thought she was a princess, cut the ropes that bound me to the altar. But aarrggghhh! The orcs were already all slain. Oh, but I wanted to pay them back dearly! But at least I got the ears as a trophy from one of them!” Flenda chuckled as she mentioned gathering the ears.
During this period of resting, Flenda took time to carefully preserve those orc ears, drying them in the sun, even salting them from a supply of salt she obtained from one of Breathy Footsore’s daughters, Shannowy. Flenda also begged a new set of clothing from Shannowy, as Flenda did not want to go around wearing the white gown she was rescued in all of the time as she did not get to recover her own garments from Losnoth when she was rescued. Flenda also got some leather from a soldier at Elwood’s citadel, and she fashioned a belt to wear. And on the belt she fastened those orc ears by poking holes in the tops of the ears and tying them to the belt with some leather cord.
All the while, while waiting for Tureg to heal, Flenda and Gwenette were chafing at the bit to return to their home, but Elwood wisely talked them out of trying to travel alone, mentioning the known hunting leopards in the area, not to mention that if they had been captured by orcs in the wilderness once, they could be captured the same way again. The sisters did mention they were unarmed the first time, but were now armed with swords and wouldn’t be easily taken the next time. The party was willing to escort the girls to their home, of course, but did not want to leave Tureg behind.
Fredo and Jorgio talked a little about themselves, too. They said they had been taken under similar circumstances, although their village, Jungala (pronounced with a long “u”), was about 10 miles to the southeast of Losnoth, as far as they could reckon. Their village was right on the verge of a more southern part of the Alder Thicket, and the two brothers had gone into the woods to check on some animal traps as they were both apprentice fur-trappers. They had also been suddenly surrounded by about nine or ten orcs, bound, and marched to the dungeon at Losnoth. They had been armed with daggers, but quickly realized the folly it would have been to match their two daggers against five times as many swords. While the brothers were both keen to send word to their village of their whereabouts, they did seem content to pass the days near Breathy’s in the company of Flenda and Gwenette, in particular. It didn’t take too much talking by Elwood to convince the brothers to not try to venture home by themselves either, but rather to wait until the other members of the party could escort them to their home.
While the party was taking this break, the month changed from Thawmist to Dewsnap. Using Balozkinar’s Corrected Commoners Calendar, each month has exactly 20 days, divided into four weeks of five days each. The days of the week are, in order, Airday, Waterday, Earthday, Fireday, and Spiritday. The calendar allows for no “week-ends” as are known in some other areas. Also, at the end of the year is an End of Year Festival of usually five days, although it will have six days during a leap year. Then the New Year begins on the Vernal Equinox, when spring starts. Thawmist and Dewsnap are two of the spring months, followed by Flowerbloom and Sweetrain.
— The Dungeon Master
