There were many preparations to make for the upcoming expedition. Members of the party had much to buy, and found every shop gave them priority to prepare them. While they bought new weapons and equipment Hans and I set up in a local tavern to gather a list of item to be returned for a reward. The first item was an ancestral battle axe that is likely somewhere that battle was the thickest at the fall of the hold, so difficult to find, but a handsome reward for its return. Next came a dwarven noble named Broken Mythril. Her family had been the leaders of the fallen hoard and she wished for her party to join the expedition to recover the book of grudges and her family honor. I had to get Lilith’s consent for this one, but it was swiftly gained and we had a few more skilled hands to join us. If our quests lead us in different directions we will part to finish them, but till then we are together. An auspicious beginning and it makes me feel that this expedition will be an eventful and glorious one.

Hans and I also Convinced Lilith to make a deal with the rune smiths to gain access to the blueprints of the hold, in return we needed to return the lost holds oath gold, or at least give them information on why our group couldn’t get there so that a future expedition can be planned around the obstacles we find. Lastly we sent word back to the ship to bring up more supplies and reinforcements to follow us on to the hold. With these and other more mundane preparations completed we were ready to start our quest.

We decided to take the lowland path as it would, we thought, tire the troops less. It turned out to be very pleasant and had formerly been a nature trail of some kind. The dwarven road, to no one’s surprise, still remained as good a road as any in the empire even without maintenance for almost a century. Reyes spent the first couple of days ahead of us, but his lantern was quickly spotted by the dwarves and Lilith didn’t want to let our secret slip yet, even if it would be safe under the contract, so we sent him home. Lilith pushed to make use of him in ways I found distasteful ,by treating him as cannon fodder like a mindless skeleton. I assured her that it could be done, but she would need to order it herself as I would take no part in the waste of a skilled and valuable member of the crew. This surprised me as I had always though Lilith did a good job looking after her crew, though I think maybe the events of the past few days weighed heavy on her.

After some days of journeying we came upon an injured elf running down the road towards us. They looked terrified and we quickly tried to assure them they were safe. It appears they were being pursued by druichi corasairs. We laid in ambush while I treated the elf’s wounds, and sure enough they came down the road. A small party, but still more druichi than I would choose to face if there was a choice. I however was busy doctoring the elf as his condition was critical. I heard the fighting, but finished and drew my sword just in time to see the last elf fall. It appears to have been a short but brutal fight as the many injuries showed. I patched folk up and we made camp soon after.

The elf, when they had recovered somewhat, told us their story. They are a dark elf mage, who had worked with the corsairs till his magic was discovered and then they turned on him and beat him almost to death before he escaped. There was an army of dark elves besieging the hold we were going to. Also an army of greenskins was gathering in the mountain. It appeared this would be even more dangerous and memorable than I had thought. I relished the challenge ahead