August 12th, 2008
Next stop: Riverock. Halflings came soon after the humans on the Nebola island and settled south of Eripia. Walking down the river, party soon found a village. Halflings are talkative fellas and they were quick to find who was the killed halfling and where is his family. The killed halfling was named Engo and his only relative is his nephew Griffo. Engo was Griffo’s uncle and his only family. These days, Griffo is fisherman and lives from what little fish he sells. Although he was still grieving for his uncle, he agreed to participate in the ritual. Party bought all his daily catch and they were under way.
In the evening, party arrived back to the cave. Nariel sent them out and performed the ritual only with Griffo. After an hour, Nariel got out, thanked them and gave them the Eladrin chain mail she promised.
The golden bird
Party returned to Eripia to bring the hunter who saw the gold bird with them. He guided them through the forest to the rocks where he last saw the bird. Elsing explored the surroundings and noticed a golden feather on one of the cliffs. From this cliff, Elsing saw a clearing further in the forest and led the party to it.
On the clearing, there was a house dug into the ground with a tree growing from inside the house. They’ve entered easily as the old door was easy to break. Inside the house, first room was covered with trash and few small rodents jumped out of it. Other room was a library. On the floor Kalista found a journal and recognized some inscriptions as creation rituals. Stairs in the library descended to a basement.
Basement was furnished with many tables on which Kalista recognized some alchemical ingredients. At the end of a corridor was a door entangled in the roots of a tree and surrounded by four statues. Statues looked suspicious to Irgon so he took his warhammer and smashed the one statue’s arm but nothing happened. But as soon Kriv tried to cut the roots covering the door, statues became alive and attacked them. Clearly, they were guarding the door and whatever was on the other side. They managed to overcome the guardians and to open the door.
The room behind the door was a giant cage with the golden bird in it. But between the bird and the heroes stood an iron beast: piked metal dog-like creature. Although strong, it couldn’t stand against five heroes. The bird just looked at them but when Kriv tried to catch it, it flew up through the trunk of the tree that was growing into the house. Vani was mad at his because she was prepared to catch the bird and surely is the quicker of the two. Nevertheless, the bird was gone.
Outside, Elsing spotted the bird and they run following it towards Eripia. When they approached the city, the bird flew over them again toward the house. Back to the house, this time Elsing climbed on the tree and block the passage. Vani went inside and this time, she caught the bird. Somewhat paranoid, they wanted to be sure nobody will see them having the bird, they’ve put the old Irgon’s chainmail on it and carried it to the city.
Obviously, party won the bird quest but hunt for the panther wasn’t so clear. They had nothing to show. Tournament jury decided to investigate their story while party is on the search for the missing explorer.