D&D 5E Session Summary: Clearwater Mill

This post is by special guest author and player of Hilbo Huggins, +J Malfair.

We will pick things up at Rivercrest - A walled Forest Gnome community along the Clearwater River.   There are a small number of farms outside of the town but the gnomish town looks to have seen better days.   Having said that it's still up and running and fighting for survival.

Rivercrest

We're welcomed into the town and their mayor Burgles invites us into his home.  We accept and we settle into a lengthy conversation.

We find out what we can about Clearwater Mill (where the Splinterbeards are from) and he lets us know that the dwarves came down this way several years before but he hasn't really heard from dwarves since.

For the past year or two the water has been polluted by something upstream, they dont wash from it or drink it but it's terrible.  

He lets us know about Orc and refugee camp issues (bandits and such) that are happening to the north east of Rivercrest.  The refugees near Blingenstone evidently have things pretty rough right now and it's pretty much anarchy up there. 

He is interested in forming a trade relationship with GoldenHills and with Leagrove.  We are amenable to talking about it and favor the idea but we need to deal with things back home first before we suggest anything specific.  The gnomes have a lot of wool and wood that would be useful and lack metal or good tools.

He gives assigns one of his scouts to us to guide us as safely as possible up to the old dwarven hold at

Gammin, Gnome Scout

Clearwaters Mill.  So make our way up through the hills and mountains, guided by our suitably able guide.   He brings us into view of the entrance and when we're there we can see those Giant things with the big eye and several smaller ogre type creatures milling aorund near the entrance.   There are carts full of reddish snow that have been drawn down the hill.   The front entrance looks to be pretty well defended.

We have scout show us around to the top entrance and we find a place to climb down that isn't nearly as visible to the guards.   We do so and we enter the old Splinterbeard hold.

We fight come upon a room where there is a giant overseeing two ogres throwing the red snow into the river.  We have a brisk fight, Sly uses magic to push the two ogres into the waters below and the rest of us chop up the giant in a spirited affair :)     The snow appears to be snow with a number of pollutants that are extremely disgusting in it.   It's pretty clear why the river is polluted if they're throwing this shit into it.

We continue on and find ourselves at in the temple complex of the halls.   Our goal is to find proof of the Splinterbeard duplicity so we go about trying to find evidence. 

We see a number of reliefs and carvings of Moradin in his aspect of the 'the keeper of secrets' but the murals are all odd in that they have a number of non dwarven or abnormal influences on them.  Vines and such which do not normally appear in them.  (noted by everyone especially Korrum).

We enter the temple proper where we find 3 acolytes in robes (insane and broken dwarves) and a rather menacing fellow who orders them to attack.   In a fairly painful encounter we manage to down the Barbarian and the acolytes taking one of the acolytes prisoner.   (we question him and ask him a tonne of questions - please see email chain from last week- we did the questioning between sessions)

The Erlking

The short version :
        The Splinterbeards turned to the Erlking a dark fey who showed them the secrets that Moradin would not.
        The Erlking is coming (this came up a lot)
         The Erlking is what's infecting the rivers/forests and directing everything here
         The Erlking will kill us