Jabir's Revenge

The Order is receiving more frequent reports of troll sightings at various places around the city walls of Baldur's Gate. Guards stationed at the gates have witnessed trolls at just past dusk, late at night or very early morning, running from the nearby forests and battering the walls and gates of the city. There has been a couple of reports of people being taken from the walls and killed by the trolls.

The trolls now seem to bear some sort of sigil painted on themselves in yellow and green paint.
(A stylized and dyslexic "J" along with a circle with a dot in the middle).
Some soldiers have reported that the trolls have now taken to yelling a war cry upon attacking. One soldier reports the war cry as "Jay bird" while another argues that it was "Jawbone".
Neither makes sense.

The Order deems this problem to be a priority.

The Retirement Of Araxie

The next morning they head out to the docks of the city to board the Flying Dragon, which they will take to the mountains to the east, where previous members of the Order reported dealings with trolls, as well as the traitorous faction of the Order well over a year ago.

At the docks, they find the Order's airship, the Flying Dragon, manned by only a skeleton crew. They are told that since Captain Araxie last set down, she has been off at one of the taverns. The crew waited awhile but when she didn't return to set sail for further excursions, to pirate the skies, most of her crew followed her lead and left to frequent the many taverns in the city.

The group orders that what crew is here go into the city, find and recall all of the crew. They set sail tomorrow on an important mission. Maddox and Smallfang know where Captain Araxie is. They head off to the Whet Stone.

At the whorehouse, the Whet Stone they see the waitress, Annabelle Brightknocker, and ask her if they've seen Araxie. Annabelle hurriedly gestures to the back of the tavern under the stairs and says, "where she always is."

In the back, they find the Araxie sitting at a table covered in empty glasses. She looks up at them with absolutely no recognition.

Maddox and Smallfang introduce themselves to their old friend Araxie. They are needing her to aid them in a mission. Araxie scoffs. They agree to pay her. She pauses and then adds the cost of her bar tab. They agree. She doubles it. They, again, agree.

The three of them leave the Whet Stone and head off towards the Order's keep.  Back at the keep, they assemble as many clerics, mages and wizards as they can. After much experimentation and examination, it is concluded that the magic affecting Araxie is a arcanic blood oath. The only way to remove it is to have the caster reverse the curse. They all turn to each other and inquire but no one knows the caster.

They then decide to make Araxie as comfortable as possible. She has served the Order well. She has easily earned them the most revenue during the past year and has made the Order flush again bringing them back from the brink of financial collapse. They set her in a comfortable (well...padded really) room and give her drink to appease her temper. And there they leave her.

They return to the ship the next day hoping the crew has returned.

The Flying Dragon Takes To The Skies Once More

Back at the ship, the deck is bustling with activity as the crew, now almost fully assembled, is readying the ship for departure. Phillipe, the first mate, directs the party to the captain's quarters. When they enter the large and well furnished quarters. There at the large desk is Captain MacKenzie, feet upon the desk. He welcomes them in with a smug look on his face.

He tells them that he would be glad to captain their ship and let bygones be bygones, for a price. The group tells him that they would rather make Phillipe captain. MacKenzie tells them that Phillipe is a good sailor but not captain material yet. The group relents but Maddox forces MacKenzie to take the Oath of the Order Of The Obsidian Dagger. Thus preventing him from doing anything that would harm the others. He eagerly agrees and begins the oath. Deshanie catches him crossing his fingers behind his back and makes him begin again.

Once the preparations have been made, the ship is unmoored and  takes to the sky. Captain MacKenzie is having obvious troubles keeping his tongue and action on the lawful good side. He stutters and halts his speech with great effort as he tries not to give in to his baser instincts. They travel swiftly towards the mountains east of the city. They travel until nightfall and must, for safety, reduce their speed. The next morning, they begin their search through the many mountainous passes, looking for the distinctive chain bridge they were told about.

Around midday, a lookout calls out that he has spotted a bridge. They slow and lower the ship until they see a small stone bridge. This is not the bridge they had heard about from the others. Captain MacKenzie begins a rant which he has to quickly curtail. In frustration, he spins the ships wheel recklessly. All aboard scramble to hold on. Some of the party barely move as if they're feet are glued to the deck, others like Lirath Mindlasher, the newly arrived high elf,  are not so surefooted. Lirath tumbles towards to rails, then over top of the rails, and fails to grab hold of anything.

Falling over 60 feet to the snow covered mountainside below, Lirath casts a spell and which turns him into a spectral form hoping to minimize the damage from the fall. Everyone on board watches as the spectral form of the Lirath hits the ground below in a plume of snow. He slowly raises his arm and then slowly raises his thumb into the air. He still lives.

The crew is scrambled to throw ropes over and descend to rescue Lirath. Captain MacKenzie is the first over the rails and begins to descend the rope, perhaps out of guilt. Lirath is alive and well enough to see MacKenzie, the reason for her fall, and she casts a spell. MacKenzie becomes paralyzed and plummets silently down into the chasm, hundreds of feet down. They all watch as his immobile body descends the depths until the snowy air obscures his certain death.

As they pull Lirath back aboard the airship, Lirath apologizes. He meant only to teach Captain MacKenzie a lesson in humility. Didn't realize the airship was over a deep gorge. Who knew?

A New Captain

Now they debate as to who will captain the ship. The Order members to do not have enough experience and they soon come to the conclusion that Phillipe will be captain. He nervously accepts. As he shout orders to the crew he is constantly checking with the Order members as to what he should do, where he should head. He immediately seems very indecisive. (this is what MacKenzie meant about not captain material)

They approach what they think are the ruins they are looking for. Through the blowing snow the ruins of a great castle appears. It is carved into the side of the mountain. It is connected to the opposite side of a deep gorge by a massive chain. The links themselves are about ten feet long and at least five feet wide. Boards have been placed along it's length to aid in crossing but they have long since begun to rot.

As they try to investigate from aboard the ship, multiple spells are shot across the ship. The ship is maneuvered and all the cannons facing the mountain are fired. The entrance to the ancient ruins is completely destroyed. Whatever was in there will have to find another way out.
Phillipe says he will set down as far as he can away from the ruins and drop off the party.
The group is worried he will take off on them so they cast spells on him to track him.

Back To Castle IceThorn
7,300 XP

They look across the massive chain bridge and begin to cross. The howling winds and blowing snow make crossing treacherous. As they approach the far end, more spells are shot towards the group. Lirath is hit once more. This time he is caught within the grasp of a telekenesis spell and tossed off the bridge. He again plummets down into the massive chasm below. Barely surviving the fall, he lies injured and out of sight of the others.

Healing himself with, surprisingly unbroken, potions of healing, he struggles to his feet and looks up from the bottom of the gorge. It's a long way back up. Better get to it. He starts to climb.

Meanwhile, still on the chain bridge, the others try and make it to the other side but rays of spell attacks try and grab and freeze the group. Katya makes it across the fastest and encounters a two headed troll. He is war painted with a dyslexic J and a circle with a central dot in the middle. The troll grunts as he attacks without question and is soon joined by two other two-headed trolls.

The spell attacks continue but now as the creatures get closer they can be seen through the blowing snow. They are small spherical creatures that fly through the air. They have small eye stalks from which the spells emanate. The battle continues as the trolls take massive amounts of damage and continue to attack. Smallfang's magical blade soon aids Maddox in taking down the trolls. While Katya leaps up to grab the small flying creatures and tears them apart with her claws.

As the battle nears its conclusion, Lirath finally emerges at the edge of the cliff, having climbed up the precarious gorge from 200 feet below. As he climbs and stands up, she stands face to face with one of the flying spell casting creatures. Just as it is about to cast the spell to push Lirath back down into the gorge, to what must be certain death, Lirath is able to attack t.he creature and kill it.

DM Note: You're lucky Lirath, that you convinced the universe to allow you an action, otherwise you'd have a record fast death

When all the enemies have been slain, the group stands among the ancient frozen battle ground and wonders what to do. The main entrance to the mountainside castle has been obliterated by the cannon fire from their ship.

There must be another way in.