These tracks were obviously left by a very big and extremely heavy animal. I’d be willing to put money on it being a woolly rhinoceros. Yep, what did I say? During the next hours you glimpse the animal in the distance more than once, but you simply cannot manage to reach a decent hunting position. Finally, the hunt ends at a cliff face. The rhinoceros seems unsure on how to proceed.
But it seems to sense your presence. It turns around and runs straight at you. Before you can react, the animal runs right through your group and disappears into the woods.
do you
Apparently, the rhinoceros hasn’t noticed you yet. Who will try to get close enough for a killing shot?
[NAME] sneaks closer, stands up and fires three arrows in rapid succession at the rhinoceros…
What a shot! Fatally wounded, the huge animal collapses and dies. Congratulations, [NAME]! Amazing! It’s not easy to kill a rhinoceros with that few shots. Anyway, the animal can supply you with food for several weeks.
One of the arrows hits the rhinoceros! I say, it is obviously not in the mood to lie down and die. With enormous speed, the animal comes right at you.
do you
Firun has turned his back on [NAME]: all three arrows miss their target. The rhinoceros turns to flee.
do you
Pursue the animal?
Turn back and journey on?
You can see its tracks quite clearly, but the huge animal itself stays out of your sight. After two futile hours of searching you break off the hunt and return to the road.
Jump aside to let the animal pass?
Cut the rhino down with your trusty swords?
With a lot of noise the rhinoceros disappears between the trees. You dust off your clothes and decide to get back on the road.
A few hectic moments of bloody mayhem and the rhino has snorted its last. Mind you, you have some injuries to show for it as well, every one of you. But at least you’ll have meat for several weeks now.
You can see a small wooden hut in a clearing. As you approach, you immediately notice the carving next to the front door: a large man, dressed in a polar bear skin and armed with a bow - a temple of Firun, right here in the middle of the orcish wilderness!
do you
Enter the temple?
Keep on marching?
You enter the temple of Firun…
You leave the temple and decide to set up camp in this clearing in the shelter of the temple.
You are now in between the actual stony oak forest and its northern extension - definitely not the right place for a swamp. Be that as it may, you are looking out on several miles of it right now, with nothing but a few crippled trees rising from the treacherous ground. You have sunk into the ground up to your ankles more than once already, and it looks like it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
do you
Turn back and look for a different path?
Carefully walk on?
The moor seems to go on forever…
Suddenly, the swamp is up to [NAME]’s hips and rising fast! You immediately throw [NAME] a rope and manage with combined efforts to deny the moor its victim.
After almost eight hours, you reach dry ground again. You are all as dirty as can be and not one whit less exhausted. You are about to collapse and fall asleep as you notice a light in the distance. You trudge towards it, quite willing to wring the neck of any orc or stinking robber who even looks at you askance, as a voice calls out to you…
Olimone
“Hey! Swamp gnomes! How’s it going?” it is an elf woman of unusually athletic build, wearing worn leather armor with her bow and a nasty orc sabre lying right next to her. She too is covered with muck from head to toe. A fat rabbit is turning on a spit above the fire…
“I have been watching you for some time. You are strangers around here, aren’t you? So am i, really. Olimone is my name, with a short o and long e. I am from Thorwal and have been fighting that muck all day myself. Are you going to Phexcaer? Good luck! If they don’t rob you of everything down to your skivvies, they’ll screw you but good, mark my words. What’s that you say? Strange words from an elf? Well, that’s the way you get wandering around with crazy humans all the time.”
You talk for a while, pleased to have the unexpected company, but in the end you are overwhelmed by sleep. When you wake up the next morning, you feel a wondrous strength within you. I guess that rabbit was prepared with more than just regular herbs and spices. The strange elf is gone, but there is a parchment sticking out from [NAME]’s pack:
“Watch out when you leave Phexcaer. The orcs are massing northwest of the town, the world ends beyond Groenvelden (at least for children like you), and the Bodir road isn’t what it used to be either. The river has flooded its banks in some places enough to turn the land into a fen for miles. I wrote down a recipe for small scratches (you know, ogre blows and such), so you are not all that helpless. Who knows, we might see each other again in Thorwal some day. Olimone”
Search as you may, you cannot find a way around the moor. Either you brave the swamp after all or you will have to turn back.
Do you
Turn back?
Enter the swamp?
Without warning, a boulder gives way above you and thunders down amidst a growing rock slide…
You throw yourselves behind a rock…
The path behind you is blocked - at least for the foreseeable future. Where you were standing just seconds ago, a giant mound of rocks has piled up…
You can hear the baying of wolves and the frightened bleating of sheep long before you reach them. As you approach, you see a pack of about twelve wolves holding a bloody harvest among a flock of sheep. The shepherd fearfully hides in a tree.
do you
Enter the fray?
Get out of here without being seen?
Relieved, the shepherd climbs down out of the tree. A lot of his animals are dead or have run away, but at least he is still alive.
“Thanks be to the twelve for your timely arrival, honorable travelers! I don’t know how to thank you. I am just a poor man trying to feed a wife and six children and can offer only my prayers to the gods for your well being.”
The path takes a turn towards the fjord here and as you come around a huge boulder, majestic scenery unfolds before your very eyes. Unfortunately, part of that spectacular scenery includes a suspension bridge leading right across Rovik’s fjord - a distance of three hundred paces, at a height of one hundred and fifty paces above the water…
and to get to Rovik, you will have to cross it.
do you
Cross the bridge?
Turn back and look for a different way across?
Fight your acrophobia?
[NAME] refuses to set foot on the bridge.
Bathed in sweat but feeling well satisfied with your accomplishment, you reach the opposite shore.
do you
Get drunk to combat your fear of heights?
Magically increase your courage?
Find some other way to steel yourselves?
Suddenly, [NAME] grasps at thin air and plunges downwards with a bone chilling scream.
The path winds along the cliffs. Below you, you can see a number of thorwalian ships in Rovik’s fjord. After a while, the path becomes extremely rough and you are forced to climb along the cliff face.
You secure yourselves with ropes, just in case.
Its one difficulty after another and the next is a spot where you will have to climb an almost vertical face of rock for at least a few dozen paces.
do you
Dare it?
Turn back?
You are clambering along the cliff. More than once, one of you slips and slides several paces before getting a grip on a protruding rock. But after almost one hour, you have made it! You take a short break before you go on.
[NAME] slips, slides down the slope for several paces and finds a handhold only inches before plunging to a certain death!
A seemingly safe rock suddenly comes loose in [NAME]’s hands. With a horrid scream, [NAME] plunges down the cliff! You are helpless and can only watch your teammate’s body tumble and disappear forever beneath the waters of Rovik’s fjord.
A shepherd guards a flock of goats on this barren plot of land.
do you
Ask the shepherd for directions?
Ask about possible dangers ahead?
Greet the shepherd as you go by?
“This path goes from Ljasdahl right along the coast around the entire island and back to Ljasdahl.”
“No, this has always been a quiet spot. There are no rovers here beside our own pirates, and monsters are quite unknown. The only thing of real interest is one day south of here where once a month there are ghostly demons afoot. For those brave enough to stick around, on every full moon you can hear a terrible wailing coming from an abandoned shack, as if a choir of damned souls were beseeching the lord of death for mercy.”
“But you may be interested in knowing that those were no ordinary wolves. They were sent by Gorah, a foul druid who hides out somewhere in the woods hereabouts. He rules over an army of wild beasts and sends them to strike fear into the hearts of men. Only the power of Umbrik Sevenstones in Orvil prevents him from trying to dominate this entire area. They say he is in league with the utter darkness and has sacrificed his very soul in exchange for unending power.
my fondest thanks, again, honored heroes! If you ever pass this way again, ask for hjore, the shepherd. I shall always be at your service. The twelve be always with you!
After almost eight hours, you reach dry ground again. You are all as dirty as can be and barely able to move your limbs. Its all you can do to drag yourself onto solid ground as you are all on the verge of collapsing and without hesitation you all pass out into an exhausted sleep.