A summary of what happened during the game sessions:

February 2, 2001 - Session 2

The group started with using longboats from the ship to take them to land. Due to the horses (four of them) plus the centaur, they took two trips, with Winter, Ezhno, Rylan in the first group, with Jon helping them navigate, and Jack, Jon and the horses in the second group. Sana, with her wings, decided to fly over.

The group was just about to land with the horses (in about four feet of water), when they were taken by surprise by some large marine troll-like creatures, standing about nine feet tall, one on each side of the boat. One of the creatures managed to net a rower and drag him overboard, the other missed the other rower with his net, so decided to just grab the rower.

The one with the netted rower pulled him overboard and pushed him underwater, and the other just grabbed and held the rower underwater. The group reacted with crossbow and longbow shots, but to little effect. Jack also was attempting to keep the horses under control. Sana also started to sing "The Ballad of Aidan's Charge," which seemed to help the party's morale.

Those with a good vantage point noted that the rowers never came up again, which lead them to believe that there were more of these creatures about. Winter then decided to wade out into battle with the one nearest to Jon, who was attacking when the creature reached to grab him.

That creature managed to get a hold of Jon, but he got loose with little difficulty, then was seriously wounded by Winter, who knew they were evil and used his smite evil ability on it. The other creature grabbed at Winter's horse, being the nearest one on his side, and attempted to pull the horse overboard. However, the creature was dismayed to discover that this was a heavy war horse, and with the proper commands and situation, even within the rocking boat, managed to bite and hoof attack it, for quite a bit of damage.

The creatures then turned and fled under the water, abandoning their prey. But all was not over. Sana saw a shadow move underneath the boat from the rear, and Winter dove under to see what he could find. A smaller version of the creature, obviously a young one, was trying to tip the boat, but wasn't having much luck. Winter attacked it, and as the creature next stood up to tip the boat again, Rylan hit it with an arrow, and one more hit from Winter and it was down. However, both Jon (who had joined Winter by this point) and Winter noticed that the creature's wounds were healing at an amazing rate, something they hadn't noticed with the ones who stayed mostly above the water line.

Winter pulled the corpse out of the water and chopped its head off, and then after some discussion, Sana, using a flask of lamp oil, doused it and set it on fire.

The group then checked out all their horses (which Jack had managed to keep under control, and they had all eventually escaped the boat, though Sana's horse needed her help), and noticed the ship at sea must have seen what was going on, for they were putting up sail and beginning to leave.

Heading inland toward Lentan, they followed Sana’s vague directions and walked for the rest of the day. That night, first Ryland and Ezhno heard noises on watch, but didn't notice anything. Then Winter and Jon heard more voices, but instead of ignoring it, they woke the others, who in turn began to hear the same chittering voices, vaguely in the direction they were heading. Sana cast Light upon an arrow and shot it in the direction of the voices, startling the goblins who had been there discussing something. They immediately shouted out "We come in peace!" which was a surprise to most, if not all, of the party.

The goblins moved closer to the camp upon discovering they were heading toward Lentan, while Jon moved around behind them to keep an eye on them and see if there were any others. Winter noted that not all of them were of an evil nature. Their leader, who spoke Common and introduced himself as Kwock, appeared to be trying to find out why they were headed toward Lentan. Margaret's name was mentioned, and Kwock explained that Margaret had helped their Queen, so they were trying to help Margaret. Their errant party member, it seemed, was imprisoned in Lentan, and about to be killed, at noon the following day. Kwock wanted the group to help them rescue Margaret. Kwock also mentioned a "bad man" who had been there, but wasn't anymore. He had wings, though not the same as Sana's.

The group then traveled all night toward Lentan, and reached it just after sunrise. They noted that the terrain, as they moved closer, became a veritable ruin, littered with stone and remnants of what once had been a great city. And in those ruins, they saw more and more goblins hiding, as if preparing for an assault on Lentan.

The village was just beginning to wake up, and the group noticed in the center green, there was a gallows, with someone putting the finishing touches on it, while two others watched. Martin the weasel, Rylan's familiar, offered to go in search of the jail that Kwock said in which Margaret was being kept. He bounced in, keeping low to the shadows, and saw where she was.

The building was all stone (as were most of the buildings in the town), with a door in the front with a guard, and a door at the back without a guard, but barred from the inside. Margaret was within, sitting in a magical stone circle.

The party decided to split up then, with Jon, Jack, Rylan, and Martin heading sneakily to free Margaret, and Winter, Ezhno, Sana, and Kwock (who insisted upon coming) heading toward the pair at the gallows.

Jon, Jack, and an invisible Rylan & Martin, made it rather easily to the back door of the jail, and opened the bar with no difficulty. They entered and began talking quietly to Margaret, who told them she was encased in Protections from Good, and asked if any of them were not Good. Unfortunately, none of them were, but Martin was sent to fetch a goblin who might be able to aid them in the task of defacing the circle, allowing her to escape. Rylan, meanwhile, tried dispelling the circle, but was unable.

Some time later, Martin and a goblin returned, and the goblin was made to understand what was needed. Simple defacing wasn't enough, for some of the runes were carved into the stone floor. A crowbar was provided, and with the sound of the chisel upon stone, the guard poked his head in and was immediately silenced by Jon, who dragged him into the room. The blow was only supposed to stun the guard, but he was really knocked out, so the quartet continued until there was a flash, and Margaret was free. The goblin who had helped them destroy the circle wanted to jump and shout, but the others managed to hush him enough until they had snuck out of the building. Once they'd made it to the tree line, the goblin began shouting, and the chant was taken up by all the goblins in the area.

Meanwhile, Sana, Winter, and Ezhno approached openly to the middle of town. The pair who were watching the construction of the gallows turned, and Sana immediately recognized Josiah from her past, and vaguely recognized Nerissa. It was not a pleasant reunion. Josiah immediately began making derogatory comments to Sana, who fumed, not so silently. Winter spoke into their banter, introducing himself and letting them know (as they were most decidedly evil) that he was drawing his sword with the intent of killing them. Nerissa drew her falchion and Josiah his morningstar, and the battle commenced.

Josiah first cast some sort of spell upon Nerissa, but it did not help her. Ezhno charged forward with his lance and proceeded to skewer Nerissa, nearly dropping her on the spot. But she stayed up long enough to attempt an attack back, but was unsuccessful. Winter went at Josiah, as did Sana, and they began to cut him down.

Nerissa fell the next round to Ezhno's swords and hooves, prompting Josiah to beat a hasty retreat. He cast a spell, avoiding or taking the blows aimed at him for doing so, and LEAPT backwards, completely over the gallows, and hit the ground running. Sana screamed as she pursued him in the air, and Winter remounted his warhorse to follow. Ezhno decided that it would be best for him to stay in town.

Sana was not able to gain any ground, but she also didn't lose any ground. Winter had more trouble keeping up, as Josiah, with the aid of his spell, was moving very quickly. Winter noticed a small creature swooping down toward Sana and warned her, but she was unable to avoid the bat that flew into her face, slowing her pursuit and distracting her from Josiah. Unfortunately for the bat, Sana now had a new target to take out her wrath upon, and with two swift strokes she cut it down, and then proceeded to dice it into unrecognizable bits, then stomped it into the dirt.

She then stomped back toward the village, passing by the massed amounts of goblins outside the village's perimeter, all of them cheering in Goblin or Common about Margaret being free. The group realized that over 400 goblins had been surrounding the village of Lentan.

Quote of the evening - "That was suprisingly undignified for a person of your heritage." Rylan, commenting on Sana's viciousness upon returning from her disemboweling of the bat.