Treasures of the Savage Frontier, Chapter 2: Harpy's Bazaar

The Heroes emerged from the dwarven stronghold to find a city in the midst of war. Battles between Dwarves and Lord Geildarr's men waged in the local taverns and guard towers; occasionally spilling into the streets themselves. Geildarr's Lordsmen were also accompanied by a disturbing array of allies: Two-headed ettins, Zhentil warriors, and even driders. The driders were outcast evil elves, who had been cursed with the bodies of giant spiders. If Geildarr had forged an alliance with a drider colony, they would be a great danger to the North.

Lordsmen fight alongside dread driders.

Our heroes searched the city, joining the fray with any of the dwarves who seemed to be in trouble. Word had also spread among the enemy that the Heroes of Ascore had arrived, as they were immediately recognized by many of the evil guards. Hidden in one building, they came across wounded soldiers dressed in the black livery of the Zhentarim. A man was tending to them. This man appeared to be a doctor, and beseeched the party to leave the wounded alone. Augustar hesitated, but after a moment, he nodded his head, and agreed to leave them in peace. This proved to be a prudent decision, as the doctor revealed Geildarr's plans. His troops were tunneling into the dwarven stronghold from a tower in the southern part of the city, hoping to kill Milzorr and the dwarves as they slept.

It was decided that the party would look for any signs of forced entry in to the dwarf stronghold, then find this tunnel and put a stop to it. It did not take long to find the enemy. The party was searching the dwarf hold carefully, beginning in its cellars. The first dank store room they entered was dark, but appeared empty. Passing through a door, they soon found a motley crew trying to sneak quietly through the packed storeroom's dusty crates and barrels.

The giant ettins were hunched over to fit under the cellar ceiling, but still wielded their large clubs effectively. The driders had the words of arcane spells on their lips, that would surround them in a dangerous magical fire. Although the enemy was fierce, they proved little match for the Heroes of Ascore. Continuing on, they found the hole in the wall where the Lordsmen had broken into the dwarven stronghold. The party secured the area by defeating said men, and their trained griffons.

Before assaulting Lord Geildarr's keep itself, The Heroes took it upon themselves to explore the rest of Llork, hoping to smoke out any other troops, and thus attack the keep at its weakest. Avrilenne recognized an unmarked building from their previous visit to Llorkh. It was a temple to the evil god of tyranny, Bane. Stepping inside, the party made short work of the temple's priests, who attacked them from beneath a huge statue of their dread god.

Also, within what appeared at first to be an empty residence, there was the most beautiful singing coming from a room within. A woman's voice sang with a tone like that of smooth cream topped with a twinkling of cinnamon. Avrilenne simply had to see who could sing so full and with such feeling. Everyone else, from previous experience, suspected harpies. Everyone else, was right.

I saw the harpies coming from a mile a away.

The harpies marked the last threatening inhabitants of the city itself, the only task left was to assault the keep and find Geildarr himself. The courtyard of the keep was still packed with troops. Despite the thinning of their numbers, the Lord still paid the closest attention to his own safety. The Heroes were again victorious.

These little hints are ubiquitous.

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