Synopsis: After their defeat of the ogres of Hook Mountain, the party gathers up the spoils and rescued prisoners for a return to Fort Rannick. But the remnants of the Kreeg Clan have other plans…

Moonday, 12 Kuthona 4707, late afternoon
Tired and wounded from fighting the ogres in the mines, the party and the ten rescued villagers rested for a bit in the ogre’s common room. McGregor and Halfred assembled a sledge to transport the assembled treasure from the ogres’ treasure room. While that was being built, the rest of the party and the villagers dragged the ogre, giant, undead, and hag corpses into the charnel pit. Zandu poured a good amount of oil they’d found, and then dropped in two flasks of alchemist’s fire to burn the bodies.

As they walked past the looming statue of the 30-foot-tall giant, the party decided that they would take the statue’s bejeweled and gilded armor, and enormous polearm. Halfred climbed the statue, and removed the shield-sized Sihedron Medallion from the statue’s neck. Almost immediately, the statue began to disintegrate— at first, the flesh cracked and crumbled to dust, then the skeleton began to do the same thing. Halfred attempted to jump down, and landed amid the toppling pieces of armor and chunks of extremely brittle bone. They gathered up the pieces of armor and packed them in the sledge.

As they were about to leave, Zandu noticed a couple of stones fall from above the entrance cave— as if something was above the entrance! Using his shoes of stealthy striding, he crept outside into the twilight, and saw a number of ogres standing on a ledge about 20 feet up. One had a large polearm and seemed ready to whack at big chunck of ice that would send a small avalance onto anyone standing near the cave entrance. Zandu crept back in and reported what he saw.

McGregor used dimension door to teleport himself, Zandu, Halfred, and Durrok outside, where they began pelting the ogres with missile-fire. Some of the ogres hurled javelins back, and others charged them. However, even when tired, wounded, and with depleted resources, the Sandpoint Heroes made very short work of the ogres, and left them all dead in the snow. After the fight, adventures and the liberated prisoners returned to Fort Rannick, arriving about three hours after sunset. They spent the night there, happy to be done with ogre-hunting… at least for now.

As the party arrived at Fort Rannick, Durrok noted that it had finally stopped raining: the night sky was clear, and the bright red orb of Akiton was near the just-past-full moon.

Toilday, 13 Kuthona 4707
The party spent a couple of hours briefing Jakardos and the remaining Black Arrows. Since their village had been destroyed, all of the rescued humans volunteered to join the Black Arrows ranks. The party also handed over the nonmagical loot to Jakardos, as it had all been obviously looted from the fort. He thanked the party, and while he looked longingly at a few of the magic items the party had claimed from the Kreegs, he did not say anything about them. Charrone said that they would be giving a full report to General Odinburge upon their return to Magnimar, and the party then took their leave. They arrived at Turtleback Ferry before noon, but word had reached the town first. The town was already celebrating Winter Week, and many cheered as the party rode back into town. Nobody charged the party for food, drink, or stays at the brothel that night.

Wealday, 14 Kuthona 4707
The party rented canoes to return the remains of Col. Lamatar Bayden to the ghost nymph Myriana, to free her spirit and break the curse on Whitewillow. They ghost was overjoyed to be reunited with her beloved, even if it was decomposed remains. She used her magic to reincarnate Lamatar in the form of a centaur, releasing her own spirit in the process. The newly-reborn Lamatar explained to the party that he knows that he is bound to the marshland, and has been given the mantle of protector; he would not be returning to Fort Rannick, but would like to speak with Jakardos if he could. The party said that they’d pass along that message.

Oathday, 15 Kuthona 4707
McGregor met with Mayor Maelin Shreed to discuss the status of the dam. He told the mayor that he thought he might be able to repair the mechanism that opens and closes the floodgates, but that he needed some assistance. The mayor agreed. With the rest of the party as an escort, they returned to Skull’s Crossing, where the two grafted new magical workings onto the ancient Thassilonian magical engines. After two days, the crafting was complete.

Starday, 17 Kuthona 4707
The party secured passage on a large ferry that would be leaving for Magnimar on the following day. For the rest of the day, the town celebrated the final day of Winter Week with Winter’s Feast, and the party was invited.

Sunday, 18 Kuthona 4707
The party embarked on the week-long ferry ride to Magnimar. The passage went without incident, and included two overnight stops (at Ilsurian and Wartle).

Starday, 24 Kuthona 4707
The ferry arrived at Magnimar a little after noon. The party found storage space for their bulky Thassilonian treasures, as they looked for a buyer, and also tried to figure out where the Sword of Lust might be kept.

End of Book 3