Scorpion Meat
The Torbjaer Mountains
20 Winter 217
The Torbjaer Mountains is a hard land of jagged rocks and freezing wind. The map Sav copied from Harvey’s Digsmen provides a useful overview of general travel, but is not detailed enough to make hour by hour decisions about which potential routes to take. It has become necessary for the group to split into small groups in order to more quickly search for viable paths.
Talith, Roux, and Astarael set off to scout through the narrow ravines and came upon boot tracks in the snow. They followed the tracks to find Skau Vanja, who had departed Northgate on her own to track the Yeti of Jorung and collect the bounty.
Laid about the path through the ravine were the corpses of dead swan soldiers and animals, and as they explored further they group found a collection of bones belonging to slaughtered creatures, pierced through the chest as though by a spear.
Roux noticed something strange about one of the stones and pried at it with his dagger. A seam appeared in the stone and it opened to reveal that the rock was in fact an enormous scorpion waiting in ambush.
The creature loomed over Roux before attacking and the party engaged in battle, with more scorpions quickly skittering along the rocks to join the fray.
During the battle Roux was struck by the scorpion and should have fallen, but impossibly remained standing despite his grievous wounds, revealing for the first time the glowing constellation of the fox burning on his shoulder.
The party defeated the scorpions and collected from bodies of the scorpion’s prey a variety of interesting and valuable items, before making camp in order to stay warm in the quickly approaching night, feasting on delicious scorpion meat.
The four spend some time at night talking, with Astarael revealing to Talith her estranged relationship with her parents in Moraeth, her closeness with her aunt and that the stars had appeared in the sky the night her aunt passed away.
She told of the strange wind which had always followed her and the angry villages who came searching for her and blamed her for the worsening coastal storms. She told Talith that she had grown angry when they came blamed her and in that moment the crowd was struck down by lightning from the sky. Terrified, Astarael fled from Moraeth into Isendel.
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