Welcome to Ravenscraeg

After Nicki survived the Tengu ninjas’ attack on the stair, the group gathered on the landing at the top of the stairs. The massive front doors to Ravescraeg loomed before them. To their surprise, the doors were open a crack; the ninjas must have crept out unnoticed as the group raced across the plain to Nicki’s “rescue”. Not seeing or hearing anything from inside, they pushed one of the massive doors open.

Nicki's Last Stand

The party galloped south from Kalsgard, headed at last for Ravenscraeg where they hoped to find the kidnapped Ameiko Kaijitsu, along with her family’s ancestral sword, Suishen, and the missing guide, Ulf. As they left the main road for the track that led to Ravenscraeg, they could see hoofprints in the soft ground – Ameiko’s kidnappers were somewhere ahead of them. By nightfall, they’d reached the edge of an area of broad marshes, and could see a row of craggy hills rising to the south.

Falling Into Place

The party had survived the ambush in the marketplace, and Shinjiro had managed to capture the sniper who’d been doing so much damage from the rooftops. The market square was littered with the dead bodies of the thugs who’d attacked them, and several stalls were in flames, courtesy of Nicki’s Flaming Sphere. Panicked shoppers and merchants were still fleeing the scene or cowering under carts, and they knew it was only a matter of moments before the city watch arrived with an “arrest first, ask questions later” policy. Shinjiro waved everyone over to the alley behind the sniper’s building, and dropped the bound woman down to Sawyer (Zhustin desperately wanted to help “catch” the struggling female). A horse was tethered in the alley, so working under the assumption that it belonged to the assassin, they took it into custody as well. They hurried away from the scene just as city guards began pouring into the square from the other side.

Trouble, Trouble, Trouble

The party paddled slowly back to shore, their way lit by the flames of Snorri’s funeral ship that was burning to the waterline behind them. They’d survived the undead Snorri and an ambush by ninja, but had little to show for their troubles but burned fingers and scorched eyebrows. They hadn’t found Ulf, they hadn’t found Suishen, and they were at a loss for what to do next.

Smoke on the Water

After putting a damper on Asvig’s Longthew’s party, the party made their way back to Kalsgard. From what they’d learned from Asvig’s men and thralls, Ulf Gormundr, the man they hoped to hire to guide them over the Crown of the World, had been Asvig’s prisoner. He’d been taken away the day before, and the man they questioned suspected he was going to be hidden away on Snorri Stone-Eye’s funeral ship, to be burned as part of the funeral pyre.