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All six players in attendance:

After fleeing the encroaching evil of Myagmarsuren, the party uses the pre-dawn hours of July first to put as much distance behind them as possible. When morning arrives, they are miles up river from the dead city, so they decide it is safe to take a short rest.

The river valley up from the Lake of the Serpents will take them to the northern branches of the mountain range that separates the central plains from the coastal kingdom of Rota - the party's destination. While the mountains are passable, they are also known to be infested with orcs. The plan is to skirt around the mountains to the north, then continue on to the smaller mountain range that acts as a border to the elven forests. While the elves are not fond of visitors - especially uninvited visitors - they are considered the far safer route. The downside is that nobody in the party knows who or what lives in the intervening lands.

The rest of July 1st is uneventful. On the morning of the 2nd, while the party is getting ready to break camp, they spot the smoke from a nearby fire. They scout ahead and discover three orcs. A brief battle ensues and one of the three is killed. Roderick casts a Tongues spell so that the party can effectively interrogate the remaining two. They reveal that they are long range scouts from the Bone Tribe - which populates the river valley up to and into the mountains. They also explain that they use smoke signals to send messages to other scouting groups. There are two other three-man scout groups farther up the river and this group was sending a message to them about the party.

Because of the added risk of the orcs, the party decides that they should leave the river valley and head up into the high desert. They will be unable to live off the land and cover distance rapidly, but Roderick insists he will be able to magically create enough food and water to keep them alive and comfortable.

The party spends the rest of July 2nd climbing up out of the valley and into the desert - which proves uncomfortable, but passable. The weather cooperates by remaining relatively cool and for the next three days, the party makes headway toward and around the great mountains.

In the deep of night on July 6th (long before dawn), a trio of orc scouts find the party's campsite. They flee when discovered - which convinces the party that there will be more coming soon. Preparations for battle are made and, as expected, within an hour, a well-armed and armored war band approaches the campsite from all directions. However, instead of a squad of orcs, the attack is led by five two-headed giants known as Ettins, along with a pair of large bears, and 18 orc soldiers.

Despite the numbers, the battle goes well for the party and in the end, most of the attackers lay dead. A quick interrogation reveals that this war party is heading west to attack the neighboring tribe. However, as all of the Ettins were killed in the battle, this information comes one of the soldiers and there are doubts as to its veracity.

Curiously, around one of the heads of the Ettin identified as the leader is a leather collar that registers as magic. The collar is actually a long leather strip folded lengthwise and sewn tightly shut. Bigby examines it for awhile and determines that the leather itself is not magical, but that whatever is inside contains a moderate Enchantment aura.

XP awarded: 1,000, Running Total: 44K for Dhersion/Vincent, 41K for Kesi/Bigby/Roget/Roderick, 39K for Aramil.