19 Sommerzeit
I traveled back home to organize an expedition into the Grey Mountains. The plan is thus: find Emmaretta then have her follow the tracks of the horse into the wilds. Locate the Prince, rescue him if needed, and bring him back to civilization. He'll certainly accept an invitation to my marriage if I'm the one to free him from work captivity.
20 Sommerzeit
I set out into the hills accompanied by Thesalva and Ulfberth - Emmaretta was ranging and we had to do without her services. Luckily she found us on the first day. Turned out she had been tracking the same horse but going in the opposite direction.
Guided by Emma we skirted the Ortschlamm and climbed into the hills. We crested a ridge in the afternoon and looked into a verdant valley nestled between the hills. A lone tower rose from among the great trees of the valley below. I decided to have a look in the morning. Thesalva gave me a lot of elvish lessons - to spite Emma, no more, no less.
21 Sommerzeit
We went into the valley, where we followed an old and overgrown road towards the tower. I've never seen so many plants and trees and flowers in one place. Everything so verdant, so lush. Colorful birds everywhere. Seemed unnatural to me. Hairs on Ulfberth's arms bristling. Definitely unnatural.
The lonely tower was less imposing. Six or seven stories, with a round building ringing the base, a heavy gate, and battlements on top. Other buildings scattered about, overgrown with weeds and nearly invisible between the trees.
Seemed uninhabited at first, but then appeared a goblin with a bad leg. Hogg, his name was, and he addressed us in guttural, but comprehensible Reikspiel. The place being what it was I didn't slay him outright. He was no threat and somehow seemed to belong in this strange place.
Long story short: we met the wizard of the tower, Jürgen Halmstad, an Averlander, and got invited to dinner. Emma brought down a deer and we had venison and lemon tarts and more. Hogg is quite the accomplished chef. Better than many halflings I'd wager. We told stories and I was the winner. I was awarded an old dwarven mug of pure silver. Perfect for Hogg's goblin brew. Potent stuff that.
22 Sommerzeit
Jürgen walked us into the mountains along the path the horse had taken and bade us good luck. It was a good path he'd shown us: only half a day's walk, a little more, and we were already high and deep in the Grey Mountains.
We came across the corpse of the legless rider. Orks had caught him and cut him down but somehow his horse had managed to flee. We couldn't quite figure out what had happened. How had the orks caught him? Why that particular spot? Not that it matters.
We pressed on. Found more signs of struggle my a mountain lake. A horse in the water, another man, drowned and arrowed both, Ulfberth pulled out of the lake. Signs of riders scattering to the four winds. We settled in for the night, determined to go the way the riders had come in the morning.
23 Sommerzeit
There be orks. Literally. We came across some scouts manning an observation post. Little orks or maybe goblins - I find it hard to tell the difference. We sent them back to the earth. Later in the day, we sheltered in an old dwarven watch post at the crest of a ridge. A score or so work boys were headed straight for us so we made a little ambush in the reverse slope. It was a bit rough for a patch by we put the fear into them and half the warband ran away.
We rode on as fast as Emma could track. Made sense to put as much distance between us and the main work host (there are always more greenskins). We sheltered fort the night inside the mouth of a narrow crevasse. Only a single narrow path allowed access - and we'd be sure to keep watch all night. If orks came after us, we could hold them off indefinitely.
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