After stopping the first wave of barbarians, Erik (the party’s barbarian NPC) had an idea. Being a former chieftan, he would head out and return to his tribe and convince them to leave.

Erik gave the party a rough map, and told them to meet him near a northern village named Edgetown. The town was ruled by Morjan Lefay, the evil witch who had previously imprisoned Erik into the enchanted sword. Erik wanted the parties assistance in his revenge plans but said there is no rush as he needed time to regroup with his horde.

The plan worked. The barbarians unity was already shaky, and once Erik’s tribe began to leave the rest of the barbarians ended up leaving as well.

Our heroes met with King Warden where they were rewarded with bags of gold for their great deeds. Warden gave Dyme his official papers for becoming lord of Ashton and encouraged him to engage the Stonecrafter dwarves to assist with any rebuilding efforts. King Warden also supplied a translator, 72 year old Gerald to assist with any language barrier difficulties.

The party headed south to the mountains near Ashton to engage the Stonecrafters but were slowed greatly by Gerald’s poor horsemanship.

They eventually arrived and were greeted by the friendly Stonecrafter dwarves who provided a quote to rebuild Ashton. Dyme’s ambitious plan to build a stone perimeter, watch towers and barracks was too costly so he had to scale back his ambitions and settle for just a wall. He was able to pay 1000GP deposit which was enough to get the dwarves started on the first part of the wall.

The party had a drinking contest with the dwarves which ended poorly. The hearty dwarf won easily and Nedraw suffered a permanent constitution penalty for his poor drinking performance. They still had great fun though singing songs and drinking ale in the great dwarven hall with the jovial dwarves.

Using Gerald as a translator, the party inquired about Betamax’s kin. Some of Betamax’s cousins were located and Dyme presented them with Beta’s jeweled sword as a symbolic gesure. The dwarves were moved by this and lowered all of Dyme’s building costs by 25%.

They left the dwarves and decided they would head to the spider cave. No longer needing the annoying Gerald, they slapped his horse’s ass and sent him careening away as he shouted and moaned in pain from the bumpy ride.

They headed east through the forest where they encountered some giant bees. The bees would not respond to Fizban’s commands so they had to fight them. After killing them, they harvested the bees’ valuable stingers for later use.

They were then attacked by a pack of wild dogs which didn’t seem too bad until the dogs began blinking around. The fight was savage and intense. Dyme was felled and very nearly killed but with the help of Fizban’s djinni and Nedraw’s spiritual hammer they barely defeated the savage canines.

They arrived at the entrance to the spider cave and made camp.

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