S39 — Rova 14th
- Source: Discord aoa-timeline thread
- Thread:
Rova 14th - 17th, 4719 AR - Thread ID:
1489406480040857651 - Generated: 2026-04-03T06:33:21.525361+00:00
- Messages: 2
Fireday, Rova 14th — Whiterock to First Camp
The Regulators set out from Whiterock at first light on horseback, the Baron’s horses carrying them south along the Yolubilis River road before the trail began to climb in earnest. The river ran wide and grey to their right, the foothills rising steadily ahead, the last familiar farmsteads and fence lines thinning behind them until there was nothing but open country, pine, and granite. It was an easy day’s ride — unhurried, uneventful, the kind of travel that lets a party breathe. They made camp as the light faded, well off the trail in a hollow sheltered by old growth, the river still audible in the distance. No fires larger than necessary. Watches shared without incident. The mountain was ahead of them now, and everyone felt it.
Starday, Rova 15th — Revousa Ditches
By midday on the second day the trail forked where the Yolubilis bent away to the south — the Revousa Ditches, an old network of drainage channels cut into the hillside during the quarry’s working years, now half-collapsed and overgrown with dry brush and sparse pine. The Baron’s horses were sent home here, given a nudge and a quiet word, trusted to find their own way back to Whiterock.
On foot now, the terrain changed immediately — loose rock, switchbacks, the trail narrowing to a single-file cut along the hillside. The Katharevousa River carved a noisy path somewhere below and to the east, its sound carrying up through the gorge. At the split in the trail where the quarry path climbed away from the river road, someone had made camp not long before. A fire ring, still ash-black and slightly warm at its heart. Scattered bones from a small meal. Boot prints in the soft earth heading up the quarry trail. Recent — a day, maybe less. No way to know who, or whether they continued on or turned back.
The Regulators made camp several hours further up the quarry trail, well past the split, in a natural hollow where the slope offered cover on three sides. As the fire was laid and watches arranged, Jegan caught the silhouettes first — shapes on a ridgeline to the northeast, too lean and upright for deer, too still for anything casual. A small group of Kholos, watching. Not advancing, not retreating. Just watching, until the darkness swallowed them entirely.
The night passed without incident. Nothing came down from the ridge. By morning the ridgeline was empty, the only evidence the faint scrape of claw marks in the shale above the hollow. Whatever they were waiting for, it wasn’t tonight.
Sunday, Rova 16th — The Rain-Soaked Foragers
The rain arrived overnight and hadn’t let up by morning — steady, cold, turning the trail to sucking mud and reducing visibility to grey smears of pine and granite. A miserable day to travel, and an even worse one to be ambushed on.
Cresting a low rise mid-morning, the Regulators came upon a wrecked supply wagon half-tipped against a boulder, its canvas torn, crates and sacks spilled across the path. Two enormous Hill Giants hunkered over the wreckage in the middle of a very loud argument. Vikk and Mokc — a pair of irredeemable troublemakers — were bickering over whose fault the broken axle was, shoving each other, cackling, and generally making a mess of the whole situation. A third figure stood apart: Drunn, a Stone Giant, leaner and sharper-eyed, watching his two charges with the weary expression of someone who has been babysitting idiots for a very long time.
Rather than draw steel, the Regulators chose words — but with careful, deliberate positioning that kept every option open. Bru’shlee and Kane stepped up to face Drunn directly. Voz held back just behind Kane, present but not provocative. Cal moved to the wagon and began working on the broken axle — fixing the thing rather than fighting over it, a gesture that visibly registered with Drunn. Vanmyr held position near Cal, eyes on Vikk and Mokc. And Jegan vanished into the shadows entirely — unseen, a blade in the dark if it all fell apart.
Throughout the parley, Vikk and Mokc continued poking at each other behind Drunn’s back — until the Stone Giant turned and silenced them with a single flat look. Even then, Mokc couldn’t resist one last shove before going still.
Kane earned a Critical Success on Make an Impression, cutting through Drunn’s caution entirely. Clearly relieved to be talking to someone more interesting than his two bickering charges, the Stone Giant spoke plainly: the lich Jaggaki Vaklish claims the old god’s forge within Summershade Quarry, while Drunn’s kind guard the slaves. The “Alphas may not be so welcoming” — goodwill at the gate does not mean safe passage inside. As proof of the parlay, Drunn handed over one of his own trinkets. No blood shed. The giants let them pass.
XP Awarded: 180
Moonday, Rova 17th - Kholo Hunting Grounds
The rain had cleared overnight, leaving the trail damp and the air sharp with pine resin and cold stone. Summershade Mountain filled the sky ahead now, its upper terraces just visible above the treeline in the grey morning light. The quarry was close. The silence said so — too still, too watchful, the kind that belongs to something that already knows you’re coming.
The Kholos came out of the scrub without warning, fast and shrieking — a hunting pack of six with a Sergeant driving them and a Bonekeeper hanging back to work darker business. A well-laid ambush on ground they knew. But they didn’t know the Regulators. The fight was sharp and decisive, the Hunters cut down quickly, the Sergeant and Bonekeeper the last to fall. No words exchanged, no quarter offered. The pack was put down and the trail went quiet again.
What lingered was the implication. Whether these were feral hunters working Laslunn’s shadow territory or outriders sent to watch the approach, their presence this far down the mountain made one thing clear — the quarry’s reach extended further than its walls. The Regulators made camp in the last sheltered hollow before the foothills opened onto the quarry grounds, Drunn’s trinket in their packs, Summershade Mountain dark and close against the sky above.
XP Awarded: 72
Total XP Awarded: 252