Sorik’s character sheet
16 St
12 Int
14 Wis
16 Dex
16 Con
16 Chr
AC 3/0, hp 44
Fighter 5, xp 22613
Equipment carried: +2 longbow, +1 normal sword, chainmail
weapon mastery:
normal sword (expert, +7H/+5M, 2d8+3)
long bow (+8M/+6H, d10+4)
Droka’s character sheet
16 St
10 Int
17 Wis
15 Dex
15 Con
13 Chr
AC 2
hp 51
Cleric 8, xp 126,347
weapon mastery: hammer (expert, 1d8+2, -3AC/2 missiles, +2 vs handheld or thrown/ +1 vs secondary)
bola (basic, 1d2 20/40/60, strangle on 20–p. 80 of Rules Cyclopedia)
sling (basic, 1d4, 40/80/160)
Estimate of total hours of spoo (potential record): 44 hours (please include 4 hours of 1.5x pay for Justin)
Talk with Owl Preliminaries:
* We find out that the egg is thought by Matonn to be related to the Hive Fiend
* Find out that Claw of Crobyem makes you tear out your own heart and turns you into specter or wraith (depending on the level of the victim)
* Find out that the Archon’s Song can make a moral level spell immortal and permanence it. Also allows people to hear since (?) in the “voice of god”
Efrim staged an event with the Master fighting a red dragon.
After 5 months of bone hardening we find out that there missing Fanaere Babies: 4/5 infants are stolen. Stolen by Myrenth, part of a posse of 5 Nosferatu that abducted the babies and cooked them. Lich Queen/Thanatos directed these people, which were part of 4 strike groups. Al and Efrim take control of the undead and eventually use Myrenth to track the primary strike force group who is led by Heereen. Heereen is the 22nd level cleric of Thanatos who is leader of the main posse.
We first find the main encampment in a mine and teleport in to raid it taking control of one nosferatu. In this process one mage nosferatu manages to get away and teleports back to Lich Queen; however he probably doesn’t know that we can dominate undead. We find out that a Heereen is leading a strike force that is going to attack the fanaere. Finding the Path to Heereen fails because it turns out she is in a scroll of shelter. However, we are able to track one of the nosferatu who is left out in a tent. We play a bit of cat & mouse game with the nosferatu using created fanaerae bait and a night wing using Lakshmi bait. We eventually have to pursue Heereen and companions on the Ethereal. She nearly gets away as a hasted crazy undead roc after holy wording Efrim & Carrock, but fortunately Al is able to dominate her. In a very near miss, a vampire dispels magic from an item on Al in Hag form that would break his control over Heereen, but the shape change spell stays in tact. We then question Heereen (see below) and have her send a message to get the final two groups to meet where we kill them easily. We completely wipe out the strike force, leaving the mage nosferatu as the only escapee.
Learning More From Heereen:
* We find out that Heereen was supposed to kill some Fanaerae and scare them, but not to kill them all. Goal was to stop them from having babies.
* Thanatos followers need eternal death to have meaning. No cheating death.
* Thanatos followers have an incredible sense of frustration. Lots of gods refuse to die, and don’t recognize Thanatos’ authority.
* Lich Queen is 35th level cleric — has lich apprentice 28th level cleric. Both often reside in another plane called the “homeland.” Part of an elite group of 5: 2 Nosferatu, 23rd level avenger, 25th level cleric, one undead warrior 30th level, undead beholder that has spells.
* Goals, stirring up trouble in the area. Three major projects overall: (1) take control of the area of the moor, (2) project in Ylarum (undead beholder’s project) involves going underground probably related to Nithia, (3) watch the Fanaere.
* They have spies that scry the Fanaerae. Thats how they knew about the babies. Don’t know why the babies are being born.
* We get a partial description of route to the Thanatos “Homeland.” Heereen was partially blindfolded during this.
* We keep Heereen as a stone statue in a scry proof room on Catalon inside a (non-magical) secret door in the with a rune set to disintegrate the statue if anyone other than a party member finds her.
Treasure to be kept or offered to Fanaere:
Heereen: Cloak of the Greater Bird 1/day, usable by undead only, turns into undead Roc
Sell: Mace +3/+8 Demihumans — 7500gp
Chain Mail +1
1 w/ 2 charges, 1 w/ 1 charge) all 30th level
3 Bastard Swords +1 — Fa
1 Normal Sword +2
1 Two Handed Sword +2
Staff +2 — Catalon
Plate Mail +2
2x Leather Armor +1
Shelter Scroll * NGs
Scroll of Mages * KEEP
+2 Chain Mail
4048 GP; 8610 Gems, 36000 GP
>>Future:
>>Ideas for protecting the fanaere:
>>* Create items for them to transport via plant and transport via light easily.
>>* Programmed illusions all around the preserve that show fanaere communities going about their business. >>Maybe make an item that allows the Fanaere set these up themselves?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NG Care Package from their Patrons (not a complete list)
Wand of Metal Detection — Droka
3 bracelets with 3 dispels
1 bracelet with 2 dispels — Sorik
+1 Dagger
Luck Ring with 2 charges (use for save or die) * NGs — Ferris
Staff of dispelling 6 charges, 30th level * NGs —
Protection From Lightening Bracelets x4
Gauntlets of Ogre Power — Ghanelon
Lamat Ring (1-1st lvl spell, 1-2nd lvl spell, 1-3rd lvl spell) = 22,500gp and 30 days
* Flaming Magic Missle, Mirror Image, Blue Fireball Lamat’s Sparker (dagger) +5+10 vs Constructs, Shocking Grasp 3/day (20 points electrical damage) = 15,000gp and 23 days
Box of Normal Monsters
Wand of Knock 9 charges — Ferris
Fountain Pen of Alestria’s Mapping Lore 3x a day
Boots of Flying (permanent) for Nimisha
Lance of Piercing
Sandals of Levitation
Find the Path 3x day
NG Notes:
“We’re not heros, we’re the other guys.” — Eric Sergeant
List of NPCs we meet on trip to Durrin:
Droka — ~8th level Priest of Thurrs, party member.
Osekia — 6+ level Mage who we meet in Durnin; Lemat copies a book of ancient astronomy from her, and gets it on with her, depending on your definition of “get it on”
Seekha Drakon — Cousin of main Drakon family who controls Archon scrolls. We act as messenger for her, including to Belskin a high level Paladin of Thurrs.
Summary of the main action:
We start by taking a trip to Durnin to investigate the Scroll of the Archon’s Song owned by the Droka family in Durnin town. We act as caravan guards and have a variety of random monster encounters most easily dealt with. Furywing antagonizes what turn out to be weretigers. We meet with a member of the Drakon extended family, Seekha, who sends us with some messages to Durnin. One recipient of her messages is Belskin, a famous adventurer and explorer of the Tower. We meet with Belskin and get some pointers on Tower-delving. We also learn more about Archon’s Song from Belskin. He seems to have a chip on his shoulder about the Drakon family. He has been offered full citizenship in Durnin but turned it down, because he thinks the full citizens are elitists. Belskin carries an artifact called the Sword of the glass shard.
On the way home from Durnin we serve as guards with Ferim, a famous merchant who makes a bet with us about our ability to bring him a barrel of Lightning Moss.
We stay in Zenon while waiting for the care package. Some merchanting action here yet to be determined. Sorik becomes a paladin of Pflarr, Lemat and Nimisha become merchants. After receiving the care package we go to the lightning valley and find a motherlode of lightning moss. We deliver our barrel to Ferim and set on our way to the tower on hired Pegasi. Ferim offers Ferris and Furrywing a place in his prestigious merchant’s guild.
We enter the Giant’s Menagerie Portal and start to explore. We go directly to the “rune room” where we acquire familiars and scorpion tails. We then start using find the path to find the Rings of Spell Swapping and Spell Transference. We then try to find a staircase to the 2nd floor and walk through Lokengar’s section of the tower eventually finding the “Fountain of Portals” the water of which allows us to reach the stair case. The stair case has the same astronomical constellation recognition (we should really try to learn the names of these the best we can). We spend just a little time on the 2nd floor and discover the “workshop of the gods.” We find out that the helmets we found in Lokengar’s section allow one to level up for each level of the tower one ascends. We retrieve a second of these helmets before returning home. Still need to play the random encounters on the way home.
Information on Gods on the Citadel:
Other gods that we know of: Ilsundel (not from the plane), Wayland (dwarves), Koritiku (first priest came 4-5 decades ago) most interested in the ocean and Tower, skilled at handling puzzles and mind games, Maree (last 20 years). Koritiku led the push to get Citadel made a forbidden plane ~100-200 years ago.
Tower advice:
* Get Dropped off 8 miles away by pegasus.
* Advice from Belskin: Key hole to Giant’s menagerie is above a block protruding from the entrance. Turn key right once to disarm trap, then left to open. Menagerie animals don’t attack unless you break the glass. Objects of note there: Primer for the Young Mind, Ring of Spell Substitution.
From Osekia — Claw Notice Door: Lots of slimes and oozes. Went down to First Reeking hell; feels like you’re sick when you’re down there (makes you dehydrated etc), spores on walls are source of bad air; stay in center of room. Then went towards center of tower. Found a room with a constellation on the ceiling; turns out it was ancient fish constellation and by speaking the word they got
In the tower:
Room with murals with silvery threads.
* Battle of the skies
* The Fountain of Portals
* Lanterns
* Killing of dragon
Safe numbers in the number room and on the dias outside the throne room: 19,21,23,25,27,30,33,36,39
Towards the stair case:
“The way of Lokengar”
“Make yourself worthy of your service and you’ll be worthy of your names.”
Memories from memory stones (the silver threads) on a door that we have to go through near the fountain of portals:
— Hephastion (oldest?)
— Two giants, man and woman, man has burns covering his face. Holy symbol with four fangs closing down on word that I don’t understand. Giants were wearing those helmets.
— A party with two women, one dwarf, party of four.
— Fire giant warrior and fire giant shaman. They have the helmets on. Holy symbol that is an ideograph.
— Someone from Arisilon. He carries the Smoldering Huntress sword; we Find the Path for it and don’t succeed. Here’s the full description, just for texture:
- Man in platemail, holding flaming sword up in one hand as if standing defiantly before a crowd: “I am Kline of the Thorns, First Knight of Arisilon. I and my company are the first humans to discover these ancient passageways in many centuries. I carry with me the Smoldering Huntress, legendary blade and sword enemy of the beasts of Mon. We are here to push back the dark hordes and bring glory to the King of Arsilon. May history record that I penetrated deep into Mon’s layer and never trembled in fear, for I put the King before my very life.” (People chatting quietly just outside the frame, except for someone’s back in studded leather armor. Someone says, “No, that dangles too much…”)
Fill the bowls to break the seals, and the goblins bowl to find the stair.
“The Stony Defender” is the name of the constellation on the roof of the second floor.
Service to Lokengar
Gods workshop:
Loom can weave an AC 3 cloak that will possess wearer if they sleep or go unconscious in it.
Book on table: The principles of mummification and weaving
Major Items:
* Ring of Cleric Spell Swapping (Droka)
* Ring of Spell Transfer (usable by anybody who casts spells): Reassign up to 12 spell across level at time of memorization. (Nimisha currently)
* 2 Helmets that allow user to gain 1 level per story in the tower, up to eight levels (upon reaching the 9th story). Wearer also loses 1 level for descent to the Reeking Hells (1 level per level of hell).
* Gold Statue
* Giant cloak from gods worskhop
*** Note that there is Undetermined Treasure from Hydra, Flowers++?
Returning from the Tower (= summary of August 7 livespoo session on Roll20)
The party prepares to return. They spend one last night in the Tower to gain XP and restore spells and then head out. Before leaving the party decides to take some precautionary measures, just in case there are marauders lying in wait. Lamat summons a party of orcs, using the Monster Cube, and orders them to run west. Meanwhile, Lamat goes invisible to investigate the party’s intended escape route to the southeast. He finds evidence that a group has recently hacked its way through the woods, and he finds two clearings, both of them new. One clearing has five spears stuck in the ground, three have skulls hanging off the tips and two are empty. The three skulls include one human or humanoid and two horse or pegasus skulls. Lamat doesn’t get close enough to say for certain which two of these four possibilities is the correct one. No other signs of intelligent life at the moment. He returns to the party to tell them that the coast seems to be clear and the party heads off to the southeast.
The party travels by foot during the day and camps out in the shelter scroll at night. Every member but Ghenalon takes a turn keeping watch (sitting outside the shelter scroll, on a nearby branch). The first night, as the party is looking for a place to post the scroll, Lamat steps on a branch that cracks and scares a nearby flock of crows, causing them to take to the air. The party relocates its “encampment” to the South before settling in for the night.
For the next two nights, the party finds that crows gradually gather near the place where it posts encampment. Usually it begins with just one crow landing on the branch of a nearby tree; more and more crows then join the original over the course of the night. Droka informs the party that crows are sometimes said to be “spies for Mon,” relaying information to marauders or undead in the area. The party discusses fireballing the crows but decides against it.
The next day the party comes across a pond. Some low-value belongings seem to have been abandoned at its shores: a sack that has been eaten through by animals, a rusty tinderbox, torches, etc. Ghenalon flies over the pond to investigate and sees two rotting corpses on the other side: one an adult man and the other a youngish boy (maybe 16 years of age). They’ve been stripped of their armor.
The party reaches the Murky River, one of the two “sewage rivers” on the plane (rivers formed in part by the water that pours from sewer gratings in the Tower). The forest in the vicinity of this river seems thinner, so the party decides that the waters may be unhealthy and decides to cross over by flight rather than come into contact with the waters.
As the party is crossing over they hear a battle horn sound to the west. Ghenalon ferries the last of the party members to the other side. A minute later they hear another battle horn sound to the south. The party decides to have Ghenalon fly them over the danger zone to the wouth invisibly, using an ingenious but admittedly risky method of having everyone else climb into the shelter scroll, let Ghenalon roll it up and tuck it away. The shelter scroll has a 12 hour air supply for two people and a bit less than a five hour air supply for five people, so Ghenalon needs to finish his trip quickly (and not get killed, knocked unconscious, or lose the scroll in the process—those inside the shelter scroll have to be let out from the outside).
Ghenalon flies to the south and spots a 21-member detachment of marauders packing up their camp and preparing to go north. He also spots a ruined castle to the east. He flies closer to those ruins and sees at least 40 marauders hustling and bustling, several of them are archers lined up on the western wall. Others are setting up ambushes in the wilderness beyond. Some are preparing to usher some chained trolls out of a makeshift pen in the middle of the ruined castle.
The party discusses whether they want to attack and pillage the ruins. Droka describes the scenario as a familiar tactic for marauders: when a group is spotted, sound horns from two or three directions in hopes of driving the group in a forth direction, where a larger group of marauders lie in wait. The party decides against attacking, noting that they seem to include a number of archers and may have even more assets not yet accounted for, either hiding in the surrounding forest or in two towers that are still reasonably intact.
New events (=events since our August 7 livespoo session)
That evening the party leaves the thick, dark forest in the region surrounding the Tower and moves into a hillier and more lightly wooded region at the foot of the Mountains on Incanth. After night falls they find a tall tree on which to post the shelter scroll, and a nice, rocky outcropping at which to post watch. The party is still a bit worried that they haven’t put enough space between themselves and the marauders, so they ponder the possibility of having two people keep watch at a time, including Ghenalon (since there’s a nice firm outcropping for him to crouch on). But if the party were to divide its resources this way then it would need to devote 12 hours to sleeping, which would give marauders even more time to catch up. In the end they settle for a one-person-per-watch arrangement and go to bed hoping for the best.
Namisha is assigned the fifth watch. Lamat wakes her in the wee, dark hours of the morning to tell her that her it’s her turn. She sits up and then rests at the edge of her bed for a minute, trying her best to shake off the dream state in which she was deeply immersed. She then stands up, puts on her armor, hoists her hammer and steps out into the brisk wind. It takes her awhile to become accustomed to the darkness, but once she does she begins to make out the outlines of the mountains to the south and west. On a distant mountainside she can see two flickering red-orange lights, perhaps bonfires, or maybe structures that were set aflame. Whatever their source, she finds it comforting to reflect that the distance between her and the flames is just right whether they belong to friend or foe: if this is the flame of an enemy, it is so far away that it bears no real threat to the party; if it is the flame of civilized humans or demi-humans, that indicates that civilization isn’t far away. There is only solace and no imminent threat in this vision.
Until there is. After fiddling with the straps on her armor in order to make it fit more snugly, she looks up and sees that one of the flames may not be on a distant mountainside after all. It seems to be moving, occasionally disappearing as though vanishing behind rocks or foliage. She peers for awhile, trying to discern its trajectory and figure out how close it is, but it’s too difficult to tell. She decides to wake the party and alert them to the potential threat.
Namisha enters the shelter to inform the party, they quickly conclude the danger is too serious to let it pass. The party decides to send three of its members to investigate: Namisha (who has boots of flying), Ghenalon (who has natural flight), and Ferris (who mounts Ghenalon and rides on his back). The three start by doing a little triangulation, flying a bit up, a bit down and a bit from one side to another to figure out how far away the light might be. They conclude that it must be the flame of one or two torches, roughly a mile away. They fly at full speed in that direction, skirting the boulders and treetops to keep from making themselves too visible. As they get closer they decide that the source is just one torch after all, and shortly after that it disappears.
The party’s initial thought is that this torch belongs to some sort of scout, so they decide to track down the owner before he or she (or it) goes too far. Their first move is to land on some nearby ground, out of the wind, and apply themselves to the task of hearing noise. They don’t hear anything out of the ordinary, so they move a bit to the southwest and give it another try, again without success. After moving twice more and attempting to listen twice more, Ferris and Ghenalon finally pick up on the telltale sound of stone against stone, like a heavy chunk of rock rolling onto another (note: Ferris’ hear noises roll = 43; Ghenalon’s hear noises roll = 19; Namisha’s hear noises roll = 78). Ghenalon and Ferris exchange looks of recognition and then start heading in the direction of the noise, with Namisha following closely behind.
Up to this point the search party feels like it has been relatively successful, but there’s nothing but frustration thereafter. Ferris hears no sounds after the stone-on-stone incident, and they comb the area in vain, looking for tracks and secret doors without success. When the sun rises they find a single pair of footprints a bit to the southwest, but the footprints are coming, not going, and they disappear in a pile of leaves. The party finds no indications of a secret door under the leaves. The one bit of good news that emerges from this search: the footprints appear to be human, not the elephant-shaped feet of a marauder. But the party just can’t figure out what happened. It’s as if the torch bearer disappeared.
The party takes a quick nap and then prepares for the day. Shortly after having memorizing spells and breakfast they set off again for the southeast, headed for a pass between two peaks where—Sorik and Droka assure them—they will be able to pick up an old trail back to Lesser Zenon.
The terrain has now changed completely: there are but copses of trees, no forest to speak of, and there are now crags and boulders jutting up on all sides, forcing them to wend their way back and forth as they make there way toward the pass, sometimes going way out of their way to circumnavigate an inconvenient crag.
At one point the party finds that there’s no convenient way forward except by climbing the long open face of one of the foothills, this being the only alternative to taking a pass that would put them back eight or nine hours. They briefly discuss having Ghenalon proceed invisibly with the party inside the shelter scroll, but they decide against it. Between here and home there will be many such moments, and they can’t afford to be so guarded every time they face an open hillside, not when the entire party faces the danger of suffocation should anything go awry with Ghenalon. So the party climbs up this open face, and do so without incident. They then descend into a little, wooded vale on the other side, pleased to be less exposed to prying eyes.
The party picks a pathway through the trees and proceeds to cross through the vale. Droka, as usual, takes the lead in the marching order (just to refresh our memories, the marching order is Droka—Ferris—Ghenalon—Lamat—Namisha—Sorik). It’s Lamat who first notices that something is awry when he hears arcane words being spoken from somewhere to his right. Where a tree once stood he now sees a woman in a cloak. Lamat shouts to the party. Everyone turns to look at the woman.
And now the party finds itself surrounded. Where trees once stood, there is now a large detachment of dwarves and fighters, with a smattering of clerics and (obviously) a mage. The party finds itself more or less at the lowest ground in the vale, with 40-50 people surrounding them, most occupying the high ground. A couple dozen dwarves have their crossbows loaded or bows notched and trained on the party. Nearly everyone else has his or her weapon drawn. The mage finishes her spell and Lamat is forced to make a savings throw. He fails (roll=4). Lamat believes the woman to be a trusthworthy friend.
The woman speaks the common tongue. She instructs everyone to put their weapons down and keep their hands in front of them, clearly visible to someone she calls “Virag.” As it turns out, Virag is a dwarf decked out in thick, platemail armor standing close to the party, wearing a helmet that covers his (or her?) head. Lamat is the first to put his weapon down, and he then proceeds to encourage the rest of the party do to the same, assuring them that the woman is completely, 100% honest and fair, such that there’s nothing to worry about—some sort of “don’t worry, she’s cool” remark which nevertheless fails to reassure the rest of the party. But they reluctantly comply. (Yes, I know, you’re tempted to do something to evade their grasp—slip a ring on or something. But seriously?)
Sorik tries to say something to the effect that they come in peace, but the woman tells him—politely but sternly—that she only wants to hear from “that fine magic-user fellow.” Everyone else needs to be quiet and keep their hands in view of Virag, who continues to stand like a dwarf-sized chest piece nearest the party, immobile except for the occasional turn of the head.
The mage asks Lamat some questions about who they are, what their purpose is, and what the heck Ghenalon is. Lamat, of course, answers honestly and without evasion. The mage then looks to Virag. Virag nods once and, just like that, the dwarven crossbows and bows get lowered. The threat has passed. Virag throws open his visor and says to the party, more politely, “Welcome, compatriots.”
Many of the dwarves and humans in the company are now at ease, most putting their weapons away and resuming conversations that they were apparently having before they came out to meet your party. Others lean in to listen as you talk with the mage (“Gethre”), Virag and a few other leading figures in the detachment. This is what you learn:
This detachment is the employ of a new mining complex just over the next couple of hills. It has been in operation for less than seven months and located in a place that is considered relatively dangerous. But it’s also rich in minerals—salt, iron, silver and gold. It has begun to turn a profit in record-breaking time, drawing workers from far and wide.
But three days ago a hunting expedition returned with alarming news that a large army of marauders was gathering to the north. The mining company sent out scouts to confirm, and confirm they did: three of the five scouts returned and reported seeing 100-200 marauders. Two of the five scouts did not return. They mining company has been sending scouting expeditions ever since. And yes, it was a scout that first spotted the party the night before, returning to the mines to warn the company that some people of uncertain allegiance were coming in from the north. They thought you were more likely friendly than not, but they couldn’t afford to take any chances. (“Sorry about the hostile welcome committee,” Virag says. “We would have approached you with our crossbows down if our scouts hadn’t seen you traveling with a monster.” As he says this he nods in the general direction of Ghenelon, without taking his eyes off of Lamat. Ghenalon bristles at this statement and flutters his wings a bit. He then turns to Namisha and says, as an aside, “Clearly he has no respect for clergy!” and then crosses his arms grumpily.)
In the past two days the mining company has started building some ad hoc fortifications at the top of the next hill, and clearing trees so that any approaching troops can be seen and picked off easily. Meanwhile they’ve also hired anyone they can find who knows how to handle a weapon. They’ve sent to Lesser Zenon for reinforcements but they’re not optimistic that they can round up and deliver much support in time to fend off the attack. They estimate that the marauders are poised to attack in a day or two.
Needless to say, this company would really, really like your help in the coming battle. In return for your service, they would give you:
1. 150 gp apiece
2. A “letter of commendation” from the manager of the mines
As your party now knows, a letter of commendation is something written by full citizens of a country—full citizens of some stature and recognition—which could, theoretically, be used to petition the royal court for the recommendee’s own full citizenship. The idea is to collect a lot of these and then eventually deliver them to the Queen of Zenon (or whatever monarch), arranging for a hired advocate to plead your case. To get a sense of how much these letters are worth, you might take your cues from Sorik’s sarcastic response: “A letter of commendation…yip-fucking-eee.” Apparently you can bring the monarch a whole pile and it won’t mean much unless you have done some really outstanding, heroic act that attracted public attention and acclaim.
And that’s where we stand. Whether you initially accept Virag’s offer or not, they’ll invite you to come back to the mines and spend the night there, taking advantage of their shelter and hospitality. At this point, then, we have two questions:
1. Will you accept the offer?
2. Will you spend the night at the mining complex?
If the answer to #1 is “yes” then the answer to #2 is probably “yes” as well, but I just wanted to be sure.
RAY’S RESPONSES for NGs
Let’s be shrewd here.
+Commendation = a nice gesture, but mostly worthless.
+150 gold. Hmm, probably good wages for your basic soldier/guard. Sure, we’ve worked for that before, but should we set our sights higher? What do we want from this?
On one hand, I think we want this mine to succeed for a) our own mercantile advancement, and b) it will make this wilderness a little safer. So we should probably help them one way or another.
But maybe we want to skip hiring on and go loot the ruined keep? Maybe the mining company doesn’t know about it? If massive amounts of troops/monsters are headed this way, then probably that keep would be emptied out too? Probably much more than 150×6 gold there.