Sandbox Campaign Part 14: Mappa Mundi

This is part 14 of my ongoing Sandbox Campaign, a campaign which, for a long time now, has totally not been an actual sandbox campaign.  But that will be changing soon, as our brave heroes begin this next phase of their adventure.

When last we left The Graverobbers, they had succeeded in overrunning a forward outpost of Bandit Queen Thalestra's barbarian hordes in Highfrost Pass, preventing the guards from lighting their signal fire.  Kat's cohort, Ryder, was slain during the fight, and Kat and Daphne nearly were as well.  After interrogating some captured archers, the party learned that there was a prisoner of war camp up by Barrow Lake, near where they had defeated Uli Blackeye over a year ago.  They decided to free the captured Kaldish soldiers and use them to take Castle Drenn.

Montilore "Monty" Bearbriar, CN Dwarf Fighter 10

After her near brush with death, Kat returns to Castle Morbis to send a letter to Björn, Sigrid's youngest brother (not to be confused with Big Bjorn Gundersson from my other campaign).  The contents of the letter remain unknown, but probably have something to do with how they really 'hit it off'.  Ryder, after actually dying and being reincarnated as a gnome, realizes that none of his magical armor and weapons fit him anymore, and begins to reconsider his life of adventure.   He does not return to the party when Kat does.

The Graverobbers descend Highfrost pass into the snow-dappled foothills on the other side of the mountains, following the ill-kept road right down to a palisaded encampment.  Zel wild shapes into a hawk and flies over the camp, spying enough tents to house 15-20 men and a tower topped with an unlit beacon fire.  The inhabitants of the camp turn out to be an unlikely combination: trolls and dwarves.  The camp is divided down the middle, one half housing the neat and orderly dwarven mercenaries' tents, the other playing host to a scattered assortment of ramshackle dwellings thrown up by the mercenary ice trolls.  Zel reports back to the party and they form a plan.