Session #5, February 2, 2018
The fighting in Bjergholde had left the party badly wounded and although all seemed quiet within the keep, it was evident that more than the number of swinemen they had seen were based here. They left the keep and retreated up the hill finding a good hiding place only a few hundred feet away where they could rest. Koriol found a hiding spot just 150' from the entrance where he could watch the approach to the keep and be within bowshot range of the entrance.
About four hours later Koriol spotted a column approaching and Forni joined him at the lookout point. As the column approached the party discerned five swinemen, three at the front, two at the rear and between them 8 men trudging along with their heads down.
Once in range the bowmen opened fire. The swinemen spotted their attackers quickly, but instead of returning fire they bustled the humans into the fortification. Allis and Haldora rushed down the hill toward the entrance with Forni and Koriol following quickly behind.
The party was greeted by a volley of javelins from the top of the steps when they reached the entrance, but charged up to attack heedless. Although they killed three of the swinemen, and wounded the swinelord in plate who had joined the fight from within the keep, the party ended up being overwhelmed, disarmed, and captured with only Haldora maintaining consciousness by the end.
The rest of the party awoke to find themselves with Haldora crowded into a room with the eight men who were being marched to the keep. They learned that these were what was left of the miners from the buried camp on Fjallisilfur. Runde Grimison, their leader and an older man, had been badly weakened by his treatment here. Hrolli, Baldi, and Singi had held up well and the others in between. Runde told that the mine holds fairly silver-rich galena that they have been mining for a year, extracting several tons, but only smelting a small portion, and cuppellating for the silver even less than that for lack of lime. Runde later confided he had seen moonstone in the mine as well.
When two swinemen opened the room in order to feed them men and march them back to the mine to work, they party, supported by Hrolli and Baldi, rushed and overwhelmed the pair. Taking their axes and javelins, and recognizing their location within the keep, they rushed back to the guard room and reclaimed most of their equipment before the remaining swinemen swarmed in.
The party and sufficiently healthy miners stood ground here, eventually defeating the seven remaining swinemen and their lord. A thorough sweep of the premises turned up a total 80 gold coins, 9 silver bars weighing a pound each, gems: a moonstone, onyx, sardonyx, star rose quartz, and two zircon worth 50gp each, a pair of fancy boots, two books: Absque Spatio Temporus and Plana Intrinsecus et Extrinsecus, and a sealed letter.
[My apologies for the errors.]
