Journey to the North

Summary
The party departs Lamut the next day after fighting in the sewers and travels to Yabon. In Yabon, they buy better horses and Adolphus buys two mules, tents and supplies for the journey. Their route takes them north west along the Teeth of the World to the Inclindel Gap. They then travel across the edge of the Thunderhell Steppes to the Great Northern Mountains. North of the mountains, the weather is worse and colder. Several days of thnderstorms slow their travel. Two days before they arrive at the tomb, their camp is attacked at night by three phase spiders. Raaha and Flynn are on watch and Flynn is the first to be attacked. Adolphus and Gala awaken to their shouts, then Jace and finally Zinnius. Flynn and Raaha and Adolphus are seriously wounded in the battle; Adolphus heals Flynn and Jace heals Raaha. The spiders ability to phase shift means they disappear after attacking and can reappear behind their targets, so the battle drags as the adventurers try to hit the spiders when they appear. One of the spiders attacks and knocks out Gala's horse, but Jace heals the horse. Slowly, the party manages to score enough hits to kill the spiders. Jace manages to dissect a spider and fill an old potion vial with spider venom for Flynn.
The party arrives at the tomb after more rainy travel and the first look confirms their fears: the tomb is open. They approach and find the wards are old and faded. Gala recognizes the wards as eledhel runes, but many are unfamiliar to her. The enter the tomb and find the body is gone. Broken chains hang from a stone burial bier. Judging from the debris in the tomb, it has been open for months, perhaps longer. In the mucky water of the tomb, they find a broken sword with a black wood grip and an iron crown of twisted, black trees. Gala recognizes them as elven craftmanship. Adolphus says the sword was a "soulsword", it gave the wielder power over the spirits of the people it slew. They decide to get out. They move away and make camp.
Adolphus sits them down to tell them what he is looking for. Long ago, there was an evil eledhel necromancer named Mornhavon the Black. He and his lieutenants used dark powers and rallied some of the moredhel and goblinoid tribes as allies. They were eventually defeated, but the eledhel were concerned about Mornhavon's threats to return from the dead. The elves do not pay homage to Lims-Kragma and they did not want the spirits of the evil mages to go to their afterlife, so the eledhel turned to necromancy themselves. The souls or spirits of the Mornhavon and his followers were bound to their bodies before they were executed and the bodies buried in magical prison-tombs wherever they were killed. Adolphus says they even went so far in some cases as to dig up the soil the mages bled on and entombed the soil with the bodies.
The party moves out in the morning, but are shortly ambushed by orcs. Their leader with a dwarven greataxe leads the charge with four more orcs and two archers shoot from the hillside. Their leader charges Flynn as the biggest opponent. Gala snipes the orc leader with Firebolt but hits one of the mules with a shot and Flynn fights and kills the orc. The archers and Raaha trade shots as she circles the party trying to get closer. Orcs charge into the party and Zinnias, Jace and Adolphus are engaged hand to hand. Zinnias and Adolphus kill their orcs, but Jace is badly wounded. Flynn takes out Jace's orc. Raaha drops one archer and Gala helps her finish the other. They search the dead for treasure and Flynn takes the leader's greataxe. The clerics heal the party and they get moving again.
The next day, they hear orcish war horns from the south west. They realize orc battle horns means a large number of orcs. They consider hiding in the mountains or trying to outrun them on their course. They decide to turn south east, into the plains, and try to lose the orcs. Adolphus says they'll need to abandon the mules and take what food they can carry. Raaha takes all of the food they can't carry and puts it in her genie vessel. Raaha tells them her genie master can lead her to a set of caves that cross under the mountains to the Kingdom, it's closer than the next known pass would be. The adventurers turn away from the mountains and head across the steppes. Later in the day, they hear more war horns from the south.
The party pushes hard to the east to avoid the orcs. They are stopped by a patrol of Thunderhell nomads and taken prisoner. The patrol leads them to their camp and the tribe leader, Hetman Walde. The party bargains for safe passage, he demands one of their number as a slave or to fight the clan champion. They counter with an offer of healing from the clerics and the hetman agrees. Jace, Gala, and Adolphus tend to the nomads' needs and Flynn notices the clan champion watching them. Flynn tries to challenge the champion to a "friendly" fist fight, but the champion refuses. Flynn is not sure he could take him in a fight. The next day they are released and Jace is given a bracelet to show right of safe passage to other nomad tribes.
They eventually make their way to the ancient city of Armengar and restock on supplies. The party leaves Armengar to follow Raaha's directions and skirts the southern edge of the Edder forest, but things seem too quiet. They do not encounter many travelers and no wild elves. Making camp one night, Jace and Zinnius are attacked by five spectres. Jace tries Burning Hands but is hit by the spectres and passes out. The rest of the party wakes up and Adolphus uses Turn Undead to drive three of them back. Gala shoots a Chaos Bolt which destroys one spectre and bounces to another and destroys it as well. Flynn, Raaha and Zinnius finish the spectres while Adolphus tends to Jace.

Silly Quotes and Smart Remarks
Discussing buying new horses, Jim is not sure if Brittany ever made a decision
Jack "She's riding her imaginary horse"
Stacy "Her unicorn?"
Jim "You've got two empty halves of coconuts and you're bangin' 'em together!"

Flynn is ambushed by a phase spider
Stacy "Do I hear him scream out in terror?"
Jim "More like manful surprise"

Guessing what monsters may be coming to attack
Jack "No spiders…"
Brittany "Wolves"
Nick and Jack "Spider-wolves"

The orcs attack from up on the hillside
Nick "They have the high ground"

Jack rolls a natural 1 and Gala hits a mule with Firebolt instead of the orc leader
Jack "Flynn was standing in front of two asses; I just hit the wrong one"

Discussing the different languages Orcs might speak; possibly Goblin or Giant
Nick "What is Giant language?
Jack "All caps"

Stacy rolls a 6 for Persuasion
Nick "Your mother was a hamster"