Time: 7/31/22-8/6/22, rest 8/7/22, active 8/8/22
PCs: Gwendolyn (bard), Redcorn (cleric), Grim (assassin)
Hench: Cemil (Fighter)
As Lord Issac’s (Patron) army moved deeper into enemy territory, the need for intelligence became more pressing. Session play started with a time-sensitive request for recon of a hex containing a critical ford into an enemy-held domain. Issac had no interest in being taken unawares by a hidden lair so he hired the party to scope it out while he moved his men into position.
Team A scouted the hex in question, finding two lairs of note. One, a lair of Blink Dogs, confounded the Neutral cleric John Redcorn who wanted desperately to add one or all of them to his traveling menagerie. The other was a Giant Lizard lair that the party did not investigate for fear of lizards. Eww, yucky.
They reported to Sebastian (Issac hench) once the army arrived on site. During the army’s ford crossing, Issac’s Recon division met light resistance, sweeping them away but unable to capture the enemy horse archers. Hobgoblin infantry and longbowmen that were captured were put promptly to the sword as Issac’s forces established a beachhead on the enemy held banks of the Walsh River. The party then scouted across the river for any other lairs, dodging the Hobgoblin farms and settlements in the countryside. They found none and returned, calling it clear.
Issac hired the party to escort his wounded and some baggage back to Riverstride and off they went. They sighted some unknown humanoids at quite a distance and skirted around them. They were joined by some light cavalry from Riverstride to assist in the escort. They met some Treants who they made friends with, largely in part to another group of Treants giving them a leaf as a token of friendship (downtime between session 8 and 9). They discovered a bugbear body that the Treants had mangled and reported the intel to Kit (hench Issac) who was leading the cavalry. Arriving safely in New Bridge, the party got paid and decided to go shopping.
It’s only a single day trip by horse to Talston Castle, the largest and closest market to New Bridge. They mounted up and expected an easy ride as it usually was. This time, however, they were beset by a flying Sphinx very near to Issac’s territory along a swampy road at the site of Issac’s single combat with Sir Oscar. The fantastic creature swooped and dove and approached, claiming that “We own this road and any traffic on it is subject to our tolls!”
The party, rightly cautious in regards to the very powerful creature, was then prompted to answer 3 riddles in order to pass. Our heroes’ unique combination of street smarts, erudition, and blind luck got them through the first two riddles. The last one, however, took them quite a while to figure out, all the while the Sphinx menacing them from the air and chuckling at their fumbling and otherwise being a pain in the ass. The riddle was: “What is full of holes but still holds water?” I must say that I’m proud of my players for not googling the answer when I got a drink of water.
It was Gwendolyn the Goat who saved the day, blurting out “a Sponge! It’s a Sponge!” and then spiking the football in my face quite aggressively when the Sphinx landed and acknowledged the answer. He introduced himself with all the dignity and royal bearing of your average domesticated housecat as Meowster Mittens the Magnificent and honored their party’s intelligence by letting them pass. He warned them that any future traveler would be subject to their tolls, apparently determined at a whim. Today’s would have been 1,000gp per missed riddle. He then flew off to the south.
The party mulled over these events briefly then continued on, surprising a Lamia shortly thereafter and sneaking away before they were discovered. They contemplated bypassing the dangerous creature but were concerned that the hunter’s blind that they saw it creating would just be a problem for them and other travelers later. So they chose violence.
In the time it took them to formulate a blessedly simple plan and execute it, the Lamia had completed its blind and was concealed behind it watching the road from a thicket of trees and underbrush. The party hit it in force on the flank, winning initiative and interrupting its first spell with a well placed arrow by Grim the Assassin. Redcorn let loose the dogs and Gwen continued her inspirational battle song about mountain goats and the Lamia retreated, using the woods as cover.
As the hunting dogs closed in, a crackling ball of black lightning materialized in the middle of the forward element of the party’s forces, exploding and instantly killing Gwendolyn and Cemil. In a rage the party closed in and beat the Lamia to death, losing Chungus the dog in the process. Shortly thereafter the “dead” realized they weren’t dead, because illusory damage just knocks you out. So they woke up with a headache and searched for treasure of which there was none. This Lamia was developing a lair but had not settled with any loot yet.
The party concluded the session with some shopping and rumormongering in Talston, then traveled back to New Bridge with no further complications.
Musings:
Random encounters throw another Sphinx in the mix. Gonna have to determine why there’s so many in the region. It continues to interest me to have to explain the random encounters. It fleshes out the world in unexpected ways nearly every time. Also cool to have PC play influence patron decisions. The party got to see another small taste of large scale combat, Grim dipped his toes into the economy, and overall they had a pretty sweet session of tense moments and some laughter.
XP from Kills: 2500
XP from Treasure: 1400
Total XP Pool: 3900
Cuts: 7 total with PCs receiving 2 each.
PC Share: 0%: 1114 5%: 1170 10%: 1226
Hench Share: 0%: 557 5%: 585 10%: 613
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