Time: 12/10/22 - 12/21/22 active 12/22/22
PCs: Blair, Bigtoe, Bralen, Bash (Cleric of Pholtus)
Surviving Hench: Abyan, Amelia, Jahanaray
Team B loaded up and must have asked me 5 times whether or not there were any birds or messengers or anything waiting for them from Teutch. I think they thought that he was going to hire them to find Team A after last session, but the Alchemist is keeping his thoughts and plans close to the vest so we’ll have to wait and see.
The party hired some hench in Deinwick then decided to do more economic stuff by heading to Talston and giving Bigtoe’s venturer hench a chance to establish market familiarity there. On their way back to Deinwick they ran across a hostile lawful NPC party. Turns out it was a posse led by a St Cuthbert cleric to arrest one of the party’s newly hired Chaotic henchmen. Some discussion was had about leniency and fair trials and such but Meguy of Cuthbert and his 18 cavalry weren’t having it. So they took Bigtoe’s fresh Fighter hench into custody, much to the dwarf’s dismay. His henchmen have been goin’ through it.
Back in Deinwick, Bralen and Bigtoe hired some henchmen that they had commissioned and then the party discussed what to do for the session. They didn’t really have any concrete hooks or plans so they set off for Teutchland to see what might be available there. Nothing much of interest happened on the road and they arrived, where they met a recently recovered Lockleaf who shared some information with them about the attack on Fernblithe’s settlement.
The party couldn’t help themselves so they went to talk to Fernblithe and made the right comments in the wrong tones like a bunch of smart ass PCs, giggling over poor Fernblithe’s predicament. They learned that Teutch was offering cash for the location of an elf lord or more cash to bring an elf lord to Teutchland. Much questions on where the elves hang out were met with the DM shrugging and saying “idk, the woods or something”.
Blair had a rumor about an elven city in the Loftwood far to the north, so they decided that might be an option. They hoofed it back to Deinwick to search for maps and information. Through rumor mongering and map research they found out a little more about Lunandthrir the Moon Home. They got a better map of the north of the region and a new rumor that if a tea is made from the leaves of the Moon Tree and drunk at a specific time of year it’ll make them more powerful.
The party was satisfied and headed to Talston where they did the same thing, more maps and rumors and got some more information about the Bone March. Then they went north towards Riverstride to introduce themselves to Lord Issac and continue their journey to Loftwood. Unfortunately they had to pass through the swamp west of New Bridge and Riverstride Keep which is becoming known as the deadliest few hexes in the game.
In the first swamp hex, they came upon a giant crab spider lair. They were going to flee but several of their members were surprised so they stood and fought. After a brief combat, they realized two of their members, Blair and Jahanaray the Heironeous Hench, had been poisoned and would die in 1d4 (1) turn! They wracked their brains for options to combat the poison, sending Jahanaray into the spider lair to dig up their treasure in hopes of a cure. Unfortunately all that was in there was a bronze necklace.
Someone floated the idea of sucking out the poison, which I laughed at and determined sure why not. They could suck the poison out and have to make the save throw or die themselves. Bigtoe tried to convince Jahanaray the hench to do it for Blair since he was going to die anyway, but the cleric was too busy making his peace with this world and preparing for the next. Bash of the Blinding Light stepped up and bravely volunteered to do it for Blair and after much argument about how expensive it was to resurrect multiple people, did the deed and made the saving throw, saving Blair’s life. Jahanary expired but Bigtoe promised that he would have him Restored of Life and Limb when able.
The mission now was to get somewhere quick to Restore Jahanaray, so they booked it into the next swamp hex towards Issac who they were certain would Restore a fellow Heironeous follower. Nearly through the swamp, they surprised a group of Spectres, ghostly apparitions that resembled monks in a somber procession. Unfortunately some of their members were also surprised. While the more aware of their party fled for their lives, the heroic Bralen the Battle Mage stood his ground, casting Phantasmal Force to try to distract the undead with an image of a Sphinx landing and threatening them. The plan was to buy time for the members that couldn’t act in the first round to escape, which were Abyan the thief and Bash the cleric.
Two of the spectres fell for it, entering imaginary combat with an imaginary foe, but the other three were not fooled and chased the three laggards on the next round. They had extremely fast flying speed so it was really more if the fleeing members could evade by dodging or whatever rather than outrun them. Unfortunately the evasion failed and the spectres attacked, vicious elongated claws reaching from their ghostly robes and terrifying fanged skulls grinning with the chance to drain two levels each hit from their victims. Yikes.
By randomly determining targets, Abyan the thief got 1 attack and Bralen got 2. Abyan was sliced open and killed with damage, falling from his horse with his head and neck twisted at a weird angle. Bralen survived the damage, but was drained of all levels, his lifeforce completely leaving his body as his desiccated corpse fell to the road. Bash escaped to join the party who continued to flee. In my mind, Spectres and ghosts and wights and whatnot are tethered to the places that they haunt, so I rolled a chance that the party was fleeing away from the tether which they were. Just before another round of attacks the spectres peeled off, hissing and ooooooing, having reached the end of their haunted area.
Team B raced to Riverstride and pleaded with Father Sebastian to Restore Jahanaray. Unfortunately, Sebastian wasn’t high enough level and Lord Issac confirmed that he had nothing available to restore anyone! Sebastian was able to provide a little healing and then the party weighed their options. Talston or Bellport were the next closest big markets, Talston being the closest but taking them back through the swamp. They decided to risk it because the longer someone’s dead the worse off the Restore is, so they rested and left at the crack of dawn “as fast as our horses will go”.
They passed the scene of the murder but the bodies were no longer there. Seems like there’s a spectre lair in that swamp swollen with Bralen the mage’s loot (Abyan didn’t have anything). They came across some hippogriffs that were flying in a V formation, but again Bash was surprised and left behind, where the hippogriffs surrounded him and eventually shook him down for his rations and his backpack. He snatched his holy book and took off, leaving his underwear and school books and whatever was in his pack behind. They got to Talson and paid for Jahanaray’s Restore. He chose to stay on with the party but the mage hench of Bralen’s bailed. The group decided to cut their losses and end the session there.
Musings:
This is one of those types of sessions that have turned out so poorly for the Dubzaron campaign on occasion, where there isn’t really a plan and/or a bad random encounter changes the whole session. I’ve mused on this before about how lucky the party has seemed to be with random encounters both in and out of dungeons but I’ve trusted that things would even out. I am occasionally accused of “trying to kill them” but I really just want to explore all the results that the dice and random tables generate, which we certainly got a different look at this time. Losing a leveled mage is always a bitch, but Bralen’s player dove right back in, rolling an Explorer I think to be played next session. It’ll be fun to see how the Team bounces back.
Xp from Kills: 152
Xp from Loot: 130
Total XP: 282
Cuts: 8
PC: 0% 71 5% 74 10% 78
Hench: 0% 35 5% 37 10% 39
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