Over the next rise, the hobgoblins and their prisoners are marching towards Turtsaz. Gemma of House Kun and Heminile are with us.
Heminile scouts ahead – she leaves with a stern glance, “Stay here.” She returns with news. Ten total enemy plus their prisoners – about five of them.
We prepare: Liadan dons mage armour, Rhun gives her virtue and casts divine favor on himself. Gemma borrows a dagger from Ariza who also hands her a tanglefoot bag: “If you get really stuck, run – make sure you’re 10’ away, and then throw this.”
We gather our bows and crossbows. Liadan asks Heminile how to proceed. “You’re going to count to 100 and then take off after these hobgoblins. I’ll attack from the side and take care of the prisoners.” Liadan: “And by take care, you mean you’ll rescue them?” Heminle rolls her eyes and says, “Yes – I will protect them”, and she takes off.
We count and crest up over the hill to find the hobgoblins marching alongside a cart with two horses, prisoners marching behind tied to the carts by a long rope.
BATTLE:
- Ariza produces flame and misses.
- Rem’e shoots at huge range and hits!
- ENEMY
- attacks with a volly of arrows – one hits ariza, also a red cloaked hobgoblin chants something at the hobgoblins that run toward us
- Rhun attacks with spritual weapon vs cleric of Asmodeus, but it parries
- Liadan casts mm on person in front
- Ariza attacks with produce flame – and hits
- Rem’e shoots at front hg in red – and despite the great shot, the hg pulls something from his side, twists, and deflects the bullet away – sparks flying as it goes
- Heminile appears and takes down the two hg at the front of the wagons
- ENEMY
- Foremost HG attacks Rem’e with nasty looking weapon and hits
- The cleric speaks an invisibility spell and vanishes
- The others charge forward – two at Reme (who now has three on him)
- Others shoot arrows at Rhun
- The warg rider charges at Rhun
- Rhun takes a five foot step back and calls the spirtual scimitar against the warg rider and hits
- Liadan shoots the warg rider and hits powerfully
- Ariza flames one of the guys coming forward and pulls out her rapier and dagger (two hands)
- Rem’e steps back and shoots the HG in red – but he shifts out of the way and the bullet misses; he takes an attack of opportunity against another coming
- Enemy
- Wolf and rider attacks Rhun and hits, trying to bite my leg but misses; HG hits with long sword and hits
- Other arrows at Rhun miss
- HG charges Gemma
- Rhun steps back and channels energy, healing the party
- Liadan steps to the side, lining up three HGs and casts burning hands against all three!
- Ariza hits with rapier and fells the hg in front of her! Misses the next with dagger.
- Rem’e shoots at HG next to felled hg, and it falls
- Heminile drops last at the cart
- Gemma throws a length of rope around approaching HG and he gets entangled, she then runs towards Rhun
- Enemy:
- Red cloak swings at Liadan and hits hard with a punch straight to the chest – OUCH. Misses with his weapon.
- Second HG misses (thanks, mage armor!!)
- Arrows miss Rhun but hit Gemma – she falls to a knee
- Warg and rider attack Rhun but misses
- Rhun channels energy again healing all – including Gemma
- Liadan strikes with Vervinia but misses.
- Ariza strikes with rapier and dagger – hits with rapier but misses with dagger (fumble! in fact, provoking an attack of opportunity)
- Rem’e shoots at the warg rider who rocks in the saddle but stays up
- Heminile engages the two archers and lays one low
- Enemy
- Warg rider hits Rhun with long sword (but wolf missed)
- HG red appears and attacks Rhun from a distance, but Rhun shakes it off
- Rhun attacks with spiritual scimitar and hits
- Liadan MM on two of the HG (in red)
- Ariza drops one of the HG and then runs to the entangled HG
- Rem’e shoots the mounted warg rider – who falls out of saddle dead!
- Heminile attacks but misses last archer
- Gemma seems to be doing something – Ariza notices that the entangled HG is flinching from some kind of force damage
- Enemy:
- Warg attacks Rhun
- Liadan takes a nasty hit
- Cleric moves forward and unleashes the unholy flame of Asmodeus – Rem’e and Ariza dodge out of the way
- Entangled hg swings at Ariza and misses
- Rhun channels energy to heal the wounded – also spirtual weapon hits a resounding blow on the cleric
- Liadan steps back and casts shocking grasp and holds it
- Ariza attacks entangled HG with rapier, and hits! Misses with dagger.
- Rem’e takes a five foot step and shoots at nearest red HG – glancing blow
- Enemy
- Red HG steps forward to attack Liadan, but she attacks him with shocking grasp and drops him!
- Warg hits Rhun – nasty, bloody bite
- Other red – channels negative energy; Rhun drops to the ground – the rest take damage.
- Ariza throws alchemist’s fire at red HG and hits
- Rem’e spins to the wolf, focuses and shoots – and hits.
- Enemy:
- HG priest yells something about Asmodeus
- Warg who also takes damage from the priest, turns and bolts away
- Entangled hg hits ariza
- Rhun continues to slide towards death
- Liadan runs to Rhun and administers a cure light wounds potion; Rhun stabilizes but unconscious
- Rem’e steps forward point blank and shoots the priest and finally drops him.
- Enemies
- The last remaining HG runs
- Liadan fires a scorching ray but misses
- Ariza throws a entangled bag at his feet – he’s caught and can’t move
- They follow up and lay him low.
Ariza gives Rhun the final potion – brings him up closer; Rhun remains unconscious.
Gemma, though seriously hurt, runs to her family and embraces them. The other three prisoners are prospectors. The wagon contains stolen properties … Gold, gold dust, gold coins, silver coins, lots of food, wine (barrel tapped), fine clothing. There’s a small very finely made wooden case inside of which is three potions – each one is packed in velvet. Also three more potions of cure wounds.
Liadan checks the potions – they are potions of explosion – each does 6d6 dmg when thrown.
Ariza give Rhun two of the cure potions – he finally wakes up.
We tell the prisoners to claim what was theirs. The prospectors claim some of their gold, but give us 20 GP worth of gold.
The Kun survivors give us 110 gp.
We take the 130GP and the explosion potions.
Rhun then channels energy for the wounded and brings everyone back up to snuff.
The wagon has one sad horse – it won’t be pulling anyone.
The family is very proud of Gemma.
Ariza tells everyone: “We’re heading back to Basilisk Bluff – it’s going to take 4 nights and 5 days with the wagon. Heminile will help escort us to the bluff. Liadan will carry Vervinia (sword) back to Cronen.”
Ariza asks Heminile about her elven curved blade – and she shares. Liadan fixes her bowstring.
We decide one night at camp to step away from camp and examine the ornate wooden box. Liadan puts on her special glasses. The box itself stands out when the glasses are worn – vivid. No gust of wind or heat coming off it. We all stand back 25 feet and Liadan opens it with mage hand.
- The latch is moved, mage hand opens the lid — and …nothing happens.
- Liadan puts on mage armor and approaches. She looks inside with glasses.
- Inside she sees a little runestone – a little river rock with a runes on it. Three symbols – a triangle with little curly queues on it. We’ve seen this before on scroll with but couldn’t determine anything about it.
- We even ask Gemma about the runes (which surprises her, but also makes her very proud that we would ask her).
- Liadan picks it up – the rest of us can now see it.
- Liadan casts identify – the magic is almost an anti-magic … like an unmaking magic. We can’t tell what it does. Liadan puts it in her pocket and puts the box back on the cart.
- The box is made of copperbell wood – which is a little offensive to Heminile, but so it goes.
We work on getting to know Heminile – we begin to glean that she’s a copperbell refugee living in the Redwood.
4th day – goes well. We’re creeping along as a group. Heminile creeps back to us keeping low. “There’s another wagon up on the hill – no one there; two dead horses.”
We decide to investigate. Heminile has no interest – stays behind with the travelers.
- We go up ahead a bit. The hill is on a slightly higher rise.
- Ariza’s keen eyes sees the dead horses – they’re bloated; bridles still on them. The cloud of flies is thick. The horses have been dead for at least a day.
- Wagon is open. This is a nice wagon compared to what we’re running. This is a trade wagon.
- Rem’e and Rhun approach the wagon. Liadan and Ariza stay off to the side and circle around.
- From the top of the rise but way in the distance we see dots of people – humanoid, walking around heading towards the bluff. Probably 500 feet away.
- The horses have been torn to shreds and bitten by what looks like human teeth.
- Rem’e examines the wagon – there’s a bag with some food, some sleeping rolls, and a locked strong box.
- We call Ariza up who attempts to pick the strong box – she does! She jimmies the lock. Inside are gold bars, raw unminted gold. A good haul. ~ 1500 GP. Ariza repicks and locks the strongbox.
- Ariza sees that the group is just standing there.
- We ask Heminile if she wants to check this out with us. She stays and watches the now freed captives.
- We approach the creatures – zombies! With a dwarf standing in the rear.
- BATTLE
- Rem’e shoots a flare at the group – trying to dazzle or blind them. He hits the dwarf who is at least dazzled.
- Rhun runs forward and channels energy – fizzles a little but pulls them down a bit.
- Liadan puts a burning sphere on the dwarf!
- Ariza uses produce flame on one of the zombies.
- Monsters:
- Closest to Rhun attacks – misses; another moves in and hits; three others attack Rhun.
- One attacks Rem’e but misses.
- In the back, three run very quickly and attack – they are ghouls.
- The dwarf is almost moping – he steps away from the burning sphere.
- Rem’e fights defensively and steps back, flanking with Ariza and then fires at the ghoul in front of him. Misfire!
- Rhun channels energy again – bringing damage
- Liadan steps back and MM on the two nearest ghouls
- Ariza loses her footing, takes a knee and misses the rest of the turn
- Monsters
- First zombie attacks Rem’e and misses just barely
- Second zombie attacks Rem’e and misses
- Zombies around Rhun attack – one hits, others miss
- Ghouls attack Rem’e and both miss
- Ariza is hit by one claw from other Ghoul – hurt, but shakes off any nastiness
- Liadan attacked by ghoul, but it misses
- Rem’e withdraws, runs to the side
- Rhun channels energy again – two go down, and one explodes splattering Rhun with nasty viscera!
- Liadan moves the flaming sphere and destroys a zombie
- She then cuts deep into the ghoul in front of her with Vervinia – and the ghoul just explodes with the force of the blow.
- Ariza hits the other ghoul with produce flame and drops it
- Monsters
- The dwarf convulses with pain – and a pulse of energy surges from him. He looks very unhappy. The surge of energy hurts us terribly.
- The zombies look emboldened
- Rem’e takes a shot and blows off the top of a ghoul’s head
- Rhun channels energy – but the energy fills the undead with strength. (Argh!) Rhun feels nauseous and drops to a knee.
- Liadan uses force missile on big bugbear.
- Monsters all attack Rhun but miss him – dwarf does nothing.
- Rem’e rapid reloads and uses focused aim – slightly damaging a zombie, but just goes through him – doesn’t hurt it much
- Rhun AGAIN channels energy and the zombies grow even MORE in strength – a whisper in Rhun’s ear says “oh come all ye faithful…”
- Liadan attacks with a force missile
- Ariza attacks with rapier – and it doesn’t do much, a little damage
- Monsters
- All zombies attack Rhun who is staggered!
- Rem’e hits one with a bullet
- Rhun burns two with flaming hands and then he falls to the ground, unconscious.
- Liadan attacks two zombies, dropping the big one.
- Ariza hits one of the two remaining zombies – and hurts it but doesn’t drop it.
- Monsters:
- Both remaining zombies pound on Ariza hurting her badly.
- Rem’e rapid reloads and shoots for the green zombie – hits and drops it, exploding in gore all over Ariza – but Rhun is dying
- Liadan casts force missile on remaining zombie
- Ariza hits zombie with two daggers – it falls, eviscerated.
The dwarf is sitting on the ground just wheezing; Rhun remains dying. Rem’e uses first aid to stabilize Rhun and whispers “you owe me one”.
Rem’e to Liadan – “It’s your call what we want to do with this guy (dwarf)”
Liadan looks at the dwarf using the glasses, but sees nothing unusual. The stone in her pocket is warm to the touch – she holds it up, and the dwarf barfs all over the ground on his feet. Liadan holds the stone against the dwarf’s head: the boils start to recede on his head and he begins to breathe better; he’s panting and speaking in dwarvish …he then switches to common. “I’m sorry … I’m sorry… thank you. Thank you.” He’s relieved.
Liadan asks “what happened to you?”
“I was dispatched by my boss in Amber to check out a mine … There was a crypt …”
Ariza: “Was Kiff your boss?”
He looks up in surprise at Ariza… “Yes… I felt sick the next morning. Got on the cart – I just kept erupting and killing ….killed the driver… Then there were some hobgoblins … I just wanted to stay away from everyone. What are your names? I’ll tell Kiff about you. Where are we?”
We tell him who we are and our relationship to the mine – his eyes light with recognition. We tell him we’re just outside of Basilisk Bluff – we ask if he wants to accompany us.
“Torag’s hairy armpits, yes! I’m Tsarbanius: specialist in the arcane and history. Who ever heard of Urgathoan stuff out here? Good work you guys did at that mine – and good work you did today.”
The others gather up Rhun and the strong box in the wagon and carry them back to our cart.
The evening passes uneventfully. In the morning, Rhun wakes, soaks in the sun and heals himself, and then channels energy for all.
Heminile is gone.
We are just outside of Basilisk Bluff.