Our
four adventurers continued on through the night, following the trail
of the Greenest invaders. The bee encounter had taken some time,
giving the raiders opportunity to arrange a rearguard.
The
party happened upon such a gathering while sneaking closer to a small
cooking fire. Some kobolds and guards had taken up camp and now tried
to make supper. It was obvious that the two factions did not get
along well. While Kerr hid from plain view, the rest of the party
closed in and tried to fit in as cultists. The guards fell for the
lie and welcomed the PC:s for supper. After some subtle questioning
that didn’t lead to any new clues (the cultists were recently
drafted) the party decided to kill their newfound “friends” while
on guard duty. Successful ability checks were made and the kobolds
scattered as soon as their humanoid masters were no more.
In
the morning, the party continued into a rockier landscape. Plateaus
dominated the scenery and inbetween two such formations, in a crevice
that seemed made for an ambush, the PC:s ran into the second
rearguard. Unable to provide the demanded password (they didn't think
of asking the night before) they were promptly attacked by a barrage
of thrown spears. Some chaos ensued, their horses panicked and the
party had to flee, tail between their legs. There were several caves
in the rocky landscape and the party took refuge in one of them.
While
scouting, Kerr found out that the crevice could be evaded by taking
yet another detour. During the next night, the now refreshed party
set out, following Kerrs lead. Soon after, they saw the camp, hidden
and fortified in a horse shoe-shaped ravine. Kerr decided to continue
the stealthy approach, but the rest of the party, clad in armour
suited for battle, not sneaking, felt that a direct approach was more
reasonable.
Kerr's
approach:
The
half-orc climbed up the large rocky formation holding their target.
Thanks to darkvision, he spotted a kobold patrol coming his way and
stealthily neutralized them by hiding in the tall brush. He then
crept forwards, toward the crest line to see into the camp. He saw
hundreds of individuals gathered in the camp. After a short while, he
reasoned that the kobolds, mercenaries and cultists resided in
different parts of the camp and did not interact much, proof that not
every raider was a religious freak or shared the cult's motives. More
importantly, he saw some crosses gathered together, with a thin man
tied to one of them.
Kerr
stealthily climbed down the cliff wall and started towards the
crosses. He avoided some guards and now saw that the man on the cross
was a half-elf. It had to be Leosin. Leosin didn't have much to say,
even though he was scared and it took some convincing before he
accepted Kerr's help. Trapped in the midst of the enemy camp with
only cliff walls around him, Kerr decided to climb out with Leosin on
his back.
The
party's approach:
The
three companions decided to walk into the camp, where they almost
immediately were stopped by some guards, crossing their halberds and
halting the party. They seemed to accept the characters lies and
started to lead them towards the larger, ornate tents in the back of
the camp, close to where Kerr was saving Leosin. Inside the tent,
Langdedrosa Cyanwrath himself sat upon a small throne. He quickly saw
though the ruse, laughed heartily at his good fortune and sent the
characters off to the prison tent. The cultists knocked out the party
and promptly dragged them away.
The
party awoke in a small tent a little while later with their feet tied
down with chains in a joint pole. Outside, they could hear some
guards talking and moving about. Victor tried to get their attention
and through a combination of mind magic, a wizard's hand and a
cooking pot, they secured the key to their locks, while the guard
happily informed the other guards that he had let the prisoners go.
Moving quickly, the PC:s slid underneath the canvas and found
themselves in the midst of the guard camp, with several dragonclaws
looking at them.
It
came to a fighting withdrawal, with Kerr suddenly popping out of
cover and giving ranged support from the cliff. The party started to
climb and surprisingly made it up the wall despite being shot at
several times.
With
Leosin secured, the party wasted no time returning to their little
cave. Looking over their shoulders, they saw the moonlight outlining
the silhouettes of their attackers as well as a large half-dragon,
now mad with the lust for revenge.
Thoughts:
I
didn't like the episode as it was written, so I tried to make
this outing more like a daring escape and a short, action-packed infiltration
story. I knew that Kerr was the only character able to carry this
out, so I encouraged all of his ideas to make some really cool moves.
He was happy with that, but the other characters felt that they
didn't contributed much. Next
time, however, there will be a dungeon crawl with something for everybody
inside!
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