Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Erkonin (Campaign #2) [Session 45: Rajalmin's Agent]
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="prabe" data-source="post: 8062044" data-attributes="member: 7016699"><p><span style="font-size: 15px"> Session 5: We Found The Machine</span></p><p></p><p>Dramatis Personae:</p><p></p><p>Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)</p><p>Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)</p><p>Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)</p><p>Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)</p><p>Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)</p><p>Mia - Firbolg Druid (Circle of the Land (Forest))</p><p></p><p>GM: - Everyone Else</p><p></p><p></p><p>Before we woke up the next morning -- in the wee hours of darkness -- Aldalómiel went out into the woods outside of town and used her newly developed ranger senses to try and detect any Githyanki or Dragonborn within five miles. All she detected was the shopkeeper, Tessixylin, who we already knew about.</p><p></p><p></p><p>11 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 12)</p><p></p><p>We woke up the next morning with everyone feeling stronger and Mia having recovered from whatever had laid her low. Marxine was feeling like she might have had it coming on (her player was stuck in traffic) so we let her ride in the cart while someone else drove.</p><p></p><p>The sky was cloudy and grey and rain was foreboding.</p><p></p><p>Mia: Might rain. The plants will like it.</p><p>Lamie: It only becomes cool rain when it starts to thunder.</p><p></p><p>We headed out along the way, watching carefully for any sign that something had been dropped off the side of the road or been shoved into the underbrush. Vinya was looking for the trader flags from the wagon we’d “inherited” from the crazy cultists. And any sign of their trade goods.</p><p></p><p>About halfway through the day we encountered a small caravan traveling from Tash. They were flying trade flags from a trade company Marxine was vaguely familiar with. There were a mix of humans and dwarves traveling together.</p><p></p><p>Lamie: Hail. Have you seen any weirdness going on up the road?</p><p>Traders: You’re the first people going toward Tash we’ve seen. Other than the light traffic, there was nothing unusual.</p><p>Mia: If you see any people speaking gibberish, run away fast…</p><p>Trader: Solid advice.</p><p>Mia: Have a safe journey. It might rain.</p><p></p><p>We wished them well and continued on our way, continuing to look for anything weird or out of place along the road. We saw nothing and the rest of the day passed without incident.</p><p></p><p>As we began to look for a place to camp, Marxine was feeling better and she helped us pick a good location about 65’ off the road.</p><p></p><p>Not too deep into first watch, Marxine was woolgathering and Lamie was staring at the stars, but Vinya spotted three wolf-sized spiders coming out of the trees toward the camp. These spiders are usually ambush predators, but they failed their ambush.</p><p></p><p>Vinya jumped over the sleeping Elderon and attacked the one approaching him. Then yelled for people to wake up. Lamie cast spiritual weapon and attacked the one that was threatening Comrade and White Horse. She cast sacred flame on another. Then she ran up to the one she’d flamed.</p><p></p><p>Lamie, as she ran: Must conquer fear!</p><p></p><p>Lamie then got bitten by the spider she’d run up to, and lightning crackled out of the wound and around the spider, but it didn’t die.</p><p></p><p>Elderon then woke up, sat up and cast Magic Missile -- sending darts to Lamie’s spider and to Vinya’s.</p><p></p><p>Elderon, firing off the magic missiles: No, NO, NO!</p><p></p><p>The one on Lamie exploded into spider bits.</p><p></p><p>Aldalómiel woke up and took a shot with her sling. Mia woke up and took a shot with her crossbow. Marxine then hit hers hard, cutting it into three pieces with her axe. Vinya crushed hers with her quarterstaff, then moved to attack the one threatening Comrade, but wasn’t able to kick it. Fortunately, Lamie stepped in and killed it -- protecting the horses and vanquishing the last of the spiders.</p><p></p><p>Vinya, looking around: I think you can all go back to sleep now.</p><p></p><p>We went back to our night’s rest.</p><p></p><p>Toward the end of third watch, before any of us had finished our long rest, Vinya, Elderon, Mia, and Aldalómiel were on watch. Vinya and Mia were talking about the forest and the ecosystem, nattering away, but despite that everyone noticed three ogres blundering toward us from the direction of the road.</p><p></p><p>Mia cast a Moonbeam spell right on top of one of them, then moved behind a bush for cover.</p><p></p><p>Mia: Wake up!</p><p></p><p>Elama woke up when Mia yelled.</p><p></p><p>Lamie: Huh? Oh. Really.</p><p></p><p>She got up and cast sacred flame on one.</p><p></p><p>Marxine also woke up at Mia’s call. She got out of her bed-roll and moved as close to them as she could, then yelled and brandished her axe, trying to get their attention.</p><p></p><p>Aldalómiel took a shot at one that had been hit already and the arrow pierced deep into his chest with the extra-damage boost she got from her new colossus slayer ability.</p><p></p><p>Vinya moved as close to them as she could manage and then moved into a defensive position and began to dodge. Elderon fired off a volley of magic missiles into the one that had been most hit.</p><p></p><p>The combat got better when Lamie cast Bane on all of them. The minor curse then caused them to fail saves and miss characters with their big clubs. Everyone was taking their shots and Vinya was doing that and taking advantage of the fact that she could attack and go into her patient defense and dodge their incoming blows.</p><p></p><p>Two of them were attacking Vinya and one Marxine. Elderon moved around to get a clear shot to cast Aganazzar’s Scorcher and a beam of fire shot from his outstretched hand, hitting both of the ones on Vinya.</p><p></p><p>One of those then promptly turned to attack Elderon, but the club bounced off of Elderon’s shield spell.</p><p></p><p>Lamie cast a shatter spell behind the same two Elderon had scorched and called down the power of the tempest into her spell, which crashed with a mighty roll of thunder. They were badly shaken up by that, though one more than the other.</p><p></p><p>Aldalómiel took a shot with her longbow and hit the one that was threatening Elderon and hit well. Vinya then followed up with her quarterstaff and dropped that one. Elderon then took the opportunity to move further away from the front line and cast magic missile, sending two darts to one and one to the other. The one that got two darts was killed by the force of them impacting its chest. The other one was still standing there, barely, but before it could do anything, the light from Mia’s moonbeam was enough to crumple it to the ground.</p><p></p><p>We checked in the pre-dawn gloom and it was clear that the ogres hadn’t been traveling along the road -- they were traveling through the forest and just crossed the road in our direction. We’ve seen ogres out in this forest before, so they might be at least somewhat common, or not-uncommon in these parts.</p><p></p><p>We finished our long rest.</p><p></p><p></p><p>12 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 13)</p><p></p><p>The day dawned grey and rainy, the clouds hanging low and oppressive and a cold drizzle soaking through our clothes. Most of us rode in the covered cart, except Aldalómiel who walked as she usually does. Aldalómiel and Vinya (from inside the cart) continued to keep an eye out for anything weird or out of place along the roadsides.</p><p></p><p>It was a quiet day traveling over increasingly hilly terrain. Close to dusk, we rode over a rise and looked down into a valley between a couple hills. We saw a circle of wagons with a tent in the middle of it. The tent was big enough to park a wagon under, but only just barely. There were six wagons circled around it, some in the road, some off the side of the road. The wagons circled around had flags -- most from Tash, but Auriqua and Embernook were also represented.</p><p></p><p>We realized when we saw them that he hadn’t seen a single wagon going toward the Knot (or heading toward Tash) all day.</p><p></p><p>Elderon sent Oda flying out to take a look and see what he could see. The horses were still hitched to the circling wagons, but there was no sign of horses associated with the tent. He also saw a bunch of people standing around outside the tent. This was all right around the road, so either the wagons we’ve encountered just went around it and ignored it (and then didn’t report to us that they’d seen anything weird) or it wasn’t there when they went by. But with six carts around it -- that’s more traffic than we’ve seen this whole trip.</p><p></p><p>Mia turned into a cute little brown pine marten and she and Aldalómiel went to scout around the scene. Neither of them hid very well, but fortunately Mia was a cute little woodland creature so anyone who saw her would just see that. Aldalómiel was saved by the fact that no one in the group of people around the tent was paying much attention to anything out in the forest.</p><p></p><p>They saw that there were twenty or so humans and dwarves standing around looking stunned, like the people in the village that were being preached to. The crowd included some of the tentacle arm cultists. Under the tent was a wagon with a thing on it -- like a mechanical thing big enough for a humanoid to go into. Near the machine was a person preaching in gibberish, the Speaker for the Machine.</p><p></p><p>As they watched, the Speaker gestured for a one of the stunned looking people to go into the machine. The screaming could be heard by the rest of the party, aways off on the hill. When the person came out of the other end of the machine he had a spark of clarity in his eyes and a tentacle for an arm.</p><p></p><p>Mia, in weasel: Holy naughty word!</p><p>Aldalómiel, who can understand woodland beasts: I think we found The Machine.</p><p></p><p>They got back to the party and told us what they had seen.</p><p></p><p>We decided to split into two groups -- Team Stealth (Vinya, Aldalómiel and Elderron) would be going around in the woods to the side, getting into a position to the side of the first rank of wagons (from the direction we were heading). Team Cart (Lamie, Marxine, and Mia) would have Lamie and Marxine riding on the cart, with Mia, in the form of a spirited warhorse, looking like she was on a lead line attached to the back of the cart.</p><p></p><p>Team Cart continued along the road, prepared to interact with the people if that was appropriate. If not, prepared to move like they were going around the assembly, if they would be allowed to do that. As they approached on the road, one of the dwarves stepped away from the assembly to intercept them in the road. He looked much like the dwarf preachers we’d fought at Tashimeet in the Knot.</p><p></p><p>Lamie: Good evening.</p><p>Preacher: Hello.</p><p>Lamie: What’s going on here? I see a bunch of carts and about fifty bazillion people.</p><p>Preacher: You’re welcome to join us.</p><p>Lamie: Sure….?</p><p></p><p>The preacher moved to give the cart a clear path forward. Marxine, taking this as a cue, smacked the reins on the horses backs and tried to run him over with the cart. Unfortunately she missed with her attempt to trample. Mia-warhorse charged a cultist and missed. Elama gave the signal to Team Stealth and the battle was on!</p><p></p><p>Aldalómiel shot the Speaker (the Boss) with a designating arrow for a pretty decent amount of damage and he was now under a faerie fire spell for the rest of the combat.</p><p></p><p>Vinya moved to get between Elderron and the cultist nearest him -- missing with her quarterstaff, of course, but dropping him with a well-placed kick. Then she moved to cover Elderron against anything incoming.</p><p></p><p>Elama jumped off of our cart and cast spiritual weapon on the tentacle arm nearest to the Speaker of the Machine (she didn’t quite have the range to attack the Speaker himself), then she attacked the dwarf preacher that had come to talk to the cart with her sword.</p><p></p><p>There was a lot of mostly ineffectual flailing by the cultists -- who moved around, took wild swings at people, and Did Things without much effect.</p><p></p><p>The Speaker for the Machine had much more effect when he fired off two black bolts from his hand. One of them was aimed at Aldalómiel, the other was fired so wildly that we weren’t able really to guess a target. Then he moved back behind the tent for cover.</p><p></p><p>Elderon cast a web spell on an area between Team Stealth and the Speaker of the Machine. The webs thwipped out over an area that had a cultist, a grue, and a tentacle arm but we didn’t know if any of them had been fully restrained yet.</p><p></p><p>Mia the warhorse stomped on a nearby cultist hitting it twice and killing it with her hooves in an unpleasant crunch.</p><p></p><p>Then we went back into a period of flailing by the tentacle arms and the grues - the highlight of which was a tentacle arm attacking the spiritual weapon (to no avail). One of the grues did hit White Horse, earning our ire. One of them was stuck in Elderon’s web.</p><p></p><p>Marxine jumped off the cart onto Comrade’s back, using her axe to cut the harness hitching him to the wagon, then she rode over to where Vinya was facing a lot of opposition (many cultists, tentacle arms and a grue had all gone in her direction).</p><p></p><p>Vinya, when she pulled Comrade up just a few feet away: You and me, together again!</p><p></p><p>One of the dwarf preachers got Vinya and Elderron in a bane spell, but it only lasted for a couple of seconds before Aldalómiel cast Zephyr Strike and shot him, dropping him with one arrow. Then she moved around to where she’d be able to get a clear shot on the Speaker the next round.</p><p></p><p>Vinya continued her pattern of missing with the quarterstaff but landing kicks on things, hitting the grue that was making things gibbery and distracting in her vicinity.</p><p></p><p>The cultist that was next to Mia-warhorse was freaking out, because it just watched this beautiful horse in front of it crush the skull of one of its associates, and missed her utterly. Only one of the two on Vinya hit. A third came to join that party and missed because of the distracting grue. Which caused Vinya and Marxine to reconsider targeting those.</p><p></p><p>A cultist got past Vinya and Marxine to attack Elderron but it missed. The cultist in the web broke itself free and climbed over one of the carts to attack Aldalómiel, but it missed. The Speaker fired off two black blasts at Aldalómiel then took cover behind one of the carts.</p><p></p><p>Elderron cast a sleep spell, trying to do as much as he could to thin the herd building up around Vinya and himself. He got two of them, which was a big help.</p><p></p><p>There was a lot of swinging and missing (on us) and swinging and hitting (on them) and moving around the battlefield to get to new opponents or line up opportunities.</p><p></p><p>A grue attacked Comrade and then stayed bitten onto the horse’s flank. Marxine attacked that grue to knock it off her horse, and hit it hard with her axe. The gibbering took on a rather shriekish aspect.</p><p></p><p>Aldalómiel stayed focused on Speaker -- keeping herself in position to shoot at him and peppering him with arrows whenever she got the chance. Lamie backed her up bashing at him with the spiritual weapon (a floating cloud that shoots out bolts of radiant lightning). Unfortunately, the Speaker was aware of where the damage was coming from (and smarter than the tentacle guy who attacked the spiritual weapon) and he kept firing eldritch blasts at Aldalómiel, which, along with a tentacle guy who was supporting the Speaker, ultimately dropped her.</p><p></p><p>Elderron was unable to get free of the cultists (who’d mobbed Vinya and Marxine with Elderron very nearby) and pulled his short sword to make an attack.</p><p></p><p>Mia-warhorse was incredibly effective at charging and attacking cultists and preachers over on that side of the combat (which was her and Lamie). She dropped several of them with her hooves, galloping way from counter attacks to set herself up for another charge.</p><p></p><p>The cultists and tentacle guys around Vinya and Marxine kept missing because of the grues, so (aside from the one on Comrade) we stopped targeting them. They were helping us more than they were hurting us. Ultimately, they started getting the upper hand, so Vinya was able to move to where she could help Elderon more.</p><p></p><p>Once again the Speaker fired off eldritch blasts. One of them narrowly missed Lamie. The other blasted apart one of the forest trees.</p><p></p><p>Elderon cast sleep again, putting two of the cultists that he and Vinya were dealing with to sleep.</p><p></p><p>The combat was huge and chaotic -- the grues got in some good bites, mostly on Marxine. One of them bit her and the gibbering went to her head and she was a bit muddled for a while (attacks against her were going to be at advantage, which would just cancel out the disadvantage from the gibbering grues). Mia got sacred flamed by one of the preachers.</p><p></p><p>Lamie was able to disengage from her opponents and jump over a cart so she could heal Aldalómiel. The cultist she’d been fighting with followed her, but was unable to attack.</p><p></p><p>The Speaker continued to focus his blasts on Mia, who was doing so much damage to his minions. But he missed. Mia immediately justified his focus by charging one of the preachers and dropping him, then turning and kicking one of the tentacle guys.</p><p></p><p>Aldalómiel, healed, stood up and moved so she could get a clear shot at the Speaker for the Machine -- her arrow pierced his side and he dropped, as she was moving back into cover.</p><p></p><p>After that there was a lot more combat dealing with the remaining cultists, grues and tentacle guys. Marxine dropped a tentacle guy and finally had herself free of everyone having flanking against her. Vinya dropped a tentacle guy and then punched Marxine’s grue. Elderon moved to position himself for an Aganazzar’s scorcher on the group on one side of Marxine and dropped a grue and a cultist.</p><p></p><p>Aldalómiel, her main target (the Speaker) dropped, took a shot at the tentacle guy on Marxine. Vinya went to help in the fight against that guy, moving around the scrum to stay out of Aldalómiel’s line of fire. Mia kicked her tentacle guy in the throat, dropping him.</p><p></p><p>Vinya shoved a stunned civilian out of her way and moved into a position to flank the last cultist not sleeping from one of Elderon’s spells. She dropped it with an unarmed strike. Elderron dropped the last tentacle guy with a firebolt.</p><p></p><p>After dispatching the sleepers, Lamie cured Aldalómiel.</p><p></p><p>As we looked around the stunned civilians were emerging from their daze, blinking slowly and looking around.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="prabe, post: 8062044, member: 7016699"] [SIZE=4] Session 5: We Found The Machine[/SIZE] Dramatis Personae: Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave) Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest) Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul) Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster) Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion) Mia - Firbolg Druid (Circle of the Land (Forest)) GM: - Everyone Else Before we woke up the next morning -- in the wee hours of darkness -- Aldalómiel went out into the woods outside of town and used her newly developed ranger senses to try and detect any Githyanki or Dragonborn within five miles. All she detected was the shopkeeper, Tessixylin, who we already knew about. 11 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 12) We woke up the next morning with everyone feeling stronger and Mia having recovered from whatever had laid her low. Marxine was feeling like she might have had it coming on (her player was stuck in traffic) so we let her ride in the cart while someone else drove. The sky was cloudy and grey and rain was foreboding. Mia: Might rain. The plants will like it. Lamie: It only becomes cool rain when it starts to thunder. We headed out along the way, watching carefully for any sign that something had been dropped off the side of the road or been shoved into the underbrush. Vinya was looking for the trader flags from the wagon we’d “inherited” from the crazy cultists. And any sign of their trade goods. About halfway through the day we encountered a small caravan traveling from Tash. They were flying trade flags from a trade company Marxine was vaguely familiar with. There were a mix of humans and dwarves traveling together. Lamie: Hail. Have you seen any weirdness going on up the road? Traders: You’re the first people going toward Tash we’ve seen. Other than the light traffic, there was nothing unusual. Mia: If you see any people speaking gibberish, run away fast… Trader: Solid advice. Mia: Have a safe journey. It might rain. We wished them well and continued on our way, continuing to look for anything weird or out of place along the road. We saw nothing and the rest of the day passed without incident. As we began to look for a place to camp, Marxine was feeling better and she helped us pick a good location about 65’ off the road. Not too deep into first watch, Marxine was woolgathering and Lamie was staring at the stars, but Vinya spotted three wolf-sized spiders coming out of the trees toward the camp. These spiders are usually ambush predators, but they failed their ambush. Vinya jumped over the sleeping Elderon and attacked the one approaching him. Then yelled for people to wake up. Lamie cast spiritual weapon and attacked the one that was threatening Comrade and White Horse. She cast sacred flame on another. Then she ran up to the one she’d flamed. Lamie, as she ran: Must conquer fear! Lamie then got bitten by the spider she’d run up to, and lightning crackled out of the wound and around the spider, but it didn’t die. Elderon then woke up, sat up and cast Magic Missile -- sending darts to Lamie’s spider and to Vinya’s. Elderon, firing off the magic missiles: No, NO, NO! The one on Lamie exploded into spider bits. Aldalómiel woke up and took a shot with her sling. Mia woke up and took a shot with her crossbow. Marxine then hit hers hard, cutting it into three pieces with her axe. Vinya crushed hers with her quarterstaff, then moved to attack the one threatening Comrade, but wasn’t able to kick it. Fortunately, Lamie stepped in and killed it -- protecting the horses and vanquishing the last of the spiders. Vinya, looking around: I think you can all go back to sleep now. We went back to our night’s rest. Toward the end of third watch, before any of us had finished our long rest, Vinya, Elderon, Mia, and Aldalómiel were on watch. Vinya and Mia were talking about the forest and the ecosystem, nattering away, but despite that everyone noticed three ogres blundering toward us from the direction of the road. Mia cast a Moonbeam spell right on top of one of them, then moved behind a bush for cover. Mia: Wake up! Elama woke up when Mia yelled. Lamie: Huh? Oh. Really. She got up and cast sacred flame on one. Marxine also woke up at Mia’s call. She got out of her bed-roll and moved as close to them as she could, then yelled and brandished her axe, trying to get their attention. Aldalómiel took a shot at one that had been hit already and the arrow pierced deep into his chest with the extra-damage boost she got from her new colossus slayer ability. Vinya moved as close to them as she could manage and then moved into a defensive position and began to dodge. Elderon fired off a volley of magic missiles into the one that had been most hit. The combat got better when Lamie cast Bane on all of them. The minor curse then caused them to fail saves and miss characters with their big clubs. Everyone was taking their shots and Vinya was doing that and taking advantage of the fact that she could attack and go into her patient defense and dodge their incoming blows. Two of them were attacking Vinya and one Marxine. Elderon moved around to get a clear shot to cast Aganazzar’s Scorcher and a beam of fire shot from his outstretched hand, hitting both of the ones on Vinya. One of those then promptly turned to attack Elderon, but the club bounced off of Elderon’s shield spell. Lamie cast a shatter spell behind the same two Elderon had scorched and called down the power of the tempest into her spell, which crashed with a mighty roll of thunder. They were badly shaken up by that, though one more than the other. Aldalómiel took a shot with her longbow and hit the one that was threatening Elderon and hit well. Vinya then followed up with her quarterstaff and dropped that one. Elderon then took the opportunity to move further away from the front line and cast magic missile, sending two darts to one and one to the other. The one that got two darts was killed by the force of them impacting its chest. The other one was still standing there, barely, but before it could do anything, the light from Mia’s moonbeam was enough to crumple it to the ground. We checked in the pre-dawn gloom and it was clear that the ogres hadn’t been traveling along the road -- they were traveling through the forest and just crossed the road in our direction. We’ve seen ogres out in this forest before, so they might be at least somewhat common, or not-uncommon in these parts. We finished our long rest. 12 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 13) The day dawned grey and rainy, the clouds hanging low and oppressive and a cold drizzle soaking through our clothes. Most of us rode in the covered cart, except Aldalómiel who walked as she usually does. Aldalómiel and Vinya (from inside the cart) continued to keep an eye out for anything weird or out of place along the roadsides. It was a quiet day traveling over increasingly hilly terrain. Close to dusk, we rode over a rise and looked down into a valley between a couple hills. We saw a circle of wagons with a tent in the middle of it. The tent was big enough to park a wagon under, but only just barely. There were six wagons circled around it, some in the road, some off the side of the road. The wagons circled around had flags -- most from Tash, but Auriqua and Embernook were also represented. We realized when we saw them that he hadn’t seen a single wagon going toward the Knot (or heading toward Tash) all day. Elderon sent Oda flying out to take a look and see what he could see. The horses were still hitched to the circling wagons, but there was no sign of horses associated with the tent. He also saw a bunch of people standing around outside the tent. This was all right around the road, so either the wagons we’ve encountered just went around it and ignored it (and then didn’t report to us that they’d seen anything weird) or it wasn’t there when they went by. But with six carts around it -- that’s more traffic than we’ve seen this whole trip. Mia turned into a cute little brown pine marten and she and Aldalómiel went to scout around the scene. Neither of them hid very well, but fortunately Mia was a cute little woodland creature so anyone who saw her would just see that. Aldalómiel was saved by the fact that no one in the group of people around the tent was paying much attention to anything out in the forest. They saw that there were twenty or so humans and dwarves standing around looking stunned, like the people in the village that were being preached to. The crowd included some of the tentacle arm cultists. Under the tent was a wagon with a thing on it -- like a mechanical thing big enough for a humanoid to go into. Near the machine was a person preaching in gibberish, the Speaker for the Machine. As they watched, the Speaker gestured for a one of the stunned looking people to go into the machine. The screaming could be heard by the rest of the party, aways off on the hill. When the person came out of the other end of the machine he had a spark of clarity in his eyes and a tentacle for an arm. Mia, in weasel: Holy naughty word! Aldalómiel, who can understand woodland beasts: I think we found The Machine. They got back to the party and told us what they had seen. We decided to split into two groups -- Team Stealth (Vinya, Aldalómiel and Elderron) would be going around in the woods to the side, getting into a position to the side of the first rank of wagons (from the direction we were heading). Team Cart (Lamie, Marxine, and Mia) would have Lamie and Marxine riding on the cart, with Mia, in the form of a spirited warhorse, looking like she was on a lead line attached to the back of the cart. Team Cart continued along the road, prepared to interact with the people if that was appropriate. If not, prepared to move like they were going around the assembly, if they would be allowed to do that. As they approached on the road, one of the dwarves stepped away from the assembly to intercept them in the road. He looked much like the dwarf preachers we’d fought at Tashimeet in the Knot. Lamie: Good evening. Preacher: Hello. Lamie: What’s going on here? I see a bunch of carts and about fifty bazillion people. Preacher: You’re welcome to join us. Lamie: Sure….? The preacher moved to give the cart a clear path forward. Marxine, taking this as a cue, smacked the reins on the horses backs and tried to run him over with the cart. Unfortunately she missed with her attempt to trample. Mia-warhorse charged a cultist and missed. Elama gave the signal to Team Stealth and the battle was on! Aldalómiel shot the Speaker (the Boss) with a designating arrow for a pretty decent amount of damage and he was now under a faerie fire spell for the rest of the combat. Vinya moved to get between Elderron and the cultist nearest him -- missing with her quarterstaff, of course, but dropping him with a well-placed kick. Then she moved to cover Elderron against anything incoming. Elama jumped off of our cart and cast spiritual weapon on the tentacle arm nearest to the Speaker of the Machine (she didn’t quite have the range to attack the Speaker himself), then she attacked the dwarf preacher that had come to talk to the cart with her sword. There was a lot of mostly ineffectual flailing by the cultists -- who moved around, took wild swings at people, and Did Things without much effect. The Speaker for the Machine had much more effect when he fired off two black bolts from his hand. One of them was aimed at Aldalómiel, the other was fired so wildly that we weren’t able really to guess a target. Then he moved back behind the tent for cover. Elderon cast a web spell on an area between Team Stealth and the Speaker of the Machine. The webs thwipped out over an area that had a cultist, a grue, and a tentacle arm but we didn’t know if any of them had been fully restrained yet. Mia the warhorse stomped on a nearby cultist hitting it twice and killing it with her hooves in an unpleasant crunch. Then we went back into a period of flailing by the tentacle arms and the grues - the highlight of which was a tentacle arm attacking the spiritual weapon (to no avail). One of the grues did hit White Horse, earning our ire. One of them was stuck in Elderon’s web. Marxine jumped off the cart onto Comrade’s back, using her axe to cut the harness hitching him to the wagon, then she rode over to where Vinya was facing a lot of opposition (many cultists, tentacle arms and a grue had all gone in her direction). Vinya, when she pulled Comrade up just a few feet away: You and me, together again! One of the dwarf preachers got Vinya and Elderron in a bane spell, but it only lasted for a couple of seconds before Aldalómiel cast Zephyr Strike and shot him, dropping him with one arrow. Then she moved around to where she’d be able to get a clear shot on the Speaker the next round. Vinya continued her pattern of missing with the quarterstaff but landing kicks on things, hitting the grue that was making things gibbery and distracting in her vicinity. The cultist that was next to Mia-warhorse was freaking out, because it just watched this beautiful horse in front of it crush the skull of one of its associates, and missed her utterly. Only one of the two on Vinya hit. A third came to join that party and missed because of the distracting grue. Which caused Vinya and Marxine to reconsider targeting those. A cultist got past Vinya and Marxine to attack Elderron but it missed. The cultist in the web broke itself free and climbed over one of the carts to attack Aldalómiel, but it missed. The Speaker fired off two black blasts at Aldalómiel then took cover behind one of the carts. Elderron cast a sleep spell, trying to do as much as he could to thin the herd building up around Vinya and himself. He got two of them, which was a big help. There was a lot of swinging and missing (on us) and swinging and hitting (on them) and moving around the battlefield to get to new opponents or line up opportunities. A grue attacked Comrade and then stayed bitten onto the horse’s flank. Marxine attacked that grue to knock it off her horse, and hit it hard with her axe. The gibbering took on a rather shriekish aspect. Aldalómiel stayed focused on Speaker -- keeping herself in position to shoot at him and peppering him with arrows whenever she got the chance. Lamie backed her up bashing at him with the spiritual weapon (a floating cloud that shoots out bolts of radiant lightning). Unfortunately, the Speaker was aware of where the damage was coming from (and smarter than the tentacle guy who attacked the spiritual weapon) and he kept firing eldritch blasts at Aldalómiel, which, along with a tentacle guy who was supporting the Speaker, ultimately dropped her. Elderron was unable to get free of the cultists (who’d mobbed Vinya and Marxine with Elderron very nearby) and pulled his short sword to make an attack. Mia-warhorse was incredibly effective at charging and attacking cultists and preachers over on that side of the combat (which was her and Lamie). She dropped several of them with her hooves, galloping way from counter attacks to set herself up for another charge. The cultists and tentacle guys around Vinya and Marxine kept missing because of the grues, so (aside from the one on Comrade) we stopped targeting them. They were helping us more than they were hurting us. Ultimately, they started getting the upper hand, so Vinya was able to move to where she could help Elderon more. Once again the Speaker fired off eldritch blasts. One of them narrowly missed Lamie. The other blasted apart one of the forest trees. Elderon cast sleep again, putting two of the cultists that he and Vinya were dealing with to sleep. The combat was huge and chaotic -- the grues got in some good bites, mostly on Marxine. One of them bit her and the gibbering went to her head and she was a bit muddled for a while (attacks against her were going to be at advantage, which would just cancel out the disadvantage from the gibbering grues). Mia got sacred flamed by one of the preachers. Lamie was able to disengage from her opponents and jump over a cart so she could heal Aldalómiel. The cultist she’d been fighting with followed her, but was unable to attack. The Speaker continued to focus his blasts on Mia, who was doing so much damage to his minions. But he missed. Mia immediately justified his focus by charging one of the preachers and dropping him, then turning and kicking one of the tentacle guys. Aldalómiel, healed, stood up and moved so she could get a clear shot at the Speaker for the Machine -- her arrow pierced his side and he dropped, as she was moving back into cover. After that there was a lot more combat dealing with the remaining cultists, grues and tentacle guys. Marxine dropped a tentacle guy and finally had herself free of everyone having flanking against her. Vinya dropped a tentacle guy and then punched Marxine’s grue. Elderon moved to position himself for an Aganazzar’s scorcher on the group on one side of Marxine and dropped a grue and a cultist. Aldalómiel, her main target (the Speaker) dropped, took a shot at the tentacle guy on Marxine. Vinya went to help in the fight against that guy, moving around the scrum to stay out of Aldalómiel’s line of fire. Mia kicked her tentacle guy in the throat, dropping him. Vinya shoved a stunned civilian out of her way and moved into a position to flank the last cultist not sleeping from one of Elderon’s spells. She dropped it with an unarmed strike. Elderron dropped the last tentacle guy with a firebolt. After dispatching the sleepers, Lamie cured Aldalómiel. As we looked around the stunned civilians were emerging from their daze, blinking slowly and looking around. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Erkonin (Campaign #2) [Session 45: Rajalmin's Agent]
Top