Happy to have horses again, the PCs head North to Gallo’s Fend. They decide to head through the Pitchwood because Raziel has enough Ranger levels to lead the party through difficult forest terrain at regular speed, and in doing so lose the soldiers pursuing them. (I had not read far enough ahead in the mod at this point and didn’t realize the importance of the town in the Pitchwood later on.)
Once through the Pitchwood the PCs meet Commander Hertiage and some of his soldiers, who travel with the PCs up to Gallo. Along the way Hertiage and the soldiers provide some exposition, explaining that the King of Dassen seems to think Gallo is a traitor. They also explain how Gallo’s defenses against invasion from the North are arranged.
The PCs arrive at Gallo. They are impressed with its defensive nature but understand the danger caused by the river being frozen solid enough for an army to march over it. They are taken to meet Duke Michael Gallo. He is happy to meet capable people who don’t believe the King’s lies about him. The PCs are happy to meet someone who is both in charge and not evil or crazy. Gallo explains to the PCs how Coaltongue, for all his terribleness, was at least forthright and relatively honest. Lesia is duplicitous and needlessly cruel, so Gallo assumes any agreement to allow a Ragesian army through Dassen will be used to keep a Ragesian army in Dassen.
The PCs spend the night in Gallo gathering information and resting. The learn Glibglammer wasn’t always so crazy, and note to themselves that perhaps she is a similar creature to Deception or Indomitability.
The next day Gallo explains his situation. He asks the PCs to go north into the Alydi Gap and find evidence that the Ragesian are not abiding by the current agreement to stay out of Dassen and not plan to attack it. The PCs do as he asks. The ride quickly (on free horses provided by Gallo), hurrying to the point that Raziel’s bear companion Kiera falls behind.
They check in with each tower in the Gap until they get to the last one. They attempt to sneak up on it but are spotted by a soldier on its roof who is dressed in Gallo’s livery but clearly is not one of the Duke’s soldiers. The party rushes up the mountainside in hopes of silencing the soldier before he can raise the alarm. Dorjic sprints up the slope, leaps / climbs up the wall of the outpost, and grapples the soldier (with a bonus action), dragging him around while he face-tanks attacks from the other soldiers on the roof.
Tarak uses his monk speed to also get on the roof of the outpost. He runs up to the wyvern and stunning-fists it. More soldiers and the wyvern rider emerge out the doorway up to the roof but are caught in Romero’s Hypnotic Pattern.
The next round even more soldiers emerge, along the with an inquisitor to fight and their bodyguard (always two there are). The bodyguard rouses the wyvern rider, who uses his turn to mount the wyvern. The inquisitor starts shooting fire at the PCs before being grappled by Drojic, who then shrugs off her Command spell.
Eventually the Ragesians begin to gain the advantage, though, aided by some critical missed by the PCs. The rider gets the wyvern into the fight. It attacks Tarak with its tail, who takes a ton of damage. Romero had cast mirror image, but they all get taken down by soldier attacks. Romero ends up losing concentration and having to cast Invisibility so that he doesn’t die. The inquisitor’s second Command gets Drojic to Flee, which he does, all the way off the outpost roof. The wyvern attacks Raziel, dropping him with one hit. Raziel crit successes a death save and gets back up, only to be immediately dropped by a crit success attack.
The PCs manage to hold on long enough to drop enough of the enemies to get back into control of the fight. The wyvern rider is dropped, but the wyvern continues to follow his last order: to flee back to the Ragesian camp to the north. Drojic runs after it as it flies away, leaping off the roof to reach and grapple it. Once in the grapple it crashes to the ground. No longer at risk of the Ragesian army discovering that their jig is up, the party is victorious.
