I may as well jump in here as I have been emailing recaps to my players...the latest three sessions follow.
Party:
Elhorn: Half-elf diplomat turned unwilling sorcerer
Eddie: Halfling inquisitive in hock to the Lord's Alliance
Feyred: Half-elf Flaming Fist failure, who made a Hexblade's Pact to become a mighty warrior
Veitar: Hill Dwarf cleric of Helm (but Life domain)
Lana: Dual-wielding battlemistress archaeologist
Level four at start of this recap, they reach level five midway through the last session.
Before now, over about 10 sessions, the party went to Orolunga where they were told the appropximate location of Omu and advised to seek out the wise birdmen of Kir Sabal for a way to get there. Firstly however they needed to return to Port and thence to Firefinger to fulfil their deal with mysterious guide Azaka Stormfang.
The previous session had ended with an approaching random encounter on the Tiryki River, en route to Firefinger...
The damsels in distress at the riverside had set alarm bells ringing for Feyred, who urged the group to pass them by, with Eddie tossing them some rations. Feyred's instincts were proved correct when the women transformed into hideously ugly Sea Hags and set about trying to frighten the party to death. Despite their coven-enhanced powers, the hags failed to do too much harm to the party, with a lightning bolt damaging a couple of people and sleep and hold magics getting dispelled when the perpetrators were taken out. Finding no treasure of note in the Hag's chest, the party continued on up the river.
More torrential rain hampered their progress the next day, but they met some friendly aarakocra from their future destination - the monastery of Kir Sabal. The aarakocra had been keeping an eye on the pterafolk of Firefinger and had been caught up in the storm and lost one of their number, Nephyr. The party promised to look out for the missing aarakocra.
Next day they approached Firefinger, a 300 foot tall column of rock with a flaming beacon at the top. Azaka stayed at their campsite, guarding the supplies and canoe which they had ported overland. Her fear of heights was the main reason she had commissioned the party to recover her mask, which Eddie learned was a carved wooden tiger mask.
Waiting until nightfall, the five party members snuck across the open space between the jungle canopy and the rocky column. They ascended rickety ladders to the first level. The interior was deserted and a pit blocked their progress, so Feyred used magic to cross with a rope, and tried to support the weight of the others as they crossed. Sadly, the half elf was not the strongest, and dropped Elhorn into the pit where he was set upon by four giant wolf spiders! Only Veitar's healing kept him conscious, as several of the others scrambled into the pit to slay the spiders - Eddie pulling off an acrobatic diving attack that skewered one of the spiders in one.
Past the pit was a chimney within the rock, which they successfully ascended, roped together for insurance. They were now 150 feet up. They came across a body in the caves here, and were attacked by a flock of Stirges, which again seemed to single Elhorn out for punishment, attaching themselves all over him. However the wee beasties were soon dispatched by the combined efforts of the party, with Veitar channeling divinity to restore some health to Elhorn.
The next level was reached via a rickety ladder clinging to the outside of the rock again. Avoiding being blown off a ledge by a gust of wind, the party all ascended, although Elhorn damaged the ladder in doing so, rendering it more difficult for the descent...
Here the party came across a lit fire within the caves, where slumbered four elderly pterafolk. Led by Eddie and Feyred, the party snuck up on the pterafolk and attacked them in their sleep. Needless to say, this was a quick battle...
In an adjoining cave they found the captured aarakocra Nephyr. The group took a short rest to recuperate somewhat, preparing to ascend the next chimney up to the pinnacle, where, according to Nephyr (who, now freed, was about to fly back to his flockmates at Kir Sabal) at least eight Pterafolk roosted. No sign of Azaka's mask so far...
END OF SESSION ***
With the decision made for Eddie to scout out the situation atop the pinnacle, the halfling sadly slipped as he tried to climb up the internal chimney, requiring healing from Veitar after falling 30 feet and prompting a pterafolk to come over and have a look down. Feyred decided to shout abuse up the chimney, revealing for sure the party's presence, in order to provoke a response. Lana duly raced back to the ledge outside to intercept any incoming pterafolk. Sure enough they came to have a look, and Lana sent them packing with her longbow. With the pterafolk unable to descend the small chimney or readily gain entry via the ledge an impasse followed before Eddie hit on a cunning plan to hold the pterafolk tribal elders to ransom. Yes - the tribal elders the party had already butchered in their sleep. "Give us the mask or we throw the bound elders off the ledge!" was the long and short of it. The pterafolk leader demanded to see one of the elders, so they dragged one to the ledge, planning to use minor illusion, mage hand, and various other trickery to make the pterafolk seem...not dead.
By now Lana wanted nothing to do with this plan , sick of the group's tactics of sleep-butchery, showering foes with abuse, and dishonestly blackmailing them with the lives of their elders, she avoided the rest of the party whilst they went out to the ledge, preferring to try to climb the chimney alone - although she was beaten back by javelins from other pterafolk above.
Needless to say, back on the ledge the plan resulted in a somewhat sub-optimal outcome, as the pterafolk leader tried to speak to the dead elder and realised the true situation. The elder's body was duly flung from the ledge and the four party members rained magical and missile fury upon the leader, with Eddie's crossbow getting the killing blow - N'rak was dead! The remaining pterafolk retreated back to the summit, leaving the party to decide their next move. Eddie kept watch at the ledge, sending a few bolts off whenever the pterafolk keeping an eye on the entrance got too close. Back at the chimney, Elhorn suggested using a twinned Invisibility spell to make two of the party invisible so they could get up the chimney and launch a surprise attack. Veitar and Lana volunteered, and the final battle was duly joined. Veitar grappled a Pterafolk and again demanded the mask, but Lana wasted no time and just started hacking at the pterafolk with her scimitars. Blows rained upon Veitar but his heavy armour and shield paid off as numerous blows were deflected aside. With Veitar's quarry slain by Lana he switched to his warhammer as two, three then four pterafolk were slain as others tried to divebomb the intrepid adventurers from above. Roping themselves together, Feyred and Elhorn managed to get to the top at the second attempt - after suffering a minor setback which resulted in bruising. Magic Missiles and Eldritch Blasts peppered the circling pterafolk, slaying two more before the remaining two were driven off, and Eddie joined the group atop the pinnacle upon receiving a magical message from Elhorn to do so.
Within the tower where the leather-winged monstrosities had roosted were four chests - and one contained the wooden tiger mask! There were a couple of thousand copper coins, plus hundreds of silver which the group divvied up. The copper was mostly left, although Veitar insisted on hefting one of the chests of copper to the edge of the pinnacle and lobbing it off the top in disgust at the lack of gold. When Eddie suggested hurling the bodies of the slain pterafolk from the top of the pinnacle the dwarven cleric was only too happy to join in, a maniacal gleam in his eye. The other party members might have been forgiven for suspecting the dwarf was partaking of their tej supplies during the mission...
The same might have been true of Lana, as she tried to scale the tower to investigate the ten feet of magical flame that made up the beacon above. She suffered minor burns as she approached within ten feet, and gave up the folly, returning to her comrades having established that the fire was certainly, positively, quite hot.
Their followed a fraught descent back to the ground. More than once, people slipped and had they not been roped together, would have fallen. Veitar was left dangling hundreds of feet in the air at one point before being hauled back up. Feyred was forced to teleport himself onto a ledge when he, too, slipped and started to plummet groundwards. It was fortunate he had not expended all of his magical resources at the time!
Returning to Azaka, the group fulfilled their bargain with her and handed over the mask (bonus XPs awarded...) Veitar instigated a Prayer of Healing and returned the party to full strength. After an almost uneventful morning's rest - broken only by an incident with a giant constrictor snake that nearly crushed Eddie to death before being slain - Azaka bade them farewell. They were on their own!
Torrential rain lashed down and prevented any travel that day. Around dusk, some strange plant-like pygmy people were spotted, riding miniature mounts. Eddie moved to spy on them. The odd creatures were scavenging the bodies of the dead pterafolk around the foot of the tower. The halfling retreated and left them to it, and they moved off after a while.
After an uneventful night the group were on their way. They estimated it would take probably ten days to reach Kir Sabal. After some debate about the best route, it was decided to strike out through the jungle south-south easterly, porting their canoe, and attempt to pick up the river once the deep gorge that made up the first section of the river passage had given way to an easier incline for them to descend, as the map (and Azaka) led them to believe. The first day's travel through the jungle was uneventful.
As we left off, it is morning of the 25th Kythorn, 55 days since the group first met Syndra Silvane and were given their mission. Deep in the jungle, in known undead territory, the group prepare to continue the trek to Kir Sabal, all too aware of the need for speed given the rapidity of their benefactor's declining health.
END OF SESSION ***
25 Kythorn (Day 55) : Striking out into the jungle the party decided to continue southeast through undead-infested jungle towards the gorge of the Olung River, where they might have a look at the bridge indicated on the map there, or trace the path of the river southwards until a suitable point to descend and use their boat could be found. In the meantime, Veitar and Feyred acted as navigators, with Eddie scouting and Lana and a somewhat miffed Elhorn being delegated canoe-portage duties.
Late in the afternoon Eddie called a halt as they spied what looked - bizarrely - like the wreckage of some sort of vessel up in the trees. It transpired that a Halruaan skyship named the 'Star Goddess' had crashed some days ago after an encounter with a flock of pterafolk from Firefinger, who slashed the balloon. The surviving crew were close to starvation, unable to descend due to scavenging ghouls patrolling the area beneath the crash site. The ship and its balloon were damaged beyond repair.
Before learning all this however, the party had to contend with the eight ghouls foraging around the base of the trees upon which the wreck was stranded. Veitar strode forward and Lana sent an arrow flying into one of the ghouls, provoking an attack which was intended to allow Veitar to showcase his 'Turn Undead' channel divinity option. Sadly of the five ghouls that came into range, only two were turned. Another two tore into Lana, inflicting considerable damage, and it became apparent a further couple of ghouls were closing in from the other side of the wreck area. It turned out the battle was easily won however, with Eddie and Feyred peppering the ghouls with arrows and eldritch blasts respectively as Veitar and Lana engaged others in melee and Elhorn sent in some magic missiles and fire bolts. Several ghouls fled and the rest were slain.
The party climbed up to meet the crew of the Star Goddess, led by a Halruaan noblewoman named Thasselandra. All except Elhorn, who despite the help of rope was left stranded down below, unable to demonstrate the required athleticism to climb the fifty feet to the lowest portion of wreckage. The groups had only conversed for a few minutes when yet more peril presented itself in the form of a trio of rampaging zombie girallons making directly for them, two swinging through the trees whilst a third forced Elhorn to become invisible as it sped along through the undergrowth to climb up and join the assault.
Three of the six crew members were slain in the ensuing battle, and Veitar took some damage, but the party eventually fought off the four-armed monstrous undead. They finally got Elhorn up to the wreckage and recovered some of the expedition's scattered supplies, enough to allow the three survivors the possibility to recuperate. Lana promised to send birdmen to aid them from Kir Sabal, since the survivors could barely walk and would slow down the group should they try to accompany them.
The next day the group continued on to the bridge, of ancient Chultan construction, which had a partial collapse at the far end and a shrine in the form of a giant stone Chultan warrior crouched in the middle. A cacophony of monkey cries echoed up and down the gorge, sounding like hideous, insane laughter. Investigating the bridge, Eddie spied something glittering in the eyes of the stone statue, but when he tried to climb up and extract the gems he found that the 'statue' was in fact a stone golem, decidedly annoyed at having someone attempt to gouge out its eyes. The rest of the party had hung back and quickly fled, and it was only Eddie's quick thinking that saved his life - hurling down his bag of ballbearings to scatter across the bridge. The stone golem was sent crashing to the deck not once, not twice, but three times every time it tried to stand up - allowing Eddie ample time to rejoin his companions. The construct did not pursue them off the bridge - fortunately.
With Eddie breathing a sigh of relief, the party instead followed the west bank of the ravine, heading south until they reached a point a day or two later where they might descend to the river. En route, they stealthily avoided an encounter with the king of the dinosaurs - a tyrannosaurus rex, engaged as it was in mortal combat with a soon-to-be-ex stegosaurus. However, once on the river the group set a fast pace - and promptly spent a couple of days going round in circles and getting lost before being surprised by a giant crocodile, which smashed their boat to smithereens, nearly eating Lana, and leaving the group sodden and marooned alongside an unknown tributary of the river, with no idea where they were!
And so we left it there, late in the day on the 1st Flamerule (Day 61)
