Session 7: 2.5 hours total
#1) 90 minutes, 2000 XP (!), 9 crits, 1 daily utility, 1 action point, 3 surges. 6 rounds vs 16 minions, 5 brutes, 3 skirmishers with ~1100 hps.
We followed the main road west towards Arien, noticing that it was suffering from a distinct lack of recent use. At one point we spotted a bloody scrap of hairy, gray skin caught on the nasty brambles growing in the underbrush of the forest to the south of us. We decided it came from a drow in mid-mutation and moved on.
Forest gave way to plains, which gradually turned into farmland. The road ahead ran over a small hill, with some tall grass to the right and a small copse of bramble-infested forest on the left. The minotaur and halfling's keen eyes spotted a 50' arc of potholes arrayed across the road at the foot of the hill, as well as a bevy of humanoids hiding in the tall grass.
The eight grimlocks realized that their ambush was sprung, so they charged in to attack us. Once we had responded to their attack, a second group of 5 grimlocks pincered us from the south bramble patch. After another exchange of attacks the ranks of minions were drastically thinned, and the tougher ones were on the ropes. One of the brutes pulled out a horn and prepared to issue a blast. As it raised the horn to its mouth, the minotaur slammed it straight into the blind creature's mouth. He chuckled heartily at ruining its attempt to summon allies.
After one more round of attacks, only a couple of grimlocks were left standing. Unfortunately our fighter was unable to prevent a second horn blast, and it was answered twice from the south. Within seconds, the last remaining grimlock from the first two waves was joined by a force of 4 allies, and 8 more were 100' away back to the southeast. The wizard unleashed a devastating blood pulse on the large approaching group, wiping all but two out. After that, the mop-up took a mere few seconds.
Continuing along the road, we came across a second well-travelled track leading to the north east, and realized that travellers had been avoiding that stretch of road because of the grimlock ambushers.
After a while, we noticed a blue light emanating through the shutters of a fair-sized, two-storey farmhouse atop a low rise to the north. A fenced garden to the side of the house contained several rows of herbs. The minotaur became transfixed by a free-growing patch of parsley and started to graze contentedly. Meanwhile, the door to the garden flapped slowly in the breeze. The wizard opened the door with a mage hand onto a horrific scene.
The dining room table was heaped with the bones of dozens of corpses, and the walls and ceiling were coated with smears of blood. Blue-glowing fey flies covered the blood, looking for all the world like the interior of the house had phosphorescent veins. A grey-skinned humanoid watched us from the far side of the table, its skin distended horribly with basketball-sized lumps that moved of their own volition. When it was alive it would have been an eladrin, but now it gnawed the flesh from the forearm of another of its former race.
The festivities began with a couple of the undead creatures bursting out the shuttered window, while others emerged from closed rooms and the staircase from upstairs.
To be continued on Monday...
