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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kenobi65" data-source="post: 13747" data-attributes="member: 1515">Session #5 - 5/25/017/13Nearly three weeks have passed since the party's return to Dorlomin, when each of the party's members receive a messenger from General Winterhawk.  The messenger gives each of them orders to report to the general's office on the following morning for a new mission.  The party members get in touch with each other, and agree to meet up for dinner that evening to catch up, and discuss what might come next.Dinner is at an inn, the Gallant Knight, at which several of the party have been staying.  As the meal proceeds, the party notices that many of the inn's patrons seem to be staring at them.  They also notice that the innkeeper seems to be discussing the party with an attractive female adventurer who is sitting at the bar.Eventually, the innkeeper, a lanky, large-nosed older man named Andric, comes over to the party's table.  He apologizes for staring at them, but tells them that it is an honor for him to have "the heroes of the battle of Tun-Kashila" here at his inn.  He is in the process of telling the party that their dinner is on the house, when he is interrupted by a boisterous, well-dressed man with a Marnais accent.  The Marnais man insists on paying for dinner for the "heroes," then proceeds to sit down at their table and loudly sing their praises to the rest of the inn's patrons.  He indicates that "all of Dorlomin owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to these brave soldiers," and that "all the bards of Marington are already competing with each other to see which one can write an epic that does their deeds justice."Eventually, the party manages to get this gentleman to introduce himself -- his name is Irlian.  As he continues to embellish the story of the party's exploits (with only mild protestations from the party themselves), the female adventurer from the bar makes her way to the party's table.  She asks to sit down, and introduces herself as Rinna.  She manages to wrest the conversation away from Irlian, and asks the party's members to tell the story in their own words.  She very attentively listens, and asks questions of each of them regarding their roles in the battle.Irlian eventually decides to take his leave of the party, but not before promising that, if he can ever be of service to the party, that they contact him.  He leaves them with a calling card, which indicates that he is "undersecretary to the Governor of Marnes."Rinna, however, stays at the party's table.  They learn that she is a traveling adventurer, most skilled with a sword (a longsword hangs from her belt), but tends to operate on her own.  She makes much of her living acting as a guard on merchant caravans -- she has just come into town on such a caravan, which she had defended from a band of several dozen hobgoblin raiders.  The male members of the party, particularly Ming-Jeh, seem quite impressed with the young woman.Whitefire asks Rinna how she came to not be drafted into the army, when many adventurers (such as the party) seem to have been unable to avoid it.  She explains that, while Marington is her nominal base of operations, that she is only here infrequently, and spends much of her time traveling with caravans.  Thus, she was simply out of town when the draft board convened.Eventually, the party decides to turn in, as they have an early morning ahead of them.  Rinna bids them all goodnight, and tells them that she will probably be leaving town shortly -- she has some friends in Athlaoigh that she wishes to visit, and is looking for a caravan that she can take in that direction.7/14The party meets Winterhawk in her office.  She starts with some bad news: although she and her troops were able to evacuate most of the rest of the Burrowers (on the day after the original rescue), in the intervening day, the Dracos had imprisoned, then executed Senki and several other elders, as an example to the other Burrowers.  The Burrowers had related to Winterhawk that the elders had steadfastly maintained that the party had forced their way through the tunnels, and it seems that the executions were punishment more for stupidity or cowardice than for sedition.She also tells them, briefly, that the past few weeks have been challenging.  While King Kenton is unwavering in his support of the war, some of the provincial governors are unhappy with the massive cost in lives of the Battle of Tun-Kashila.  For that reason, it may be some time before the army is able to engage in any kind of real offensive action against the Dracos.  So, she has been forced to focus more on intelligence-gathering and guerrilla missions against specific targets.She has such a mission in mind for the Wraiths.    Some months ago, she discovered a large military base called Agleshka on the Nyxalian coastline, on the northwestern corner of the Draconic continent (i.e., the point closest to Dorlomin).  She believes that this base was used to launch last summer's naval attacks against Dorlomin, in which thousands of lizardmen swam across the ocean, pulling rafts that carried draconian officers.  When she last observed Agleshka, about three months ago, it was very quiet and nearly deserted.  She wants the party to go to the base, and make observations as to what (if any) activity is going on there.The party discusses their plan, and agrees that it would make the most sense to transport to Nyxal shortly after sunset (the moon will be nearly full this evening).  Given the time difference, this would have the party transporting (via the Gateway) shortly after noon.  General Winterhawk then spends the rest of the morning training Ian, Magnus, Phadian, and Whitefire in how to use the Gateway.   There is already a Keystone hidden about 10 miles from Agleshka, which the party will use to transport to the area -- Winterhawk tells Whitefire and Ulfgar about the landmarks that will guide their trip from the Keystone to Agleshka.  Winterhawk also gives the party a Gate Key, in case they need to get back more quickly.After a noon meal with the general, and a quick trip to the temple of Pelor to stock up on curing potions, the party transfers to Nyxal.  The Keystone is hidden in a copse of trees in one of Nyxal's boundless swamps.  The party slowly moves through the moonlit swamp, trying to stay on the patches of higher (and drier) ground.After about three hours of such travel, Ulfgar notices that the hillock that the party is about to climb up is actually moving.  The hillock is actually a creature called a "tendriculos" -- a huge, animated, carnivorous plant.  The tendriculos quickly wraps one of its woody tendrils around Whitefire, and then grabs Ulfgar with its stick-filled mouth, proceeding to chew on the enraged dwarf.  Meanwhile, the rest of the party pepper the behemoth with various missile weapons; with each blow, the creature lets out an unholy howl.  However, the party quickly notices that the wounds they are inflicting on it seem to be slowly closing back up, perhaps indicating that the monster can regenerate.Nivek attempts to sneak up on the creature's left flank, but it lashes out with a tendril and grabs the rogue tightly.  The tendriculos looks like it is about to chew on Ulfgar some more, when Zeebee rushes forward and slashes at it with her greatsword.  This injury incapacitates the tendriculos, which then releases its hold on Whitefire and Nivek.  Several party members pour flaming oil on the monster, but it seems to regenerate from the burns, as well.  Eventually, Nivek pours acid on the creature, and it finally dies.As the party's clerics tend to the wounded (particularly Ulfgar, who was quite badly hurt), both Phadian and Ming-Jeh suddenly hear voices (specifically, voices speaking Draconian) heading towards the party.  Not really wishing to immediately engage another opponent, the party hides behind the fallen tendriculos, and Whitefire covers them with an Obscuring Mist.As the party waits in the mist, Magnus suddenly realizes that he is face-to-face with a red-scaled draconian, who is creeping through the fog.  The battle begins, and several party members are quite suddenly injured by a blast of flame from above -- another red draconian has flown above the party, and has used his breath weapon on the center of the unnatural fog.  The first draconian then uses his own breath weapon, affecting many of the same members of the party.  Ian was unlucky enough to bear the brunt of both blasts, and stumbles away from the melee, barely clinging to consciousness.The draconian who struck at the party from above then begins to descend towards the area he had just flamed.  However, in the meantime, Nivek had scrambled up to the top of the dead tendriculos, which gives him a sneak attack on the draconian as it drops past him.  The battle against the two draconians goes on for some time, as the reptiles prove to be quite skilled warriors; however, the party does eventually prevail.Meanwhile, a large contingent of red-skinned kobolds has been assailing the party's rearguard.  Phadian eliminates many of the small Dracos with a Sleep spell, followed by a Flaming Sphere, while Ming-Jeh, Ulfgar, and Zeebee take care of the rest in hand-to-hand combat.After again patching up their wounded (and using up many of the curing potions), the party takes a few minutes to arrange the scene of the battle, so it might appear that the Dracos died fighting the tendriculos.  The party then proceeds towards Agleshka.After another hour or so of travel, the party happens upon a roadway, heading in the direction of Agleshka.  The road is covered with gravel, but Ulfgar quickly sees that many wheeled carts or wagons have passed on this road, pulled by both reptiles and hooved mammals.  As travel through the swamp has been fairly slow, the party eventually agrees to cautiously travel on the road, using Magnus' and Ian's owl familiars as aerial sentries.While the party travels upon the road, they are suddenly attack by a shambling mound that had been hiding in the ditch on the roadside.  Although the combat is over quickly, the creature again manages to beat up several party members before it is destroyed.  When the mound is killed, it falls apart into a heap of vegetation.  The party spots something regular-shaped in amongst the vegetation, and discovers a small, well-carved wooden claw that apparently was being carried in the shambling mound's midsection.  Magnus does a Detect Magic on the wooden claw, but finds no aura upon it.  Whitefire examines the claw, and pronounces that it looks like a wooden replica of a reptilian claw.  The party wonders at this for a time, then puts itself back together and moves on.7/15Eventually, the party makes it to the vicinity of Agleshka.  They find a small hill on the south side of the encampment, which provides a good view.  They see many buildings, and many rafts floating in the harbor -- they suspect that Agleshka is now larger than it was when Winterhawk last saw it.  The only building which seems to have any activity in it at all (it is the middle of the night) is the central building, apparently the command post.  In the moonlight, the party sees a draconian walk out onto the command post's porch, followed by another draconian.  The two draconians apparently talk for several minutes, then the first one takes to the air and flies off to the east.  The second draconian watches the first one fly away, then goes back inside.The party decides that they want to observe what happens at Agleshska during the day.  Under Whitefire's supervision, they use the last few hours of darkness to dig several hiding holes in the hillside, then cover the holes back up with sod.  From this vantage point, they take sleeping shifts while watching the day's events unfold.Once the sun comes up, Agleshka becomes very active, and the party can make out more of the base's details.  There are several warehouses full of supplies.  There is a lumberyard and lumbermill, where logs are being made into planks.  There is a large area where swarms of kobolds are building rafts.  Finally, there are several barracks, apparently full of lizardmen and kobolds.Over the course of the morning, several wagon trains come into Agleshka via the gravel road.  One train consists of a half-dozen wagons full of logs (Whitefire guesses that they are from mountain hardwoods, probably ash), led by red-scaled kobolds.  Another train has barrels and crates of supplies, led by black-scaled kobolds.In late morning, hundreds of lizardmen (mostly black, with some green and red) move into the harbor.  They begin to lash together dozens of the rafts, creating a massive barge.  The rafts were already laden with supplies; on top of these supplies, the lizardmen (and some kobolds) then begin to build an encampment.  At the center of this barge is a tall structure, apparently a command bridge.By early afternoon, the barge has been completed.  At this point, several draconians (two blacks, a green, and a red) appear on the roof of the onshore command post.  The party can make out that one of the draconians is carrying a silvery object on a chain (it resembles a plumb-bob), and another one is carrying a strange wooden device (resembling an irregularly-strung wooden harp, with various bits of material attached to the strings).  The four draconians fly to the barge's command bridge, and hundreds of lizardmen begin pulling the barge out to sea (there are hundreds more lizardmen riding on the barge).  As the barge begins to move, the draconian holding the "plumb-bob" holds it out at arm's length.  Suddenly, the "plumb-bob" becomes horizontal, as though it was being pulled to the west-northwest by some unseen force.  The draconian begins shouting orders to the lizardmen, and they begin pulling the barge to the direction indicated by the device.After perhaps two hours, the barge disappears over the horizon.  At about this point, a black dragon flies towards the base.  The dragon lands at the command building, and several draconians come out.  They converse briefly with the dragon, who then flies off to the southeast.  Meanwhile, the remaining kobolds continue to build rafts, and several new squads of lizardmen arrive via the road and take up residence in the barracks.After sunset, the party agrees that they need to report back to Winterhawk.  They extricate themselves from their hiding place, work their way down the hill (away from the base), and use the Gate Key to transfer back to Marington.The party meets with Winterhawk, and briefs her on what they have seen.  In conferring with the general, they find it curious that the barge's path was not heading directly for Dorlomin (it was heading too far west).  This, combined with the amount of lumber and supplies that the barge carried, leads the party and the general to conclude that the Dracos are building a base somewhere between the Draconian States and Dorlomin, perhaps on an island.</blockquote>

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