[7 days total in campaign]
Vivianna, Maia, and Aleksi, managed to purge Toril Kostus of his hideous affliction by carrying through the half-finished hex. They ended up with an incapacitated councilman and the shamans' jumbled spirits-made-flesh in the form of a huge canine paragon, what the Izoldan dubbed a curse-dog. Though incredibly imposing, he seemed to lack the mindless ferocity implied when fused with Kostus. After sniffing the party, the curse-dog adopted Aleksi as his bipedal companion. The druid dubbed him Valerik, "Brave" in the Izoldan tongue.
Maia disappeared into the night, seeking a hero-worshiping seamstress named Sella to care for Toril in the coming days. The wolf-girl hoped Sella wasn't still the jealous type, having the completely wrong impression of Maia's relationship with the councilman (professional, honest). Unfortunately, stealing about at such a late hour during times of invaded capitals and massing gnolls drew the attention of the night watch. The lead watchman was a stubborn, but thorough, sort, the kind a town wanted leading a patrol, but he made it impossible for Maia to shake him, even when she name-dropped the notable councilman. Sella, for her part, backed Maia, proving her concern for Kostus outweighed her pettiness, but in the end a watchman was sent ahead to the councilman's house, and the rest of the troop followed soon after.
Meantime, Vivianna was handling two late-night callers. The first claimed to be sent by town hall, a young clerk from the mayor's office with a belly of worry over Toril's absence at the emergency meeting. Viv sent him off with little trouble, but when a nightwatchman appeared next her dealings left him highly suspicious and poised to call the whole town upon them. The Dawn Knight openly suggested the man was an assassin, but Theros and Aleksi suspected such unlikeliness had more to do with Vivianna trying to save face after botching the ordeal. As the rest of the guard arrived, Maia and Sella in tow, Aleksi made an executive decision and opened the door before things escalated any further. He received quite a scathing look from the Dawn Knight, against which he proved impervious.
The party filed out one at a time, Valerik causing the guardsmen to startle, but Donatella and her dear, decrepit hubby Leonarto scared them into drawing swords. And he'd such a convincing disguise, too! Sella pressed inside, screaming upon seeing Kostus so weak. It was quite clear the party was headed to jail, that is until Maia gave the speech of her life, one pulled from the Anita book if ever there was one. At the same time chastizing the guard for harassing those doing good, while glorifying their intentions, the wolf-girl seemed to turn inevitability on its heels. The guards left, worried at news of gnolls and the confirmation Avencia Dare was more-than-likely in danger (if not dead already).
The party had a relatively quiet remainder of the night, what scant hours of dark were left. A summoned Doctor Job and the seamstress Sella cared for Kostus, while everyone else enjoyed much-needed shuteye. The group even slept in. Donatella made a fabulous breakfast around ten, thanks mostly to Leonarto's coaching, and news and thoughts were shared. Aleksi spent most of his time acclimating Valerik to the Hut, then chatting with Sella (noticing she was not comfortable or sympathetic to demihumans or witches).
Two more escaped senators had arrived, so the doctor told, and Benjim was giving the mayor and the eradicator hell for dragging their feet sending aid east. Since there was no official declaration to supply The Midnight Rider, it was decided they would follow the map Kostus had drawn and see if they couldn't locate Avencia Dare, or at least find the root of the gnoll trouble. There was certainly a very convenient coincidence between Belarion's invasion and the gnolls massing- something to keep Godswon occupied during Edmark's hour of need.
Boarding the Dancing Hut, Aleksi and Valerik, Vivianna, Donatella and Leonarto, Maia, and Theros made their way through the farmsteads outlying Godswon, headed northwest to the last-known location of the fiery folk hero. Taking a dusty road called the Nag's Trail, the Hut passed more and more remote tracts until, on the border of the true wilderness, they came upon a gruesome massacre. Farmers and their families had been gutted and savaged, as if by things worse than animals, things with fell purpose. The sight struck home for several in the group, and none could bear to look on the scene long without acting. There wasn't very much to bury, but there was a trail, a trail the heavy sky threatened to wash away if they weren't quick. Vivianna muttered a soft prayer and Theros took the lead, employing his considerable tracking skills in the pursuit of the soulless dogs that did this.
The trail was winding and difficult, backtracking and sometimes leading nowhere, but Theros managed to follow to the edges of a gloomy wetland by the coming of dark. They located the highest point and plopped the Hut down. It wasn't long after when the Brotherhood showed up...
A mixture of able hunters and trappers native to the region, coupled with angry townsfolk, all of them masked in the crude burlap as was the fashion of the Brotherhood to protect their identities, surrounded and attacked. The death of the Henrys and Allans (farmer families) had not gone unnoticed, and the unusual group were the perfect outlets of their rage and disgust. The Brotherhood was quick work, in truth, no match for the magics and might of the party, especially when Donatella summoned up the skeletons of the dead to harry their old companions and drag them to the Gate, but the trickling of laughter from the shadows of the hills made it plain, at least to Aleksi, that these gnolls were clever. They had led the angry group to the party.
Vivianna felt way as a claw raked her back, the gnolls masked in shadow magic and using hit-and-run tactics during the mopping of the Brotherhood to take on the capable party. For a time it worked, until the druid and the necromancer whittled the men down to nothing, and Vivianna with her moonbow managed to reveal the lot of gnolls: dark gray hyena-men and their bitch of a chieftainess. She charged Theros, a hulking, six-teated fury, swinging a fence post wrapped in razor wire linked to rusty, jagged scraps from old battlefields. She bore a darkpaw pendant, its intense drumming causing the gnolls (and Maia, Valerik, and Theros) to grimace.
Theros fought two snipers and the chieftainess for a time, a pillar of feral might, but when it seemed the she-gnoll had him dead to rights, Maia surged and caught the blow mid-swing. Back to back, cat and wolf fended off the gnolls, including a wiry team of gnollish juveniles crazy to protect their mother. And through careful teamwork, they managed to down them all.
Aleksi, meanwhile, slew a shadow gnoll advancing on Vivianna, and the Dawn Knight, her vengeance unsatisfied, turned her sights to the storm-gray gnoll shaman with the grisly fetish of leathery eyes watching from the opposite hillock. Unleashing the remainder of her elements, she slew the creature outright without even the sound of a yelp or howl. However, as the battle finished, unseen claws dragged him back into the darkness. Aleksi and Valerik pursued to a point, but following further in the night promised ambushes, unseen sinkholes, and most likely death. He did recover the fetish, which he kept for further study.
Vivianna rifled through the corpses of gnolls and Brotherhood, retrieving the darkpaw pendant and covering it to alleviate the thrumming. Aleksi led the efforts to bury the men, once angry, hateful, but ultimately misguided. He did not afford the gnolls such graces.
They spent the rest of the night on doubled watch, spotting the shadows of gnolls more than once. At one point near dawn, the group was forced to fight an angry blaze on the Hut's roof caused by incendiary jars launched from the darkness. They killed a few more gnollish juveniles in the process, however they made it to morning.
And then it began to rain in the sodden meadows...
Notable NPCs
Valerik the Curse-Dog
Sella Dorston
Luther Pendrost (lead watchman)
Doctor Job McAllister
Dead farmers on Nag's Trail
Brotherhood hunters and followers
Darkpaw Gnolls, including snipers, ambushers, wiry get, a hulking bitch-chieftain, and a fetish-hugging shaman (dragged off into the night)
Spoils
Fetish of Stolen Visions (Aleksi), looking like a thin, onyx doll with a messy tangle of hooked cords for hair. Each hook skewers a pale, leathery eyeball (though they vary in freshness, see below): +2 spell attacks and damage; those struck by a spell using this fetish must make a moderate save (11+) or be stricken blind until your next turn. If you crit with a spell using this fetish, the target is blinded permanently. Quirk: In order to sustain the fell magic of this fetish, you must replenish the eyes on its eight hooks after each battle.
Darkpaw Pendant (Vivianna)- see Chapter 4 treasure
Gnoll Flail (unclaimed, +3 melee attack and damage): These flails are surprisingly effective weapons despite their crude construction. Unless you’ve played with one since you were a cub, however, you won’t be able to use it correctly. While using this weapon, you can’t make opportunity attacks. Quirk: Growls when angry.
Gnoll Flail (unclaimed, +3 melee attack and damage): These flails are surprisingly effective weapons despite their crude construction. Unless you’ve played with one since you were a cub, however, you won’t be able to use it correctly. While using this weapon, you can’t make opportunity attacks. Quirk: Growls when angry.
No comments:
Post a Comment