Finishing the First Pack
Draven leads the Roots to Duncann’s Dolphin Dive and peeks his head out slowly. No one is around the area so he pulls himself out onto the rocky cave floor. His friends follow behind as he pops the cork from a Keog’s Ointment. The others do the same, preparing for their next battle.
Seeing as everyone looks about ready, Draven transforms into a Dire Wolf and begins toward the eastern tunnel toward the ladder. Just before he turns to corner, his hackles raise. Something’s fucky. Draven snarls quietly. The others take notice and ready themselves.
The Dire Wolf charges around the corner towards the closest of the gnolls. Fitting that it is one of the ferals. Draven barks and howls loudly, sending a few of the hunters and spear-wielders running.
Artair is running just behind Draven and stops just behind him. He summons a Thorn Whip from thin air, flicking it at one of the spear-wielders. He snags the creature’s leg and pulls him towards the wolf. Draven lunges at him, biting into its hide armor.
The feral creature attacks the wolf, drawing blood into Draven’s otherwise pristine coat. The other gnolls pile on just as Lucian and Duncann get their opportunity.
Lucian fires a Guiding Bolt, striking the gnoll with his leg in the wolf’s mouth and causing it to glow. Draven releases the gnoll and lunges at its throat, finishing him off. He turns and snarls at the feral one as he is struck several times by spears coming at him from multiple enemies. They manage to kill Draven the wolf, but now they must contend with Draven the man.
Lucian takes on his Starry Form as an archer just as Artair catches one of them with his acid claws, digging deep. Lucian targets the same creature with an arrow of light. The gnoll lets out a brief call of pain with its last escaping breath.
Duncann transmutes his staff with Shillelagh and creates a layer of bark on his skin. He mashes one of the spear-wielders with his knobby staff.
Soon, a few of the gnolls that had fled, return and fire arrows at the Roots, hitting with most. Lucian drops a Moon Beam on the closest of the hunters, just in the opening of the tunnel. It jumps out of the beam and closer to the party. It looks for some sort of safe haven, but the Roots are blocking the tunnel north and the Moon Beam is blocking the tunnel east.
There is only one other spear-wielding gnoll inside this room, but that is rectified by Draven’s acid claws. The spear-wielder and hunter watch in horror as their comrade is clawed in two, vertically, and left to sizzle in acid.
Realizing there is no place to run, the nearby gnoll thrusts its spear into Duncann, but he bats it away with confidence. Artair releases a poison cloud from his palms toward the gnoll and it collapses to the ground immediately. As with all the other gnolls in the cave, its life essence dissipates into a white smoky mist.
Lucian makes eye contact with the hunter taking aim at him and quickly fires off a light arrow. It pierces the hunters head then disappears, leaving a cylindrical hole in the creature’s head through which the wispy smoke escapes. It crumples to the ground in a heap.
Artair rushes to the south side of the room to peer down the eastward tunnel by the ladder. He sees a few hunters trying to sneak forward, but the Moonbeam is keeping them at bay. Not for long. He lashes out to the closest hunter with his Thorn Whip and pulls him into the Moonbeam, scorching the creature with hot white flames.
The creature moves from the spot, but Lucian simply moves the Moonbeam, killing the creature dead.
Of those remaining in the tunnel, one ascends the ladder, attempting to flee while the other takes a few steps backward. Lucian moves the Moonbeam to the ladder but given no corpse nor sounds of pain, it sounds as if the hunter escaped. He surely will bring the others down.
Torture by Teamwork
Draven summons a bonfire under the last gnoll in the tunnel. The creature roasts briefly before Artair thrashes it with his Thorn Whip. He manages to pull the already-dead gnoll into the Moonbeam, just in case.
Draven summons a new bonfire under the ladder to burn up the ropes and wooden rungs. While they wait, the party quickly applies their ointments.
With this ladder gone, the only way in or out that they’ve seen is through the underwater tunnels to the dock cave. They decide to explore the rest of the cave to learn the fate of the Inventors left behind.
They cancel the Moonbeam and bonfire and move eastward along the southern-most area. They know that once they reach the end of this path, the tunnel will turn northward to the unexplored large room. This is the most likely place for the Inventors to be.
As they follow the tunnels, Draven continues to drop bonfires behind them for protection.
Once they reach the northward bend, they look towards the large room. They’ve not been noticed yet, but they can tell more gnolls are in the room.
They take a few steps closer and get the sense they’ve found the leader of this encampment, safely tucked away with his closest pack of defenders. He carries with him a flail with 3 strands, each terminating with a small skull. Around him stand 3 of the feral gnolls and 1 standard-issue… clearly the meat shield. An item is resting on a stand behind the leader. Although they cannot tell what it is, it must be of some importance.
One thing of particular importance is that the leader is wearing chainmail. Artair recognizes that this is his first chance to use his newly acquired ability to Heat Metal.
The Roots devise a plan: Draven will circle around to the middle tunnel and spawn an entanglement of roots in the room to restrain the gnolls’ movement; Artair will circle around to the northern tunnel and be ready to heat up the leader’s armor; Lucian and Duncann will remain where they are and attack once the Draven spawns the entanglement.
Suddenly, a 20ft square area sprouts roots right from the rocky ground. It grasps most of the creatures’ legs. Artair casts Heat Metal on the leader. At first, he’s not sure if it’s worked, but then he sees the leader struggling in his reddening armor. The room takes on a faint red glow and the smell of burning fur.
Just as the leader is about to break free from the entangled roots, Duncann casts Hold Person on him and one of the ferals, paralyzing them where they stand, and the leader’s blazing armor branding his pelt. Lucian launches a light arrow at the paralyzed feral and kills him. His body separates from his spirit; the spirit goes free while the body falls into the root bed and is captured on the ground.
Draven recognizes that the gnolls have a free path towards Artair and, although they don’t appear to have seen him yet, Draven drops a bonfire at the entrance to the northern-most tunnel to protect him. The Entanglements on the ground slither back into the rocky surface, leaving behind no trace of their existence.
At this point, the gnolls have not seen anything except the starry light arrow from the southern-most tunnel. The spear-wielder gets to Lucian first and manages to strike him squarely in the chest.
The leader remains paralyzed, his fur and skin still smoking.
Lucian attempts to run through the spear-wielder, but is unable. He quickly Frostbites the creature and follows up with a light arrow, bringing the creature near death.
Draven runs out from the middle tunnel and lunges at one of the ferals with acid claws, causing massive damage. Seeing as all of the freely-moving gnolls are occupied, Draven drops his concentration on the bonfire to allow Artair entry to the room.
It’s at this point that he realizes there are two humans lying against the southern wall of the room. Both are badly injured, but one looks to be bleeding out. There’s no time to provide aid at the moment though; the two ferals near Draven attack him at the same time, making it very difficult to fend off the attacks.
Lucian Shillelaghs his staff and smacks the spear-wielder across the face, causing its head to snap around. The crunching of its neck breaking is unmistakable. Even if it were mistakable, the wispy smoke is a dead giveaway.
Meanwhile, the leader remains paralyzed and continues to sizzle.
The rest of the Roots move to aid Draven. Duncann Shillelaghs up his staff, winds up, and smacks one of the ferals on the back. Artair runs towards the other feral and just barely misses with his Thorn Whip. Neither attempts change the ferals’ focus. They continue to attack Draven, causing massive damage.
Duncann bashes one of the feral creature’s kneecaps, causing it to buckle. Lucian sends a Guiding Bolt directly into its face, then smashes its face in with his staff. There’s no coming back from that.
Meanwhile, the leader remains paralyzed and continues to sizzle.
Draven uses his acid claws to finish off the last remaining feral. All four of them look at the smoking leader.
They quickly decide that the humans on the floor need attention, so they split their focus. Lucian casts Cure Wounds on the human bleeding out. The human seems to be coming to.
Duncann runs to the leader and smashes him in the side. The leader begins to regain his faculties.
Lucian quickly sends a light arrow at the leader, but the leader ducks just in time. The movement causes new skin to burn and he yells out in pain. The yell transforms into one of anger and frenzy.
Draven uses his acid claws on the leader’s face, disfiguring one of his cheeks. Duncann causes a Thunderwave from himself, but the leader hunkers down and is not thrown off balance. The constant heat pain continues to fuel his anger.
The leader swings his Flail of Madness at Duncann. It connects and sends him into a frenzy to find another target with his Shillelagh.
The leader targets Draven with his Flail of Pain. It connects and Draven collapses onto the floor clutching his head in psychic pain. He falls unconscious a moment later, dying before their very eyes.
The leader attempts to hit Lucian with his Flail of Paralysis, but it misses. Lucian smacks the leader with a light arrow, but the pain doesn’t even register given how much the heated chainmail is causing.
Artair attempts to Thorn Whip him, but the leader swats it away.
In a state of sheer madness, Duncann runs towards Lucian and tries to smack him with his staff, but misses.
They all attack the leader, but he is still standing. He attacks Duncann with the Flail of Madness, causing Duncann to frenzy again. He uses his Flail of Pain on the Inventor that was just brought back to life, causing him to be dying again. He then attacks Lucian with the Flail of Paralysis, but misses Lucian again.
Lucian Frostbites the smoldering Flind causing immense amounts of steam to come off his body.
Artair rushes to Draven and casts Cure Wounds. He focuses his efforts on Draven as much as possible, allowing the leader’s metal to cool a bit.
Draven comes back to life and stands up with vengeance in his eyes. Claws shoot out from his fingertips dripping acid to the floor. He jams his claws into the Flind’s side, under his cooling armor, injecting him directly with the acid. The Flind falls to the floor with a solid thump.
Escaping the Gnoll Hole
ARTAIR: This smell is making me kind of hungry.
The relief of winning the day sets on them when they hear the echoes of sloshing in the distance.
ARTAIR: We have to get these guys out of here.
LUCIAN: We need to get that item too.
Artair rushes towards the item on the stand and grabs it. It seems to be a uniquely-built spyglass of some sort, though the lenses are of a purple hue. He stuffs it in his bag and looks up to see several gnolls coming out of the northern pool. He jumps out of sight quietly and whispers to the others that they all need to get out of here now.
Before they go, Artair casts Cure Wounds on both Inventors. They awake shaken, but understand the situation. As they all traverse the tunnel southward, Lucian and Draven apply some Keog’s Ointment.
They are running as fast as possible along the tunnel, follow the curve right (westward), through a small chamber, and past the long northward tunnel that leads to the pool. Duncann is starting to fall behind though; there’s only so fast his little legs can carry him.
Draven leads them past the burned ladder and stops at the next corner. There is a gnoll in the next room. Fuck it. Can’t be worse than what they’re running from.
He comes around the corner to find 2 hunters and 2 spear-wielders. He creates a shard of ice and flings it at one of the hunters. It strikes the hunter then explodes, causing ice splinters to hit the other three gnolls.
He runs out there to clear the way, escaping the passing attack from one of the spears. Artair follows and is struck by arrows and spears, falling immediately.
The two Inventors stay out of the way along the wall. Lucian rushes past them while transforming into Orion. He sees Artair lying on the ground and casts a Guiding Bolt at one of the grunt gnolls, taking him down.
The spear-wielder attacks Draven, but he blocks it with his shield. Suddenly Artair jumps back to life and kills the spear wielder.
They manage to kill the remaining hunters quickly, then get everyone into the water. They swim through the tunnel and arrive at the dock. While the others are getting into one boat, Draven is already laying down a bonfire in the other one.
They row directly away from shore and Lucian drops a bonfire on the docks themselves.
They row westward for about 10 minutes before turning to the north. After another 20 minutes, they find a suitable landing site and pull the boat ashore. They find a place where they can stash the boat that is fairly occluded by large rocks.
Artair looks at the spyglass and stares through it. It certainly has some magnification, but he gets the sense that there is more to this than meets the eye.
Lucian casts Detect Magic as a ritual, and ten minutes later, he confirms that the item is in fact magical.
HARRY: Thank you for saving us back there. I was forced… to stab my friend Tom here.
TOM: Yes. Thank you for saving us.
Tom turns away, clearly not wanting to engage in conversation. Lucian asks Harry about the telescope, but he doesn’t know any more than they do. They rest near their stowed boat that night. The next morning, they start towards the Inventorship.
Return to the Inventorship
They travel for a day and a half, arriving early afternoon. After entering the town, they seek Rolf.
ROLF: You’ve returned! How do you fare?
Before they have a chance to respond, Rolf speaks excitedly.
ROLF: Ah! Harry! Tom! Thank heavens! Surely, you will want to get home. Please do. We can speak later. Dick was instrumental in getting you the help you needed.
Tom scoffs and leaves.
HARRY: Please forgive him. We both had it rough, but his situation was majorly worse. They pitted us against each other and were going to kill us both if we didn’t fight. Tom refused… I… I…
ROLF: You did what you felt you needed to. Go rest. We will discuss this later.
Harry leaves.
ARTAIR: We’re going to need more potions.
DUNCANN: And some cold ale and a warm bed.
ROLF: Certainly. As for potions, we make Keog’s Ointment here in town. We’d be happy to supply you with more of it.
LUCIAN: We’ll take all you have.
ROLF: That would leave us in a very bad way. Please be more conservative with your requests. However, if you’d like to learn to fish so to speak, we could teach you how to make it. Were you able to clear out those blasted creatures?
ARTAIR: We were. Well most of them anyway. We got the leader and his core group. There are some of their hunters and foot soldiers around that area though.
LUCIAN: We were able to get something from them though.
Artair looks at Lucian somewhat apprehensively, but not for long. He pulls the unique spyglass from his bag.
ARTAIR: What do you make of this?
He looks it over and tells them not much more than they’d seen themselves.
ROLF: I’m not quite sure why they went with this design for the lens. Also, what’s this small cavity over here?
ARTAIR: Yeah, we saw that too. Not quite sure what that is.
ROLF: You know, it looks like it could fit that smoky quartz. We did get that gem from the cavern and they were quite angry about that.
LUCIAN: Good idea!
Artair takes the perfectly cut smoky quartz icosahedron and it slides gently into place, almost as if it were on a cushion of air.
Lucian asks to see the item. He scans the horizon with it but does not see anything out of the ordinary.
LUCIAN: Nothing yet. But we do know this is magic, perhaps I should spend some time with it?
They leave Rolf, gather some more Keog’s Ointment, and get a drink at the tavern. During this time, Lucian is able to attune with the item and gain intimate knowledge of its capabilities. It is called a Teletherscope and as long as the specific gem is installed, and the user is attuned to the item, it allows the user to see into the Ethereal Plane without a hard limit on distance.
Knowing this, they walk to a high point in the town and scan the horizon. Starting with the west, Lucian sees a giant red lightning bolt over where Bear Island should be. Circling around, he finds another to the southwest, and one more far to the east.
DUNCANN: I think we head back to Winterfell with this. This will give them all the information they need.
ARTAIR: Yeah, I agree.
DRAVEN: We were also supposed to find out which clans would come to their aid, but given what we know, we could always gather that information while they take care of these lightning bolt things.
LUCIAN: Yeah, we’re good in a fight, but these things are something else.
They go to the inn and stay over the night. In the morning, they awake with new abilities.
It is now the morning of Day 684. The Roots have gained enough XP to achieve Level 6! Their plan is to rendezvous with the Assembly and provide the information they were charged with collecting.