Cedric enters the hall as he hears the dark voice speaking.
"Who is this? What reward am I to receive. I have came back from the dead just days ago. I am not in the mood for any dark games Agrippa."
He shouts out into the horn.
Week 8
Cedric sends his men to gather information and confirm the information from the white ravens.
While in town the also conduct criminal activity for 420gp
Week 9
Back from the dead and feeling he need to gain wealth to repay the group he sends his men back to town to gather gold.
for 80gp
for 160gp
The thunderous voice booms through out the Horn and Johan screams in pain as he receives Naburus' attention.
When the voice stops, so does the pain. Johan collapses in a sweat soaked heap. He is still for a moment, then convulses, his stomach heaving out its contents onto the stone floor. Johan crawls away from the mess and slouches exhausted in the corner.
But then he catches movement out of the corner of his eye. As he watches in growing horror, the puddle of bile and much on his floor bubbles and grows and rises up to form a child-sized, vaguely human shape. Its face is like melted wax, but it features can still be made out... No! Johan yells at the thing. No! I killed you!
The thing that wears the face of Posca the dwarf cringes at its master's rage.
Days later...
”Boggards never lazy! Boggards work hard for glory of Great Father Dagon!” Zikomo-hears-The-Father answer Johan’s question.
Good, then take us to where your hunters were last known to be, and we shall see if your faith in them is deserved.
” They ‘ere headed east towards Lake.” Zukomo says pointing to Lake in your map.
”Visions, dreams! Omens! Diresome hunting demon!” he mad priest says tapping the map pointing to the lake.
Agrippa purchased the Wall of Blindness/Deafness spell and will scribe it.
"Should we be off looking for a few missing Boggards? We were just attacked? I think there are more pressing matters to stay in defense here. Who cares if all the little swamp dwelling creatures are eaten up by things in the wild?"
I agree with you Cedric that these frog-men are unworthy of our attention - as long as they remain allies. Helping them in this matter ensures they remain so. It would be irksome to have to put them all down and find some other method to guard the caverns.
But more importantly, those mercenaries blasted a hole in our defences that we have not yet managed to plug. Zikomo said he had visions of a "hunting demon." This could lead us to a more worthy ally.
Johan shrugged. Or it could lead us to nothing. Either way, I doubt it will require the knot's full strength. Leaving someone behind might be prudent, if that's what you are offering.
A hunting demon....these savages have no idea the power of the nether realms. No doubt they name every snark and grumpkin a "demon". But, I will assist you in this matter Master Johan. Agrippa says, still in a black mood from his continuous failures
Deciding it isn’t worth bringing the whole knot in the hunting, the party leaves Sebastian and Grumblejack to oversee the ritual while they venture into the untamed woods from the briar in search of what may be hunting the boggards.
The northern Caer Bryr is a temperate rainforest richly blessed with rain fall and broadleaf trees. The trees here are tall and broad. The thick-trunked baobab tree, unusual in such a wet clime, is common here and grows to enormous size. It is not uncommon to see trees hundreds of feet tall with trunks twenty feet across. To walk into the deep Briar is to enter the domain of giants. Every flat surface is covered with brilliant green moss and lichens in every hue. Mushrooms of a million sorts proliferate and crowd every fallen log. Small animal life is dense -- squirrels, voles, mice and white-faced ghost monkeys. Birds dwell here in endless variety and dazzling panoramas of plumage are everywhere on display. It is a bountiful place rich and thriving with nature’s splendor.
The Lake of Skye, rarely seen by civilized eyes, fractures into a thousand streams that course through the forest floor. These streams eventually stagnate and fail near the coast becoming the Salt Brack.
Perhaps the single most famous feature of the northern Briar are the great stone spires. They proliferate everywhere in this jungle rising hundreds of feet above theforest floor. Often covered in foliage, they are the home to countless small animals. These are natural spires though the Iraen are full of stories about how they were carved by ancient giants. The beauty of these spires has drawn more than natural creatures. Fey and spirits dwell in and around the stone spires in great abundance.
Checking your map, you decide to follow the stream, the broken river towards the lake. It takes a full day’s trip until Johan notices something is wrong. The usual animal trails are scarce and the noise around is not like a typical forest. It’s too quiet, but the night falls and the knot stops. Only Johan with his new enhanced vision feels at ease in the impending darkness.
Something is wrong here and we are losing light - lets hustle back a one or two miles from here the way we came and set up camp there. We seem to have stumbled onto somethings hunting grounds here and to camp here would be folly.
Agrippa nods at Eldred A most prudent course of action.
Agreed
The group backtracks up stream to a less foreboding area of the briar to set camp.
The knot feeling the spooky forest would not bring anything good, takes the path back following the river until they find a nice place to set up camp.
I recommend the armoured guys take first and last watch - easier to manage with their armor, either putting it on or taking it off
I'll take middle watch - 3 watches should do it and give Agrippa a full nights rest... we can shake it up later if needs be.
Johan first, then me - I can sleep in the armour as its 'light' armour and Cedric last.
Agrippa will use the spell Alarm to set wards around the campsite. Audible alarms to wake everyone if something "Tiny" sized or larger enters.
Agrippa has three Alarm spells memorized and they last 16 hours per casting.
I can make this easier.
Agrippa will also cast Darkvision on Eldred.
Eldred nods his thanks to the diabolist and settles in to sleep leaving Johan to take the 1st watch.
No fire is lit and they chew cold trail rations of bread, jerky and nuts.
There’s a strange quietness in the place, but nothing disturbs your rest.
Morning arrives and you pack and continue following long lost trails.
The group ventures again near the lake, the eerie part of the forest.
With some luck, Eldred manages to catch a glimpse of a trail, boggards by the look of it.
Agrippa wakes and seeing that nothing untoward happened in the night, refreshes his spells for the day.
One night roughing it is enough, we should return to the Horn today if nothing is found
You are a bit pampered there but as fellow city boy, I couldn't agree with you more
Eldred works with Johan to follow the tracks.
Survival
Cedric begrudgingly goes along with the group.
"You say we do this to keep them as ally. I don't see why the cavern needs protected. The group that attacked had little concern for the rest of the horn. We can keep your pets happy I suppose but like master Agrippa I grow tired of the jungle. The ritual room should be our only concern."
In truth, Johan just wanted to hunt, Hid that fact behind a screen of logic. The cavern doesn't need protecting. We could seal it up today and be done with it. And its not about keeping the frogs as allies, but rather not having them as enemies. We have enough to deal with without turning the natives of this jungle against us too.
And as crazy as he may be, Zikomo's visions have so far had the ring of truth to them. He may prove useful in ways we cannot forsee yet. If there is some sort of demon out here like he says, it might be something we can bend to our purpose. Asmodeus knows it couldn't be a worse guardian than those spiders were.
Following the boggards trail isn’t easy, but isn’t that hard either. They were headed towards the lake, as you are now.
You keep following the trail for hours, nearing the big recluse lake when something strange catches your eye. There was a battle, you see signs and marks of it. What must have been huge powerful claws cleaving thru the boggards, yet, there’s no other evidence of it than the signs of battle.
Whatever this creature is, it doesn’t leave a trail. The same cannot be said for the boggards actually, because after the battle they were dragged towards one of the stone spires near the lake, and that left a trail you can follow.
A waterbound foe? Seems that something dragged one in - lets investigate that stone spire... prepare your magics! We hunt!.
Cedric, lets see if we can draw it out. Johan draws the truncheon he took as a trophy from his time at Branderscar prison and leads the way down the trail, muttering invocations to Asmodeus as he goes.
Agrippa has his normal protections applied. He is nothing if not a cautious man.
"Very well Master Hale." Cedric draws his sword and follows.
The trail leads to one of the banks of the Lake of Skye, a shallow cave right in the side of another spire of stone not dissimilar to the one that the Horn was created from.
On a ledge in the back of the den that is littered with bones, fresh kills and surprisingly crude piles of fur and grass spread about its cave. It is almost as if the hunter has made a bed for itself! Amongst the bones are animal remains of every sort, at least three dead boggards, and a half dozen skeletons of other sentients including humans, elves and dwarves. There is against the northern wall of the den, a jumbled pile of relatively ungnawed skulls. Carefully sorted, there are only humanoid skulls in this pile.
You look around and see nothing that indicates the hunter is at home.
Eldred starts searching the lair looking for loot and indications as to the creature.
Judging by the marks left in the bones of the prey and the fresh hunts, Eldred is fairly sure the hunter is a cat-kin; a lion, a tiger, leopard, only bigger and deadlier. One other thing is bugging him since he entered this cave: “Carefully sorted, there are only humanoid skulls in this pile”, there are hundreds of remains of past hunts, and only humanoid skulls are put in display. That isn’t something a wild animal would do, it shows signs of intelligence way beyond what an animal should have.
Some sort of Feline Hunter by my guess but its a wierd one - it sorts the skulls by creature type - a strange Predator indeed. Should we wait it out here in its cave? Such a move may force its hand and indeed make it act impulsively if it sees its lair and trophies being miss used
So trash its lair, then let it track us to a site of our choosing. Sounds good. [ooc] did we pass through any areas that would make good ambush sites on the way in?[/b]
If the rest of the group agrees, Johan sets about despoiling the lair, scattering the displayed skulls around the cave. He makes sure his scent is everywhere, and finally, grabs one of the more interesting humanoid skulls and puts it in his pack. This should ensure I'm the focus of its rage, letting the rest of you get the drop on it.
"I know little of the wilderness or hunting, so I will follow your lead."
Cedric does as the others.
Its a solid approach Johan - I approve
Trashing the lair gives Johan a dark and secret pleasure. Not at the chaos he left in his wake, but at the intention behind it. Taking what one loved and using it against it, even if it was a some wild beast from the forest. He was secretly pleased with himself, despite Kumada-Hears-the-Father omens and criptics messages, it all resumed into hunting a hunter. That he had to drag city boy Agrippa and Cedric into the swamps and dark forest, was only a plus.
Taking the skull, the man looks behind at his handiwork before leaving the place. Tonight the hunter would be the hunt.
---
Finding an spot for an ambush isn't hard. Eldred could think about some places they passed when getting here.
Eldred waves off the valley - all it would accomplish would be to split the members of the band and if the creature was unusually intelligent? It could hunt down members individually.
The open field would be immediately decisive if the right magics are immediately applied to trap the beast but... a predator would not lightly cross into an open clearing but instead would lie in wait and there is the possibility that it would wait until night that would bring issues of its own.
No, the cave is best, thinks Eldred.
He goes some way from the lair, lights a fire and burns green boughs as well as dry wood and encourages everyone except Johan to stand in the smoke as well as rub themselves with the remaining ashes to mask their natural scent with something more neutral and 'normal'. Johan on the other hand he is still smelling of his own scent.
He leads the way to the shallow cave and has Johan go within, meanwhile the group, still smelling of woodsmoke gathers at a vantage point above the cave mouth and drop motionless, speaking not at all in anything other than muted whispers while they wait for the beast.
Johan paces the cavern several times before settling in. He busies himself with building a modest fire then preparing a modest meal. As he waits, he examines the skull he took.
Agrippa studies his spellbook, learning two spells that might aid them more in this endeavor
I can ward the Cave entrance to warn me if something approaches. Tell me where you want the Wards. and when Johan points out the likely spots for approach, Agrippa will ward them with a silent alarm.
Cedric follows Eldred's lead and commands rubbing the ashes over his exposed area's trying to mask his scent.
"So now we wait? Too bad we don't have one among us to communicate with such beast. From what you have said it seems an intelligent and skilled hunter."
And so, the villains hide, silent and deadly, waiting for to trap the hunter.
--
Johan paces inside the cave, waiting and thinking. When he got tired of thinking, he tried firebuilding, and then mealmaking. After eating, the puts himself to study the skull he took. Certainly, it is from a dwarf. The marks indicates it was half chewed, its empty and deformed eyesockets holding untold secrets, but nothing worth of immediate attention.
--
Not knowing what the others were thinking, the knot fails to take action; the momentum passes and the tiger slips away, hidden amongst the briar vegetation. One thing for sure. The feline knew the cave as a trap.
Cunning beastie we have there - We will need to either leave this creature alone, because in a way its guarding the surrounds of the Spire, or we need to beard it in its own liar, assuming we can find its new one. Come on, lets get tracking it.
Yes, we can't let it alone now that we've made an enemy of it and it knows our scent. It would likely trail us back to the Horn and start preying on our followers.
"What creature? Did you see something? Are you saying it knew well enough to not come in here? This beast may just let us leave or it may not. Perhaps it can be put to use if it lets us go. Is there not ways to communicate with it. I can get Ulf to do my bidding, but I know little of magic other than my own. Master Agrippa what do you think?"
Johan didn't like being thwarted. While he knew that trying to bend this creature to their own purpose was the right move, all he could think of at the moment was what it would be like to sleep under a tiger skin blanket
I think that I am tired and sore and this place is no fitting place for a nobleman to be traipsing through. Am I a Druid of the Forest to be speaking with beasts? I am a practitioner of Power, a conjurer of the Hells. Let's kill the damn thing so I can sleep in my own bed. Agrippa says, in a foul mood.
"Then let us finish the task. Master Hale is an excellent tracker."
Johan takes the point, assisted by Eldred. The effort combined makes it passable trying to track the beast. For some reason, it doesn’t leave trails as a normal animal should, but that don’t prevent the party from following.
Round Suprise-
Ordered Initiative-
Active Effects-
- Agrippa: Protection from Arrow, Mage Armor
- Ground treated as difficult terrain.
Map-
Notes-
Narrative-
The minutes passes as the knot continues hot in the tiger trail, when suddenly, a hoar sounds, startling everyone.
”REEEVEAAGAARRRRRR”
In a sudden moment, the cat is over Agrippa, clawing and chewing, grapplig and deadly.
Johan spins around at the sound of the attack. Bloody hells! he curses as he grabs for his truncheon and sprints back to help Agrippa by braining the big cat in the back of the skull.
Swift action: Activate Bane/magical beasts
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