DM Rah's "Before the Dawn, Part II: Rescue at Azlant Ridge" PFS (Inactive)

Game Master Kobash

"You touch the key, and we are going to fill you full of arrows"

"Alright, but I've got a whopper of a spell I've been savin' for a special occasion. I dare ya tah stick around and let me use it." Barlor says, dismissing his Entangle spell but keeping his other spell ready.

"You can have the key, but since I can't have you deciding to shoot us as we ride out, your friend comes with me."

The two remaining horsemen ride to Calgredine's side.

"Why don't you leave our friend behind, and I will toss you a healing potion as another show of good faith. All he will do is slow you down anyway..."

"Take a step away from 'im, and we'll put our bows away. Ride fast and we won't be able tah pull 'em back out before yer gone."

Haris remains fifteen feet behind the horseman.

"Throw your bows one way and your arrows the other! Drop that wand too! And you," Calgredine points at Haris. "Move back with the others!"

"Toss the key over here first."

"Keep an arrow trained on this one." Calgredine calls to the nearest horseman. He then takes the key from Yanos and throws it towards Haris. "Now, your turn!"

László unstrings his bow and leans it against a tree before stepping away from it.

Shel follows Laszlo's lead and separates herself from her bow.

Peri resprings her wand of magic missles.

Haris holds his advance and receives the key.

Watching the group with narrowed eyes, Calgredine slowly steps to his horse and mounts. Gesturing to his men, they begin a slow retreat with arrows still held at the ready.

Without Yanos, I presume?

They left Yanos behind.

I mind-bullets them in the back. 10,00 damage each, no save. :)

I suppose we let them ride away... Yanos's mind bullets notwithstanding.

I am going to assume that you let them ride off, then tend to Yanos. Feel free to heal him, check fallen riders, role-play, or whatever, and then we will move on.

If we just leave him will he wake up later and catch up to us? Or will he slowly die over time?
Strictly hypothetical. Just curious.

I'm sure something will happen along and eat him long before either of those situations.

Whatever, I can take it, even while I'm "just napping".

"That didn't go well, did it? Can someone heal Yanos? We are definitely going to need him to patch up the rest of us," Shel groans as she looks around at the beat up team.

I do have a wand of CLW on my Right Arm Wrist Sheath. I was just kind of waiting. :) What's worse is just how many resources we spent on that fight and, well, didn't win. . .

Sure, but it's night, right? We get to rest soon, right?
Right?

Barlor pulls out his wand of CLW and heals Yanos.
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

Next time, don't let Yanos get so far ahead of everyone; the entangles did an excellent job of keeping one wing out of melee range, and our archers did better than theirs. And we spent less resources than we would have if Calgredin had killed Yanos and we'd had to cough up for a Raise Dead.

"We need better synergy guys, this could have been really bad. Sorry about casting another entangle over your Barlor, I was not paying attention. I will work on my attention span."

Barlor's wand brings Yanos back to consciousness in time to hear Raimondo squealing in a panic. "Let's get the hell out of here!" The caravan master begins shouting orders to anyone who will listen, frantic to continue on to Azlant Ridge.

You can rest now if you want, but convincing Raimondo to do so will be difficult. Also, if the Consortium has found another route like Calgredine claimed, then they will probably beat you to the camp.

"Wha, . . what happened. Oh, that was rather unpleasant. Here, come near me and I shall call on healing for us all."

Channel: 2d6 ⇒ (1, 6) = 7

Channel: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 6) = 10

"I know I could use more of the divine rest, is anyone else still in need?"

"I agree. I was under the assumption that we would route those to the left, and then advance on those on the right. By the time that I had moved up, it was too late to retreat back to you, my friends. I underestimated their leader."

"I'd like to rest as much as anyone, but I agree with Raimondo. We need to get to the Ridge ASAP. If the others were truthful, we will be hard pressed to beat them there..."

CLW on Ing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8

@ Barlor, was 17 HP not enough? That was for everyone.

Oh, skimmed your post because I was assuming you'd CLW yourself. My bad. Fixed.

"Perhaps one of you could rest in the wagon, yes?"

Resting in the wagons won't be possible. They shake, sway, and bump on normal roads, and you are on a switchback trail.

What if I cast sleep on them?

"You are right. this place is not safe and we now need to hurry even more. If you would like to try to sleep in the wagon, then do so. Im not sure how well it will work but Ill stay up front to keep an eye out. "

"Raimondo, my friend, forgive me if I ask a foolish question, but do you know of any other ways to get where we are going? Ways you might not take during normal times? For these times are far from normal. And neither are your traveling companions, yes?"

"It might also be wise to have an idea what to expect when we get there. What do you know?

"I think you dropped this", Haris hands the key back to Yanos, then holds up his Curing Wand pointing at the arrow in his leg. "Anyone want to help me with this?"

Everyone healed 17 hp because of Yanos

"Well," Says Raimondo, looking a little sheepish. "I might have overestimated travel time a little..."

It turns out the camp is maybe only two hours away. Raimondo does have a little shortcut, but he wasn't going to mention it because he was afraid of loosing horses to exhaustion. In fact, he suspects the Consortium might be headed for it.

As far as what to expect at the camp, Raimondo hasn't been there for nearly a year. He never even saw the excavation site, so he doesn't know anything useful.

A sleep spell would only put someone to sleep for a few minutes (the duration of the spell), and the movement of the wagon would probably wake them sooner.

"Well lets hurry then! Hopefully they'll be worse for wear than we are." Barlor says, looking at Yanos.

"Wait a moment. Perhaps I am being only mercenary, but there may be items of interest on the fallen." László looks over the bodies. If any of them were using shortbows, he'll collect some arrows to replace what he used.

Perception check: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9

They were using longbows, but I'm pretty sure arrows are universal. If not, you can buy more from the caravan.

You climb ever higher out of the jungle, the series of thin switchback trails just large enough for Raimondo’s caravan wagons. Suddenly, from the canopy below comes an unearthly bellowing roar. Thousands of colorful birds take flight and wing off away from the noise, and a cacophony of screeching, chittering, and screaming follows the roar.

As you approach the top of the ridge, a dilapidated camp comes into view. The camp is surrounded by a hastily constructed palisade wall forming a semi-circle that both starts and ends at an imposing cliff face stretching hundreds feet up from the palisade. The bodies of hundreds of ape-like creatures lie outside the walls in various states of decay. The stench is overpowering, and a cloud of flies is thick above the carnage.

A cry goes up from the tower built over the palisade’s gate as the lookouts spot you, and the gate itself rumbles aside on rickety wooden wheels. A tall, thin woman with black hair pulled back against her head and a shortsword on her hip strides out from the camp to meet you.

At that moment, a horn sounds from down in the valley, closely followed by the screams of men and horses. Looking below, you see another group of Aspis Mercenaries, riding fast up the switchback trails, with hundreds of ape-men hurling stones at them and running hard on their heels.

"Welcome to Azlant Ridge." The tall woman says with a tired smile. "I am Juliet Dias. I see you have met the locals. Quickly now, everyone inside. You don’t want to be out here when they arrive."

The Aspis mercenaries are about 15 minutes away. The bulk of the ape-men are about 5 minutes behind them.

Accepting the quick introduction I begin moving in the direction she indicated. "I am Yanos and we come with aid from the Pathfinder Society. Whats foing on here? looking at the bodies.

"Also we should tell you, more trouble is on the way. We ran into some cavalry men on our way. We believe they have an army and mentioned that they had discovered your location, and presumably a method to enter without a key we have."

"Then who is that?" she asks, pointing to the men being chased up the trail. At their head rides Calgredine.

"I hope you got an army in there. Ing n' I are pretty tuckered as it stands."