Grenwold crushes the skull of the unbordered Ankheg, then urges Nigel to run through the yellow Ankheg, killing it.
The purple and the red ankheg attempt to attack Cavall.
Father Noelan finishes off at the purple ankheg with two arrows while directing Cavall to attack the red ankheg.
Cavall manages to bite the red ankheg but not pull it to the ground.
+1 adaptive comp. longbow, point-blank shot on red Ankheg.
Gren can't reach the last ankheg and attack, so he and Fenton move adjacent to Cavill and the Ankheg.
Robert manages to skewer the ankheg in its chest with his arrows, killing it. Father Noelan heals Nigel with inflict light wounds.
The rest of the day traveling through the Hollow Hills passes uneventfully, but other then the tracks, still now headed north, the party does not see any other sign of the hobgoblins they are chasing.
The party takes a break for the night, and Nigel drinks an alchemical allocation, before taking the now rather salivaish potion of keep watch, and spitting it back into the bottle. The night passes uneventfully and the next morning, the party sets out following the tracks once more.
After about 2 hours of travelling, the ground starts to rumble and shake as four huge hulking, roughly humanoid creature of dirt and stone explode up from the earth, faceless save for two glowing gemstone eyes.
They rumble at the party.
Why have you come into our territory?
Grenwold has no idea what the creatures are.
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Nigel bows apologetically.
Grenwold puts his weapon away. ”Uh, hello. Sorry but I don’t understand. We mean you no harm. Do any of you speak common?” Grenwold repeats this in a few different languages.
The creatures do not seem to understand any of the languages that Grenwold speaks.
Turning to Nigel one of the earth elementals rumble while gesturing towards his companions.
I am Loam and these are my companions Laterite, Alluvium and Peat.
The one named Laterite rumbles.
We saw no hobgoblins or whatever you call them. Humanoid affairs are of no interest to us. Though there was an overturned wagon about half a day east of here. Two legger like to check out those things it seems.
Peat rumbles at Nigel.
See that you get out of our territory post haste.
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Nigel explains to the others.
"Zese are Loam, Laterite, Alluvium, and Peat. Apparently, zey haven't seen ze Hobgoblins, but zere is apparently an overturned vagon about half a day East of here. Ve should probably make a note to check zat out, as vell..."
He then turns back to the earth elementals.
”Please ask them where their territory is so that we can put it on our map. If they speak Terran, they may want to speak with the Pechs or the Troglodytes. You should let them know that they may have allies within the forest. And I agree we should check out the wagon, please thank them. Also, well done on negotiating... I should really learn Terran.”
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Nigel nods.
"I vould be happy to teach you zese basics vhen you have ze time, Gren..."
He then adds to the Elementals:
Alluvium begins to describe the trees and hills (with their various soils) marking their territory.
Loan rumbles at Nigel.
The Pech we will pay a visit- they are children of the earth as are we. The Troglodytes...we seriously doubt they know how to worship the earth, and it is likely to be just an empty title to prove their dominance among their kind.
Loam's gemstone eyes furrow, as he rumbles with a disdainful sniff.
Terbius? That odd, nerdy earth elemental that keeps reading humanoid books? He has no standards and is getting from bad to worse. Decent earth elementals shouldn't be messing around with humanoid affairs.
And the troglodytes probably liked cozing up to him just for bragging rights. Geez.
On hearing what Loam says about Terbius, Father Noelan narrows his eyes, then adds sarcastically, "Ek het nie besef dat snobbery nie beperk was tot mense nie."
I didn't realize that snobbery wasn't limited to humans.
Alluvial shrugs his shoulders while rumbling.
Investigate it or not, we don't care. Small two legger affairs are none of our business.
Grenwold waves at the creatures politely as they depart.
”Well, shall we keep following the hobgoblins or check out the wagon?”
"Ja, ek dink die wêreld sou 'n beter plek wees as sommige spesies nie gedink het hulle is beter as ander nie." Father Noelan grumbles.
Yeah I think the world would be a better place if some species didn't think they're better then others.
The party then continues on their way tracking the hobgoblins, leaving the earth elementals behind.
The party runs into 6 brown small humanoid creature has thin, leathery wings, small horns who are smoking some kind of plant. Their eyes are red and slightly glassy and they wave at the party slowly and in an uncoordinated fashion, enthusiastically hailing the party. "'ey, w' got goo' 'tuff. Wanna smoke?"
Grenwold recognises them as earth mephit. They have 5 DR magic and can breathe out a 15 ft cone of rocks.
"'ell...'here be a 'reat 'oise over the 'ill out 'there. 'ut why yo w'anna see 'obgoblins? They 'gly n 'ean. Don't 'now a gud time. C'mere...we know the g'ud st'uff...we' show you the rainbow 'egasus, and the 'berry juice river." They drawl lazily at Nigel.
"'Tis big noise, not 'ig 'ouse." One of them corrects Nigel. 'N it's over that hill!'us walk over te 'ook." Another earth mephit gestures vaguely in the direction Nigel came from.
'Nay 'is over there!" Another earth mephit gestures in the opposite direction the first mephit gestured.
'nah 'is that way!"The third mephit gestures in an eastern direction.
'ome on...'hy bother. 'ave a smoke. Everythng 'ill come clear." The fourth mephit suggests, while the fifth mephit passes Nigel the pipe.
"Hello, it is nice to meet you. I am Grenwold. No thank you, I cannot have any, but I appreciate your offer. It is very kind of you."
Grenwold looks around for a hill that it could be over.
The whole place is hills... but Grenwold does see tracks leading to the hills in front.
"'hy can't you, we ave' ots to hare ere" One of the earth mephits drawl.
Nigel realizes they're smoking Flayleaf
"No, no 'o, y'ou go' t wrong bro, we're hav'in a par'teh n w'want you to 'Ave fun too!" They continue to offer it to Nigel, but the party starts heading to the hills in front. Once the party makes their minds to leave, the stoned mephits get back to smoking more weed Flayleaf.
The party tops the Hull to see two tall towers flank a collection of drab tents along the uppermost ridge of this steep hill. Red banners flutter in the prairie winds, and the smell of animals and rotting meat tinges the air.
”Aye, might as well. The rotting meat smell is pretty bad.”
Gren will cast invisibility on Nigel when he asks for it.
Grenwold casts invisibility on Nigel, then Nigel drinks his mutagen, changing into his were raptor form before taking wing.
Two keen-eyed Ironfang sharpshooters stand on guard all day, watching for enemies from their watch towers. Their owls can be seem resting on stands in the tower.
The core of the camp consists of a semicircle of hide tents, as well as a mess tent and command post. Nearly two dozen rank and file troops commanded by a Hobgoblin in a dragon helm and a breastplate are polishing their weapons. A large wolf runs around the camp.
Slightly removed from the camp, a line of 10 iron gibbet cages dangle from wooden posts along an abrupt cliff, which drops 80 feet to the ground below. Each cage has a simple lock, and seven contain prisoners—six miserable-looking humans and one naked hobgoblin. 5 feral women with tattered wings and talons wing around the cages in a predatory fashion.
Nigel recognises the creatures as harpies.
A harpy’s song has the power to infect the minds of those that hear it, calling them to the harpy’s side. When a harpy sings, all creatures aside from other harpies within a 300-foot spread must succeed on a Will saving throw or become captivated. A creature that successfully saves is not subject to the same harpy’s song for 24 hours. A victim under the effects of the captivating song moves toward the harpy using the most direct means available. If the path leads them into a dangerous area such as through fire or off a cliff, that creature receives a second saving throw to end the effect before moving into peril. Captivated creatures can take no actions other than to defend themselves. A victim within 5 feet of the harpy simply stands and offers no resistance to the harpy’s attacks. This effect continues for as long as the harpy sings and for 1 round thereafter.
Two keen-eyed Ironfang sharpshooters stand on guard all day, watching for enemies from their watch towers. Their owls can be seem resting on stands in the tower.
Beyond the watchtower at the end of the ridge, the hobgoblin tracks split in all directions.
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Nigel shares what he learned with the rest of the party.
"Ze harpies could prove to be a problem. Fazer Noelan? Do you have Silence prepared?"
He then grins wryly.
"Ozervise, ve could vait a day, and have you cast Deafness on each of us!"
Nigel then frowns.
"Dealing viz ze Hobgoblins should be our top priority - ze harpies appear to have a separate camp, and have a Hobgoblin prisoner, so zere may be no love lost betveen ze two groups."
"Yes, but silence lasts a grand total of 40 seconds, eighty if extended and bringing it up takes 6 seconds. Unless we somehow get to the harpies first, that's not going to happen."Father Noelan replies.
Father Noelan shakes his head, disagreeing. "I don't see well at night and neither does Robert. If we moved in at night we would need a light spell, which would give our position away. Besides you previously said that hobgoblins see well in the dark and won't be any less vulnerable.
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"So, four archers, four companions, one large group like we've seen before, a wolf, a hobgoblin leader?, and five harpies. We've got... the four of us, and my companion. The odds aren't great. Do the hobgoblins look as powerful as the fear ones we met last time? One thing we could consider is something similar to what we were thinking of before - hit and run tactics. Once we took out the archers we'd be in much better shape to do that. Is there any way we could focus down one of them from far away, and kill one, and then run away? Keep doing that a few times, from either side, they may not have time to get reinforcements and we..." he points to the various people,"Can heal. If they don't have any healers, that might work."
Gren appears to be considering his options.
”Another option is for me to swap my teamwork feat to get the ability to share spells better - and use that to share invisibility with me and Fenton. Then cast shield of wings, and finally have you silence me. Then I fly over to the harpies and Fenton and I go to town for a bit, hoping to kill them before the hobgoblins can do much.”
Grenwold changes his teamwork feat and casts shield of wings onto Fenton. He then passes his lesser rod of extend to Father Noelan, who casts silence on him. He then casts invisibility on himself before going to find the harpies.
Grenwold steels himself and hopes to be successful. He and Fenton charge one of the harpies, hoping to knock her out in one swoop.
Grenwold and Fenton turn visible and attack the closest chargable harpy.
The harpy is caught by surprise as Grenwold and Fenton appear out of nowhere and gives a shriek that goes unheard in the zone of silence. Grenwold sees the hobgoblin and the humans seem to say something, but he doesn’t hear anything in the zone of silence. Fenton manages to gore and entangle the red happy while Grenwold strikes her with his Morningstar.
The red harpy studies Grenwold, then readies an action.
The rest of the harpies fly above him, then descend, flocking around him with two of them studying him and the other two attacking him with their morningstars, which he manages to block.
The red harpy, on seeing her flock give flanking, lashes at Grenwold with a claw.
Fenton runs red through and harpy falls out of the sky to crash onto the ground below. Unable to control his newfound wings properly, he veers to the side, losing altitude, bringing Grenwold away from the harpies.
Grenwold gets slashed by one of the talons as Fenton loses 20 feet of height.
Seeing one of their leaders fall, one of the harpies takes an opportunity fly outside to yell out something
The green harpy swoops down, readying an action before attacking Grenwold. The Orange harpy flies down, giving the Green harpy flanking then slashes at Grenwold with her talons.
The pink harpy tries to clobber Grenwold with her Morningstar, but it bounces off his toughened skin.
The party hears something coming from the cliff opening
The party hears some shouting coming from the hobgoblin camp then a hobgoblin wearing a dragon helm rides his wolf around the camp, yelling, "Hoi Troops! We've got an intruder in our midst, to the harpy cliffs on the double!"
Then they see the hobgoblin lookouts wake up their owls and climb down from the watchtower, as well as those hobgoblins polishing their weapons begin to arm themselves.
"I don't like the looks of this....it looks like Grenwold's riled up the hornet's nest," Father Noelan says worriedly.
I think Grenwold's AC is 27+2 for combat expertise (31 with bodyguard). I think Fenton's AC is 27.
The harpies strike at Grenwold as he wheels Fenton around, but the talons fall short and he manages to block the shield strike.
Fenton stabs the orange Harpy with his horns, entangling it, then Grenwold clobbers her on her head, but she still remains up. The purple harpy flies over to give her flanking, as the unordered harpy returns. The prisoners continue to be trying to say something, but Grenwold cannot hear what they're saying.
The orange harpy continues to lash at Grenwold with her talons.
The green harpy shifts slightly and attempts to lash at Grenwold with her talons as well, but Grenwold manages to dodge and block the strikes.
Robert prepares to cast Cat's Grace on himself, right before initiative is rolled. Duration; 4 minutes.