You ride north across the fallen logs, and as you move past them, you spot Goodluck to the west. He is caught with a splinterwaif on one side and a writhing thorny bramble on the other.
In a clear voice, Meycho directs Falling Star towards the now visible enemy.
Meanwhile, Meycho shoulders his bow, wanting to get close and personal.
Falling star swoops at the foe, but fails to connect with either beak or claw.
Goodluck steps to the side to avoid the sudden flank. "Over here! Dere's one of dese buggers over here!"
Cast defensively Gozreh's trident:
Splinterwaif acro
Splinterwaif Stealth
The splinterwaif ducks and tumbles past Falling Star, and vanishes into the underbrush to the west.
You hear mufled sounds to the north, but are unable to make out anything specific.
Caelin fought the urge to run towards Goodluck's voice. There might well be other foes on this side of the camp. For that matter, the little bastards could pop down here in no time. Better to continue his sweep.
With his bow at the ready, and another arrow nocked, Caelin continued along the edge of the camp. West now, and then northwest.
Perception:
Taecuss:
Jervaise:
Splinterwaif:
You stalk through the underbrush, you ranger training allowing you to move freely where others would be hindered, but even your sharp, elven eyes fail to spot a target for your arrows
You hear and see nothing but the swirling mist. Just like the enemies, Caelin has blended into the wilds.
Jervaise continues to look around the camp, waiting for a target to make itself known...
A bugbear! Caelin raised his bow to take aim...until he noticed that Jervaise was standing, unperturbed, nearby.
I guess it's on our side, he shrugged, turning back to scan the underbrush.
You pick up the scent of the splinterwaif - it seems to becoming from the bushes west of your current position.
Abandoned logging camp
Round 5
Ordered Initiative-
Meycho/Falling Star: 26
Goodluck: 20
Twigjacks: 19
Splinterwaif: 19
Caelin/Aumgwe: 18
Jervaise: 13
Taecuss: 7
Terrain Features-
Bushes/Dark green areas: Heavy undergrowth - difficult terrain and 30% concealment.
Lumber piles: 10 ft high.
Fallen logs (between the two southern log-piles): Difficult terrain.
Notes-
The initiative counts above reflects only the enemies who have shown themselves. Hidden enemies may enter the initiative order in other places, as a result of delay/readied actions.
The splinterwaif has summoned an animated bramble. This is marked in yellow. The animated bramble is immobile, but threatens all adjacent squares.
Active Effects
Bard song: Inspire Courage +2/+2 - 5 round spent
For now, move to I16 and ready attack.
Jace, do you just want to plan a hiatus for this game until you are past the wedding (and hopefully a honeymoon if you can take one)? We can leave it as a cliffhanger in the fog if it will take some of the stress of this week off of you? From what I've seen, your players are engaged enough that it shouldn't be a problem to fire it back up when you are ready.
Falling Star:
Meycho nudges his pony along, arrow nocked and ready. For now, he fails to spot any enemies in the mist besides the animated bramble, which writhes menacingly, but is unable to reach either him or Goodluck.
Falling Star also fails to spot the splinterwaif, and returns to Meycho with an irritated shriek.
Goodluck moves to M17 and attacks with Gozreh's Trident!
Attack:
Damage: electricity
Confirmation:
Damage:
Goodluck will limp to I-22, keeping any eye out for any more of the little buggers. He'll ready an attack with the tame lightning bolt he holds in his hand.
Splinterwaif
dmg
stealth
Perception:
Caelin:
Meycho:
Falling Star:
Aumgwe:
You move through the mist, and fail to spot either Splinterwaif or twigjacks. There is a bugbear standing in the middle of the fallen lumber though.
You hear a sharp crack, and a splinter of woof hisses past your head. You fail to spot where the shot came from, but an angry shriek from Falling Star hints that he has seen where the splinterwaif is hiding.
You hear a sharp crack, and spot a splinterwaif in the bushes dead ahead firing a splinter at someone. You have a clear shot (with concealment, of course) and a path to charge, if you wish.
The action is on Caelin - I'll take his turn for him if he has not posted in an hour or two to move things along.
The action is on Caelin - I'll take his turn for him if he has not posted in an hour or two to move things along.
With a sharp intake of excited breath, Caelin dropped his bow and burst forward towards the splinterwaif. Drawing his sword as he hopped over and around the camp gear, he took it in one smooth arc towards the little fey. As he followed through, he whistled for Aumgwe to stay close.
EDIT: Forgot concealment:
Power Attack w/Greatsword: (power attack -2, Insprired +2, Favored +4. Charge if I can though the gear, then add 2 more)
Damage: (7+2inspire+6pa+4favored)
Boom?
Concealment
With all the skill and fury of countless battles with evil fey behind him, Caelin strikes. The cold-iron greatsword flashes, and the splinterwaif, which thought itself concealed, lets out a shriek of sudden fear - and dies.
Silence fills the camp. For a while, the five heroes stalk the mist, on guard for more fey to ambush from the bushes and wood piles. But neither Taecuss' enhanced sense of smell or Goodluck's fog-piercing vision reveals anything, and no further enemies appear. If more twigjacks or splinterwaifs were around, they must have slinked away in the fog in the face of the brutal end that their fellows have met.
Caelin searches out his bow and picks it up. Counting up his comrades, he deduces that it's Taecuss disguised as the bugbear. Grinning he asks "Tae, before you change back, could you expound upon Andoran haut cuisine for a minute? I'd like to see that from a bugbear."
Meycho laughs at the bugbear chef impersonation, then looks around. Is anyone injured? I'm sorry I was of little help against these foes, but their stealthy ways almost got the better of me, he says before calling Falling Star to sit on his shoulder.
Goodluck shakes his head, making a curiously musical sound as the barnacles clank together. "Truly de northern sense o' humor is not easily compr'hended."
As you stand talking, the sunlight slowly fades. Dusk is falling, and you feel the chill of the Fellnight mists all around you. No sounds except the ones you make. The battered bodies of the evil fey lie scattered throughout the camp.
The destruction of the camp does not seem to be as bad as it first seemed. Most of the tents are torn, but can probably be patched up. Equipment and tools lie scattered, as does the fallen logs from the trapped lumber pile. Even so, you can probably secure a comfortable place to rest with a minimum of work.
Once certain that there are no more threats in the immediate area, Jervaise relaxes a little.
[b]"Well done, lads! Now, we have a couple of unconscious fey that we can finish-off or interrogate at our leisure... First off, though, I would like to conduct a search of this camp, to see if anything useful / clues can be uncovered..."{/b]
Dismounting, Meycho says I agree, we should set up camp and see if there are any useful items around. Whether interrogating the prisoners will provide any useful clues I don't know...
Caelin sighed wearily at the thought of interrogating the fey. He found fey to be annoying conversationalists even when they were friendly! They make stupid jokes and have the attention span of a fruit fly. He shuddered to think what these nasty examples might be like.
But he couldn't deny the usefulness of the process. Too many strange things had happened today, and the group needed information. Besides, most fey (even the troublesome or violent ones) weren't naturally evil. They were just more susceptible to taint than other creatures. To treat them cruelly would be like treating a stream cruelly for being polluted.
No, someone or something was behind this, and they needed to find out.
He sighed again, this time with resignation and resolve. "I can usually tell when fey are lying to me, but I'm useless when it comes to interrogations and negotiations. Too little patience for chatter, I'm afraid. So, if someone can help, I'd like to know a bit more about what's going on, and these might be able to help", he said, pointing to the sprawled creatures.
You swiftly police up the bodies and examine the remains of the camp.
The creatures
Both splinterwaif and two of the twigjacks have died from their injuries.
The last twigjack was knocked out by Jervaise's brutal beating and is severly wounded. You estimate that it will be unconscious for several hours unless magically healed.
One of the dead splinterwaifs carried a pouch of strange, glittery dust.
The camp
The camp is divided into a work area to the north and a living area to the south. Both areas show signs of fighting, with thorny darts, arrows and discarded, broken weapons scattered and smears of blood here and there.
The inhabitants of the camp were obviously ambushed. Half-eaten meals are spilled from dropped plates, and a deck of cards has been trampled into the ground along with a handful of copper pieces. The fires of the forge and cooking hearth are cold. It has been several hours since the battle.
You estimate from the number of bunks in the tents that the camp held about a dozen men. You do not find any of the lumberjacks, alive or dead.
Under a tarp in the work area lies a MW cold iron handaxe.
A crate labeled “Medical supplies” contains:
2 x potions of CLW
1 x potion of CMW
1 x potion of Neutralize poison
1 x healers kit (10 uses)
By the anvil, a set of MW Blacksmith's tools lie discarded.
Two of the bushes in the middle of the camp do not resemble any of the other vegetation in the area. Upon closer inspection, you discover half-dried blood soaked into the ground around their roots. You suddenly realize the grim truth - these bushes are all that remain of two dead bodies, transformed by the splinterwaifs.
You find plenty of tracks, from humans as well as the twigjacks and splinterwaifs. You also find tracks from small humanoids which suddenly grow dramatically in size. These are almost certainly made by Fellnight Spriggans like the ones you fought at the wedding, and you estimate that at least 20 of them took part in the battle.
A mixture of human and spriggan tracks lead off into the woods to the west. The humans show signs of being injured and bound.
Knowledge Nature (woodlands)
Survival
Caelin picked his way through the debris, moving from place to place and talking out loud.
"It appears that this camp was attacked by a large number of fey. Spriggans, along with the waifs and jacks." He scanned the ground, unconsciously counting with his fingers on the side of his leg. "Fifteen...no, more like twenty all told. Some of the humans were captured and led off to the west." He stopped at some bushes and touched the ground at their roots. His hand came back bloody. "Not all of them, though." With that, his hand gently brushed the leaves, and he whispered a prayer to Gozreh.
Standing up, he gently handed the pouch of strange, glittery dust to Tae. "Do you know what this is?"
He looked through the crate of healing gear. "I could use one of these potions, just in case. Anybody else want one?"
I'm assuming you cast Detect Magic to aid in your investigation of the dust. It is a pouch of Dust of Illusion
Jervaise nods.
"It looks like they were taken by surprise; the fact that so many of them were taken away, rather than being killed, is troubling... I worry about what they are intended for..."
{b]"I will take de poison potion and de healer's kits. I cna make good use of dem."[/b]
"Well, let's ask this last 'jack when he wakes up from Jervaise's lullaby."
Caelin handed the neutralize poison potion and the healers kit to Goodluck, a potion of cure light wounds each to Jervaise and Meycho, and tucked the potion of cure moderate wounds into his belt pouch. He nodded to Jervaise as half-elf hefted the handaxe.
"In the meantime, let's arrange our things close to the fire. I want us close together tonight, given the mist. We'll need to move out first thing in the morning."
He sent Aumgwe to stand watch on a woodpile and began clearing an area around the fire pit of debris.
As he worked, he smiled over to Meycho. "Meycho, is it true that this sort of thing happens at every wedding you attend?"
Meycho looks down, mock shame on his face, Whoever spread those evil...rumours about me? Jervaise, I thought we had agreed to keep that a secret between us...
At Tae's comment, Meycho stiffles a laugh, Agreed, till the stars themselves fall down and Aroden returns, I'd say.
Sending Falling Star to the opposite site of the camp to stand watch, Meycho began helping with setting up camp.