Flopsy’s fingers keep a token hold on the fabric for a moment before she resigns herself to being rabbit-handled. You can feel the attitude coming off of her eye roll. ”I thought we were friends!” she complains.
When it is clear Esperanza isn’t budging, she releases a mighty ”HMPH!” This is a stupid idea that hasn’t and won’t ever work. ”Mr. Speaks-for-the-Trees, can I play with your stupid troll spit?” she asks before turning back to the Tiefling. ”Seeitdidntwork, and I tried everything!
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"Flopsy, while I don't have actual Troll spit today," says Undari, smiling indulgently, "I do have some spider stick--it will let you climb most any surface, for a time."
Undari hands over his ointment of spider climb to the small creature, adding, "And if you are responsible with that, I can give you another tincture later--it will help quickly heal wounds if you get injured."
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Esperanza resists the urge to rub the soft fur of Flopsy's ears, and instead smiles at her. "We are friends. See? It worked."
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Lily just stares awkwardly at Gaius and thinks,"How is it that someone whose the polar opposite of the fey is so fascinated by them? "
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Thorek confers quickly with Cobb and Aubrin that everything is in order for the move over to Fort Trevalay, then rejoins the others. "Alright--anyone know anything at all about 'Blooder's Bend'? Sounds friendly enough but books, covers et cetera et cetera."
The dwarf's gaze snaps onto Flopsy and her new prize. His eyes narrow. "Where did you get that? Did you steal it?"
Flopsy rests on her haunches, mouth frozen mid-whine as Undari gently places some of his stash in her hands. "O-oh! It did! Thankyousomuch!" The little Pooka hugs the Druid's leg and turns to Esperanza. "I suppose we're friends..." she concedes, cradling the ointment. But why does she have to be right about everything? I can be right sometimes too!
When Thorek calls her out, she stamps her feet indignantly. "I did not! Bet you wouldah seen how I got it too if you plucked those mangy eyebrows of yours!" With the obvious difference in muscle mass and general size, she does her best to scamper away and make herself scarce after that zinger.
On the march to their next destination, the little Pooka finds herself hopping back and forth between Gaius, Esperanza, and Undari asking each the same question out of earshot of the others, but making a point to compare their answers quite loudly.
Gaius barely registers Lily's stare. Frowning as he scrawls notes into his book, his quill leaves a dribble of ink on the page each time he reinks it. His blotter remains criminally unused. Flopsy, Pooka of the Fangwood, seems eager to manipulate materials that stimulate her visual and olfactory senses (Prior history with fecal matter and a juvenile treant? Described poultice as "Troll spit," initial story worth following up). Resorts to childish antics (learned behavior from peers or instinct?) to both gain attention and make requests, valuing a "holding equals ownership" approach. Doubtful of alternative measures, appears genuinely surprised when presented with evidence counter to current beliefs. More observation necessary to confirm/understand findings.
He snaps his book shut proudly. "Fascinating, isn't she?" he asks with a pleased smile.
________
The party sets out from Hidden Hope. Kinning's revitalized forge and the Darklands passages that Novvi uses make this smaller base a better staging point for the party's next expedition. Caladra and Cyrioul stay behind to oversee Greenleaf's Roughnecks, who also operate out of Hidden Hope. Meanwhile, Aubrin, Boudra, Bree, and Cedric watch over the civilian refugees as the majority of them resettle in the larger, more secure Fort Trevalay.
Two days' travel brings the party back to the broken remnants of Fort Nunder, in the shadow of the steep hillside that hides its inner vaults. Past this point, the party enters unfamiliar ground. Only perhaps Esperanza has previously traveled this way whilst escorting refugees from Redburrow, but she may have been too distracted and exhausted to keenly note the lay of the land.
Blooder's Bend lies about an hour west of Fort Nunder. It is creek bed that lies dry most of the time, except when storms off Lake Encarthan send flash floods crashing along its banks.
.....
After a few hours' hike westward through the forest, you soon recognize the telltale signs that the party has crossed into the territory of an especially large, aggressive bear. If care is not taken whilst traveling, you risk attracting the ornery animal's attention.
A particularly fearsome dire bear known as Patchy lairs within this stretch of the Chernasardo. The beast's patches of white fur have transformed Patchy into a local legend among trappers that brave the area.
With Longshadow being your eventual destination, the party will need to cross the Hollow Hills, a rugged stretch of land that contains much of Nirmathas' mineral wealth. Outside of Longshadow, many small, isolated communities eke out an existence among the hills. Two of the more notable hamlets include the iron mining Redburrow and the gold and quartz mining Radya's Hollow.
Undari calls the others to him, saying, "We are entering the territory of a large bear. I would prefer not to disturb it. Let me cast a spell for us and follow my lead. Hopefully we can avoid a confrontation with it on the way to our destination."
"Owlbears, regular bears, wolves, monsters...what do they all eat around here?!"
"Ironfang, hopefully," Esperanza answers, doing her best to step lightly around dry leaves and fallen branches.
"Not to be that guy, but Patchy would be more accurately described as a Dire Bear. If I had to wager, the regular bears are what are feeding these non-traditional bear varieties. The fat to protein ratio wou-," Gaius begins postulating, until he sees the look on Thorek's face. Must have been rhetorical!
"Um, Undari, think you can lead us through the Hollow Hills once we're through the Bend? There are a handful of mining towns we could probably rest and resupply in, if the Irongfangs haven't sacked them first," he suggests. "Or even connect to Hidden Hope?"
________
Undari and Esperanza guide the party safely through the dire bear's territory for two miles. At this point, you realize that you are now within the heart of the fearsome animal's range.
Undari's magically guided sense of direction takes you along game trails that Patchy has not traveled recently. The bones of old meals, still emblazoned with tooth and claw marks, provide grim answers about diet. The skulls of elk and boar, their antlers and tusks broken, bespeak the predator's prized prey.
Undari also identifies sites where heavily armored soldiers - almost certainly Ironfangs - were attacked by the dire bear. Among the torn up ground, clumps of dirt bonded with blood, the evidence is clear that the bear won these brutal fights, even if no trace of the hobgoblins can be found.
Now looking actually worried, Undari stands up and says, "This bear is very big -- big enough to slay ironfangs and devour the bodies. She also has cubs, so we should be VERY careful to not disturb her..."
Though clearly not on Undari's level, Thorek is no slouch at woodcraft either, being careful about his positioning in the wind and avoiding noisy patches of underbrush and dry twigs underfoot.
Mortified at the prospect of disturbing a mother protecting her cubs, Gaius only takes steps where he's confident one of his allies has stepped before. His fear-fueled hyper-attention to not becoming bearfood does mean he is able to point out a few hidden branch before Thorek's steelshod foot loudly snaps it to kindling.
________
You cross another mile and a half of dense forest, with the passage remaining uneventful other than the occasional discovery of yet more evidence of the apex predator's impact on the local ecosystem. This makes you all the more relieved to have thus far escaped Patchy's notice.
Soon, however, the signs become unmistakable. At first it is just birds and squirrels fleeing overhead. Then you faintly hear snapping twigs and branches from a distance behind you. The dire bear has caught the scent of large prey - your scent - in her territory. She is pursuing you.
The naturalists among you can estimate that you have less than a half-mile to go before you leave the dire bear's established territory. If you pick up your pace and hurry, you may yet escape your bestial pursuer.
Lily looks around and says," I'm all for hustling. I don't want to anger the moma bear. All she's doing is protecting her babies. "
"Undari, if you think that beast isn't a threat to our people, I'll trust you. If we're not going to kill it we should make ourselves scarce."
"We should hurry. The last thing we want is to wear ourselves down fighting a giant bear in hostile territory."
"Right, let's double time. I'll take rearguard and try to charm it with the wand if it gets too close," offers Undari.
The party picks up its feet and hustles onward, hoping to outpace the hungry bear. Undari's magic ensures that even in your hurry, you do not lose your way. You bound over gullies, tear past briar patches, and vault over fallen logs. Your increased pace carries you beyond Patchy's reach, and once you identify that you have likely left her territory, you allow yourselves a pause to confirm that you can no longer hear her pursuing you.
Doing his best to control his ragged breath, Gaius takes awkwardly large breaths, holds them, then lets them out quickly before repeating the process. I think this is making it worse, but if I make too much noise I'll be bear chow!
________
A squad of hobgoblins lurks nearby, hidden among the undergrowth. Likely alerted by the party's hastened movement, they have quickly yet skillfully taken up ambush positions. You count five of them in all, and they are ready to strike imminently.
Lily is too preoccupied thinking about baby bears even if they are capable of killing her.
The treeline gives way, offering a view of a twisting gorge overlooking a dry creekbed. There is little time to appreciate that you have reached Blooder's Bend, for some of you notice a new, non-ursine danger lurking ahead.
Esperanza and Thorek spot, on the west end of the opposite side of the gorge, a hobgoblin soldier carrying a double-bladed sword, hunkering down amidst the trees and undergrowth, downing a potion.
Only Undari, though, notices the four other hobgoblins lurking among the tree trunks across the way, drawing back their bowstrings.
With barely a moment to react, Undari unleashes Thorny Entanglement on the archers hiding in the trees, saying to the others, "Ambush!" and stepping into the partial cover of a nearby tree (5 foot step).
Thorny Entanglement: DC 18 Reflex Partial (Entangle)
-> Attacks those within 15' on their turn: Hurling Thorns +13 attack, 2d6 piercing damage.
-> Automatic damage for being inside the area of effect:
"Oho! Looks like Blooder's Bend will see a bit more blood," Thorek observes, advancing to the edge of the gorge and invoking Angradd's wrath in a battle-prayer.
"Another Ironfang lackey! Tired of slaughtered civilians? Have a taste of Kraggodan steel!" he taunts the officer with the double-bladed sword.
Undari's spell erupts in a riot of grasping, pricking vines and nettles that seize at the legs of most of your hidden foes. Only the hobgoblin woman on the end of their line evades their grasp, with the other three near her becoming entangled. The sharp thorns bite through their thick hide armor.
Unlike Thorek, Esperanza remains silent, simply stepping forward to stand between Undari and the hobgoblin she can see.
...
...
...
The hobgoblin ambushers loose their first volley of arrows before they even think about freeing themselves from the grasping, biting vines. One arrow snaps against the mithral links of Esperanza's armor, with another whizzing past her. Undari is not as fortunate, with one arrow grazing him.
As the pain of the thorns and grasping plants sets in, now the hobgoblins turn their attention to escape.
Snarling at the wound from the arrow, Undari returns fire--in the form of a blinding flash of light that envelops two northernmost archers (10 foot radius effect), hoping his entangling vines make it harder for them to dodge his spell. He then moves with his back to the tree to continue using it for partial cover as the warriors rush past to engage the closer foes.
Burst of Radiance: , Blind for (or only Dazzled if Reflex DC 17 is made).
Glaive raised highly, Esperanza dashes up the slope toward the nearest of the hobgoblins. Once he's within reach, she lunges forward with the blade, trying to cut him down before he can do hurt anyone else.
"Oh, oh, I've just the thing!" Gaius says as he frantically pats himself down. "Here it is! FIRE IN THE HOLE!" he shouts, launching a smoldering bead at middle of the Hobgoblin troop from a charred stick. "That wasn't as bad as-" As it strikes the ground, the bead explodes with thunderous force!
"AAAAAHHH! I WAS WRONG, I WAS HORRIBLY WROOOONG!" he screams as he ducks behind Thorek's mountainous hill-ious? physique.
________
Gaius' fireball explodes, sending flames racing across the writhing vines. Ironically, it is the hobgoblin officer, currently not entangled by the spell, who is caught off guard and suffers the brunt of the fiery magic.
Esperanza nimbly bounds up the slope of the dry creek, and with a single stroke of her glaive, she cleaves her foe in twain.
Undari's latest spell rattles two of the hobgoblin - blinding one, dazzling the other, and wracking them both with pain.
Lily moves next to Esperanza and says,"Well this isn't the best of circumstances me to show you my new abilities."
Lily moves next to Esperanza and says,"Well this isn't the best of circumstances me to show you my new abilities."
"How does she do that?" Thorek complains to the air as Esperanza sprints down and then back up the side of the gully to take the Ironfang officer apart. Dropping his dorn-dergar in a rattle of chain, the dwarf unlimbers his bow and nocks an arrow. "It's the long legs, gotta be. We should go back to fighting in tunnels!" Drawing back he sights down the arrowshaft and looses his shot.
The lone female hobgoblin, clearly an officer, slides down the earthen ridge to escape the writing plant life. Although her armor protects her from a volley of thrown thorns, it fails to stop the arrow loosed by Thorek.
One of the hobgoblin archers is unable to break free from his bonds, so he fires another futile arrow towards Undari, the presumed source of his misery.
Two of the other hobgoblins manage to break free. One hustles out of the area consumed by the vines, although he suffers some minor wounds from thrown thorns for his trouble. The other one, however, cannot run far enough to escape the deadly morass. Between hurled thorns and the grasping brambles, he is dragged down and slain.
Undari looks at the archer to the west who escaped the entanglement, then casts Flaming Sphere, positioning the fiery ball of flame just behind the creature and slamming it into the ambusher! He then continues to adjust his position, using the tree trunk as cover.
Pushing back upslope, Thorek draws another arrow and looses at the Ironfang officer.
With his bulwark hustling away from him, Gaius fires off a salvo of arcane bolts at the Hobgoblin leader, then ducks behind a tree. They may be sitting ducks, but everyone knows a cornered foe is the most dangerous!
________
"I look forward to seeing them," Esperanza says to Lily. She allows the momentum from her glaive to carry her forward to the next Ironfang, where she strikes again.
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Lily smirks as she carefully coordinates a distraction to allow Esperanza to strike her opponent again.
Despite the impact of Gaius' magic missiles and the sting of thrown thorns, the hobgoblin officer charges forward with fanatical zeal. As she draws closer, you recognize her as the officer who fled during your assault on Fort Trevalay after failing to drive you out of the tower.
Whirling about her heavy, twin-bladed sword, she delivers a strong but wild blow upon Gaius that leaves her defenses exposed.
Likewise, the archer who escaped the grasp of the thorns now finds himself distracted by Lily's feinting flourish, leaving him quite vulnerable to Esperanza's glaive. The steel polearm darts and flashes like a quickly diving raptor. The first swing relieves the archer of his arm, and the second disembowels him.
Despite his target now standing so close to Gaius, Thorek maintains his aim and sinks another arrow into the hobgoblin officer. However, she evades the flaming sphere that Undari summons and remains determined to fight.
The final archer struggles to pull himself free from the grasping vines, but to no avail. In one last futile gesture of spite, he launches one final arrow that goes wide and misses Undari. A thorny vine wraps around the hobgoblin's throat, dragging him down into death.