"I think we should walk in, ready to shoot the place up if anyone gives us trouble!"
Zyrel shrugs assent.
Kristleifur continues:
"I meant in the pub for our briefing. Someone might shoot at us!"
The party heads into the inn, booking a few rooms with the inkeep, a friendly Pahmet dwarf by the name of Petep. With that, they head for Dog Town, just outside of the Dawn Gate. It is a squalid collection of buildings, most being multilevel wooden shanties. Gnolls sneer at the party as they pass, and many other shady characters abound. It is one of these shanties, though a slightly sturdier-looking one, that has a hanging sign for Rashara’s Den, written in Common and an odd, rough script.
The party decides to turn tail, seeking to avoid confrontation. However, they aren't able to rustle up much information about the merchant before returning to their lodgings, save for that two other mercenary companies in Dog Town were approached by him, the Bone Eaters and the Lushram's Posse.
"Better luck tomorrow!"
Returning to their lodgings, the party makes their way to the rooms. They are fairly simple, each with three beds and a central table with chairs. Once the party has settled down, Petep notifies the group that there’ll be breakfast in the common room come morning. The night passes uneventfully and morning rolls around. Breakfast is fairly simple, sweet mint tea, bread, and some kind of fruit yogurt. Once the group has eaten their fill, they head out to the site of the caravan. The party exits through the Twilight Gate and heading down the road find the caravan, a train of 9 wagons, each loaded with goods and pulled by powerful-looking horses. A young Osiriani man approaches the group and nods at them, ”You are the caravan guard? I am Khadesh, the caravaneer for this run down to Alkenstar. I am afraid there is not space in the wagons for all of you, though we have horses for you to ride.” He scans the group, noticing Elsa and Kristleifur, ”Hm, we may be able to fit you two on the wagons.”
Kristleifur devours breakfast, seconds, and stuffs bread into various pockets and pouches.
At talk of wagons, he pipes up.
"Yup, we'll take seating! We'll keep watch with musket and spell!"
After a good breakfast, Erick nods.
Erick nods. "If you need another teamster, I've had some experience at that. If not, I can walk along like everyone else."
”We’ve got horses for you. You can walk if you want, but it is quite a long walk.”
Erick makes a face. "Eh... horses and I rarely get along. Much better as a driver than rider." For the first time in their acquaintance, the others might have seen Erick looking a bit flustered.
Armanus simply grimaced. "Sadly, our estate choose to focus on land cultivation, not animals husbandry. I have no experience with horses." The sorcerer sniffed. "I guess now is as good a time as any to learn, I suppose."
Elsa looks at the horses. yeah, wagon for me.
She finds a good spot on a wagon, sets her gear down, and gets comfortable.
Spells;
0: Message, Prestidigitation, Grasp
1: Gravity Bow, Endure Elements (Cast), Blank
I'm assuming Endure Elements is needed? What's the weather like?
Zyrel shrugs. "So long as I can stow most of my gear I prefer to walk. It's hard to use a longbow from the saddle, and easier to find cover. I'll scout ahead."
Quickly he stows his gear, owl and coat - revealing himself outfitted in elven scout gear coloured to match the terrain.
In eerie silent grace he all but vanishes into the landscape as he starts moving.
Khadesh nods at Erick and says, "I believe I can sort something out." He calls to one of the men on the wagons in Kelish, the man sounding a bit disgruntled in response. However, the man gets down from the wagon and gets onto a horse. Khadesh then says, "There you are. Now, we've no time to waste."
The caravan gets moving, Zyrel vanishes into the landscape ahead of the caravan, his keen eyes keeping watch. The other members of the party are able to easily handle their animals, the horses well-trained and the road fairly smooth. A week passes, the caravan travels through Katapesh and Nex, before finding ending up in the Spellscar Desert.
Two days in the desert pass, the weather fluctuating strangely before brutal heat bitter cold. Midday, a storm can be seen off in the distance, crackling with strange lightning. Armanus and Elsa recognize this as a spellstorm, a lightning storm infused with arcane energy. Strangely, several misshapen figures can be seen moving in the storm, seemingly toward the caravan.
Kristleifur peers at the figures.
"Does anyone know what those are? In the storm?"
"No idea, Kristleifur", Armanus gaped. "And hopefully I never will."
"DRIVER!" The tiefling barks at the head of the caravan. "Can we outrun it!?"
Khadesh roars over the sound of the coming storm, ”They’re too fast, I’ll try to get us as far as we can.” The caravan picks up speed, eventually reaching a collections ruins of some long-forgotten town. Several rocky outcroppings shield the group, but the figures draw out of the storm to reveal themselves. There are four of them, each one uniquely disfigured and malformed. Three are unarmed, one with an arm that breaks into several tentacles, two are incredibly burly with greenish-reddish skin. The fourth holds a musket, an arm sprouting from his torso twitching and spasming. The musket wielder says with an rough and high-pitched voice, ”Feeeeeeeeeed.”
Zyrel starts running when the caravans retreat, but soon realises he risks becoming exhausted and left behind. With a last spurt he runs to the rear wagon, grabs the back hitch and hauls himself off the ground. No longer running he turns to peer back into the storm.
Pride compels him to do his best to stay hidden from his companions, lest they judge him for hitching a lift, and trusting distance and weather to hide him from the pursuit.
As soon as the caravan starts to stop he steps off, running sideways to take cover behind what was once, probably, the town well.
"Damn." The tiefling says blankly. Armanus pulls out his double-barrel pistol, cocking the hammer for the fight.
Much to his annoyance Zyrel notes the storm has provided sufficient cover for the humanoids to close.
Zyrel whispers to Elsa; who has taken cover behind him "Get ready to use spells. I'll act as shield wall."
Move: draw branched spear
Standard: ready action to attack the first one to come in range. Should ALSO get an AoO. If they charge I believe he does double damage on the readied attack. Unless they can beat his previous stealth roll, I think he has surprise.
Elsa casts mage armour on herself when she sees trouble brewing.
A spell storm. Strange things can happen with those things. Dangerous things.
Elsa nods her thanks to Zyrel, and moves behind him. When the combat begins, after the beasties attacks, casts her best spell, catching as many of the enemy as possible, without striking her allies.
DC 15 reflex for half
Kristleifur's eyes nearly pop out of his head in surprise at how close the creatures have gotten.
"Yikes! Time to start shooting!"
He levels his musket, aims for the nearest...thing, and fires!
Kristleifur’s shot misses one of the mutants.The mutated horrors advance on the party. One lashes at Zyrel with it’s misshapen tentacular arm, striking him. However, his spear strikes true and the creature is hit twice. Another one shambles towards Kristleifur, swinging a meaty fist at the little man. However, Kristleifur is able to easily dodge out of the way. One of the mutants hangs back. The rifle-wielder takes a shot at Erick, the bullet striking into him.
Armanus advances on the nearest mutant within range and fires his double-barreled pistol.
Zyrel winces with pain, but smoothly steps back, his strangely branched spear whistling into position for another strike. Decades of practice spent honing this particular move pays off, the blow landing with lethal precision.
Kristleifur steps back, eager to be away from the creature - and his fingers twitch at the nearest mutant.
The mutant in front of Zyrel takes the brunt of Elsa’s spell but keeps fighting. However, he can’t fight for long as Zyrel’s spear flashes with the speed and power of lightning, a devastating strikes rendering the mutant unconcious. Erick’s sword slices into the mutant by him and cleaves off a chunk, followed up by a bullet from Armanus. However, Kristleifur’s spell is largely ineffective.
The mutants, while a bit unnerved by the slaying of one of their compatriots, continue their assault. The mutant that had hung back charges at Zyrel. However, the elf warrior’s spear prevails again, stabbing the mutant with a similarly mighty strike. The mutant by Kristleifur and Erick strikes Erick with a warped, meaty fist. The rifle wielder reloads his battered, makeshift firearm.
Kristleifur aims his musket.
"Lead works!" , he shouts as he squeezes the trigger.
Elsa ducks to the side, trying to get a good angle to spell cast. She will try to get as many as she can without frying the party.
DC15 reflex for half
The tiefling advances in range of the next mutant and fires the other shot loaded in his double-barrel pistol.
Calmly Zyrel swings the spear around again, once more whistling through the air in an intricate pattern almost faster than the eye can see.
Erick swings at the mutant near him, though he’s unable to hit. However, it falls to Elsa’s magic and the bullets of Kristleifur and Erick. Zyrel closes the distance between himself and the rifle wielder, stabbing the wretched being. It yelps in pain and swings it’s rifle at Zyrel. However, the slender elven man is able to dodge out of the way. With that, the mutant starts to run.
"Not so fast!" , shouts Kristleifur aa he continues to blast away.
our task is defend the wagon, not pursue foes. He'll keep
Elsa gets back on a wagon.