"I just beat up those horses with wings," Caspan grumbles to Ringo, "so don't think your horns will help you, stupid horse. I'll squash you like a beatle if I have to..."
He backs down, though, when the skinny dwarf says he's not going to try to claim all their loot.
"I guess you did help, so we can split it. There're five of us, and one of you -- your horse doesn't count, and neither does our assmar's or the cat -- so you can have one part for our five."
Emil was late to the conversation with Grenwold as he spent a few moments checking on Pila and seeing if anyone had been injured.
”Well met, sir! I am Father Emil, a cleric of Erastil, late of Phaendor.”
He proceeds to introduce the others in the group who have not yet introduced themselves. ”We have been fightin’ the hobgoblins in the Fangwood. Put down a dragon an’ broke the back o’ their attempt ta maintain control o’ the forest. Now we think their tryin’ ta take Longshadow. We could use a capable fighting’ team such as you two. Care ta join us an strike a blow fer Nirmathis?”
Emil then says something strange, a series of animal-like grunts and squeals, looking at Ringo, and pointing at Pila, Nur, and Thanatos.
Ringo snorts and responds with the grunts of a deer, stamping his feet.
”I am a servant of the Eternal Rose, sent to aid my charge, Sir Grenwold of the Chernasardo. I am his protector, and he is my ward. I caught the word Erastil, yes, but I do not understand Taldan. Sir Grenwold has only taught me the language of his people, Gnomish. Do you serve Erastil? If so, Grenwold and I may join you, if he would agree to.”
He flares his nostrils and stomps at the ground.
”That bald one is mumbling aggressively. I will brook no violence against my ward. Please let him know that the Eternal Rose has intervened to protect Grenwold, and we have defeated all challengers who interfere with our holy mandate.”
Grenwold narrows his eyes when the priest begins to speak to his deer, but the deer seems to respond with aplomb, and he his clenched fists relax. Especially when Caspan ‘backs down’. He does smirk at the bravado of the burly brawler, ”so you say, sir. Many bigger than you have tried.” But when Emil mentions Longshadow, he returns to his grim look. ”I know this place - and expected as much. We have destroyed a handful of hobgoblin patrols in the last weeks - the supplies they carried would strongly indicate gearing for a siege.”
He pushes his bandana back a bit, and looks thoughtful. ”I may be able to help. I know some of how one defends in such sorties, and how one attacks.” He whispers something to the deer, who stomps his left hoof once, and then Grenwold returns to the gaze of the others. ”My name is Grenwold Houtvester. This is my companion, Ringo. Not creative, but sometimes the simple is most apt. I am a neophyte warden of the Chernasardo, one of the lowest-ranking officers. Our charge is to protect the Fangwood and Nirmathas as best as we see fit - that has been to harry the foes and slink away.” He points at a small white scar on his cheek, ”we have been mostly successful - alone.” His brow furrows a bit, ”my family found Phaendar, many years ago - we are refugees of the Darkblight of the Fangwood - none would take us, and Phaendar reluctantly.”
He looks uneasy, ”I expect none of you remember the Houtvesters.” He shakes his head bitterly ”gnomes are often overlooked or mistreated. My family is now enslaved. I will join you and help save this city if we can eventually free Phaendar and then take the fight to Arlantea. Do we have an accord?”
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Thael raises a hand at Caspan's overly-wrought bravado.
"Easy there," he says to the brawler. "Your blood is almost boiling, and we need all the allies we can get."
To the gnome, he says "You'll like him once you get to know him."
To this last, Emil shakes his head side to side but does so out of view of Caspan. He has a smile on his lips, however.
Emil responds to Ringo and then to Grenwold.
"Ringo has let me know your mission is to serve what he calls the Eternal Rose, which I believe is Milani, the Everbloom. We have need of such fervor in the face of would-be tyrants. How 'bout we join forces and see what we can find out about threats to Longshadow?"
”Are we friends now? Or at least not enemies? If that deer gets mad, those horns look really scary,” Wren says, hoping to get a better understanding on the situation.
Grenwold raises his eyebrow, "no, Father, I have always followed Shelyn. The Eternal Rose is she, the goddess of beauty and art. Alas, I am not beautiful, but I seek to be a weapon to protect it and restore it, at least. I have no quarrel with Milani, but I believe her concerns lie further afield than Nimrathas."
Grenwold nodded, "not enemies, no - but I have only one friend." He looks down glumly, and responds, "we can aid each other. A dragon is no mean feat; you all deserve respect if this is true." He bows slightly.
Ringo stamps twice when he hears Milani mentioned.
"I am glad, but was not sent here by Milani. I do not know this one! My form was perfected in Blossomheart, by Shelyn's maidens themselves!"
He snorts and grunts seemingly a little indignant, but seems to calm himself down. He and Grenwold approach the others quietly and gently, with careful steps.
When Grenwold approaches, it seems he is a little worse for wear than he had led on. There are more patches in his clothes and a few more scars than everyone had seen originally. "My code requires that I give quarter to all who surrender. The pride of the hobgoblins has never allowed them the luxury of such a bargain, unfortunately. Will this be a problem?"
At the mention of Shelyn, Emil smiles and nodds. "Ah, I am obviously not as familiar with the many names of gods and goddesses. I am sorry. Prior to this trouble, I mostly looked after the locals, most of whom worshipped Erastil. I have great respect for the followers of Shelyn. Those devoted to beauty rarely cause trouble with sensible, peaceful folk. And don't put yourself down. There's such a thing as inner beauty, a beautiful spirit or soul."
"Mercy is for those who repent of their evil. That's not something hobgoblins do, in my experience, but I have no problem with extending mercy's hand to those who deserve it."
Caspan shrugs. "If you let them go, they're just going to attack us again. What's your horn-horse think about that?"
He starts looking through the stuff before shrugging and deciding there's nothing that he's actually all that interested in besides the gold.
"Well, if we're done making friends, we should keep going," he says. "Maybe there're some more hobs in this Red Bore-ow."
Introductions complete, Emil looks over the carnage and valuable goods in the area. Once everyone has had a chance to claim the most useful items, he offers to put what is left of value into his back pack. He puts bar after bar of valuable metals into it, then stuffs the chain mail in.
They all seem to fit although a normal backpack couldn't possibly hold that much, indicating it is bigger on the inside. He will split the arrows with Selde and Grenwold if they want. If they don't claim the arrows, he stores them away for future distribution to whomever has need.
He examines the magic sword and armor, after activating detect magic.
Armor:
Sword:
"I can't tell exactly what this armor's magic qualities are, but this sword is enchanted ta fight elementals. Selde, I think yer the one ta wield it if ya ever get into a fight ya can't resolve with arrows."
Once the introductions are complete and it's decided Grenwold will accompany the party on their travels, the group picks up the useful items from the wreckage and continues north.
A few hours into their journey, the party is traversing a rather large hill when the ground underneath Wren and Caspan gives way. A well-placed pit had been hidden and the hefty weight of the duo triggers it, sending them plummeting out of sight down into a 50' shaft lined with sticky webbing.
The bottom of the pit looks like a nest littered with animal bones, including the recent remains of what looks like a centaur whose desiccated flesh stil bears a tattoo of the red Ironfang insignia. Laying near the body are a fancy pair of bracers, a fancy quiver with three dozen arrows and a broken longbow.
In addition, it looks like this creature was a courier and carried a satchel will messages exchanged between various camps, providing details on the Ironfang's Legion's general numbers in the area.
Once the two disappear from sight, you hear the sounds of movement somewhere in the shaft below. Peeking in, you see a towering spider the size of an elephant crawling down the shaft towards the two who have fallen. Its legs have spiky joints and its face looks vaguely, but disturbingly, humanoid.
The creature is huge-sized and takes of 15' of the shaft. It is currently 20' down from the top opening.
HP 74/83
AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16, CMD 24 (+1 vs. grapple; +2 vs. dirty trick; +4 vs. trip); 25% chance to negate criticals
Fort +10, Ref +9, Will +3 (+1 resistance bonus to recover from a continuing effect)
Unbreakable Survivor (11 hp) 0/1
Martial Flexibility 1/7; knockout (DC 18) 0/1
Effects: Vital Strike, 0/10
"I told you you were getting heavy!" Caspan growls. "Now look what you've gotten us into!"
In truth, though, the fall barely hurt and he clambers back to his feat, getting ready to fight.
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Falling damage
”If we get out of here alive, I’m going to kill you,” Wren yells at the dumpy human.
She regains her focus and sends magic missiles streaming at the spider.
Damage
"You can try, but since you can't even reach my knee ..." Caspan shoots back with a grin.
Grenwold moves his mask back up over his mouth, looking like the world's smallest bandit, but wordlessly follows the others after nodding in acquiescence. He rides slightly aside from the others, scouting in his own way. Ringo seems to have a keen nose, and often lifts his snout up to try to detect foes. As they travel, Grenwold is silent, and the deer's footfalls are nimble and quiet, for the most part.
When the others fall to the bottom of the pit, he blinks and hustles Ringo over as quickly as he can, drawing his bow. When he spies the huge spider, he grimaces, and takes a shot.
While Emil tries to figure out what this spider-like creature is, he advances to the edge of the pit, saying "Erastil's Wrath be Upon Thee,".
After touching his holy symbol, he evokes a spiritual weapon, which, as usual, takes the form of a longbow and begins firing force arrows down the shaft of the pit at the monster.
Emil gestures to keep Pila from attacking, not wanting her to get trapped in the webbing.
Thael's blast batters the spider, but does not knock it down as he had hoped.
Wren's missiles slam into the creature descending upon them, injuring it slightly.
Grenwold's shot comes close, but pings off the side of the shaft near the creature.
Emil recognizes this creature as an ogre spiders, brutal, terrifying hunters that spin tangled webs capable of encasing entire trees.
The cleric's spiritual weapon lands both of its shots, one of them critically injuring the huge spider.
The spider descends further into the pit until it closes within fifteen feet of the fallen party members. It looks over both and decides Wren is the easier prey and bites her!
Emil yells down the pit, "Ogre Spiders are mindless vermin, so don't try to affect their minds with magic!"
Then he draws on his spiritual connection to nature to gesture to the skies, saying, "Dia an adhair, thig gu ar cuideachadh!"
He touches his holy symbol and from it issues a rush of air that coalesces into a griffin that arrives just ten feet above the vermin and at Emil's instruction, charges straight down in a stoop that hits the spider.
His spiritual ally continues to send force arrows down at the spider as well.
I'm assuming it can do a charge attack straight down as a bird of prey does with a stoop attack. The griffin has the pounce ability, same as Pila.
Because it is charging, the Griffin's AC is 15.
Grenwold looks like he's just trying to fire at the enormous vermin, somewhat dispassionately.
HP 74/83
AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16, CMD 24 (+1 vs. grapple; +2 vs. dirty trick; +4 vs. trip); 25% chance to negate criticals
Fort +10, Ref +9, Will +3 (+1 resistance bonus to recover from a continuing effect)
Unbreakable Survivor (11 hp) 0/1
Martial Flexibility 1/7; knockout (DC 18) 0/1
Effects: Vital Strike, 0/10
"See, you look tasty," Caspan observes to Wren as he tries to figure out what he needs to do. Clearly he's going to have to get to the creature if he wants to do anything useful.
Quickly scrambling up the wall, he gets close enough to punch, throwing a brutal blow at the stupid insect trying to snack on Wren. "Can I affect its mind with my fist?" he calls out.
Fort
”Oh! I don’t feel very well,” Wren whimpers as the poison starts to take hold on her system.
Str damage
Dex damage
The halfling tries to pull herself together and blast it with another magic missile.
Damage
Cast defensively
Selde hurries to the pit once she sees Caspan and Wren go down. Peering in and taking sight of the huge spider, she fires a shot and buries an arrow in it.
As the creature moves further down towards her allies, she studies it for a moment before firing a second arrow and embedding it into its hide.
Though the spiritual ally is not as successful as the creature delves deeper, the rest of the party is able to land their attacks. Emil's griffon dives down as both Wren and Thael's spells land.
The spider tries to bite Wren again, but all of the damage it's taken is hindering its ability to focus. As it lunges forward to bite her, Caspan throws a wickedly powerful righ hook that crushes bones and causes the creature to drop and fall to the ground, landing all around Wren.
"Huh. Must not have liked how you tasted," Caspan says. "Can you hold on to me and I'll climb us out of here. Don't wiggle or I'll drop you."
Round 2
Fort
Str damage
Dex damage
——————-
Round 3
Fort
Str damage
Dex damage
——————-
Round 4
Fort
Str damage
Dex damage
——————-
Round 5
Fort
Str damage
Dex damage
——————-
Wren continued to feel just awful.
Fearing Wren was poisoned, Emil drops a vial of antitoxin down the pit for her to use if needed.
Caspan catches the vial and hands it to Wren.
"Here, I think the Father gave you some liquor to make you feel better," he offers it to Wren. "If you don't want it, though, I can have a sip."
Wren will take the offered vial. Whatever it was, it couldn’t make her feel worse. She didn’t ask any questions and chugged it straight down.
Caspan looks at the details in the messages.
"Huh," he says, looking confused. He scratches his head with one meaty finger.
He flips the paper around, and nods to himself in satisfaction as he scans its words.
”Im honestly not sure,” Wren says, trying to keep a smile on her face, even as her hands shook from the toll the poison took on her system. ”Id advise anyone against letter a giant spider try to make you its lunch. Thanks for saving me, everyone.”
Once both party members are rescued from the pit, the party takes a look at the new treasures. The satchel messages appear to be exchanged between various camps, providing details on the Ironfang Legion’s general numbers in the area—somewhere around 400 all told—as well as an additional force of 2,000 in a location simply referred to as “Valley West.”
After your recovery from the pit, you continue your journey through the hills once more. Moving along a narrow road that winds its way south from the ridgeline camp through the Hollow Hills, you arrive at Redburrow just before dusk.
The ground here is freshly upturned and stained with blood. Several blast craters pock the area, and a makeshift palisade of sharpened wooden spikes—trampled to flinders in several spots—surrounds the burned-out remains of a dozen small houses. Sickly mist curls up from the blackened soil, and bloodstained weapons and armor lie strewn about the ground.
"That doesn't look good," Caspan grunts.
If no one stops him , he looks around and then begins walking in to get a closer look.
Once Wren is out of the pit, Emil gives her a quick check. "I would lay off the spider venom for a few days. This should help too," and he starts a spell that involves repeatedly drawing healing energy from his holy symbol and applying it to the crown of Wren's head. When he has finished, she finds some of her strength returning.
for STR.
"I'll be able to do more in the morning."
At the site of the ruined city, Emil's face loses most of its color as he reacts to the destruction. Then he steadies himself and moves into the area. "Let's see if we can locate any survivors. Be on watch for any hobgoblins still in the area. This seems recent!"
Grenwold follows along quietly, always a short distance away. He speaks to the humanoids little, though he seems to speak quietly in Gnomish to Ringo from time to time. He seems to be constantly tense and on alert, holding his glaive tightly most of the time.
When they reach the burnt-out and destroyed area, he holds up his fist for others to stop. He approaches quietly with Ringo and whispers, ”can we scout for traps here? Before investigating? We wouldn’t to miss another pit trap…”
Week was unnaturally quiet during the rest of the day’s trip. She felt weak and just couldn’t shake the headache that was just pounding in her skull.
As the group neared the destroyed area, she does manage to offer some assistance. ”I can make one of you invisible, if you want to go scout out what remains. It should last about 7-8 minutes, so you’d need to be quick,” she advises.
Grenwold blinks and examines the ground and the devastation, Ringo blending into the background slightly.
"That magic isn't useful to me unless we can both share it." He points at his legs - strong but seemingly quite used to riding "I move quite slowly without my friend, here." His voice remains a little muffled behind his bandana. "What could have done this? A spell?" His eyes shine out as he looks down at the smoke wafting from the ground. "Hmm..."
Emil moves up next to Grenwold. "If I may offer a blessing of Erastil. It will guide you as your look for traps of other hazards."