Seeing that at least one person is following, Peaches releases her hold and starts trotting through the forest. She stops and looks back any time the lead person starts to fall behind.
You quickly find Haru nearby, standing and staring blankly, not responding, as a bloodseeker sucks blood from her neck. Peaches goes over to their human and licks their hand, but Haru is still unresponsive.
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Helène stands ready with sling in hand, making sure that no other bloodseekers enter the fray. By the time that the four assaulting Peaches are dealt with, she relaxes. "Yeah, I think you had this."
She concurs with Teja's plan and follows along, sling in hand. Upon seeing Haru with the bloodseeker, she realizes something is wrong. She quickly moves up to Haru. With a dagger in hand to slice the thing off, she takes a quick moment to check on the woman's condition. "Tasaria, what do you think?"
Helène sees that the insect needs to be killed or detached quickly. Haru is already suffering from blood loss, which is why she is so non-responsive. Given what happened with Peaches, killing the creature is likely to leave a bleeding wound that will need to be treated.
Teja quickly and efficiently kills the bug, removing it from Haru. It was so bloated that it pops when struck by the dagger!
Tasaria has bandages ready and moves in to clean and bandage the wound. She is able to stop the bleeding before Haru can come to any more harm. She then gives Haru some medicinal liquids to help her cope with the blood loss.
As soon as there is room, Peaches moves in and starts licking her human’s face. This quickly brings Haru out of her trance. She can recall little from after she entered the woods, much less how she got into her current circumstances.
“I did find one interesting thing though, a secret door that leads into what look to be underground tunnels. I was not equipped for tunnels, so I have not explored them.”
As she is talking with you, she pets and reassures Peaches that she is alright.
Haru crinkles her nose and stares at Max, trying to decide if he is joking or not. It is clear from her reaction that she has no interest in exploring the tunnels.
Haru nods. “I would be glad to, especially if it means an escort back to Glimmerford!”
She looks down at her compass, then gives a sigh. Looking towards the tree tops, she asks “Anyone know which way is true north?” Once she is properly oriented, she leads you for about five minutes through the woods. She points out some tracks as she goes.
When she thinks she is in the right area, she starts checking the bases of the trees until she evidently finds what she was looking for. She waves you over and points out a small. moss covered door at the base of a tree. It is camouflaged and has some brush over the top of it to further conceal it.
“There are a couple of cracks in the door, I looked through them and saw what look like tunnels to me,”
It takes you a bit more than an hour to bring Haru and Peaches back to the Inn and get her settled. She gives you a cold iron dagger and two vials of holy water, as well as an empty vial that once held holy water as reward for saving her and Peaches.
About a half hour later, you are back at the small door.
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Helène is silent while they return Haru and Peaches back to town, not wanting to distress her any further. When the finally return to the small door in the tree, she shares her thoughts. "I'm beginning to see a pattern. Haru was in trance and remembers little. We found a small weapon earlier, and now this door in a tree. It all seems to suggest fae, doesn't it? Could they have tricked people into believing there's a Mosquito Witch here?" She frowns. "Still doesn't explain the bloodseekers, though. Which is what we were sent to investigate in the first place..." She's not too happy at that inconsistency.
She checks her weapons and bandoleer before the door is opened. "I think I'm good. Thanks for lightning a torch, Teja. We'll probably need it downstairs. I'd like one of those vials of holy water, if no one minds. I could also make use of Haru's dagger. Unless someone else feels that they could make good use of it." She takes up a position at the back of the group. "I'll guard the rear again."
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"I could certainly use a cold iron weapon if we are facing a fey." says Teja.
"But this may just be a misunderstanding. Perhaps the people of the village have offended the fey somehow and we can resolve this without bloodshed. Or perhaps they fey are being set up by someone else. Too many unknowns to want to draw steel just yet I think."
Teja checks the door for any traps or alarms before opening it, then ensures torch in one hand and dagger in the other as she cautiously enters.
Teja doesn’t find any traps on the door.
She opens it to find a narrow passage down with stairs cut into the dirt. It does show recent passage. As they go down the stairs, they find the walls turn from normal dirt into a hard, rocky substance.
The passage widens out into a cavern at the bottom of the stairs.
Search
Scout
Search
Detect Magic
Search
Stealth
You are just trying to decide which way to go when you hear something! Movement further in the cave.
Bolded may act.
Round 1:
Phineas
Teja
Yellow
Chug
Green
Black
Max
Tasaria
Bloodseeker
Gwibble (Blue)
Helène
Red
Yellow yells something in a strange language and advances, sword in one hand. It then casts a spell.
Bolded may act.
Round 1:
Phineas
Teja
Yellow spell active
Chug
Green
Black
Max
Tasaria
Bloodseeker
Gwibble (Blue)
Helène
Red
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Chug draws his rapier then moves next to Phineas and Teja with his shield up.
He yells out, "You speak common?"
Chug prefers to use liberating step
Liberating Step [R]- Trigger An enemy damages, Grabs, or Grapples your ally, and both are within 15 feet of you.
You free an ally from restraint. If the trigger was an ally taking damage, the ally gains resistance to all damage against the triggering damage equal to 2 + your level. The ally can attempt to break free of effects grabbing, restraining, immobilizing, or paralyzing them. They either attempt a new save against one such effect that allows a save, or attempt to Escape from one effect as a free action. If they can move, the ally can Step as a free action, even if they didn’t need to escape. With a burst of divine liberation, your ally’s movement from your Liberating Step is unaffected by difficult terrain, greater difficult terrain, narrow surfaces, and uneven ground.,
Shield Block[R]- Trigger While you have your shield raised, you would take damage from a physical attack.
You snap your shield in place to ward off a blow. Your shield prevents you from taking an amount of damage up to the shield’s Hardness. You and the shield each take any remaining damage, possibly breaking or destroying the shield.
Chug moves into position and brings his shield to the ready. There is no obvious indication that the creatures know what you are saying.
Green yells something, casts a spell and moves forward. Black replies and then makes some sort of buzzing sound as he moves forward.
Green: “How did they find us? How many are there?”
Black: “What should we do Gwibble?”
Bolded may act.
Round 1:
Phineas
Teja
Yellow spell active
Chug
Green spell active
Black
Max
Tasaria
Bloodseeker
Gwibble (Blue)
Helène
Red
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Max starts chanting then realizing we aren’t leaping into battle here switches incantations.
Casts light
(common) Hopefully they’ll talk. (Orcish) If not the language of the weaklings perhaps you speak the warrior tongue?
If I can arcana check the spell that was cast I’ll use my third action for that.
Tasaria temporarily enchants her blade.
Max brings up some light. He then tries a few different languages, but the creatures don’t understand those either.
As he is doing that, he hears the buzzing of insect wings behind him. Turning, he sees one of those big bugs trying to attach itself to him!
Crit Failure!
By pure instinct, Max swats at it and causes it to fall prone on the ground!
Gwibble casts a spell, then yells at the others near him as he moves up.
Bolded may act.
Round 1:
Phineas
Teja
Yellow spell active
Chug
Green spell active
Black spell active
Max
Tasaria Magic Weapon
Bloodseeker Prone
Gwibble (Blue) spell active
Helène
Red
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"They don't seem too interested in talking, Max," Helène comments matter-of-factly. As she moves in position she explains further. "There's a bloodseeker here, and it only seems interested in us. Guess they're in league, and we've found what we came for."
She doesn't waste time to capitalize on the results or Max's instinct. She drops to a low fighting stance and quickly lashes out twice with her legs to deliver powerful kicks to the prone bloodseeker.
The bug manages to evade Helène‘s kicks.
Red casts a spell and moves up next to Black.
Bolded may act.
Round 2:
Phineas
Teja
Yellow spell active
Chug
Green spell active
Black spell active
Max
Tasaria Magic Weapon
Bloodseeker Prone
Gwibble (Blue) spell active
Helène
Red spell active
Phineas tries to zap the two small humanoids. Green gets a small shock, but Yellow is able to completely avoid it!
Bolded may act.
Round 2:
Phineas
Teja
Yellow spell active
Chug
Green 3 damage spell active
Black spell active
Max
Tasaria Magic Weapon
Bloodseeker Prone
Gwibble (Blue) spell active
Helène
Red spell active
As Teja steps close to Yellow, she feels a sense of dread. The feeling is strong enough to slightly distract her. Fortunately her plan was good and she strikes a vital spot on the creature. The creature falls to the ground!
Bolded may act.
Round 2:
Phineas
Teja
Yellow spell active
Chug
Green 3 damage spell active
Black spell active
Max
Tasaria Magic Weapon
Bloodseeker Prone
Gwibble (Blue) spell active
Helène
Red spell active
As Chug steps close to Green, he feels a sense of dread. Fortunately his aim was good enough that he hits in spite of the distraction.
Green runs back a short distance, then gets out a dart and throws it at Chug! As the creature moves away, Chug notices the feeling of dread dissipate. He also notices a dart sticking in him.
Meanwhile Black runs up to Helène and stabs at her! Fortunately the creature misses.
success, no dread
Bolded may act.
Round 2:
Phineas
Teja
Chug 1 damage
Green 9 damage spell active
Black spell active
Max
Tasaria Magic Weapon
Bloodseeker Prone
Gwibble (Blue) spell active
Helène
Red spell active
Just before the dart hits, Chug blocks it with his shield.
Bolded may act.
Round 2:
Phineas
Teja
Chug
Green 9 damage spell active
Black spell active
Max
Tasaria Magic Weapon
Bloodseeker Prone
Gwibble (Blue) spell active
Helène
Red spell active
Tasaria strikes the bug, hurting it.
Bolded may act.
Round 2:
Phineas
Teja
Chug
Green 9 damage spell active
Black spell active
Max
Tasaria Magic Weapon
Bloodseeker 9 damage Prone
Gwibble (Blue) spell active
Helène
Red spell active
Max moves closer so that he can shock both Green and Blue with his electrical magic. As he passes near the dead body, he feels dread. Fortunately this does not affect his ability with the spell he chose.
Although Green managed to avoid some of the damage, it still did enough to put them out of the fight. Blue took full damage from the zap.
The bug flies up and decides to take the nearby meal rather than try to catch the one that ran away. It attaches itself to Helène and sucks some of her blood!
Blue concentrates and then moves forward to stab Chug. Chug manages to shake off the effects as Blue approaches.
Bolded may act.
Round 2:
Phineas
Teja
Chug 3 damage
Green 11 damage spell active
Black spell active
Max
Tasaria Magic Weapon
Bloodseeker 9 damage 1 Temp HP flying at ground level
Gwibble (Blue) 5 damage spell active
Helène 1 damage drained 1
Red spell active