Katheryn accepts the spell with a nod and waits for when to go.
The party leaves their cave, heading with Ugwa and the scouts towards the town. As they creep through the brush they see a troupe of seven mutants patrolling the perimeter of the town. Just past them is Ugwa’s old house, where the weapon’s cache might still be. However, they seem to be stopped and engaged in a ferocious argument.
Saraon says nothing, not wanting to give them away.
Watching the mutants patrol he tried to figure out if there was a particular route they took . . . and if there was a good spot to ambush them. But then he watched them stop to argue about something. That made him frown. He glanced to the others, then to the mutants.
"Boss, you want to hit them here away from the tents or wait to see if they spread out again?"
Sprig smiled, his eyes full of mischief. "Ah think we don't gotta worry about these ones Bas, go on ahead and gather up those weapons. Ah think Ah have an idea."
Moving as quietly as he could, Sprig snuck up as close as he felt comfortable to the arguing mutants.
He stuck close to the buildings and made his move. With a gesture and a whisper, the kobold sent a Message to the dumbest and angriest looking mutant of the bunch. "Ah think that one just called you a $%*@*! You should beat some sense into him!"
The biggest mutant, a burly humanoid with three arms and three legs, whips around looking for the mutant that “insulted” it before grabbing a smaller one with it’s largest, strongest arm and roars almost unintelligibly. It doesn’t take long for the mutants to descend into an all-out brawl, providing a perfect opening for the party to sneak past.
The group creeps into the house. It’s clearly been ransacked by mutants, anything of value taken and anything not valuable smashed. Ugwa sighs heavily and says with shaky breaths, ”The cache should be in the kitchen, under a floorboard with some carvings on it.”
Saraon resists the urge to laugh at Sprig's trick, keeping silent as they reach the house. He casts his eyes about for the floorboard Ugwa described.
Saraon easily spots a floorboard with a carving on it. It’s a simple thing, of two crude humanoid figures holding hands. Prying up the floorboard reveals a large wooden box underneath, one that’s revealed as a large rifle case once a few other boards are removed.
Ugwa smiles broadly when she sees the case, and ten rifles are distributed between her and the best shooters among the refugees.
”Seems like we’ll have a fighting chance now. Now, we aren’t heavy hitters like you all are, but we can give you as much ranged support as we can manage.”
"That's all we ask," Saraon replies. "Where do you recommend we strike from?"
The party creeps onwards through the deserted town, signs of the devastation wrought by the mutants clearly visible. Charms and totems made from unidentifiable remains are scattered around the streets, and a horrid figure made from the remains of several horses has been erected in what was once the town square.
Though deeply disturbing, the town is quiet and empty, and the journey to a ridge above the mutant camp is an uneventful one.
The camp itself is a slapdash affair, half a dozen hide tents clustered in the shade of a sheer cliff. A few cookfires burn, and wooden stakes with skulls mounted on them form a perimeter of the camp. Several mutants mill about, but the camp is fairly quiet, most of them likely taking shelter from the high sun. Several wooden cages are packed with prisoners.
"We will return these to the earth as soon as we've reclaimed this place for you...the spirits of these poor men and beasts should be granted peace," Saraon says bitterly at the sight of the effigy.
When they reach the mutant camp, he turns to Sprig.
"Do we encircle like a pack or charge in like a stampede?"
"Should I be sniping stragglers or taking out big hitters?" Katheryn asked softly.
Sprig huddled close to the others to discuss their plan. "Ah think there ain't much for it, but t' take th' fight to them. Setting the prisoners free'll just end up gettin 'em hurt, so fer now we hit 'em with the element of surprise."
"As fer yew Katheryn, if yew think yah can get up on that cliff without 'em noticing, you'd get a nice perch to take cover 'n pelt 'em from. Anyhow, Ah think Ah heard that their leader can cast spells. Give 'im somethin' t' think about if he tries."
Saraon nods at Sprig's assesment.
"I've got some surprises of my own for them too,"
"I can get up there, just give me a bit. If your willing I can tell you I'm in place by opening fire. Giving them a place to look away from you all." Katheryn quietly suggested.
The party moves closer to the mutants, getting a much better view of their camp. Half a dozen misshapen humanoids mill around the camp. Sitting at the central campfire, roasting what might have once been a mutant hog, is a 10-foot-tall mutant, torso split in two, one half of it's body large and muscular, the other withered and atrophied.
He crept forward his eyes peeled for any movement of stragglers joining the milling targets.
Bas creeps forward…only to find that he’s locked eyes with a mutant on the edge of camp. It lets out a ferocious roar and grabs a makeshift shotgun.
Saraon makes a lifting motion with his hand and speaks a Druidic word of power, and suddenly the scrub and sparse weeds beneath the mutants begins to grow and curl around their limbs!
Sprig immediately starts chanting his Summon Monster spell, Tracing a circle into the earth as he does so.
Though the gun wielding mutants and the Crusher Twins seem to avoid the entangling, the unarmed or melee weapon wielding mutants are all ensnared by the wrath of the land.
The left side of the Crusher Twins, the small and atrophied one, raises an arm and feebly croaks out a few words before pointing at Bas.
The burned warrior feels, for a moment, a burning well of hate rear up inside him, nothing but the thought of murdering his companions on his mind, but he quickly overcomes it.
He moved forward and took cover behind some of the rocks and caught his breath for a moment. He had felt something slimy over his soul. No doubts it was foul magicks. He didnt like it. Taking a deep breath he readied his bardiche for any fool mutie to pokes its ugly head about.
Katheryn made her move to behind another rock and took aim.
Katheryn's shot hits home, hitting the mutant in the thigh. It's undeterred, and raises it's pistol and returns the favor to Katheryn, dealing 1 point of damage to the sharpshooter! A hulking mutant wielding a large rifle lumbers forward, firing at Saraon but missing.
The Crusher Twins, too, are ready for combat, and their massive frame charges in, though the party is too far for them to do any damage yet.
Saraon casts another spell, and his skin hardens into bark once again.
Then he moves to join Bas in the attack, sword at the ready.
With a flick of the wrist, Sprig finishes his summoning circle, gently pressing his claw into the earth and summoning a small Earth Elemental.
The rocky creature rushes forward to engage the split Mutant.
The kobold himself summons a ball of elemental ice, throwing the projectile at the large menace.
Bas gets a good strike on the Crusher Twins, and the bigger half of the beast roars in anger. Several of the mutants break free of the grasping vines and rush towards the party, hooting and howling in anticipation of the fight.
The withered half of the Crusher Twins raises a hand and mutters a blasphemous incantation as a wave of fear and doubt washes over the party.
Crusher twins -31
Purple -7
Saraon feels the mutant's power wash over him and suddenly hesitates, looking down at his feet.
"How?! How can this thing make my connection to the Land itself falter?!"
He felt a cold hallowness as the spell washed over him and a slight sense of dread hit. He had struck this monster solidly and it hadnt gone down. That didnt happen very often. What the hell where they going to do? He roared out and swung again even harder this time.
Katheryn feels a shake down to her core before she swiftly reloads and takes aim, focusing upon those still coming.
Kat's shot solidly hits the mutant, but it's a tough creature and powers through it.
Bas is not so lucky, and the hulking mutant dodges his mighty swing.
One of the gunners sprints around the rock, getting ready to fire at the party. The other gunner takes aim at Bas but misses, the chaos of the melee proving too difficult to compensate for.
The hulking half of the Crusher Twins brings it's powerful arms together and swings them at the elemental and Saraon, smashing from one to the next and dealing 16 points of damage to the elemental and 13 to Saraon!
Crusher twins -31
Purple -7
Green -8
Saraon raises his arms, blade in hand, and howls in Druidic.
The ground rumbles as grit, gravel and sand rise from the ground to rain upon the battlefield!
Through dedicated training, Sprig manages to overcome the magical fear as his elemental crumbles to dust.
Still trembling slightly, Sprig focuses his magic into the earth opening a gap between the Giant Mutant and their allies, and kicking up a storm of dust.
The rocks and gravel crash down to the ground to great affect, with only a few of the mutant warriors avoiding getting clobbered by the falling stone! One of the entangled warriors manages to break out of the angry grasp of the scrub brush, but the other one keep struggling.
THe battlefield beyond the chokepoint between the rocky spires is quickly obscured by Sprig's spell, and a few moments later the party sees a whole crowd of mutants charging around another of the spires, though the rocks clearly impeded their progress.
Crusher twins -31
Purple -7
Green gunner -12
Blue -4
Green melee -8
Pink -8
Red -8, entangled
With another roar, no doubt trying to keep the monsterous mutant focused on him, he struck.
"This thing just doesn't go down!" Katheryn said before she lined up another shot on the mighty mutant.
Bas finally hits the mutant, and he hits it with all the might he has! The great mutant reels, clearly badly injured, but it does not fall. Kat's shot goes just wide as the Crusher Twins stagger erratically.
The hulking half of the Crusher Twins retorts in kind, slamming a mighty fist into Bas for 18 damage!
The gunners take aim at Kat and Saraon, hitting the gunslinger for 5 damage but missing the druid!
Crusher twins -31
Purple -7
Green gunner -12
Blue -4
Green melee -8
Pink -8
Red -8, entangled
Saraon takes up his sword and swings at the Crusher Twins.
Taking advantage of the brutal strike from Bas, Saraon dashes in and swings at the mighty mutant. The blade cuts deep into the two-headed warrior and it lets out a deafening, ferocious roar but it stumbles one last time and falls to the ground, unmoving.
Yelps of fear and anger can be heard from the mutant warriors, and several instantly throw down their weapons and run. Others stay on their guard but make no aggressive moves towards the party.
While Sprig has no love the mutants, he was much more interested in the captives' safety. He checks the giant mutant's corpse, searching for keys.
Saraon raises his sword and roars like a dragon. He doesn't make any move towards the mutants, but the challenge is clear: they may fight or they may run. The rules of nature.
When Saraon roars Katheryn lined up a shot and waited for the mutants to make this choice.