The group made their way back to the warren to try their hand on the kobolds again. The anklebiters had 2 days to prepare and had some traps in place for the group, as well as some new tactics not in my original planning. The party hit the 1st batch which is the pitched fight as I stripped some K'Morat from further in the lair and repurposed them for this.
As for the rest - the K'Morat will be minimizing their weaknesses and play to their strengths. We tried a swarming attempt on the group with a dozen racing in and a sleep spell - but caltrops on bare feet slowed them down and allowed the group 1 round reprieve; enough time to waken their companions and get their own sleep spell off in turn.
It is far from over for the warren. In fact - it's just beginning.
Write up follows:
With Spunifer gone, we thought perhaps we cut off an access that we might need at a later date, but for now we were going to meet with one of the two alchemist’s, Thebidus the dwarf, who was happy to speak with us. He looked over Barb, noted her cough, and listened to her complaints about it. Wanted to know if she wanted her cough to sound higher? Like a duck’s call? Perhaps one where butterflies spew out instead of spittle? No…just something to remove the sickness if at all possible.
Sure, sure, back at Sorton we have that brewing often I suppose. Out here? I have an older potion, perhaps 2 and a half years old – I’m sure it works. Want to try it? Um…no. Not if I don’t have to. Can you brew me one? A fresh one?
Thebidus nodded and said we have most of the ingredients except for the heart of a sentient being.
A heart.
Without it, the potion won’t truly work.
We thanked Thebidus and informed him we’d come back around to him if our plans didn’t work. After the dwarf left Barb was adamant she wasn’t going to drink some questionable potion of dubious strength some 2 years after it’s supposedly still viable. We circled back to Spunifer and came to the conclusion that she owes her homage to her clan – which currently is the Randari Rangers and Hornes is the leader. If Hornes tells her to do something – such as remove Barb’s sickness, she’ll be bound and forced to do so.
But we needed another item to sway Hornes and we thought on the antlers we grabbed from the K’Morat lair. The decision was to mount the antlers to a helm for Hornes and at first tell him they were from a bear, but antlers don’t look like horns. Then maybe an older bear? After the horns split into antlers? No – just mount them and maneuver the conversation into something that would make him fill in the blanks.
We went off to the smithy where we met with Daversi, the dwarven smith, and after verifying she had other helm’s Hornes had worn, had her mount the antlers to another small helm and we’d come back in about an hour to present them to the difficult half-orc. We did learn a bit that Hornes has become more strange and eccentric the longer he and his Rangers have been working here for House Illytch. Daversi was going to be present when we brought him the helm.
Darius then went off to the wall where he met with Umbannon, the half-elven giant slayer that our fighter had words with earlier. He apologized for his words and Umbannon was surprised at the sincerity of Darius, and offered his own apology for his angry tone as well. There was some handshaking and a better understanding.
By 4:15 or so, Daversi had come back to the party with the antler mounted helm and the group then went off to see Hornes and the rest of the rangers. The conversation started out hostile towards us and going above his back to talk to Spunifer but it was derailed rapidly by the helm. We assured Horned that the antlers had come from a magical animal and were still faintly imbued with an arcanic aura. Spunifer verified this and Hornes asked, “A magical creature? Like…a Giant Eagle?”
The group struggled to hold in their laughter but Connal flat out said, “Magical antlers? Why NOT a giant eagle?!?!”
Hornes then put on the new helm, giving the older one to the half-ogre Wolfskar (who was talking about leaving our group and joining the rangers), pressed it on tight, and then charged the wall of the barracks to test it out. We complimented him on his hit and even though the helm was wedged in place, Darius gave the half-orc thumbs up for the “power line” he had on his forehead.
Hornes sent Spunifer to the third barracks to heal Barb.
Barb was lying there feeling miserable, two of the Aids-de-camp hanging with her for the time being, when the orcish shaman came in and strode up to the reclining barbarian. The two women traded snipes at one another, Spunifer disliking Barb for her lack of loyalty, calling her an honorless bitch for abandoning Hornes and the Rangers. When Barb tossed it back that she should do her job and just heal her already, Spunifer shrugged and said she was weary and out of blessings today; she’ll have to wait till the morning. Barb’s mocking (and coughing) laughter followed her out of the barracks as she strode away.
Hornes was surprised that Spunifer was out of spells, but the druid shot back that she had cast numerous “rain repelling” spells during today’s travel on Hornes. He shrugged and thanked her, letting the group know that Spunifer would heal Barb of her sickness in the morning.
A few of us them went to the Reeve Donna Duncarian and asked her to allow us to look over the stores. We geared up on a few things we had used during our time in the lair, and gave the Reeve a listing of what we’d like on the next caravan (arriving on the 17th): poultices to draw out dirty sicknesses, extra baladranas, extra blankets, 20# of caltrops (10 bags), fizzstone if available (most likely not, but we can hope), fishing line, and a fishing net.
Negan went to the carpenters where he bartered for a ¾ auger and some wood chisels, giving up a couple K’Morat atlatl’s in the process. He was also allowed to gather up a 5# bag of sawdust which he gave to Darius for slinging. Finally, he went off to Daversi and had her sharpen the auger as well as giving her a pile of iron ore, hoping to get some caltrops from her (come back on the 15th, she’ll have 4#’s for us then). After this, the group turned in for the night and we got some sleep.
We awoke early, prayed, gathered supplies, and after verifying that Spunifer did indeed remove disease on Barb (she did, 5 in the AM), we left Base Camp by 7 AM into another damned rainy day and headed our way off to the mountain lake on the opposite and past the ridge of Furtham’s Peak, coming around to the stone house.
Seeing nothing new here, we continued on, a more invigorated Barb leading the way as we travelled off south and west over the next ridge lines and valleys until a bit after 12:30, we could see the meadow grasses at the floor of the valley before us. As we went to travel on, we were stopped by orcish voices who talked to Barb, demanding we stop and pay tribute before moving on. One by one, we all took out something small yet of some worth, looking around and still seeing none of the orcs that surrounded us.
Once accepted, we were told to move on and Barb let us know it was a Randari Warband – most likely 14 or so strong – something we didn’t want to risk facing – especially since they had gotten the drop on us.
We decided we wanted to set up a camp now, not near the K’Morat lair and nowhere near the Frost Giant. So we searched all up and down the northern ridge some 3,000 feet up or so until we came upon a natural cave obscured by the dense trees growing around. It was 7’ tall, 20’ deep, perhaps 13’ wide on the inside. An older animal den, hadn’t been used in weeks or so. The group cleaned it out, gathered wet wood and stacked it crossways inside so it would dry some and then took one of the tents and tacked it over the entrance to further obscure it, keep animals out, and keep the rain from coming in.
From here we went down into the valley and were at the K’Morat warren lair by 3ish. Nothing new. The root ball had been pruned a bunch, leaving no easy tie points for Darius who instead looped the rope up and over the root ball before letting the free end slither down the hole.
The party went in one by one, until the last person down (Negan) was climbing his way in as he noticed the pounding rain was letting up very fast. Unsure if it meant anything, he skidded to the floor and let us know about the rain ending. Shrugging for now, we drew up and made our way down the passage. The light spell was once more placed on Centius’ shield, but then with Barb in front (along with Darius this time), the half-orc and zombie swapped shields and we made our way with care to the 1st 4 way split.
Wooden rakes had been placed on the floor here, tines up, as if someone would run in and step on a rake, getting a face full of pole for his return. Hmm. We tried to pull one back and it had a wire on it. So we hooked it with the grapple and pulled hard, getting into a yanking contest with a K’Morat. Javelins were tossed but we won and managed to get a rake and 30’ of taut wire. Negan used the chisel to snap off a 4’ piece of it and then tied it to two spikes for an impromptu garrote. As for the K’Morat down that way, Darius took out a prepared Molotov, lit it, and let it fly.
It soared perfectly down, hit one K’Morat on the shield and splattered oil all over him and some on the guy next to him. The group ran weapons out. A bag of sawdust followed and fire blossomed all over the place. One K’Morat ran, and Barb gave chase while Connal pinned a K’Morat to the wall with the spear we had taken from the Temple of Loki. Barb was sure the K’Morat ran down the slope and towards the midden but the area was greasier than we remembered and the decision was to back up and go back to the 4 way split.
We crossed to the area where the deadfall had been, now nothing there but a concave hole in the ceiling. But when we looked down the passage to the end, we saw two of the tables now facing the other way – a 7” gap between them, and some junk on the floor in front of the tables. Negan and Connal swapped with Darius and Barb – the two fighters going to the back of the party and watching down the long passages for the sure to be coming K’Morat.
And they were down there, heads poking out and watching us. Barb kept up a litany of what was down there and soon to be coming while Negan and Connal were discussing slamming the tables (probably braced), dragging them back, or something else. It was at that moment that the K’Morat ran down the passage, hurling javelins from 20’ back, picking at Barb and Darius. Darius throated one of the K’Morat with a hunk of steel and then brained another. But there had to be 11 of them in hall and only two guarding the passage.
But from behind the tables and around the corner, a candle dumped over and fire raced along the oil prepared ground, hitting the bundle which exploded with rocks, grit, and the caltrops we had dropped here earlier. Connal used a dead kobold as cover and rolled barely out of the way while Negan took a face full and staggered back. The explosion was the sign for the K’Morat to charge closer. Luckily Darius used what few caltrops we had left to pepper the group, slowing them up.
Avulstein was preparing a spell to shoot around the corner but his ears picked up another spell being cast by a K’Morat voice – and the language of magic let him know it was a sleep spell! Fired at us.
Connal and Negan dropped immediately, followed by Avulstein and we had a choice – face the kobolds or awaken our friends. Awaken our friends came first. Darius left his post and slung a rock at Negan, hurting the half-ogre who coughed awake, and then Barb took stabs at her back as she prodded, kicked, and abused the wolverine until Avulstein drew awake. From the hallway, the caltrops had slowed down the charging K’Morat so only 4 had made the corner – one of which Centius split in twain with his axe.
As they were closing in, Avulstein yelled out his own spell and dropped every damned kobold in the hall to sleep. In return, the voice behind the tables called out a summoning spell, and some undead monster appeared, slashing at the party and trying to drop them. Waking Connal at long last, we tore into the summoned monster and it was dropped swiftly. At this point we made the call to coup de grace the kobolds in the hall and gather what ears we could – fully expecting to continue on into the warren and take on the next knot of K’Morat scum.
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