Plantmonth the 4th, 289 of the 29th age. 2:50 in the AM. 202 plus years into OUR past. We pulled out the Leomund’s Hut and maneuvered everyone inside. It was tight but we had enough food and water to last us about..3 days (with the extra mouths to feed). And with the blasted landscape, we were going to need it. We got a fitful sleep and were up and out of the hut by 10ish in the morning.
The kids were between the ages of 5 and 8, each of them a saved child of Lathandar, and there were 11 of them (2 8’s, 4 7’s, 3 6’s, and 2 5’s). The oldest were named Tindal and Margaret (boy and girl) and they were scared (they all were) but wanted to help. We set up buddy systems and each of them agreed that if anything went wrong – they should go right to Eoghan as they know him the best.
The sky was a burned mass of low moving black smoke, that blew the wrong direction, moving east to west. We assumed there was a fire source in that direction but the entire sky was scarred. Looking at the map and the fact that we were in some sort of hills, We assumed we were in the Passian Hills, maybe east of Maronia. Tilani would be in that direction, east. So that’s the direction we started walking.
Walking across burned out landscape was mind numbing. And it was hard to breathe, air was full of a toxic smell. We made slow go with the 11 kids. At one point we came up a dead giant, 23’ tall, burned and hunched over. Was shielding a young one in its arms. Both dead. We kept going and by 5:30, figured we had gone enough. At least half the group was dragging and the kids were wiped. We made maybe 7-10 miles.
We set up the hut again and after going in for a rest we crashed. Our food stores were down another day – 2 days left.
Plantmonth the 5th. We broke our fast and the sky was clearing. The amount of black clouds were decidedly less. Wilhelm changed to a raven and Thlain took out his broom. The party kept walking east (visibility was about 3 miles now) and the hills were ending in that direction. The two fliers went up about a quarter mile, then a half – and then flew east. Given the limits of Thalin’s broom time in the air and not wanting to wipe Wilhelm out, they set themselves up for 15 miles east and then would turn back around.
After almost the limit of their flight they could see the horizon – and it was blue. Lots of blue. The Borbuta Sea. We are nowhere where we thought we were. In fact on the other side of the Enderlyn River. The two of them flew back and once we were all together, discussed the new wrinkle. Closest place/town to here was Borut, at the mouth of the Enderlyn and Borbuta Sea. Wilhelm was from near there. It was a turn to the north and quite some distance away but we marched on.
It was a bit after 12 that to the west, at the rise of a hill, was the smoking remains of a keep of some sort. The architecture was all wrong, walls seemed splayed and built odd. But it was the first structure we’ve seen so we detoured closer. 60’ square, 4 towers, large central building, 12’ walls. Trench around it covered in remains of punji sticks. Drawbridge up, scarred and burned but whole. Every wooden part seemed to have been burned away. Connal climbed the wall and verified no one was within. No stables either. Strange. Two doors to the inner keep. Remains of a crossbow/ballista on top.
We lowered the drawbridge and then set about to look around. Nate kept watch. 2 doors in, 1 main, 1 side. We opened the side door. Small antechamber, two wide handled spears here. Table, some chairs shoved aside. 4 more spears by front door.
Some piles of ash around each weapon. Someone turned to dust? Burned away? Chairs had holes in the back and were wider based. Looking upstairs room for 6 to 10 more. Lizardmen? They aren’t native to the area around our time, but maybe in the past/now? We took some time verifying all we could about the place when Nate started yelling we had company coming. And moving fast.
Lizardmen, a few miles out and closing. 20…30…50 of them? And one was riding some palanquin…carried by a 3 horned giant dinosaur looking lizard thing.
We’re gone. Too many to fight and the kids were too close to harm. We had to go. But the lizardmen were fast, like horse fast. We evacuated the place, ran around the back and then Thalin opened the Leomund’s hut. We all ran in then he closed the door and we waited. We knew we had 12 hours tops. We rested as best we could and discussed plans.
Spring now, sun goes down about 6ish or later. We were going to make Darius invisible and he would step out and make sure the lizardmen had moved on. He emerged at 7 – and after stepping out was dismayed to see the lizardmen were still there. All of them. Some had taken up residence within the keep but at least 25 and the triceratops were situated outside. Plus they had a 6 count of pairs walking picket around the place at a long bow shot away from the keep. He came back in, closed the door, and told us what we knew.
We came up with a multiprong idea. Wall of fog the keep to obscure us, silence to keep us quiet, and then a fog cloud to disperse the picket long enough for us to slip through. We split up, made sure to carry the 6 youngest of the kids, the others were linked up. And at 9:30 we fired off our first spell.
Leaving the hut very fast we ran, Thalin going last to pick it up. We ran on as cries behind us rang out trying to figure out what’s happening. Wilhelm slowed enough to call to Shakak to send a fog cloud ahead and a burst of winter followed, further blocking the pickets from seeing us. We ran on very fast, trying to stay together. We know they were looking around but they do not have infravision so were opting to stay behind.
We ran until exhaustion took more than half the party. A good mile plus north, we set up the Leomund’s Hut again @ 10:20 PM on Plantmonth the 5th. We had a day of food still remaining and assumed we were not too far from the Enderlyn River.
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