Recap 20180817 - Clearing the Way to Waycombe - A Post SL Adventure - 11th

Recap 20180817 – Clearing the Way to Waycombe

Back at the Baron’s chambers, our heroes are presented with three potential missions; scouting the path to Waycombe ahead of a larger force of soldiers that are intended to face off against the bandits near the village, intercepting the supply lines of the invading giants to the southwest, or going to Tyr Amar to find out more regarding evil forces aligned against the Baron.  After hearing their options, Gird (Human Monk – Art), Souldun (Human Warlord – Vic), Iyonti (Githyanki Striker – Mick), Alyce (Human Bard/Warlock), Wii (Pixie – Ken), and later, Nekk (Human Fighter, Jae) and Enzio (Human Rogue, Kobe) decide to scout out the path to Waycombe.

After a good meal and checking provisions and weapons, the band sets out with the ever watchful Gird in the lead.  The first half of the day is uneventful, with mostly armed caravans, refugees, and occasional pairs of scouts on the road.  A while after lunch, the group meets a small team of mercenaries who initially report sighting a group of lizardmen a couple days past.  After the beautiful Alyce joins the conversation, a couple of the men tell the party of a large group of armed men camped near the swamp and some details regarding the most recent armed caravan.  The group thanks the soldiers of fortune and journey on.

Coming over a low rise, Gird spots a large group of lizard men dealing with a bucking pack mule.  Gird quickly motions for Iyonti, and Wii to follow him to a group of rocks, nearer the lizard men while the heavily armored Warlord and less than stealthy Bard remain on the nearby ridge.   Upon Gird’s signal the heroes charge into the lizard men raiders with Iyonti and Gird leading the way.  Wii clears a path with a blast of magic, downing a couple of wounded raiders as does Alyce on the western flank.   Wii, Alyce and Souldun are hit with several blasts of magic from a lizard man shaman.  Wii teleports a short distance away and then positions herself in a nearby tree.   Alyce falls back a bit from the west, Iyonti holding firm in the center and Gird is on the east, downing one raider, then another.  Wii checks her wounds and unleashes several more blasts of magic, downing two more raiders and again, the Bard follows her lead.  Souldun strikes and battles with raiders all around him, healing and inspiring his fellows.  Several raiders cover the retreat of the shaman as he heals himself and attempts to blast any approaching heroes.  The lizardman champion who was scouting ahead charges into the battle from the south, meeting Iyonti head on. Iyonti and Wii attempt to pressure the shaman who uses the plants to stop the party’s attacks.  Gird downs one of the rear guard and then moves to assist against the champion.  As Gird, Wii and Iyonti battle the shaman and the champion, Souldun finishes off a tougher raider with a powerful (30+ hits) strike.   Gird strikes the shaman and his body guard several times with a flurry of kicks and strikes.  Iyonti moves in for the kill, downing first the shaman and then the champion.  The mule is nowhere to be seen.  After a short rest the heroes trek on toward the village.  

They meet an old man and then arrive at the village in the late afternoon.  They meet all the remaining villagers and note the many burned downed buildings.  Stopping at the inn they learn what they can from the villagers.  One tidbit is that old man Demantis lives at the edge of the swamp.  The party, wondering how an old man can remain living alone at the swamp’s edge decide to make a quick visit there and after a short chat, determine that he is very crazy.  The group returns to the inn.  Coordinating watches with the locals, and about midnight, Iyonti spots about three large wolves moving around the burnt out buildings in the dark.  Wii challenges the party to “go out and get the wolves…” perhaps there were some mean wolves in the forest she grew up in.  Not wanting to seem less brave than a three foot tall, twenty pound little girl with wings, all the men reluctantly agree to go out in the night and chase the dogs away.   As soon as the group is out of bowshot of the inn, they are set upon by a trio of undead swamp wolves.  Forming a fairly large defensive perimeter, the group faced off against the encircling wolves.  After the initial wolf is badly wounded by several heroes, it teleports a short distance away and two more wolves attack from the opposite side of the perimeter forcing Gird and Souldun to shift over.   After many seconds, Iyanti downs the first wolf but gets drained in the exchange.  Not to be outdone, Gird downs a wolf himself.  Souldun finds himself flanked by a pair of wolves but bravely battles on, repeatedly resisting the negative energy from them.  Iyanti downs his second wolf with a barrage of slicing attacks and again, not to be out done, Gird downs his second wolf.   Working with Gird, and then Iyanti, Souldun downs himself a wolf and the remaining wolves run off.  The group returns to the inn for a well deserved rest.

In the morning, the heroes head back to the Tyr Ero through the hills.  They come across a large encampment and note the number of men, their arms, and the fact that they have a pair of heavily armored ogres with them.  The group moves on and Gird spots a huge flying shape.  Alyce sights it and the whole group takes cover as a very large black dragon flies over and past the group.  They make sure the dragon has flown off and then continue.  It’s not too long before they sight a couple of warriors coming up from behind them.  They relax as they recognize the lead warrior as Nekk, a renown fighter and famous dragon slayer.  He and his companion Enzio join the heroes right as they run head long into a large group of half orcs, orcs, and Ogre slavers.  Wii blasts a group near the rear of the slavers and takes down three orcs.  Nekk charges forward and misses an orc.  An ogre javelin thrower scores a hit on Nekk and then charges him and trips up the fighter with a powerful club swing.  Iyonti likewise is hit with a javelin and takes a serious hit with a club.  Alyce downs an orc and wounds two half orcs.  Enzio downs an orc and is pressed back by an ogre.  The nimble rogue seriously wounds the ogre and dashes away as several orcs and a second ogre move toward him.  Souldun and Alyce heal injured team mates just as quickly as they can.   First Nekk and then Iyonti.  Nekk is healed in time to stand up, swing and miss the ogre next to him and then the fighter gets hit from a second javelin and another club hit.  The fighter grits his teeth and swings back, missing again.  Sometimes you just don’t feel like yourself.  Wii blasts the area around the fighter, wounding two of the half orcs, wounding two of the Ogres, downing two more orcs and wounding Nekk.  Alyce swings at a passing orc and slices it in the neck as it stumbles and falls.  Iyonti downs a flanking orc and then downs the first ogre.  Enzio downs an orc and deals a serious wound to one of the ogre javelin throwers.  Souldun and the Bard continue to heal wounded party members.  The Bard’s magic keeps the heroes out of the restrictive grasp of the slavers and downs another orc.  Nekk swings and misses again.  Enzio slashes an armored ogre in the back and backs off so that Gird can deliver a back kick and groin stomp to finish the ogre off.  Wii downs one of the last orcs.  Iyonti heals himself, allowing Souldun to chase down the remaining half orc and chop it down.  Gird rushes forward and also strikes down another half orc in a flurry of blows.  In the face of such tough opposition, the remaining ogres flee.

The group polices up the battlefield and report back to Baron Bruce, gaining a hefty 10K GPs and a magic (+2) Skyrenderer Longbow.