As a storm rages across the skies, Aegon and the Troupe continue their journey along the border. They have learned that the Bear River lives up to its name, and that bandits are still in the area. The continue on their journey toward the coast.
27 Flamerule 1368
Lightning flashes across the skies as we move along the river. A wild dog attacks us. I kill it before it can get close.
Further north we find another bridge, this one guarded by an ogre. It spots us and we have no choice but to fight.
Rose draws it out and the rest of us circle the ogre.
It goes berserk on Rose, badly wounding her. I rush out to her aid.
Corellon’s blessings are not enough, so Rose reaches for a Potion of Extra Healing.
Before it can strike Rose again, Jaheira kills the ogre. We pause a moment to let Rose catch her breath.
The ogre carried only meagre posessions, a large sword and a jade ring among them. We approach the bridge to find the ogre wasn’t guarding it alone. Three hobgoblins spot us and ready their bows.
Rose charges and kills one of the hobgoblins, but she is poisoned by their arrows and they are joined by another ogre. I prepare to hit the ogre with a Battering Ram.
Edwin throws his Antidotes to Rose and she quickly drinks one. Edwin and I hit the ogre with both Larloch’s Minor Drain and a Battering Ram. The latter knocks the ogre unconscious.
Rose takes the opportunity to kill another hobgoblin, but she is yet again poisoned. The ogre gets up and strikes her from behind. Hard.
She drinks another Potion to restore her health.
Rose manages to cut deep into the ogre’s flesh, but it repays the blow in kind. The poison from the hobgoblin arrows continues to eat away at her.
She drinks the second Antidote Edwin gave her. The last remaining hobgoblin breaks and tries to escape the fight. I prepare some Magic Missiles to try and end the fight.
Khalid gets the kill, however. We decide to let the hobgoblin fly. Rose is wounded and needs attention before we can run deeper into the forest.
I heal Rose and we loot the corpses. Other than large swords, small swords, and bows there isn’t much interesting among their trinkets.
We continue across the bridge and spot the fleeing hobgoblin on the other side. Rose takes care of it.
We smell the familiar odour of cooking meat, and follow it to find an ogre leaning over a large campfire. Whole logs smoulder within the small boulders surrounding it. The ogre just wants to be left alone.
Rose, however, insists on annoying the creature.
This ogre wasn’t ready for a fight and is easier to kill than others we’ve encountered.
The ogre had a Scroll of Chromatic Orb tucked into its belt. I take it for my collection.
Moving down the river we meet woman seeking help to fend off some gibberlings.
Rose: Yes, we would gladly join you for a while.
Laurel: Wonderful. The gibberlings should be coming soon. You should prepare yourselves.
Almost as if on cue, we are charged by a small group of gibberlings.
We take one down, but realise we are being flanked by the creatures.
Rose starts tearing her way through the first group, while Laurel and I hold off the others.
After Rose handles her side she joins us on the flank. The gibberlings die quickly.
Unfortunately they are greater in number than we thought.
We don’t hesitate, and get stuck into the crowd of fur and claws.
They are no match for us, even in numbers as great as these.
Laurel thanks us for our help in dealing with the gibberlings.
She leaves, making her way north up the river. We start looting the corpses of the few coins they have. Of course we encounter a few more stray gibberlings as we do.
We move south, picking off a few more gibberlings as we do so.
We find another ogre wandering near the river. This one isn’t busy cooking. It attacks us on sight.
It ignores the many bolts and arrows that stick into its chest as it gets closer to us. Verr’Sza, Rose and I hold it back while the other keep aim with their ranged weaponry.
It realises it is outmatched and tries to run away. Khalid doesn’t let it escape.
We search its corpse but find only a gold ring alongside the mace it was weilding.
We encounter another ogre, and this one seems angry. Rose decides to act the part of a warrior for this fight.
The storm continues to rage on as we close the gap.
It swing its mace at Rose and connects, almost knocking her to the ground.
Thankfully it falls while Rose uses Gooseberries to heal herself.
All is quiet for a while, excepting a war dog that we are forced to kill.
But we soon encounter a group of ogres accompanied by a bear.
Rose: I assume you are the famed leader of this ogre pack?
Ogre King: Grr. I am chief Burk of my ogre tribe. And you? Soon to be dead for my evening dinner.
Rose: Bring it, you lump!
Ogre King: Kill them.
This must be the ogre king Helga wanted to hunt down. She would probably hate to miss what will be a tough fight. Khalid prepares to protect Rose. Rose summons the power of the Weasel God through her robes. Jaheira asks nature to grant Rose regeneration. Verr’Sza, Edwin, and I prepare some offensive magic from the Weave.
Verr’Sza’s attempt to blind one of the ogress fails. It goes berserk letting out a deafening roar.
Rose, now protected and healing, holds the ogres back with her Crusher. She reaches for a Potion of Speed to help fend them off. I create a carefully targeted Web to try and slow the ogres down.
Edwin summons his slimes to aid in the fight again.
Verr’Sza drains some of the Ogre Berserker’s health. It doesn’t seem fazed by this minor injury.
Edwin follows suit, draining some health from the Ogre King himself.
I sap the Ogre King of its strength, when another ogre comes out of the woods and charges Edwin’s slimes.
The King destroys a slime, while the other slime and the third ogre get trapped within my Web. Jaheira summons vines that shoot up out of the ground, slowing the ogres down even more.
I ask Corellon to Curse the ogres. The Protector decides to condemn a passing squirrel to the same fate as the ogres. I follow this up by Dooming the Ogre King’s fate.
With the ogres held at bay by webs and vines, I use a blessing to remove the ogre berserker’s mind.
The berserked wanders away from the fight in confusion. The other ogres kill the second slime, and struggle through the webs and vines to get close to Khalid. He draws his Varscona and Rose charges in to help him fight. I ask the Protector to grant me a Spiritual Hammer, and support them from a distance.
The Ogre King is knocked unconscious, and the other tastes the cold steel of Khalid’s Varscona.
Jaheira kills the ogre, and we all turn to face the King.
I Hold the King in place. He’s unable to defend himself now.
As Rose slaughters its king, the confused berserker smashes his mace into the squirrel, crushing it to death.
The remaining ogre has no idea what is happening anymore, and is slain quickly.
Edwin says that this little encounter has taught him how to wield his magic more efficiently.
He gets improved Wand, Polymorph, and Spells saving throws, access to 4 Level 2 spells, 5 more Hit Points, and 4 points of Lore.
We search the ogres; they have a couple of Potions of Healing and a Potion of Evasion.
After we settle down from the fight with the Ogre King, Edwin asks if he can look through my spell book to see if he can learn anything. I agree and he takes some time to study.
He fails at first, but he manages to learn how to summon a familiar.
He also learns how to evoke Melf’s Fiery Missiles.
As well as a Chromatic Orb.
And of course, the basic Magic Missiles.
I try to teach him how to hurt opponents with a Battering Ram, but he fails to grasp the concept.
Our study time is over, and we have rested well enough by now. We decide to keep moving, this time back to the Gnoll Stronghold on the coast.
It takes us four hours to reach the Coast. The Gnoll Fortress looms before us, still empty since the last time I was here. But we are more interested in the caves below the structure on this day.
We descend the cliffs and are almost immediately accosted by shrieking xvarts.
We take care of them, just like we did at their village.
Edwin seems to enjoy exterminating the xvarts, something that Khalid picks up on.
Edwin: If you must know, I am contemplating many a pleasant thought, not the least of which is the foreseeable extinction of your pathetic organisation.
Khalid: Extinction? I th-think not.
Edwin: Did you think you could hide such a detail from my prodigious intellect and keen eye, Harper? But rest assured, your dying congregation of shadow is not among my concerns.
Khalid: We are not d-dying.
Edwin: With recruits such as you, can Harpers expect else?
Khalid: I am p-proud to be as I am. And… my value is known to my s-superiors. Your masters place no value on you except as you b-benefit them; they would probably be q-quite unconcerned to learn of your d-death, save that it would oblige them to d-dispatch another to do their work. My s-service is to worthier men – and worthier women.
Edwin: Oh, I have no patience for you! (My fine irony is wasted on this man!)
Khalid is a Harper? Jaheira also? I’ve heard of that shadowy organisation. Father made a point to teach me of their existence. Was he a Harper too? Is that how he knows Khalid and Jaheira?
We continue along the cliffs, fighting our way through xvarts as we go.
There are many, but we carve our way through them with ease. Edwin seems to be enjoying himself.
We get to the cave I have been looking for. More of the screechers guard the entrance.
We go inside the cave, and are rushed by two xvarts.
They meet their maker rather quickly.
Rose peers around the corner of the cave and finds a bear waiting for her.
Visions of our deaths start to fill my mind. This bear is going to kill us. I pull out the scrolls of Restenford, and throw one to Edwin while Rose keeps the bear away from us. Rose is wounded by the bear.
She drinks a Potion of Stone Form, and her skin turns to stone as layers of protection cover her entire body. The bears claws bounce off her new armour.
Unable to hurt Rose, the bear takes a beating as the cave is lit up by an elemental pulled from the plane of fire, and a new shadow cast by an Invisible Stalker forms.
I finish off the bear with some Magic Missiles.
We follow the elemental and the stalker around the corned and find them already engaged with two more bears and another xvart.
The Fire Elemental burns one of the bears to death.
Khalid fires an arrow through the elemental, and the flaming missile pierces the bear’s skull.
Using the scrolls we found in Restenford is teaching me a lot about the Weave.
He gets an increase Wand saving throw, one more level 1 spell, access to 4 level 3 spells, 2 more Hit Points and 4 more Lore.
The cave is clear, and there is a single wooden chest here. We are wary of traps, so I ask Cat to come out of my backpack and check for any traps. Happy to be free once again, he obliges.
Cat says he thinks it is safe, so Rose opens the chest to see what is inside. It is full of equipment the xvarts presumably didn’t want used up. She finds 3 Potions of Healing, a Scroll of Magic Missiles, and a Scroll of Larloch’s Minor Drain. She attempts to copy the latter to her spell book, but fails.
She also finds two Potions of Additional Healing. They are twice as effective as normal healing potions.
Another potion she finds is one of Remarkable Healing.
There are weapons here: an enchanted composite long bow, and an enchanted club similar to Jaheira’s. There is also an enchanted Ninja-To, but Verr’Sza isn’t interested in the weapon.
There is also an enchanted buckler that Jaheira replaces her small shield with. Some magical hide armour is also stashed here, though no one in the Troupe wants to wear it.
Finally there is a wand here, though even I can’t figure out what magic it holds.
We take a moment to rest, and I start a conversation with the rakshasha. I want to know more about the creature – it’s not very common for elves to travel with such beasts.
Aegon: I’ve heard you’re a Naztharune rakshasha. What does it mean?
Verr’Sza: Eh, there are different kinds of rakshashas. There are Ak’chazar, who look more like white tigers. They are a bit more skinny and prefer arcane magic to conventional fighting. They’re really into necromancy.
There are Naityan, who are skilled shapeshifters. They are always eager to fight and they pick a form suitable for the opponent that’s their current target.
And then there are the Naztharune – my kind. We are lone hunters, mostly with black fur. We don’t care about being in organisations, as we are not eager to follow the road of Ak’chazar or Naityan. We prefer a nice fight. We know how to hide, when to wait. When to attack. When to jump and cut a foes aorta.
But we all can still differ. Those are the stereotypes and stereotypes are but a weakness. Many foes would expect me to cut with my claws or kick or strike with my blades. That’s why I actually consider magic wands quite useful. They don’t expect me to throw a magic missile or summon something. If I know how to use a magic trinket, I will surely make good use of it.
He likes wands. I’ll have to keep that in mind.
