Recollections by Sarya edit edit source
Recollections by Rezik edit edit source
It's been really busy - let's just do some bullet points today:
- It starts with Sarya
- Magic Mushrooms?
- Rallying the Townsfolk & Fortifying
- The Siege Begins
- Who is Chandra?!
- Wait, How Many Goblins?
- Oh Good Bye Mammoth
- Reminder: Learn Cone of Cold
Recollections by Tallulah edit edit source
I was one of a small group recruited by Sarya to respond to a call for help from Shander. Shander informed Sarya that The Seer had requested Sarya by name to provide assistance to the town of Tentown Post—a small city in the Southeastern corner of Eomas. Tentown is primarily a trading post/farming community that grows winter vegetables and fungi that require the six months of darkness provided by this region of the continent to thrive. Joining us on our journey would also be Zanna, Rezik, his dragon Gramph and Wethril of course.
It took us a week by airship piloted by Captain Alil to arrive near Tentown. As we approached the town a villager ran to us from the stables shouting that there were ogres attacking the stable and that they needed help. We saw no ogres or disruption of any sort—Rezik sent his familiar up above to scout and still no ogres. As we moved ahead to investigate we came across a blue door on the side of the stable—the villager did not recognize it and seemed quite confused. We approached the door and it opened revealing a large, octagonal study which held an enormous desk with a tray of teacups on it, scrolls, books and several birds fluttering merrily around the room. Directly across from the open blue door, was another open doorway leading to a beautiful garden. We all entered the room and could see an elderly woman standing in the garden near a pond. She was wearing blue robes with ornate birds embroidered on it—the Seer. The Seer beckoned towards us to approach and asked us to bring the tea.
The Seer informed us that she called Sarya and her friends here as there was a hill giant named Gruul that had come into possession of a Headband of Intellect which the Seer believed to be controlled by a priestess of Lolth named Narcelia Milithor. She had foreseen that Gruul and his followers were on their way to Tentown. The Headband that had found Gruul helped him to recruit and coerce other beings to come to his aid—we had no idea how many would be with him or why they were coming. The villagers would need our help to secure and protect the city. The Seer predicted we would have 3 days to prepare. She asked us to return the headband to her for destruction and informed us she would make herself available to us when the time was right.
With this new information we continued into the center of town to meet with either Ragnar or Gundellan to provide our services in preparation for an assault. We found Ragnar at town hall where there were villagers scurrying about in every direction gathering equipment. Ragnar informed us that we would have approximately 600 able-bodied villagers to train and prepare for battle. At the time we arrived Ragnar and his people were in the midst of deciding whether to stay in Tentown or travel to Oldtown which was located in the valley of a crater several miles away. While the walls and security of the crater itself were attractive, we decided it would be best not to spend the time on moving the villagers and all of the equipment and focus our energy on training and fortifying Tentown.
We got to work as quickly as we could. On our first day, Sarya and I began training villagers in combat and archery while I also selected a handful of individuals who seemed to have the stuff of leaders to assist in organizing and training the masses. Rezik got to work building a retaining wall around the North side of the city center to limit the direction the assault would approach from and Zanna smithed away improving upon the rudimentary weapons we had available. Wethril and Rezik’s familiar went scouting and it appeared that a local tribe of orcs—the Spine Ripper's Clan—may have joined the ranks of Gruul. The second day was dedicated to more wall building, weapon making and training as well as laying traps along the path we suspected the army to come from based on The Seer’s prediction and the scouting our team had completed. At the end of the day we saw a young lady emerge from the nearby forest with four Eladrin and several sprites who had agreed to join us. While it may seem like a small comfort considering what we were about to face, it was reassuring to have skilled backup on our side.
Scouting the morning of the third day revealed that enormous horde was approaching us: roughly 1000 goblins, 400 orcs, packs of wolves and groups of enormous cave bears, ogres, trolls, hobglins, an ettin and 4 other hill giants besides Gruul himself riding a wooly mammoth! The army would reach us by nightfall. The news was dire and I could see it weigh on the villagers heavily. Once our traps and preparations were complete I delivered a speech to bolster our troops, the only thing left to do was to wait.
As darkness began to fall, we watched the mass of creatures gather from a distance, Gruul raised his bone horn and shouted for us to deliver to him the child Chandra—Last Scion of Pelor. He would give us some time to do as he asked. With the assistance of Ragnar we found Chandra’s hovel but not Chandra. Upon leaving Zanna spotted the young girl we had spotted with the Eladrin the day prior and beckoned for her to come to us—she looked to be about 17 and somehow familiar. When she got closer, I realized why—Chandra was the girl from the library vision I had witnessed while in the Nightshade Kingdom. We spoke with Chandra about what Gruul—or more likely, Lolth, want with Chandra and agreed to protect her and keep her safe. With skill in healing, Chandra went to the hospital to provide her assistance. The Eladrin had come to protect Chandra but they agreed to help us and join the battle. We all retained our posts and awaited the impending attack. Rezik mounted Gramph, Zanna and I took to the rooftops with the archers and Sarya and Wethril led the villagers from the ground.
It took about a half an hour for Gruul to get impatient enough to yell "charge!" Many of the smaller foe began to run full-tilt up the hill towards us. Our goal was to prevent as many enemies from reaching the city as possible. The company of hobgoblins and some of the goblins became victims of our traps and our archers, positioned on rooftops, got to work picking off what they could from a distance. Rezik, atop Gramph, attacked from the sky with a fire ball attack, wreaking havoc on the orcs while Gramph used her cold breath to bring down more of the goblins. As goblins began to break through our lines and enter the city, Sarya flew into a barbarian rage and Zanna summoned her two lions Peanut Butter & Jelly—not going to lie, I was pretty excited to see these creatures in action. Suddenly, Zanna leapt gracefully from the roof, somersaulted through the air and managed to land on top of both Peanut Butter AND Jelly, straddling the air and wielding a dagger in each hand! "Guys, do you see this? This is happening!!!" I heard her shout victoriously from below as arrows soared through the air at the attacking goblins.
As the we continued to bring down the remaining goblins, the cave bears, more hobgoblins and orcs began to charge toward us with force followed by the giants and the trolls. The Eladrin gathered together around a stone bowl and a swirling weather pattern began to gather and pick up speed—they tiled the bowl toward the giants and blast of frozen wind encased the giants and some of the wolves in ice—they fell to the ground and shattered!
Reshik and Gramph attacked the approaching trolls with cold breath striking them both. One of the trolls leapt into the air and reached for Gramph—as she dodged its efforts Reshik snickered and blasted a fireball at the troll preventing it from being able to regenerate. I fired an arrow through it’s eye to bring it down and shot another at its fellow troll friend. Gramph took another pass and Rezik’s fireball struck the second troll and I continued to hit it with arrows. The angered troll jumped onto one of the hill giants and leapt onto the rooftop very near where I was standing slashing and biting. I stumbled backward and fired my longbow twice directly in the trolls face. The troll toppled with considerable force onto the roof leading it to collapse underneath myself and some of my fellow archers—as quickly as we could returned to the ground and continued the fight.
Sarya and Zanna—once again atop Peanut Butter & Jelly—were focusing their efforts on one of the giants. The lions leapt from the air toward the giant but mistimed the jump and left the ground at different times tossing Zanna at the giant. Zanna being Zanna she still managed to sneak attack as her lion friends bit and tore at the giant. Wethril, not wanting to be left out, lunged at the giant’s inner thigh and tore at its femoral artery. Blood sprayed over him in a dark shower as he landed gracefully on his big wolfie paws looking proud devouring his mouthful of giant.
Just then the mammoth carrying Gruul began to charge along with the ettin and remaining ogres. The cave bears were almost upon us—we did our best to thin them before they entered the city but enter the city they did wreaking havoc upon the villagers. Gruul and his mammoth mount barreled towards. Rezik banished the mammoth and as it vanished from existence so, seemingly, did Gruul, but only for an instant. He reappeared on his feet, still running full tilt. I cast Hunter’s Mark on Gruul before he entered the city. Gruul charged into the city and cleaved one of the Eladrin clean in half—the villagers scattered, running toward the hospital. All of us focused our energy on Gruul—Sarya threw her javelin, Rezik shot a magic missile through the air only to have it bounce off with no affect, I sent arrows striking Gruul. The remaining Eladrin, angered by the death of their friend, fey stepped reappearing under Gruul holding hands. With enormous force and energy, they blasted Gruul and the few bears still wreaking havox through the town with cold freezing Gruul into a giantcicle. The giantcicle shattered falling to the ground along with the Headband of Intellect still in tact. The other hill giant and ettin promptly turned to retreat.
Gramph enjoyed some lovely frozen giant as we took stock of the aftermath of the battle. We had lost 70 of the villagers and there was quite a bit of damage to the buildings, not to mention the piles of bodies strewn about and the smell of death permeating our nostrils. We decided to take the Headband to the Seer. No sooner had we made this decision than the blue door reappeared to us.
The Seer placed the Headband on her head to destroy it and the "bitch that lives inside it" —her words. The octopus/kraken sigil on the headband began to glow and activate and the Seer seemed to be having an internal struggle until the sigil headband crackled and fell off. The Seer picked the headband up off her head and returned it to us. She told us that the priestess was a hateful person diluted into thinking she was meant for something more whereas Chandra was a special child who has a large role yet to play.
Zanna decided to keep the headband, at least for now, and we were hopeful someone at the Magistery might be able to replicate it. We were able to find Chandra after the battle and welcomed her to visit the Magistery whenever she would like or need to—encouraged by our valor and assistance we provided to the town, she seemed like she might consider it in the future.
The villagers decided to repopulated Oldtown instead of Tentown. We helped to clean up and rebuild what we could in the three weeks it took for the airship to return. While we were there, we discovered the original name of Oldtown was Bryn Shander—this world never ceases to surprise me!