Session 022 - On the Road Again

Picking up the scraps

The session opened with the party regrouping after the last combat encounter with a zombified Dagult and Dixon. The party were trying to locate their horses and assess the damage on their cart.

”You’re standing on a narrow strip of land - between 50-65 feet wide with some higher ground (5-10ft) to the West and a lower area that is further down (10-20ft) to the East. The road seems to continue further North onto flatter grounds.

You see some old withered trees amongst the area, and your damaged cart behind you. Your horses are nowhere to be seen.”

- The location the party find themselves in, as narrated

Grinchy reminders

Shortly after the party gather their composure and began to look around their surroundings; Fill felt a familiar, unsettling voice enter his mind as The Grinch found a way past the originally laid by Santa Claus to give the cleric some peace.

”Well, well, well… It has been a while since I’ve been in here.

Good ol’ Marius didn’t realise that by carelessly helping you out with that spell he’d let me in again did he!

hahahaHAHAHAHA!”

- The Grinch to Fill

Splitting up

The party found some clearer hoof-prints in the ground that gave them some indication of the direction of their horses. Graxious and Salvador stayed behind to attempt to fix the cart while the others headed North to follow the tracks.

The four party members headed North for 100-150ft or so before they forked in three directions. Illsaiim headed West on his lonesome, and Alberic did the same going East, which left Fill and Mike to head North.

Finding tracks

Illsaiim was careful to be stealthy even in the wide open plains they had entered. He left little in the way of footprints and astutely followed the trail, before reaching a point where he found smaller, humanoid footprints mixed amongst the hoof-prints. Unable to discern the type of creature they were from he followed the trail further as it veered back around to the Northward path. He noted that the trail had changed from loose hoof-prints to very clear lines, which indicated the horses were being pulled next to each other rather than walking free.

Alberic got lost following the trail to the East and was unable to find out much due to his lack of familiarity with the land around him.

Fill and Mike continued Northward and found it split even further with humanoid footprints also scattered between the hoofprints. It was hard to discern what creature could make those footprints from the scurry but it could be seen that the path continued Northward.

Whose feet are those?

Mike took a closer look at the footprints and recalled a forgotten memory from his time in the Neverwinter Wood as a youth. This allowed him to deduce the footprints were likely from Goblins.

Regrouping

Mike and Fill decided it would be wise to return to the cart first for backup before they encountered any Goblins. Alberic also headed back after being unable to retrace his step and further track the Eastward trail. They returned roughly around the same time to find Graxious and Salvador had fixed the cart in the time they’d been away.

Illsaiim had not returned and was no where to be seen from the vantage point the party had. Alberic decided he would head West to find the Shadar-Kai male.

The others decided two of the stronger members would pull the cart while the other two would push to give them assistance. After a good amount of effort from the four of them, they got the cart rolling at a good speed with momentum behind them.

Acrobatics Entries

As the cart began to roll with momentum, Fill and Graxious each took leaps forward to grab the edge of the cart and ride it; both barely succeeding to maintain their balance as it continued to accelerate.

Alberic, lost again down the Westward trail, noticed his party members riding the cart and made a decision to turn back and attempt to catch the cart as well. He initially managed to close the gap between him and the cart with his above-average speed, however he slipped at the final moment and hit his head on the edge of the cart. Graxious’s responded quickly and threw the Human Monk a rope which Alberic successfully grabbed.

Unfortunately for Graxious; even being weighed down by the plate-armour wearing Fill was not enough to stabilize his balance on this bumpy cart and the rope slipped; leaving Alberic to drift away in the opposite direction. With a show of his extreme dexterity, Alberic pushed off of the ground and sprinted with increased resolve to successfully catch the edge of the cart before being lifted into it by Graxious.

Towards the Woods

Meanwhile, Illsaiim had followed the trail of hoof-prints around and noticed it looped back around and headed Eastward, becoming obscured as the treeline of the Neverwinter Wood became visible in the distance. He decided to continued heading towards the woods but left a map of Triyana on the ground and put a dagger centred on his destination to let the others know where he was heading.

The other 5 party members headed North about 300 or so feet before needing a rest (pulling carts is a hard task) where Fill noticed the a shine in the distance. Upon closer inspection, they noticed the dagger and the map on the ground and pieced together Illsaiim’s intentions. After a bit of group discussion, they abandoned their cart on the side of the road and followed after their Shadar-Kai male compatriot.

Both managed to make it a fair distance towards the woods over the next few hours without much trouble before getting to a stage of needing to find camp.

Finding Camp

Illsaiim who had been 30 or so minutes ahead of the party settled down and made a campfire a hundred-or-so feet away from a hill in the East. He began to rest while waiting for the party to catch up.

Somewhat aided by the smoke and light of the campfire - The Bussy Knights found their way to Illsaiim before the sun fully set. Mike, excited to see his friend, shouted at the Drow male - disrupting his rest period entirely.

With the party very much tired from their day’s encounter, many of the member’s settled down for 8 hours of rest while Mike Hawk took the first watch.

What was that noise?

Mike heard some noises coming from the East and took to slicing a bush but didn’t find anything of consequence. When Fill and Illsaiim went to sleep, Mike started to rest.

Illsaiim headed to recon the area further to the East, while Fill watched over the camp. Fill heard a sound during the first half of his watch coming from the East as well and noticed Illsaiim had not reacted to it - choosing to attempt to stealth after him and tell him.

The pair noticed a further sound over the mountain and Illsaiim headed over to investigate before asking Fill to get 2 other party members to help them.

”You see a dimly lit campfire surrounded by at least 6 goblins and a wooden cage that you can’t see into easily. You also see 4 horses.

Upon closer inspection, you see Bishop, Jamiroquai, Sasuke, and a forth unknown horse.”

- The goblin campsite, as narrated

Upon returning to the campsite and waking Mike and Salvador - Fill hears another sound coming from the West this time. Unsure of what the sound is, he woke the other two party members in case of an ambush.

Illsaiim returned to the hill and hid carefully to maintain his vantage point; expecting backup in a short while.

Graxious, unsure of the noise and a bit sleep-deprived; healed himself first and then threw his javelin the direction of the noise to the West. He didn’t throw it with full conviction however and it slipped as he released it. A few moments later, everyone in the nearby area heard the pained cry of a horse before a conversation in a foreign language filled the air,

Goblins!

The party at the campfire were engaged by a regular goblin and two large goblins that were more well armed. Meanwhile, Illsaiim was detected by one of the goblins at the camp and had to find a creative way past the enemies.

While his party members were dealing with their own assailants, Illsaiim dashed over the edge of the hill and over towards the cage; where he saw a man with tanned skin and dark grey hair. He successfully picked the lock and pointed the well-built male towards what could be his belongings.

The Un-named Monk

The man from the cage quickly assessed the situation and deflected arrows shot at him as he drew the attention of the Goblins at the eastern campfire. Together he and Illsaiim managed to athletically and dextrously exit the campfire and escaping over the hill.

Stitch needs Stitches

As the fight dragged on and the Goblins numbers dwindled. The party noticed the remainder of their horses towards the West. After closer inspection, Salvador’s horse Stitch had been impaled by Graxious’s javelin and was in significant pain.

Closing

The session closed with Stitch being healed by Fill as the others slew all but one of the Goblins - who fled towards the East at a fast pace.