Session 37 - Let Me Explain What QUIETLY Means, Derrick!
12th Nov 2021 - 19:45 - 11:30
In-game timeline: Start of session: 1489DR Uktar 04. End of session: 1489DR Uktar 05
Our "Heroes" are recovering from a tough fight with some Harpies, two of which escaped, and Iwee is having to use hand signals to communicate with the others, who still have various cloths and foodstuffs stuffed in their ears to protect against the Harpies songs.
They follow the path northward heading towards where they think the Abbey is located. After an hour or so they see in the distance what looks like a number of stone buildings, some of which seem to be ruined, and some large patches of cultivated land growing crops of some sort. They see no movement amongst the buildings or fields, so they stealthily approach the nearest building, which happens to be a ruin, but has walls high enough to hide behind.
Whilst the rest of the group hide behind the ruined wall, Iwee turns herself invisible and approaches the nearest intact building to investigate. There's an open doorway so Iwee heads to the entranceway and peers in. She sees an empty building with a lot of rubble and mess on its floor, and a large 'pit' within, also filled with rubble. A stained glass window on the far end is too dirty to let in too much light, but it does illuminate some drawings or paintings on the walls. After checking that there seems to be nothing moving in this building, Iwee heads over, still invisible, to the opposite building.
This seems to be built of black stone, and has a doorway that seems to have been sealed shut with planks and large boulders. Thinking that this may imply something bad is captive inside, Iwee decides that discretion is the better part of valour, and moves on to the intact building behind.
This building also has an open entranceway, and appears to be empty. Upon further investigation a toppled statue of a dwarf is inside, but little else. Iwee returns to the others, and they all head to a clump of trees (or maybe bushes? It's an important question, apparently) and hide there.
Iwee moves round to the front of the largest building, which seems to have a makeshift door set into an ornate, carved doorframe. She can make out the flickering light from a torch or fire coming from the inside. With time running out on the invisibility spell, Iwee quickly moves to the opposite building to check that one out. It also has a closed door. Iwee doesn't risk any more scouting and returns to the others to explain what she has found.
The party spends their usual long time discussing a plan for their next steps.
Eventually they decide to sneak around the back of the potentially inhabited building. Unfortunately Derrick trips and falls, clattering noisily against the side of the building. The group react quickly (well… relatively speaking!) and rush for the cover of the trees by the lake. Iwee tries to distract by casting minor illusion to create noises elsewhere, to divert attention from where they run and hide.
As they hide amongst the trees, they spot a figure come around the building, seemingly checking out the noise. He ducks back and the group assume he has heard them and quickly (well, once Derrick has carved graffiti into the trees) run to the bushes at the far end of the building, trying, and failing, once again to be stealthy. As they reach the end, a couple of crossbow bolts skim past Karoshi's head and thud into the tree trunk near to him. They decide to run for the cover of the edge of the building and prepare for a fight.
As the noisy and distinctly unstealthy party brace themselves for attack, they are eventually accosted by two humans, armoured and carrying longswords, who seem a little surprised to come upon them. During the battle, another human wielding a spear and shield rushes at them, seemingly calling for more help from behind.
Our "Heroes" defend themselves, though the three attackers prove tough. With Derrick and Karoshi focussing on two of them, Jaxii and Iwee try to hold off the other one. Jaxii is hit hard, and needed some healing from Iwee before she was finally able to take down "Bert". "Ernie" is a little easier to defeat, but when "Bayleaf" joins the fight, Karoshi and Derrick start to struggle. The group burn through a lot of their spells and abilities, but do manage to take down Bert and Ernie. Bayleaf still stands, though shouts again for help. The party look like they are going to succeed in this battle, but reinforcements may be on the way!
As Bayleaf's days looks to be numbered, he offers a deal - let him survive, and take him away from the island with them, and he will help them hide from the group of clerics that will soon be upon them! Our "Heroes" have little time to decide what to do, though this doesn't stop them taking a while to actually make a decision. Eventually they agree to the deal, and Bayleaf leads them back into the trees behind the building. He quickly asks Iwee to create a minor illusion of a body thrashing in the waters, and Karoshi adds some noise to the effect. Bayleaf convinces the group to let him go back to explain that the attackers were killed, with the last of them being pushed into the quipper-infested waters of the lake.
Eventually Bayleaf returns and explains that the clerics accepted his story, though they are a little worried that two of their guards have been killed. They find out more information about the clerics and the abbey from Bayleaf, and tell him that they intend on going into the Shar temple at the top of the abbey. Bayleaf is less than impressed at that course of action, but says that he will meet them on their exit and travel with them off the island - he hasn't been paid for a number of months now and has no real loyalty towards the clerics.
As the group head back to the temple with the fallen statue, and intend to have a long rest there, Bayleaf heads back to his 'base' for the night. Before the party rest, Derrick and Karoshi take the time to lift the fallen statue back onto its base, and are rewarded by *inspiration*.
The night passes uneventfully…