Post by Dungeon Master on Nov 21, 2016 13:16:57 GMT -8
19th November 2016
We added two more players to the mix.
DR is playing a Dwarf Shifter and SB is playing a Human Fighter.
We resume in the snow covered plains...
The snow has already begun to melt and it is clear that while it will take several days to melt, it is in the process of melting away.
The battle against the five Drow elves has been won.
Their equipment has been picked over, and the spoils taken.
A couple of strangers are spotted, walking along the great road.
When they spot the group they head towards them.
These two, a dwarf and a human are essentially looking for adventure.
The human is a fighter, who doesn't seem to be the smartest thinker, but he is fiercely loyal to his companion.
The two seem amicable to pursuing Drow and rescuing captives.
Trump must have convinced them with his speech of illegal Drow on the surface and his plan to conjure a wall to keep them out.
Aeternus points out that Half-Orc lives matter.
The rest of the party are happy with two more bodies in their pursuit.
The trail is extremely easy to follow, as the mass of people trample through knee deep snow.
The tracks are leading into the direction of a forest, several miles into the distance.
Black mists appear in the sky, and seep across the sun.
The mists spread across the sky as well, and it grows very dark.
After a few minutes it is darker than night even.
For the moon is obscured as are the stars.
Darius, with his nature knowledge knows that as the universe rotates around the earth, sometimes celestial objects cause an eclipse.
He figures this is not natural, for in those events the stars or the moon is usually still visible.
This is utter blackness.
Conveniently enough, every character has taken alternate racial abilities to gain Darkvision, if they didn't already have it.
However, with 60 ft. per person (and Aeternus with 90 ft.) of vision, the forest is no longer visible...
The tracks through the snow become even more important, as a potentially tell tale sign could now easily be missed by a few hundred feet.
The snow is melting, and once it does tracking becomes harder by an order of magnitude.
After several miles, the road begins to curve to a generally west direction.
About a mile after that point, there is evidence of a larger creature with four legs.
It is a flying creature of some sort, because there are no tracks leading to it's imprint in the snow.
Nor are there tracks leading away from it.
The tracks are smudged a little, as if it had forward momentum and landed, then launched itself into the air.
The mass of tracks, of the kidnapped prisoners do not progress beyond this point.
There is no evidence of a mass slaughter or feeding here, as the snow is not red with blood.
The kidnappers, who were walking at least two abreast and at least two deep, on each side of the prisoners...
They merge into a clump, making their number indistinct, but from the last several miles of tracking they are at least eight because there were at least four on each side.
A short distance after the larger thing landed, and the prisoners were carted away...
A pair of the group break off towards a more Northerly direction, while the larger group continues more to the West.
In places through the snow, the west route reveals bits of a hard packed dirt road.
Most of the group wants to follow the larger clump of bad guys...
After a short discussion, the group continues predominantly to the west, after the larger group.
Not too long after the divergence, the party comes across an area where the tracks stop and there is smooth snow for a stretch.
The tracks can be seen resuming beyond this stretch.
Anno finds a fairly large rock, close to the size of his head... it is big enough that if a pit trap were made, it would likely go through.
You never know...
The rock is heavy enough that he has to be within 20 feet of the smoother area to toss it.
When he does, three dead things get up out of the snow and move towards the party.
These creatures fight with tooth and claws, but appear to be more of the darker skinned elves.
The battle is not overly hard, and once the party emerged victorious they examined the corpses.
These look the same as the other Dark Elves, but appear to have mortal wounds already in place, before the party engaged.
The party guesses they were animated and set as a trap.
The party takes the time to burn these, reasoning that they arose once and don't want it to happen again.
A few more hours into the day, a set of glowing eyes can be seen.
As contact is made, is appears to be a lone wolf; it howls...
And is answered by howls from both the North (left) and South (right).
There are at least two wolves on each of the flanks.
The wolves quickly close, four moving in shortly and then three more moving in later after the group has moved.
It turns out there is another one in the parties path, with the leader wolf.
And in addition to the flanks which howled, a lone stealthy wolf attempts to sneak up from behind the group.
The wolves aren't given an opportunity to attack the less armored party members.
And they don't have much luck against those in heavier armors.
The encounter is dealt with swiftly and easily.
The new human fighter has a slight disagreement with 'The Paladin'.
The fighter figures he should not have broken ranks.
But the Paladin states he moved between the wolves and those who needed his protection, as any brave warrior would.
The forest gets a little thicker after a time.
And then several hours later begins to thin again.
Shortly after the trees begin to thin, a crashing sound can be heard coming from the South West.
A monstrosity, part Owl and part Bear bursts into view.
Although some of the party had previously looted 'Hand Crossbows' no one was adequately trained in their usage.
And no one had any ranged weaponry, aside from the foreign hand crossbows.
So the creature was allowed to close, without being peppered with arrows or bolts or the like.
The Paladin again moves into position where it has to go through him, or take a wide route around.
The Owlbear charges the Paladin, and hits him hard despite his plate armor and shield.
The rest of the melee types move in, to further restrict its' ability to circle around to the others.
Angus moves closer in that he would like (25 ft. range spells), but is still behind the melee types.
On the first round of the combat with full attacks, the Paladin falls to a Claw/Claw/Bite attack.
Steve inflicts a grievous wound upon the creature, and in turn is knocked out.
Darius moves for a flank, and attracts its' attention and is also knocked unconscious and is also bleeding out.
It doesn't look good, and Trump says he's out of bigger heals and only has his channel energy now.
The Owlbear falls, between Aeternus and Spartan... but the party is not in good shape.
They debate heading back to town at this point.
Abandoning those kidnapped to be sacrificed... to a demon thing.
Since resources (heals) are low, and the reputation for a deadly forest appears to be well deserved.
Darius volunteers that this was likely the apex predator in this area, and likely there isn't anything else nearby.
They decide to sleep here, with two on each watch... one in armor, in case... on each watch.
In the morning, the party continues onwards.
The snow is only ankle deep on a human at this point.
The trees continue to thin out, but it is still thick enough to call this woods or light forest and not open field or plains.
A galloping sound can be heard
We added two more players to the mix.
DR is playing a Dwarf Shifter and SB is playing a Human Fighter.
We resume in the snow covered plains...
The snow has already begun to melt and it is clear that while it will take several days to melt, it is in the process of melting away.
The battle against the five Drow elves has been won.
Their equipment has been picked over, and the spoils taken.
A couple of strangers are spotted, walking along the great road.
When they spot the group they head towards them.
These two, a dwarf and a human are essentially looking for adventure.
The human is a fighter, who doesn't seem to be the smartest thinker, but he is fiercely loyal to his companion.
The two seem amicable to pursuing Drow and rescuing captives.
Trump must have convinced them with his speech of illegal Drow on the surface and his plan to conjure a wall to keep them out.
Aeternus points out that Half-Orc lives matter.
The rest of the party are happy with two more bodies in their pursuit.
The trail is extremely easy to follow, as the mass of people trample through knee deep snow.
The tracks are leading into the direction of a forest, several miles into the distance.
Black mists appear in the sky, and seep across the sun.
The mists spread across the sky as well, and it grows very dark.
After a few minutes it is darker than night even.
For the moon is obscured as are the stars.
Darius, with his nature knowledge knows that as the universe rotates around the earth, sometimes celestial objects cause an eclipse.
He figures this is not natural, for in those events the stars or the moon is usually still visible.
This is utter blackness.
Conveniently enough, every character has taken alternate racial abilities to gain Darkvision, if they didn't already have it.
However, with 60 ft. per person (and Aeternus with 90 ft.) of vision, the forest is no longer visible...
The tracks through the snow become even more important, as a potentially tell tale sign could now easily be missed by a few hundred feet.
The snow is melting, and once it does tracking becomes harder by an order of magnitude.
After several miles, the road begins to curve to a generally west direction.
About a mile after that point, there is evidence of a larger creature with four legs.
It is a flying creature of some sort, because there are no tracks leading to it's imprint in the snow.
Nor are there tracks leading away from it.
The tracks are smudged a little, as if it had forward momentum and landed, then launched itself into the air.
The mass of tracks, of the kidnapped prisoners do not progress beyond this point.
There is no evidence of a mass slaughter or feeding here, as the snow is not red with blood.
The kidnappers, who were walking at least two abreast and at least two deep, on each side of the prisoners...
They merge into a clump, making their number indistinct, but from the last several miles of tracking they are at least eight because there were at least four on each side.
A short distance after the larger thing landed, and the prisoners were carted away...
A pair of the group break off towards a more Northerly direction, while the larger group continues more to the West.
In places through the snow, the west route reveals bits of a hard packed dirt road.
Most of the group wants to follow the larger clump of bad guys...
After a short discussion, the group continues predominantly to the west, after the larger group.
Not too long after the divergence, the party comes across an area where the tracks stop and there is smooth snow for a stretch.
The tracks can be seen resuming beyond this stretch.
Anno finds a fairly large rock, close to the size of his head... it is big enough that if a pit trap were made, it would likely go through.
You never know...
The rock is heavy enough that he has to be within 20 feet of the smoother area to toss it.
When he does, three dead things get up out of the snow and move towards the party.
These creatures fight with tooth and claws, but appear to be more of the darker skinned elves.
The battle is not overly hard, and once the party emerged victorious they examined the corpses.
These look the same as the other Dark Elves, but appear to have mortal wounds already in place, before the party engaged.
The party guesses they were animated and set as a trap.
The party takes the time to burn these, reasoning that they arose once and don't want it to happen again.
A few more hours into the day, a set of glowing eyes can be seen.
As contact is made, is appears to be a lone wolf; it howls...
And is answered by howls from both the North (left) and South (right).
There are at least two wolves on each of the flanks.
The wolves quickly close, four moving in shortly and then three more moving in later after the group has moved.
It turns out there is another one in the parties path, with the leader wolf.
And in addition to the flanks which howled, a lone stealthy wolf attempts to sneak up from behind the group.
The wolves aren't given an opportunity to attack the less armored party members.
And they don't have much luck against those in heavier armors.
The encounter is dealt with swiftly and easily.
The new human fighter has a slight disagreement with 'The Paladin'.
The fighter figures he should not have broken ranks.
But the Paladin states he moved between the wolves and those who needed his protection, as any brave warrior would.
The forest gets a little thicker after a time.
And then several hours later begins to thin again.
Shortly after the trees begin to thin, a crashing sound can be heard coming from the South West.
A monstrosity, part Owl and part Bear bursts into view.
Although some of the party had previously looted 'Hand Crossbows' no one was adequately trained in their usage.
And no one had any ranged weaponry, aside from the foreign hand crossbows.
So the creature was allowed to close, without being peppered with arrows or bolts or the like.
The Paladin again moves into position where it has to go through him, or take a wide route around.
The Owlbear charges the Paladin, and hits him hard despite his plate armor and shield.
The rest of the melee types move in, to further restrict its' ability to circle around to the others.
Angus moves closer in that he would like (25 ft. range spells), but is still behind the melee types.
On the first round of the combat with full attacks, the Paladin falls to a Claw/Claw/Bite attack.
Steve inflicts a grievous wound upon the creature, and in turn is knocked out.
Darius moves for a flank, and attracts its' attention and is also knocked unconscious and is also bleeding out.
It doesn't look good, and Trump says he's out of bigger heals and only has his channel energy now.
The Owlbear falls, between Aeternus and Spartan... but the party is not in good shape.
They debate heading back to town at this point.
Abandoning those kidnapped to be sacrificed... to a demon thing.
Since resources (heals) are low, and the reputation for a deadly forest appears to be well deserved.
Darius volunteers that this was likely the apex predator in this area, and likely there isn't anything else nearby.
They decide to sleep here, with two on each watch... one in armor, in case... on each watch.
In the morning, the party continues onwards.
The snow is only ankle deep on a human at this point.
The trees continue to thin out, but it is still thick enough to call this woods or light forest and not open field or plains.
A galloping sound can be heard