The Griffin, the Lyse and the Warring Tribes

Meeting with Lyse Dain, we relayed all we've learned of the neighboring regions. She suggests the Griffin might've been involved with the coup in the mountain tribes. From White Cliff, We returned to Maria with Lyse now in tow. Maria fed us charred meat and gave us some more intel on our next heading. The cliff tribe camp we must infiltrate has tremor sentinels which will detect any footsteps, air patrol and led by a particular succubus. Our plan starts with Penelope and Justine going in for recon, Penelope will project a shadow of herself while Justine will play the part of a wayward traveler seeking refuge. They were able to scout some of the camp's inhabitants but the Griffin was not among them to Lyse's chagrin. They also learned that the Cliff Tribe is working with the Red Scarves and they are planning something that targets various towns including our own Harth. M. Justine also managed to smuggle out a booby-trapped book which I helped dispel but we opened it to find the contents were inscribed in demonic languages which none of us could read. Thankfully M Penelope knew a spell to translate and we gleaned a bit more background into how and when this succubus pulling the strings got into bed with the Griffin. M Justine and M Darren went on another scouting/sabotage mission; I provided them with some explosives which they set off after recording more conversations between the cliff tribes leaders but after they regrouped with us, we discovered that the succubus' spider minions are keen on the rose scent that covered her diary and so we made for home while trying to scatter the scent all over the mountain as well as covering our physical trail in hopes of evading detection. I asked the heavens and it seems like the Scarves will make their move soon so hopefully we will be ready. On our way back to town, we flew over a ravine with a precarious rope bridge but it seemed our pursuers were still hot on our tail closing in everyday. Eventually we decided to hurry to the nearest river in hopes of erasing our scent which they no doubt had been tracking. We tried to sleep at the bottom of said river when we encountered another Sahagin tribe, seemingly much more advance than their counterparts whom Darren were more familiar. He was able to bargain our safe passage if we agreed to meet with their leader, Degna, who asked us about our travels and present predicament pertaining to the strange tribes rumors and their likely connection to this Griffin. With the Sahagin's escort through their underwater routes we made it back to Hearth unscathed. We had just enough time to strategize and decided to take a diplomatic approach with Valerie of the Cliff so we procured some luxurious perfumes and I fashioned a fancy box to gift to her. This only curried us so much favor as she agreed to spare only Hearth if we could produce the Griffin. Having no other choice, we headed to where we suspected he might be, after scrying on his flunkies and discovering they would meet him within a week somewhere high up in the snowy peaks. There were few locations at such an elevation and it could not have been mere coincidence that we deduced this to be the path towards the Cloud tribe giants. The journey up the mountain was fraught with peril from the start. We crossed a ravine of Rocs and proceeded to climb a shear cliff. On the way up, Darren detected a strange pulse that seemed to draw us in. We were able to skirt around it but even as we reached flatter ground we sense more similar pulses on the path toward the Cloud. Not wanting to trigger any traps we left them alone but soon we came upon some Scarves near the tribe entrance who seemed to be casting these pulses. At that point we realized we had to hurry to aid the tribe but some of us had to stay behind to deal with the casters and whatever they were setting up. Darren, Pen, Ash, Lyse and I decided to stay outside while Jeeng, Justine, and Alphy went in. Halfway through our battle, Ash noticed something wrong with Alphy bc of their twin thing. Before we could proceed to his aid, Jeeng notified us of the Griffin's approach. It seemed destroying the beacon glyph might've disrupted his plans to lead a rampaging giant down the mountain toward Norlahold. We had just enough time to quickly strategize and decide to loose the poison bomb Lyse was holding onto. As soon as the Griffin and entourage arrived, Lyse dropped the bomb shrouded in Darren's darkness but just after it detonated, the scoundrels dimension doored into the clear and right through my ring of fire. Some of them went back into the poison cloud to try repairing the beacon but did not make it out. Meanwhile, an enraged Lyse relentlessly pursued Griffin to the brink of death allowing us to finish him off but his lieutenant and the Scarves leader continued to fight and nearly killed Penelope forcing a ceasefire, letting them retreat as we did the same. Upon returning to the Cloud village, we regrouped with Alphy in front of the now smashed gate, apparently the work of a terrible giant the griffin released. He was dashed to hear how Lyse died but we reassured him that I could resurrect her with the loot we got from our battle in the morning. That evening we talked to Aureon, the tribe leader to learn what we could do to recover his brother, the rampaging giant headed toward the jungles near Harth...