5th Session- The Jord Escape

General Summary

20th of Melora's Gift, 1436

Waking with the Dawn

As the sun rose to a new day, Euphoria was he first to stir. The camp area was filled with numerous mountain flowers crafted by Phuc Her in the night and Euphoria began collecting them for a project. Scarlet awoke next and sat up on her bedroll, instantly opening her spellbook to take down the incantations that had come to her during her vision. Euphoria woke Udoud and sat on their shared pallet across from him. She enlisted him in her project, to make an improvised weapon, by having him help her break up plant fibers for braiding rope. After setting him to the task, she ventured over to a pile of stones to find one with particular qualities.
Sasimay awoke and watched her younger sister transcribe her new spells for a while before deciding it would be smart to scout ahead before the group set out. She ventured north into the woods and beyond until she saw a ruined town in the distance. No activity to be seen, she traced her way back to relay all she'd seen back to the others. Meanwhile, seeing as most everyone was stirring, Phuc Her started to make breakfast for everyone, pausing in the task briefly to assist Euphoria in her search for a proper stone. Finally she was equipped with all she needed and began coiling the rope Udoud had made around the stone to form a Monkey's Fist. Unfortunately, the knot-work of her first attempt was lacking and Phuc Her ended up being enlisted for help again in reworking it all.
Euphoria began checking over everyone else in the camp. Finding Niks missing and wondering where he had disappeared to, Scarlet informed her that the Kobold had gone back into the tunnel. Looking in, Euphoria found Niks about thirty feet within, kneeling over a pile of stones. The Tabaxi approached and sat respectfully a few feet behind and to the side of what was apparently the grave of Rav. Niks finally took notice of Euphoria, who apologized for Niks' loss and hoped that he held no ill will against her or the group for what had happened. The Kobold was confused by this question as, in his view, the party was in no way responsible for Rav being killed by the outlaws. Further, he stated that Rav would be fine once he returned to his people so there was no need for him to feel bad either. Euphoria asked Niks how he could be so sure of Rav being restored, to which Niks only held up the end one of his brother's horns that he had made into a necklace and reaffirmed that he knew it would happen. With that the pair left the cave. Rhal was still sleeping in a pile with his owlbears, recuperating from the trials of the previous day, so he was left alone. Udoud excused himself to wander around. Euphoria, cautious of his intentions, watched intently as he meandered into the shallow woods for a while before relieving himself against a tree. She playfully commented about how she liked him.
Scarlet, dense to the abstract nature of sexual attraction, triggered Euphoria into goading her into a conversation about men. Scarlet had never kissed anyone or even felt a pang of interest in another person, being much more interested in her studies. Much to Euphoria's dismay, the Genasi understood almost nothing of the nuances of romance. Euphoria even asked Niks about Kobold mating practices in desperation, but he responded that mammalian creatures were just strange as, when a female Kobold was ready to mate, her skin would change color and she would screech. Scarlet actually agreed with Niks and found that approach much more practical. Exasperated, Euphoria proposed to find a man for Scarlet or help her lose her virginity herself... just as Sasimay returned.
Sasimay was less than pleased to see the Tabaxi attempting the corruption of her younger sister. And Phuc Her, walking up to deliver breakfast to everyone, immediately turned around on hearing the substance of the conversation. The discussion woke a groggy and stiff Rhal up to complain about their discussion. This seemed to calm things down enough that breakfast could finally be served to eveyone apart from Rhal and his owlbears, whom Phuc Her had given Goodberries late morning of the previous day. Phuc Her also returned a masterfully re-knotted Monkey's Fist to Euphoria.

Flowers and Towers

With breakfast consumed and everyone working to disguise the evidence of their stay just in case they were pursued, the group prepared to leave. Udoud looked out towards the remains of Oberth's town from the ridge over the cave mouth, relaying that the town seemed nearly flattened and still smoldered with billowing smoke. From what could be seen it didn't appear anyone was heading their way. Phuc Her began looking over their supplies and made a note of how many rations they had for the six people traveling on. Euphoria commented that there were more people than that in the group, prompting Rhal to state to everyone that he had no intention of going with them. He pointed out that he was too old and had been on Jord for decades now. He had a home and lived a comfortable life, all considered. Additionally, he had only come this far with them out of necessity to escape the shelling of Oberth's town. However, the party had made an impression on him after all and he told them that if there were any survivors that were willing to live peacefully, he would take them in and forge a new community.
As he prepared to leave on his own, Sasimay piped up to request that if the Half-Orc should run into the blacksmith from the town to send him in their direction. She had been slightly vexed after realizing she had lost her pike that the man agreed to turn into a trident for her before the chaos of the bombardment. Euphoria was also wanting a reunion with the tavern owner Kieran. Rhal agreed to relay the message if he should find them, but questioned how they would be able to track the group down. Scarlet said that they should be a bit easier to locate now as she now had the knowledge to create a tower for everyone to take refuge in while Phuc Her could continue creating flowers to mark their path in a non-obvious way. Rhal mounted one of his owlbears to leave confirming, "I'll send them after flowers and towers."
He wished them all well and luck on their attempt at escape. The Half-Orc still held little faith that such a thing was possible, but they had already surprised him a few times. And with little else to be said, Rhal and his owlbears began bounding back to the south to see what remained and what could be salvaged.

The Ruined Town

The group collected themselves and finally began travelling into the woods. Phuc Her druidcrafted white flowers on the trees and rocks of their path as promised. They followed the trail Sasimay had scouted out earlier and, just as the Genasi had found before, there were no signs of anyone following them or of anything lurking around. It was unsettling, but perhaps it was just the lingering feelings from the terrible events of the previous day. Pressing onward to the end of the sparse forest, Sasimay pointed out the remains of a town that she had found earlier in the morning. No building was intact, all the surviving walls rising no more than three to four feet above the ground. No signs of any activity or life of any kind made the group feel safer as they closed the distance to the town.
The main street followed the ongoing northward slope that they had been following all this time and the broken buildings were inset into it as well rather than going underground as most Dwarven architecture up to this point had done. The main street also appeared to have been used recently as distorted tracks of humanoids and beasts appeared in the slush on the road. The tracks looked to be a week to ten days old, but the party was mostly observant of the fact that the path they traveled might lead them to others even if the roads were seldom used. Given that knowledge, the party split apart trying to be stealthy, but quickly abandoned that approach to begin scrounging and scavenging for anything that could be useful openly. There wasn't much to be found, but Euphoria did locate a decent painter's set and Sasimay located a sealed jar of honey hidden under rocks and snow. Euphoria also jokingly found an ancient pitchfork to present to Sasimay as a replacement for her missing trident before dismissively throwing the old tool to the ground where it crumbled.
Regrouping, the party looked over their collection of maps. The map snatched from within the prison did mark the town, but listed no named for the site. The chart of zeppelin routes logged by Oberth showed the Dwarven airships passed nearby on a somewhat regular basis. The party briefly considered trying to down an airship like the villain gang leader had suggested when they entered his keep the previous day. But they could think of no way to reach one with an attack, and that was if one was even relatively low to begin with. Scarlet even mused about conjuring her tower over a passing ship to bring it down, but that would only lead to crushed wreck. Alternatively, Scarlet also considered bringing her tower into existence in the location just to goad the Dwarves into investigating the structure's sudden appearance. It was a tempting plan, but no one was eager to wait potentially weeks for another airship to pass overhead for the opportunity.
The best option still seemed to be pressing on to the goal of the Broken Citadel and its subterranean passages that Niks had mentioned. Before moving onward, Euphoria made one last pass over the ruins, focusing near what was probably the old town hall or noble manor house. As she scoured one wall, she dislodged a segment of snow from what was revealed not to be a piece of rubble at all, but a Dwarven skeleton clad in old armor.

Rewards Granted

Party:
Euphoria: Monkey's Fist improvised weapon, a set of painter's supplies.
Phuc Her: N/A
Scarlet Swayson: N/A
Sasimay Swayson: A small jar of honey.

Missions/Quests Completed

Days survived on Inner Jord: 3

Character(s) interacted with

Niks- Kobold engineer.
Rhal- Half-Orc ally and tamer of owlbears.
Udoud- Gnoll follower and object of attention to Euphoria.

Related Reports

4th Session- The Jord Escape

Report Date

26 Jul 2020