Skreet Hunter Resuce
August 17, 2021
General Summary
After defeating the aggressive vultures...
We set down to rest for the night in a small valley among the mountains. The secluded area is perfect and we get a good night of rest. In the morning we head out again, making excellent time with the goob-blimp. I continue trying to assist with navigation, but get disoriented from the height we're traveling.
Two days later...
Arriving at the familiar skreet village, we disembark and make arrangements to meet with Phoevus. Goob leads us to a new throne room where Phoevus is curled up on a large, plush pillow. "Ah, so. You finally made it." She yawns, "I'm glad you decided to answer my request. It appears I have some missing villagers that I need tracked down. Three groups. One group scouting west for new hunting grounds two weeks missing. Another group snuck out without saying anything six days ago, and finally, my liuetenant Reb has wandered off somewhere..." She lazily sighs. "I'll compensate you well for each of my people you manage to bring back."Bork says, "Have you not gone looking for yourself?"
"I am clearly very busy organizing these savages," she sips a goblet of wine. "I sent a secondary scouting party west but they returned without any evidence of the missing party." She continues to boast about her strength and legitimacy as a leader.
We discuss who would be most vital to the village and try to decide who would be most vital. She didn't even know some of them were missing until the issue was brought to her, but Reb was her right-claw-man.
Talking to Amo & Nupem, word is that the three villagers who set out were overheard to be trying to retrieve Phoevus' old hoard in the mountains.
The party that went west was investigating wolves acting oddly.
Reb had learned Draconic and was doing a lot of writing and was keeping to himself a lot more than usual.
Amo & Nupem lead us to where most of the villagers live and the closest thing they have as a private personal space.
Odra has a rough wooden leg that was built for him and has learned fluent common as a way to prepare for more interaction with Hero City. He says that he's pretty sure that the group headed to the hoard was sent by Phoevus, covertly. Odra also knew Reb pretty well and that Reb was not actually happy with his position among the clan and had been studying some old artifacts from previous leaders. He didn't know what Reb was planning, but that Reb had headed out on his own in persuit of unknown knowledge.
Flower find a bunch of parchment Reb had hidden written in Draconic, and one specifically in a different language we cannot recognize. The papers in Draconic seem to be a rough journal of Reb's time working with Phoevus. The writing clearly leaves the impression that he resented Phoevus and wanted to take his place as leader of the tribe by taking them back to the 'old ways'. Reb found the older writtings after Phoevus took over the leadership and he tried to study it but the writing is very, very old. From what he can understand, the skreet lived with 'others' who had amazing things.
South-west through the mountain pass, then further south to reach the place described.
We decide that the hunting/scouting party should be our first priority since the village depends on the hunters for their survival. I'd really like to help Reb, but he's tough and frankly isn't the most urgent. Tracking down the previous party that searched for the others, they had a good trail headed south-east, four days out from the village, and found ruins of a 'colonizer' village that had been abandoned. When they entered the village they were ambushed by wolves that used surprisingly intelligent tactics. I suspect that it could be the strange, speaking wolf we fought at the Cannibal House years ago.
I convince Goob to transport us, saving us a lot of time in pursuit of his fellow citizens. Airborn we'll be able to travel much faster and it takes us roughly two days and I am able to recall the location of the failed village from something Miles had said years prior near the same time we met Phoebus for the first time.
Flower's sharp eyes spot the ruins from half a mile, and as we approach she sees a wolf watching us from behind a broken down wall. Woofie howls while Bork 'talks' to him and suddenly we see the strange wolf's ears perk up. I suggest we do a fly-by to see if it stirs up any activity and we spot another wolf stalking through the ruins, trying to avoid detection, too.
We come from the north distract the wolves while Samguise sneaks towards the burrow we saw from the south. But he doesn't do that and I'm sure I lose track of him because I don't know what he's doing.
We fight the wolves. Thanks to Freyja's massive axe and a well cast Facinate spell from Bork we survive.
OOC Comment
I roll a total of six natural 1's between Brick & Brack across three rounds including two botches in a row with his earth breaker hammer. Lots of failure.
As the pack is routed, the worg shows itself to us and announces that it recalls "That thorn in my hide." which is Samguise. It snaps at him but he's so well hidden that it misses. Tilly launches her unerring missiles while I approach the large wolf and attempt to catch their attention.
A second large wolf surprises us from the south, taking a large bite out of Tilly. Bravely, she calmly steps back and blasts it in the face with more magic missiles! On the brink of consciousness, she teeters while Flower rushes to her aid. It doesn't take long to clear out the two larger wolves, and we begin searching the area. Their burrow is empty, save for a humanoid thigh bone and a chewed up club. Samguise argues with it, intimidating the only surviving wolf into tell us where the second den was before finishing it off.
Brack manages to lead us to the larger den hidden in the brush where we find two surviving skreet, injured but stable. Goob comforts them while Tilly & Flower dig them out. Flower heals us all up before we set out back towards the skreet village. We catch up with Phoevus, she's happy with us and rewards us with some gold from her stash.
Rewards Granted
200gp each from Phoevus for saving the surviving skreet hunters
1,000xp for quest and combat
Character(s) interacted with
Phoevus, white dragon chief
Amo, skreet advisor to Phoevus
Goob, skreet mutant transport
Nupem, skreet advisor to Phoevus
Odra, skreet amputee and cannibal survivor
Amo, skreet advisor to Phoevus
Goob, skreet mutant transport
Nupem, skreet advisor to Phoevus
Odra, skreet amputee and cannibal survivor
Report Date
17 Aug 2021
Cast:
Bork Boruq
Brick
Freyja Rahezura
Flower
Samguise Bushgrub
Tilly Flitmoss
