S25. Logger's Camp Report
General Summary
After defeating the zombies and completing fully uninterrupted long rest for the remainder of the evening they arose in themid-morning a broke camp. Just at the moment a muscular centaur galloped up and greeted them, turning to reveal Sef riding on it's back. He helped her down and she explained how she was being attacked by orcs when Xanth rode up and chased them off, then gave her a ride to catch up to the rest of the group.
Flicker caused flowers to grow where they camped. She arranged them in druidic code of sorts leaving a message behind.
"REIDOTH. I'M COMING"
They followed the river, mostly, east to the location of the logger's camp. When they arrived it was around 3pm and the area was quiet--not even sounds of any wildlife. Just a wind in the breeze and the sound of the nearby river. They began to explore the camp finding belongings disheveled, but all still about, though in some cases bearing strange acidic burns. And they also found footprints and marks in the sand that seemed to tell a tale of lots of activity including drag marks that seemed to just end in the sand suddenly.
While exploring 3 Ankhegs burst out from the sand and began closing to attack. They sprayed acid on the adventurers while the heroes fought back as best as they could.
With effort, they expired one of them, but two others closed in from different angles.
One tried to snatch up Sef in its mandibles, dripping with acidic saliva of some sort. She narrowly escaped its clutches as she retreated to the back lines leaving Keth to do they heavy lifting he enjoys so much.
He leaped forward and ran down a log used as a bench around the dead campfire, but lost his foot just enough to make his sword miss the mark, only glancing of a mandible. His second stroke sliced into its underbelly as he paused to catch his breath.
The other kept up the heat as well, with Wolfaen keeping his distance, but loosing a crossbow bolt directly into its eye dealing a nearly fatal blow in one shot.
Eventually they stood over the 3 dead remains of these giant praying mantises and headed over to the only building that stood as a complete and working structure. Before heading over there, Keth noticed a wild boar in the distance in the woods. It gave him a stare that betrayed some deeper intelligence before he ran off out of sight. The door was locked, but easily defeated by Wolf and his tools. Inside the main room was littered with all kinds logging gear, and also a locked door. As they walked across the room to the door, suddenly the floor exploded upward as another ankheg rose, screeched, and tried to latch onto Flicker.
Flicker wrestled away from it and screamed.
The others who were there took shots at it, but failed to kill it before it grabbed at Flicker again, snatched her up and burrowed down into the ground below the building, leaving no tunnel behind for them to follow. Wolfaen tied a rope to his waist, handed Keth the other end and asked him to pull him back if he tugs. He leapt down to the ground below, but found the sand below soft, but not like quicksand. This creature was going to be tough to follow! Wolf started to scoop sand aside as he dug as fast as he could. It would not be enough.
Lucky for everyone "Honey" was there. The giant badger jumped down with Wolf and started digging with his claws designed just for such a thing, and he caught up with Flicker fairly easily. She had taken a heavy wound of acid and crushing mandibles, but was still trying to fight back.
The badger attacked, and Wolf was right behind. The three took down the beast, and when Keth pulled them all back up, Sef was there to shed the healing light of Lethander on her, even bringing back her acid-singed hair.
They discover Tibor in the other room behind the locked door and he thanked them for rescuing him. He was clearly afraid and unable to fight these creatured, but that didn't stop Flicker from letting him have a piece of her mind about how he has handled the situation.
They finished exploring the rest of the camp, Flicker went to the river to bathe and try to treat her acid burn clothes and skin, and suddenly a little girl screams from across the camp. The adventurer started running to help and discovered it was Tibor running back to the building with several more Ankhegs skittering into camp from the woods.
But just before the scream, Eethyl had discovered a bunch of stick-people bound together with twine in the remains of one of the ruins in the camp. It appeared to be some sort of shamanistic totem or something.
He ran and led them up an incline to the west of the camp, and they followed. So did the rest of the party, inadvertently getting in the way of his secret plan, but eventually moving out of the way at his direction, and when they were lined up well enough he let loose with a sling bullet that went from about 1 inch in diameter to five feet in diameter and plowed through them like a Stonehill Rolling Alley Game. One died, squashed flat, but the other kept coming, so Eethyl pulled out his hammer and dropped the Totem to the ground and smashed it.
The Ankhegs, just turned away as if losing interest, and then burrowed their way out of sight.
Rewards Granted
Letter of Delivery and Receipt by Tibor Wester (Worth 100 GP when returned to Harbin Wester).
Missions/Quests Completed
Logger's Camp Completed.
Character(s) interacted with
Tibor Wester
Helaena DuFarran
wolfaen the red
Eethyl Benzoin
Logging Camp by Flicker Greenridge
Help by Helaena DuFarran
Just Looking by Eethyl Benzoin
Carefully laid plans. by Eethyl Benzoin
Report Date
26 May 2022
Primary Location
Related Characters
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