Hunting Times Report

General Summary

The Defiants continue their trek to hunt all of the beasts that Avoracious Pim has set bounties for. Looking at their map, they determine it will take them about twelve days to complete all four. The umber hulk is already slain, so they decide to follow the trail of the gloomstalker next: a wyrm-like creature from the Shadowfell.
As they travel to the top of the Viridi Mountains, where the gloomstalker's nest is, they decide to hunt some to keep their bellies full with fresh meat. Rickee doesn't do half bad for his part - netting a ram with his bow and arrow that they are able to stretch into six days' worth of rations. Marianne finds even bigger prey.... but the fact that it is so much larger ends up being a detriment rather than a blessing.
In the mountains, the shifter spots a giant elk, about the size of an elephant. Enough meat for a few weeks at the very least. Excited, Marianne calls out for Rishaa to land a killing blow. But unfortunately, Rishaa isn't fast enough. As she dashes in through the fallen leaves and damp earth, the elk rears up on its hind legs before charging Rishaa. It hits her shoulder, bowling her to the ground and trampling her under its hooves.
Marianne immediately reacts, flying into a rage and beginning to swing wildly at the elk with her axe, but none of her attacks hit. The wild movements frighten the elk more, and it dances about, hooves striking Rishaa again and again with the full weight of this huge beast's body.
Rishaa takes a moment to breath, to calm herself, and the bruising on her body begins to heal rapidly. She stands up and takes a fighting stand, her punch striking the elk in its flank as she defends her head, ready for another attack from the wild animal.
Dimitri , frightened from how close to death Rishaa came, puts out a hand and commands the beast to sleep, lacing his words with arcane intent. It works, and the elk drops to the ground like a sack of potatoes - and as it does so, Rishaa becomes trapped underneath it, the body falling towards her too fast to react to. Marianne rushes over and lifts up the body to release her friend.
As Rishaa rolls out from underneath the corpse, Dimitri puts out a hand and a laser focused ray of frost strikes the elk's head with deadly intent. The ears immediately begin to rot as frostbite takes hold, and the elk leaps awake again, snorting and bellowing as it attempts to get back on its feet and run. Rishaa is too quick, delivering a blow to its face and stunning it. Marianne follows up on Rishaa's hit with one of her own, cleanly severing the head of the elk.
The body drops to the ground, gushing blood from the stump, and Marianne tosses the head to Dimitri to eat. As the wizard enjoys his meal, Rishaa and Marianne begin to prepare the meat. Dimitri joins in once he has devoured the elk's brain, but it still takes them until nearly sunset. All in all, they collect 56 portions of rations, enough to keep the living members of the party fed for two weeks.
As they traipse back to camp, Rishaa shares with the other two Defiants that she wants to make a dog sled herself, to help carry the load of their supplies and such. Marianne is excited to help by training dogs (or, in an excited and carried away idea from Rishaa, training wild wolves) to pull the cart. Once he hears about the idea, Rex offers to just make mechanical dogs. Or to, you know, just buy a cart in town rather than try and make it themselves. Rishaa shakes her head. She wants to make this herself. Unfortunately her training is in metals, not in wood, and she'll need the help of a carpenter to realize her dream. There's still time however, and the party picks up camp to travel to face the gloomstalker.
As they traverse the bare mountain pass, Rishaa turns back towards the others. She knows a bit about these types of creatures that they'll be facing, and she knows that she'll be useless if this winged wyrm can get itself in the air. She tells the party that no matter what, she'll need to get on its back somehow. As they discuss the best way to approach and take the gloomstalker by surprise, they fail to notice that the gloomstalker has instead taken them by surprise!
Marianne and Rishaa manage to recover themselves quickly, but Rickee, Dimitri, and Rex are caught unawares and stunned by the sudden appearance of this creature. Marianne throws herself into another rage and pulls out one of her javelins. Remembering the previous combat they had, she moves close to Rishaa, prepared to throw the javelin if the gloomstalker gets too close to her friend.
Unfortunately Rishaa is not so willing to stay back away from the creature and near Marianne's protection. She instead flies out towards the creature, like the step of the wind. She runs up the side of the cliff face and springs out. While in the air, she flings out her chain dart. The dart lodges itself in the creature's neck, and Rishaa throws her whole weight behind the chain as she makes the arc down towards the ground. The chain, now wrapped around the neck of the gloomstalker, drags it down towards the ground. Rishaa takes its moment of vulnerability as a chance, and leaps forward to straddle the beast. 
The gloomstalker roars, and from all round the creature, little impish creatures made of soot and smoke appear. They giggle and gnash their teeth as they advance on Rishaa. Their little claws dig into her body, all taking little bits of her flesh as she attempts to kick them off of her. One particularly persistent one grabs a chunk of her calf and pulls it free, like a piece of bloody cotton candy. Rishaa cries out, loosening her grip on the chain to try and fight off the mephits.
Feeling the chain loosen, the gloomstalker does a barrel roll, knocking Rishaa off its back and into its claws hands. The claws pierce deeply into the flesh of her stomach and back, and Rishaa spits up blood as her eyes roll back into her head. Her skin begins to mottle, the necromantic energy of the Shadowfell afflicting her body as she is clutched by a creature from that plain.
Marianne abandons her ready stance upon seeing her friend falter and runs forward, throwing her javelin. It pierces the wyrm's stomach, which makes it screech with a call loud enough to shatter windows. She doesn't stop, drawing out a hand axe from her thigh holster and throwing that at the gloomstalker as well. It strikes true, leaving a line of red along the upper portion of one of its wings before clattering onto the stone below.
Dimitri steadies his metallic "hand," where his arcane focus is firmly lodged in the socket. But his attempt to conjure a ray of frost is lost, the icy storm barely more than a breeze (critical failure).
Rex, meanwhile, has taken his gun out and has shot three scorching rays at the gloomstalker. One blasts through the bat-like wing of the creature, whilst the other two score the surrounding rocks with blackened soot and nothing more.
Rickee reaches into his pack and pulls out Pim's earmuffs, securing them to his head with shaking hands before calling out encouragement to Rishaa (healing word) and pulling her back from the brink, then turning his attention on the gloomstalker, insulting it bitingly (vicious mockery) in a tone that's harsh enough to cause it to stumble in flight.
Rishaa wakes abruptly, gasping for air. She can taste copper on her lips, and her heart burns. Slowly, she realizes that it's not her heart, but the stone from Rahab that burns against her. She takes the stone out - it's brilliant, glowing with light and so hot to the touch that her blood soaked hand slips, letting the rock drop towards the ground below. Marianne sees the gem - how could she not? - and leaps forward, grabbing it tightly in her hands. The heat may hurt, but the barbarian has endured far more pain than this.
The monk disregards the gem for now, turning her attention towards the wyrm still clutching her. She begins to pummel its chest, and Dimitri looks up. He knows how this will go: Rishaa misses every single strike except the last one. The one that counts. A stunning strike reverberates up and down the beast with her devastating final punch, and Rishaa is able to wriggle free from its grasp, slowly falling towards the earth and landing without injury.
Unfortunately, the mephits still defend their maker, and they close in on Rishaa. Out of their mouths breaths shadow. Decay. Death. Rishaa tries to dodge them all, but it's not enough. Even what little manages to strike her throws the monk to the ground... unconscious yet again.
Marianne runs forward and drags Rishaa back, away from the gloomstalker and the mephits. She looks down at the gemstone in her hand. It's from the angel. It must do something, right?
She crushes the gem, and immediately her body surges with energy. Two spectral, angelic wings burst from her back, as the barbarian hovers over the earth, still holding Rishaa in her arms. Desperation takes hold of Marianne and she begins to sob, begging Rishaa to come back to her. Golden tears fall from Marianne's face, landing on Rishaa's slack one. Each tear absorbs into Rishaa's skin with a subdermal golden glow, and the gashes and bruises on Rishaa's body begin to knit themselves back together. Rishaa's eyes blink open once again, and Marianne clutches her tightly in relief.
Dimitri shakes off the misfire of his spell and begins gathering up his energy to put the gloomstalker to sleep. He looks over to Rickee. If Rickee can get rid of the mephits, he can try the same trick that they pulled off against the elk.
Rickee nods and unleashes a torrent of energy, so loud that it shreds the mind of the mephits who one by one burst into smoke. Some try to pull themselves back together, but Rickee uses his spell silvery barbs to permanently dispel them. The bounty of luck from the barbs he gives to Rishaa with a barking order: "Stop fucking dying!"
Rex pulls out his artillery gun and fires. As it peppers the landscape with bullets, two hit the gloomstalker. The force of the hits causes the large creature to skid backwards, still stunned by Rishaa's punch. He yells to Marianne, "Get the hell out of there!" as he preps his gun, hitting the gloomstalker thrice with his scorching rays.
Rishaa tries to pull herself together. All she can manage to do in this moment is to use her divine spirit to heal herself more than Marianne's temporarily divine form could, and so she lies still in Marianne's arms.
The gloomstalker, beginning to feel cornered and desperate, shrieks in a cry that terrifies and paralyzes those who hear it. Thankfully, Rickee and Dimitri are wearing Pim's earmuffs and are protected from the sonic assault. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Marianne, who freezes in place as her brain attempts to process the sound. Rex and Rishaa manage to fight through it, and Rishaa pulls herself to her feet to defend Marianne from the gloomstalker's next trick.
Dimitri sees what his friend is trying to do, and once again casts haste on Rishaa to assist her before taking a few steps back.
Rex looks to his left, by the cliff wall, and watches with bemusement as the shadows in the rocks begin to coallesce until he sees a shadow version of himself staring back. Its glowing eyes narrow with malice as it strikes out at him. Rex fumbles with his gun and uses a firebolt to illuminate the area and dissipate the shadows. It works, and the clone disappears into the ether.
Rishaa gets up slowly, and glances up at the gloomstalker. This thing would not take her down. With a yell, she hits it over and over again, pummeling its form. She grabs hold of her still dangling chain and runs with it, up the cliff again before pushing off the wall at an angle. Her full weight on the chain yanks the gloomstalker's head to the side, snapping its neck and killing it.
Breathing hard and still quite battered, Rishaa stands tall over her foe. Rex runs forward, and rifles through his bag. He gets permission from Rishaa before sticking her in the arm with a syringe to help jumpstart her body's natural healing (cure wounds). 
The party gathers around the head of the beast. Marianne, her angelic wings beginning to molt and fall away, kneels and begins to rip out the teeth of the beast one by one. It's messy, and the teeth come out mangled and broken, but Rickee follows up behind her with mending magic, making the teeth whole again.
After such an ordeal, the Defiants decide to take a break and return to Brenbrooke with their spoils. Avoracious Pim gratefully accepts the trophies, and gifts the adventurers his promised payments. The party decides to take the payout of 2200 gold for the umber hulk, and the magical items for the gloomstalker (detailed below). Marianne and Rex try to talk Pim into also gifting them the bag of colding, but Pim is quite insistent on holding onto that particular item.
As they leave, three things happen of note. The first is the Rickee slips a note to Avoracious. The second is that Dimitri also slips a note to Avoracious. The third is that Rex makes an ass of himself, for as they leave he asks Rishaa if she wants to "fix her face," for after being so close to death near a creature from the land of death, her skin is blotchy and uneven: some areas a deep brown, healthy color, and other splotches a pale grey.
The implication that Rishaa should care about her appearance to that extent incenses Marianne, who tries to intimidate Rex by picking him up and slamming him into the wall, threatening that if he ever comments on a woman's appearance again... well. Bad things would happen to his bodily functions. Rex just stares back coldly, and makes a threat against the safety of Marianne's child, Callie.
Angered even further for the threat against her daughter, Marianne tosses Rex to the ground and storms out. Rishaa follows to try and calm her friend down, eventually finding Marianne alone in Anguis Park. Marianne sits by the empty fountain - too cold to be flowing - and wipes her eyes of the angry tears. Marianne admits that she's not sure if they can beat Asmodeus and that she's terrified she'll have to choose between saving her friends and the world... and she can't choose her friends. Rishaa insists that if they allow doubt to creep in, that they are doomed to failure. It's a hard pill for Marianne to swallow, but in the end she gives up on trying to convince Rishaa that refusing to consider failure is suicide. 
As they sit on the cold stone bench, Marianne bitterly asks if they could maybe trade Rex's soul for Rickee's, but Rishaa shakes her head sadly. That's not how this is going to go down. Rishaa instead pulls out the book that Marianne gave her on the Week of Gifts. They reminisce for a bit about the peaceful times that were there before they left to save the world. Rishaa uses those good times to illustrate a point to Marianne: Marianne's bravery was the only reason that Rishaa and the others were able to enjoy that time together. If she hadn't saved Rishaa - and herself - Callie would have been left without a mother that dreary week. Marianne's mood is somewhat lightened, and the two hug and make up.
Meanwhile, back at The Wandering Star, the other Defiants arrive back after Rex, who had similarly stormed out after his confrontation with Marianne. His retainers inform the others that he doesn't want to be disturbed. Rishaa immediately violates this and goes upstairs. First knocking on the door, then when Rex refuses to let her in, she kicks the door in, splintering the lock. Rex turns around, hopping mad. He activates his turret, peppering the walls with bullet holes as Rishaa easily dodges them. Then he attempts to use a thunderwaves, which Rishaa is also easily able to withstand. The tavern itself... not so much. There will probably be a hefty bill to repair once the party leaves, but Rishaa is too fascinated by what she sees inside to care. On the bed is a life size gnomish automaton - one that Rex hopes that Rickee's soul could be transferred into to help him escape the consequences of a broken contract. Rishaa is enraptured by the craftsmanship, and even Rex knows a fellow inventor when he sees one, and so they decide to work together on this project.
As they lie down for bed, Rishaa has another dream of the angel Rahab. Rishaa is immediately defensive and accusatory, wanting to know why the gemstone had done so much more than Rahab had promised. Rahab looks a bit shocked. She replies that it was meant to do exactly what she had promised, but upon seeing Rishaa's dangerous state she had poured more of her energy into the gemstone to try and save Rishaa. Rishaa seems unsatisfied with that as an answer, but drops the subject.
Rahab tells Rishaa that she has worked out what the door in Castle Nimue is: it's a door to other planes. Not specifically the Nine Hells or Fire Plane - but any plane. Which means that if Rahab can beat Asmodeus to the door, she could potentially seal it forever. That way, Rickee completed his end of the deal and Asmodeus was foiled. Unfortunately, Asmodeus will also be waiting by the door to enter through it, which means that Rahab will have to fight him off. She's not strong enough to do that as a lower angel, and she suggests that if Rishaa and the Defiants could lend her their worship, she could hold him off.
Rishaa is immediately suspicious of this idea, sensing that Rahab hasn't told her everything. Rahab admits that this is the truth: there is a boy on the mortal plane that she desperately wants to save from death and old age, but that is inappropriate of an angel. It is a secret she makes Rishaa swear to keep.
Rishaa promises, and also promises to think about Rahab's plan. Rahab thanks her and releases Rishaa from her grasp. The light of the courtroom fades as Rishaa slowly drifts into dreamless, true sleep.

Rewards Granted

• 2200 gp
• Spell scrolls: gentle repose, invisibility, spider climb
• Potions: mummy rot antidote, potion of giant strength
• Magic Item: cloak of the manta ray

Missions/Quests Completed

• gloomstalker slain!

Character(s) interacted with

• Rahab
• Avoracious Pim

Related Reports

• A Vial Full of Basilisk Scales Report 

Campaign

Our Last Best Hope

Protagonists

Rishaa Parbat

None Wood Half-Elf (Monastic Learning)
Monk 6

51 / 51 HP

STR
8

DEX
20

CON
16

INT
12

WIS
16

CHA
13

Rickee Trail

None Tiefling (Urchin)
Bard 5
Warlock 1

33 / 33 HP

STR
9

DEX
16

CON
10

INT
12

WIS
15

CHA
18

Dimitri Markov

Zombie (Acolyte)
Wizard 5

28 / 28 HP

STR
11

DEX
14

CON
15

INT
18

WIS
12

CHA
11

Rex Dynamio Xenetar

Chaotic Neutral Rock Gnome (Sage & Noble)
Artificer 6

35 / 35 HP

STR
8

DEX
11

CON
16

INT
20

WIS
11

CHA
10

Marianne Snowden

Lawful Good Shifter (Sage)
Barbarian 6

71 / 71 HP

STR
19

DEX
18

CON
19

INT
18

WIS
16

CHA
9

Report Date

25 Nov 2022

Primary Location

Viridi Mountains

Secondary Location

Brenbrooke

Related Plots

• Brenbrooke Blues
• The Dark Lord's Deception

Related Characters

• Dimitri Markov
• Marianne Snowden
• Rex Dynamio Xenetar
• Rickee Trail
• Rishaa Parbat