Session Ten: Route the Bandits

General Summary

- 2 of Han -

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The sound of Vala screaming woke Yarrow from his slumber. The Druid quickly sprung out of bed and helped the Jerbeen girl down and then offered to help around the temple. Vala smiled and laughed off the incident and thanked Yarrow for the help.

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Alabaster awoke out of a dead sleep to see Aldous peering over him with a book covered in ash in his claws. Aldous moved into Alabaster's space and handed him the book asking him to read it as it had sections in Vulpin that the Corvum couldn't read. Alabaster took a second to wake himself up and then poured over the book half asleep.
The pages in Birdfolk chronicled and obsessed over incidents called great disasters in Rosalia - The Crystal Kingdom. Apparently Rosalia was having earthquakes again and this author was trying to find out why. The sections written in Vulpin were more personally biased notes about the earthquakes as well as about ruin sites. The author seems obsessed with these ruins claiming they must have been built by ancient civilizations. The ruins contain magic artefacts, ancient artworks, and have materials in them that can't be found anywhere else. The author believes that the ruins may hold the secret to the disastrous earthquakes plaguing Rosalia.

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Cyrus woke up hearing the commotion of the temple. The Vulpin stretched and felt around for his belongings instinctively. His bag had shifted in the night and looking inside he saw a note written on a small piece of paper. In Vulpin it said,

"We're watching you."

Cyrus looked around trying to figure out how they got up to him since he slept on the ceiling of the temple. Annoyed at the threat Cyrus put the note away and climbed down as Yarrow brought the group breakfast. Coming into the temple were four Perch Guard. The head of the group, a Vulpin named Miles Ninut, came forward and introduced his unit as the unit that was to help the party on their mission to route the bandits. Miles explained that six cadets were missing from the roster, one of them his daughter, so his unit volunteered to get them back.

Aldous said he had some business at the barracks first and started to make his way there. Following him were Cyrus, Miles, and one of the other guards Cadman. The other guards stayed with Alabaster and Yarrow at the temple.

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Over at the barracks Aldous was met with a scene of chaos. Guards and cadets ran to and fro and were seemingly swamped with reports and work. One of the cadets brought Aldous to a room that contained his brother who had been bothering the Perch Guard all morning since his daughter didn't return home.
Aldous entered the room which had broken furniture in it and a very tired Nicholas. The two exchanged some glares and words until Aldous convinced Nicholas to stay behind and promised to bring Emma back. Aldous left Nicholas with a pint of watered down ale from the Temple of Hanera.
As he went to leave the barracks one of the guards from the night before caught him. They informed Aldous that the culprit that they helped catch last night was found dead in his cell this morning with a slit throat. Aldous noted the update, thanked the guard, and left.

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Meanwhile Yarrow was busy helping temple priests in their panic. The Feast of Hora being only a few days away and Head Priest Bal Birkett being kidnapped was throwing everything in disarray. Yarrow, Vala, and Eloy got a lot of work done between them and started to get the temple back to its previous state.
Alabaster spent some time practicing a new song. From watching Corvum identify and his burning desire to know the origin and nature of these gems that he had and the one he stole from Wolne he had pieced together his own magic. Alabaster spent time practicing a ritual to cast Identify on some items in his inventory.
The necklace Alabaster received from the Gleam and Glitter, a jagged spindle of black crystal on a leather cord, was his first item successfully identified. The item was indeed magic and when impaled into flesh, the black crystal dissolves a bit and allows you to breathe underwater for the next hour. Based on the length of the crystal Alabaster assumes that it has about 5 uses left before the crystal is gone.
The second item Alabaster identified was the gem he had stolen from Wolne. The dark green gem glimmered at him and his magic song revealed a glow of life. This item was alive. It was someone's life in a stasis of sorts purified down to a dormant energy. If one were attuned to this they could most likely tap into the energy it holds. The gem has 9 uses in it, 9 d6. Thinking through it you could most likely use that energy, those d6, to deal extra damage in battle. This one in particular also had a familiar healing energy to it and you could most likely use those d6 instead to heal.
Overwhelmed with emotions and realizations Alabaster quickly pocketed the gem and put it with his others. Yarrow finished with his temple duties and Aldous and Cyrus returned from the barracks. The four packed up and began to head out to the forest.

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The group made their way north through the trees eventually stumbling on an old trail. After some time on this trail they heard people in the distance. The Perch Guard hid in the tree line and the party stood in the road. The bandits approached and seeing Yarrow and Alabaster asked for the password. The two looked at each other confused and a fight began as Yarrow cast Entangle.
The fight was quick and decisive. Between the Perch Guard and the party the scouts were wiped out save for one that had been captured. They questioned him about the camp; where it was, who was there, how to get there. After their questioning and without warning Cyrus bit down on the captives neck killing him. Yarrow protested and questioned him to which Cyrus said that he was done with bandits.
The adventuring party made their way to the camp. Yarrow used Pass Without Trace and the party snuck through the tree line around the edges of the camp. Aldous cast Invisibility on Alasbaster and the Hedge made his way to one of the back tents. After some shenanigans involving this invisible bard and Aldous trying to use Message without direct sight to his target, the group learned that Emma and her group were here and standing guard for the bandits watching Head priest Bal and two other cadets. Emma is betraying the bandits however and hasn't fully tied up the cadets or the priest. She is waiting to find out the location of the bandit hideout.
Meanwhile Yarrow went over to a kennel that held some wolves. Taking a moment he realized that these were the same wolves from before getting into Brackenmill. Yarrow cast Speak with Animals and learned that the dogs were captured and were being forced to attack people and act as guard dogs. After some conversation the dogs agreed to help Yarrow eat the bandits if he let them go.
Yarrow and Alabaster returned and everyone made a plan. Alabaster set himself up at the end of the camp, Yarrow at the front with the wolves, and everyone else would come from the side of the camp from the tree line. Aldous cast Minor Illusion to make a loud noise to signal to everyone to attack.
The fight with the bandits was long and hard. Aldous protected his niece and stopped bandits from escaping. Cyrus danced atop the tents of the bandits and struck them from above with his magic. Yarrow took the form of a white elk and cast strange magics on the field keeping people in place and controlling the flow of battle. Alabaster was struck by Hatyārā and succumbed to the poison she wielded. The Bard was brought back up by one of the Perch Guard and then he cast Tasha's Hideous Laughter which took hold of her. Collecting himself Alabaster took a vial of poison that he took from Wolne and covered his weapon in it and brought it down on Hatyārā killing her. Cōra still intoxicated from his wine realized he was outnumbered and fled. The last bandit was captured by the cadets as she tried to run away.
The group stood victorious with no one dead on their side save for one wolf. The group reorganized and started to rest, patch up each other, and investigate the now empty bandit camp.

Report Date

23 Mar 2020