Session 10

General Summary

Morning

Breakfast at the inn.
Maar sends an animal messenger to Ringland. The message: “This is Maar. Our company hides in Crossroads to secure the release of the abducted victims.Will contact again when returning or update if possible.”
Travius is able to determine that the creatures we fought last night were Shadow Demons.
Maar suggests we find a job to do for Galt outside of Crossroads where the heat is lower, and then rather than having us re-enter the city he meets us with the prisoners outside town.
We maintain our Iron Ring disguises.
On the way to Galt, we notice many of the zombie pens are empty. We come across a group of hobgoblin soldiers destroying zombies in their pen. They put them in the back of a cart under the guidance of a priest of Iuz.
Shortly thereafter we see a couple of hobgoblins dragging an older fellow along the ground -- a vagrant by his apparel. He is balding and bearded. They bring him to the priest of Iuz and speak to him in goblin. The priest says “This one will do.” The hobgoblin slits his throat while the priest does an incantation. They put the new, docile zombie into the pen.
As we make our way, Maar notices we are being followed. The person following us walks with a limp. Dominique slips behind a cart and changes her form into that of a merchant and flanks our pursuer. We alter course to the Gash.
Once at the Gash we get a drink and wait for Dominique to rejoin us. She eventually does, as a wardog. She informs us that Commander Karg’s gimp has been following us for days. She interrogated him disguised as a priest of Iuz. Karg is considering us for his zombie pens.
I bribe the madam to lead us out the side door (prior to that she says Sasha was impressed by my “nobility”.) She pinches my bottom and tells me not to be a stranger.
Maar casts Pass Without Trace on us as we depart. We find a derelict building occupied by a pair of vagrants. I bribe them with a couple silver to depart, and attempt to intimidate them into staying quiet. My impression is that they are already reluctant to snitch due to their fear of the priests of Iuz.
We discuss our plan to rescue the captives. The compound has a 12-ft wall and one two-storey building. The captives are on the second floor.
The city has a guarded 15-ft wall.
Our plan: -Wait until dark. -Use Pass Without Trace to get into the compound at the back. Maar turns into a giant spider. -Maar takes me up to the room on the second floor where he believes the captives are being held. He removes them down the wall in spider form and then retrieves me. -We escape the compound and then use the spider to scale a quiet section of the city walls. -Maar renews pass without trace if necessary.
Dominique monitors our location from her familiar who flies around outside. She sees hobgoblins taking over the compound.This is around early evening, though it is still daylight. It isn’t a fight; the hobgoblins disarmed the guards at the front, and there is activity now inside the compound. She reports to us, then tries to connect to her familiar again, and discovers that she is unable to.
We enact our plan regardless of being rushed and short on spells.
Maar brings me to the second floor in his spider form. I enter the room in the manse, lighting it with a Light spell on a coin in my Mage Hand. I find the mother dead on the bed, her head in the lap of her daughter. The mother has been disembowelled. The daughter is catatonic. I check under the bed and see blood on the far side.
I find a small body of a boy on the ground. A cat in the corner hisses at me, and the door opens. A member of the Iron Ring is in the door w/ two hobgoblins. They yell that “It’s one of the ones you are looking for” before attacking.
I kill one hobgoblin with Magic Missle and then kill another. Maar, Dominique, and Tronus join me in the room. Tronus does lay on hands on the boy, who has lacerations on his face. The healing brings him around. He does it to the girl as well.
Maar takes the boy down the wall in spider form. Dominique takes the girl while riding on Maar.
We make it out of the compound, though Travius and I take hobgoblin spears on the way. My ward takes most of the damage, and I cast Expeditious Retreat to speed my way as the hobgoblins close in around me.
As we flee, Travius, Dominique, and I are separated from the rest. We have the girl with us.

Report Date

25 Sep 2021