Session 27

General Summary

Godsday, Reaping 4

Morning

We intend to travel until noon and then make camp for the rest of the day to regain our vigor. However, within a couple of hours we hear something to the west coming toward us. Thormyr hides in the back. Drazhan gets into position to cast Invisibility on him if needed.
We see in the distance a couple of hobgoblin warg riders approaching. Drazhan makes Thormyr invisible. The hobgoblins approach us with authority. The wargs spook our horse as it sniffs at our horse. Norric is able to calm our animal.
I ride up to meet the lead hobgoblin as the other stays back. The lead shouts something back to the other in goblin.
The hobgoblin asks our business, and I reply that we are provisioning great Iuz's forces.
"The ones in the back, I want to see you!" he shouts to our trailing riders.
He rides back and his warg starts sniffing our wagon. The rider is well-armoured. He leans down and whispers to his mount in goblin.
"Show me your trade writ," he barks at Norric. The halfling swiftly complies.
He takes it to his compatriot and they confer on the writ. When he returns he orders us to stand by the stream while he inspects the cart.
One of the wargs sniffs us in line and pauses to lick Norric's face. His rider's attention is drawn from the writ, and he pulls the warg's mane, snarling "He's not for eating -- yet..."
Norric bribes one of the hobgoblins. The warg toward the back of the cart seems to sense something. The two hobgoblins confer again and then they depart.
Thormyr informs us that he speaks goblin and overheard the hobgoblins speaking. They believed our writ but wanted to intimidate us into giving them money. Also, if we hadn't proved to be legitimate, they would have fed Norric to the wargs. Thormyr had tried to exit the wagon and nearly alerted a warg, but the hobgoblin's impatience thwarted the discovery. Also they were confused as to why we had dirt in the casks, but they didn't really care.
I dump the dirt out of the casks and put the grain back in.
Drazhan reveals he has a dwarven amulet that he will use to excuse the scent of dwarf if a warg sniffs Thormyr out again.
We travel for the rest of the day, making a fireless camp at night off the road.
On third watch, Thormyr hears a sound in the woods. Two red eyes peer at him from the gloom. He makes ready and notifies Travius. The eyes close and disappear. They wake the rest of the company. I hear something rustling in the underbrush and sense it is moving away. Thormyr and I creep forward to investigate. The creature is gone, but I find tracks with long clawed toes. It isn't humanoid for sure, though it is bipedal and has three claws. Thormyr tells me the eyes were about high enough off the ground to be about the height of an average human man. That said, it's tracks when standing still were three feet apart in parallel and deeply inset into the soil.
The rest of us go back to sleep, leaving Travius and Thormyr to resume their watch. Some time later Thormyr hears something flying overhead, though he never catches sight of it.

Waterday, Reaping 5

Morning

We keep an ambitious pace throughout the day.

Afternoon

We hear the sound of combat ahead and see someone running toward us. He falls to the ground and we see an arrow in his back.
We are on the road, with trees close by either side. Around a bend ahead is where the sound of conflict arises from. The bend is about one hundred feet away.
Norric takes the lead and investigates the fallen man. He's armored in leather. Norric moves further on and sees a cart on the road, pointed in our direction. The combat seems to come to an end as a woman strikes a man down brutally. Someone says "Bring that coward here!"
Norric returns to us and reports his observations. We decide to proceed cautiously.
We see four corpses strewn about. A man armed with a bow regards us as we approach. Three other men and a woman are menacing a shorter man in colorful garb, who speaks hurriedly in a language we don't understand. The left side of the woman's face is heavily scarred, as if by an acid burn, to the point her eye is shut. The survivors look to have ambushed the cart.
Though we don't understand it, we identify the language of the colourful fellow to be Rhop, the language of the Rhenee. The Rhenee man looks at us with pleading eyes.
We are about sixty feet away from the scene. "It appears you have waylaid these travelers," I call out. "Is this your stock in trade? Are you highwaymen? Are we next to be assaulted?"
The man with the bow looks for guidance. The scarred woman says "We can't let them report us."
They whisper to each other again. Drazhan comes forward and tells me he overheard them, saying that they seem ready to make a deal as they think we are agents of Iuz. They seem hesitant to take us on.
The woman pushes the Rhenee fellow against the card and puts a knife to his throat. The bowman comes forward and says "We want no trouble."
"You are courting trouble by holding a knife to that man's throat," I reply.
All the weapons wielded by these brigands are alike in appearance as if made in the same location.
I tell them their first step in earning our goodwill is to release the Rhenee. They ask if we are a friend of his and I say that is none of their concern. They ask if we are gathering supplies as well and I answer that it is not their place to question us.
"Let the man go and we'll let you live," Tronus says. The woman looks to her companion and he nods. With disgust she withdraws the dagger. The Rhenee runs toward Tronus and falls to the ground, kissing his boot and saying thank you in the common tongue. Tronus lifts him by the back of the shift and sets the man behind him.
One of the brigands moves to the Rhenee cart, and Tronus calls out "We'll be taking that cart as well."
The bowman says "We need some of the supplies."
As we approach them we see they are a bit malnourished. Tronus notices that while their torsos are adorned differently, they have similar boots.
Tronus says, "You all seem to be from the same cohort, based on your boots."
Thormyr jumps out of the cart and observes their reactions. They all look at each other with confusion. "Is that your prisoner?" asks the bowman.
"Does he look like a prisoner?" I say.
The woman whispers into the bowman's ear. Tronus hears her say "Perhaps they're not merchants."
"It appears none of us are what we seem," the bowman says. "Do you serve Iuz?"
"We do not," I say.
"Unlike this one," he says "are you actually delivering goods for the Old One?"
"Are you stealing goods from the Old One?" Tronus asks.
"We do," the bowman says. "We need these goods to survive."
"This scum feeds the army of the Old One," the woman says, referring to the Rhenee.
We agree to sheathe our weapons, as do they. The man introduces himself as Malek and the woman his lieutenant Tessa. We introduce ourselves as well.
The woman make it clear she hates all Rhenee, and I caution against such talk. The Rhenee man says his goods are for all the people.
We let Malek and Tessa look through the food. Malek suggest we move off the road. The Rhenee proclaims his name is Oolaro, and Clan Ashkalon is forever in our debt. This is the same clan as the Rhenee woman we met earlier.
Malek tells us it has been a rough few weeks and they were getting desperate for food. They are rangers in the service of the Shield Lands out of Critwall. They've been behind enemy lines for months. Tronus asks if the are intending to return to Critwal, to which they reply "eventually." Their main objective is to disrupt the supply lines before the main offensive. There are other groups of them but they are not connected. The Knights of the Holy Shielding and the Knights of the Hart are planning on making a major push. Drahzan tells them that he heard Iuz's General Raymat is moving his base of operations closer to the front in anticipation of the push. This is concerning to them, as they had hoped for the element of surprise. Tessa opines bitterly that she is sure some of their allies are betraying them to the Old One.
Tronus tells them we are looking to enter Critwall. They tell us that the closer we get to Critwall the more dangerous it will get. Even they had troubles crossing the line. Closer to Critwall is the flare line, where Iuz's forces have built a series of trench fortifications around Critwall, similar to what was around Crockport before Furyondy retook it. They actually recommended we wait until the offensive starts, though for obvious reasons they weren't told when that is.
They offer to assist us in crossing to Critwall. Malek and Tessa take us away from Oolaro to speak. They are concerned that he will report us all to the forces of Iuz. He has a writ to move goods for the Old One. We tell them we intend to take him with us. Malek says that is dangerous, and they intended to kill him.
"I'm aware of that," I say with disdain. 
"This is war. Such things are often necessary," Malek says.
"Necessity is the credo of tyrants," I reply.
Malek asserts that our ruse won't survive on the main road. They can help us take back ways to some degree, but their mission is important. We take the Rhenee's writ in case it is of some use.
We notice that Oolaro has slipped his escort and is attempting to flee. There's screaming from Oolaro, begging for his life. We see him lying on his back, alone screaming. No one is around him. The man assigned to guard him then splatters to the ground in front of us. Above is a large bat creature with red glowing eyes. It is significantly bigger than the last one we saw.

Report Date

03 Dec 2022