Session 20: The quest that keeps on Giffing

General Summary

We have an uneventful night, and over breakfast we the decision to scout to the East, and see where the Giff set up their camp.   Skrik and Voron take the lead on tracking them, with Duldar and myself hanging back a little bit to avoid alerting them in case we're a lot closer than we think. We're out of the woods and into the mountains more and more as we travel. In the 2 hours in takes to get to a point where Skrik is starting to lose the footprints and instead tracks them by the marks they left with the metal they're carrying, I've shot a couple of foxes and hares to use as provisions. They'll make for some good eating.   We also notice one of those Pteranodon things that was a real pain in the neck to take down last time, so we do what we can to make sure it doesn't spot us. And thanks to Voron's quick thinking and shadowy magic stuff, it passes us by without a fight. That's good.   Skrik must've been rattled at the sight of it, since he seems to lose the tracks for a bit. That's slightly annoying, but it can't be helped. I certainly wouldn't have been able to track 'em half as well, that's for sure. During this time, there's also the theory that perhaps the missing groups of Adventurers weren't killed, but taken prisoner.   A bit after midday, I'm starting to get a bit peckish. And then Skrik has some wonderful news: He's spotted giant vultures. Those are really tasty if you grill 'em right. They were scavenging half a goat, but our little rat friend didn't want to get closer to investigate with the birds there. So we take care of the birds. One of them escapes, but the other 3 wind up being our lunch. And there's enough to bring with us for a rainy day, even. Quite a nice bounty, if I do say so myself.   When everybody has been fed properly (I made Voron a nice salad with some of the things I found, he seemed to like it), we travel onwards. Another 2 or so hours in, and we find an old hunter's shack. Skrik, being the sneaky little thing he is, disappears for a bit, and tells us of to 'disappearing spiders' inside the shack.   The plan was to block the door so these large things can't get out. And then burn the shack down around them. Sounds like a good plan to me. Sadly, there aren't big enough rocks to do it quickly, and we need to stack up a dozen boulders by the half-gone door to block it off. And by the time we're done doing that.. They've noticed us, and 1 of them is already disappeared.   Turns out that these things don't just disappear, they can also walk through walls or something. One of them appears behind Voron, but Skrik's attack of it alerted the big guy early enough to dodge the attack. He brings his Moonbeam out to put the spotlight back on this thing, and then he goes invisible, too. That's a pretty cool trick.   The other spider pops up behind Duldar, but he wasn't alerted to the impending strike and got bit. Thankfully, his hearty Dwarven constitution saves him from most of the damage. I go up to that one and squeeze it tightly, after which Duldar caves its head in with a well-aimed strike. Maybe that bite hurt more than I thought it did, if he's that angry about it.   The one that had popped up behind Voron apparently didn't like that Moonbeam very much, because it just curled in on itself and played dead very believably. It didn't even respond when we started cutting it open for parts. Which I happily use to make dinner, as it's starting to get dark. We've been at it for a whole day, and we still haven't found that Giff camp. They must've walked for a good while then. Gotta give 'em props for that. Janey does her pink bubble thing for protection, but nothing happens during this night either. Guess camping out in the lair of 2 big spiders that probably scare other things off helped.   The next morning, Skrik fills his waterskin with some slightly shifty looking water. But he seemed fine after drinking a bit of it, so I didn't think much of it at the time. He tracks the Giff's trail again, and with about an hour of travel, we find a plateau with a winding pathway leading up to it. Pretty defensible. Guess they're not stupid. Voron does some magic, and suddenly Skrik can walk on walls like it's the floor. That's also a cool trick. We all manage to sneak up most of the way that winding path, enough to spot some patrols that are pretty heavily armed. And Skrik scouts ahead for a bit, and he counts about.. 16 Giff outside the twin caves that are up on this plateau.   We all agree that this is a bit too much for us to handle by ourselves, and that discretion is the better part of valor.. So we ask Voron to make us hard to spot again, and manage to sneak our way down from the plateau without being seen. Which is very good, because I remember their boomsticks hurting quite badly. With a mark made on the map for the general area these Giff are camping out in, with some notes for clarification for anybody that needs to be here for whatever reason.. We also decide to get back to town as quickly as we can, with a slightly more dangerous route straight South, through the mountains. Then Skrik starts cackling like a madman, and rolling on the floor. I give him a pat and tell him to calm down, which he does. Guess that funky water wasn't as save as it appeared to be. Thankfully nobody else drank that stuff.   On the way through the mountains, we spot a pair of bears. One black, one brown. What's strange is that the brown one is walking on its hind legs. Which is apparently not a normal thing. There's the theory that maybe it's a Druid like Voron, and he forgot how to animal. As we get closer, since it noticed us but didn't seem hostile, we have a talk. Apparently, this walking bear can also talk.   He says his name is "Tango", and his black bear buddy is called "Cash". As he helps us with a shortcut of sorts down the mountain, he cuts about an hour off our traveling time. We talk a bit during the walking, and he asks us to say 'hi' to Dhastean for him. As it turns out, Tango was one of Dhastean's old Adventuring buddies. Not sure what happened to him that he's a walking, talking bear now, but I'm not gonna judge.   Once we get to town, we head for the Guild Hall to report our findings. We tell the story of what we found to a Human whose name I can't remember right now.. And who ends up saying that it's probably something for Dhastean. Who's again, or still, bickering with his wife.   We tell the whole story to him as well, including our thoughts on what should probably happen next. After that, we get paid for completing the scouting mission, and we try to decide what we're gonna do after this. Duldar said he'd like to research the boomsticks, Skrik wants to practice with his poison stuff. Not sure what Janey and Voron are gonna do. I'm probably gonna help Skrik with his poison stuff, since he did say something about using my poison, after all. Seems like he'd need my help for that.

Rewards Granted

14361 xp total