TTB: C1E24 - Through the woods and over the river Part 4 Report

General Summary

DIGE finished drilling his holes carefully and then turned his attention to trying to pry the boards of the hull of the keelboat loose. It was exceptionally difficult to do without causing the boat to rock in the water and alert the guards above to what he was doing.   Meanwhile, Ceasar grew impatient and sought out a location that would provide him some cover from enemy eyes, but would also allow him to see downriver where DIGE had gone. He was successful and dug a little depression in the earth to better conceal himself before settling in to watch the three boats and their six guards.   DIGE moved from boat to boat, trying to carefully loosen the boards. The first he attempted, eventually took so much force that when the board finally popped loose at one end DIGE's arms lurched forward and rocked the boat substantially. The guards above could not possibly miss the sudden movement and climbed aboard to investigate. DIGE chose to stealthily move to another boat in the meantime and had more success there. On the final boat, the board came loose so suddenly that DIGE once again caused the boat to list. The orcs guarding it boarded and began to investigate it. DIGE carefully began to walk along the bottom of the river, out away from the shore, towards where he had left his friends.   Watching from his vantage point, Ceasar decided to take the opportunity when one of the orcs turned its back and he blasted it with eldritch energy. Unfortunately, the other orc saw where the bolt came from and all 6 began running towards the hill. Assuming that they faced only a single shooter, they charged rather recklessly. Ceasar managed a couple more shots before DIGE, who was back on shore and trying to creep stealthily up the ridgeline to where Ceasar and the others now were, misstepped and rolled down the hill, nearly falling into the river. Two orcs broke off to approach him, while the remaining fourt continued their charge. In the end, the orcs were no match for the four heroes. One attempted to break towards the Slaver Camp, but was summarily cut down from range. Once all of the orcs were dead, the party decided to once again stage a fight with wild elves. They buried some of the bodies, stuck the rest with the remainder of Uriel's arrows, and floated them downriver.   Still unable to see the camp itself, the party decided to send scouts up the hill to the south of the river. Creeping from tree to tree, then crawling through the scrub at the top of the hill, they managed to catch sight of the camp to the south. It was large and quite occupied. They decided a frontal assault would not be successful, so they retreated to the base of the hill and decided instead to repeat a successful tactic: dig a pit, camouflage it, then lure a smaller force out to their ambush. While Ceasar dug the pit, DIGE noticed that the bodies they had set adrift had gotten hung up on some rocks. As he went to free them, he also noted another set of boats along the shore a bit further downriver, this time unguarded. He moved ahead to sink them before completing his task of freeing the orc bodies.   As Ceasar dug the pit, he felt the magic "echo" once again. At first it seemed that nothing had really happened...then he casually thought that he wished he could move the dirt further away from the pit without further casting mold earth...and an unseen servent moved it. Quickly experimenting he realized that he was now in control of an unseen servant that he could command to do simple tasks. An idea struck him, and he quickly shared it with the party. They could use the unseen servant to deliver the cyanide Ceasar had been crafting to the communal food source within the camp.   The servant was nearly in the camp before they realized that while IT was unseen, the small green pouch full of cyanide was not. They could do nothing but hope it went unnoticed; which it did. After depositing the poison, the unseen servant was next commanded to go set fire to the large tent on the island that housed the Red Wizards. By the time it had accomplished this task, the party could already see a commotion around the cooking pot as several figures began collapsing and/or coughing up blood. Hurrying now to their ambush site, the heroes could see smoke billowing from the tent on the island and soon after figures began to emerge, coughing, into view. Ceasar fired of more eldritch blasts from range as warriors began to stream from the tent towards the source of the eldritch energy. A spellcaster emerged, but before she could fire a single spell off, Ceasar cut her down with eldritch energy. As the party prepared to lure the warriors into their trap, another mage emerged and this one managed to catch sight of DIGE as he was trying to duck behind cover. Suddenly DIGE, and most of the rest of the party near him, were engulfed in an ice storm and pummeled by fist-sized hail. The ground around them becoming nearly impassible from the sudden buildup of ice and sleet. Just as this occurred, the fastest of the warriors had arrived at the edge of the pit...and witnessed it suddenly appear when the minor illusion that had camflouged it disappeared as Ceasar's conecntration was broken by the ice storm pelting him.

Missions/Quests Completed

Found the orc boats and sank them. Began assault against the Slaver Camp.