Yes, Fen, I do agree you'll die before giving me up. Drahz Grymhook will make sure of it.
- Reaper admits his lack of faith in Fen's kindness.
Kodo was woken up by the terrifying visage of a creature who's mouth stretched from their upper lip down to their waist in a putrid and horrifying look of the twisted fey that seemed to have stumbled upon their camp. As the rest of the party slept amidst the creeping figures, Kodo started his fight in terror and feeling his mind get stretched and harmed as though the mere sight of this creature repulsed his being to it's core. In the face of this danger, Kodo drew on his training as a monk and used
Stillness of Mind to calm himself and end the fear effect plaguing him, with that, he moved away from the creature into the centre of the camp and advised Fen to wake up the rest of
Persicorum.
As the battle truly started, more of these creatures appeared before the party, one climbed a tree in an attempt to reach Fen who was on watch and others snuck into the party's tents; failing to frighten the now-awake Mimsi but succeeding in pinning back Thordak.
Though the battle raged on and the party all found themselves fighting these creatures Kodo proved to be in the most danger as he was flanked on both sides and continually attacked by these creatures who were quickly wearing down his defences.
Luckily, a strange figure Kodo hadn't seen before darted around the corner and attacked the creatures with a flaming handaxe and showed themselves to be a spellcaster as they made use of
Hunter's Mark to assist them in culling the creatures. With the extra support and healing the tide very quickly turned and the party gradually started to kill more and more of these creatures, though Fen was badly wounded during this time and forced to retreat to get assistance from the rest of Persicorum.
Seeing that they were losing, the strange Fey creatures used their invisibility to make a tactical retreat and, luckily due to the stranger and Fen being fluent in Sylvan, they heard the creatures planned to make a tactical retreat and attack the horses instead, seeing the party as too strong.
Upon hearing this, the stranger introduced themselves as Anastasia and admitted they'd been following the party for a while as they wanted companionship and knew they shared a common enemy. Though the party agreed to discuss this more in the future after defending the horses for the night.
With that, they decided to start another long rest but increased their numbers on watch from one to two instead as Olympia cast
Alarm around the horses to stop intrusions.
The first watch was Kodo and Anastasia who spent some time showing their familiars to eachother (Anastasia showed her sprite familiar 'Pine', a warrior that made a point of mimicking Anastasia, and her wolf companion 'Blackey' a very well trained wolf that showed very little fear of even Fen's Reaper hound), during their watch, they discovered one of the creatures were sneaking to the horses and they managed to hit it lethally before it could damage their transport.
On second watch, Fen, the reaper and Thordak stayed as vigilant as they could. Though notably much of the watch was taken up by the hound arguing with Fen and attacking the wizards kind nature and perceived weaknesses though Fen did his best to reassure the hound that they would be fine and that he would be sure to change the hounds nature one day.
After this argument Fen and Thordak noticed one of the creatures start to break through the alarm and, though they couldn't stop it killing one of the horses, they killed it before more carnage was spread.
Seeing the dead horse, Anastasia couldn't bear to lose one of them and so she drew on her talents with necromancy and channelled her magic to bring the animal back to life... leading Fen to remark that he'd never seen a resurrection before and that the party should invest in diamonds to keep themselves alive.
The final watch was undisturbed with Mimsi and Grendel talking about their feelings on life, Mimsi admitted she didn't care much for mortality, they're in danger so often that it's difficult to dwell on situations they survive due to how close she had come to death in recent events, referencing her near death in
Chapter 4 Session 10 Finale: The Hunt Begins and the death of many of her allies.
The next morning, the party shared breakfast and agreed to let Anastasia travel with them to
Eastbourne as she clearly seemed to have good intentions and wanted to work with them. As they travelled, the party quizzed their newest addition on her backstory and discovered that their common enemy was
Dashilla the Dark Queen , after which they worked out that Anastasia was from
The Feywild when she told them Dashilla had killed everyone she loved, the party said a little about their interaction with
Proto in the Feywild as they learned Anastasia's search for them was as much out of convenience as well as necessity.
In their conversation, the party also learned that Anastasia is rather famous throughout Alturis as a very talented mercenary and bounty hunter, specifically of Fey creatures and humanoids (she has become known as an assassin who is skilled in hunting Gnomes and Goblins), upon discussing her, Anastasia revealed that she only hunted creatures she believed to be menaces and that Mimsi and Grendel would be safe from her as they were good people... she also revealed she had very little interest in the
Aist Mages and
The Elected Crown of Alturis. conflict currently ongoing as her mind was focused on the Fey...
Additionally, as Thordak was talking to Anastasia, he asked her if she knew about any other mercenaries by reputation and she revealed that she knew of a mercenary named
Gell who was a king, focused and untrusting mercenary.
During their day of travel, the party came across a sword with a leather scabbard suspended 30ft in the sky. After discussing what to do with it, and after Anastasia failed to lasso the blade, Fen and Olympia each used dispel magic to force the weapon to the ground and, after arguing about who should have it as the weapon changed it's form to favour whoever was holding it, the party had Fen identify the weapon and he learned it was
The Moonblade . A legendary weapon that would not work for any it did not regard as 'worthy', after some investigation, the party learned the only individuals capable of understanding the weapon were Anastasia, Kodo, Grendel and Fen (due to passing a DC17 Wisdom Saving throw) and so they resolved to discover who was worthy during their adventure.
With that, the party finished their travel for the day and made camp with only one day until they reach the town of Eastbourne.
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