TTB: C1E22 - Through the woods and over the river Part 2 Report

General Summary

DIGE began to move ahead along the trail, but slowly so as to allow Urirel Naïlo and her pursuers to gain on him. Shortly, Uri came crashing out of the surrounding forest and onto the trail behind DIGE. Moments later two bandits followed her, about 60 feet behind. They were then joined by two archers another 30 feet behind them. Arrows whistled through the air, some finding purchase in Uri's fleeing back. Uri and DIGE continued to try to outpace their pursuers while firing back at them. Uri landed some hits, but in his hurry DIGE managed to break the strap on his quiver and his arrows and quiver all fell to the forest floor and he had no time to retrieve them. More arrows buried themselves into Uri's back, her breathing was getting more and more laboured. Desparate now, Uri gave up trying to fire back at their pursuers and she and DIGE concentrated on trying to break line of sight with the archers. Eventually, they succeeded and they continue this game of cat and mouse all the way back to the ambush site. As they arrived at the ambush site where their friends were hidden and waiting to assist, Uri carefully scrambled between the two hidden pits and hid behind a large tree. DIGE stepped between the pits as well and then shifted to one side so the pit was between him and their pursuers. The first bandit then came into sight and charge straight at DIGE, never knowing his danger. To his surprise, just as he closed with DIGE he disappeared into the hidden pit with a scream. The second bandit, having seen his partner disappear, followed by hearing a scream of agony, slowed his pace. He approached the position where his partner had disappeared and began to investigate, quickly discovering the illusion that hid the pit beneath. Standing triumphantly he stopped at the edge and began to test for a safe path around it. Just then, Katrina Runesong erupted from her hiding spot and slammed into the bandit from behind. He shrieked as he plummeted down into the pit as well. With the melee fighters both taken care of quickly, the party turned its attention to the forest ahead, wary of further threats. Their wariness was rewarded as two archers stepped out of the forest and onto the path that led to the ambush site. DIGE closed towards the archers, while Chase muttered a spell and Katrina grew enlarged. Ceasar pummeled the archers with eldritch blasts and Uri climbed a tree and began taking pot shots at the archers. As the battle raged one, the archers caught sight of Uri in the tree and focussed their fire on her. One of their arrows scored a major hit, and Uri lost consciousness from the shock of it. Her limp body toppled from the tree and landed, hard, on the ground below where she lay unmoving. Eventually, The Bound were victorious and had one bandit captive in the bottom of a pit. Chance took the role of interrogator, while the others went to tend to Uri. Sadly, as they came to her, they realized she had suffered fatal wounds and had slipped from the mortal world. Having learned many details of the slaver camp from their prisoner, including the fact that there were two additional factions within the camp at this time (in addition to the 40 or so Red Wizards of Thay they'd been expecting). Now they knew they were facing closer to 70 enemies within the camp; a mixture of Red Wizards, orcs, and Shadar-kai. Having gained what knowledge they could from their captive, Chance turned the captive over to Katrina for further interrogation, and Katrina in turn informed Ceasar that she was done and the pit was now empty so Ceasar could refill it. He did so, telling himself the muffled screams were just a figment of his imagination. The party then took time to give Uri a proper burial, Ceasar gently collecting her coin purse so that he could send the money to her family in Cormanthor, and DIGE taking her short sword as a keepsake. From there, they began to discuss plans for infiltrating and dealing with the slaver camp. A number of ideas were tossed about, but they finally settled on casing out the boat used by the orcs to ferry the prisoners downriver to the Moonsea, and to then have DIGE stow away underneath its hull while the rest of the party waited to ambush the boat further downriver when it made its return journey loaded with slaves. With a solid plan in place, they began making their way towards the river. As they approached the point where they imagined the sentry lines must still be, they stepped into a small clearing at precisely the same time as a group of sentries entered it from the opposite direction. Both sides stood dumbfounded for a moment, then battle raged once more!