Session 13: The Reluctant Assassin
General Summary
Vin shlorped into the spellbook as Sigvurd emerged with a cry that alertd the harpies! The party anxiously decided what to do, but as no force emerged from the lair, they decided that Nemara should go in as an invisible scout.
Nemara explored the compound and discovered that the Twisted Branch tribe has had a **bad** year. They lost an entire clutch of eggs last year to some kind of worm infestation, and they came under new leadership recently - a chief who is leading them to an unwise and dishonorable war with the humans, who he claims are responsible for infecting their young. Both the new chief and his lieutenant are under some kind of ill omen, their scales turning black as their physical strength grows.
The chief ordered an attack on the human fortress, declaring that this years clutch would all be soldiers, and sending most of their already drained population off to fight. He even took hostages to sacrifice to their fertility god - an appalling and unheard-of action.The chief has also allied their clan with a black dragon, and this all became too much for their shaman, Hishka. She prayed for a sign, for some help to bring her clan onto a better path, and when she smelled a Tiefling in her chamber, she believed that help had arrived.
Nemara talked with Hishka, and agreed to help. Hishka met the party in a secret grove that night, and explained that regretfully, the chief needed to be killed. THe time for negotiations, she said, passed long ago. The gang armed up, and Hishka snuck them in to do battle, holding the civillians off while they fought.
The battle was long - the lizardfolk chief fought with the strength of ten men, striking with his magical trident and weathering blows that would have killed even powerful warriors. He pelted the party with fireballs and trident striks and even his own teeth, but at last fell to Sigvurd's glaive.
Hishka begged time and space to calm and orient her people, but said she did want to thank the party properly. They agreed to return at daybreak, and Hishka promised to have their hostages healed and ready to travel by that time.
The moon begins to set as the party make anxious camp some distance from the Lizardfolk lair. Will Hishka persuade her people to accept the chief's death? What about his corrupted liutenant, who will be back any day now with the remains of his troops? Only time will tell.