Session 35 - Fight and Flight
13 Klarmont 1010 - 14 Klarmont 1010
General Summary
The party, now fully engaged positively with the King's "kidnappers", explains that unfortunately, Laurelis has sent notice to the Baron that they were headed into the Barony. This most likely means that there will be broad ranging search parties out and about.
Immediately one of the Hin curses under his breath. Several of the party realize that the Shatter spell was probably audible from quite some distance. The Hin start to break camp; two of the Hin and Tork head west out of the camp to scout.
Meanwhile Leo asks how exactly did the Hin kidnap the King? The king seems to revel in the tale, explaining that he was at a groundbreaking ceremony for the new school of magic near Mirros. He went to a dinner event, excused himself for a brief respite, and as he went down the hallway he found himself rolled up in a rug, being hauled away. The Hin kept him in the carpet roll all the way down the Westron road, until they got to the path by the goblins. Here they went on foot, and at that point the King was trying to leave a visible trail (the button, the trampled ground) improving the trackability. He was an unwilling captor until they arrived at the first plantation town, which raised his anger, and took the restraint of the Hin to prevent him charging into the fields to free the slaves.
Since then, he has become quite close with his former captors.
The Fang all introduce themselves to the party as well. Theo Hornwood is the apparent leader, Keena and Katie are twins with opposite halves of their hair dyed blue, Fred, Rory, Gunny, Otton, and Hob make up the rest of the Fang. Leo asks if he is familiar with Black Jack, mentioning that they had worked with his Fang on another mission - Theo clearly knows him well enough, describing him as quite colorful, and not well suited for such delicate operations as this one, as diplomacy is not exactly his style. The party laughs at this.
In the distance, they hear a horn blow, and everyone gets moving. At this point, the decision on what should be done next comes up. The King must get to Mirros as fast as possible, so the Hin and the King will go due East from camp. Theo and the King propose that if the party is willing, that they could go in a different direction to pull attention away from their trail. This, of course, is dangerous for the party, but reduces the risk to the King. In the end, the party agrees to this, and the King and Theo's Fang head East. The party, still in the dismantled camp, must decide on a direction to lead the false trail.
As a parting gift, Theo gives Stavos a marker - a coin with the fives stalks of wheat of the Five Shires, and explains that if they should ever need anything, to present this.
Stavos is the closest match to the King's appearance, so Leo gives him the Hat of Disguise, which he plans to attune to by removing his ring of fire resistance. This should enable him to exactly match the appearance of the King. However, the delays as they try to pick their destination are too long, and before they know it there are howls of dogs coming through the woods. The party starts to move to the North with escape in mind, but the hounds are upon them, and much faster than Leo, so a battle seems to be required.
The party defends itself well, as is normally the case, taking down the large dogs quickly. Leo is given some cover by Elincia who pulls her wind fan out, and pushes back the dogs closest to them. She is able to keep this wind obstacle up throughout the battle, making effective use of this tool. Meanwhile Tork, Seraphina, and Stavos engage directly with the dogs, and are able to take them down quickly. Just as it looks like the party may get a chance to move on, Hobgoblins begin to arrive, and the battle continues. Additional waves of Hobgobilins are not far behind, including a spellcaster, who manages to position himself so that Seraphina, Tork and Elincia are all in a line, and casts Lightning Bolt, dealing a massive 28 damage to Elincia, and even with dodging out of the way, both Tork and Seraphina were severely injured. Thankfully, with a little focused effort Elincia, Tork, and Seraphina are able to kill the mage before he could hit them a second time. Meanwhile, as the Hobgoblins were arriving on the scene, Tork notices a shadow in the distant sky. Alerting the rest of the party to something large and ominous, folks kept their eyes on the sky when not focused on more immediate dangers.
As it approaches, it becomes clear that the incoming flying creature is a Wyvern. Once it's within 120', Leo starts Eldritch Blasting the creature, hoping to prevent being snatched by yet another large creature. As it closes, it is clear that there is a Hobgoblin riding the Wyvern as well, but with the large size of the Wyvern, it is an easier target than the rider. As it draws within range, Elincia is able to swing the wind effect from the Wind Fan up and blast the Wyvern back, delaying it's engagement with the party. This gives Tork, Stavos, and Seraphina enough time to deal with the remaining Hobgoblins on the ground. The Wyvern rider, working against the wind, is unable to effectively shoot at Elincia, and when he is finally close enough to land, he can see the carnage of dead dogs and Hobgoblins, and decides to flee rather than engage. Elincia and Leo continue their shots at the Wyvern, but with it flying at top speed away, they are unable to bring it down before it escapes.
With that done, Tork works to obscure the tracks of the King and Theo's Fang. Stavos decapitates a dog and a Hobgoblin, with Seraphina sprinkling Holy Water on them, for Waldhexe coin deposits. Leo summons Deion, his Phantom Steed. Between Stephan's horse and Deion, the slower party members can ride, Seraphina with Leo on Deion, Elincia with Stavos on Stephan's mount, and Tork quickly on foot. They head North-North-East as directly as they can, with the intent of finding their way to Luln. Now that they are no longer trying to track the King, they have the advantage of a quickened pace, and they deliberately leave a highly visible trail behind them.
After a couple hours of moving quickly, they feel confident enough to take a short rest, letting them get themselves healed up a bit more, and allowing Stavos to fully attune to the Hat of Disguises, and take on the full appearance of the King. With their short rest complete, they head out again at a quick pace.
As the dawn begins to arrive, they find themselves approaching another plantation town. They debate skirting around the edges, or going through, eventually deciding that since their purpose is to draw attackers off from the true King's party, they will ride quickly through town, likely to be seen by various early-risers. They see far in the distance behind them signs of Wyverns in the air, so the search is clearly still on. As they are entering the center of the town however, they see a guard in Black Eagle Barony livery, and a slave with manacles on ankles, and this proves to be too much for the party. Stavos calls out "Slavery is forbidden in the Kingdom of Karameikos!"
Character(s) interacted with
Report Date
18 Dec 2020
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