Session 53 - Victory
10 Felmont 1010 - 11 Felmont 1010
General Summary
Taking quick survey of the situation, the party immediately recognizes that two of the prisoners being prepared for execution are Blazh and Augustus. However, as they are looking upon the square, the group is spotted and an alarm is raised.
With the troops noticing the party and raising the alarm, Seraphina dives right in, cutting right, to attack the nearest guard. Leo spots another Hobgoblin wizard and a group of Hobgoblin troops, but weighing the number of civilians in the area, Leo decides to use hex rather than a large area kill spell. Combined with Hex, and a surprisingly powerful shot of Eldritch Blast, the Hobgoblin Wizard crumples to the ground. Tork runs toward the remaining Hobgoblins, taking down a nearby Human Guard on the way, attracting the troops' attention, while Stavos follows at a slightly slower pace, keeping between the soldiers and the party's casters. Elincia steps out, fires a shot at one of the guards near Seraphina, and ducks back around the building. From the south, over the buildings, a Wyvern swoops in with a Hobgoblin Archer Captain riding. Langdedrosa issues some sharp commands, and all the troops in the square begin to converge on the party. The crowd panics and starts rushing toward the various exits, creating chaos for the various soldiers trying to get to the party. The two Ogres are not slowed by the crowds (woe to the poor folks that get between them and their targets!) and they start pushing through the people and market stalls to get to Tork and Seraphina, respectively.
Leo spins at the arrival of the Wyvern on the scene, and attempts to knock the rider from its back. The first Eldritch Blast is unsuccessful, but the second does unseat him, and he falls to the roof of the building below. Elincia, sensing the danger of the Wyvern's presence, pulls out her Wind Fan to push the terror away from the party.
The combat breaks down into three fronts. Seraphina is dealing with a large number of human guards making their way to her, along with an Ogre, on the eastern flank. Tork is engaged with the second ogre, and some humans, and an incoming group of three Hobgoblins are on their way from that side, held up by Elincia's final tiger from the previous battle. Stavos is trying to protect Leo and Elincia, but the newest threat is airborne, causing some difficulty with engagement, but the troops streaming around the Ogre move his way as well. When Langdedrosa sees Tork, a wave of recognition sweeps across him, and he Laughs, followed by a stern command to all the troops to "kill the others, but leave the Orc to me!" Some of the troops comply, shifting their attention from Tork to either Stavos or Seraphina, but the Ogre and one of the Hobgoblins stays engaged with Tork.
Seraphina and Tork continue to deal massive damage to their attackers, holding the fronts. Tork is able to kill the Ogre but, before he is able to engage the remaining Hobgoblin that didn't disengage, Langdedrosa uses his breath weapon on Tork, which also strikes and instantly kills the Hobgoblin. Leo takes down the Hobgoblin Archer Captain that he dismounted from the Wyvern, and really has nowhere to hide from the Wyvern itself, so he stands near Stavos. Elinicia continues to keep the wind on the Wyvern, and several of Tork's attackers have disengaged and started moving his way. Elincia recognizes that Seraphina is now going to be overwhelmed by the eastern front. and calls forth 4 Giant Eagles, which swoop down and distract and engage the troops swarming Seraphina. One of them she reserves to join in protecting her from the western front and the Wyvern.
The Wyvern swoops down on Leo - not an entirely surprising choice based on recent events. It strikes with its claws, easily penetrating Leo's armor, but this is not so bad. Just as Leo thinks he might be okay, the stinger flicks down at him and drives right through his modestly armored chest. The piercing damage alone is not overwhelming, but the poison is extremely effective, and he collapses to the ground unconscious.
Tork and Langdedrosa have now declared their intent of single combat. Tork casually removes his vest displaying his scars from their first encounter in Greenest. He makes a biting comment at Langdedrosa about the weakness of challenging a young fighter to single combat, and that this will be a much more satisfying course. He then enters a rage, and charges Langdedrosa trading spear attacks, and Tork adding in unarmed strikes between blows, disabling Langdedrosa's ability to counter. This back and forth will go on for quite some time.
Meanwhile, Stavos has taken out the remaining western guards that moved away from Tork at Langdedrosa's commnad. Elincia is managing the fan, the eagles, and helping out where possible. Leo has succeeded two death saving throws but remains down for the count. The Wyvern has been distracted by the eagles for a while, as have several of the ground troops, allowing the party to refocus their efforts on supporting Seraphina. Seraphina, with some help from an Eagle, is finally able to finish off the Ogre. Stavos gets a chance to feed Leo a healing potion, and Leo, after administering his own healing potion, gets back to focusing on damaging the Wyvern (not too successfully at that), terrified that it will get back to him somehow.
Stavos, Elincia, the Eagles, and Seraphina focus their efforts on the remaining guards on the ground, while Leo and one Eagle focus on the Wyvern. However, the Wyvern gets access to Seraphina and, similar to what was done to Leo, she is knocked out by the powerful poisoned stinger strike. Elincia this time is able to quickly get Seraphina back into the action with Healing Word. Seraphina immediately takes another healing potion, and the human guards, seeing that the party continues to kill one guard after another, starts to lose their resolve. First one, then another flees the battle. With their numbers diminished, the odds swing substantially in the party's favor, and Elincia shifts one of her Eagles over to help Tork, but after just one strike he yells "No Backup!" and continues pummeling Langdedrosa.
By now, Langdedrosa is starting to lose his bluster, realizing he may be overmatched this time. Tork is still looking pretty good, considering how many times he has been hit by the Half-Dragon.
Meanwhile the rest of the party has dealt with the few remaining ground troops, and Leo continues his focus on the Wyvern, which has killed 3 of the Eagles. Elincia keeps the Wyvern in the wind. Eventually, the Wyvern decides that, with the party better able to focus on it, perhaps other prey would be easier to take down (especially with the eagles simply vanishing, leaving nothing tasty behind to eat).
As Langdedrosa begins to waiver, Tork pulls a surprising feint of his own and, overcoming his rage, rather than a fatal stabbing blow, he spins his spear around (much to Langderdrosa's surprise) and lands a crushing blow to the temple, knocking Langdedrosa out cold. Tork, pleased with overcoming his rage, sets to work tying the Half Dragon up, stripping him of weapons and armor to face justice in the Kingdom.
The combat now over, the party picks up a few items from the soldiers, Leo checking over the Wizard to see if he has anything of interest. Stavos goes straight to the prisoners, immediately untying them. After Elincia helps Tork secure Langdedrosa, she comes over and, seeing the sorry state of the prisoners, gives each of them a Goodberry. The three that are not members of the crew look quite wasted away, as it seems prisoners were not given large rations during the siege. They seem much better after the Goodberry.
Blazh and Augustus explain that they stayed on the dock fighting off the soldiers to ensure the Everlasting Light was able to get away. They clearly were beaten up pretty badly before (or after) their capture. They had considered it a suicide mission, and are amazed to be able to walk away.
The other three prisoners introduce themselves and answer questions about what they had done. Unsurprisingly, they were causing trouble with a group of like-minded anti-barony/slavery folks. At some point someone must have snitched on them and they were captured. The party gives them the rundown on the King's decree, and what is going on, and asks them to spread the word around town that the Baron has been outlawed for his slaving activities, and to spread the word that the Hin invasion is an attempt to take the Baron into custody and to trial. They seem brightened by the news and when the party asks if they want to stay or leave the city with them, they elect to stay and spread the word.
Using her bow, Elincia sends an Animal Messenger to report on their success and imminent departure from the city to Black Jack, who wishes them well on their next activities. The party plans to depart the city by going down the river to the harbor, then along the northern coastline, then try to get the Everlasting Light to come pick them up away from town. Once they get to a place to camp, everyone is thoroughly exhausted, and sleep deeply; the next day the Everlasting Light is able to pick them up. Their raid on the city is a success, as the Hin Army is able to draw the Baron and his troops from his keep. The Baron, with the support of his powerful wizard Bargle, expected to be able to fight off the Hin forces, but just as the combat is about to begin, the Wizard disappears, abandoning the Baron, who is now woefully overpowered. The battle is relatively swift and the Baron is decisively defeated and taken prisoner. Their main objective achieved, they take the Baron back to the Shires for trial, and the city surrenders immediately when the army approaches, having seen the Baron's forces destroyed in the field. There will be weeks or months of activities improving the plight of the citizens.
The crew of the Everlasting Light is thrilled to see Blazh and Augustus safe with the party when they arrive, and everyone's spirits run high as they return to the Hin fleet for their final report. The Hin are also quite satisfied with the party's execution of the events. They approve of the party taking Langdedrosa for trial within Karameikos rather than in the Shires, as they don't have any warrants out for him personally.
The Hin reward the party with their choice of one magic item each from their armory as thanks for their outstanding support of the Hin invasion. With that, the Party sails back to Saltmarsh, another successful adventure completed.
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Report Date
04 Sep 2021
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