Session 61 - Moving Pieces

18 Ambyrmont 1010 - 25 Ambyrmont 1010

General Summary

As the party searches the area after defeating Yeenoghu, they talk to the Orc tribesmen that they had rescued (who are quite grateful). It turns out that, to their knowledge, they are the last of the Blood Spears. Since the party is hoping to find the Axe Handles, they join up to travel in greater safety. In the process of examining the site of the battle, they find some more scraps with the Yeenoghu chant on them in that strange script.
As they search for the Axe Handles, the party sees some strange bird-like-deer-like creatures struggling in the day's strong winds, and Elincia recognizes them as Perytons - carnivorous monsters that prefer humanoid meat, especially Elves. When The Perytons spot them, they bank and start toward the party. With the high winds, they are forced to land pretty regularly, which gives the party plenty of warning that they are coming their way. Leo sets up a tiny hut (using his ritual dagger) to protect the less combat-oriented folks, but soon realizes that it completely removes him from the combat, as he must remain inside for it to stay up.
When the Perytons arrive, there are about a dozen total, but one is much larger than the others. They have a pretty powerful charge attack and Tork take a severe beating before he begins to rage. After the first pass of engagement, Tork is fighting two on the left flank, Stavos and Seraphina are engaged with five more (including the large one), while a straggler circles to the north. Upon realizing the severity of the threat, Elincia summons four Dire Wolves to help rebalance the battle, while Leo steps out to let the safety dome collapse and begin blasting. Unfortunately, the party is engaged on all sides by the Perytons, preventing any flashy combat AoE spells.
After the initial dive bombing attacks, the momentum quickly swings in the party's favor, leading to a rout of the Perytons - only one is able to get away to threaten people in the future. Stavos performs the coin ceremony on one of the Perytons bringing their gold coin ceremony count up to five.
The rest of the evening goes without a hitch and, in the downtime, Leo decides to test out his new 'communication' spell: Dream. There is quite some discussion on who would be a good contact, including Ynyr, but in the end they settle on Eliander, as he is quite friendly to the group, has an impressive library, and seems to enjoy research. Leo decides to enter the Dream himself and models the dreamscape after the library in Leeside. Shortly after the casting, Eliander arrives in the dream, reading a book at one of the desks. Leo alerts him to his presence and brings him up to speed on what they have found in the Lowlands, starting with the Giants encroachment, followed by the strangely organized Gnolls and the disturbing ceremony and arrival of Yeenoghu. Leo asks for Eliander's perspective, as Leo is concerned that the events feel pretty severe and possibly reminiscent of the time of Halav. Eliander says he will research what he can on the topic and agrees to report back in a future dream on what he learns of Yeenoghu.
The next day, the party arrives at a recently abandoned camp of the Axe Handles. This too seems to have been raided by the Giants. After some debate on what they should do next, they decide to abandon their search for remaining Orc Tribes. This leads to a discussion with the last of the Blood Spears on what they would like to do. Tork and Bert offer to have them join their tribe, but two of the three think they would be better off continuing the search for Serrated Edge and they convince the third to join them. The three Orcs depart the next day, Elincia providing them with a healthy supply of Goodberries to at least give them a day's worth of provisions.
Meanwhile Tork, feeling it has been a while since they received a report from the scouts, reaches out. He leanss that the Giants found the cave, forcing Bondebarg and Saro to abondon it, fleeing to the southwest while trying to evade pursuit. Based on this information, Leo decides maybe they should send Tork into a Dream to warn the Jadaran Clerr of the risk that Giants may be headed their way. He sends Tork to contact Militsa in the dreamscape to make it more comfortable; Tork forms the dream to a typical tribal camp tent. When Milista arrives, he explains the news and she thanks him, saying they will move to the meeting point, as they were already planning to do so in just a few days, so it will not be too disruptive to start early to avoid the Giants. Tork also asks them to be on the lookout for Bondebarg and Saro fleeing the Giants.
After Tork returns from the dreamscape, the party decides to try to intercept and travels through the night toward the Jadaran Clerr camp. Traveling through the night and all of the next day, they arrive at the campsite and find that it has been abandoned as planned, with no sign of Giants. They are contacted by Bondebarg - the Giants have stopped pursuing them, though he and Saro kept fleeing just in case. The urgency of the situation reduced, Tork suggests the scouts go to Three Stones Falls to be meet up with the Dhauwurd Wurrung, who should be arriving soon as well. He also suggests that Haish and Bert do the same. The party will head back toward the Giants stronghold and see if they can catch the Giants that chased off Bondebarg and Saro.
Having missed a night of sleep, the party plans to depart the next morning. Leo reaches back out to Eliander in the Dreamscape, and Eliander is not surprised to find him. Eliander reports that he is reasonably confident that this is not a return of the "bad days" of Gnoll dominance of the region. He explains that in that period there were tens of thousands of Gnolls. He also has done a bit of research into Yeenoghu, and confirms that this creature is some sort of Gnoll extra-planar demon. While certainly bad, he seems to think this is not a broader major concern, far lower in scale than during Halav's lifetime. Leo feels a little less worried about the scenario and thanks Eliander for researching the topic.
The next morning, refreshed from a full night's sleep, the party heads back Northeast toward the Giant's stronghold. The wind is less severe, so they are able to do some further mapping as well. They do not encounter any Giants on the way, as it seems they have gotten back to the fortress. The party decides to try to set up an ambush by the cave, since the Giants are now aware of it. They plan for the next morning to set a fire in the cave with wet wood to create some smoke that may draw out a small group of Giants to investigate. Then the party can deal with the smaller group "safely" and further reduce the total numbers ahead of any major conflict.
The next morning they set up their trap, hiding among some boulders several hundred feet from the cave, and start the fire. After some time, four Giants arrive with four Dire Wolves to investigate the fire. They find the cave unoccupied - one giant picks up a large rock and hurls it into the cave, dispersing the fire and making a large cloud of dust and smoke. Elincia fires an arrow at what seems to be the leader (the big guy), and combat begins...

Report Date

06 Mar 2022