Chapter 2, Session 10: On the Edge of Sanctuary
General Summary
The Kaechaek Party found themselves on one side of a massive lake on the northern edge of the Shadewoods. Sigholdt Sofiasson deduced it was about 5 miles to cross to cross the large span of water.
After some discussion, and vetoing the suggestion of Mallus Somnium swimming across (for obvious, dream-related reasons), the party settled on the idea of Esmerae flying across - the issue was going to be trying to get everyone else across. Malus tried to crank a strange wheel by the side of the lake, revealing that it brought up half the bridge, however it needed to be held for the bridge to stay up, and the wheel on the opposite side of the lake needed to be cranked as well to raise the other half of the bridge. The final plan was for Esmerae to fly across the lake, where she and Malus would crank the wheels to raise the bridge. The rest of the party would then cross, holding the wheel on the opposite side so Esmerae could fly back, hold Malus’ wheel so he could run across, and Esmerae would fly back in the last minutes of her flight time.
Sigholdt spent time turning the car off and on to try and make it drive better as Bree Applebottom suddenly got a message in her head asking if she was combat-capable. Bree pointed out that she was in the forest travelling toward Sanctuary , so yes she was, realising that the voice belonged to the person who would interview her for her new job. The voice reminded her to make her presence known, leading to Bree explaining to the rest of the party that Emperor Honour had recently fended off an assassination attempt, and security had become VERY strict to get into Sanctuary.
The party discussed how to get into the city once they crossed the river. Peregrine suggested using her contact with The Honour Blades as Esmerae was very reluctant about using her family connections, stating they wouldn’t be happy she’s a vampire. At this point, Sister Abutre stated she wanted to come with the party to Sanctuary. Peregrine managed to talk her down from her rage moments when the party tried to suggest she couldn’t come and persuaded her not to kill them to stop the party from leaving without her. Instead, Abutre demonstrated she could disguise herself to blend in with normal people, and Sigholdt decided he would need to push her off the bridge into the water to stop her coming with the party (something he told Esmerae and Peregrine).
While waiting, as night fell, Peregrine cast True Sight and saw strange, nightmarish faces swirling in the lake, confirming the party really didn’t want to go into the water. After much hesitating and further discussing, Sigholdt began to drive the car across (due to him having land vehicle proficiency) after Esmerae had flown over to raise one half of the bridge. Peregrine stayed behind to raise the other half of the bridge so Malus could go with the party to assist in the plan to throw Abutre overboard - however, Sigholdt failed to tell Maluls about the plan. As the party travelled across, upon reaching the halfway point, Hermione of Vallea attempted to kick Abutre off the Sand speeder but was thrown into the water by her instead. Bree and Malus were able to throw a rope to her and got her out of the water safely (With a nat 20 from Bree!).
At the 3/3.5 mile mark, Sigholdt suddenly stopped the car, grabbed Sister Abutre, and threw her into the lake. The water turned a sickly yellow/red as she began to melt suddenly and swiftly, and an unearthly scream echoed through the night: “Curse you, curse you Sigholdt!”. Sigholdt suddenly felt a brand on his very soul - Curse of the Marked - and learned he would always be trackable by The Unwaking Coven, and would always fail saving throws on being scryed upon. However, the party was all still alive, and they prepared to continue driving. However, Sigholdt was out of spells, so Bree stepped up to drive, proving herself a natural - is there anything this woman can’t do? Eventually, after 45/50 minutes, the Sand speeder crossed the lake, joining Esmerae. She congratulated them on removing Sister Abutre as Sigholdt took over holding the bridge up. Esmerae sprinted across the bridge back to Peregrine, who in turn cast haste on herself and used a combination of dashing and misty step to get her across the bridge as fast as possible, making 3 successful Constitution saving throws and collapsing on the other side of the lake to catch her breath. Not a moment too soon, as Esmerae finished counting 3 minutes and dropped her side of the bridge seconds after Peregrine reached land, and Esmerae flew across the lake for the final time- barely making it to land as well.
Reunited, the party decided to traverse the mountain path instead of continuing through the forest to try and avoid more dream/Unwaking Witches threats. Sigholdt used animal handling with advantage from Malus’ Speak With Animals to use the local wildlife to aid their journey Peregrine failed to help disguise the group with her disguise kit to create camouflage, as Esmerae failed to intimidate creatures and people in our path. Hermine tried to assist with thaumaturgy and with Esmerae casting the same spell they were finally able to succeed. Bree attempted to boost the party’s morale with sleight-of-hand card tricks - with assistance from Peregrine’s minor illusion spells, this was successful.
As they travelled, Bree suddenly realised that the party were being followed by a group in rustic, goldish armour with a symbol of a full sun and blade through the centre. Their followers were camped nearby each night they had been in the mountains, and Peregrine recognised the symbol to be that of The Bright Concord. Hermione recalled this group were originally the Light from Thornden, and Sigholdt knew they had gone from being a bandit group to the second biggest force in The Wheel since coming over to Kaechaek. Light Bearer Signill had even defeated Niles Five Eyes in combat, and the group was known to be barbaric, cultists or opportunists.
Peregrine helped disguise Jolly as a bird to help him try to spy on the Bright Concord. There were 6 soldiers who all appeared professional and seemed to have a map, as well as something in a cage that was human-sized and rattling. Hermione got Jolly to perch on a try to listen in and heard the following phrases: “2 weeks we’ve been tracking them” “Clear they’re going to Sanctuary” “A cut-off point would be good”. Hermione, through Jolly’s eyes, was able to see that Auriel's Trauma Hound , which the party had fought several weeks ago, was trapped in the cage, and was being used to track the party. The party, in retaliation, decided to lay an ambush. Peregrine created Sand Speeders tracks moving around the bend in the road/mountains to look like they had gone further ahead than where the party hid the Sand speeder in bushes. Sigholdt and Peregrine set up a fake camp further ahead just around the bend, while the rest of the party hid with the Sand speeder, to create a pincer-like trap.
As the Bright Concord soldiers approached and began to pass the party in the bushes, the trauma hound began to act erratic and aggressive. Peregrine tried to send a message to the hound, causing it to act even more erratic. The party decided to spring the trap, breaking stealth and initiating combat and a surprise round. Whilst Peregrine failed to cast Slow on any of the soldiers (with some incredible saves on their parts!) she tried to persuade the hound to turn on the soldiers instead. The hound seemed potentially willing but was unable to turn on the soldiers due to the chains they were holding it by. Bree cast Hunter’s mark and hit one of the soldiers as Esmerae threw a Blood Spear at the same target. Hermione cast Crushing Singularity once again, and the soldiers finally failed their saves! Malus transformed and attempted to attack, but also missed! There was one soldier who was able to shrug off Crown of Madness (having avoided all other attacks/spells) and parried Bree’s arrows, but he failed to hit Malus. Eventually, Esmerae was able to hit and kill him.
As the Trauma Hound was unable to follow the instructions from Peregrine, Hermione cast a Chromatic Orb, hitting a soldier with lightning. Malus finally hit a soldier, summoning his tentacles to make it harder for the soldier to hit someone else as Sigholdt broke one of the chains on the Trauma Hound and hit a soldier. Peregrine Misty Stepped to the hound and began to melt the chains with Burning Hands. Bree killed a soldier as Sigholdt deftly avoided attacks, though Malus was not so lucky. Esmerae claimed another kill as Hermoine got another hit with her Chromatic Orb, with Malus rounding it out with his first kill of the combat!
After some discussion, and vetoing the suggestion of Mallus Somnium swimming across (for obvious, dream-related reasons), the party settled on the idea of Esmerae flying across - the issue was going to be trying to get everyone else across. Malus tried to crank a strange wheel by the side of the lake, revealing that it brought up half the bridge, however it needed to be held for the bridge to stay up, and the wheel on the opposite side of the lake needed to be cranked as well to raise the other half of the bridge. The final plan was for Esmerae to fly across the lake, where she and Malus would crank the wheels to raise the bridge. The rest of the party would then cross, holding the wheel on the opposite side so Esmerae could fly back, hold Malus’ wheel so he could run across, and Esmerae would fly back in the last minutes of her flight time.
Sigholdt spent time turning the car off and on to try and make it drive better as Bree Applebottom suddenly got a message in her head asking if she was combat-capable. Bree pointed out that she was in the forest travelling toward Sanctuary , so yes she was, realising that the voice belonged to the person who would interview her for her new job. The voice reminded her to make her presence known, leading to Bree explaining to the rest of the party that Emperor Honour had recently fended off an assassination attempt, and security had become VERY strict to get into Sanctuary.
The party discussed how to get into the city once they crossed the river. Peregrine suggested using her contact with The Honour Blades as Esmerae was very reluctant about using her family connections, stating they wouldn’t be happy she’s a vampire. At this point, Sister Abutre stated she wanted to come with the party to Sanctuary. Peregrine managed to talk her down from her rage moments when the party tried to suggest she couldn’t come and persuaded her not to kill them to stop the party from leaving without her. Instead, Abutre demonstrated she could disguise herself to blend in with normal people, and Sigholdt decided he would need to push her off the bridge into the water to stop her coming with the party (something he told Esmerae and Peregrine).
While waiting, as night fell, Peregrine cast True Sight and saw strange, nightmarish faces swirling in the lake, confirming the party really didn’t want to go into the water. After much hesitating and further discussing, Sigholdt began to drive the car across (due to him having land vehicle proficiency) after Esmerae had flown over to raise one half of the bridge. Peregrine stayed behind to raise the other half of the bridge so Malus could go with the party to assist in the plan to throw Abutre overboard - however, Sigholdt failed to tell Maluls about the plan. As the party travelled across, upon reaching the halfway point, Hermione of Vallea attempted to kick Abutre off the Sand speeder but was thrown into the water by her instead. Bree and Malus were able to throw a rope to her and got her out of the water safely (With a nat 20 from Bree!).
At the 3/3.5 mile mark, Sigholdt suddenly stopped the car, grabbed Sister Abutre, and threw her into the lake. The water turned a sickly yellow/red as she began to melt suddenly and swiftly, and an unearthly scream echoed through the night: “Curse you, curse you Sigholdt!”. Sigholdt suddenly felt a brand on his very soul - Curse of the Marked - and learned he would always be trackable by The Unwaking Coven, and would always fail saving throws on being scryed upon. However, the party was all still alive, and they prepared to continue driving. However, Sigholdt was out of spells, so Bree stepped up to drive, proving herself a natural - is there anything this woman can’t do? Eventually, after 45/50 minutes, the Sand speeder crossed the lake, joining Esmerae. She congratulated them on removing Sister Abutre as Sigholdt took over holding the bridge up. Esmerae sprinted across the bridge back to Peregrine, who in turn cast haste on herself and used a combination of dashing and misty step to get her across the bridge as fast as possible, making 3 successful Constitution saving throws and collapsing on the other side of the lake to catch her breath. Not a moment too soon, as Esmerae finished counting 3 minutes and dropped her side of the bridge seconds after Peregrine reached land, and Esmerae flew across the lake for the final time- barely making it to land as well.
Reunited, the party decided to traverse the mountain path instead of continuing through the forest to try and avoid more dream/Unwaking Witches threats. Sigholdt used animal handling with advantage from Malus’ Speak With Animals to use the local wildlife to aid their journey Peregrine failed to help disguise the group with her disguise kit to create camouflage, as Esmerae failed to intimidate creatures and people in our path. Hermine tried to assist with thaumaturgy and with Esmerae casting the same spell they were finally able to succeed. Bree attempted to boost the party’s morale with sleight-of-hand card tricks - with assistance from Peregrine’s minor illusion spells, this was successful.
As they travelled, Bree suddenly realised that the party were being followed by a group in rustic, goldish armour with a symbol of a full sun and blade through the centre. Their followers were camped nearby each night they had been in the mountains, and Peregrine recognised the symbol to be that of The Bright Concord. Hermione recalled this group were originally the Light from Thornden, and Sigholdt knew they had gone from being a bandit group to the second biggest force in The Wheel since coming over to Kaechaek. Light Bearer Signill had even defeated Niles Five Eyes in combat, and the group was known to be barbaric, cultists or opportunists.
Peregrine helped disguise Jolly as a bird to help him try to spy on the Bright Concord. There were 6 soldiers who all appeared professional and seemed to have a map, as well as something in a cage that was human-sized and rattling. Hermione got Jolly to perch on a try to listen in and heard the following phrases: “2 weeks we’ve been tracking them” “Clear they’re going to Sanctuary” “A cut-off point would be good”. Hermione, through Jolly’s eyes, was able to see that Auriel's Trauma Hound , which the party had fought several weeks ago, was trapped in the cage, and was being used to track the party. The party, in retaliation, decided to lay an ambush. Peregrine created Sand Speeders tracks moving around the bend in the road/mountains to look like they had gone further ahead than where the party hid the Sand speeder in bushes. Sigholdt and Peregrine set up a fake camp further ahead just around the bend, while the rest of the party hid with the Sand speeder, to create a pincer-like trap.
As the Bright Concord soldiers approached and began to pass the party in the bushes, the trauma hound began to act erratic and aggressive. Peregrine tried to send a message to the hound, causing it to act even more erratic. The party decided to spring the trap, breaking stealth and initiating combat and a surprise round. Whilst Peregrine failed to cast Slow on any of the soldiers (with some incredible saves on their parts!) she tried to persuade the hound to turn on the soldiers instead. The hound seemed potentially willing but was unable to turn on the soldiers due to the chains they were holding it by. Bree cast Hunter’s mark and hit one of the soldiers as Esmerae threw a Blood Spear at the same target. Hermione cast Crushing Singularity once again, and the soldiers finally failed their saves! Malus transformed and attempted to attack, but also missed! There was one soldier who was able to shrug off Crown of Madness (having avoided all other attacks/spells) and parried Bree’s arrows, but he failed to hit Malus. Eventually, Esmerae was able to hit and kill him.
As the Trauma Hound was unable to follow the instructions from Peregrine, Hermione cast a Chromatic Orb, hitting a soldier with lightning. Malus finally hit a soldier, summoning his tentacles to make it harder for the soldier to hit someone else as Sigholdt broke one of the chains on the Trauma Hound and hit a soldier. Peregrine Misty Stepped to the hound and began to melt the chains with Burning Hands. Bree killed a soldier as Sigholdt deftly avoided attacks, though Malus was not so lucky. Esmerae claimed another kill as Hermoine got another hit with her Chromatic Orb, with Malus rounding it out with his first kill of the combat!
Missions/Quests Completed
- The party escaped the shadewoods and evaded Sister Abutre
Notes
As a note from the DM, I MASSIVELY miscalculated the bridge crossing times as should have added a zero to the round count for Esmerae and the car to cross.
Mistake on my part and so will not reflect on party progress.
Report Date
04 Nov 2023
Primary Location
Secondary Location
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