Session 0011 - Verbena's Death

General Summary

The morning after Cathlynn's funeral, the Heretic wake up early and check on Ikiri. They find that she is fully recovered and ready to go.

The party gathers their belongings and makes a quick shopping tour in town to make sure they are fully equipped and ready to go.

The party returns to the Black Swan to get a hearty breakfast in before their departure. There, they encounter Orianna Vindicate, a tiefling fighter who stopped at the Karja Tal Trading post to rest and re-equip as well. Being a tiefling, she is an extremely rare species that the local citizens have only heard stories of. As Orianna enters the Black Swan, nearly everyone stares at her -- some stared for the entire time she was there, suspicious of her presence, while others merely glanced and quickly looked away, fearful of her "frightful" appearance.

Orianna sits near the Heretic and overhears their conversations about missing children. Curious, Orianna introduces herself to the party and asks for more information. Matteu, being Matteu, is naturally guarded and refuses to give her any information whatsoever. Verbena and Ikiri both welcome Orianna and despite Matteu's objection, fills Orianna in on their mission with the missing Children of Karja Tal

Orianna offers her sword to the cause, which is readily accepted by the Heretic, all except Matteu of course.

About an hour later, Orianna officially/unofficially joins the Heretic, and they hit the road eastward, following a tip given to them by their waitress that a "cartload of children" had been seen days prior heading that way. This is something the Heretic already knew, but hearing the tip again reassured them that they were likely going the right direction.

After a full day's travel, the Heretic camp near the treeline north of the Western Trade Road. They set up a watch schedule. During the last watch of the evening, just before daybreak, Verbena was on duty. Everyone on watch before Verbena kept hearing odd noises coming from the forest. Most believed it was some sort of roving pack of animals, perhaps boar, that were grubbing through the forest. Verbena took note of these reports, so kept alert during her watch, just in case it wasn't boar.

Sure enough, it wasn't boar. Just before the break of dawn, a large Bugbear entered into the circle of light cast by the campfire. The bugbear spoke common, and demanded that Verbena hand Sken over to the party. Verbena challenged the bugbear by saying "well that's not going to happen, is it?". The bugbear smiled as the rest of his party came into the firelight, 9 bugbears and 6 kobolds in total. "Oh, I think it is", the bugbear replied

Verbena yelled for the rest of the party to wake up. The ensuing battle took 9 rounds to complete, ultimately resulting in the Heretic as the victor, however Verbena died when attempting to stab a bugbear that was attacking her. She pulled her Ruidium Dagger and rolled a natural 1. The result of the ensuing dice rolls ended with the attempted dagger stab deflecting off the bugbear's armor, and twisting Verbena's wrist in such a way that she ended up fatally stabbing herself.

During the melee, Sken was almost hauled off by other kobolds. He was captured in a net. The captors kept trying to pull him off the battleground and into the forest. Luckily, Ikiri and Orianna killed his would-be abductors in a few short rounds.

After melee, Sken carefully stacked the bodies of the dead kobolds and bugbears. The Heretic gathered coin and other items from them, none of which added up to much. That said, there was one pendent on the Bugbear leader that seemed of interest --it had a fiery snake-like eye, that could possibly be a gem of some sort, set in a golden sun.

Matteu took this pendant and stashed it away. The Heretic packed up their belongings and prepared to make the next leg of the journey. When they went to fetch Tigeth, they found him stretch over Verbena's body, refusing to leave her. He howled in grief, which sent Orianna into tears.

Campsite north of the Western Trade Road by Chad Watson via Midjourney

Eye Pendant by Chad Watson via Midjourney

Report Date

22 Sep 2023

Primary Location

The Republic of Karja Tal

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