Session 11

General Summary

The Party enter Brakspring and begin investigating what has happened. Emmylou investigates the bodies of the townsfolk and find some have been killed by weapons but others have been pulled apart as if by animals. Ella and Xhada head off into the ruins searching for survivors and come across two; a young girl with red hair called Brenna, and her older neighbour Harold Marsh. They bring the survivors back to the main group and ask them about the cause. Harold believes the attackers to be bandits under the command of a creature called the Teyrnblaidd - or Wolf King - a local legend that supposedly hunted the people of the Braken valleys for hundreds of years. Brenna is looking for her parents, they don't appear to be amongst the dead and she's hopeful that maybe they were captured and are still alive.
As they are talking, the party hears a number of men laughing and the clinking of chains moving closer through the smoke. A half-orc man, a dwarf and four humans appear to be searching for survivors amongst the rubble. They already have three people in chains, a middle-aged couple and a teenaged boy, all in singed clothing and covered in ash. The party prepare an ambush in the tight streets (highlight: 188 pretends to be a statue) but unfortunately, they are spotted and a skirmish ensues. As Alerian, Brenna and Harold rush to find cover, 188 makes the first move and dashes down the street and stabs at the half-orc with his rapier. He hits but the weapon does not pierce the skin of the half-orc. 188 ducks under the swing of the orc's spear and gets around a corner to protect himself from arrowfire. Two of the humans with longbows take up position at the end of the road and begin firing arrows at Ella and Emmylou on the ruined roofs whilst the third archer takes the captives into a nearby house. The half-orc spearman and dwarf and human berserkers sprint down the street after 188. The spearman pierces 188's chest and the Berserkers froth at the mouth, their hide seemingly becoming thicker and more resilient. The half-orc is charged by Felix and Xhada in quick succession throwing themselves through a nearby window to get to them faster. Whilst the majority of the party duke it out with the bandits in the main road, Helgret sneaks through the backstreets to try to find a way into the building the captives had been taken to.
The gnomes exchange spellfire with the bowmen, with Ella's Flaming Sphere knocking one against the wall who is then finished off by Helgret as she throws a dart at his neck and Emmylou's Homunculous flying down to land next to 188 and provide some temporary hit points to the warforged. One bowman runs from the Flaming Sphere and into a nearby alleyway. As 188 approaches, the bowman's flesh begins to twist and convulse as his fingers elongate into sharp talons, he lifts his hands preparing to attack 188 as he runs through the Sphere but instead takes the warforge's dagger in the neck.
Felix and Xhada continue to engage the Half-Orc and the two berserkers. After taking a battering, the half-orc screams in rage and his body swells to twice his size. Fur erupts from beneath his skin, claws extend from his fingertips and his face twists and elongates into a muzzle filled with sharp lupine teeth. He roars in Felix's face, who promptly slams his sword straight through its mouth killing it, muttering something witty which the narrator has since forgotten but assures you was pretty slick. The body of the werewolf twitches and convulses on the silver blade before going slack, slowly transforming back into its natural form and sliding off of the blade.
Fresh from killing the bowman, 188 runs across the road and into the building the party saw the captives being taken into. He kicks the door down and is face to face with one of the bowman, also having dropped his bow and transformed his hands into claws. Helgret, who has climbed over the rubble of a nearby building and reached the door where the captives are being held looks in and throws a dart at the bowman who takes it in the arm. The bowman snatches one of the captives and holds his clawed hand to the man's throat saying "Let us go or the man dies!". With mechanical efficiency, 188 charges the bowman, pulling the captive forward and plunging his dagger into the throat of the bowman spraying, him, the captive and Emmylou's homunculous who was along for the ride, with copious amounts of blood before dashing out of the door and back towards the berserkers. Helgret breaks the main chain holding the captives together and then searches through the pockets of the dead bowman, finding keys for their manacles.
The gnomes continue to fire down from their perch atop the rubble, Ella fires off a massive Chromatic Orb in memory of Gnemo and pummels the human berserker into the dirt where he is finished off by Emmylou's crossbow. The dwarven berserker is stabbed in the back by 188 before being slashed at by Felix and knocked out when he brings the shield down and boops him on the nose.
Searching through the belongings of the werewolf half-orc, Felix finds a letter with orders which say the following;
"Orden, I need you to return to Brakspring to check for survivors before the Watch arrive. The longer we can obfuscate our plans, the more of the blooded I can ship off to the Iakos. If you manage to bring the survivors back, there’ll be a reward in it for you, if not make sure they’re dead. Take the three churls and two of the blooded. They’re not the brightest flames but they hit hard and aren’t flighty. Iaoth’s Spear guide you. H."
Alerian calls out and asks if it is safe to come out, when told it is, he brings Brenna and Harold with him and mentions that he and Harold were talking during the fight and he mentioned that the creature he believed to be controlling the bandits was killed over 200 years ago by a mercenary group called the Company of Lions. Alerian relays that the Company of Lions are actually still around in Caer Cîafran, if the party wishes to speak with them. He also mentioned that whilst he didn't know anything about this Teyrnblaidd, he would try to find reading material on it when he returned home.
The party check on the other survivors. Felix inspects them for bite wounds, of which there appear to be none, and uses his lay on hands to attempt to cure any disease they might be carrying. It doesn't seem to do anything but it does calm the survivors down. The husband and wife introduce themselves as Symas and Ethal(character) but the teenaged boy seems unresponsive. He does let out a quiet 'thank you' when given some rations by Emmylou.

End of Session ---

Report Date

12 Jun 2020

Primary Location

Brakspring