Look! Sharp!

Session SO5.14

1629, Fire Season, Movement Week, Clayday

Dramatis Personae

PCs

Berra
Irillo
Kolyey
Maalira
Nayale
Oriana

NPCs

Rich Post Scouts
Horrible Chaos Beasts
Horrible Drowning Rules
Horrible Chaos Eggs
Horrible Chaos Portal

Events

After having told those who had been briefly absent1Sleepy the week before that they were volunteering, the group prepared to go in search of what might be ogres. Nayale was sent off to take the message of what was going on to Rich Post2As she preferred other OOC company to our own. Alas.. The would-be heroes set off, with the cavalry patrol from Rich Post; all of five men. As they went they discussed the footprints, which were not entirely human-looking, but also did not seem undead. Nobody had seen anything like them before.

Pretty soon they reached a culvert where Maran Gor had hit the ground, causing a rift with a sacred hot spring inside it. According to Oriana’s magic and the scouts’ knowledge of the area, this was the place.

Berra made a plan to scout with possible violence, and they put a rope down towards one end of the culvert, sending her down first as a scout. She signalled to the others, who came down, and they went forwards together, with Irillo casting Pathwatch to be sure of whether they were safe. As they crept forward he could feel the path was watched. There were two on the right and one on the left, all the same sort of humanoid creature, naked and with big claws and large mouths.

Berra spotted a path through the rocks and broken ground of the gorge’s base that would lead them past the guards unseen, and they took that. The waterfall was half hidden with steam, but as they got closer Berra used River Eyes to be sure of what she was seeing. They could see two creatures swimming around in the hot water, and a cave behind the waterfall. The group closed in quickly. Berra killed one of the creatures while not getting too deeply in, and Kolyey managed to defeat the other with an assist from Irillo and a Disruption spell. Kolyey was wounded, and Maalira got into the pool to help her.

After that, Irillo could feel attackers from behind, getting closer to the path. He let Berra know and Berra communicated this to everyone else by ordering them to intercept; they set off downstream at their various speeds. Berra was fastest by far, with Kolyey not just falling behind, but falling over, and in fact falling into the river. She began drowning, and Maalira and Oriana dashed over to try to pull her out. Oriana reached her first, but could not pull out all the way out. She managed to use a spear Berra had thrown down as she ran to keep Kolyey just about above water, but the Humakti was still drowning. Meanwhile Berra cut a leg off her opponent and left it to bleed out, dashing back towards Kolyey.

Berra used the Breath Air/Water matrix she had bought against the chance of Varanis going into the water again in a horse-related incident, casting it on Kolyey, who by now was unconscious. This allowed Oriana and Maalira to get her out of the water still alive. Oriana then ran after Berra, who by now was running back up towards the waterfall. Maalira stayed behind to empty Kolyey of water and apply healing magic. Kolyey did her best to find her weapons when she came round.

Meanwhile, Berra had caught up with the warriors who were hanging around the cave, from which a bright light was emanating. She led them in, dashing behind the waterfall with her ability to see through it with Rivereyes. Irillo and Oriana followed, and she took one of the Rich Post scouts with her to deal with a group of sharp-clawed things at the back of the cave, leaving the others to manage the group at the front. That meant that when her friends arrived, everything was facing her, allowing them to get their first blows in. Everything was brightly lit by a patch of wall that reminded Berra awkwardly of the portal she had once seen that led from Whitewall’s desecrated Humakti Temple into the Upland Marsh. Within the water was a woven wicker wall, which was letting water flow but keeping whatever was in it from flowing away.

Within the melee, Berra and her companion were slicing and dicing their foes while Irillo and Oriana did their best, and approximately held their own; one of the scouts alongside them was not so lucky, and had his ribcage opened up through his armour, while Irillo had one of the horrible beasts claw straight through his shield as if it was not there. Berra left some badly injured beasts behind her along with one that was still unhurt, relying on the scout to manage them; she ran back to her friends and eased their problems somewhat. Having run through them and turned them around somewhat, she finally got to see the last two were running for the portal, carrying what looked like eggs from the water. She managed to kill one, but one got away. Everyone who was still standing made sure of the deaths of the others, and checked each other for wounds and still being breathing.

Session Quotes

  • 1
    Sleepy the week before
  • 2
    As she preferred other OOC company to our own. Alas.