So we left things off with Kb's two characters (Adrik and Brugga), along with Marco's characters (Brekk and Grenmorr) up in the northern mining city, of Awagorr. As Crumbport/Jargis, had passed on, they had a month of stuff to do, while the other 2 traveled down south to meet up with the rest of the gang. Mike I's character, Moy'noq, i am not sure of, what to do with right now, as this is 3 times he's been a no show.. SO i will hold off for now, on calling him 'gone', till i hear back but till then, his pc will stay in the mage's guild in Escormian.
Since even on horse back without a card weighing him down, Crumbport and Jargis, still took 20 days of travel down south, when he met up with the rest of the group, and they've been gone for almost 9 days now, by the time Adrik and Co got done with their month training, and started their Own trek down south, via the straight route on horse back (though Brekk has to ride a DRAFT horse, the big bugger), the rest of the gang will still have, 18 or so days to wait around..
So i rolled up 2 whole encounters for the northern group to deal with, and i did one of them first off. A night time encounter with a ten pack of Crawling claws.. After some close calls, and 3 of the mounts bolting away (took them 2 hrs to corral them back up), the party of 4 (three dwarves and the gnoll) were victorious.
Then i returned to Turk/Tostig/Aethlred/Willlian/Acerus/Varnhyl/Crumbport/Darthordian and Jargis.. Who got done with the big rumping with the Merrow and Sahuagin. Seeing as Turk was down in the Single digits, and most everyone else was at least half or worse for HP, and both Darthordian and Acerus were totally out of magic, while Aethlred had barely any healing left, and most of his mage spells remaining, the party wisely decided to hoof it due north, traveling the entire day before making camp. Jargis was left behind, with orders to wait to see if the enemy sent out any 'raiding parties', to follow them, and then to trail that group by half an hour.. He was also left behind under an Invisibility spell, combined with his Halfing wiles, it made him almost undetected (two of the Sahuagin though were high enough on Int, they got a roll to detect him and ONE was 1% off making it).. So i made Mike sweat it a little, as he saw the hook horrors come up via a 3rd path that the party had not seen before, and the Sahuagin by the main path. They were 6 hooks and 5 Sahuagin strong, 4 looking meaner than the bunch they fought earlier, plus one looking like the group Lieutenant (pack leader?)..
As the party were having one of their meal breaks, i had Aethlred, Varnhyl, Acerus and Darthordian (Jargis would have been in that group, HAD He been with the party), make a % roll to detect the Merrow doing a 'scry' on them, via use of the spell Reflecting Pool. Varnhyl was the only one who made it, but as he's not a caster, all he got was a "Sensation of being watched".. His heckles were raised by it, and he paced around their camp, then it disappeared a few minutes later (the spell's duration ran out). Eventually they made night fall, and set up their proper camp. While this was going on, the party of Hook horrors and Sahuagin who were trailing them, got contacted by the Merrow's high priest via a Messaging spell, to let them know "the group's close to being ripe for a raid, ready up boys!"
So after some chatting, The gang put ALL of the casters down, and also Crumbport and Varnhyl went down for rest, while Turk, Tostig and Willian stayed awake. The other 2 non-casters would wake up later, to spell them...
2 hours into that watch cycle, is when the enemy hit, spoiling the caster's rest, and ruining them getting a chance to recharge their minds for new spells..
The battle was brutal, with Darthordian and Crumbport both being taken down into the negatives, and others coming close! Hell, even Aethlred took some damage (rarely does that happen!!).. However, eventually they still proved victorious even against these odds..
While they discussed what to do now, i did a quick re-roll of the detecting of scrying, but none came close (I buggered up and DID THAT myself, and should have had the players do it, but as they moved further away, it wouldn't have mattered, as the 2nd wave would have not gotten to them in time)...
This is when i returned to the northern crew, on horse back, for their 2nd encounter. Just a Trio of Kephrinn. BUT as both Brugga and Grenmorr had no magic to strike them, the battle went WORSE for them than anticipated (i thought Adrik might have handed off his magical battle axe to Brugga, while he used flame blade or the like, but alas that didn't happen). Brugga spent most of the combat, just overbearing one of the beasties, and due to his greater strength, DID successfully manage it for a while.. BUT Grenmorr AND Brekk both got taken into the negatives, Brekk almost dying (was at the -10 round, when he got bandaged by Brugga). Some by the beasts striking them, others from them going 'boom!". Even Brugga, eventually fell into the negatives, and was halted by Adrik.. So he's now got an issue on his hand as he's down 3 of the 4, and 2 of those need a full week bed rest.. [they are only 2 days away from one of the villages, but does he wish to risk it on his own, with them all tied to their horses to try and make it there?]..
After that battle, we switched back to the southern crew.. After moving FURTHER away (traveling all night AND all the following day, not wanting to risk being anywhere near where they got hit the last time), they all finally got a decent nights rest, even with most everyone sleeping in their armor.. And this allowed the priests (minus Darthordian as he's needing bed rest) to stock up on healing spells, and they were dolled out all over... During the following day's march even further to the north, they had their 2nd encounter of the session. A pair of Dagons somewhat surprised the group, flying almost up their rear (they were just flying around looking for food).. Unfortunately for Jargis, his pony, bringing up the rear, was the target of the first one.. And since Jargis was STILL invisible, AND was also surprised, the Dagon swooped in, and smacked it with both claws, killing the hapless pony instantly.. THe party had to do something quick to try and ground it before it flew off with it's meal, but after spells and two of the group attacking it in melee, it still managed to fly away with the pony.. Dropping the invisible Jargis to the ground!
Turk ran his horse at the other one, charging it with his sword, dealing it a mighty blow, spurring IT to breath on him.. Alas the cold breath was saved by Turk, but his horse was another matter, becoming an iceical.
Eventually that one was slain, but as the other just flew off, essentially they only got 'credit' for the one defeated... So Jargis is now ponyless...
This is where we left it off for the evening.. Due to David being out of town on our next regularly scheduled weekend, we talked about getting back together Next weekend, the 27th... So here's awaiting word from the gang on that day...
