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Session 3, Great Pains and Great Icefang
Our Players this week:
Dagne, Vengeance Paladin, an undead soldier with the curious property of acting like a living person. Trusts nobody and acts as the leader.
Nux, Pact of the Fathomless Warlock, a young teen Marcher who is far from the Kyrzin cult who wants to kill them. Personas are Murlo, a preteen orc girl, and Orim, a young adult human boy. Party child.
Vaeren, Swarmkeeper Ranger, a Deathguard sent to investigate Dagne’s nature. They’re the quiet one who helps keep everyone in line.
Syv, Glamour Bard, a traveling performer turned traveling adventurer. Personas are Eshi, a sea elf, and Star, a shifter.
As the party continues tracking the one they can only hope is Inesa through the Ice Wood, one set of footprints in the snow becomes two sets, then, Vaeren’s keen eyes detect a third set, cleverly disguised within the other two. Their quarry is aware they’re being followed and hiding their number in an attempt to catch their pursuers off-guard. Vaeren shares this with the party. Orim asks who would be friends with a murderer like Inesa, and from his accent Minroy d’Tharashk pegs him as a fellow Marcher. He asks him if he’s ever been to the city of Zarash’ak, and Orim says yes, lying through his teeth.
As they begin to catch up, Minroy suggests the party make a plan for engagement with the enemy. He asks what each can do, if anyone is magic. To his surprise, absolutely everybody in the group knows some spell or other. He’s especially excited that Eshi can cast invisibility, meaning they’ll be able to get the drop on Inesa. Initially, he suggests Dagne be the one turned invisible since they hit hard, but Dagne says they will not be able to sneak around in their armor. He then decides it should be him.
The party enters a very dense section of the forest, the footprints here are very fresh, so they fan out. Suddenly, Vaeren spots a woman in half plate with a battleaxe. She matches the description of Inesa on the bounty exactly. Vaeren looses an arrow at her. “I knew it! Bounty hunters! Get ready!” Inesa yells at her hidden companions.
Dagne charges right in at Inesa, taking blast of fire from the tip of her axe. “Valtis Redeyes, to me!” A dwarf with red eyes and a demonglass maul runs to Inesa’s aid. Eshi attempts to light Inesa and the dwarf up with faerie fire, but they both manage to dodge out of the way. Meanwhile, across the field, Orim spots Donata behind a tree and looses and eldritch blast at her, but to little effect. Donata decides to prioritize Minroy, pulling out a wand and loosing a bolt of energy that rapidly switches between colors, only landing on yellow a split second before slamming into him with a blast of lightning, the spell then jumps from Minroy to Eshi, once again flashing rapidly until settling on purple. Outwardly, it seems to have no effect, but it hurts his mind with a psychic blast.
Inesa gets away from Dagne, running to catch Eshi and Orim in melee, leaving Dagne facing just Valtis. Dagne takes their waterskin of blood and drinks a drop, making eye contact with Valtis, internally swearing a vow of enmity which will bolster their attacks against him. Across the field, Eshi yells inspiration to Dagne, “you’re so cool bestie!” Then he turns around a lob an insult at Inesa, “hey fuckface I screwed your mom!” “Such parlor tricks won’t work on me,” Inesa responds before brutally attacking Eshi, knocking him unconscious. Minroy runs up to assist the spellcasters currently caught in a fight with Inesa, hurriedly giving Eshi a healing potion to bring him back up, “the fight isn’t over yet.” Inesa turns to Orim and says, “this isn’t your fight, kid. Leave.” Terrified, Orim complies, running to stand behind Dagne, and Inesa lets him go, turning to square off against Minroy. Eshi attempts a thrust of his rapier, but Inesa uses her parrying dagger to turn it harmlessly aside without even looking over at him. Inesa and Minroy trade blows, feeling each other out, getting into a rhythm. It seems like the two of them are matched. Then, Inesa grins and suddenly lunges inside Minroy’s defenses, burying her parrying dagger deep in his gut. She hurries back to avoid his counter, and then brings her axe done, splitting his skull. He falls to the ground. Eshi is too shocked to do anything. Inesa yanks her axe free, “we’re done here!”
Donata runs off immediately. Inesa and Valtis throw down smoke bombs and try to escape in the haze. Dagne lands an attack on Valtis as he flees, but it’s blocked by something, some force. He hadn’t uttered a single word the whole combat, nothing that could have surrounded him with a magical shield. Orim runs into the smoke and steps on a caltrop. Quickly, the party decides to pursue Valtis because he should be closest. Dagne stops to heal themselves and Orim, and then the chase is on. However, they do not spot Valtis in the woods at all, instead Vaeren in the lead catches sight of Donata.
Then, a roar shakes the forest and a massive swordtooth titan crashes into view. It’s covered in white feathers with piercing light blue eyes and teeth which seem just a bit blue as well. Donata starts to flee the dinosaur and Vaeren follows. Dagne recalls local tales of Great Icefang, a swordtooth titan matching the description in local legend which supposedly lurks in the Risian manifest zones. Great Icefang spots Donata and pursues her, trying to catch her in its massive jaws, but, at the last minute, she pours a vial of fluid over herself and goes ethereal, vanishing from view. Great Icefang turns and spots Vaeren, but doesn’t do anything for a long moment. Then, it roars, turns around and walks back into the woods, soon vanishing from view as well. The party searches the area, but Donata seems to be long gone.
Defeated, the party returns to Minroy’s dead body. Dagne approaches first while Vaeren, Eshi, and Orim stay back. They kneel down beside him and take in the scene, noticing a symbol of Balinor on the dead man’s body. “I’m sorry you won’t get your salvation,” they lament, closing his eyes and touching his fatal wounds. They then collect some blood from his body, adding it to their waterskin. Suddenly, Orim approaches and wordlessly pulls out a jar of mud, smearing some over each of the man’s eyes, a Whisperer ritual. Vaeren removes their mask and looks down at the ground, obscuring their face. Eshi is eerily silent. Dagne finds the bounty poster for Inesa on Minroy’s body, the reward is 3000 golden galifars. They’re quiet for a long while, keeping the rest of their thoughts private before standing.
Dagne tells the party that they ought to return Minroy’s body to his family, House Tharashk, and they remember there was an enclave in Coldport. The party sets out, Dagne and Orim carrying their dead companion’s body. They stop for the night. Dagne takes watch while the rest of the party sleep. Orim’s sleep is fitful, and they wake up in a cold sweat. He huddles up by the fire and Dagne asks what’s wrong. “Just a bad dream.” “What a relief that I don’t dream.” Orim asks if Great Icefang had roared, and Dagne confirmed it had twice.
The noise of the conversation rouses both Eshi and Vaeren. Eshi looks haunted, and Dagne asks if that’s the first time they saw someone die. “No, that’s just the first time it was somebody I knew.” “Well, in this line of business, that’s going to happen again. You have to make your peace with it.” Dagne produces the bottle of Emberwheat ale, almost empty, and offers it to Eshi. He accepts and drinks. Vaeren notices Orim seems disturbed and asks what’s on his mind. The two of them share whispered words.
The party takes 2 XP for trauma and achieves 4th level.
Travel to Coldport takes the group three days, stopping in a couple villages along the way to restock supplies since foraging for food is difficult in the Karrnathi winter. Dagne buys another bottle of ale on the way to hold the group over. Nux changes to Murlo. Finally, they approach the gates of Coldport, and Dagne hails the guards. They’re asked their business and they say they’re delivering a dead man back to his family. The guards nod and tell them to head inside through the open gates.
Dagne vaguely remembers where the enclave is, going to the correct district. The party wanders around until they spot a man with the mark of making on his face, and they ask him where the Tharashk enclave is. He quickly gives them directions and carries on his way. The Tharashk enclave is a new building with a halfling man sitting at the front desk. They deliver the news. Two people, a human man and a dragonmarked half-orc woman, prominently wearing a symbol of the Gatekeepers, come to collect the body. The Gatekeeper notices the mud on Minroy’s eyes and wipes it away. Murlo, unable to do anything about it, just watches with mixed anger and guilt.
Next, the party heads the the Kundarak banking guild in town and cashes their check from the Viscount Costas ir’Vaneris. Dagne takes the pouch of 650 galifars. “Aren’t you worried someone will try to steal that?” Murlo asks. “Check this out,” Dagne says, leading the party into an alley. They remove their helmet and open their jaw, stuffing the whole bag into their hollow skull. They then replace their helmet. A bit stunned, nobody has follow up questions.
With nothing else to do, the party goes to the local Gold Dragon Inn to rest after their ordeal. The proprietor is a shifter with sharp features, “my traveling name is Sharp, you have no need of my real name.” Murlo orders the local special: white fish on emberwheat bread with spicy sauce with a side of grilled onions and shrimp, a golden peach tart, and bright red “Superjuice” a cherry flavored alchemical beverage produced by Cannith West. Vaeren orders a cup of tal. Eshi gets a free water cup. Dagne orders a pink of vodka and gets a room for the night. Suddenly, two people, a kobold and a warforged walk in and approach Eshi with familiarity. “Wagon, watch the cart. We don’t want to get robbed again.” Says the kobald to the warforged.”Hi Nik,” says Eshi to the kobold. Nik propositions the party to go purchase some items from them, since they’re a traveling merchant. Dagne and Murlo go up to the room to eat while Vaeren and Eshi check out the shop. Outside, Eshi transforms back to true form, Syv.
In stock, Nik has a variety of magical and nonmagical items. 4 C1 and 2 C2 healing potions, pipes that engender fear in those who hear them, a scroll of invisibility, some illegal poison, and a magical poleaxe. Syv eyes the pipes. Vaeren takes interest in the poison.
Realizing Dagne has the money, Vaeren and Syv hurry up to the room to collect them. Dagne sighs and downs the rest of their pint of vodka before joining them at Nik’s cart. Once there, Nik immediately tries to sell Dagne the poleaxe. Dagne recognizes the weapon. It is the poleaxe that used to belong to their commander, lost in the Mourning. They decide they must have it. “550 galifars.” “For a used, stolen weapon? It’s not worth it.” “It’s not stealing if it’s from The Mournland.” “That’s not what the Karrnathi military thinks.” “So what is it worth?” “400, you’ll make a tidy profit over whatever that scrapper sold it to you for.” “Fine.” Dagne sells their old poleaxe to Nik, negotiating up to 18 galifars and 5 sovereigns. Murlo buys some Marcher morning tea for a galifar. Neither Syv nor Vaeren end up buying anything.
When the party reenters the inn, a bugbear yells at Syv, “what are you doing in Coldport, gaa’ma?!” Syv flips him off and they head up to the room. Murlo sits on the bed and looks at their mud jar. Syv throws themselves onto the bed. Vaeren sits in the corner. Dagne sits on the floor and thinks.
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Highlights:
MINROY DIED. D:
Nux’s religious rite for the dead, rudely interrupted.
Dagne drank a whole pint of vodka.
Syv is traumatized now and then got called a slur.
Vaeren came way too close to a t-rex.
Nik uses any pronouns and Wagon uses they/them. Enby merchants enby merchants.
