Session Two:
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With the door locked and away from prying eyes, I chose to rest in the way I was accustomed to in Waterdeep: incredibly human-like. Merely five or so hours later, I crawled out from under the blankets, redressed and went over my notes from the previous day. I spent a couple minutes preparing spells for the day and a few hours writing in my journal. By the time a steady din could be heard from below, I decided to venture down and inquire as to breakfast.
Benson was already seated with a large plate of fried meats, eggs, and bread. Laucian was sitting with him with a considerably smaller plate. I pressed a silver coin into the serving boy's hand and asked for a plate as well as I joined the two men from the previous day. We ate in a comfortable silence, each of us seeming to pick up the elevated mood in the inn. It seems that the goblins had retracted their caravan raids and there was a faint hum of cheer in the morning crowd. Pleased with our own positive effects, the three of us decided to return to the Captain and ask about more work as a group. After all, we seemed to work well as a team.
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We made our way through the bustling market crowd, my coinpurse now tucked into an inside pocket of my vest, and soon reached the entertainment district. We turned north towards the guardhouse when out of no where an ear-shattering shriek split the air and a pair of large, deer-headed bird monsters burst from the doors of a large building. The street was less crowded and only us three were even nearby. I recognized them as perytons almost immediately and was able to relay that to my comrades as: "Carnivorous, very dangerous!" And the impromptu battle was on.
Laucian fired in an arrow and took a flying dive to the chest with both antlers and claws. I was able to get off a ray of frost before the other dived for me as well, but it's attack was largely deflected by a hasty shield spell. Still unsure of how to work with the new allies, we had a tough time of the fight. The proprietor followed the monstrous beasts out and begged us not to kill them as that'd be a lost investment. Begrudgingly, we tried to acquiesce. Some more wild ice spells out of me with partial accuracy and each of the others managing to keep a beast's attention on their own, we whittled down their endurance. Benson threatened one well enough to scare it off, and Laucian fell to the more dangerous of the two. That peryton then charged me, and as my vision darkened around the edges, Benson rushed up from behind and knocked it out with the haft of his rapier.
"Oh, by the gods, thank you for not killing them!" the proprietor said from his doorway. Benson quickly stabilized Laucian as I kept an eye on the peryton perched on the roof.
"Yeah, about that. Our friend took a lot of bad hits trying to subdue your... pets. Could we get inside and recuperate for a bit?" I asked, not mentioning my own wounds.
"Uh... sure. Yeah, I owe you at least that," he says as he lets us in. "Could you bring in that unconscious one?" I was able to put it on a floating disc and carry it inside as Benson took in our comrade. Inside the store was a wild menagerie of various beasts and monstrous creatures behind varying degrees of cages. Some of the most dangerous even shimmered with the telltale signs of being reinforced with some spell or another. We saw stirges, gricks, and even hellhounds. There was so many more creatures that even I forgot most of the more mundane ones. And that didn't even cover the bestial noises heard from back rooms that we couldn't see. This place was truly an exotic wonder.
"So, what the hell was that about?" Benson asked in relatively civil tone for someone fresh from a wild combat.
"Oh, the perytons? They escaped as I was trying to give them a bath." The proprietor looks a little embarrassed at this, but otherwise seems to claim no responsibility for his irresponsibility... which I am just realizing now makes perfect sense. "This is an Exotic Petshop," he adds. "I supply some of the most sought after wild monsters wealthy patrons can buy."
"Uh huh," Benson said, "And how well do you train your wares?"
"Train? Not at all. I'm running a business here, I don't have time to train each of these beasts."
I chime in, "Well what do you expect to happen to your customers?"
"Oh, they know what they're getting into," he said with confidence. I decided to drop the matter of the man's business practices and asked what we were owed for not killing his profit margin outside. "Oh, yes. Thank you again, truly. I believe I can spare one of these..." he said as he rummaged through a small chest on a shelf. He handed Benson a small glass bottle with a red substance inside. Benson seemed to assume it was a healing potion and instead of testing it, or checking it, or really being considerate at all, he poured it out on Laucian's face. Benson's instincts proved true as soon the elderly elf was sputtering and getting to his feet of his own free will.
"The hells happened?" he asked groggily.
"The pair of peryton's were punished and we're parlaying with the proprietor," I offered. "Who's name is..."
"Grim Fiddle."
I stared at the man, "...of course it is."
"Well, how much are those pery-thin's worth to ya, Fiddle?" Laucian asked as he stood to his full height.
"Are you interested in buying? I could let one go for merely... 450 gp?" Fiddle offered.
"Then let's say the healing potion's worth fifty. Then that means you still owe me 400," Laucian said sternly. Benson and I looked at each other in confusion. Neither of us were really expecting to be paid so much for simply not killing the beasts. In fact, it seemed a bit too akin to extortion for my tastes.
"What...?" Fiddle asked, his confusion as plain as ours. "I'm afraid I made no such deal and that I'll have to decline, sir."
"Yeah, Lau, what are you talking about?" Benson asked.
"The way I see it, he owes me 400 for his stupid birds!" Lau said. "I just... you guys don't...? Fine. Let's get out of here." He left the establishment rather quickly after that, perhaps from embarrassment.
As Benson followed the other elf out of the building, I turned to Fiddle and quickly added, "Apologies for our friend, it seems he hit the ground rather hard. If I may ask, were we to bring you similar specimens as to what we see here, would we be awarded a finder's fee of some sort?"
"Huh? Oh sure. That's a great idea. Yeah, bring me whatever you can catch and I'll pay you for your efforts."
"Thank you, good sir," I said as I quickly followed my allies. There was always a chance that knowing where to offload a dangerous beast in town could be incredibly useful.
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We walked north to the same guardhouse as the previous day and now, walking among the people instead of in a wagon, I noticed that there were a lot more fight-ready folks in the area. In fact, some of them had rather exotic armors, weapons, and styles among them. It took nearly another ten minutes of just noticing the various fighters to realize that they were likely gladiators and then *CLICK* I realized who Fiddle's main buyer must have been. I decided to keep it to myself, but it was entirely likely the others had figured it out as well.
At the guardhouse we requested to speak with the Captain from last night and we're lead inside. Captain Torinn Alynurrilian, the dragonborn guardsman, greets us with a bittersweet look in his eye. Yes, the goblins had stopped attacking caravans, however his scouts were reporting that they were harassing the logging camps a couple days out of town. A pang of guilt seems to cut through the group as we realized that we only told the goblin last night to leave the caravans alone and they seemed to have taken that to heart. In any case, we agree to investigate and hopefully put a stop to the attacks. This time we're told to be on the lookout for a large hairy beast as well, and that we can receive up to 5 gp per goblin head. The way the bedraggled Captain haggled for that low price spoke volumes of bureaucratic underfunding to me. However, my allies seemed a little snubbed at the "paltry sum." We were allowed about an hour to rest as we resupplied and took a meal with the guards for lunch. Afterwards, we met with one of Captain Alynurrilian's scouts at the south gate of town: Nikolo Dona.
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The second half of the day passed uneventfully as we traveled out into the wild plains of the surrounding area. Over the course of the day, Laucian was able to hunt down enough rabbits to feed the four of us. The night also passed without issue. During the second day, however, our good luck came to a crashing halt with the sound of a faint *pop*. A large, blue and white spider just appeared between Nikolo and and Laucian and dove for the elf. Nikolo took off running as the three of us worked together to combat this terrifying creature. Over the course of the battle I was able to recall what I know about phase spiders and we devised some sound tactics. Knowing the limited visibility from the ethereal plane, I had us split up and prepare to defend or assist whomever the spider targeted. With some effort we slayed the beast. I checked for eggs, in case Fiddle would be interested in buying up a clutch, but no such luck. We made the group decision to stick to the road from now on, fairly confident that there'd be less chance of invisible phase spiders bursting into reality. The rest of the day and night passed without issues.
As we approached the logging camp, merely 500 feet away, Nikolo stopped us. "This is as far as I go," he said. "I'll wait here up to 24 hours for you to return, but otherwise I'll be heading back to Altonshire."
"That's fair. Thanks for getting us this far," Laucian said. Benson and I agreed and soon the scout was off to find a good hiding spot.
"So, maybe this time we come up with the tactics before we start fighting?" I asked the others.
"That sound's like a good idea," Benson said with a chuckle. "Any plans?"
"Yeah, how about we send in an experienced hunter to get the lay of the land and give us some idea of what we're up against?" I said.
"Oh, gee, I wonder who that could be," Laucian said as he crossed his arms.
"It's not going to be so bad," I said as a put a hand on his shoulder and cast invisibility. "See? How often do you get to go scouting invisibly?"
"Hmph. Well, that's kinda neat, I suppose," he said. I had no idea if he was smiling, but one could hope.
"Alright, let us know when you're back," Benson said as he and I found a suitable spot to squat down and wait it out.
A couple minutes passed with Benson and I waiting patiently. He had been more talkative lately, but this was one of those times where silence wasn't so bad. Laucian found us quickly and reported back, "There's about six of them wandering around camp. Goblins only. We got some tree coverage on the far side, but it's largely open ground from our approach. I didn't see any loggers, but they're likely in the basement like Nikolo said."
"Alright, let's get them from two sides. If you can approach them from the heavily wooded side, we'll come in from our side. Yeah?"
We agreed to the plan and headed off. Just inside Benson's prime range with his longbow, Laucian split off and worked his way through the trees to a position. Foolishly we had dismissed the invisibility earlier to better communicate, but he wasn't spotted. Shortly after Laucian had left us, we saw an arrow fly out of the woods and soar over a goblin's head. At this point I realized how our optimal ranges differed. Benson was able to fire an arrow into one of the goblins by the outhouses and the creature fell over dead. I was unable to target anything at this range and had to continue to move forward, now with a trio of goblin archers tracking my movements. They fired a concentrated volley and my shield blocked an arrow, but let through two others. Heavily wounded, I changed tactics and became invisible as I ran for cover. What followed was an exchange of arrows between three goblins per each of my allies for quite a few seconds. I was able to sneak up and cut the throat of one of the murderous little critters that was hiding behind a building, a rather ruthless act but the heat of battle had me lose sight of the greater goals at hand. Laucian was a force to be reckoned with, dropping foes as close as ten feet with his arrows without flinching. The goblin's numbers dwindled swiftly and soon Benson knocked out the last one and had him bound.
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With Laucian doing his ear collection routine, I assisted by divvying up what coins the creatures had on them. We restrained the prisoner and knocked on the basement door of the main cabin shortly after. With Nikolo's name mentioned the loggers and carpenters opened their door and came out into the light. They were a haggard bunch, but seemed ecstatic to be alive and well. We promised to spend the night to investigate the bugbear activity, for that's what we assumed the main threat would be, and help escort them to Altonshire in the morning. They seemed amenable to this and went about packing up whatever gear they might have owned and attending to their business here at the camp.
Around an hour or so later, the goblin woke up. We kept him tied up and had a little chat with the creature. It seems that civility and politeness were sorely missing from this one's life as it responded much better to my base courtesies than Laucian's threats and bullying. Benson kept a firm anchor in the discussion and would keep us on target as Laucian and I were fully capable of veering wildly off-course. From the goblin we learned that there were about nine bugbears in the general area; his chief's name was Gorgak; and that his chief's chief was Redskin, a Bigger-Goblin. We realize the description of Hobgoblins applied and grim picture seems to paint itself for us. If the goblins were being organized by a hobgoblin with bugbear allies, they'd be a much more difficult fight than we were ready to give to them. At this point the goblin asked us if we could promise it safety for secret information. We encouraged him to explain better, but we tempered our promises by saying that our chief needed to decide. This seemed good enough for him, so he revealed that Redskin wants to invade and conquer all of Altonshire and that he had an actual army of hobgoblins and goblins at the ready!
This news was dire and so we changed all our plans drastically and immediately. We quickly rounded up all the loggers and explained that we were leaving as soon as they were ready. Some of them had heard the exchange and were more than eager to get going. We reconvened with Nikolo nearby where we left him and explained the situation again. He agreed and we set off for Altonshire immediately, with the bound goblin (named Lak, we discovered) in tow to retell his tale to Captain Torinn Alynurrilian.
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Over the next couple of days we encountered next to nothing on the road save a lone riding horse, saddled and bridled but short a rider, and were making good time. However, on the third night, everything went to hell. My watch was third in the rotation, so as to actually get some rest beforehand. When Benson woke me he explained that Laucian had noticed something just beyond the edges of detection but was unable to spot anything. I thought that to be strange, so I summoned a small group of dimly glowing orbs and cast them out to float a lazy perimeter of our campsite. As they spun around, I noticed a strange lump in the grass. Then I noticed that it was in a different spot when the next light came by. We roused Laucian and his answer was to fire an arrow into it. Nothing happened. I fired off a ray of frost. Nothing happened. I started approaching and Laucian fired off another arrow.
When I was about twenty feet away from the strange lump, it pounced on me. A large, humanoid tiger wearing a tattered cloak with a sheathed scimitar and a longbow on his back. I lost concentration on the dancing lights cantrip, but was able to keep my feet. Laucian was just a couple feet away from me, but we were both some distance from the camp. Probably about 50 - 60 feet off. Benson had the wits to rouse the rest of the group and light a lantern. I gathered my own wits quickly and turned in place, shrouding myself in mist as I teleported halfway back to the campsite and recast the dancing lights around the beastman. Laucian dropped into his crouch and tried firing an arrow point blank into the monster's face, but the arrow snapped in his haste. In response, he pounced on Laucian and knocked the other elf into the grass. Benson rushed forward and got a solid stab of his rapier into the creature's flesh, but the wound seemed to heal almost as fast as the rapier was withdrawn. I noticed a strange look cross the caravan guard's face, something crossed between fear and disappointment. It dawned on us suddenly that we were up against a very dangerous foe, a weretiger, in fact. With a burst of speed and adrenaline, Benson scurrieds back towards camp. I fired off another ray of frost at the beastman, more hoping to slow him down but he dodged it easily. Laucian got to his feet and also stepped back away from the terrifying hunter. We had a split second conference of minds in which I told Benson to take the horse back to Altonshire as we had previously agreed and that I meet up with him eventually. Laucian told the other men to scatter and they are almost ahead of him on that front. Then, with a determined look and a half-hearted smile, the older elf pulled out a fist full of silver coins and charged back into the fray.
At this point I think I understood a little more about what it means to be an elf: self preservation need not be a lifelong drive. I was horribly impressed by Laucian's bravery, but I couldn't see it as anything other than utter foolishness in the face of danger. For my part, I ran back towards camp, scooped up Lak and teleported further away between steps. We had ran off into the night, scattered like mad prey, leaving Laucian Liadon behind.
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It's not even a fight. The weretiger takes pity on the elderly elf and doesn't even put up a guard or dodge too quickly. He then knocks the elf out with a nearly playful swipe of a claw. Some time later Laucian awakens in the same spot to find the weretiger standing over him. He compliments the elf's bravery, even going so far as to take the meager hunter on as an apprentice. Seeing his options to be limited, Laucian agrees, but makes an attempt to resist the bloodlust of the Lycanthropy bestowed upon him. He's made aware that he owes his master a great favor in the future for sparing his life. It seemed that Laucian was amenable to whatever it took to keep himself alive and agreed wholeheartedly.
As always, reply with comments or questions if you wish and I'll do what I can to get back to you with an accurate answer. Cheers.
Re: Campaign Journal: The Altonshire Adventures (5e)
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