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Old 05-31-2019, 06:04 PM   #71
coronatiger
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Trondheim, Norway
Default Session 17 (2019-05-26)

Thoughts on October 15th

It stopped raining in the mid-morning, but heavy clouds threatened to unleash another shower upon us.

In the afternoon, Va’lyndra reported that she’d heard a guttural scream and had spotted a rag-wearing humanoid torturing a deer when she crawled to investigate. I’ve never seen her as outraged as when she told us about it.

Leaving Olivia and the animals, the rest of us snuck forward. When we crested a hilltop, I saw there were two people there now, cutting and prodding at the screaming stag. Although human-shaped, they were clearly not human, and Va’lyndra told us they were boogeymen, sadistic beings who like brutal murder and who collect entrails.

Bows at the ready, Va’lyndra and I moved forward again, hoping to get close enough to shoot before they spotted us. I lost track of Lady Karita and Kine temporarily. At about eighty paces, Va’lyndra stumbled into a bush, breaking twigs and making loud noises. One of the boogeymen spotted her and started running, and I took aim at him; the other looked around to locate the source of the racket. I fired, and the arrow sprouted from his cowardly backside. He fell, and I aimed at the second boogeyman. Va’lyndra and I released almost simultaneously, so it was difficult to see whose arrow hit and whose missed.

We ran forward. Va’lyndra was wearing mail, as usual, so I outpaced her. Just as I caught up with Kine, who had started running as soon as Va’lyndra bumbled into the shrubbery, a boogeyman burst out of the underbrush, swinging a club at me. Surprised, I still managed to dodge the blow. The three of us exchanged a few unsuccessful blows before the chest wound overpowered the foe. I retrieved my arrow. Va’lyndra kicked him as he lay there, reciprocating for the deer that she had to put down.

I asked Kine to help me find my other arrow, and we followed the bloody tracks of the other boogeyman. Lady Karita had also tried to track him down, and we met up at a hole in the ground that we determined had to be the lair of the boogeymen. As we didn’t know what to expect down there, we decided not to follow.

Olivia butchered the stag, brushing off skills learned in Duke Leonard’s household; she had had more duties than being chambermaid for the Duke’s concubine. Va’lyndra found some roots, earlier, so the travel rations will last longer. Kine bought supplies for two months, but it’s possible we’re staying for up to three, so it’s good to get some extra food.

We traveled a bit further, but still decided to double up the watches, in case the second boogeyman came back with vengeance in mind. Kine asked Lady Karita to participate, to which she acquiesced, but warned us that she would only be able to take the first watch. Remembering how long it takes for her to get up in the morning, it made sense to me that she shouldn’t sleep before her watch.


Thoughts on October 16th

Nothing happened during the night. Nothing happened while we traveled either, and we reverted to our regular watch routine in the evening.


Thoughts on October 17th

Va’lyndra spotted ruined buildings in the distance, a sign that we’re approaching the area of our quest. I think something’s wrong with her, though. She’s been irritable all day, and has black rings under her eyes.


Thoughts on October 18th

Lady Karita, Kine and Olivia woke up with bellyache and weren’t in the condition to go anywhere, except for regularly visited bushes just outside the camp. Va’lyndra seemed better, though.

Olivia noticed a tree with bark that she hoped would settle their stomachs, and I went with her to gather some. She was so weak I almost had to carry her. There was no fun tonight.


Thoughts on October 19th

I had to let Olivia sleep, and suffered through half the watch alone before I spotted a shadow moving towards the camp. I woke Va’lyndra quietly. I didn’t want to wake the others unnecessarily, like if it was a fox or something, looking for scraps. When we emerged from her tent, we saw three creatures, small, reptilian humanoids wielding short spears. I yelled that the camp was under attack, and shot at one as they rushed towards us, but missed.

Va’lyndra shouted at me to watch my back, and I whirled around, narrowly avoiding the point of a spear. Now five of them were surrounding us. Kine burst out of her tent, awake and alert, and I heard a familiar scream of pain from Lady Karita’s tent.

The little blighters were difficult to hit, but my brass knuckles connected with one of them just as Kine entered the fray. The other four were focused on Va’lyndra, and it seemed to me they were having trouble penetrating her armor, so I ordered Kine to help Lady Karita, who still remained inside. I feared the worst.

Va’lyndra and I felled another reptile and that broke the spirit of two of the last three. I followed one of the runners, and took it out. Va’lyndra shot an ice dagger at the other, ignoring the last one, who failed to get past her flying shield.

When I returned to the camp, Kine and Va’lyndra had captured the last one and were tying it up. I retrieved my first aid kit, noticing Olivia were still sleeping, and bandaged Lady Karita’s leg. She had been stabbed through the thigh and was barely keeping her assailant at bay with her unfamiliar sword when Kine arrived. I had to wake Olivia so she could take an expert look at Lady Karita and Va’lyndra, who had taken a number of scrapes. If she hadn’t slept in her armor, she might not have been alive.

Va’lyndra made a small wooden cage around the prisoner, and it said something in a foreign language when Kine asked who they were. The reptile obviously didn’t understand her, so I repeated the question in a loud, clear voice. It still didn’t understand. Huh! Va’lyndra said they were kobolds.

I got out a shovel, and began digging a grave for the dead ones. Thankfully, they weren’t very large, so the hole didn’t have to be very big. One of the corpses started moving, and I yelped and whacked it with the shovel. Just in case, I cut all their throats, before finishing the burial.

Eventually, the others went back to sleep, and I resumed my watch. The prisoner started screaming, and I tried to hush it, but to no avail. I fetched Lady Karita’s sword; it glowed green in the presence of the kobold. I prodded the prisoner to get its attention, and the sword zapped it. I buried the last kobold, too.

When they woke again, Kine and Olivia were feeling better, but Lady Karita was still vomiting. We took another day of rest. I rigged a trapeze in a tree and practiced.


Thoughts on October 20th

Lady Karita had to rest another day, but got better when she finally managed to eat something. Va’lyndra and Kine went to gather food. I stayed in the camp, practicing.


Thoughts on October 21st

Kine is in heat again, and was a nuisance all day. If Olivia had still been sick, I might have taken one for the team, but she kept me on a short leash, and well fed, as it were.

Va’lyndra spent some time trying to teach the rest of us to recognize various bird calls that she would use to relay different messages. I see the usefulness of it when she scouts ahead, but must admit that the various sounds blurred together in my mind. We need to practice more.

We found a dilapidated tower, near the ruined city Va’lyndra spotted earlier. Lady Karita drew the tower on the map, and we went inside to explore. We found nothing of interest. The city was marked on the map already, with a note that it had been searched, so if there had been anything here, the previous party would have taken it.

Va’lyndra revealed, when Lady Karita questioned her, that she had been part of similar quests before, but only as an escort and survivalist, so she didn’t possess any trade secrets helpful to discovering hidden treasure.

We saw no reason to search the city thoroughly, but looked for a few special places, and concluded that our predecessors had dug them up. The map marked a road leading out of the city, but it was overgrown, and not any easier to move along than through the rest of the woods.

As it grew darker, we found the ruins of a farm a safe distance from the city. We didn’t want to remain back there, in case someone or something was prowling the ruins in the night. With so much happening today, I hadn’t had a chance to practice, so I gave the reins to Olivia and started leaping about. Va’lyndra commented sourly that if there had been someone here recently, I had trampled over any tracks they might have left.
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You don't need to spend 100 CP on Status 5 [25] and Multimillionaire [75] to feel like a princess, when Delusion [-10] will do.

Character sheet: Google Drive link (See this thread for details.)

Campaign logs: Chaotic Pioneering / Confessions of a Forked Tongue
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