Session 38 - Was It All For Nothing?

Mon 8th Feb 19:30 - 22:40

In-game timeline: Uktar 18 - Uktar 19 DR1489

Our "Heroes" set out to help the villagers of Moonfall by gathering some of the tangleweed herbs that will enable the lycanthropes to resist their 'change' around the period of the full moon.

They follow the track by the swamp, ably led by Drogan and Alwaith who share the tracking duties. The path is hard to follow in places, and the mists from the swamp seem to encroach over the track in many places.

The group decide to try to follow an alternative path that seemed to go through the hills rather than next to the swamp. Nige is sent up to scout ahead and the group manage to move away from the swamp, and from the unsettling mists. The party is a little spooked by the sounds of distant creatures, calling to each other above the sounds of the wind. Unfortunately this causes Drogan to lose the trail and the party all spent a little time looking for the right direction to take. Nige also seemed to be involved in this search, since while they are all, Nige included, looking towards the swamplands, they are surprised by an attack from behind! Two humanoid-headed, flying lions with spikey tails seemed to be hunting for some lunch!

One of these manticores, for that is what they were, flew down to attack Dwarrow, but luckily for the dwarf this creature seemed to be the clumsiest manticore in the realm, and it proceeded to miss all of its many (three) attacks. The other one hung back and fired tail spikes at Devon, managing to score a hit.

Our "Heroes" leapt into action and engaged the strange creatures. Some impressive hits from the group managed to take down one of the beasts before it could do any more harm, though Drogan once again seemed to throw his new axe away during the fight for some reason - Cleave was far from impressed - this seems to be getting a little frequent. Devon finished the first one off with a massive critical hit, which was enough to make the other one fly off in fear. Showing no mercy towards the fleeing beast, the group fired arrows after it, Drogan managing to bring it down before it could fly out of range.

Being much more guarded now, the group managed to re-find the trail and arrived at the Tangleweed Grove just as the sun was starting to set.

The grove was small, and dominated by a large and ancient tree. The tangleweed plants seemed to be growing in the shade of this tree, and the swamp was lapping at the entrance to the grove, but not yet encroaching upon it. The grove itself seemed to be enveloped in a form of marsh gas.

Fearing poison, as well as fearing the tree (due to some uncomfortable past memories, especially from Dwarrowsteel), the party cover their mouths and noses in dampened cloth and the two dwarves head into the grove to gather some plants, whilst Devon and Alwaith remain outside, scanning for enemies.

As the dwarves reach the grove entrance, they are surprised by a very large, and very fierce, crocodile that lunged at Dwarrow from the swamp waters. It managed to pin Dwarrow in place and its teeth and massive tail scored significant damage on the cleric. As the rest of the group laid into the crocodile, and Dwarrow healed up his wounds - regularly, the giant reptile continued to score hits on the dwarf.

With all the attention being on the battle before them, no one noticed, until it was too late, the two wolf-like humanoid creatures in the swamp, who managed to notch two flaming arrows and fire them into the grove, immediately igniting the very flammable marsh gas. Both dwarves were caught in the blast, though it did not do significant damage to them, but what was worse was that the entire grove was ablaze.

Our "Heroes" made short work of the by now very injured reptile, and tried to spot where the wolf-men were in the swamp, but only Devon could see them and they were running off further into the swamp.

Whilst the others were discussing whether to race off into the unknown swamp after the fleeing creatures, Dwarrow ran into the grove and grabbed as much of the blazing herbs as he could, suffering fire damage as he did so. Devon followed this up with his use of mage hand to do the same thing, and between them they did manage to gather a few bunches of charred herbs. It was agreed that chasing into the swamp would be a bad idea, and they party prepared to leave the area and head back to Moonfall, somewhat dejected, as their trip here only managed to gather a few herbs.

The journey back was fairly uneventful, other than the dwarves spotting two ettins who seemed to be busy munching on manticore legs and so were unaware of the resting party. Unusually, our "Heroes" didn't just kill them on the spot.

Arriving back in moonfall, elder Greylock was pleased to see them and grateful for the herbs that they did manage to get. He was disappointed at the news about the scorched grove, but hoped that they could survive the next few nights with the tangleweed that the group had returned. How they would survive the next full moon is another question, but given that their children were still missing, it was no so pressing.

And so we leave our "Heroes", a little crestfallen that the day's journey was not as fruitful as they had hoped, and keen to make their way to The Hunter, who supposedly has knowledge of the swamp, and possibly how to get to the Ruins of An-Sen within. We shall see whether the group manage to piss her off before she tells them anything….