A Bad Day in the Woods

Being chased by a search party of pressgang bullies and mercenaries isn't a great way to live. Sometimes, the best thing to do is it to turn around and hit back.

November 13, 498

Hide or Ambush?

...And then, sometimes it isn't such a good idea.

The party realized that bands of fighters from Irium weren't giving up the search. In fact, it seemed that if anything, they called in for extra support. They were getting closer, and the only safety seemed to lie in the direction of the mountains to the East. After some discussion, they decided to turn around, take out a band of the search party, and push through the other way.

The plan was simple: Hide and ambush. With any luck, they can hide well enough that the search party passed them by unnoticed; and if things go bad, the search party can be ambushed quick enough to make their escape.

Unfortunately for our party, the support that the Irium pressgang called in was full of well-armed orcs.

The druids' Entagle only managed to stop about half of the bad guys, and even then the party was outmatched. While the party fought well, they didn't stand a chance to the orcs' greataxes. Flandek of the Glendor Tribe was the first to fall. Cassandra was next. The animal companion wolves of the Druids Milo and Raealwen were also killed.

A Hasty Retreat

Despite the party's losses, they eventually killed the rest of the orcs, but not before they were able to call more of their search party to the party's location.

Cassandra was mortally wounded, but not completely gone. Not yet. The party managed a retreat deep into the foothills of the Camac Mountains, where they found a cave to lie low. It took a few days for Cassandra to heal naturally enough to be healed with the magic of Goodberry. Once she was healed enough to move on her own, the rest of the party decided to move on, to make sure there was plenty of distance between them and the pressgang.

Attack on Raelith's Keep

Travelling North, the party followed a column of smoke. The night before, a local wizard's keep was attacked by a band of 40 men. Most of the surrounding buildings were smoldering piles of rubble, but the main keep was still intact and only scarred.

Approaching the keep, the party met the inhabitants; students of the wizard Raelith. They told the party of the previous night's attack.

A band of about 40 men from the Burnt Lands, accompanied with several orcs, and led by a man named Khashna Ghorul, demanded the unconditional surrender of Raelith and the Rods of Kadriel. Raelith, not posessing the Rods, nor the will to surrender, fought against the army. Despite whiping out nearly half the enemy, Raelith's magic was noticeably ineffective.

In the end, just moments before Khashna and his men gained entrance to the keep, Raelith surrendered under the conditions that his students and keep would be spared. Ghorul agreed, and Raelith left willingly.

Off to Find the Wizard

Raelith's several students have varous ideas of what to do. Most of them decide that it's time to move on out into the real world. However, Oskar Oathbinder, a dwarven magician, isn't so ready to give up on his master. He decides that, with the party's help, he should go find Raelith.

The party searches the keep for anything that might help them in their undertaking. Among the many magcal artifacts, they find the Sword of Thoth, rumored to have once been weilded by the only Talian Knight to have survived a fight with the Shoggoth. This Sun Sword would definitely come in handy.