Steel, Shadow, and Fire

[AlphaLuke]

The white beam streaks toward the fleeing Spriggan.

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Will save vs Sleep: (1d20+1)[6]

[AlphaLuke]

The beam hits, sending a spray of sand into the creature's eyes and causing it to slide into the dirt, face-first.

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Combat over. Post at will.

[Pent]

"Well that sucked." Pent says between gasps of breath. He shrinks down to his normal size.

"Is everyone okay?" Pent stumbles slightly, still feeling woozy from being knocked out twice.

[DeathbyFlossing]

"I'm fine, Azar says as he gets up and brushes himself off, "But what about the rest of you? And does anyone have any idea where these spriggans would have come from?"

[Pent]

"I don't know." Its like they just turned off invisibility, or something. What's a spriggan anyway?"

Pent begins searching the bodies for usable equipment.

[DeathbyFlossing]

"That's what these things are," Azar replies, stowing his wand back in his backpack. "They're a type of fey, descended from twisted gnomes. They're most famous for their ability to grow to enormous size at will. They are also, by and large, mean little buggers. Most have lost the ability to feel positive things like love and joy; the closest they can come is a kind of grim satisfation. As a consequence they're by and large evil.
Hopefully the one I knocked out will have some information we can use. Pent, do you think you can help me tie him up?"

[Pent]

"Evil gnomes? We're looking for a gnome..." Pent mutters as he ties up the sleeping spriggan. He also takes the time to tie up the spriggan he knocked unconscious.

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Pent takes a 20 on his survival checks using his rope to tie up the sleeping & KO'd spriggans. Total survival check = 23.

[DeathbyFlossing]

"So, anyone got some ideas for questions to ask them?"

[AlphaLuke]

Hilde sees the carnage around her, stepping carefully over the bodies. “Whatever they were, they're dead now.”

Rose stows her bow and walks over to the unconscious, bleeding Spriggan. "We only need one to answer questions right?" She unsheathes her short curved Wakizashi with a glint in her eye and looks toward Pent.

[Pent]

"Really? You have so little faith in my rope tying skills?" Is the first thing Pent blurts out. Maybe not the most noble sentiment...

[AlphaLuke]

Rose shrugs. "They mussed up my shirt. Got me all bloody. I just figure why keep two when we only need one?"

[Pent]

"I'm going to skip right over the whole 'killing in cold blood' argument and stay practical - we don't know yet that we don't need this one. That one may have amnesia, or know nothing, and this one could be the ringleader. For now, is all I'm asking."

[AlphaLuke]

Rose huffs petulantly. "Fine." She sheathes her blade and begins searching through the bodies and debris.

[DeathbyFlossing]

Azar starts compiling a list in his head of what they want to ask the spriggans. In the meantime he pipes up, "Right, it's also important to separate them so they can't collaborate on a story or warn each other if one starts to talk. Just remember they can do that growing thing at will."

[Pent]

"They are both mostly dead, so a few good smacks will put them down for good. That said I think we should keep them together, only because I want all of us available to kick the snot out of them if they try anything.

I think we should ask them if they have a camp nearby and if they know our gnome bandit. And if they've seen anyone else looking for our do-gooder. Does anyone know what language they were speaking when we arrived?"

[DeathbyFlossing]

Azar pauses. "Um. I just remembered. Most spriggans only speak Aklo and Gnome. I don't know about you guys, but I don't speak either of those. I THINK I can kludge together a workaround, but it would be kind of spell intensive, and in any rate I wouldn't be able to do it until tomorrow, when I prepare spells next." He shrugs and scratches his head. "Unless one of you can speak one of their languages?"

[AlphaLuke]

Rose helps Pent with the knots. "I speak Undercommon. They share an alphabet and syntax. I'll muddle through."

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Aklo isn't normally a language in Faerun, but Undercommon is the closest equivalent.

Soon, the two Spriggans wake, one, barely hanging on to life and large. The second, small and at full health, albeit very sleepy.

The other three companions look on as Rose grills the small one in a harsh, guttural tongue. The Spriggan seem all too eager to spit in her face and mutter unintelligible curses at her through gritted teeth. After several minutes of negotiating with the healthy monster, she draws her sword and slits his throat in a swift and efficient motion. He burbles words through a bifurcated larynx before slumping in his bonds. She looks at her companions and shrugs.

"Boring conversation anyway."

After that, Rose walks casually to the second, larger Spriggan while wiping the blade of her Katana on the hem of her skirt. His eyes go wide and he shrinks back to small size (his bonds shrink with him). This one seems much more compliant after the display and gibbers almost non-stop while Rose kneels and listens. After about ten minutes of non-stop blabber in the disgusting language, Rose holds her sword gently to the creature's throat. This shuts him up immediately. Rose turns to look at her companions while holding the blade.

"Apparently, he and his "brothers" are a roving band of marauders. They slipped through a tear into the Fey realms and have been haunting this area ever since. They like the taste of "man flesh when it has fear running though it's veins". The only way I can think that would be possible is that they enjoy the taste of adrenaline soaked meat. They have no other members in their group and the one trying to get away was abandoning his dead brethren. The Gnome Highwayman. . . . or Highway woman, more appropriately . . . is not an ally. She is powerful enough that they know not to attack her or her band. This ," she nods to the destroyed cart, "this was a target of opportunity. Poorly guarded. He says they were hauling "hair sheets with different colors". I think he means rugs, cloth, or paintings. He and his burned it because they like seeing beautiful things destroyed."

She looks to the others for their opinions. "May I kill him now?"

[Pent]

Pent cringes at the thought of this freak eating another person. He shrugs in response to Rose's question.

"I'm assuming he is too stupid to know if he saw any other armed adventurers - bounty hunters - going this way..." he asks Rose for confirmation.

[AlphaLuke]

Rose turns nonchalantly and asks the Spriggan, the language flowing off her tongue like liquid bile. The spriggan answers quickly and quietly, not wanting to cut himself on the sword pressed against his windpipe.

"He says that Red Wizards use the path from time to time. And a group of knights in red cloaks with shaved heads came by a couple of days ago, heading South to the bandit camp, but nothing since."

[Pent]

Pent says quietly to Azar: "Bounty hunters, AND the Red Wizard's army? They want her bad. If I were smarter I'd start to have second thoughts."

[DeathbyFlossing]

Azar's blood runs cold at the mention of the Red Wizards. The thought of them getting their hands on this poor woman... he had doubted her fate would be swift, or painless. "We can't let the Red Wizards get to her! If we hustle we might be able to catch up to them, or intercept them on their way back!"

[AlphaLuke]

Rose smiles deviously. She turns to the Spriggan, "You heard the man, we're on a deadline." She then takes the point of her katana and slowly slides it between the ribs of the horrified creature. As the point reaches its heart, the creature gulps in air in silent gasps. The light fades from its eyes and its body slowly goes limp in its bonds.

"I know we couldn't free him, but you took too much pleasure in that." Hilde says as Rose stands, wiping the blood from her blade.

"What's the point of doing your job if you can't enjoy it?" Rose asks, giving the cleric a mischievous grin as she sheathes her sword.

"Still . . ." Hilde closes the eyes of the Spriggan before saying a short prayer to Lathander.

A careful search of the bodies reveals that most of the armor and weapons are useless or shoddily made. They do, however, find some stolen gold and items of value on the creatures.

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You find 420gp worth of gold on the Spriggans and in the wreckage of the cart. They have nothing that would be considered "beautiful" as they zealously destroy things of beauty, but they do have some leather saddlebags, a full mess kit, a spyglass, a pound of Lurien pipeweed, a crowbar, a sack of meat (of questionable origin), and several (4) pungent pouches of herbs. The herbs, after careful examination by Hilde and Rose, seem to act like a Potion of Cure Serious Wounds when eaten.

Hilde allows the fire of Lathander to flow through her once more, healing the residual wounds of the group and Rose's horse. The group then packs the horses with the new gear and continues South at an accelerated pace, trying to catch the Red Wizard patrol they assume is heading toward the gnomish bandit group.

Soon, however, night begins to fall on the road and they need to stop and rest, lest they be unfit to fight on the morrow.

The night follows without incident, although a faint point of light far in the South glows throughout the evening.

As morning comes, Rose rouses everyone. “Wake up. I did some scouting and we need to move.”

“You left us unguarded?!” Hilde growls through clenched teeth.

“You were fine. The worst thing out here are shadowcats and they don’t like the smell of horse dung. I needed to know what that fire in the South was. I only got close enough to catch a bare glimpse of the camp, but it’s definitely the Red Wizards. I’d say about half a dozen. One mage by the look of the standards, but five other armsmen, at least. My gut says that if we hurry up this morning, we can get the drop on them before they break camp. If we’re lucky, we may even catch the mage before he prepares his spells. Azar, prep your spells quick. We’ll pack your things and take off the moment you’re ready.”

[Pent]

Pent pokes his head out of his tent as he listens to Rose.

"So... pants?" He asks the group. No one says anything. "I'll put on pants."

He gets dressed for battle and takes down his tent, eating some of his saved rations for a quick and mediocre breakfast. He helps take down Azar's tent and pack while the wizard preps his spells.

Pent feels slightly nervous. This fight won't be easy. But its the right thing to do.

"Rose, nice work. Hopefully we can catch these guys with their pants down, literally." "That uh, that came out wrong."

[DeathbyFlossing]

Azar pulls out his spell book and starts preparing spells. After some thought, he decides against prepairing flaming sphere in favor of flurry of snowballs, his best area spell.

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Azar spends 1 hour preparing spells

[Pent]

After packing up Azar's stuff, while Azar is still prepping his spells, Pent goes through the loot from the spriggan.

He smells the bag of meat and tosses it away from him, suspecting it was once human.

He tucks 1 of the 4 Herbs of Cure Serious Wounds into his pack. He imagines he'll need it after (or during) this next fight.

Pent makes sure the rest of the camp is packed away and the fire put out. He pulls one jar of Warpaint of Victory and cream of Barkskin out of his pack.

"Rose, how far away was this camp?" he asks the scout. "I want to make full use of them this morning."

[DeathbyFlossing]

Azar snags one of the Cure Serious wounds bags himself. The way things have been going for him, he'll need them.

[DeathbyFlossing]

Azar perks up at Pent's question, anxious to hear Rose's answer.

[AlphaLuke]

As everyone packs and readies themselves, Rose explains her early morning recon to the group.

Apparently, the Red Wizard and his entourage are only about an hour South cross-country. If they were to take the horses along the road, not only would it take longer, but they'd raise a considerable dust cloud, announcing their presence long before they arrived.

Rose packs the rest of the loot, pocketing one of the herb pouches and tossing the other to Hilde.

The group then heads off at a canter, across the grassland and scrub brush of the Tuigan Waste.

Once they've ridden for about 55 minutes, Rose suggests that they dismount, tie the horses up, and make the rest of the way on foot, stealthily if possible. Looking at Hilde and her clanking armor, Rose shakes her head, whispering,

"This won't do, love. They'll hear us a mile away."

Hilde yell/whispers, "Well what do you suggest then? Should I go into battle naked?"

Rose smiles mischievously. "Well that would be quite a shock for them, now wouldn't it? Might give us an advantage."

Hilde gives Rose a suffering look while hitching her horse to a nearby blackthorn bush.

"Oh all right, here. Take this."

Rose reaches into her belt pouch and tosses Hilde a small vial of oily black liquid. Hilde looks at it skeptically, but after getting the go-ahead from Rose shrugs and downs the vial.

Hilde's armor immediately begins to make less noise and her movements seem to make her blend into the surrounding brush. "Elixir of Hiding," Rose explains to the stunned girl. "I have them in case of . . . emergency situations."

The group continues forward, keeping low and making as little noise as possible.

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Thanks for the patience, guys. Stealth checks to sneak up on the camp please.
Rose Stealth: (1d20+12)[30]
Hilde Stealth: (1d20+8)[22]

[Pent]

"Hilde, what do you say when a ninja gives you magical potion?" Pent says in a whisper, with the most parental tone he can muster in low volume as a mock scold.

Pent decides he doesn't have the time for either the cream or warpaint, and keeps them stowed in his pack. Then he focuses on moving as slowly and carefully as possible.

Spoiler: PENT STEALTH CHECK

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(1d20-1)[18]

[DeathbyFlossing]

Azar does his best to prepare himself to move stealthily, running through a list of tips he read in a book on the subject once.

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Stealth check (1d20+1)[10]