In this session, our party eliminated a group of cultists and kobolds, snuck around the raiders’ rearguard, and then splity the party so Zoyana could go bear hunting…

• After some discussion of Aegar’s incredible stealth, the party decided that Pass Without Trace and Enhance Ability might be sufficient, and the party stealthily approached the gully with the campfire.
  • Aegar (Natural 20), thumbed his nose at his doubting friends and approached without a peep.
• The party spied a split camp as they approached, with 4 humans clad in black roasting a few prairie hens for a meal and eight kobolds behind the tents didn’t bother to cook their hens, eating them raw instead. The humans squabbled over how to cook a hen and the uselessness of kobolds as allies.

Combat

• While his friends circled silently south, Pliny curved toward the north of the camp and enveloped all 8 kobolds in a Hypnotic Pattern of twisting colors that weaved through the air, charming and mesmerizing 6 of the 8 kobolds.
• Aegar snuck up behind one of the human cultists and bashed his corpse into the fire. The smell of burning flesh and leather began to permeate the camp.
• Zoyana reached out with her Thorn Whip, doing damage and pulling a surprised cultist 10’ backwards towards her and Fang.
• The campers started to move as they realized they were being attacked.
• Pliny pulled his crossbow and sent a bolt through the throat of one of the two active kobolds, ending that threat, and moved closer.
• Fang used his breath to try and blow the nearest cultist, to no avail. And then disappeared.
• Aegar bashed another cultist with a pair of warhammer swings.
• Zoyana whippped her cultist again, whose corpse was pulled backwards before falling dead.
• Pliny sent a crossbow bolt over the heads of the kobolds (scaring them?) and moved closer hiding behind a rock.
• The one undamaged cultist dived inside of his tent and out of sight.
• Fang snuck behind Aegar and put his head over Aegar’s shoulder, and sent a cone of flashing light over the two cultists, blinding both.
  • Aegar: “Well done Fang!”
• The one un-charmed kobold ran away and hid behind a sapling, obscuring his position from exactly no one.
• Aegar stepped into the tent and bashed the cultis inside as he reached for his sword and shield, ending that threat, then stepped back out and knocked out the last human cultist with the flat of his warhammer in an almost dismissive fashion.
• Zoyana tied up the unconscious cultist
• Pliny popped the “hiding” kobold with a crossbow bolt, then moved over to check on his friends.
• Aegar marched over to the mesmerized kobolds and breathed lightening on 4 of them. Three immediately died, and the last was awoken from its stupor via a rather painful jolt of electricity.
• Zoyana pulled her sling and sent a rock into the trees.
• Pliny pulled his rapier and stabs it in his eyes and says “Say hi to your mother”
• Aegar fumbled his attempt to tie up one of the charmed kobolds, which awakened and screamed.
• Zoyana pulled her scimitar and stabbed it, causing it to scream again and try to run away.
  • Aegar held out his warhammer to try to hold him back, but caught the kobold in the face and the impact ended its life.
• Pliny tied up the remaining kobold, then tightened up the loose bonds Zoyana left on the captive human.
• The party searched the tents, Pliny and Zoyana found nothing. Aegar found 28 silver pieces.
• Amongst the kobolds the party found a sack of goods looted by the kobolds with pewter candlesticks, silver serving dishes, and a carved wooden holy symbol of Chauntea.
• The cart contained a bed of moderate quality, 3 sturdy blankets, 3 nice dresses, a calligraphy kit in a nice box, a mounted deer head, and a barrel of olive oil.
• Zoyana had a brief chat with Fang about the fact that he could do more than

Interrogation

• Aegar used all his tools (Channel Divinity, Pliny’s bardic inspiration, etc) to interrogate Erskine, the captured human cultist.
  • Erskine was confused at first by questions about captives, but was clearly in awe of having seen Lennithon the blue dragon flying in the sky.
  • Zoyana tried to punch the captive, missed wildly, and received a shoulder to the face in response.
  • Erskine then shared that Lennithon was helping to prepare the horde to honor the Dragon Queen: Tiamat.
  • The leaders were Langederosa (the half-dragon Aegar and Zoyana killed), Frulam, and Rezmir
  • Erskine was brought to the Cult of the Dragon for money, loot, and power. The dragon queen is going to do to the whole world what the Cult did to Greenest. “What side do you want be on, the side of the midgets and the sheep, or the side of the greatest being in the world?”
  • Erskine closed his eyes, took a deep breath, “and if I’m lucky, I come back as an abishai… Do your worst.”
  • Aegar knocked him out again. “Well, we cannot kill him. Or his little friend here.”
• Aegar then interrogated the kobold, Zutt.
  • Zutt shared that the cult took many hostages, then looked to Erskine before repeating that they took the hostages back to the camp to work and be slaves.
    • There’s a tent at the back of the camp where they keep the hostages to do the work.
  • Zutt seemed to be answering their questions honestly, but more focused on saving its skin and embelishing or otherwise saying whatever the party wanted to hear so it could get away.
    • It surmised that the group going North from Greenest were going for another raid, or at least they must be scouting for the next raid (not lying, but telling them what they want to hear, pretty clearly he was making it up).
  • The direct way into the raiders camp was the only way Zutt knew. Past the rearguard, past the watchtowers, and into camp.
    • Zoyana immediately caught that there was no rearguard in her previous visit to the camp: the first sight of the raiders was the watchtower. When Zoyana mentioned that, Zutt said “yeah, they’re just over there” and pointed in the distance toward the camp.
    • Zutt’s group was slow because the humans were stupid and slow and were behind everyone.
    • The rearguard is just a guard, not the place where the slaves would be.
    • The rearguard was probably a mile in the distance.
  • Aegar realized that the group they had just eliminated were stragglers behind the rest of the raiders, and the rearguard would be an armed group of guards.
    
  • The party, having left Greenest 12 hours after the last of the raiders, had caught up to the slowest of them heading back to their camp.
• The party stepped away and planned quietly and then,
  • Stripped the cultist and kobold naked, and tied them to a tree.
  • Broke the cultist’s camp and put their tents and gear into the wagon.
  • The kobolds had little of value outside of their sack of loot.
• They party headed back to their temporary camp with the cart and horses. It was roughly 10 PM.

The Rearguard

• After hiding the cart and tying up the horses at their temporary camp, the party took their horses and headed forward.
• About an hour up ahead, taking a short rest on horseback, the topography continued to transform from grassland to plateaus.
• At a spot where the trampled path approached narrow passage between plateaus, the party spied a number of cultists hiding in the bushes.
  • A couple of the cultists were awake and on watch, with the others stealth-camping at ambush posts.
• The group, stealthy and smart, circled around the ambush.
  • Aegar realized that this rearguard would check-in with the main group regularly, and that their absence would be noticed.

Splitting the Party

• Having avoided the ambush, the party continued on until about midnight and found a hidden spot to make a small camp.
• Aegar and Pliny began long rests, while Zoyana headed off to find the next group of raiders
  • Aegar: “Zoyana… promise me… no fights”
  • Zoyana called on Fang to go with her “Oh, I’m going? I thoguth I was taking a rest? Oh, ok. Naps are fun too.” and curls up in Aegar’s lap.
• Zoyana walked at a normal pace, keeping as quiet as possible and looking out.
  • An hour and a half ahead, she spied a small group of cultists, but no sign of prisoners.
  • An hour past that, she spied a slightly larger group, but no sign of prisoners.
  • She searched on for another hour and a half, seeing nothing before turning around.
• On her way back, about half way between the two groups, Zoyana spied a cave in one of the plateaus she was skirting. As she passed by, she stepped on a branch. The snap of the limb brought the attention of the cave’s resident: a large cave bear.
  • The cave bear sunffled in the air and pounded its paws on the ground a couple times searching for the source of the noise.
  • Zoyana wildshaped into a spider and snuck away.
  • The cave bear continued sniffing for the intruder, then retreated into the cave…