User blog:MMetzner/Session 14 - The Faraway Flumph

''Recap: After successfully liberating Sailor’s Wyk from Landon Mutt’s rule, the Guardians sailed back to Hogstone where they met a new group of halflings and humans that had fled the island of Timberhill on Brightwater Bay. However, they were on the island for less than a day when they, along with all the other residents of Hogstone were forced to hide behind the walls as the Greyship fleet approached the island.''

After demanding they fight the army or surrender the island to fire, Gordyn Greyship uncovered his secret weapons, two rotted, scarred and extremely vicious lizardbeast hunters, one of which had already savaged and killed the archer Hardin, who was on nightwatchman duty.

''Gauner made the plan to have one of the archers take his place as the Guardians exited the castle to fight, and with invisibility, snuck out and disabled the large Greyship catapult. Ronan’s trickery made Gordyn Greyship surrender, and while he was running from the battlefield Maiya swooped down on him with heroic strikes to kill him.''

''After a hard fought battle where Farrus and Kyanna were continually overwhelmed by Greyship numbers and Thom was mauled by one of the lizardbeasts, the group wore the invading army down. When one Greyship raider, the flag bearer, remained standing, the group captured him for questioning, placing him inside the lizardbeast hunter cage.''

We picked up on the crisp morning of October 1st, with Kyanna and Ronan at Hogstone's docks and the rest of the group just inside the walls.


 * Scouting the remaining Greyship ships, Ronan and Kyanna sent a message through Algie to the group, telling them of their remaining numbers.
 * Maiya went to the hidden room within Hogstone Keep to check on the scared residents, telling them that they should stay within the keep for the day.
 * Still feeling the effects of a hard-fought battle and expecting the Greyship Fleet to remain at dock until the evening, the Guardians took the opportunity to rest and recuperate while making a plan on how to deal with them.
 * As the group were preparing to put a plan into action, involving turning Kyanna into a shark and destroying the ships from underneath, Captain Ronan saw movement from the ships, moving to the window to get a better look, she tripped over her own feet, dropping her spyglass out of the window onto the floor below. As this happened, Gauner declared that he could smell smoke. Looking closer they could see that the two Greyship vessels were leaving the island, and that they had set fires on the Jagged Pelt and Proud Pelt.
 * The Guardians immediately left the tower, sprinting towards the fires, when they reached the crossroads, Farrus pulled his bow, arcing an arrow 600ft directly into the shoulder of one of the Greyship sailors.
 * Reaching the ships first, Gauner grabbed a bucket from the side of the dock, pulling himself onto the Proud Pelt and dousing one of the small fires. Maiya attempted to put out one of the other fires with her Sisters of Eternal Mercy outfit, but succeeded only in setting ablaze to the disguise.
 * Farrus fired another arrow, lodging deep into the other shoulder of the same Greyship sailor, forcing him to drop the rudder and fall onto the deck, barely clinging to life.
 * From the edge of the dock, Kyanna pointed her sickle at the so far untouched Greyship vessel, sending a powerful bolt of lightning at it. Upon reaching the ship the bolt forked into 4 smaller bolts, instantly electrocuting the 3 sailors, killing them instantly. The fourth bolt caught the mast of the ship, setting a blaze that very quickly engulfed the entire ship. She dived into the water, transforming into a dolphin and pursuing the remaining ship.
 * Giving up on looking for receptacles for holding water, Maiya decided to adopt a brute-force approach, running to the Jagged Pelt and pushing down with all of her weight to submerge one side of the boat under the water, dousing two of the four small fires.
 * Farrus fired a third arrow at the unlucky sailor of the remaining ship, piercing the back of his neck and killing him.
 * Gauner put out the remaining fires on the Proud Pelt to the relief of the group, while Maiya submerged the opposite side of the Jagged Pelt, dousing the final flames.
 * Flumph.jpging the ship, Kyanna reverted to her human form and began to loot the Greyship men. As she hunted for a map or anything that would lead her to understand the Greyship plan a little more, she could hear a soft gurgling sound. Looking up, Kyanna saw a blue tentacle wrap around the mast before two large eyes on stalks protruding from an oval head peered around. Tentatively it let go its grip on the mast and powered by jets of air it hovered over to sit by Kyanna. The Elven Druid made her way back to the docks, looking behind her to see that the small creature was following, propelled by several jets of air keeping it above the surface of the water.
 * After discussing their next steps, Kyanna went to visit the archers at their barracks. After having lost Thom and Hardin the two remaining archers Alyn and Danny were visibly shaken, with Alyn blaming himself. Kyanna struggled to find the words to help him, but Maiya encouraged him to put his attention into keeping people on the island safe. Danny departed to gather people from across the island in the Keep for Maiya to talk to them.
 * Ronan and Gauner decided to talk to the Greyship flag bearer currently imprisoned within the cage. Before they arrived, Gauner voiced some sadness about people being repulsed or hostile to him based on his Tiefling race, sensing an opportunity to bond with the boy, Ronan guided him into a side alley before removing her trademark hat and unknotting her dreadlocks to reveal a horn that was broken, but unmistakably Tiefling, and spoke some words of Infernal, "va laz ky ioriuv ao sma haf vory", or in common, "Do not be afraid of who you are".
 * When the Tiefling duo reached the Greyship flag bearer they immediately noticed how young he now seemed, almost a boy still although older than Gauner. They questioned him about Greyship reinforcements on Breihlin and learned that the vast majority of the fighting clan had come in the raid. That those left to defend Fort Greyship were non fighters and perhaps 5 fighters. They learned that the boy was Ben Greyship, the grandson of Gordyn Greyship.
 * Gathering a moment of defiance and disgust, Ben Greyship told Ronan that he saw the magic she used during the battle, that his grandfather would never surrender, even to a dark witch like her. Ronan pointed at the boy, speaking the word 'divulge'. Greyship suddenly started blurting out the thoughts he was trying to conceal - that although his father and grandfather didn't include him in Greyship plans, he sometimes overheard conversations, and had heard that the King had made a deal, and that Gerion Mutt who was killed during the Sack of Hogstone, was alive again, with some people saying he was exactly as he was, and some saying he was different now.
 * After his confession and expecting to be executed, Ben Greyship said that he was born a Greyship, and would die a Greyship, with honour. To which Ronan told him that he would not be dying with honour because he would be kept as a prisoner on the island. Gauner tried to trick the boy into thinking about fighting for Hogstone by telling him how he respected his efforts on the battlefield, but the boy wasn't persuaded.
 * Gauner learned that the Greyships originally inhabited an island named Greyship Cove, and took what is now Fort Greyship from a group of villagers after the Sack of Hogstone, and with that Ronan and Gauner took their leave of the boy, with Ronan setting Algie to watch over him from a safe distance.
 * Meanwhile, Farrus began investigating the corpses of the two lizardbeast hunters. The first thing he noticed was how quickly they had deteriorated, with the thin skin sloughing off, with bones protruding through the flesh. Although he could be sure necromancy was at play, he was unable to determine the exact nature of the spell that had brought these creatures back to life from bones.
 * With the townsfolk gathered in the great hall of the Keep, Maiya began speaking. She reprimanded those who had left the safety of the walls and alerted the remaining two ships of the Greyship clan, leading to the Jagged Pelt and Proud Pelt almost burning. Although Petra, a seller of fish on Merchant's Wharf, burst into tears, the message seemed to resonate with the townsfolk. As the residents filtered out, Britta mentioned to Maiya that Mannaphi was keen to speak to them and learn about their exploits on Sailor's Wyk.
 * The Guardians visited Mannaphi at his tower, how was excited and relieved to see the Scholar Statue in their possession. The group began to discuss who should be entrusted with the power of the Scholar Statue. After some debate, they decided that the statues should be used to enhance the best existing traits among them, so it was decided that Farrus Fulgrim would be the Guardian of the Scholar Statue.
 * Mannaphi explained to Farrus how to attune to the statue, taking it deep below Hogstone Keep into the Chamber of the Sekken Steiner, that Farrus must spend the night in contact with the statue upon the tomb of Erryk I.
 * Ronan told the group what she had learned from Ben Greyship, that Gerion Mutt may have been brought back to life.
 * Kyanna and Ronan decided to take the remains of the Lizardbeast Hunters to Symond at the Hall of Beasts, returning to the courtyard they found only a stinking, rotted pile of bones. The pair took some time to clean off the bones before visiting Symond. When they arrive at the Hall, Symond began thanking the pair for their work defending the island when he was distracted by the bundle of bones in their arms. Ronan explained that the Greyships had used two undead Lizardbeast Hunters during the assault and that they had rotted quickly after they were slain. Symond wondered aloud if perhaps these were the same two Lizardbeast Hunters that had been in the Hall of Beasts before the Sack of Hogstone. Ronan asked Symond to prepare a list of the larger specimens that the Hall previously held. He also paid Ronan 400 gold pieces for the bones.
 * Meanwhile, in The Pines, to the south west of the island, Maiya searched for an Oak like the one she had seen in her vision. When she found a tree that seemed to match exactly, the Aasimar walk around it a few times, thinking. She tried to remember what it was she was supposed to do in this ritual. Immediately she received the same vision of the kneeling woman by the great oak, as stars shone above.
 * Realising that the stars were the key thing missing, Maiya returned to the tree after night had fallen, unfurling her great wings and plunging her sword in to the soft earth. Maiya began to feel a radiant energy coming as if from the stars themselves and an inner calm that she had not felt for a long time.
 * Back inside the walls, Farrus began his journey down into the Chamber of the Sekken Steiner. Making his way down the spiral stairs he came across shafts of mined iron ore, and at the bottom, a passageway into a dank, cold chamber comprising 6 large stone pillars encircling a large stone tomb.
 * Farrus began his vigil, sitting upon the tomb of Erryk I and holding the Scholar Statue, gradually he could feel the statue warming in his hands before it began to emanate a golden glow that grew brighter and brighter as the hours passed. When the glow reached a blinding level, Farrus passed out, awakening a few minutes as the Guardian of the Scholar Statue.
 * Farrus had little time to exalt in his new ability when he felt an intense burning in his chest, and a familiar terrifying voice. "So that's where you are Farrus" the voice of Rotthorn rang through his mind, "You're a long way from home, but why the Thousand Islands? Why Hogstone? Never mind, we'll have you home soon, back on my table where we can complete our work".