Campaign Log

Last Wednesday was the second session at Pawn & Pint’s‘ new location on 613 Walnut—the space is great! In addition to the new space, the party saw some changes with the addition of a new member.

We resume the action with the party having survived a living mound of dirt and rock that tried to kill them. They looked around and tried to continue following the trail of the Senzar mage they were pursuing. They found his tracks looped back around to a point that provided a view of the runes that had been scratched into the ground. However, the tracks then simply disappeared. It was obvious that the Senzar mage had stood there watching for some time (even bits of food that had been dropped were found). The trouble was that the trail simply ended.

The party search north, east, and west to see if they could spot any tracks up to five hundred feet away. Unfortunately, they found no sign of the man’s continued travels.

Frustrated with the lack of success, they continued to travel north, hoping for changes in their luck. Which, fortunately enough, happened. Later in the day, they came across another set of tracks, this time there were perhaps eight to ten men leading another group of people closely grouped together (the assumption was prisoners chained together).

With the tracks only being a day old or so, they hastened to pursue what was likely another group of Senzar. With Wilby and Rowan in the front, Quai followed closely, leaving the rest of the party to hang back. As the day grew into late afternoon, they soon came upon the group they were following.

A grisly scene unfolded before them. A Senzar mage stood over a large four-foot wide bowl. The woman scribbled notes in a journal while taking measurements against the horizon and a white shape that floated in the shallow bowl filled with a red fluid. Five bodies were stacked like cordwood near the bowl.

A few Senzar soldiers stood watch over the bodies. Others stood watch over a group of fifteen men and woman chained together next to a pile of supplies. Near those men, another Senzar warlock talked quietly with a creature of demonic nature—a scaly humanoid creature that had lizard features and leathery wings.

Wilby and Rowan pulled back to warn the party of what was over the next rise in the woods. They conferred and began to plan.  Eventually, they agreed that they should try to free the prisoners first to cause a distraction. To do that, Quai and Rowan would sneak around to the southern side of the camp using Quai’s ability to bring forth darkness and silence.

Gemma and Wilby would take opposite sides, Gemma to the west and Wilby to the east, while Howl and Ishen would remain to the north.

Rowan quickly realized that while Qaui could see and maneuver in his darkness, Rowan could see and hear nothing as a dark cloud made its way through the forest. Knowing that they would not be able to sneak up to the prisoners without drawing attention, Rowan broke away and approached with the cunning use of shadows and trees. He then takes advantage of a guard’s inattention and plants an arrow into the soldier.

Gemma hearing the cry of pain blasts the Senzar man near the prisoners, followed by Howl, pretending to be a tree, sucking the life from the same man. However, the Senzar warlock instinctively flings energy back to Gemma as a result of her attack.

The female Senzar mage disappears from sight as the Senzar Gemma and Howl attacked flings crackling energy at Gemma. The mage landed a blow and Gemma retaliates with her own rebuke.

Rowan shots another arrow into the guard, dropping him to the ground, while Wilby marks the lizard creature, but fails to pant an arrow into the monster.

Quai, keeping his darkness, moves forward to envelop the prisoners and using Rowan tools, starts working on a lock that secures the metal collars around the prisoner’s necks. His dexterous hands manage to free a prisoner.

Elrik, a bard of some renown, who happened to be captured by the Senzar, and imprisoned in a collar that impacts his abilities to focus his energies, sits quietly in the darkness.

The lizard creature moved forward and leaped into the air while the soldiers moved to deal with the attackers. One soldier gets close enough to swing at Rowan, but fails to make contact.

Gemma continues her assault on the kind and generous—evil basard—Senzar mage. The mage moves forward and slams Gemma with lightning flashing from his hands. Gemma redirects some of the energy back at the mage and that rebuke overwhelms the injured mage and he falls to the ground.

Howl changes his focus to the flying lizard. Unfortunately, both Howl and Wilby miss the lizard who is flying toward Wilby.

The female Senzar mage pops into view and slams Gemma with a bolt of energy.

Rowan draws his sword and strikes the guard who confronted him and then pulls back to put a tree between him and his attacker. The soldier follows Rowan, but is unable to actually connect.

Quai picks a middle-aged man and manages to repeat his success with the lock. The freed man immediately moves away to get out of the darkness and silence. When Elrik emerges, he feels much of his power returns and he turns himself invisible.

Gemma attempts another blast of energy at the woman, but is unable to hit her.

The Senzar mage turns toward the darkness and slams down her hand, drawing lightning from the sky, striking Quai and several of the prisoners.

Rowan continues his sword battle with the soldier while Wilby manages a series of deadly shots with his bow, dropping the flying lizard to the ground before the creature could do any damage.

Quai, no longer maintaining his darkness moves away from prisoners and attacks one of a pair of soldiers with a series of blows, missing two of three swings. One of the soldiers manage to land a blow and Gemma lends a hand by blasting one of the soldiers. Howl attempts the same, but misses his mark.

The Senzar mage calls down another blast of lightning, hitting Quai and the two soldiers who were attacking him.

Rowan finishes off the solider he faced and Wilby takes aim at another soldier, planting an arrow into the man.

Elrik moves to the stacks of supplies and searches for his books and gear.

Gemma, having moved back to the north, attempts to hit a soldier and misses, but Howl manages to suck some life out of the mage.

Wilby, a master with the bow when he is hot, fires twice and drops two soldiers. Howl, who spotted a glass eye rushed forward from his hiding place to retrieve the item.

A soldier that Rowan faced dropped his weapon and surrenders. However, Rowin doesn’t have time for prisoners and tells the man to run away.

The Senzar mage creates a void and steps through it, disappearing from sight as Quai rushes forward and manages to follow the mage through the void. Now, far from the rest of the party, Quai manages to stun the warlock and strikes her multiple times but then the mage misty steps away and then disappears.

Quai makes his way back to the group where Howl has now removed the head of the lizard. He found the creature had a collar around his neck, not unlike the prisoners, but this collar has more intricate markings. They suspect that perhaps the flying lizard might have been a prisoner as well.

As they are searching other areas of the camp for goods and working on freeing the few remaining prisoners, a cloud dense orange gas fills the area near the shallow bowl of blood.

Quai tries to cross through the cloud and finds himself coughing and suffering from the effects. Howl is close and moves forward as the Senzar mage emerges the fog and strikes Howl with her sword.

Then Gemma blasts the mage and takes damage in return as Howl tries to suggest the woman surrenders, only for him to take another sword thrust. Rowan holds back as Wilby and Elrik dash forward to help.

Gemma risks additional damage and strikes the mage again while Howl attempts to suck away her life and misses. The mage attempts to flee again, but Howl absorbs the energy, disabling the mage’s spell. Wilby hits her with his bow and Quai strikes the mage multiple times, dropping her to the ground and ending her life.