An untamed frontier. Dark cults. Fickle fey gods. Ravenous fiends. Nothing black powder and sorcery won't fix... . Timberlands Campaign Diary
Trailing along the backbone of the central hills within Hillsbrook Valley, the heroes discussed their next move. They agreed to still seek out the den of a pair of mated Plated Meliuscores and weakening the megafauna until their Ebon Court ally, Mistress Weaver, could bewitch them. Eshkar the nature cleric openly worried, though, about the injuries they might incoure fighting the mighty beasts. Mistress Weaver pulled the bearfolk and heroes aside to try and soothe their worries. The dark enchantress let them know that she could just sacrifice the party’s other ally, the golden court knight Lady Lasthope for Spring, to power her spells. That way the bulk of their forces would be hale for the coming conflict. The heroes, being heroes, rejected the idea. Mistress Weaver was nonplussed over their silly morality.
Before reaching the meliuscore den, however, the player characters spotted a column of oily smoke rising into the driving rain over the next hill rise. Wild the ranger and Sykes the assassin snuck just head of the party to discover the cause of the vile plume. They found the remains of a blimpless airship broken in twain on the hillside. Cargo boxes and barrels were scattered in the middle of the break. Just as oddly the backend of the vessel had large, cracked tubes that the nasty smoke was billowing from. Airships were all but unheard of in the Congressional Colonies. The last known was Captain Brey, an explorer who never returned after venturing to the east a century ago. The heroes wondered if they’d found the legendary dwarven explorer’s return!
Ever bold, Gwaedd the bard knocked on the cockpit door. It opened a crack and the barrel of a strange, silver pistol popped out. Gwaedd calmed the armed tabaxi behind the door down. It turned out to be Moon Silver, an arcanist the party has small interactions with back at the Grim-Faced Bridge’s Festival (Session 9 & 10). Moon invited them all in and explained that he’d launched this vessel a few days ago after obtaining the last parts he needed at the festival. Moon was a firm believer in the folk tales that tabaxi came from an empire of the cat people on the moon. He sought to return there, but it turned out that gravity proved too strong for this version of his ‘rocket’ to overcome. Wild, also a tabaxi, was enraptured by this origin tale. He also convinced Moon to come with them, they figured his expertise might come in handy. Moon lent them some of his goods, packed up fireworks and his clockwork eagle and followed.
Two hours of heavy rain later, the assembled champions got under a massive overhang of rock where the plated meliuscore lived. They discovered the monstrosities were larger than expected, a snarling amalgamation of giant badgers and armadillos. After a brief spat of planning, Gwaedd caught both creatures with hypnotic pattern and the rest threw themselves at one of the beasts. Sykes cut deep into the first meliuscore and Siegfried the wizard lanced it with magic spells. Even as it roused from enchantment, Mistress Weaver plunged her hands into its wounds. She whispered sylvan curses into the blood once she pulled it free. The crimson liquid lifted from the fey’s fingers into dancing runes before flowing back into the creature’s body. Its eyes glazed over and it fell under Mistress Weaver’s command. Again, the heroes wondered at the dark bargain they’d made.
The second meliuscore didn’t fall as easy. Wild sunk arrows into it and Siegfried assailed it with more spells. Enraged, the megafauna rolled into an armored ball and flattened those between it and the archer. It struck Wild harder than the catfolk had ever been hit before. But, it’s rampage was cut short as the rest of the champions piled on until Mistress Weaver could control it with blood magic as well. Grumbling the whole time, Eshkar used his magic to seal some of the poor animals’ wounds.
From there, they struck out for the feywild portal under construction.
As the party neared the area, they heard the roar of cannons and muskets. Magic sizzled in the rainstorm. Still, they had beaten the clock and arrived before the arcane tempest started. It the heroes succeed; they’d stop a second gate to the waning prince’s dour kingdom.
The mercenaries from the garrison (Session 14) had already engaged the waning cult. They were valiantly charging the cannon lines on both sides of the crossroads village. From the south, Ghottle of the Nightvein and her stone golem smashed another cannon line to pieces. The only advantage the allies had was that the waning cultists weren’t well trained with the weapons. The arrival of the party and their fey back up quickly turned the tide.
Gwadd bewildered the core cultists forces (Waning Cultists and Devout
, as well as veterans and warlocks of the archfey) in the town square around a large deadfly infested tree. Mistress Weaver sent the two meliuscore plummeting through a wrecked building into the back of a cannon line. Sykes and Riley the dervish cut into the western cannon line and aided the faltering mercenaries while their goblin ally Niq scampered about healing the fallen soldiers. Soon, Lady Lasthope for Spring joined the assassin and dervish on the frontline. Her smoked glass sword sliced apart the mad cultists as easily as a scythe felled wheat. The other golden fey knight, the Knight of the Veins, summoned swarms of silver butterflies to engage the Swarm of Direflies.
Wild the ranger ascended the crumbling roof of the inn as Moon’s fireworks streaked through the town. Amid the cowering and scattering fanatics, Wild spotted the portal and a bevy of warlocks around it. They were led by a twisted Waning Scion (upgraded to a legendary creature), Goddus Vetericus, in trying to open the gate anyway. Wild shot Goddus and garnered his attention. The scion’s head was ruptured by direfly-infested bonespurs. His robe was open to the waist, showing that his torso was all but consumed by dripping honeycombs. Goddus blasted Wild with Blight and personally took command of the battle.
Siegfried blasted the square with a fireball, blowing apart enchanted cultists, as well as those madmen, rushing to their aid. The warlocks with Goddus followed their leader and paralyzed several heroes with their spells. Goddus attempted to fill the now-collapsed western side of the village with Sickening Radiance by ripping a tear in reality to the feywild. However, Siegfried’s quick counterspell shut that down. Eshkar knew they needed to separate the enemy forces before they were overwhelmed, so he cut the village in half with a wall of thorns… and those meddlesome warlocks as well!
Wild continued to pummel Goddus with arrows while Siegfried lobbed more fireballs. Sykes, Gwaedd and Riley along with their allies cut down the remaining cultists on the western part of town. Sensing his end was near, and that the cult’s resolve was flattering, Goddus walked into the massive roots of the burning tree in the square. He called out to cult that they would not fail the waning princes and slit his own throat with his sickle.
As the waning scion fell, bleeding out, his corpse was devoured by the tree’s roots. The plant tore free from the earth and an unearthly roar came from a gigantic maw that tore open on its trunk. Goddus Vetericus had been reborn as a Deadwood (CR 9 version, upgraded to a legendary monster). The transformed villain crashed through the wall of thorns and mangled one of the meliuscore along with the remaining mercenaries on the east side. To the east, the stone golem and the soldiers with it were doing well enough, the other meliuscore making their work all the easier. However, if the heroes in the east didn’t hold, they’d fold and the cult would win the day.
Siegfried spent his last fireball on Deadwood Goddus, which while it burned didn’t slow the blighted three down. Sykes and Riley hacked at its bark only to be pounded by thick branches in return. Eshkar tended to the wounded the best he could along with Niq the Goblin. Wild tried to doge direfly swarms and cultists that had reached his rooftop position. The direflies within Deadwood Goddus sang in a foul chorus that drove many allies who heard it to their knees. It looked like the waning cult might win the day.
Gwaedd the bard had a different idea. The otterfolk hero abandoned his pistol and lined up a field cannon, loaded with shot from the Lodgemaster’s stores (Session 8). The ball flew right and true, straight down Deadwood Goddus’ gullet. The deadly tree exploded in a rain of splinters. The cultists on that side of the battle folded.
Yet, the fanatics on the northeastern were ready to fight to the last. They turned their cannons on the heroes and opened fire. Through the volley, Eshkar and Psykes hit the two cult veterans remaining over there with a guiding bolt each. This allowed the sharpshooter Wild to put them down with ease. The last lesser cultists were skewered by mercenaries or flattened by the ally stone golem. Again, grumbling, Eshkar moved to heal the two meliuscore.
While the heroes were elated with their victory, they knew there was still much to be done. Hillsbrook Valley was still under siege by dark fey forces and there was another cult-held portal to destroy. Except, that one was already active.
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