An untamed frontier. Dark cults. Fickle fey gods. Ravenous fiends. Nothing black powder and sorcery won't fix... . Timberlands Campaign Diary
Like the heroes they are, the troupe decided to head back into danger and stayed on the western side of the Pond Peaks. They were able to catch up with the Wrathyrst Brothers, Kaspar, and Simon before the portable inn started moving again. They, along with Ser Silvercrown and his allies, were happy to see the heroes once again. It was agreed that the groups would travel together back to the warzone around Newpoole and help out where they could. Soon after, they all got rolling. Along the way cracks were made about Simon Wrathyrst clearly fancying the otterfolk sorceress Cedwynn, despite never talking to her, only staring and Kaspar’s budding affection for the rabbitfolk artificer Freya. Perhaps the two noblemen had an odd taste in relationships.
All that aside, a few hours later, the assembled heroes realized the battle wasn’t going well for Newpoole. The rabbitfolk paladin, Shiashe, was the first to spot trouble as she scouted ahead on the back of her griffon mount, Hibou. The Wrathyrst had broken through the battle lines in the forest some days ago, and that skirmish clearly ended badly for mortal forces. Despite being landlocked, the area was partially flooded with brackish water with trees uprooted in the morass. Humanoid corpses littered the area.
Among the carnage, two groups of deformed recaps worked. One group atop Giant Direfly and Gossamurder, gathered up corpses and were accompanied by squadrons of ambulatory skeletons coated in partially hardened blood honey. The other assortment of redcaps were also guarded by amber skeletons (skeletons that explode on death) and were processing the corpses they were brought through some massive, coffin-like machine that stripped the bodies down the bone, coated them in blood honey, and produced the undead troopers on the other side. Beyond that, the roadside keep a few hours ahead had clearly fallen, its ancient walls breached by rapidly grown trees and the banner of the Thief of Leaves on its parapets.
The heroes decided to split up. The Wrathyrst brothers and other NPCs would attack the skeleton processing machine while the party tackled the larger redcap force that was gathering corpses and blocking the water-logged road. Then the two groups would meet back at the portable inn and plan out a strike to retake the keep.
Gwaedd, the otterfolk bard, kicked off the fight against the redcap rider Holloweyes and his fey by transforming into a thunder lizard. The transformed bard charged forward only to be bitten by gossamurders and paralyzed by its poison. His allies, however, were not going to let him down. Naylth smashed into the ranks of amber skeletons only to discover they exploded in bone shards when they perished. Atop her griffon, Sinashe the rabbitfolk paladin engaged the mounted redcaps directly and kept them off of the paralyzed t-rex. Holloweyes the redcap peeled off from the central battle and went straight for Cedwynn the otterfolk sorceress directly after she started lancing the battlefield with spells.
Thankfully, Freya the rabbitfolk battle smith was there to cross blades with the fiendish fey. The battle was pitched back and forth, until Corpse Colonist crawled from their putrid ‘shells’. While this didn’t turn the tide in the redcaps’ favor, it did distract Cedwynn. Grossed out by the arachnid horrors, the sorceresses dumped fireballs into them and then into every other body pile to ensure they all died. Finally, Gwaedd broke free from the poison and he and Shinashe finished off the redcaps. From there they piled into Holloweyes and helped finish him off.
After a brief rest, the party regrouped with the Wrathyrst brothers. The NPCs had taken care of the amber skeleton-making machine, the redcaps that ran it, and all of the giant leeches pets that said redcaps kept. While they’d been successful, the portable inn wouldn’t be able to navigate the flooded-out roads so the assembled heroes would have to hoof it overland. However, they weren’t going to proceed blind.
Shinashe scouted ahead once more on her griffon and took stock of the conquered keep’s state. The walls of the ancient structure had been breached by several newly grown, twisted trees. Atop its four parapets, Waning Barb watched with their bows ready. In the center, were the remaining mortal survivors from the lost battle, penned in their own filth with untreated injuries. That wasn’t the worst of it. Not far from the pen, a Waning Athame sliced open victims brought to him and via the foul ritual transformed them into Anathema. Several of the splayed-open undead shuffled within the rent walls already.
As much as the paladin wanted to swoop in and stop this blasphemy, she knew it would be folly to attack alone and returned to her party. Along the way, she noted columns of amber skeletons marching in the direction of the party and their allies. Once Shinashe returned, it wasn’t long before a plan was hatched out. The Wrathyrst brothers, along with Ser Silvercrown and his companions, would tie up the squadrons of amber skeletons. This would give the player characters the cover they needed to assault the keep by surprise, free the prisoners and slay the fey spellcaster, Dry Meadow, Swallower of the Innumerable War-Dead.
The plan was simple. Shinashe and Cedwyn would attack a parapet atop Hibou with all three invisible while the rest of the heroes would go through one of the wall gaps and make for Dry Meadow directly. Along the way, the eladrin echo knight, Naylth, would use his echo to leap onto another parapet and take care of the archer there. Things went almost according to plan. Unfortunately, Dry Meadow saw through the invisibility of the riders and called out to his forces to be alert.
That really didn’t help much as Cedwynn, Freya, and Naltyh hit the first anathema they encountered hard. The trio cut the foul creation down and Nalyth leaped up to the parapet as planned. It wasn’t long before his accursed maul crushed the life out of the fey. Likewise, Shinashe finished off the waning barb she targeted and set Cedwynn down. From there, the griffon and rider moved onto the next archer.
Dry Meadow cackled in amusement, stepped onto an upturned sarcophagus lid nearby, and gripped the hand of the ruptured mummy fused to it. A moment later the lid took flight, and the waning athame headed straight for the other spellcaster, Cedwynn, who had already slowed Dry Meadow and some of his foulbrood. Dry Meadow answered with a volley of scorching rays. Cedwynn summoned a shadow dragon. The sorcerer duel was on.
Down below, Freya hacked through the anathema but also focused on keeping her newfound friends alive. Summoning a healing font, using arcane jolt, and sending curative spells through her homunculus, the brilliant rabbit folk kept her fellows in the fight. All the while, her steel guardian Remington had her back. Though, the construct eventually fell under the rain of gut-born attacks from the anathema.
The battle was intense with spells and arrows flying. Cedwynn nearly lost her life in the process, but in the end, the heroes came out on top. Bloodied and exhausted, they freed the imprisoned mercenaries and tended their graver wounds before looking at their own. The troupe prayed that the Wrathyrst brothers and their crew had a better time of it.
In questioning the mercenaries, they discovered that the battle had been going well enough until a truly towering undead tree tore through the earth. The sudden swell of released and magically directed groundwater that came with the colossus drowned the defenders’ lines. Then the redcaps and other fey host were on them before they could regroup. The battle quickly turned into a rout with those who couldn’t flee either slain or captured. Either way, they were harvested to bolster the waning army with undead forces.
The towering deadwood turret moved on to the next line of troops at a roadside fortification to the south. The mercenaries also knew that the crack musketeers of Newpoole, The Tempered, were to retreat to the nearby Western Thicket, to regroup as they trained in those tangled woods and knew them better than the fey would. Apparently, the fey warlord had dispatched one of his own elite squadrons after them. Likewise, Dry Meadow had met with other fey sorcerers as they fortified the captured keep and one of the mortal mercenaries overheard that those sorcerers were traveling east to the hills. There the sinister outsiders hoped to summon and recruit some manner of ancient, evil nature spirit to their cause.
The heroes sighed. It looked like there was much to do and not enough people to do it. The restored mercenaries would be enough to hold the keep against a light assault but not help in a pitched battle. Fortunately, the Wrathyrst brothers and company arrived. While their archer had been gravely injured, they too would be ready to travel after some rest. It was decided that both groups would head to the Western Thicket and retrieve the Tempered. A couple of dozen crack shots should make the rest of the push to Newpoole easier.
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