Week Five Wrap-Up Esteria 09/14/2021

Present
Ron
Greg – human rogue Rupert Castwell
Tim – dwarven paladin Gorock
Dan – human ranger Oswald
Bren – human fighter Ford
John – human fighter Anders
Tom – half elf/orc cleric Malus Ozzium

Absent
Phil – human sorcerer Azarkain (1)

– First Encounter with Displacer Beast
XP 100 – (all but Phil/Azarkain)
– Second Encounter with Displacer Beast
XP 200 – (all but Phil/Azarkain)

Loot:
– 11GP per PC
– Potion: Cure Serious
– Potion: Protection from Evil
– Ring: Properties Unknown
Party treasure = 7GP (current 14.5)

Notable Characters met:
– not applicable

Notable Locations:
– None

Story Arc: We departed Riverdown and crossed the bridge to make our way south by southeast down the east bank of the river enroute to Whiterocks. The old imperial road was still easy to follow, but starting to see serious damage from erosion and the encroachment of roots and weeds. The occasional passage of traffic keeps the bigger weeds back, but the shoulders of the road have completely gone to seed. I’m no Imperial cheer monger, but what traveler doesn’t appreciate a well-maintained road?

Azarkain got held up in Riverdown for reasons he declined to disclose. He said he’d be along in half a day or so, but I worried what might happen to him, traveling alone. That said, he’s a grown man and has to follow his own path.

The mood was upbeat as we walked along, with much of the talk revolving around our childhoods and how attractive we each found the nymph, Danus. Personally, I observed that in spite of her undeniable sexual gravity, my impression of her was tinged by the cloud of chaos that swirled around her, corrupting the good sense of all who she might encounter. She could be dangerous if turned upon the civilized people.

Late in the afternoon, not long until we’d needs to start looking for a place to camp, a great black cat leaped from a tree upon Oswald. The creature was augmented by two long, powerful tentacles that ended in flaps embedded with talon-like hooks. The thing had Oswald wrapped up in one of those tentacles before we could react.

Worst yet, the black cat’s form vibrated with a strange energy, and almost every time one of our valiant warriors brought his weapon down on the thing’s head, the head wasn’t there, or the leg moved to a completely different place without having moved through the space in between. The upshot was that the cat wasn’t getting hit much, and it took some time and a lot of healing before it took enough damage to run it off.

Everyone was hot to run the beast down and slay it, but we paused to heal everyone up with bandages. When all were back and ready for the fight, Oswald started his search, aided by a generous blood trail. It wasn’t long before we came to a tunnel beneath the roots of a great tree, broad and large enough for a man to walk upright down into it. Rupert immediately began making his way down into the darkness by the light of a token that I enspelled.

Immediate, the big cat pounced, but failed to pin the rogue. In a moment, Rupert made a move that had him slipping past the creatures’ slashing claws and snapping jaws, rolling over its back and landing on his feat directly behind it. The rest of us, including the displacer beast, just stood there for a moment, our slack jaws heaping honor upon Ru’s mad skillz. But predictably, we got back to killing each other soon enough. Again, the cat’s spacial dishonesty made him frustratingly hard to hit, taxing our ability to take him down easily.

Oswald spent half his time unconscious and grappled, which was very alarming for me as I had to make sure the cat couldn’t maul him to death. In the end, it was the beast that showed him grace by dropping him instead of finishing him off right before we finished it.

In the end, we prevailed and were able to get everyone healed up before moving off a bit to camp and recharge. Rupert noted that there was a lot more to the tunnel beneath the tree and we felt it needful to return in the morning.

• This topic was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by Hocho Militus (Tom).