The episode began with our adventurers waking in the small village of Ensburn. After a quick morning meal, Bardryn decided she would engage in a conversation with one of the local males, asking him about the derelict village and the religious symbol they found there. This resulted in him telling her in no uncertain terms to stop talking about such things in the village. Unperturbed, Bardryn continued, deciding to show him a picture of the symbol that was in the diary Jett had found. This, of course, brought further irritation to the male who decided he'd had enough and left. Jett headed out to the village market and asked if anyone knew of a Drystan. An elderly villager told him that all knew of Drystan - and not in a good way - before giving him directions. "Once you reach the path with the broken swords and skeletons; that's the place." On arriving, the adventurers met with a male and told him of
their reason for being at the house. The male called out to Drystan who exited
from the house and met with them in the yard. When the party told Drystan why
they were there, Drystan informed that he would not back off Bill until Bill
paid back the debt he owed Drystan of 2000gp. A brief conversation then occurred
about how the debt could be repaid, with Bill selling the horseyard and paying
the debt out of the sale as an option, to which Drystan replied that he did not
care how the money was collected as long as he was paid his due. A group discussion was had between the adventurers where
Jett advised that the deal to sell the
horseyard and give the money to Drystan was not a good deal as Bill
would need the money to resettle. He advised that Bill told them to ‘deal’ with
Drystan as part of the agreement. Group then decided to attack devising a plan whereby Tados would
gain Drystan’s attention by singing while Jett would use his sneak ability to
moves around behind Drystan and attack from behind. As Jett attacked, Leonithas
was to charge at Rob (the first male). Taking Rob and Drystan by surprise both Jett and Leonithas
made successful attacks which then got the party to begin their initiative
stage. Tados took the top spot and began with taking a supporting
role, casting heroism on Leonithas, enabling Leonithas to gain health at the
beginning of each of his turns. Naivara then made an attempt to attack, but a
more perceptive Rob saw what was coming and was able to block. Coming out from the storehouse, Lue, the Sorceress in
Drystan’s gang, cast beacon of hope on her comrades giving them a boost for the
combat ahead. While Jett then let forth an arrow on Drystan hitting him. As more gang members ran out from the house and the
storehouse, they made successful attacks on Leonithas and Naivara. Leonithas was
able to then retaliate; however, his attacks were blocked. Bardryn, seeing her opportunity on a surprised Drystan took
out her battleaxes and with a powerful and precise hit made a critical hit on
Drystan. (Under the new homebrew rules, Bardryn was able to proclaim a limb
that would be damaged as part of the critical hit and she decided that Drystan
leg would be maimed.) As his leg was severely damaged, Drystan’s movement was
cut by half. What followed was a combat of almost epic proportions as the
adventurers met steel with magic, and magic with steel. During the following
rounds Tados expanded on his supporting role by using his abilities to heat the
armour of one of the gang forcing him to disrobe the armour and thereby
lowering his AC. Drystan began to rage after being hit by Bardryn and
recklessly retaliated on her with successful hits before yelling in her face in
defiance. Lue used cure wounds on Drystan before summoning her guardian spirit
Sprites which attacked Jett and Leonithas on their turns. Jett successfully hit
the sorceress, but she was able to maintain her concentration on the spell;
however, Leonithas’ attack was too much for her and the guardian spirits dissipated. While this was occurring, two members of the gang teamed up
on Naivara knocking her unconscious, and Bardryn again causes great wounds to the
leader, Drystan yeling in defiance back at him as she did so. Naivara failed her first death throw remaining prone and unconscious
on the ground, while the “I’ll-hit-you-and-you-hit-me” combat between Drystan
and Bardryn continued with Drystan making more successful attacks on the dwarf. Seeing that Tados was slowly being surrounded by the gang, Leonithas
sent some sanctuary Tados’ way which proved effective for the Bard and stopped
many attacks from the gang. Using the sanctuary to his advantage, Tados dodged
and ducked most of the attacks made against him while being able to send
healing to the adventurers, especially bringing Naivara back to health, and making
some attacks himself with his rapier as he did so. Leonithas also proved a stalwart in the combat, utilising
his shield to great effectiveness against attacks made toward him while hitting
with great power with his glaive. The mini battle continued with both sides starting to show
signs of wear, wounds, and frustration. Taking on the sorceress himself, Tados uses
his innate ability to create a deafening thunderclap which finds it mark
against Lue, quickly following this with her rapier which the sorceress manages
to evade. While Naivara, now revived, disengages to find a place to heal. Drystan, seeing that the Dragonborn paladin is lending aide
to his dwarven foe turns his attack toward Leonithas and makes critical hits
against him. While around them the gang and the adventurers exchange blow for
blow. Recoiling from the thunderclap, the sorceress tries to
banish Tados to another plane but Tados simply shrugs the spell off and
retaliates with a well-aimed hit with his scimitar, while dodging an attack
from behind at the same time. With Bardryn making more hits on Drystan with Leonithas
lending support, the leader was forced to quickly disengage to a safer spot.
However, seeing that his members were still in greater health than the
Adventurers he took the opportunity to call out, “We can do this all day, or
you can stop and go home!” And this proved to be true, as a well-timed attack from one
of Drystan’s men knocks Bardryn unconscious. Getting tired of being beaten by the Bard, the sorceress sends
some healing Drystan’s way and tries blindness deafness on Tados which he also shrugs
off, retaliating immediately with his scimitar, hitting her. Now recovered, Naivara sees that Tados is flanked and sends
a fire bolt to hit the gang member behind the Bard. His clothing erupts in
flames as her bolt successfully hits the gang member in the chest. She quickly
follows this up with another bolt, causing further injury to the man. While this was happening, Jett had managed to safely clamber
his way to the roof of Drystan’s house, sending an arrow into the gang member
who now had no armour, before seeing Drystan retreat to the storehouse steps.
Quickly jumping from the house roof to the storehouse roof he lowered himself
down behind the gang leader and tries to make an attack; however, Drystan saw
the movement and blocked him. Tados sends healing Bardryn’s way, recovering her from
death; however, in doing so he opened himself for attack and fell unconscious
as a result.
This is where the episode ended for the night. Come back next
week to see how this unfolds and where the Adventurers head to next!