Ep 26 - Eaden bound

With the Party now exonerated from any involvement in the murder of the Mayor and his wife, the Adventurers begin a new - and thier last - day in Ealinor... As the spring sun shines on a new day, the Party wake in the Inn and make thier way downstairs for thier morning meal as they discuss what to do now that they have been able to prove thier innocence. Jett reminds the group that they still have thier carts hidden by the riverside and wants to retrieve them so that they can return any stolen goods and sell the others, while Catsi wants to begin making headway to the capital city, Eaden. Unsure what is the best course of action, they throw around ideas until a somewhat frustrated Catsi decides to gather the uniforms, bundle them together, and take them to Bartelot while the group reach a decision. Bundle in hand, she heads over to the Encampment, meets with Bartelot and having returned the uniforms says her goodbyes, and asks if the General has a letter for her to take to Eaden. Bartelot goes off to check returning with one, and information from the General that he has received word from Hector in Cluistead that the Elves do confirm what Catsi said of greater numbers of monsters in the Esdarhill Woods and mountains nearby, therefore the General has included the information in the letter requesting a force be sent to deal with the Monsters. Catsi thanks Bartelot for letting her know and, once said her goodbyes, asks where the young soldier Jasper was so she could do the same to him. Bartelot informs her he is in the training yard and she makes her way there to see the Jasper trying to yield a greatsword at a practice dummy with little success. Waiting until he is ready to make another swing, she sneaks up behind him and just as he is making his swing suddenly says loudly, "Put more swing into it!" Cursing as the greatsword misses the dummy entirely and almost sends him sprawling, he chastises the Tabaxi for surprising him again, though Catsi laughs it off and tells him they are leaving town. With goodbyes said, and Catsi beginning to turn to leave, Jasper picks up the greatsword and attempts to hit the dummy though misses again. Not wanting to waste an opportunity to tease the lad, Catsi quickly runs in, take the sword off him and with a STR roll of 23, drives the great blade deep into the dummy. She quickly runs off laughing, with Jasper shouting "Fuck you, Catsi!", she yells back, "Strength training 101!" Not long after Catsi left, Jett decided that he will go back to the river to collect the carts. Saying that he would be quicker going by himself and for the rest to go on ahead as he will catch up, he leaves the group at the Inn to head to Bill's house to purchase a second horse to pull the carts. Successful animal handling rolls (one of which being a Crit Roll!) guaranteed Jett a purchase, and once done the Elf rode west to the river, but not before Bill remembered that Emeliene, the Lute playing Bard needed to talk with him. Leaving a note for her to meet him at the Inn later that night, he began a four hour journey which went by without incident with thanks to successive PERC rolls (again one of them being a Crit roll) and Jett quickly tied the carts to the horses and made his return journey, which also went without incident due to successive rolls (with a further Crit roll!).  As night deepened and the hour grew later, he met with Emiliene who informed him that she knew about the Mayor and the implications of the groups' involvement, plus of thier subsequent exoneration. What she was not sure if Jett knew was that there was a third person living at the house purporting to be a historian; however, his name was not recorded anywhere as being in the town. Furthermore, the night that the Mayor was murdered, her scouts saw this man leaving the Mayor's house with one of the guarding soldiers and was ushered eastwrd out of the town via the sewer pipes where the man met with a group of people and rode off where the scout lost sight of him. With this new information in mind, Jett told her to gain what information she could from the soldier, and deal with him accordingly, and to take control of the sewer pipe passage for thier use if needed. Once completed with the meeting, he took a rest in preparation for the journey ahead to catch up to the others. Once Catsi and Jett had left, Lylliannes, Tados and Calico headed for the stables so that Tados could try play her song for the bear again, and so that Calico could meet the bear. As they entered the stables and began to walk down the aisle between the stalls, Charlemaines poked his head over the stall door and watched them approach. He seemed much more attentive and awake this morning than he did the day before, although Lylliannes had a special treat of honeycakes prepared just to be sure, giving one each to Calico and Tados, before telling Charlemaines to be good to them. Using his cake to sweeten thier first meeting, Calico hesitantly offered the sweet treat to Charlemaines unsure what reaction he would get from the large bear. An animal handling roll of 23 ensured that Charlemaines took a liking to the Drow, and the bear gently licked his hand in thanks for the treat before allowing Calico to pat and scratch him. Following Calico, Tados also offered his cake to the bear and with his animal handling roll of 21 also was rewarded with Charlemaines taking a greater liking and interest to the Tiefling. Deciding to build on this, Lylliannes told Tados to play his song for the bear again and with a performance roll of 26 successfully gained the bear's interest and willingness to perform with the song. With success in thier minds, they headed back to the Inn where they caught up with Catsi, and peeling Bardryn from the bar of the Inn made thier way to Bill's so that Calico could buy a horse also. With a little guidance from himself and a bit of inspiration from Tados, Calico managed to purchase a mare who was somewhat willing to listen to the Drow - mostly, anyway. Heading east they began thier journey to Eaden with Calico leading the way. Passing wide open plains as they followed the road, the first two hours passed without troubles. As the third hour came, the road veered left and travelled parrallel to the Everchanging Woods. Knowing that anyone, or any thing could jump out from the cover of the trees, Calico trained his sight on the canopy and trunks as they travelled. Three successive PERC rolls advanced the group an extra hour as the Drow vigilantly ensured they were safe; however, as they advanced into the seventh hour even the Drow's fortitude had its limits. Two failed PERC rolls advanced the group slowly to the end of the eighth hour and as the darkness of night began to roll over the day, they headed to the side of the road to rest. As they set up camp, Calico began to have a niggling thought in the back of his mind, a memory of something he was supposed to do but, with an INT roll of 9, he could not immediately grasp what it was (Brent who plays Calico knew instantly what he had forgotten to say he needed to do). As the Drow thought about it he sat down beside the now lit fire as the reason finally dawned on him - he had not gone to the Cathedral to collect the religious item before they left! Thankfully, they still had a member in Ealinor that could help and quickly using a sending spell, sent a message to Jett, asking him to go to the Cathedral to get the item before he left.  Having gone to the Cathedral and collected the item, Jett then began his night's journey to meet with his friends. Passing over the open plans as the almost full face of the moon shone a brilliant light over them, Jett travelled the first two hours without incident. As the road verged toward the trees he travelled the third, fifth, and sixth hours easily, but found difficulty on the fourth, seventh and eighth hours. However, he arrived at the camp with his friends safe but worn out just as they were about to have thier morning meal. Now that they were together, they continued east with a tired Jett sleeping in the cart as they did so. Taking the lead again, Calico took watch though his mind seemed focussed on the item that Jett brought to him and paid more attention to assuring itself the item was there and not left behind again. Three consecutive failed PERC dc rolls not only forced the group to travel slowly but as they drew closer to a bridged crossing of a fast flowing stream, saw the group suddenly faced with six frogmen who lept onto the bridge blocking thier way. As intiative was rolled and PC's placed, the group turned thier mind to the first combat scenario that this current group have faced together.  Initiative: Frogman1, Tados, Frogman2, Catsi, Lylliannes, Frogman3, Frogman4, Bardryn, Frogman5, Frogman6, Jett, Calico. Turn 1: Seeing the Party coming up the bridge the first of the Frogmen, jumps up onto the wooden bridge bellowing out a call. Maintaining his position, he waits to see what these humans do before he makes his move, as Tados casts Heroism on Catsi and Bardryn. The second of the Frogmen jumps from the tall grass to join the first on the bridge as Catsi tries to stealth her way to the side of the bridge and down the embankment; however, with a crit failed stealth roll the Frogmen watch her every move. Taking up the fore, Lylliannes darts ahead, using her Circle of the Moon to change into a Dire Wolf and leaps at FM1 to take a biting chunk out of him but misses as he sees her coming and ducks out of the way. FM3 makes his leap from the other side of the bridge to land next to FM2 creating a full line across the bridge as FM4, FM5 and FM6 each make leaping bounds down the embankment toward the stream. Bardryn uses her turn to rush onto the bridge stopping 20ft short of FM3, while Jett fires an arrow hitting FM1 and Calico casts Spiritual Weapon creating a giant hand mirror behind FM1 and casting Toll the Dead on FM1 also. Both attacks find thier mark dealing further damage to the Frogman. Turn 2: FM1 retaliates at the Dire Wolf form of Lylliannes who darts out of the way of the spear attack causing it to miss, as Tados sends a crossbow bolt into FM2. Reeling from the impact of the bolt, FM2's attack on Lylliannes misses. Seeing that her plan has failed, Catsi changes direction and jumps to clamber up the side of the bridge with a successful Acrobatics roll. Using her movement, she runs along the top of the bridge wall until she gets aside FM1 and uses her double attack and full 10ft of ball and chain to successfully hit FM1 and FM2. With an ally nearby, Lylliannes Dire Wolf form relishes in Pack Tactics and makes a hit on FM1, taking a biting chunk of flesh out the frog form while FM3 runs up to attack Bardryn but misses. Seeing the feline form of Catsi running along the bridge wall, FM4 makes a giant leap to land next to the Tabaxi, however, in doing so, alerts her to its presence and its attack misses as Catsi dodges out of the way. In response to FM3's attack, Bardryn whips out her battleaxes and using her Action Surge makes four quick strikes at the frog, three of which cuts deep gashing wounds into the wet body which begin to bleed green/blue blood. FM5 and FM6 continue thier advance across the stream, unaware that almost everyone is now on the bridge. Jett fires an arrow at FM5 as it swims across the stream but misses, then uses his turn to clamber up the side of the bridge wall and onto the bridge itself. As the turn comes to a close, Calico once more makes successfull hits with his large hand mirror and Toll the Dead, leaving FM1 deeply wounded and hurt as it begins to weaken from loss of blood. To be continued...