The Acts of The Lords of Rannick, XII

It’s funny how sometimes we get a lot done. The wedding section of this current jaunt, for example, I feel like there was a lot of stuff got done. There was shopping and an introduction to  the town, horseshoes, that bridesmaid auction, dancing, then the hectic fight at the ceremony… that was a lot of stuff and with a full table of people too.

In comparison, most of last night was spent in a very small cave. In terms of doing vital stuff, collecting the wardstones was vital, but time flew by with only three people and before you know it, it was 11pm.

Dead Man’s Drop to the Forest Conclave’s Encampment; Check ‘ride a unicorn’ off that bucket list, Lonny.

Okay so, Rrrar, a glowing water elemental is threatenening the people in the waterfall cave.

But wait, who approaches from the south. Why, it is Lonny. Lonny has spent the better part of the day try to catch up with the rest of the party who have been obscured by mist. After leaving the Druid’s lodge the mist almost instantly enveloped Lonny cutting him off from the rest of the party. He could hear everyone, distantly, but could never seem to get them to hear him.

Trailing behind everyone else, he still had to make his way up the slippery wash gully. He did, after a spot of bouncing down and hurting himself. Then he had to cross the rope-line that Corwyn directed him to before disappearing into the mist and never being seen again. Lonny made his way across, with only one small slip and arrived to find combat joined.

The water elemental had crashed into the cave mouth and been joined by the Nixie who added little arrows to the interlopers. Torgor, having knocked himself unconscious on the cave wall by standing up in alarm, lay on the cave floor while Albedon disappeared in a puff of not-being-too-invested-in-the-welfare-of-these-guys-he-really-let’s-face-it-just-met.

That left only Dagfinn and Kerplak to carry on the fight. Which they were having a hard time doing. The water elemental hits hard and hits pretty well and it victimized Dagfinn pretty badly. Dagfinn had the idea of getting back out onto the shoreline. As he and Kerplak tried to put more dry land between the elemental and their tender parts, Lonny charged along the shore, calling down Torag’s mighty beneficence upon them. The Dwarven God smiled on them… or whatever it is Dwarven gods do when they are happy and healed them quite a bit. Enough to keep them in the fight. The Elemental was eventually brought crashing down and Lonny scored a spell critical with an acid dart that melted the Nixie before their eyes. Oh, what a world.

Back into the cave (no-one, in all the running in and out of the cave, was every swept from the tiny ledge into the pool) and Lonny and Dagfinn took a crack at identifying the magic items. Lonny found a potion of levitate and a potion of cat’s grace while Dagfinn found a wand of Cure Moderate Wounds with 29 charges and a +1 Hammer. The masterwork longsword was, alas, just a really nice longsword.

Kerplak, meanwhile, was trying to figure out how much money was in the bandit’s hoard. A lot, he decided. When everything was assessed and the last of the wardstones gathered, they left the cave. The mist, while still thick, no longer pulsed outwards from the lake and the air was starting to clear. However Kerplak noticed that at the top of the cliff face, brambles had appeared.

Sure enough, a veritable host of Spriggans appeared around the rim of the bowl and a reedy voice cried out “Well done! But the wardstones will do you no good! The first army of Queen Rhoswen has already arrived. She will claim this forest, and you can do nothing about that. Now put the stones back, lay down your weapons, and perhaps we’ll let you live!”

Dagfinn wasn’t buying it, Tenzekil (for it was he) had no intention of letting them live. They mad a dash back to the cave as the Spriggans lashed out with Shatter spells. One caught Kerplak’s box of bombs, which by now contained only smoke bombs, splintering it to pieces and dropping the smoke bombs into the pool. Lonny cast Obscuring Mist, buying them some time to escape and then once they were all in the cave, cast Ancestral Defender, which brought the spirits of Lonny’s Great-great-grandfather and Great-great-grandmother back to slash at the Spriggans as they descended the cliff and charged the cave. Also, Dagfinn discovered Feint and set up some easy shots for Kerplak.

The party began dispatching Spriggans in their defensive position, with the Ancestral Defenders wading in with ghostly axes from the shore, but whenever one Spriggan fell, another two arrived at the shoreline to press them further. One Spriggan caught Kerplak with an axe blow that introduced a poison into the gnome’s system, sapping his health. Lonny disintegrated the small ledge, sending the Spriggan into the water.

Just when things looked like they would draw out to a brutal attrition-based conclusion, the far end of the shore dazzled with the sudden arrival of a half a dozen unicorns. Appearing from thin air, they bore down on the Spriggans impaling them and trampling them under their perfect hooves. Palombier, whom Corwyn had earlier rescued, cleared a path to the cave entrance and bellowed, magnificently, “Kindness repaid, friends! Ride with us and we’ll escape this place!” Everything Palombier says has an exclamation point at the end of it.

Lonny quickly remade the ledge and impressively bounded onto the back of a unicorn. Kerplak and Dagfinn were faced with a dreadful dilemma: escape or treasure… escape on the back of a unicorn or carry off the bandit’s iron lockbox full of coins. Oh, also unconscious Torgor.  Kerplak managed to get two handfuls of coins, stuffed in his little pockets before leaping onto the back of his ride. Lonny hauled Torgor out of the cave and once they were on their unicorns, the shoreline and the host of angry Spriggans disappeared suddenly…

… and they found themselves galloping through misty forest glades. The unicorns pulled up when they reached a wide clearing, free of the mist that had choking the forest. Instead, it was full of tents, pavilions, campfires, satyrs, centaur, elves, gnomes and various fey caparisoned for war.

And that’s where we left them.