Session 5 - 21APR2024

Attendees

• Tim ✅
• Walter ✅
• Erica ✅
• Jin ✅
  
• Nick ✅
  
• Alex ❌
  

Copy/Paste Source: ✅ ❌

Recap to Current Situation

•  We got a VARDIS from a powerful being, traveled to Wudu, put out some fires, saved some folks
  

Session Notes

•  We decide to investigate where the other mercenary party and the hobgoblin ran off to
• We figure out that the hobgoblin proceeds West while the mercenary trail heads back East
• We look for the local Council of the Few to inform them what we have learned about the direction of travel for the party of mercenaries
• The local chapter of the Council of the Few building remains standing, completely unscathed in a sea of ashes
• It is just a single room with a single caretaker
• He explains that he employed the protocol and folded the building into a pocket dimension to protect the building
• The caretaker is named Udo
• We relay our story of the other mercenary group to Udo
• He relays that message back to HQ
• We decide to head west in pursuit of the hobgoblin
• We manage to find a recently used campsite
  • Investigating, we can tell that there is more than a single set of footprintes
  • Somebody has left behind a crude, mundane iron dagger
  • We are able to figure out that the trail went to the Northwest
  • The footprints are hobgoblin made, maybe ~6 of them
• We are confronted by a single hobgoblin that threatens us.
  • After some acrobatic intimidation by Nick and Jin, the single hobgoblin surrenders to us
• After some gentle (extremely violent) persuasion, the hobgoblin is amenable to providing information
  • We ask about Eknon the Vex:
    • There is a hobgoblin camp ~1 hour north where the other hobgoblins are
    • We will find Eknon the Vex there
    • We leave him tied up with a little bit of food
    • We learn his name is Klankec
      • However, we learn his real name is Krokkak the Razor
• We set back out on our journey and Nick decides to wear Krokkak as a backpack
• Krokkak helps us avoid a couple traps on our journey north
• We eventually reach a hillside with some conspicuous bushes at its base
• Nick disguises himself as Krokkak and enters the hobgoblin warren
  • Erica sneaks along behind
• Upon entering, Nick is challenged with a question by somebody in a language that he doesn't understand
• Nick decides to try to commune with the roots of a tree nearby and have the roots smack him in the face
• He is confused about what is going on and is disoriented, allowing Nick to proceed past him, Erica decides to duck out and return to the rest of the party
• We have now split the party:
• Nick's series of events:
  • He decides to head further in and enters a side room to see what was in it
  • Nick finds something that seems unusual upon investigating
  • It is a dark wood buckler (worth 175 gold)
  • Nick takes the buckler with him and heads back into the warren
  • Nick is able to hear 6 different hobgoblin voices as he is sneaking around
  • Nick decides to cast shatter in the middle of the group, then use Hidden Step to escape out of the warren
    • Two hobgoblins die and the rest are injured
• The rest of the party, waiting for Nick:
  • We hear a loud boom as we see the bushes part at the base of the hill and Nick (invisibly) leaves the Warren
  • We are 30 feet from the entrance

• Roll Initiative

• We decide to fight like insane monkeys that have had too much opium
  
• Nick sets up a powerful wind blast at the entrance, keeping the hobgoblins pinned into the cave
• Jin sets down Hunger of Hadar zone at the entrance where the hobgoblins that we see are
• Walter beheads the one hobgoblin with a thrown handaxe
• Erica lights a fire near the source of Nick's wind
• The fire is fed by the wind to blow smoke and CO2 into the cave
• As hobgoblins enter the cave, we knock them back into Jin's crazy tentacles
• Flaming barrels roll down the hill as six hobgoblins crest the hill and are coming towards us
• After some fighting, we are able to finish combat

• End Initiative

• Jin and Walter are able to see some hobgoblin women and children hobgoblins leaving from another exit
• We ask Krokkak the Razor to ID the hobgoblin bodies and figure out that Eknon is not among the dead
• Nick and Erica charge into the warren while Jin and Walter hang out at the rear entrance to make sure nobody escapes out the back
• Nick and Erica:
  • Charging into the warren, they find Eknon the Vex wearing the dragon scale necklace
  • Eknon claims his actions were done for a greater purpose
    • Eknon claims that the Firbolg were protecting people that wanted to exterminate the hobgoblins
    • He claims the firbolg were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time
  • Eknon offers to duel Nick 1:1 and Nick accepts
  • While Nick is preparing himself for combat, Erica decides to ask Eknon for more information
    • Eknon claims that there has been a systematic genocide waged against the hobgoblins
    • This extermination was perpretrated by a familiar sounding band of high level mercenaries
    • These mercenaries seem to have originated from the same place as the Firbolg village
    • Nick shows a picture of his wife and kids to Eknon
      • Eknon understands his actions have hurt other and surrenders his sword, offering his life as penance
      • Nick picks up his sword and cuts off Eknon's head

    • RIP Eknon

  • Erica grabs the dragon scale necklace that Eknon had been wearing while she comforts Nick
    • As Erica touches the necklace, she is overcome by feelings of sadness and loneliness
    • Glimpses of the past flood her memory
    • A dimly lit room comes into view, scrolls lining the walls
    • A humanoid figure in a tattered cloak lurches up from a desk and looks at Erica
    • The face under a cloak was heavily bandaged
    • End Memory!

• The group is now level 4!