# 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
- <p class="callout info">Roll Initiative</p>
- 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
- <p class="callout success">End Initiative</p>
- 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
        - <p class="callout danger">RIP Eknon</p>
    - 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!
- <p class="callout success">The group is now level 4!</p>