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Episode 16: There and There Again - 13 Jun 2020 13:15
Setting
The group lacked Saronil, and so was light on combat.
Without Saronil I didn't want to advance the plot too much, so I gave the group the chance to find out something others would not know yet, while also keeping them around the Boldhome area. The breaking of the roads was massive and major, but also something you could not find out about unless you went out of your city in Sacred Time.
IC Play
The group got sent to Jonstown to look into the library and find out what might have gone wrong. They rapidly got onto the wrong road, and continued on towards, apparently, Wilmskirk. Several times they found themselves going to Clearwine instead of Jonstown, even when looking out for it.
Along their way, they decided to step off the path which was misleading them, and so they were walking through the wilderness. They spotted a dead baboon on their trail, with two others hiding nearby: a huge one and a small one. Varaema managed to coax them out, and they had the story from the pair; human bandits had attacked them, and the two, Papa and Gallaf, asked to hire the adventurers for help. The baboons could, fortunately, do the tracking.
They went along for half a day, passing where the bandits had stopped to heal themselves, and where they had gone along a river to cut away from a trail, with Gallaf, the smaller baboon, consistently keeping them on trail. They circled some flat ground, and went into a valley from a pass where they could see a fire's smoke off in the distance. Gallaf went forwards carefully, with Androus a little way back. Shortly there was the sound of fighting and Androus galloped forwards with Papa Baboon following. Aria used magic to speed them up, casting Mobility repeatedly.
Gallaf was up a tree by this point, and being harried by the bandits. Androus killed one with his spear, after they scattered at his arrows. Aria was brought down by their bows and Varaema ran to help her.
Gallaf and Papa hunted bandits, while Androus shot from horseback, but was unfortunately downed by a lucky shot by one of them.
The others were lucky and Gallaf and Papa killed every bandit not already dead. Then Papa offered to pay for Androus being resurrected, and Varaema hurried his body to Boldhome to get it done before Death's touch damaged him too much. Gallaf took Varaema by the shortest route.
~~~~~dream~~~~~
Androus is on a path, walking towards Yelm. He is not Androus, he is Yelmalio, and he is going home. And yet…a white-clad, alluring Lady catches him up, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. She tells him it is not yet his time: his friends would miss him, and he has more to do in the world before he returns to his father.
Yelmalio concedes…for a while. Then realises this Lady is some kind of deceiver, and fends her off with his holy Spear. But…she resists. Overcomes, but without force, only love. His spear passes through her hand, leaving a red circle, a dot in the middle. And…
~~~~~~dream~~~~~
…he woke. In the Chalanna Arroy temple in Boldhome.
The others had to walk back, guided by Papa Baboon.
Other Things
This was a stacked encounter so I gave the adventurers some help in the form of a tracker who was competent with weapons, and a warrior who was a competent tracker. The bandits were under-armoured, and thus went down relatively easily, and they did not have much magic. However, they were lucky to kill Androus - Papa was an honourable baboon and we treated the donation to the Temple as a thing that could be part of a contract, rather than a life debt.
Tags: 1625 andros baboons gallaf kosa papa sacred_time varaema
