Tyranny of Dragons - Session 5

After a week off, we're back with more Tyranny of Dragons! The heroes have repelled much of the raider's devastation from Greenest, but they still managed to get away with much of the wealth of the town. After a quick reminder to the players, we picked up the next morning:

After some much needed rest, you are all eating breakfast with Governor Nighthill, who has been deep in thought for most of the morning. Suddenly he breaks out of his stupor and makes a proposal to you. He wants you to locate the raiders' camp and find out some information. He immediately offers 250gp to each of you. He wants to know where the camp is sited, how many raiders there are, who their leaders are, what is motivating the attacks, and where they plan to strike next. If you recover any valuables that were stolen, great, but it's a lesser goal for now.

The party asked for some rations and any healing potions the town may still have. The governor asked them to work with Escobert to acquire your rations and ask Nathaniel Lightbow or Eadyan Falconmoon about the potions. They acquired ten days worth of additional rations each, not knowing how long they'd be on the trail. But unfortunately, when Lou went to ask Eadyan about healing potions, he was all out. He did, however provide the location of a cave to the southeast, the same direction the raiders went off to, in which a moss called Menhirite grows. He uses that to make his potions of healing and could brew some if he could get more supplies. He couldn't go himself since he would be leading a vigil for the fallen townsfolk.

With that, the group headed off to the southeast after the raiders, planning to stop by the cave on the way home. As they were leaving town, they saw a figure approaching:

A young man walks up to you, limping heavily on his bandaged left leg. "I hear that you intend to follow the raiders and see where they've gone. I'd like nothing better than to come with you, but in this condition, I'd slow you down. In the midst of all this tragedy there's no reason you would have heard about the fate of my master, Leosin Erlanthar, but it's important you know. He is a monk from Berdusk. He disappeared last night, after we fought a particularly savage battle against raiders. A few others and I fought our way to the keep, barely. Leosin didn't make it at all. We went back this morning to look for him, but all we found was his broken staff and this choker, which he always wore."

Thamior then revealed to the group that Leosin saved his life. He wants to go figure out what could have happened to him and pay back the debt if he can. Inspecting the staff and choker a bit closer, the staff looked like nothing special, but the choker was a braided leather neckband with a silver dragon design chased into the leather. The ends were ragged, as if it was roughly torn off.

The young man introduced himself as Nesim Waladra and continued:

"Leosin has been investigating these raiders for months. I fear that he might have tried to infiltrate their group when they retreated, or worse, was captured and carried away as a prisoner. No one understands these bandits better than he does, and his knowledge will be invaluable against them. When you find their camp, please look for any sign that Leosin is there. One of my brothers has already departed for Berdusk to bring back help, but it will be many days before that help arrives. Anything you can do before then would be a godsend."

Agreeing that Leosin was probably taken by the raiders, the party agreed to try to kill two birds with one stone and continue on to investigate the raider's camp. They journeyed down a wide swath of tamped down grass that ebbed and weaved between rolling hills, which was left by the raiders. There were mostly human footprints with some kobold and larger reptilian prints as well. Moki sang some songs, Ilda talked about her feelings, and Adolphus noticed that the footsteps in their direction of travel were slightly deeper than the ones going toward Greenest. The group guessed that this could have been because the raiders were laden with Greenest's gold on the return trip to their camp.

The party stopped for lunch by a nice, large oak tree on a hill and dipped into their newly acquired rations before continuing on. They found themselves in a new sort of landscape where the rolling hills were replaced by steep-sided plateaus about 50-100 feet up. From a distance they looked difficult to climb except where rock falls had created natural ramps up to the tops. While debating whether it was worth it to climb up to the top of one of these plateaus to gain a possible better vantage point, they noticed a small pillar of white smoke a few miles away in the direction they were heading.

Making their way toward the smoke, the group crested the hill and find a low spot where a group of seven human raiders and fourteen kobolds has apparently set up a fire for a late lunch of prairie hens. They appeared to be stragglers from the main group of raiders. After the heroes got the lay of the land, the kobolds took some of the half-cooked hens about fifty yards away to eat while the humans continued talking about the uselessness of kobolds and how to properly cook hens. The humans' spears were stacked against a rock, while the kobolds had daggers at their belts. The heroes decided they'd rather take some of the raiders alive to gain any information. Positioning themselves on the high ground surrounding the raiders, Adolphus, Ilda, Moki, and Gwen jumped down and got between the human raiders and their weapons. Adolphus, using his thaumaturgy spell to make the ground shake and his eyes glow with divine light, growled, "Freeze or you're dead!" successfully leaving the humans effectively stunned.

However, the small earthquake alerted the kobolds to the presence of the party and they began sneaking back over to attack. A long battle ensued, with the heroes realizing they effectively wasted an opportunity to sneakily surprise the group of raiders. After slaughtering all but one kobold, they realized they forgot to take any humans captive. They decided to question the kobold, promising to let him go after he answered their question.

The party asked about his human "dragon people" masters (Cult of the Dragon), where they were going, if he had seen a dragon egg, and other questions. But it became clear that the kobold was saying anything to keep himself alive. Lou pretended to cast a spell that he told the kobold that if he told anyone about the party, he would die. And then let him go off to the northwest.

With the group of stragglers dealt with, the party continued on to the southeast, following the raider's trail.

And that's where we ended the session! DM note: too bad they slaughtered all the humans. Lot's of information that they missed out on. We'll see how that affects the group next session. Wink!