8th Eyre, 999 YK
- They loot the corpses of the Barbazu, taking their glaives and their fancy bracelets. Runmae and Naze fail to identify the bracelets.
- They give the glaives to Zaphy to hold, cos they'll make everyone else encumbered. Zaphy holds them in their hands.
- They spend the rest of the day leaving the Ironlands, and then they camp in the tunnel on the Demon Wastes.
- In the tunnel, they get Bhaltair and Valaari to identify the bracelets, which they do successfully. One of them is a bracelet of dashing, which provides a speed bonus, and the other is an Armoury Bracelet, which summons weapons.
- They discuss who should use these items. The armoury bracelet would be good for Runmae and Warren, but they decide to give it to Runmae. Warren wants the dashing bracelet.
- Naze pointedly did not want the armoury bracelet, as he would be a greater risk to the party than the enemies.
- They rest.
9th Eyre, 999 YK
- Naze heals everybody's injuries, and they emerge into the Demon Wastes.
- When they begin to make their way out of the tunnel, they discover it is raining! Woah! In the Demon Wastes!
- Valaari examines the rain and determines it is just water, but it's storming heavily. A rainstorm in the Demon Wastes! This is surely an omen, but whether it's a good or bad one is yet to be determined.
- Valaari determines there is risk of flooding, especially in caves and tunnels, so they need to move.
- They head out into the rain.
- As they walk, Runmae notices a smell of ozone and the group's hair frizzing up. She throws her hammer to the ground and yells at the other to back off. The insiders, having grown up here and rarely seeing rain, don't understand, but they back up nevertheless after seeing the panic on Runmae's face.
- Warren gets struck by lightning for the first time in his life, and is left on the ground twitching.
- Valaari pulls out their weapon, thinking they're under attack.
- Naze hides under Zaphkiel's wings.
- Runmae, exasperated, explains the situation.
- "Since when do thunderstorms attack people!?" - Valaari, 999 YK
- Valaari instructs Naze to help Warren.
- After several moments of silence, Warren screams. He's never been in so much pain in his life.
- Naze jumps back, afraid.
- Naze is afraid, Valaari is pushing him to tend to Warren's injury.
- Warren screams for them to just kill him, fuck.
- Naze takes one of the matico leaves they collected in the Abyssal Forest of Khaar and rubs it all over Warren. It's a numbing agent.
- Valaari asks if they can move him, and Naze is unsure. The numbing agent has been applied to Warren's skin, but can't help the internal damage.
- Valaari asks Warren, and he groans.
- They ask Runmae for advice, will this happen again!?
- Runmae explains the basic advice for avoiding or surviving lightning, stay low, find cover but avoid tall objects. They proceed carefully, halving their speed, but avoiding lightning.
- Valaari also asks Runmae to keep an eye out for any shelter or caves they can hide in that aren't at risk of flooding.
- Runmae gives Warren a playful slap on the back and he screams as he briefly loses consciousness.
- They move.
- They hear a voice in the thunder, which super spooks them. It is very quickly revealed that it is not the sky, but a hulking orc even larger than Torgaan, wielding an axe carved from a Khyber shard (Kuugra Soulsever). The figure yells at them, that the gods have blessed this meeting and they will give them a show worthy of their witness! Also he mentions looking for a traitor but surely that's not important.
- The rain also picks up when the fighting begins.
- Warren, gritting his teeth, issues the challenge to the Carrion Tribe. It is not received possibly.
- Warren curses and shoots his shortbow at one of the warriors.
- Valaari gets between Warren and a charging orc, embedding their axe in the orc's shoulder.
- Bhaltair casts a clutch flash bang and blinds one of the warriors and dazzles another, but not the horned orc.
- Naze casts Holy Light but it is fairly less effective on the orc than it was on a demon, which really pisses on Naze's binding bonfire.
- He swears this never happens, guys
- Zaphkiel drops the glaives and lightning smacks one of the orcs.
- The hulking, horned orc charges Naze and gets him good with the khyber shard axe, and Naze feels like something essential is being drained into the axe. This is scary.
- Runmae and Warren both hit the boss orc hard, but it's like hitting a brick wall made of meat.
- One of the orcs gets absolutely obliterated by a lightning bolt.
- They forgot that was a risk.
- Valaari also gets hit by lightning, but grits their teeth and powers through it.
- Valaari identifies the hulking orc as a Sakah, specifically one influenced by Rak Tulkhesh, the Rage of War.
- Valaari crits the Sakah, which is the 3rd or 4th time they've been critically hit this combat. Ouch.
- Valaari hits the Sakah again and reduces them to 0 hp, but they don't care and continue fighting. This is unsettling.
- Bhaltair tries to run and the sakah chases, inducing panic. Bhaltair dazes them but they still don't stop.
- The orc that Bhaltair dazed runs up behind Runmae and tries to shove her prone, but fucks it up so momentously that it falls prone instead.
- Lightning obliterates the warrior that Bhaltair blinded.
- Naze shoots a divine lance at the sakah and hits, but they still refuse to die.
- Runmae finishes off one of the orcs and then rushes up behind the sakah and delivers the death blow, at last.
- Valaari thinks this sakah may be the same one Denzel described, they fit the description.
- With the fighting over, the rain calms down somewhat. Still heavy, but back to its pre-combat heaviness.
- They loot the khyber shard axe, and notice the sakah's was wearing plate armour made from ceramic plates. Interesting!
- This armour is too big for any of them, though, but they can take it back and repurpose it.
- Valaari thinks they should've left one alive to question, but what's done is done.
- They loot as much as they can, even though it encumbers them. They also proceed carefully, halving their speed again.
- Their goal now is to find shelter and wait out the storm.
- Runmae finds a cave after an hour, with a bend in the entrance and enough of an upwards incline to prevent the water getting in.
- Valaari checks it out, as Warren is deeply wounded.
- It's unoccupied, so they decide to rest here until the storm abates.
- Naze tends to their wounds, taking over an hour to get them all healed up.
- Valaari identifies the khyber shard axe, and immediately drops it. They declare that this object is foul.
- Valaari explains that this weapon, Soulsever, supposedly prevents slain Ghaash'kala from joining Kalok Shash, instead binding the soul to the weapon and consuming it to fuel dark magic.
- Valaari wants to take it back to study it, and possibly destroy it once they've learned what they can.
- Valaari asks Naze what happened when the weapon hit him. He says he feels very tired, more than normal. Drained.
- Valaari reiterates that this weapon is foul. They'll carry it, and instruct the rest of them not to touch it.
- They wait until the rain stops, which isn't until 8pm. It rained for 12 hours! Shit
- They discuss whether to try and proceed through the night, and Valaari decides they should.
- Warren weakly contests it, but doesn't push it. He's too tired.
- They begin preparations to continue their journey, but we end the session before they leave the cave.