2nd Nymm, 999 YK
- They make final preperations to ambush the Goristro.
- They anchor the grapple bolts to nearby rocks, rather than to the ballistae (to avoid getting yoinked).
- Valaari casts Fly on Runmae
- Runmae summons a bow from her armoury bracelet.
- Valaari casts Fleet Step on themselves, as does Bhaltair. They reiterate the plan.
- The dragonhawk riders drive the Goristro towards the chosen location. It arrives, charging, and is stopped by the narrowing passage which it cannot charge through. Frustrated, it stops, grabs a nearby boulder (one of the ones the group were going to drop on it), and throws it at one of the dragonhawks, taking it out of the sky.
- Warren fires his bow at the goristro, from his position in plain sight (and not hiding). He's the best rogue they have.
- Bhaltair and Najku ready their ballistae to fire at the goristro when it enters their range.
- Naze fires the hwacha, filling the Goristro with arrows, and then sanctifies some water (it looks like a soda stream, apparently.)
- Pine casts a lightning bolt, and the goristro just shrugs it off. Crying is a free action.
- Yacek changes the bolt in the bolt thrower to a grapple bolt, so that when Najku's ready action to fire it goes off, it'll grapple the goristro.
- The goristro squeezes forward through the passage, and then throws a rock into the hwacha, rendering it inoperable.
- Flint aims the ballista, and Bhaltair's readied action to fire it goes off, with a glancing hit! Flint then loads a grapple bolt.
- Warren fires again, and gets a direct (critical!) hit! Shame he's not hidden. Then he hides (rogue!)
- Bhaltair re-aims the ballista to where they want the goristro to be when they fire the grapple bolt. They then Force Barrage the goristro using their Drums of War! It doesn't seem to notice.
- Runmae gives the boulders another shove and the rocks fall into the passage, blocking the way behind the goristro. It won't stop it, but will slow it down.
- Runmae then jumps, taking to the skies!
- Naze then takes his holy soda stream and launches it at the goristro like a fucking holy mortar shell. The goristro critically succeeds on the save, and takes no damage :(
- At least now it's wet?
- Naze doesn't let this ruin his day, and cooks up another holy soda stream.
- Pine fires a ray of frost, but the goristro doesn't seem to notice that either.
- Yacek fires a grapple bolt into the goristro, limiting it's movement. The other ballista wasn't ready, so they fail to pin the goristro in place. It begins charging towards Yacek's ballista.
- Valaari runs up to the ledge, and throws their spear but it fails to penetrate. Thankfully it just teleports back to their hand.
- Flint re-aims the ballista, and then reloads the ballista to replace the grapple bolt with a normal one, as the goristro is now out of range of the grapple.
- They want to try and get the goristro's attention on the other ballista, so they can try and grapple it.
- Warren shoots the goristro in the side of the head, and then attempts to demoralize the goristro, but fails.
- Bhaltair fires the ballista, but it misses. Oh no.
- Bhaltair then starts furiously playing the drums to get its attention. This seems to work.
- Runmae flies up and shoots at it, but her arrows fail to penetrate its fur and hide.
- Najku shoots her bow, getting a direct hit, and then reloads the ballista.
- Naze has had enough, and fires a Holy Light. It's incredibly effective, blowing a hole through it's torso and killing it.
- Everybody liked that
- They managed to down the goristro without anybody dying! (or even being harmed, except for that one dragonhawk and rider and the hwacha).
- They immediately begin carving up the goristro corpse, those are valuable monster bits!
- They spend the next 20 hours doing that, to get the most out of it they can.
- A couple of the Vaanka stay behind to watch the group, but the rest go back to find out what happened to the dragonhawk that got hit, and tend to it.
- Naze goes with the Vaanka to see if he can help with the bird.
- The dragonhawk is alive! but heavily injured, it's broken a wing and cannot fly. Naze tends to it, making sure it's not going to get worse.
3rd Nymm, 999 YK
- Valaari and Runmae don't rest, as they're carving up the goristro. They just yawn about it.
- Naze went back to Vaanka Dar with the Vaanka, and so got to sleep in a bed and eat a hot meal. For the patient!
- Naze waits there as the Vaanka go out to fetch the rest of the party, where it's warm and there's food. For the patient! He's gotta stay with the patient!
- Valaari comments on Naze's absence, but the group aren't surprised. It was bound to happen eventually. Maybe they'll see him again, maybe not.
- "Naze is one of those people that you need to let fly and experience the world for themselves"
- The Vaanka (with dragonhawks) pick the party up and pack up the siege weapons. They'll be able to salvage the hwacha.
- The ambush couldn't have gone better, really! No casualties and the siege weapons all survived (even with the hwacha being rendered inoperable.)
- Flying back, the insiders in the party get a birds eye view of the Eldeen Reaches for the first time ever. Warren squints at it, suspicious.
- Naze is waiting for them when they return, ready to meet them. This surprises Valaari and Bhaltair, though they don't comment on it.
- Dalkal Mal'fonn is also waiting for them, and congratulates them on a job well done! Nobody died, against a goristro! Incredible.
- Warren comments that not dying is one of his special skills!
- Dalkal states that they have earned the support of the Vaanka, and the use of the dragonhawks to take them to their next destination, but there is also the other job if they still want it. A chance to temporarily leave the Demon Wastes.
- Valaari asks Runmae if they have to worry about her running. Runmae assures them that they don't, she wouldn't abandon them (or Denzel Wolfe).
- They also ask if she needs to send any messages? Anyone in the outside world?
- Maybe Runmae's ex-wife?
- Runmae gives Bhaltair a withering look.
- She would like to get a message to Denzel's family, to let them know where he is and that he isn't dead.
- Bhaltair suggests that in that message, she could even invite Denzel's family over!
- Runmae shoots this down, they don't need to come to the Demon Wastes.
- They also suggest that she could send a message to her cousin? Runmae seems to have a lot of family.
- Apparently her cousin is named Bumry. Everyone is very normal about this.
- Warren comments that he's glad his parents named him something normal, and not something like sounds like arse.
- Runmae thinks this is very rude! Wtf Warren! That's a traditional dwarven name!
- Naze asks Dalkal if they'd get hawks for this journey, but Dalkal doesn't think that they can extend Bhaltair's protection from corruption to the hawks, so they must remain.
- Warren is excited to see these soft lands! He also asks if the land is actually soft or if that's a metaphor?
- Is it spongey?
- "It depends"
- Runmae talks about her home, where it's cold and rocky. The land is very hard!
- "Where we're going now is like the Abyssal Forest of Khaar" says Runmae. "It's nothing like the Abyssal Forest" says Bhaltair.
- Valaari asks if they have demons in the Reaches? Any Goristro?
- Runmae says they have bears. Valaari asks if a bear is as big as a Goristro?
- Naze asks if they have horns? Warren asks if they're devious and cast spells?
- Bhaltair says the Eldeen Reaches is basically a holiday! It's gonna be great!
- Runmae is trying to temper expectations.
- Warren says they've spent their whole lives in shit, and Naze says "hey! It's not shit! It's home!"
- Warren's point is that their home is dangerous as shit.
- Bhaltair assures them that the woods are fine, compared to the Wastes it's a walk in the park (or the woods).
- Valaari asks if they need to plan for any diseases or pools of evil metal?
- Bhaltair thinks they'll be pretty fine. They may encounter Ashbound, but the Ashbound have a history of collaboration with the Ghaash'kala.
- Runmae doesn't like that, she's an ex-cop and the Ashbound are terrorists. She hopes they don't know her.
- Bhaltair doesn't think they would, how would they? And anyway, she's Ghaash'kala now.
- That was a long way of saying yes, they'll do the job!
- They discuss what preperations they need to make. Bhaltair can make magical tattoos now, and Runmae can also make some magic items.
- Bhaltair tattoos a Navigator's Star on Runmae.
- They spend the night in Vaanka Dar.
4th Nymm, 999 YK
- They spend the day in Vaanka Dar.
- Runmae transfers a Striking rune from one of the greataxes they looted from the Hexgeists to Warren's shortbow.
5th Nymm, 999 YK
- Today (next session), they head out into the Reaches!