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PREVIOUSLY - CAMPAIGN DIARIES 38 - Worg Riders of Julkoun
While the Owlbear League was talking to Lady Morwyn Daggerford and the wizard Delfan, trying to find a way to save their friend Immeral; Immeral himself, in the thrall of the succubus known as Natyssa, was marching for what seemed like most of a day in the ethereal plane. They followed the ghostly trail of the a real-world road north out of Daggerford while Natyssa questioned Immeral and then berated him long into the night. She had run out of questions about the Owlbear League, learning about all of them, their skills, abilities, magics and motivations, much to the horror of the powerless Immeral. He holds back a bit, answering her questions to the letter, but avoiding a bit of information here and there not explicitly asked for, including the existence of the Three Urchins from Daggerford.
They came to see an ephemeral visage of a manor, clearly at a crossroads in the material world, but they continued past, marching late into the ethereal night. Natyssa mumbled from time-to-time, throwing out more questions, even smacking him from time to time, disgusted with the turn of events, saying she would prefer to fly rather than walk, but he might still be of some use to them. During the rants, she did let a bit of information slip, first that she was not exactly sure where her companions were, but that if Immeral stayed alive up to their destination, he might see what happened to Alven Gissen, the "idiot with a stupid star-birthmark on his face" but it could not be a good fate, because she cackled with delight thinking about it.
That evening, she commanded him to guard her while she slept, and for him to not sleep, then she wrapped her leathery wings around herself and laid down and rested. Unable to disobey, Immeral stayed awake until the next day, his mind reeling from the situation as well as the lack of rest.
When Natyssa woke in the morning, she soon ordered Immeral and herself off marching again, this time turning north following the edge of a plateau towards the Ardeep forest, and then a bit east. After much of the day, they came to see a ruin, which Natyssa was sure they had found their way to unseen in the ethereal plane. Then, Immeral's bad luck turned for the better. Natyssa must have been unfamiliar with the operation of the cloak of stars, so just outside the ruins, she commanded him to "take off your hood" as she entered the prime material plane herself. What she did not know was that by taking off the hood, Immeral would return to the normal world, but at the point he departed! So instantly, Immeral was back outside Daggerford.
Racing back into the city, passing through the guards at the gates as a guest of Sir Isteval, he ran to his townhouse to find The Owlbear League gone. Smithfield brought Immeral up to speed on the recent happenings, and he prepared to chase after The League after a bit of sleep to recover. In the meantime, Smithfield ordered the stables to prepare a fast horse for the journey to Julkoun.
He should have thought to use his magical message boxes to contact the others, but lack of sleep took its toll, so after a few hours recovery, which is all the moon elf really needed, he was off to Julkoun with directions from Smithfield. The road north was cold and windy, unlike travel in the temperature-less border ethereal, and after many hours ride, the sun set, but Immeral rode on, trying to make up some of the lost ground, and rested from his sleep, although his horse was seeming to tire. Hours into the night, he pulled off to the side of the road for another short elven sleep.
Shortly after dawn, Immeral came across the crossroads he needed at the Delimbiyr Route, and he realized he was retracing his steps with the succubus. The manor he saw from the ethereal plane stood not far off from the road here in the "real" world. Immeral remembered that Smithfield said it was called the Floshin Estate, but he rode on, past the friendly field where a normal traveler or caravan might seek refuge near the end of the day, heading east towards Delimbiyr and Julkoun.
Immeral made it a long day's ride, his horse Reede strong but weakening over the many miles and slight uphill climb, continuing on past the normal caravan stop twenty miles or so east of the Floshin Estate, to again trot into the dusk and night. The evening was cold, but not as windy, so a good fire warmed Immeral and his horse before their rest for the night as he fought with fears that he could still be under control of the succubus, but ultimately coming to the conclusion that since he could speak, her control had dissipated, and that relief sent him off to sleep.
The four remaining worgs with goblin riders race down on the position of The Owlbear League and their companion Oyfanen.
"They're coming!" Oyfanen says, hopping up and down in morbid excitement.
The League takes position and as soon as the rapier-wielding goblin-riders get into range, they release their distance attacks. Nowhere stands without a distance attack - her childhood trauma continuing to prevent her from picking up a bow.
Orryn launches an attack from his Wand of Magic Missiles again, the magic bolts riddling into one of the goblin riders who howls, but remains up in the worg saddle. Atlas fires an arrow from her shortbow, but misses. Seraphina casts guiding bolt and aims for a worg, and kills it, and the rider goes tumbling off.
"We're gonna die, we're gonna die! Oyfanen laughs madly."
K'ronk casts eldrich blast and hits one of the goblins, wounding it, but it still maintains its mount.
Dain throws a javelin, but misses.
Oyfanen casts a spell at the creatures, and calling out in a strange language, commands one of the worgs to attack another worg, and they bite and tear at each other, the ensorcelled worg drawing blood from the other.
Now the two groups clash, and The League is at the ready.
Nowhere swings Icerazor at the goblin who had tumbled from his mount, but the devilish creature dodges her attack.
Orryn uses his short bow and hits one of the worgs with an arrow that drives deep into its flesh, sending it howling and angering it, but not felling it.
Lady D. attacks the same worg, biting and clawing, but misses the frantic worg.
Atlas draws her silvered shortsword and hits the same worg, slicing deep into its leg, but it remans dangerous.
Seraphina casts sacred flame but misses the racing worgs.
K'ronk casts eldrich blast again, but this time misses.
Dain stabs at a worg with his javelin, impaling one of the worgs from almost a kneeling position, driving up into its underbelly and killing it, sending the goblin rider rolling off.
The uncharmed worg attacks the charmed worg, biting into its it, drawing blood and tearing flesh with its vicious teeth.
One of the goblins goes to attack Dain, but misses badly and while off-balance Dain bashes it with his shield.
The second goblin goes after Seraphina, and hits with a devastating slash of its curved scimitar, slashing her and drawing blood.
Nowhere swings Icerazor, attacking the goblin that Dain bashed, slashing it badly and knocking it unconscious.
Orryn strikes the other goblin with his rapier, stabbing through it, killing it.
Lady D. attacks a worg with its beak and claws, tearing at its back and sending flesh flying.
The goblin on the worg panics and starts running back to the camp.
Atlas attacks with her silvered short sword, missing one of the remaining worgs.
Seraphina tries a hold person spell on the fleeing goblin, and although it seems to freeze him for a moment, he breaks through and continues to flee.
Immeral goes to shoot fire bolts at the fleeing goblin, but Lady D shifts into his view as he releases the spell, and she howls as her back scorched by the flaming spell, her feathers smoldering.
Dain steps up to the one remaining worg, and says "I'm going to put you out of your misery." He strikes with his battle axe into the neck of the worg, and nearly decapitates it, sending it into the ground.
The first remaining goblin misses Nowhere, and the second one misses K'ronk. They wont get another chance.
Nowhere attacks a remaining goblin with Icerazor and slashes it apart, sending blood everywhere, and killing it.
Orryn hits the running goblin with an arrow from his short bow, hitting him square in the back and planting him into the dirt.
Lady D. picks the last goblin up by the head, and bite his skull off, crunching on it loudly, and the battle is over, ignoring the charmed worg. Oyfanen jumps up and down on one of the corpses, "Dead, dead, dead! NO MORE TREE CUTTING!"
Nowhere asks "Oyfanen, how long is the worg charmed?"
"About an hour." says Oyfanen, "but I could charm him again".
"Just tell him to run north" Nowhere points. "I don't have the heart to kill it now."
Atlas says "We should make sure the camp is empty." and the others agree. The camp is disgusting, with piles of worg and goblin poop just outside the disheveled tents. They return to the path south through the forest to Julkoun, and after about three hours, they clear the forest, and in the waning light of day they finally spy Julkoun.
The League stands in the shadow of the forest and they can see in the distance, smoke rising from something to the southeast where the road points. They proceed cautiously for the remaining hour hike to the point where they can see the town, they stay camouflaged in a copse of trees and take in the sight of Julkoun which stands eerily quiet.
They approach the village and take notice of its arrangement. There are three kidney shaped sections, one to the south, one to the west, and one to the northeast. The westmost section is outside of protective walls and has about a dozen burned cottages, some of them still smoldering. The easternmost section stands on a short plateau, looking over the southern walled section of town, with a ramped bridge angling down from the eastern section into the southern section. Water surrounds the south and west sections of the village on all sides, mostly as moats, but the southern section of Julkoun hugs the river, the city is well-fortified, not surprising for a fishing village out in the wild.
Strangely, there is a huge chain strung across the river, secured to a building on each side. There are a pair of wrecked boats hung up on the chain, half sunk in the river. The League also notices a few other things are amiss. Ragged black flags are set into the parapet of each guard tower. A field of goads—sharpened stakes fixed in the ground—and a number of pits, likely staked—have been created around the palisade of the unburned sections of the town. Someone has prepared for a siege.
Upon the parapet, the occasional movement of a being can be seen, moving from one guard tower to another, stopping and looking out from time to time. It appears to be a hobgoblin, well armored and ready for a fight. At the end of his walk, he steps into guard towers which are obviously manned.
"I want to use Thalmaturgy to call out to the invaders, draw them out."
"Shall I start digging our graves now?" Dain says.
Seraphina adds, "How about a more stealthy approach and wait for nightfall." Nowhere scowls but agrees with her comrades.
They take shelter in the trees, and while waiting for full darkness, they develop a plan... They originally consider paddling upriver, but they will use Atlas' rope of climbing to string over the goads and pits and start taking out the guards, leaving Lady D. to stay up in the trees.
While waiting for night to come, in the dimmest remaining day, a rider can be seen coming from the forest. They watch and realize that it is Immeral! They excitedly flag him down and great him warmly.
Immeral quickly brings them up to speed on his capture by the succubus, his escape, and the potential threat she poses, knowing all their information, their magic, their potential weaknesses and strengths. He shares how she laughed about The Bloke, about Isteval running around the area chasing goblins, about Grengel, about Alven Gissen. He reveals that she slipped and mentioned that Immeral might get a chance to see The Bloke. So she must have been involved.
Their anger rises at the treatment of their friend, and although they are no longer pressed to solve the mystery of Julkoun since their friend Immeral has been found, they decide to continue on together to take down the invaders.
K'ronk suggests that "We need to change our plans if she knows everything."
Nowhere says "We may have to speak different languages to each other, if we know what she speaks, she could be listening."
K'ronk says "She is a fiend, from the abyssal and infernal realms, and speak at least those and common."
Nowhere says "We could pass notes, trying to hide them."
Immeral says, she could pass through your body and look right through your chest. I may even still be charmed. How would you know? She might be watching us from the border ethereal now, but since I teleported, it is highly unlikely. But, I am not going there to see..." Immeral said. "It was horrid, being of my own mind, but compelled to act as she wanted."
Nowhere quickly scrawls a note and passes it around for all of The League except Immeral. It suggests they scramble their magic items to keep Natyssa off-balance, and they nod in agreement of a future swap.
Just before full night, the western gates open and goblins come out and place several lit torches by the blockades in front of the gates, illuminating the area immediately outside the gate, then they scurry back in.
Under cover of night, The League leaves Isteval's horse and Lady D and sneaks into the western, burnt part of the town, and quickly gets close to the parapet and position themselves for an attack. Atlas watches for a hobgoblin to go by, and when one passed, immediately uses her magical rope and it extends up to the top of the sharpened log parapet and ties on.
They notice that none of the fortifications look scarred from attack, and that the goads and pits look new. Nowhere says "I just want to kick in the front door." Seraphina whispers "You always want to kick in the front door!" Nowhere smiles and nods.
The League scrambles up to the parapet and then sneaks towards the tower overlooking the river. Nowhere goes first, with Orryn behind, the two stealthiest of The League. There, facing outward, overlooking the dark river are two goblins. Nowhere and Orryn move into the guard tower in silence and surprise the goblins, cutting their throats noiselessly.
The other members of The League scramble into the tiny tower and Nowhere and Altas hides in the shadows of the parapet, waiting to ambush the Hobgoblin in command of the wall. Nowhere is invisible in the darkness due to her ranger ability known as umbral sight, and near silent with boots of elvenkind. Atlas has her cloak of elvenkind, and they wait.
A short time later, the hobgoblin returns, his focus looking out over the parapet, not up on the walkway itself. Nowhere breaks concealment as he passes, grabbing him from behind and covering his mouth as Atlas emerges, and with her gauntlets of ogre power lifts up the hobgoblin and throws him over the wall onto the goads below. He doesn't even have time to scream before he is impaled with a wet clank and then lays in silence.
The League heads down the ladder of the guard tower, peaking out to ensure no onlookers, and finds themselves in an alley between buildings. The building they are next where they apparently make textiles, connected to a waterwheel turning in the river which must operate some of the looms. The mill has been overtaken by more of the hobgoblins, most of whom appear sleeping on ramshackle bunks and cots made of full bolts of fabric. Some snoring can be heard, and K'ronk sees this as an opportunity to take out much of the leadership of the invading force.
He sneaks ahead into the building and deploys his most powerful magic weapon, a staff of frost, unleashing a blast of magical cold that crackles, freezing the very air and the hobgoblins within. Finding them all before setting off any alarm meant that they are fully caught by surprise and destroyed. K'ronk has killed all of them!
He quickly checks the bodies and opens a window on the alley for The League, they climb in and assess and are dutifully impressed with K'ronk's murderous efficiency. The League now has vantage to see a bit more of what is going on, and they see a large gathering in the town square with a fire raging in a makeshift fire pit, across which, what is likely a sheep is cooking. Around the cooking sheep, about twenty goblins and several hobgoblins eat, drink and cackle in goblinoid.
"I want to put that fire out." Nowhere says.
"If we can get over to that building over there," Seraphina says, pointing nearby, I can squelch the fire."
They nod in silence, sneaking out the windows on the opposite side of their entrance.
Across the next alley is a larger mill, this one much louder, and Orryn gains them quick entrance by picking the lock on one window, which they climb in.
This is a true mill, flour dust everywhere, the creak of logs and gears drowing out anything else in the world. They carefully make their way through, finding no squatters, and head east again, across the building, into another alley hidden from the town square. Here they make their way to their target, a tailor shop closest to the fire. They climb in an open window this time and shut it behind them.
They move carefully through the tailors. They find the body of a resident, obviously killed by the goblins - one of the few they have seen. There appears to be a few ramshackle bunks on the floor, but with no current occupants. They nevertheless stay low, not wanting to be spotted. Outside, they observe a squad of twenty or so goblins and some hobgoblins roasting what looks like one of the local sheep on spit over a large fire.
Nowhere knows that if they can squelch the flames, there will be total darkness, for there are no torches around, and the ranger moves in darkness with near invisibility. "Seraphina, can you douse the fire?"
Seraphina nods, and casts a create water spell, opening up a rain that covers much of the square, dousing the cooking fire and sending the goblins fleeing to wherever they are bunking. Some are confused, and look at the sky as they are standing dry, and two are apparently are bunking in the tailors, as they open the door and run into the dark building.
Oyfanen says, "I like creeping around!" and she giggles.
Atlas says "You are great Oyfanen, we should be best friends."
She replies, "Then I could keep you in my forest forever!"
Atlas comes back "Hmmm, maybe not." and continues on.
Will the Owlbear League be discovered and overwhelmed? Where have the citizens of Julkoun gone? What Where has the succubus gone and what are her sinister schemes?
NEXT - CAMPAIGN JOURNAL 40 - Battle for Julkoun
This adventure used material from the D&D Module "Scourge of the Sword Coast".
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