Review 02/13/11

The Caravan was getting settled and the rest of the party met with Almah to plot a course for the next couple days. Almah knew that the region held dangers beyond the gnolls that occupied Kelmarane and Ebin (Aaron) concurred. He said nothing to the merchant princess but his time spent acclimating himself to the region told him that many things were out of balance. Almah charged the group with exploring the immediate area and provided a rough map of the region to navigate by. Before leaving the party identified a couple additional items that had been recovered, the mithril tube was identified as a Chime of Opening with four charges remaining and the ring was identified as a Ring of Swimming. Takser (Travis) stayed behind under the care of Zastoran to deal with a disease he had acquired when dealing with the molds. The party decided to head North into the Pesh fields and then East, across the Falls fed river and to the Old Shrine which is said to have once been a shrine to Nethys. While the general region is only some 16 to 20 square miles, the party took its time and tried to learn as much as they could from the land. Sagramor and Ebin spotted some strange looking canine creatures that Ebin used his skills to befriend and using divine magic, speak with where he learned of many threats from above, which Ebin took to mean flying creatures. He determined they were much more intelligent than an average dog. It would not be too much later that the party would be grateful for Ebin’s new canine friendship.

As the party headed into the Pesh (similar to poppy) fields they came to a rise in the land that they heard sounds of battle occurring from the other side. They saw a group of four gnolls battling two flying creatures, later identified as Harpies. At that moment one of the Harpies began to sing, its song captivating both Thel (Todd) and Malhar (Don), drawing them into the fray against the gnolls. One of the gnolls failed his save and turned against the others. The battle was tough and the Harpies soon found themselves under attack from Sagramor’s (Tony) rays of fire and Lum’s (Marc) crossbow. A critical hit was scored, fatiguing one of the Hag’s! At that point the two dogs appeared next to Ebin, alerting him to a new group of hard charging gnolls that would be entering the fray. It was at this point that a heretofore unknown ability of the dogs manifested and one dog transported itself and Ebin into the air, seemingly as if teleported, for an attack on the hags, while the other used its ability to “teleport” the grouping back to the ground. All party members soon freed themselves from the charming song of the Harpy and the new group of gnolls was faced and defeated, Ebin’s mountain lion and Malhar’s rage turning the tide as the Hags flew away in defeat. The party gathered themselves and decided to keep going with their scouting mission. Heading deeper into the Pesh fields, the party saw a line of gems that lay in a line, an emerald, a pearl, and a ruby. There were a lot of tracks and Ebin commented on the general lack of natural fauna (and Troy learned his error in the process). It was then when a large, crude, wooden totem to Lamashtu was found, a dead elf’s body fallen at the base of the totem, the elf’s arms and hands still nailed to the totem. Inside the mouth of the elf Lum detected magic. Malhar reached into the dead elf’s mouth and removed a magical skeleton key.

The party now decided to head east out of the Pesh field and across the river. At first the party could not find a bridge or pass across the river and spent some time walking north and south until they found a grouping of trees that had been placed across the river with poles on each side of the river, a rope strung tautly across for people to hold onto as they crossed the wet slippery trees. Sure enough Sagramor fell into the swift moving waters, Malhar using the Ring of Swimming, dove in the water and saved Sagramor from being swept too far down river. The rest of the party made it across and waited as the Barbarian and Priest made their way back. Now across the river the party headed north to scout the old shrine. Unfortunately for the party, it seems they discovered where the Harpies fled to, and one of their kind, along with some ten fully charmed gnolls charged from the rocky regions around the shrine. The Harpy this time kept to strategic strikes with her mace in fly by attacks while the charmed gnolls wreaked havoc and damage. Sagramor fell first, the primary target of the Harpies fly by attacks, for he had hurt her before with rays of fire. Lum fell next and Thel soon after. The Harpy first swooped down grabbing up the unconscious form of Sagramor. To Ebin’s horror he heard the distinct sound of something falling in the water. Soon after the Harpy dove down snatching up Lum and headed north away from the river. The gnolls fell but when the dust cleared Ebin and his Lion stood alone, carrying Thel back to the Caravan where he found a badly wounded Malhar as well. Lum and Sagramor are missing when we next pick up the game