Characters: Aslam, Hannis, Dave, Sakudan, Gliocas, Grondar, Durand, Zultar, Ursamir, Seville
The session started with the group doing a final set of shopping before finally departing the ironbark forest with both gems in tow, the blue one in the ‘Russian doll’ chests on the cart, lead by the paladins mystical horses and the green gem tucked inside Grondars shirt.
Dave had received grave news from the newly appointed Queen of the Iron Barks that an Orc assault on Red Rock was underway, so it became the new destination for the party. With rage in his heart over the assault and recent loss of Kevin mk3, he used his artificer magic to craft what can only be described as a handsized cannon to soon enact his revenge.
After traversing out the woods throughout the day, the party decided to make camp in an opening near the riverside and gather resources. Some mined, some cut wood, with varying success. Dave decided to try out his new weapon trying to catch some fish, but his aim was off, and he simply blasted the water. Durand came to riverside to aid his friend and with his heightened ranger skills saw a large fast shadow hastily passing on the far side of the river, he quickly notched an arrow, with a whistle the arrow struck the shoulder of what Durand could now see as a bear.
With the bear giving out a humanlike cry, the whole party hurried over to investigate. On approach Durand realised this was no normal bear, equipped with a long green cloak and a small set of bongos on its waist, the bear begged Durand to do no more harm. At the same time a tall battle scarred, well equipped Orc came out from the hedgeline in defence of his bear friend. It quickly became clear that the duo were not enemies to the party and after calming down Durand from his Orc filled hatred, the party were introduced to Usramir the druid and Seville the veteran warrior.
The party made camp with durand on first watch and Aslam taking the 2nd half of the night. During the night Gliocas had terrible nightmares of Francis’s shadowy return and saw him slay the entire party with an uneasy feeling of being watched. Upon waking, sweating from his dreams Sakudan was there awake to calm him, as it turns out Sakudan’s newly aquired magical hat allows him to share dreams with his companions. After some small talk about their thoughts on how the magical hat works they both went back to a dreamless nights sleep.
Once dawn broke the party packed up and set off, after about half a days trek the party came to a small group of dwarf medow houses embed into the hills like halfling houses but with dwarven runes inscribed into the doors. Durand could see blooded handprints on the windows and streaks of blood leading from an ajarred door deeper into the house. the Party entered slowly, carefully discovering multiple bloodied dwarf corpses. Hannis inspected the bodies to see that the dwarves were clearly murdered. It was at this time Thorum pulled Zultar and Gliocas aside to inform them that twenty arnonian solders had escaped from the Iron bark forest during the demon and meteor commotion and from the look of it were the ones responsible for this massacre.
The party wanted revenge and it just so happend their new companion was an expert tracker. Ursamir’s well trained nose began tracking the escaped soldiers and the party continued on. exiting the forest the party abruptly came to a dune, but not a typical one of light mixed minerals, this dune was a deep red hue heavy with metals with a terrible thunderstorm’s wrath above. Thorum suggested another path the party could take, safer but it would be a 2 day delay to the journey. The party, not shy to danger, thought best to go directly through the dune not to miss their chance at slaying the arnonians.
As soon as they set foot in the dunes and their feet sunk they knew this wouldnt be easy. The cart got fully stuck in the sand and after a few feble attempts to free it the team had to somehow lessen the burden. Dave having resistance against the blue gem decided that he would carry it and they haphazardly removed some layers, Dave made skis to aid his and Sevilles journey, they made good pace into the evening but thats when tradegy fell. The great thunderstorm sent a massive bolt down near the party, fusing the sand in a huge area around including at the ankles of the party, trapping them. Some quick thinking and spell usage freed half the party. But the party was not home free yet, there were monstrous crys in the near distance, Dave being one of the free ones went up the hill and scouted humnoid shadows approaching. Both Dave and Grondar made attempts by throwing or touching the gems to free the party from the sands clutches, instead the sand fused and trapped them.
With no more time on their side the shadowy figures appeared, monstrous red flesh things with sand fused clubs for hands and making howling noises.
The fight began with usramir’s wall of fire blocking five of the monsters off from the trapped Hannis and Aslam, Gliocas sent bolts of fire off at them and Durand followed with expertly shot arrows, acrobaticly bent backwards. At the same time, powerless Sakudan desperately consumed any fleshed items in an attempt to appease the great old one. Gliocas reached Aslam and handed him a scroll of misty step to escape the sand. Too quickly did the monsters overrun the back half of the party with Sakudan being beaten down by two of the monsters, Dave being the only nearby healer cast cure wounds on Sakudan saving him from his near death (2 failed throws) only to be put back on death saving throws on the next turn of the monsters… hopefully the party can save him soon…