Writing this one shorter with commentary interspersed. The long ones take too long to write.
The Friends of Orthos rush towards Fort Duvno on horseback. Rolf-Hydel-Amecouth, baronson of the baron of the fort, leads the charge. Talari catches up with him and they discuss secret entrances.
I was a bit out of it this session, so the start was a little stilted. Lots of umming and ahhing from me. I think it makes sense Fort Duvno could have had a secret door but I’m willing to bet it felt a bit cheap being so obviously placed there by me. Note that placing it on the fly is not the issue, only how obvious it was.
The Friends enter the fort around the back (fighting off some beastmen) and after a bit of scouting by Icoriol and Talari’s familiar make it to the giant.
The fight is epic, but a bit long (I blame 5e), and it got to a point at one stage where all but 2 party members were down. The giant (I used a degenerating titan from Kobold Presses Tome of Beasts) was taking a beating but once some beastmen arrived they started taking hits. It’s ability to send shockwaves through the earth in a line was devastating. It collapsed a building a pinned Icoriol to the ground where he remained until the end of the fight (6 die rolls to free him and nothing worked).
During the fight, Rolf and Rattner both died. Rolf to a blood-frenzied beastman after falling unconscious to the giants shockwaves, Rattner to a flying rock. He drew the ire of the giant so it wouldn’t shockwave and kill Talari. A sad day for The Friends of Orthos.
The day was saved when Balthazar arrived from Lobstown to the east with reinforcements sent from the capital Solemnity. This was somewhat a deus ex machina, but the player had told me his character was on the way and I did make him roll for it - the difficulty was 2 times the number of rounds that had passed in battle (4) = 8. The player rolled a 6. His character, who had long since split from the party, came back in a cool moment and defeated the giant. When it died it’s clay-form bubble and it rolled into a soil-like egg that anchored itself to the ground with great tree roots.
The rest of the session was just talking. A big fight with a giant really eats up a lot of time.
In the aftermath of the fight, there is conversation with Baron Amecouth about next steps. Several Ajira-ni footmen turned into beastmen as the attack happened, and Amecouths Ajira-ni advisor, Johta (a name the friends have heard before), went missing shortly after the attack. The soldiers at Fort Duvno spend the next week interrogating other Ajira-ni to see what they know. The Friends also learn that a new Ajira-ni legion had landed in Solemnity with plans to foray into the beastlands and attack the beasthome. Amecouth declares he will go there and kill the beast king himself. That’s about as emotional as Amecouth gets about his son, but he does ask questions about his time travelling. He also lets The Friends know two people are here: Sir Adrian Barantyn the Tayan Theras knight is here to deliver a message and Gruffie Mayhem (former party member) is in town, she knows something about the weird clay giants.
Icoriol goes to Gruffie and learns about the clay giants: they grow from the earth, the need blood to hatch, they don’t often work with others. It is likely the beastmen are growing another giant, but Gruffie doesn’t know where. Swamp terrain would be best.
Rykus departs from the friends, leaving his carriage behind (his player is now playing Balthazar who has returned, but there are other reasons for it too). He has left them instructions to head to Ord Cabare, a town to the west of Orthos.
Balthazar talks with The Friends and informs them of his true nature: a divine servant sent not to eliminate the dragon but convert it to the side of law. Another in a long string of escalating stakes. Icoriol puts it best: “I am a mere tradesmen! And now I am caught up in a battle between Law and Chaos!”
Sir Barantyn tells the friends their presence is requested at a grove in Llamontca. The Friends have been here before, when they first used the teleportation gate held within.
After a funeral service for Rolf (it’s funny what can come up in D&D, lots of worldly experience is helpful. In this case but I didn’t know anything about burial rites IRL so I had nothing to draw upon. Luckily my players came up with some good stuff), The Friends journey overland to the Tayan Theras Grove.
At the Grove they find The Elder, a blind old man who speaks in cackles and riddles, muttering about chaos and madness. Sir Barantyn is there to translate the mad ramblings into words. But first, he tells them his secret news. A long time ago the PCs informed this knight of Baron Voghtairis treachery. At this point the capital still doesn’t believe anyone, and a central task for these characters is trying to convince people that Voghtairi is evil in time to stop his plans. However, The Knights of Tayan Theras have looked into it. Voghtairi has the powerful Knights of the Black Rose on his side, so they cannot act too brazenly without revealing their position as against the baron (such is political suicide). Instead they hired a foreign Telexu Face Dancer (shapeshifter) to go to Voghtairis Spiked Keep and snoop. They never returned, but his familiar (a Khnumra Kestral) supplied a bloodstained note. On it is written the word RED over and over.
The elder starts cackling and points at Talari. Upon Talaris back sits a mysterious staff called The Staff of The Magician of the Red Realm. Barantyn translates the elders mad babbling into words. “In our deepest histories, at the very edge of time, there lies rare mentions of a place called The Red Realm. Neither Law nor Chaos, to behold any more than what I have to tell you is to go mad. Truly mad. To have ones essence stretched thin and consumed and spread across the universe.”
The Friends consider what Voghtairi might be doing that would cause this note to be written. Icoriol wonders if Voghtairi might have some way to get to the red realm. The elder babbles again.
“If you wish to continue living upon this earth, you had better hope not.”
The moral of this session is get enough sleep before playing D&D. I was a bit out of it today and the moment to moment formation of a scene suffered for it. Led to a bit of an odd low energy type feeling when quite major events were happening. Oh well, just an odd day. I checked in with my players afterwards and they had nicer things to say about it than I did. I guess the other moral is you are your own worst critic, sometimes what you think was a fail session was okay in the eyes of your players.