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Session #34

Sun October 8, 1178 (21:00) - Mon October 9, 1178 (15:00)

<<Starting at the inn>> - The party arrives at the Elf's Bottom Huntsman Inn to meet with Reginald before going on their final hunt for Fanviryn - Immediately, a hooded stranger at the bar gestures for them to sit nearby, and says they were tasked with delivering something to the party - Before giving their letter, they ask why the party is hunting - Answers no questions about who they are - Finally gives the party a letter and leaves -- The letter welcomes the party back to the valley and says they might want to speak to "Evlen's Gang" for some information, and is signed off with an F. (assumed to be Fanviryn) - The party asks the bartender about the situation: What teams are there at the inn, what's going on with the contest, why is the inn called that? - The bartender says there are a bunch of teams at the inn: -- Evlen'Hahs Zemtyr's team, who are run more as a business and are in the business of tracking and selling information to other teams for a profit. Owned by the Dribar Trading Company with trademaster Evlen'Hahs Zemtyr -- Handra Mintak Zemtyr's team, who is the lord mayor of the city (Argentium) and is recruiting basically everyone she can -- Reginald Sigmund Kasden recently joined from afar (the party pretended to not be involved even though this is their team) -- Some other assorted hunters from other teams <<Talking with people at the inn>> - Teemo immediately gets drunk and starts talking loudly about the hunt, and is approached by someone from Handra's team who asks if he wants to join, he says he'll think about it - Ground goes to start performing some music, which gets everyone around in a more talkative mood. She then also says she has some important information about the contest, if anyone is interested, and goes to sit at a table. Some of Evlen's hunters discuss and then go approach her. - Ground suggests that some teams are getting "preferential treatment" from Fanviryn with no proper evidence, and then claims that Evlen's team is getting such treatment - based off of the letter which they presume to be from Fanviryn - Evlen's team rejects this and try to sell some information to Ground - Ground manages to get a rumour out of them that there's a "package" being moved through the forest by a bunch of wolves - She then seduces the hunters and sleeps with them in their room for the night - Astrid turns into a fly and follows the rest of Evlen's hunters back to their room, watching their discussions. - She learns that they believe the information they sell is true, but they do engage in deceptive tactics with their sales. The information itself is all true however. - She learns that they have a rotating watch over their room and keep documents in a safe. Apparently, Handra's team tried to steal their documents previously. - Fang goes to talk with two fearsome looking hunters sitting at the bar, a half-orc ranger and a tiefling druid. - He leaks to them that they got a private letter from Fanviryn, grabbing their attention and getting them to reveal that they also have spoken with Fanviryn previously, while most other teams have never spoken with her directly. - Their names are Claw (the half-orc ranger) and Pyre (the tiefling druid), and they work as a pair for Bugrul from the grey division of the Monport Hunting Guild, in the Cisterns Guild. - They invite Fang and the team to make an alliance, which he refuses but they say to visit in their rooms before noon tomorrow if he rethinks. - Dirt VII comes downstairs at this point as he heard his mother's singing and realized the party is there, inviting them to come upstairs and discuss strategy. <<Talking Strategy with Reginald>> - Only Fang and Carnage come upstairs with Dirt VII, where they meet Reginald again and start talking strategy. - Dirt VII explains how the ritual they have works: It takes up to 6 turns to fully cast, and needs a large bonfire and a wooden staff. It seals a druid's shapeshifting and spellcasting abilities into that staff until it is broken, essentially making them powerless except for their regular physical form. - Reginald shows a small cage he has prepared, which they can use to trap Fanviryn after they cast the ritual. The plan is to use the staff to force her into the form of a small animal and trap her in that form inside the cage. <<Teemo's Betrayal>> - At this point, the bartender comes upstairs to pass a note to the Executors, which he says their friend (Teemo) downstairs told him to give them before he apparently left. - Carnage reads the note out loud in front of everyone, including Reginald: -- "I am sorry. The Gnomes promise prosperity and special treatment to those with information. I have given away the Stump resistance Grass and his close members. No word of this group. Sorry. Teemo" - Immediately, Carnage and Fang are up in arms - clearly, someone must have given them this letter to make them think Teemo betrayed them, this must be Fanviryn's work! - They then realize that Reginald, their Gnomish patron, has heard the entire letter, and go into damage control. - With Dirt VII, they explain to Reginald that they have indeed seen people during their travels who have strong anti-gnomish sentiment, especially people in the town of Stump, but they (the Executors) are good, loyal citizens. - They didn't reveal these people before because they didn't think they would be a real danger, just people passively upset about their lot in life. - Dirt VII tries to also help with Reginald by emphasizing how helpful the Executors have been for the time they've worked together, and that wouldn't be a ruse for people working against the Gnomes. - Altogether they manage to help Reginald accept that the Executors are not actually working with any resistance groups (a complete lie). - They also threw Bugrul under the bus by telling Reginald his specific name and the fact that he had a dwarf pelt when they saw him. - Fang started philosophically questioning Reginald. - Carnage and Fang decide they will start radicalizing Reginald piece by piece the next day, since for this night he decided to go to sleep. <<Long Rest for the Night>> - After having slept with several of Evlen's hunters in a private room, Ground steals a map that shows the path the mysterious "package" is taking through the forest, and 15 gold, before returning to the rooms Reginald booked for them <<Searching for Teemo the next day>> - The next morning, the party started trying to figure out what happened to Teemo, because he didn't come back in the morning. - The bartender and another orc at the bar said that he left on his own volition last night, without anyone else accompanying him, after writing the letter to the party. He took all his things with him and had a drink of a strong ale. - The party still doesn't believe that Teemo willingly left them, he must've been kidnapped! - They go to the city gates where they think Teemo went, to figure out what might've happened. - They talk to a Gnomish guard at the gates and learn that Teemo indeed passed through there last night, and turned in valuable information about "dangerous resistance elements". - The party manages to learn what Teemo said: -- He revealed the location of the Stump resistance base and the people involved in it, especially Grass -- He revealed the list of resistance contacts they got from Jaggena and from Grass in Stump. - This finally convinces the party that Teemo really sold them out and betrayed them for good. - They confirm this information to the guard, earning them 100 gold (a pittance compared to what Teemo was paid for being the first to come forth with it). They identified themselves as "We Kill Bears" to the guard at the gate before leaving. - Fang also gave the guard some lies: He said that gnomes from House Rutred were involved in the resistance in Stump, and lied well enough for the guard to believe him. <<Contacting the resistance and getting more people to help>> - The party returned to the inn and split up into two groups: one to contact the resistance through Claw and Pyre (since they work for Bugrul), and one to hire a new party member to replace Teemo. - The first group (Fang, Astrid, and Dirt VII) went to talk to Claw and Pyre. - They beat around the bush initially about the whole resistance thing before Claw and Pyre just said that yes, they are part of the resistance let's get to the point. - They explained that one of their party betrayed them and they need to spread the word for all the major contacts to get to safety - Claw and Pyre were able to use a Sending Stone to contact Bugrul and have him contact the others however he could, since he has more contacts - Claw and Pyre also explained their goal with Fanviryn and asked the players to help - they intend to actually *kill* Fanviryn, rather than just capture her, to make a statement to the Gnomes and show that mere havgnots can accomplish a feat that the Gnomes can't. - Though this is technically against their contract with Reginald (they are meant to do their best not to kill Fanviryn, but they if she dies by accident they are entitled to however much reward Reginald can muster), they agree to help. - This means Claw and Pyre are officially helping the party with their hunt this session! - The others (Ground and Carnage) go to hire a new party member. - They find the orc ranger at the bar again who told them about Teemo leaving last night, and talk to him. - He agrees to join the party under the condition that he is never listed on paper anywhere and his name is never given to any outside party. - This orc's name is Yuvall (Misha's new character). Welcome Yuvall!! <<Hunting for Fanviryn>> - The party goes into the woods to intercept the "package" they learned was being transported by the wolves - Around 2pm, they run into an orc teenager running from howling wolves and screaming for help - They pull him into the bushes with them and silence him so he doesn't give away their location - This is one of the same orcs they rescued back when they first met Fanviryn! - He says the rest of his friends are back where he was running from, he was released but they are still tied up - The party sees some wolves prowling the woods in front of them, but hide well enough that the wolves don't see them. <<Starting the Fight>> - Astrid conjures some animals, black bears, to fight for her and fight off the wolves in front of them - She has the black bears then run towards the area where the rest of the orcs must be to protect them - Pyre turns into a dire bird of prey and flies Claw over to the area where the bears are running to - The rest of the party follows along on foot, going slightly slower <<Entering Fanviryn's Grove>> - Finally, the Executors enter Fanviryn's own druid grove. - There are several larger trees than normal with a small pond beside the central one, an odd rock formation, and a pack of 6 orc teenagers tied up beside the tree. - Fanviryn herself sits perched on the rock formation, with 4 wolf chiefs prowling near her and 8 more dire wolves nearby. - She tries to explain to the party that they are letting the weak (the helpless orcs) shackle them and keep them from reaching their potential that they could reach if they only just ignore the cries of the weak who can't help themselves. - The party of course ignores this and attacks! - Fang runs in to rescue as many of the orcs as he can - Yuvall conjures barrages of arrows to hit all the wolves in sight, and Astrid's black bear sacrifices itself to protect the orcs from the arrows - Dirt VI (grandmother) starts casting the archdruid disabling ritual in the corner - Pyre starts picking up wolves and dropping them from up high - Claw runs into battle and uses his bow and Arrows of Beast Slaying to pick off the dire wolves and the chiefs - Astrid summons horses to help carry the rest of the orcs to safety - Carnage summons fireballs to destroy some of the weaker wolves - Dirt VII runs into battle as well to fight off the wolves with his own bow - Ground protects her mother Dirt VI from the battle as best she can - Still, people sustain heavy injuries as the wolf chiefs launch themselves between people with devastating blows - Fanviryn casts lightning bolts to try to knock Pyre out of the air, and heals her allies back up to high health - Astrid has to cast mass cure wounds on the party to heal people from how much damage they're taking - Carnage gets downed by Fanviryn's attacks - Fanviryn speaks to the trees in the grove, as they are of course Awakened trees and start to lay down barriers to make movement more difficult - The central tree tries to lift Fanviryn out of the way, but Ground convinces it to drop her back to the ground - Carnage casts a massive fireball on her, just before Dirt VI finishes her ritual and seals away Fanviryn's powers, turning her back into a dark elf from her fearsome wolf form. <<End of Session>> - The party is routing the rest of the wolves and getting ready to speak with Fanviryn to learn her motives. They are unsure whether to kill her, but Claw and Pyre are ready to do the killing if the party isn't.