Session 2: Screams From the Branches
General Summary
14th Sharali 234 4E Gathering up the freezing child, the party quickly got about starting a fire to warm them up. The boy was clearly suffering from shock and hypothermia and felt limp and cold in Odhran's arms. He and Meridas talked to the child, assuring them that they were safe, and coaxed some movement and attention from him with the small wooden carving of the dwarven warrior. In the meantime, Tawny made sure to drag the two dead bodies off the path and out of the child's sight and Avina set about investigating the area to find out what had happened. As Meridas had presumed, a group of travellers had been attacked in the late afternoon the day before and one of them stabbed from behind and killed, but the others had fought off the bandits, killing one and injuring another, and chased them away into the woods. What was uncertain was why they hadn't returned. While Avina preoccupied the boy's attention with a show of her cantrips, Meridas set about finding answers by using their magic to commune with the fallen bandit, animating its physical memory. The three brigands turned out to have once been part of Hrefna's group but had left, coming to this site instead from the nearby town. In fact they seemed to have deserted Hrefna and on bad terms, with the body spitting out "fuck the bitch" when her name was mentioned and mumbling of the mage going crazy and refusing to move from their location. Before any more could be discerned the magic lost its grip and the corpse lay limp once again. The party discussed what move to make next, deciding that they should follow the tracks to find out what happened to the other travellers. Odhran stayed to look over the boy while Willum led the others into the woods. After half a mile or so they came to the site of another conflict, the travellers seemingly having caught up to the bandits, but despite the blood and blades that lay on the ground, there were no bodies anywhere. Willum did however find other tracks in the area, which seemed to be from some large animal with long cloven feet. He didn't recognise them, certain that they weren't any normal beast, and Avina theorised that they might be one of the animal-like monsters that managed to fit into the eco-system they found themselves in after entering this plane, thriving and reproducing. Hearing this, Tawny made sure to keep an eye out from any animals around that might match these strange tracks. Willum followed these strange tracks to where they led into a large dark copse, dense brambles and shrubs blocking the light within. Faint and pained calls for help could be heard from within. Tawny and Meridas advanced ahead of the others into the copse, moving slowly and quietly between the trees and bushes. Deep within they noticed a handful of silhouettes - bodies hung high up in the trees. Tawny cast himself invisible and advanced further. He spotted that some of the bodies moved slightly - signs of life? He also spotted the shapes of two large beasts up in the trees, moving lithely across the branches. They were big, almost the height of his horse, but slim and agile. They had long deer-like legs, but moved more akin to a large cat or fox, and heavy set heads and jaws like those of a badger or mink. The subtle brown, black and grey striping the covered their flanks blended into the snowy branches around them. Tawny could hear the calls for help again, but this time he noticed that they did not come from the bodies but rather from the beasts. The two of them pulled out of the copse and updated the others. Meridas reached out and sent word for Odhran to join them. Once all together they snuck back into the trees to attack these beasts, catching them by surprise. The beasts were fast and nimble and high up in the canopy but the party threw magic and bolts at them and drove them back, blocking their movement towards the hanging bodies and quickly dropping them to the ground dead. With the beasts slain the party swiftly set about checking on those in the trees, seeing that they were indeed the travellers and bandits. One of the travellers and one of the bandits were already dead but they used magic to stabilise the others. They were alive but unconscious, and probably for the best. Their limbs had been wedged into the forks and shoulders of the trees, the force tearing skin and breaking bone, and the party had to work carefully to free them and lower them the ground using a rope harness Odhran fashioned. While lowering one a branch snapped, dropping the poor soul 20ft to the ground below. Tawny took most of the force as he tried to catch them, and quick application of healing magic saved any serious injury from the collision. The party brought those alive, and the body of the dead traveller, back to the temporary camp. The boy was sound asleep when they got back. They set up another tent for the travellers, leaving them to rest, and set about readying for the night. A bit before dusk noise could be heard from where they had left the surviving bandit. He was waking. Meridas headed over and started questioning him. The bandit, a young teenager now lost, alone and in intense pain, gave them the answers they sought.
Session Log - Willum
I am sorry that it has been sometimes since I last spoke to you all, but much has happened and will try to do this more often. We found a boy under a cart when we were travelling the roads, it had been attacked by bandits it seemed and must have been what the horses could smell. We brought the boy with us and put a camp where we could tend to him. He was quite frozen, so we tried to warm him up. He was really quiet and seemed out of it, but that is understandable with such a thing happening. We left him with Odhran at the camp and the rest of us went to look if there were any survivors from the attack. Some tracks led off the road out into the woods, so followed them until we came upon an attack site. But there were no bodies there, only a lot of blood. Luckily the amulet I got some time back could easily track the blood. That amulet is really something special, and can’t wait to show it off when I get back home. Anyway, we followed the blood till we came upon this densely overgrown area, and in the trees there were these weird creatures. Though they were clearly monsters, I had never hunted or seen anything like them. They seemed to use the bodies as bait and would make these weird people-like sounds, probably to lure in prey I would guess. Here we also found the other bodies, and luckily some of them were still alive, so we kind of had to save them. We managed to defeat the monsters, but they were very fast and would constantly climb up into the trees, though that is not a problem for me. Afterwards we brought the people back, and we put them up in a tent so we could heal them. One of the people we saved was one of the bandits, so the others wanted to keep him tied up away from the camp and I didn’t really see a reason to protest. Though I did bring back the monsters, hopefully somebody in the next town will pay for them, even though there is no bounty that I know of. Anyways, we will soon close down camp for the night. I do hope that I can soon return home, at least for a little bit. May these words be carried to my kin on the northward winds…
