Session 115

The battle raged on as Dain beat the Steel Rangers around him with his enlarged ape fists. However, his animalistic rage was cut short after several lucky strikes by Foreman Celedor and the Steel Rangers, causing Dain to revert to his original form. As the Steel Rangers tried to climb the ladder to the lookout tower Summer had climbed, she cast Grease on the rungs, causing one of the Steel Rangers to fall and injure his leg. After several missed bolts of energy from the Steel Ranger Witch, Dain turned to her in anger and charged the energy in Stormsmasher and directed it at her, casting Lightning Bolt, which burned a hole straight through her torso. At the same time, Skinner managed to hit Foreman Celedor in the head with such force that his blades sheared through the metal of his helmet and straight into his head, killing him. After this, Dain called out to the Steel Rangers still alive, telling them to get out of here or they'd end up like their boss. The Steel Rangers, likely thinking this was well beyond what they were paid to do, and with nobody left alive to pay them, took off -- but not before Skinner managed to slash one across the stomach, spilling his guts all over the ground. As the sounds of battle disappeared and the remaining Steel Rangers ran off with their tails between their legs, the party explored the camp, looking for the missing Forgeborn. It didn't take long, as they found a large hole in the cave floor with many wooden spikes stuck in the walls facing downward toward two dozen Forgeborn who were talking amongst themselves, wondering about what was going on above. Dain called out to them and told them that they were safe now and that he would get them out. He then used Polymorph to turn himself into a Giant Eagle and flew down into the hole, carrying the Forgeborn out one-by-one until he had rescued them all. With night settling in, the group decided to rest before heading out, and used the Steel Rangers' tents to sleep away the night. In the morning, despite Summer and Merrick taking watch, they noticed that Soto had disappeared from the camp, leaving no trace. As the party set out on the road towards Fort Elden, Merrick searched for some sign of Soto, but saw none -- coming to the conclusion that he probably was not pleased about being used as cannon fodder in the battle the night before.

Almost a week later, the party arrived at Fort Elden with the rescued Forgeborn in tow and brought them to the camps behind the fort, introducing them to Grit. Grit was overjoyed at seeing his people returned safe and sound, and spent the day integrating them into the camp while Dain went to seek out Sabine and Samira. Seeing some recent patch work on the fort walls, Dain asked about this and was told that one of Sabine's sneezes had detonated a wall, which the Forgeborn had helped to repair with remarkable speed. He informed them that they would soon have the final ingredient for the cure and that they should prepare for the journey. The group rested for the night, and in the morning, Dain went to find Grit with Valdor in tow. He found Grit watching the sun rise just outside the camps, and Grit lamented that he would not see another one, but was grateful that his people were alright, and asked Dain if they could do this privately so that his people need not see. They took him near the edge of the Bast Wilds and Valdor began the extraction as Grit wondered if his people would be alright without him, saying he had done what he could to teach them. While Dain wandered off to allow Valdor to do his work, Skinner stayed and talked to Grit, asking him about his story. Grit told him that he had been fortunate unlike many of his kind, having been sold to a traveling merchant caravan before he awakened, and they had treated him kindly, but that at some point they had been attacked, and not knowing what to do, they had all died. The bandits, likely not knowing what Grit was, simply left him behind, and Grit learned to fight by talking to travelers in order to make sure nothing like this would happen to those he cared about again. Only a couple months after that, Grit had first encountered the party. As the day wore on, Grit became increasingly exhausted. As Dain returned, Valdor had 5 spools of filament at his side, and as the sun set, Valdor extracted the last remaining bit of filament, causing Grit to go dark. Dain, not willing to accept Grit's fate, laid a diamond in his chest and attempted to use Revivify on him. Grit's body shot up, reanimated, but did not respond to Dain or Skinner's questioning, and seemed almost inert. By chance, a pair of Forgeborn who were wandering nearby happened upon the group and questioned what had happened to Grit. They babbled to each other in their rapid Aurum manner of speech and seemed to understand after touching Grit that he was gone. They babbled again for a moment before they both placed their hands on Grit and caused a light to flow into him, a process Dain had witnessed before in Greentide when he witnessed two Forgeborn awaken another. At this, Grit surged to life, asking who he was, to which the other two Forgeborn said "You once were Grit. Now, you are… Moxie." Startled by this, while still saddened by Grit's passing, the group escorted Moxie back to the camps to be taken care of by his people while the retired for the night. Valdor said all that was left was to have the Flow filament made into a cloth, which would require them to return to Eldham. After getting some rest for the night, they set out for Eldham.

Arriving in Eldham a couple days later, Dain briefly stopped in at the Dead Goose, getting rude looks from Icarus, who was still angry about Dain destroying the wall, which was very obviously a patch job. Dain took the filament from Valdor and head into town, going to the trade district, and found a tailor's shop. Inside, he found a Vesperkin woman who greeted him and seemed desperate for customers with the lack of business the Ferroplague had wrought on the city, which was already suffering from having its population cut in half the past few years. Dain presented her with the filament, which she marveled at, and asked her to make a cloth from it. She was all too eager for the business and for the opportunity to work with a new material and got started immediately, saying she would be finished by dinner time. Dain went out to walk around the city, seeing so many buildings still destroyed from the undead's attack on it years ago, having been left to rot due to having nobody to inhabit them. Meanwhile, Skinner stayed behind to watch the Vesperkin woman do her work. She was happy to have company, but was several times startled by Skinner due to his size difference, being three times bigger than her. When Dain returned hours later, she had woven the filament into a large cloth which shed bright light throughout the room, seemingly amplified by having been woven together. Dain thanked the woman, paying her twice her fee, and Skinner even slid her a tip, which she graciously accepted, before they head out back to the inn, where they spent the night, with Icarus giving Dain dirty looks the whole night. In the morning, they set off to Fort Elden to pick up Sabine and Samira before turning toward the Bast Wilds to begin the last leg of their journey toward Mt. Ardreth, where the cure to the Ferroplague needed to be delivered.

As the party journeyed through the Bast Wilds, they could feel the chill in the air as Esten approached, and gathered around the camp fire one night. As everyone went to bed, Merrick took first watch, which was uneventful. As he changed shifts with Skinner to go meditate over his Book of Shadows, Skinner began to guard the camp. However, the long journey had taken its toll as Skinner began to doze off. A rustling jolted him awake and he turned to see a dark figure carrying something fleeing into the trees. Then, he heard a scream and turned to see another dark figure hauling Sabine up and over its shoulder, glaring at Skinner with its glowing red eyes and harsh featured face, before dashing off into the trees. Skinner saw a final third figure running off carrying something before looking around in a start, realizing everyone but him had had their packs stolen. Awakened by the scream, the rest of the party shook off their sleep and prepared to run after the figures, but noticed that Samira did not rise to join them. Going to check her, Dain found her unresponsive and turned her over to see that she had punctures near her neck and her veins were darkened, and that she was clearly dead. Shocked by this, but with no time to process it, the party took off into the forest following Skinner who had gone in pursuit of the creatures. As they bobbed and weaved through the trees, much faster than the group, but somehow always within reach, they led the party to a clearing where they saw the figures standing at the entrance to what appeared to be a large chapel. Standing just outside, the figures taunted them before going inside…

Dain, spurred on by his concern for Sabine, charged up to the doors, throwing them open, knowing a sneak attack was impossible, as Skinner attempted to flank the attackers by circling around the building, trying to break through the stained glass windows with his blades -- however, they proved resilient, with his blades simply bouncing off of them with a thud. With everyone proceeding inside, they witnessed the figures place Sabine onto an altar, restraining her, and turning to face the group. With their faces now visible, they saw what appeared to be Letheni with strained facial muscles and glowing red eyes, who bared their tee- no, FANGS at them.

As the party inched forward, the figures made no move to attack, but as they all piled in, a sloshing was heard as a dark liquid which smelled of copper poured out of cauldrons that flanked the entrance and covered the exit. The figures then glanced upward at something on a balcony above the party. They glanced up to see a dark figure lurking in the shadows on the balcony which lingered for a moment before leaping down and landing without a sound. It smirked and snapped its fingers, causing the doors to the chapel to swing shut, and the creatures behind it lunged forward to attack.

As the battle began, Merrick used True Polymorph to take on the form of one of Astix' holy warriors, which struck fear into the creatures -- however, wounds caused by the party's attacks seemed to quickly close on these creatures, who savagely clawed and bit the group. Meanwhile, the leader darted around the room at blinding speed, unleashing devastating attacks before moving at such speed that the party could not see where he went. As Dain charged in to deal with the creature casting the spell over Sabine, Merrick moved to join him. The lead creature took this opportunity to rush over to the entrance and attack Summer and Valdor. Valdor seemed terrified of the creature and attempted to flee, screaming that Dain needed to get out of here, before tripping and falling on his face. The lead creature took this opportunity to rush over and raked at Valdor's back, severely tearing up his back, before rushing back over to Skinner. The creature seemed too fast to keep up with, but after killing the creature performing the ritual over Sabine, Merrick flew over to the leader and hit him with a devastating attack.