Session 129

Deciding to be cautious approaching the city's ruins, Merrick cast Arcane Eye so that he could scout out the area ahead. Looking at the top of the watchtower, he saw a Bakari staring out over the road, watching for intruders. He noticed that the watchtower's ladder seemed to be missing or collapsed long ago, so the only way for the Bakari to have gotten into the watchtower would be if it had jumped the 15 ft. or so from the nearby mesa platform. Taking a look around the nearby ledges, Merrick spotted four other Bakari lying in wait, hidden behind rocks and bushes. He reported back to the group, and Merrick decided to use Maddening Darkness to surround the Bakari in magical darkness, which assaulted their minds. The Bakari cried out in some guttural language that Skinner noted sounded oddly very much like the Ettinor language. Those not caught in the darkness immediately responded, leaping from the cliffs and charging Merrick.

Summer popped out from behind a large rock and shot one of the approaching Bakari, and the Bakari within the darkness quickly closed the distance, emerging from the darkness, surrounding Merrick. One of the Bakari from the opposite cliff facings charged Dain, and Dain responded by bludgeoning it across the face. Merrick, not wanting to waste his spell and wanting to get them away from him, cast Scatter to place the Bakari back within the darkness. As they ran through the darkness and emerged once more, Dain blasted one with a Lightning Bolt and Skinner used one of his beckoned spirits to possess one of the Bakari. Merrick then targeted a large group of them with Hypnotic Pattern, putting them into a dumb stupor. Summer took the opportunity to send a well-placed shot directly through the head of one of the stunned Bakari, dropping it to the ground. Skinner noticed with alarm that when the Bakari died, its spirit emerged and began to run toward the city's ruins. Dain then lobbed a Fireball at the group before Skinner possessed another one of the Bakari. Merrick tried to aid Dain by targeting one of the Bakari that had closed the distance on him with Guiding Bolt, but vaporized it instead. As each of the Bakari began to drop, Skinner one-by-one saw their spirits leave their bodies and run toward the city ruins, greatly unnerving him. The remaining Bakari swarmed Dain, but the group managed to subdue them after Skinner, wanting to know more about them, asked the group to knock them unconscious. Once the Bakari had been knocked unconscious, Skinner attempted to use a Rite of Exorcism to purge the spirits from the Bakari, believing them to be possessed; though this had no effect. Dain then decided to cast Remove Curse on one on a hunch, but was similarly disappointed by the results. Dain decided to gather up the Bakari's weapons and break off their axe heads to salvage the raw steel from their axes. Giving up, the group decided to rest for a moment, climbing the watchtower after stashing the dead Bakari in the tall bushes nearby and tying up the unconscious ones.

After taking a rest, the group climbed the mesa to get a better view and stay out of sight of the Bakari down below in the city ruins. Approaching the inner city, Merrick again decided to use Arcane Eye to explore the city ruins, noting the positions of a number of Bakari moving along the paths below, between a large number of ruined Ettinor homes. He eventually stumbled upon a small pond next to what appeared to be the entrance to a mine shaft, where he saw a number of Bakari with pickaxes gathered around a pile of some kind of metal that he could not identify. He decided to report back to the group, guessing there were perhaps ten Bakari wandering around the city, and they briefly discussed strategy, wanting to try to take them on a few at a time to avoid a large scale battle. They waited until one of the patrols below walked away, leaving a lone Bakari standing near some stairs. However, after the group jumped down to stealthily approach the lone Bakari, Dain made the decision to use Toll the Dead on it. When the Bakari spotted him, it let out a roar of anger that cut through the heavy rain beating down on them. Through flashes of lightning, Merrick cast Sickening Radiance at the top of the stairs before letting loose a mote from his Crown of Stars that he had prepared at the top of the ridge. Several of the Bakari's allies, having heard his war cry, rushed in to help, being scorched by the radiance of Merrick's magic. One of them managed to close the distance with Merrick, wounding him with its axe before an enormous Bakari, standing at least a foot taller than the others and being much more muscular, and wielding a very large maul ran up the stairs, joining the fight.

One of the Bakari tried to rush at Merrick, but succumbed to the Sickening Radiance, evaporating into light. Skinner saw its spirit emerge and run off toward the city ruins. One of the Bakari then tried to climb the ridge leading to Skinner, but could not get a good hand hold due to the slippery rock caused by the rain. As the Bakari lost its handhold, Summer leaned over and shot it directly in the face, causing it to fall dead to the ground. Dain ran in to go toe-to-toe with the enormous Bakari, and the Steel Defender circled around back to flank it, taking damage from the Sickening Radiance. Dain managed to get in one hit, but on his second, he overextended and missed, and the large Bakari caught Stormsmasher mid-swing and smirked before trying to yank it away from Dain, who managed to resist. Skinner surrounded the large Bakari with his beckoned spirits and attacked, then called out in Etunak, demanding to know why the creature were attacking his people. The large Bakari snapped his head up to look at Skinner with manic desire on his face. As one of the Bakari scaled the cliff and ended up next to Summer, she managed to stab it in a vital spot with Wavecutter. The enormous Bakari staring at Skinner leapt the 30 or so ft. up to the ridge next to Skinner and immediately slammed his maul down into the ground, cracking the stone in a large area around him, which Skinner nearly stumbled over, but which caused Summer to lose her balance and fall to the ground. The large Bakari then tried to bite Skinner but missed, after which it spun and slammed its maul into Skinner's chest, knocking the wind out of him and nearly sending him flying. Seeing that Skinner was in danger, Merrick cast True Polymorph on him, turning him into a Sentinel Talux. The newly transformed Skinner jumped backward, using his wings to propel him toward the Bakari harassing Summer, using his new Lightblade to wound the Bakari, who took advantage of Summer's uneven footing and prone condition to stab her in the thigh.