Ivric, Malarous 5th, 868 ID
The PCs carefully retreat back around the wedge in the Skunk Pass, so that the frightening legion they've spied will not be provoked. They deliberate on their next course of action, and Langston orders that the party march back to Hobfast to inform the Guard. On the way south of the Pass, they notice trails of smoke wafting up from further to the North, near the mouth of the Pass and the Shark Dunes. En route to Hobfast, the journey is uneventful as the PCs attempt to make sense of what they've seen.
Upon arriving, they inform Captain Hoary, Blake Bauerkroft and Captain Reckon about what they've seen, and the group holds a war conference while Belgin Hosspotch stomps off to tell Grandmother what he's seen. After reviewing the war map found in the Haunted Horrn, they come to the theory that the army of undead they've encountered will likely march unopposed straight to Hobfast, through Hobfast and to the Keep. They decide to send four pairs of halfling scouts, who can hide well, and get a better grasp of what the various enemy forces' movements are. One team is sent to Hud Horrn, one to Tarndim, another back to the Skunk Pass, and the last to Cedarway. The PCs dig in while they send out Wafflar Drull and Mayor Bauerkroft to draft recruits that can fight.
Evalais (Saint's Day), Malarous 6th, 868 ID
The first team of scouts returns to Hobfast before noon, well...one of them. His companion was picked up by a hippogriff while ascending the Haunted Pass to Hud Horrn, so its assumed that the Blooded Lash still reign over the fallen miners' town. No scouts at all return from Tarndim. It's later in the evening when the Skunk Pass scouts show up, and they report that a group of the skeletal figures the PCs had encountered have moved up to secure the very mouth of the Pass. Grandmother evacuates the residents of Hobfast while the PCs and Eidolorn guard make their plans. Word from the Keep is that Captain Reckon is to return with the refugees from Tarndim, Hud Horrn and now Hobfast, while Captain Hoary and his men continue to gather intelligence or engage/delay the enemy as they see fit.
The PCs decide that they might be able to hold the unknown legion at the shallow crossing of Midge Creek, so they travel there to get a better idea of what defenses they could construct. En route, they encounter a strange creature called a tendriculos, but it does not engage them. They end up staying the night, but before camping the fourth team of halfling scouts returns from Cedarway, reporting that the place has been overrun by kobolds and noone is left alive. The PCs leave Wafflar Drull to keep watch at the crossing while they return with the news. In the village, the final council is called. Bauerkroft has recruited a pair of handy fishermen to assist him in the defense of the village, while Hoary has his ten men, and Belgin has been ordered to assist with the remaining halfling scouts (including two of his personal retinue).
The PCs and Guard debate where best to assert themselves, and after a sobering evening of plotting and drinking at the abandoned Crimson Harpy, with the 'open bar' left for those staying behind, it is decided that they will take two small forces to converge upon Cedarway, where they have the best chance of routing the kobold intruders. Hoary, Bauerkroft and their men will take boats and Mudgol's familiar (to signal them when to land), while the PCs and Belgin's halflings travel by land to Cedarway. They get in another night of rest before making the trek.
Aric, Malarous 7th, 868 ID
Before enabling their two-pronged assault, the PCs decide to make a quick row to Tarndim across the Well and see what they can spy from a safe distance. They make use of Mudgol's familiar The Professor to scout about, and find signs of a disaster. The remaining Guard and civilians appear to have all been tortured by the Blood Eagle clan, some even given the 'blood eagle' itself by the docks. The Professor swims back safely to the boat and the PCs head back to Hobfast, where the toad is given to Captain Hoary for the assault. Everyone readies him or herself for the upcoming conflict.
The PCs set out to the Skunk Ridge, collecting Wafflar Drull along the way, who reports that nothing strange has happened. En route through the hills, though, Belgin spies an army marching at a distance, coming from the direction of Skunk Pass! The PCs try to give this legion a wide berth, essentially abandoning Hobfast and Tarndim to whatever fate might arrive. They head further east to Cedarway, and arrive late in the afternoon. Aside from some guard corpses, the small trade port seems abandoned. Even the Skunkside Tower is empty. The PCs head to the docks, where they spy a dreadful sight...a ghostlike figure astride a galleon just big enough for the Pinewater, along with a creepy looking crew. Mudgol recollects seeing the figure in the past...
A hasty and potentially dangerous tactic is decided upon, and Mudgol signals the Professor to have the Eidolorn Guard land on the West bank of the Pinewater. Then he stands upon the docks and launches a fireball into the middledeck of the oncoming vessel, right as it splits between the two piers flanking the river! Trouble is about to commence...
PCs: Bethrys, Langston, Luz, Mudgol, Slab
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