Verne, Verget the 5th, 838 ID
Unable to finish removing the insidious damage done to Ox's person, the PCs decide to stay overnight at the Flabbergast Manor and renew their attack on the Score and the Blooded Lash at the Haunted Horrn the following morning. Gruulsh acquires some consumable magic items after the group pays Mistlethroe a donation for some of his healing magics. Mudgol scrys the plain robed man Gremek and discovers that the party's intrusion was indeed noticed, and that the enemy has made some plans to defend against the PCs' next strike.
Essel, Verget the 6th, 838 ID
The group decides to teleport back into the corridors beneath the Horrn, and pick up where they left off. Gruulsh scouts ahead, revealing a spike trap on one of the landings leading up into the cavern stronghold above, and notices that there are some shadowy bugbears guarding the ramp into the dwarves' enclosed village, and a coppery scaled dragon! They navigate through the trap and arrange themselves to assault the guards, but when they finally emerge they trigger another trap...as explosives are set off, and the Haunted Horrn collapses nearly on top of their heads, they must think fast to escape! Baro has a flashback to a time when a mountain pass was detonated and crushed many of the Toul Tabor reinforcements during the War for Floivin Province! The Score had apparently not run out of whatever devices were sold to them in Toul Tabor by that creepy wizard in Wattlewinch. Luckily, they are able to spell themselves away to Floivin Keep just in time while the cavern fell around them, destroying the ruins and possibly the dungeon level beneath...
Ivric, Verget the 7th, 838 ID
Once back at the Keep, the PCs decide they will need to refresh and renew their attack once again, and so this time they plan to appear right in the midst of the Blooded Lash enemies and wreak some havok, while Baro and Badger teleport to a safe ranged vantage point...as if there is going to be a safe, ranged vantage point. They scry the location of Warlord Ultroon, and decide to center the attack there. There is some hesitation, and Ballyhoo tries to purchase a teleport off Teven to spare the group a spell slot, but ultimately they do it themselves. Not before Mudgol receives a magical taunt from his Score counterpart, and finally receives confirmation that 'if you stare into the abyss long enough, it will stare back'. Having had enough, the PCs, primed for battle, launch themselves into full on battle, six men against the Blooded Lash's elite warriors and their Score benefactors.
The main group appears right around Ultroon's scryed location, and a devastating melee begins. The dragon they saw earlier seems to have been another mysterious illusion, but the bugbear and goblin troops the PCs face seem more hardened and dangerous than most they've dealt with before; and on top of that they have perhaps the strongest chief of all the Floivin Province tribes, who dishes out large amounts of damage to Gruulsh right away to make a point. However, the PCs also make some blows, with both Ox and Gruulsh cleaving and slaying large numbers of the tribal warriors in the first round of actual confrontation! Mudgol uses his overland flight to escape the melee, but realizes he is not alone up in the air when he is attacked by an invisible hippogriff rider! Baro and Badger arrive and acquire a vantage point to rain down destruction, but the Red Wizard Melek Tha of the Score decides to harass them with Evard's Black Tentacles, which briefly trap Baro until he can use his other teleport to move.
Ballyhoo manages to dimension door Ox and Gruulsh out of the eye of a major brawl to surround the enemy cleric Gremek, who is then forced to withdraw defensively and not utter a spell. And then the stakes are raised when Mudgol casts reverse gravity on roughly half the enemy force, including their bugbear and troll leaders, changing the tide of the battle?!? Not for long...as the heroic half-orc diviner is taken down by a lethal combination of attacks...a thrown javelin, an imp familiar, and the telling blow...a phantasmal killer shaped like some horrific woman, presumably created by Parodee, the Score illusionist who is providing air support. Mudgol tries to resist but his mediocre saving throws seal his doom, and not only does the spell stop his heart with fear, but he then plummets the 210' to the battle below...the rest of the party screams and renews its attack, but now some of the enemies with flight options have adjusted themselves and prepare another counter. Badger and Baro send lethal projectiles (arrows and chain lightning) at the Red Wizard, wounding but not finishing him, and the cleric Gremek decides to respond with a flame strike on the Nobbish archer, who is then sent into unconsciousness. Gruulsh and Ox manage to finish off the ground troops nearby with the support of Lord Ballyhoo, but things look grim as they might be forced to face the air superiority of the three Score casters...and who knows if Ultroon might survive the reverse gravity once it ends?
Things seem dire for our heroes...again.
PCs: Badger, Ballyhoo, Baro, Gruulsh, Mudgol, Ox
NPCs
Blukk (troll male): A gnarled old, grey-skinned giant with a stinking, greased mane who seems to hold some officer status over the trolls that serve the Blooded Lash. Fights with a great axe up close, but seems more effective at range, sending nasty, large javelins at foes (including at least one with magical capabilities).
Captain Frackas (goblin male): A backstabbing goblinoid scoundrel who also serves as that races' superior officer within the Blooded Lash. He is the fanciest dressed of the tribe, with fine leather armor adorned in narrow, colorful cloth bands, and flits through the battlefield weaving and poking and taking advantage of his peers' stronger fighting techniques.
Warlord Ultroon (bugbear male): A large, fearsome bugbear chief who lords over the Blooded Lash tribe, covered in slash and scar marks and armor bristling with spikes and spines. He fights with an unusual arcane greatsword made of razor edged stone, and seems capable of meting out a level of single-minded pain which rivals the half-orc Ox!
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