DF Soaring Phoenix, Session 81 - Back to the Hand

          We had a session last Tuesday as usual. This was something of a transition episode, as the party was travelling and not much happened. Still the summary decided it was going to be longer than I expected.

Session Date:    Tuesday 18 June 2024

Party roster:

Ben, half-ogre barbarian, 233 points (PC)
- Copper, sumpter (pack horse), unknown points (Animal)
Eleanor Bayley, human adventurer (thief), 296 points (PC)
- Dagne Timar, human priestess of Metallys (cleric), 147 points (NPC Ally)
Erizax Ofaris, human wizard, 292 points (PC)
Merrill Tangled Tail, cat-folk monk (martial artist), 234 points (PC)
Violetta, human warrior (barbarian), 161 points (PC)
Randall, human veteran (knight), 173 points (NPC Ally)

Campaign Dates:    3 thru 5 February, Year 647 of the Vycenaean Empire.

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    The group headed north from the town of Bridgegate to the village of Fairhill, with the intention to stop at Titan's Hand on the way. The group was travelling slowly, both to give themselves a chance to observe and explore, and to have some time to forage as they went. Also Merrill as a lazy cat martial artist needs to take extra time to sleep meditate, which often cuts into the hiking time. Or hiking cuts into meditation time, depending how you see it (martial artists in DFRPG need to spend 1d6 hours per day on meditation).

    The first day they crossed the low hills north of town and came to the small "haunted" wood there. Previously the woods had contained a sort of evil tree stump that was full of bones and was generating skeletons, but the party dealt with that problem with fire. Thankfully they had avoided to burn down the whole wood, and now it was far less spooky. The party spent a watch foraging there, and then camped an uneventful night in the woods.

    The second day the group left the woods by the way they had entered it, and headed in a north-westerly direction across the Strider Barrens. The barrens are fairly desolate plains, with only occasional patches of grass and not much plant life larger than a bush or small stunted trees. So the large evergreen tree, some 15 yards tall, growing on the top of a small hill, is a pretty noticeable landmark for some distance. They approached it cautiously but saw no-one around. Merrill climbed the tree, which he managed but found the task more difficult than it should have been, as if the tree were somehow resisting the attempt.

    Once in the tree, Merrill looked around and saw multiple groups (flocks?) of the eponymous Striders, a type of very large flightless bird that roam the Barrens. Other than the striders, Merrill saw a small group of humanoids to the southwest, but they were too far away to make out any details or determine their exact number. As he was descending, Merrill spotted a dragon in the sky, also to the southwest. It was a few miles away, but had to be pretty large to be visible at that distance. Merrill paused to watch the dragon, and it looked to be circling. Whether hunting or looking for something in particular, Merrill of course could not say. He hurried down the tree to notify the others, and a somewhat frantic discussion ensued. After that, Merrill ascended again to have another look, but by that time neither the dragon nor the people could be seen. Not wanting to camp too near the landmark tree, the party set off again on their journey towards Titan's Hand. Before they departed, Merrill made a point to courteously apologise to the tree for any claw marks, and thanked it for letting him climb up to look.

    On the third day, the party could see Titan's Hand in the distance as they approached. The large structure is so named for looking exactly like a gigantic stone hand with its fingers all pointing up to the sky. The tracks and trails across the barrens mostly went past or around the Hand, presumably on the way to Fairhill. Most did not go to the stone structure itself. However as they approached the party saw a number of tents at the base of Titan's Hand. The whole group approached nearer to scout it, keeping their eyes peeled for both people and flying enemies.

    When they could see humanoids, the group paused and Eleanor went on to scout alone, donning the hood of her cape of invisibility and disappearing from sight. Soon Eleanor saw a small group of goblinoids walking towards her, she moved aside to let them pass and it was clear they were headed straight for the party. They were two orc archers, three orcs with sword and shield, and two hobgoblins also with sword and shield.

    Eleanor blew her whistle, which stopped the orcs in their tracks, as they looked about for the source but not seeing the invisible thief. Hearing the whistle, Merrill immediately started running towards the orcs, soon followed but everyone else, except Dagne and Ben. Then the two orc archers both nocked an arrow, and fired them up into the air. From the direction of Titan's Hand a horn blew. Eleanor ran back to meet her companions.

    Eleanor met Merrill part way and revealed herself. The orcs were marching in their direction. They both ran back to the others. The group set down their packs near the horse, and prepared to make a stand. Erizax immediately started in on the Mystic Mist spell, which would aid them greatly in defence, but the ritual to cast it takes a number of minutes.

    We paused the session there, with the cliffhanger of a probable fight with the first wave of enemies awaiting the group...

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    Unfortunately we expect to be missing two players next week (both the barbarians), for different RL reasons, and the wizard will spend much of the pending fight mid-casting of his long ritual. So those facts combine for a fight which would be very uncompelling next Tuesday. Therefore I decided to resolve as much of the fight as possible via PbP on Discord, in order to both increase the input of the barbarian players who couldn't otherwise participate, and to avoid wasting too much of the wizard player's time on the day.