Rise of the Runelords Recap # 44 [RPG]

[16 Kuthona 4707]

A few hours before dawn, the camp is awoken by the sound of creatures moving through the nearby underbrush.  A trio of horses, fully saddled and with saddlebags, emerge from the tree line foraging for food.  Kozen investigates and notices that the horses seem agitated, and that the saddlebags they carry contain rations and clothing for small humanoids.  He speculates that the horses could have been abandoned by the fugitive Captain Othlo and his crew, but Artemis raises a more disturbing theory: bloody wounds on one of the horses indicates that it was attacked sometime in the last several hours.  Kang finds a small blue feather hidden at the bottom of one of the saddlebags, which Goragar identifies as a magical means of instantly creating an anchor.  The theory that this was Othlo’s horse gains ground, and Goragar expresses his hope that they catch up to him and deliver some payback.  Shalelu returns from scouting the tree line and says the horses came from the north.  Some in the camp urge an immediate departure, but Artemis emphasizes the risk of stumbling about in the dark towards an unknown danger and persuades everyone to wait until morning.

Bandits have become more active since the rangers of Fort Rannick

 no longer patrol the road to Turtleback Ferry.

Bringing the new horses with them, the adventurers set off at first light.  As they travel, talk turns to what the adventurers are likely to find in Turtleback Ferry, and all but Briza are pessimistic.  The travellers cover a few miles, but their journey stops suddenly.  Rounding a bend in a river, they see, several hundred feet away, a classic river bandit strategy.  Tree trunks have been cut down and placed across a narrow part of the Skull River to block boats from moving in either direction, and the road that parallels the river has been similarly obstructed.  A dozen highwaymen and river pirates man the makeshift barrier in order to extract a heavy “toll fee” from all who would pass through.  In order to raise or lower the logs, the bandits have enlisted the aid of an eleven-foot tall, green-skinned marsh giant!  In the clear light of day, both groups see each other, and no one doubts that a battle is imminent:  “Let’s make some corpses”, says Kang.

Marsh giants are hateful thugs known for making
bloody sacrifices to a demon lord.

Artemis dismounts, takes cover behind a boulder, and lets fly with an arrow.  Even at a distance, the marksman has no difficulty striking the obese marsh giant.  Shalelu follows suit.  The bandits return fire with a volley of arrows and the giant hurls a nearby tree stump, but no one is hurt.  Kang takes to the sky and turns invisible, slowly covering the distance towards the attackers, while Briza runs forward at full speed, rapidly closing the distance.  Goragar prepares for battle by reciting some prayers to Gorum and then follows, still mounted on his warhorse.  Kozen summons shadows to surround her and enchants a length of rope to set a trap should any of the bandits approach, but the battle is decided several hundred feet away from her.  As Artemis and Shalelu continue to successfully exchange volleys with the bandits, Briza and the marsh giant charge at each other.  The giant’s natural reach, extended even further with a long gaff hook, proves a decisive advantage as he wounds her twice before she can even close the gap.  She slashes him right across the abdomen and rank fish guts pour out of his belly, but with an anguished cry to the demon lord Dagon, he rakes the gaff back and impales the hook in Briza’s throat!  In an instant, the Shoanti swordswoman once so full of life is laid low forever.

Goragar, whose childhood village was razed by giants, yells a battlecry and spurs his horse forward.  He tries to cleave the giant’s gaff in twain, but the giant is too fast for the clever manoeuvre.  Even the massive half-orc is overpowered by this foe, and soon succumbs after a series of awesome blows.  The unconscious half-orc stays in his saddle, but bleeds profusely and is only seconds away from death.  Fiery retribution rains down from above as Kang emerges from the shroud of invisibility and begins dropping explosives on the hapless giant!  The fish-faced foe makes the decision to try to leap into the water to escape, but it’s not fast enough to evade yet another alchemical bomb and flops down, a smoking husk.  The surviving bandits, realizing the battle has turned against them, flee into the tree line, with many falling from Artemis’ and Shalelu’s arrows.  With literally only seconds to spare, Kozen heroically dashes next to Goragar and staunches his bleeding. 

The half-orc returns from the very brink of death only to hear Kang imploring him to do something to help Briza.  But the brave warrior was killed instantly, and there’s nothing anyone can do.  Everyone gathers around, with Tillia in tears.  Shalelu says, perhaps coldly, that there are two choices: bury her where she fell or set the body adrift on the river.  Artemis says there’s no time for either, as the group needs to be moving, but Kang is outraged and, this time, the group’s leader is overruled.  Goragar and Shalelu investigate the bandit camp to look for spades, and they find the battered, unconscious form of Captain Othlo along with the bodies of the last of his shipmates.  The doom that befell Pinkeye’s Comeuppance seems to have carried on as a curse to its captain and crew.  Goragar slings Othlo over his shoulder, and returns with Shalelu to assist in digging a grave for Briza.

Othlo's obsession has only grown.

Before the body is lowered into the grave, the adventurers begin stripping it of valuables and equipment.  Tillia, already distraught, is revolted and shouts that the adventurers are no better than jackals!  She implores them to bring the body to Turtleback Ferry so that Father Shreed can at least perform a decent burial.  Shalelu whispers to Artemis that a Shoanti warrior like Briza would doubtless prefer to be buried on the field of battle where she fell, but Tillia’s chastening words have had their effect.  The decision is made to wrap Briza’s body up in a bedroll and tie it to the back of one of the spare horses.  Goragar decapitates the marsh giant and takes the head as a token of the first giant slain by the company of adventurers.  As the journey north continues on, far more sombre than before, Goragar discusses what went wrong in the battle, noting that they should have taken better advantage of their obvious superiority with archery to whittle the giant down before it could close into hand-to-hand combat.  The journey into the cold continues for several hours, and a mild drizzle turns into steady rain as the adventurers start a fire and set up camp.

[17 Kuthona 4707]

A cold, rainy day matches the mood of the adventurers when dawn comes.  Noticing Othlo beginning to stir, Goragar slaps him awake.  The battered halfling is berated by Goragar, Artemis, and Kozen for his cruel lack of compassion towards the safety of his crew, but all the once-likable man can talk about is whether they’re closer to Claybottom Lake, where the giant albino gar known as Pinkeye destroyed his first vessel.  If anything, the tragedies that have befallen Othlo (many of his own making) have only strengthened his single-minded obsession to get revenge!  Disgusted, Goragar punches the halfling back into unconsciousness.  The adventurers break camp and continue, knowing they’re not far from Turtleback Ferry.

Ogres are the stuff of nightmare, as stories told of dismemberment,

 necrophelia, incest, and mutilation barely scratch the surface of their depravity.

A few hours pass uneventfully until the sound of horses in pain can be heard in the distance.  The adventurers rush closer and see that a farmhouse on the far side of the river is under attack!  Brutish creatures the size of giants with arms as thick as pythons are attacking the farm’s horses—already, a man that Tillia identifies as Farmer Jonas is being shaken like a rag-doll!  Ogres have obviously ventured deeper south than usual, but the campfire stories told of their horrendous brutality and savage cannibalism aren’t enough to give the adventurers pause.  Kang drinks an extract, shouts a challenge, and, uncharacteristically, flies right towards his foes!  Perhaps affected by the recent death of his “assistant,” the master alchemist has placed himself in harm’s way and suffers a bone-shaking blow from an ogre’s greatclub.  Realizing his mistake, Kang turns invisible and retreats.  Meanwhile, Artemis and Shalelu open fire with their bows and Kozen entangles one in its own shadow.  Goragar defends the eastern side of the river bank when the ogres start to jump and swim across.  The adventurers take a more conservative strategy and it pays off in victory.

Only hours away from Turtleback Ferry, and the path ahead lays clear.  The adventurers have made good time on their trip from Magnimar, but tragedy has struck along the way.  Briza was the heart of the group.  How will they go forward without her?
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Director's Commentary (29/04/2018)

I've mentioned before that, once a chapter, I let each of the players draw a plot twist card that has to be used in that chapter, and I draw one as well.  For chapter 3, I drew a card that was something like "an unexpected obstacle bars the way forward."  I invoked it to have the encounter with the bandit barricade described above.  I wanted to give the PCs a taste of fighting a giant-sized creature and also have an encounter that started at long range since I knew so much of the adventure path takes place in cramped interior or subterranean settings.  The bandits and the marsh giant were both on the random encounter table for the area and the group could normally have handled them well--I just rolled *really* well for the marsh giant, critting a couple of times.  I was definitely bummed to see Briza go, as she was such a lively, fun character and the first PC for one of the players.  I'm not the type to quote Donald Trump, but I will here:  SAD!

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