Battle at a Bridge

When we last left our heroes, a random encounter was due to happen. In this case, it happened while Alek was getting up to use the latrine. While trekking off to to do his business, Alek discovered that the camp was surrounded by small shriekers, fungi that make loud noises when disturbed. Sandi was also roused by the squeaking of the one Alek almost stepped on. Sandi and Alek cleared a path to the latrines, and as they did, they released spores that seemed to have a psychoactive effect. Sandi, being Sandi, decided to clear out the entire field. Despite medical training, Alek was affected by the spores and will be having nightmares for a few nights. Looks like I'll need to practice brooding and writing emo poetry for a while.

The next afternoon, we found that a pair of half-ogres had set up a trap on a stone bridge over-looking the river. They demanded a toll to let us pass safely. Naturally we refused. The half-ogres threw hunks of rotted meat onto our boat, attracting the attention of some crocodiles.

At this point, Ethan entered the game with a new character: Arannis, a drow sorcerer. He was crossing the bridge, and decided to help us against the ogres. This helped make up for Corrin's absence that evening.

One of the crocs went for Sandi's horse, but we managed to stymie it and kill it before it could make a meal. Thokk managed to drop a croc in one hit with a critical. Through wise utilization of resources, in particular our ability to keep the ogres at a distance and focus fire one enemy at a time, we managed a bloodless battle, other than the nasty bite Sandi's horse sustained.

After the battle, we had a little bit of role-playing with Arannis. Alek and Thokk, being from the Silver Marches, were familiar with Drizzt Do'Urden, so they decided to give Arannis the benefit of the doubt.

That night, a noble and his companions showed up at our camp with badly abused horsed and offered a trade. The table consensus was that people who abuse animals are jerks (they are), so we turned down the trade, preferring to keep ours whole. We weren't motivated enough to try and save the abused animals, however. The remainder of the journey was uneventful.

After arriving in Baldur's Gate, we learned that animals were prohibited inside the city, so we sold ours at the southern end, had our feed ported to the north end, and bought new ones there. We also made contact with Ackyn Selbon, but not before Alek and Thokk caught a glimpse of Resmir the Black being carted through the city on a palanquin.

We had a mini-sort of skill challenge after meeting with Selbon. We each needed to provide our qualifications as caravan guards and rolled Charisma (persuasion) checks. Alek and Thokk successfully parlayed their military service to get letters of recommendation. Arannis also successfully parlayed his mystical abilities while over-coming drow racism to get a letter as well. Censura, however, failed to parlay his own mystical abilities for a letter. Sandi tried to play up his (falsely inflated) dragon-slaying abilities and also failed to obtain a letter.

With letters in hand, we showed up at the caravan grounds to get jobs. Despite not having a letter, Censura was able to display his prowess and earned a job as a guard sergeant. Alek also managed to obtain a sergeant position (appropriate, since that was his soldier rank). Thokk and Arannis both managed to obtain slightly lower paying jobs as regular guards. Sandi then did some showboating with his hail of thorns spell, but failed to get a job despite having advantage on the roll. So he'll be tagging along, hoping to get hired if any other guard dies or abandons his post.

When next we join our heroes, they'll be heading north with the caravans.