We began in Elturel on the river Chionthat spending time with Ontharr Frume and his cronies. Frume was waiting on a shipment, so we had a couple of days to kill. So we had another round of contest with the Order of the Gauntlet. This time around, Reese returned with Lokeo and Kelly returned with Kosef. This was something of a mixed blessing: it was more opportunities to roll and get successes in the contest, but it raised the threshold to successfully complete the round.
Among the more interesting events, Corrin, the halfling, managed to win a contest of athletics with a caber toss. Corrin's Strength is 8. Thok, using some of his background, woodchopped his way to victory. I told the story of my grandfather's triumph over the dragon along with his allies. We completed two rounds successfully before cashing in our chips. This got us 300 xp for the session.
Then we commenced to serious business. We found a root cellar to store our ill-gotten egg and met Leosin and Ontharr to get our next mission: they wanted us to intercept the cult's convoy of stolen goods in Baldur's Gate and follow it north to their final destination. They let us see a letter mentioning Aravax Foxtraveller as the Cult's contact in Baldur's Gate. (D.J. even printed up the letter for use as a cool prop). Leosin and Ontharr also gave us the name of Ackyn Selbon in the Blackgate district to help us get jobs as caravan guards to establish our cover. Being good adventurers, we accepted the mission along with a stipend to help cover expenses.
Since this journey was expected to last a month, we ended up killing the blue dragon egg, and we gave Sandi the honor.
The next day we boarded a barge called the Sullen Wench and set off down the Chionthar river for Baldur's Gate.
At this point, several people named their horses. Thok named his Ninny and Winnie, Censura named his Ethan (after Nathan's friend who sat and observed this session), and Lokeo named his Bullseye. I named mine Phobos (as in Phobos and Deimos, the consorts of Ares), but after reviewing my Tempus mythology I'm planning to rename it Deiros or Veiros, the horses of Tempus. Corrin, Sandi, and Kosef neglected to name their horses. It was probably fortunate for Corrin, anyways.
That first day, a pair of perytons attacked. Their largish (medium-sized by rules standard) birds with antlers on their head. They cast false shadows and have a nasty little trait: resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from non-magical weapons. Since we possessed precisely none of those, we had some trouble injuring the beasts.
The perytons got the drop on us, and swooped in a killed Corrin's poor nameless horse in one round. The other attacked Censura, but didn't manage to hit very hard. As we got organized, the one that attacked Censura decided to start eating Corrin's horse. The other attacked Kosef and rolled a 1 on its first attack, then a critical on its second roll. All praise the fickle RNG. Of course, we had a cleric, so I was able to I was able to get the big axe-wielding fighter back on his feet.
Even with their resistance, we managed to nearly drop one of the perytons. I fired an opening salvo at the other with guiding bolt. Thok followed up with one of his battlemaster features. He even managed to score a rather brutal critical hit. The battlemaster feature added extra damage, and half-orcs deal extra critical hit damage. But it was still up.
When the perytons' turn came up again, one was down, and the one Thokk and I had hit tried to flee. Fortunately, Sandi sniped it down over the shore. We landed and were able to recover Thok's throwing axe.
We prepared for a long rest that night, but a random encounter occurred. What dangers will our intrepid heroes face next? Join us next time. Same Bat Time. Same Bat Channel.
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