Session 1 (July 3rd, 2015)
The Battle
As the farce perpetrated by Jake reaches its crescendo with an obviously murderous man and his heavily armed lackeys closing in on the heavily outnumbered party, Thanus remains still in body, yet his mind is racing.
All possible battle plans and outcomes (that one can concoct with limited access to 2nd level spells) are examined by his keen intellect until finally, miraculously, Thanus computes a scenario that does not end in being mutilated/murdered in the woods by a psychopath.
The ambushers advance upon Jake and according to Thanus's calculations, they are in range. The time is right. Now is the time for their enemies to pay for their close proximity to each other and their hubris.
Thanus breaks free from the false shackles and raises his casting fingers, all of which are perhaps turned sideways to better facilitate the upcoming kill shot(s).
Color Spray, motherfuckers.
Or so it should have happened. Unfortunately everyone was prepared for the beginning of combat, so no surprise round for Thanus who does poorly on initiative.
The hound is set on Thanus and the archers take aim at Jake and miss. Myrkel now stands close enough for Jake to see the evil in his eyes, so Jake decides he should do something about that. Blindness/deafness! Success.
The enemy leader screams and begins to slash wildly at the air in front of him as he stumbles forward toward where he last saw Jake, and then the tribal guide acts and the mystery of why the slaughtered horsemen didn't (or couldn't) escape the ambush becomes clear. Web!
Myrkel, Jake, Thanus, and the murderous hound, now inches from fulfilling its desire to rip out a throat, are caught and there goes the perfect Color Spray moment Thanus had prepared for.
The battle proceeds. Archers are mostly ineffective, yet even blind Myrkel is a threat. He takes a moment to steady himself and calm himself, and suddenly he seems more adept at blind fighting, much to Jake's chagrin, especially once he gets slashed down the torso for a large chunk of his health.
Jake tries to retaliate, but his rapier finds itself ineffective against the larger man's banded mail and before he can try again, he is Burning Disarmed by the enemy mage. And then that mage Burning Hands and now everyone in the Web is burning.
The fire turns out to be a mixed bag for both groups, as the fire hurts, yet it clears away the webbing for both sides. Myrkel seems pleased to be able to move freely again and he blindly pursues the now retreating Jake.
Finally able to cast, Thanus goes with his original plan: Color Spray, motherfuckers! And only the attack dog and one grunt fail.
Jake takes an arrow and another slash from the enemy's resident psychopath and begins to wonder when he will be seeing his life flash before his eyes, but again Thanus comes up with a cunning plan: What if we weren't outnumbered?
Summons, motherfucker! The party gains its own set of attack dogs that beset the archers and the mage, distracting them long enough to not immediately finish Jake off as he kites Myrkel into the trees and out of direct archer line of sight.
The dogs are vanquished quickly, but their purpose was served. The archers, now wielding melee weapons in order to kill the magical hounds, advance into the trees and cut off Jake's escape as Myrkel stumbles slowly through the underbrush toward his prey.
Now the enemy mage faces Thanus, but unfortunately for him, Thanus has learned the tactical value of superior numbers. Summon Eagles! The eagles rip into the enemy mage, forcing him to try to flee for his life, but unfortunately for him he manages to fail casting his escape spell and six second later he is ripped apart by vicious summoned avian predators.
In the trees, the enemy closes in on Jake as he gains his second wind and begins to ineffectively knife fight a longsword wielding grunt as his rapier is still lost somewhere in the clearing. All the while Myrkel approaches from the side.
With the mage gone, Thanus turns his attention toward the battle in the treeline and so follows Color Spray number two (motherfuckers!), and this one hits the mark. All three remaining grunts go down and the eagles start ripping into them with gusto as Jake finally begins to act out a battle plan, thus Inspiring their Courage.
And yet the implacable Myrkel still comes for Jake, whom takes it upon himself to not only continue to kite the blind killer, but use him to end the lives of the Color Sprayed.
Jake pushes the man he had been fighting into Myrkel as he advanced, and Myrkel cuts him down. Ahh, you got me, cries out check, making a bluff check. It might have worked if not for the fact that the noise was clearly coming from an area not at the killer's feet.
As Jake and Myrkel do their merry dance, the archer who had failed the original Color Spray comes back to battle readiness, but soon meets his end at the talons of bard buffed eagles.
It is clear that the rest of the battle is merely a technicality. Eagles slay the downed men as Jake keeps their leader busy and finally Jake casts Blindness/Deafness again on Myrkel, who fails again.
Now blind and deaf, Myrkel loses his cool entirely and wildly attacks around him. Trees splinter, a nearby corpse gets even more corpse-y, and eventually he collapses onto his knees and drops his blade.
He is helpless and forsaken. Myrkel knows it is over even before Jake slits his throat and ends his torment along with the CR 8 encounter.
The Aftermath
With the battle over, Thanus and Jake look over the loot. The grunts seem poorly equipped, most likely in their own kit, but the bows they use are all well made and similar enough to be from the same source. Perhaps provided along with the arrows for the job.
As the bodies are more closely examined, the duo notice various tattoos that would mark the dead men as low level freelancers from New Sarnath, which is something they already knew from their conversation with the now dead guard.
The dead mage has a wand of Entangle, perhaps further explaining the road massacre, along with a few scrolls and potions. Thanus consumes a pint of his blood as per Blood Transcription and gains some of his magical knowledge.
Myrkel had masterwork gear, a bastard sword, a heavy steel shield, and banded mail. Examining some of the items more closely, the mark of House Amathy can be found on the items, but the mark is defaced, scratched out. Perhaps an Amathy outcast turned freelancer?
As the gear comes off, the party sees Myrkel has severe burns over much of his body, but at the edges of the burns one can almost make out tattoos, one of which might also be a portion of the Amathy symbol, a stylized blood red eagle. If he is an Amathy outcast, he clearly didn't leave the Company on good terms.
The ambush leader also had a few magical trinkets: A +1 cestus with the unique ability to do Stunning Fist once per day, but with some minor repercussions to the user, and a ring that once per day allows the user to gain access to a combat feat he doesn't possess. That would explain his sudden blind fighting skill.
Lastly, a scroll case is found and Jake examines the contents. A letter with the New Sarnath seal, though subtlety different and now broken. The letter itself is coded, though looking at it briefly Jake is confident he could probably decipher it, though it would be time consuming. He decides to keep the existence of the letter a secret for the moment and takes it without Thanus knowing.
With looting done, the two start to head back the way they had come, though Jake insists on dragging back the dead deer that the ambush party had brought with them to their camp. He is sure that his "lord" Braggor will appreciate his squire's thoughtfulness in bringing home dinner.
To be continued...
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