The first couple of days travel were fairly relaxed, though the grim nature of the surroundings did damper a lot of the calm. Passing between the spines erupting from the ground here and there with increasing frequency to the east as they approach the sheer mountains looming there. The first encounter of note they had was with a troop of six Aurora Watch soldiers and their scout Devin, a drow woman who also was an exceptional cook. They exchanged news with the patrol about the surroundings. The patrol did seem to think there wasn't that much going on that was above the normal, but Devin pointed out that they'd seen a gloomstalker in the distance.
Snype was alerted by this, having seen the taxidermied body of a gloomstalker from the days of Vox Machina's conflicts with the cult of the Whispered One. It is a shadowy, winged monster with paralytic shrieks that raises the dead and seeks to kill and consume beings. She also alerted them that gloomstalkers are sensitive to bright lights. Noting down the concern, they continued speaking and were told that there were two other Aurora Watch patrols in the area. They set down for the night and picked up the next day.
It was a couple of days later when they encountered the second of the local patrols. The sound of battle carried to them from down the road and they soon came to see another group of veterans beset by a pack of demonic manes. The group immediately leapt into action with Imvenda taking to the skies and Elara summoning a shaft of searing moonlight down from the sky to incinerate two of the manes and Esoh dropping a bonfire of necrotic flame upon another before toppling it with a telekinetic shove. Snype advanced to shoot one of the distant demonic spirits leave the near one for Tarre who was set up to smash the first one that came near her. The manes were being destroyed one after another by the group but then a massive form appeared around one of the massive spires. A hezrou chuckling sinisterly and diverting the eldritch blast unleashed on it by Imvenda.
The veterans tried to hold back away from the hezrou and its aura of stench as the manes were continuously destroyed before their distraction could be used to the hezrou's benefit. Irvan Wastewalker found his attacks frustrated as his poison could find no purchase on the demons and he had to be pulled out of the range of the hezrou's stench by Galsariad's dunamancy. In the back, Anaalch's horse bolted at the scent of demons and broke free of the reins, tipping the cart over and spilling her to the ground and drawing Tarre away to handle that.
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| Guiding Bolts, Bullets, and Necrotic Fire |
With the manes eliminated, the veterans were having trouble striking the hezrou, with one of them succumbing to the demon's stench and retching their lunch out onto the ground. But the Rivals and Second Round poured moonlight, eldritch forces, expert marksmanship, and scribe modified spells into the creature. Wearing it down bit by bit, the hezrou was sent back to the Abyss by Maggie Keeneye's giant's maul. Things began to calm down as the essence of the souls bound up into the manes were leashed as glowing motes up into the sky.
The patrol reported that it felt like more things were leaking out of Bazzoxan recently, but maybe that was just there own feelings. Also, one of the drow bemoaned having missed the festival of merit and one of the human soldiers spoke of not having seen Rosohna in close to two years. Their last leave they were only able to get to Asarius. After healing the soldier who'd been overwhelmed by the hezrou's stench, they moved on until it was time to set down for a camp.
As they neared the Emerald Loop caravan stop, a dip in the road revealed an overturned wagon. Imvenda and Esoh's raven Quoth did an aerial circuit and Snype circled about as well. Seeing signs of tiny but numerous lightning strikes, which Esoh immediately associated with stories of will-o-wisps that sometimes could be found in the region. She also saw that the wagon was marked with the same symbol and crest as the wagon they were current protected, owned by the Gramemist merchant family.
Being told about the potential of invisible spirits, Elara called upon the light of Sarenrae to cover the wagon with a scattering of sparkling light that clung about a floating ball of light and immediately the spirits attacked, dropping out of invisibility in order to strike the adventurers. The wisps were nimble and hard to nail down, but over time and with help from Dermot's blessing and the Faerie Fire cast by Elara and Anaalch combined with the devastating area effects cast by Esoh and Imvenda, they were
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| Hexblade vs Wisps |
able to whittle down the wisps one by one, though Maggie, Imvenda, and Esoh suffered much from their attention.
As the wisps were shattered finally, the spirits of two women, a drow and a hobgoblin, drifted up whispering "thank you" and then seeing Anaalch looking up at them. Their eyes widened and they managed a wave and gesture before dissipating on to the ether.
Anaalch looked on in confusion and building tension saying "Moms....?" in the wake of their disappearance.
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