Sypheros 18th-19th

Sypheros 18th on the Rest Trail, New Cyre

It may be that there is still some hope for New Cyre. If we play this war as might a shrewd chess master, perhaps we can manage to steal a victory from the jaws of this looming disaster. My renewed optimism is owed to a small reversal of fortune. Both Pazenga and Zed returned to the fold putting the “Honor Guard” at full strength once again. Thus I knew that the odds of a successful elimination of the roadblock were now in our favor.

Shortly after being reunited, we were approached by a courier from Prince Orgev himself. The letter added nothing new to our understanding of the situation but did promise a significant reward for our part in the coming conflict. The courier not only mentioned the road block, which was already a designated target, he also provided new information on these preternatural dragonmen allied to our enemies. The courier mentioned that Prince Orgev’s intelligence operatives suspected some sort of “spawnery” or breeding facility for the humanoid dragons. We promised to deal with the facility after lifting the road block, should we find it or hear rumor of its whereabouts.

After a short journey we came upon the purported “road block”. This road block was in actuality a small timber keep in its own right. Two hobgoblin archers walked sentry-go on the central and highest section of the timber keep. Not knowing the forces that might be concealed within, I chose a conservative strategy that would force the enemy to tip their hand while preserving the strengths of our own small company.

I cast a spell of levitation upon Pazenga and we placed a noose around his midsection. I then raised him the better part of ten yards into the air. Zed our warforged warrior grabbed the rope and began a quick march toward the timber keep. When Zed gained the timber fort he released Pazenga. The two goblinoid archers began a frantic barrage of arrows, to little effect. The arrows could do little more than dent the adamantine “skin” of Zed the warforged and Pazenga himself was a spinning blur, impossible to see much less hit.

Suddenly two powerfully muscled ogres, adult males seemingly, appeared on the lesser walls and began hurling huge javelins the size of wagon axles. I had erred in allowing Pazenga to advance so far ahead of me and I was unable to lower him until far later in the fight than originally planned. Zed's adamantine battle-sword hewed the keep’s wooden door from its hinges. Then Pazenga drew his own crossbow and returned fire as Zed retreated out of arrow range. The gith martial artist spun more wildly our of control with each recoil but staunchly continued his barrage. At that point the self-same two ogres burst out of the sundered gate and charged us. Zed reversed directions and counter-charged the two mighty giant-kin. Elarin and I saw that it was time to make our move so we leapt from Failin’s elemental wagon and began to run in the direction of the keep. Zed's new found allies, Crucible the warforged artificer and his three soldier-constructs, quick-marched closely behind us. Elarin drove an acid missle deep into one ogre’s chest. Zed followed the magical attack with a deadly slash to the abdomen that spilled the ogre’s viscera on the ground.

Sensing that Zed had the ogre front well in hand, and that his warforged allies were about to enter the fray on his behalf, Elarin and I continued to run for the fort in order to succor Pazenga. Once at the gate I canceled the levitation magic on the gith monk and he plowed into the hobgoblin archers. Pazenga quickly dispatched the wounded archer but the other proved to be more of a challenge. Meanwhile the remaining ogre had managed, through sheer brute force, to crumple Zed’s adamantine skin. The oily black liquid that serves as warforged blood pooled at Zed's feet but the warrior refused retreat. It seemed that another such blow would deactivate the construct-swordsman. Fearing for their new leader, the warforged soldiers darted in, heedless of the danger presented by the ogre’s huge cudgel. The ogre managed to bludgeon one of the warforged soldiers, crushing his adamantine skin and splitting him nearly, if not so neatly, in half. The other warforgeds laid into the remaining ogre inflicting shallow but debilitating wounds. The soldier’s sacrifice and the ferocity of the new assault provided Zed with the opening he needed to deliver one last desperate blow. Zed cut the ogre’s left leg out from under him and the warforged squad fell upon the flailing giant and put an end to his suffering.

Elarin and I were trapped in front of the timber fort, unable to penetrate the hastily repaired gate. Losing patience, I cast my fire sphere spell on the wooden gate and held it there until the gate went up in flames. The goblinoids inside the fort decided that a conflagration constituted legitimate grounds for a strategic retreat and exited the back door. By now Pazenga had defeated his second opponent and chose to give chase. The hobgoblins turned on the lone gith thinking him easy prey. They surrounded the deadly githzerai and attempted to overwhelm him by sheer force of numbers. They found Paz a frustratingly elusive foe. It was at this time that I began to circle the fort to come to Pazenga’s aid.

While this was going on Crucible was using repairing magic to "heal" Zed and the other warforged. Unfortunately this process was to take longer than the remainder of the battle. When I rounded the last corner of the timber keep, I was spotted by three of the hobgoblins and they charged me. My illusionary image spell was still in effect and thus the goblinoids had no way to know which image was real. Of course the goblinoids knew enough about magic that they slowly began to destroy my false images. I needed to take them out quickly or, unlike Pazenga, I would be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Careful to keep Pazenga from being burned, I dropped a fireball spell to my right and dove below the explosion. The goblinoids were dumfounded, totally unprepared for such a seemingly suicidal gambit. The hobgoblins burst into flames and were completely consumed. I escaped with only minor burns and scorched hair. The final two hobgoblins attacking Pazenga saw the deaths of their comrades and ran for their lives. After salvaging what we could of their equipment, we began our journey up the Rest Trail to locate the mysterious “spawnery“.

Sypheros 19th, on a hillock somewhere in a swamp off the Rest Trail, New Cyre

At first our tireless warforged allies marched behind the wagon as we pushed our way down the woodland trail. As the forest lowly transitioned to swamp, our construct allies were forced to cling to the sides of Falin’s elemental wagon for fear that their great weight would cause them to disappear beneath the quagmire. We had only progressed a short way through the swamp when we came upon a hillock that contained the carcass of a partially consumed owl, an owl the size of a horse. The owl had some sort of a green vitriolic fluid splattered upon it. It seemed that the creature might have been killed by acidic vomit much like that used against us by those black wingless dragonmen. We sent Pazenga a short distance ahead to investigate. Before Pazenga could report back a green winged dragon-like beast erupted from the filthy water. The creature had only wings in the place of forearms, unlike a normal dragon, and these appendages were covered in rows of spikes turning its wings into what were effectively deadly serrated blades. We were caught off guard by this ferocious attack on our left flank and one of our warforged allies was cut in neatly in half at the waist, neatly avoiding the impervious adamantine skin. With the warforged soldier to my right slain the creature turned its attention on me and I was slashed across the left arm nearly to the bone. I knew that this creature would tear me to ribbons if given the chance and therefore I chose to go on the attack rather than throw up magical protections as is my wont. I blasted the creature with my phantasmal assailants spell and although the creature screamed in fear and pain its attacks did not relent. It was at this moment that Elarin called forth his most powerful magical attack. Four of the elf’s searing rays of fire blasted into the creature drawing bleats of pain but the spell also failed to drive the draconic beast away. Then Zed drove into the creature with the force of a bladed battering ram. The swordsman’s first blow cut deeply into the creature’s shoulder, nearly removed the left wing, and forcing the thing back away from me. The dragon-like monster counter attacked desperately but futilely. Zed’s second blow removed its head and sent its body spinning into the mire.

Once we were sure of our safety, we began searching the hillock. We managed to locate a powerfully enchanted ring and a phylactery. Both were gifted to Pazenga to enhance his already incredible dodging skills. I used our remaining pearls and one of my most powerful divination spells to ascertain the powers of these two magic items. We also found an enchanted thrusting sword and this was gifted to Elarin. As it was getting late we decided to sleep on the hillock this night. I was just about to close my journal and get some overdue sleep but in the distance I can see huge owls with humanoid riders silhouetted against the moon. They do not seem bent on attack as they make no effort to hide their presence. I must find out what this is about.