Having suffered some bad wounds from their fight with the lycans, the party decides to take a day to heal up and rest. Thourin Stonefist using his earth magic to patch up the worst of the wounds. Bayson Mogul, having enormous debt from having to feed his elephant while on the sea, finds a large boat among the lycan camp, and uses it to set sail homeward, saying his good-byes to his comrades, with a hope of one day returning. In the morning, the remaining party members set out to find the boar-man's daughter and be done with this quest.
They find the isle described by the lycan and Silvertooth Dreadwind circles it, looking for a sign of the lizardmen band. He sees what appears to be a now abandoned landing sight, and anchors a mile away. The party walk along the coastline until they find the remains of the abandoned camp. Thourin uses his magic to speak with the trees, and they lead them to the lizardmen.
They are led through a marsh until a clearing, where they see small fires and hear drums and chanting. By now, it is dark. All but Kirin Drakos (that's his last name), as he is completely worthless in the art of stealth, decide to try and sneak up and get a better look. Thourin casts a spell to make himself unseen. The clearing is surrounded by dense brush, and they force their way to the edge.
They see a total of twenty goblins, all chanting with one standing over the boar-man's daughter. The one is in different garb, with a twisted totem in his hands and a headdress adorned with shrunken skulls painted black. Among the goblins are five lizardmen and two dire wolves. The goblins have black paintings in the shape of skulls over their faces and body, and the lizardmen bear tattoos of the same black skull. The dire wolves have their faces branded with an image of a skull. The party unanimously agree that they have stumbled upon a cult.
Before they could decide what to do, the dire wolves spin around and stare at them. One speaks in a gruff voice, "Intruder!" The ritual is interrupted as all twenty-seven creatures draw weapons and turn on the party. Including the wolf Kaz and the earth elemental, it looks like a fight of eight against twenty-seven. What happens next is the bloodiest, most time consuming battle I have ever GM'd.
The goblins charge forward, while the lizardmen position themselves. Elenya Lindale climbs the nearest tree, and V2Z4 calls out for her to shoot the witch doctor goblin. V2Z4 and the earth elemental jump from the brush and take position to defend their comrades. Thourin begins to cast spells from the brush, still invisible to the enemy. Kaz rushes the first goblin he sees. Kirin, a good many feet behind the party, starts making his way through the tangled brush to reach them. Sibyll Demier lies in wait, still undetected by the horde. Silvertooth stays in the brush, analyzing the situation. Thourin casts a spell upon Sibyll to make he walk unseen.
From her perch, Elenya manages to shoot the witch doctor and stun him, interrupting whatever spell he was conjuring. However, her exposed positon made her a prime target for two lizardmen bowmen and half a dozen goblin slingers. The earth elemental and V2Z4 hold their ground, with V2Z4 evading, parrying, and disarming incoming foes, while the elemental smashes goblins to red mist. Silvertooth watches the lizardmen, and learns their strategy. He calls out their leader, and points out that one is trying to flank them. The lizardman leader attacks the earth elemental, and Thourin leaps from the brush, the spell concealing him fading as he cleaves into the lizardman leader with his battle axe, knocking it out with a single blow.
Kirin finally emerges from the brush, and his party shouts to have him intercept the flanking lizardman. He does so, and he and Kaz hold the right flank. He cleaves through goblins as he whittles down the lizardman. Kaz is surrounded by goblins, and his fore right leg is crippled, and he falls from his wounds, not breathing. The party holds their line, dropping goblin after goblin. Sibyll sneaks around the battle, and assassinates the witch doctor before he could get a spell off. One lizardman notices her, spins around and throws a dagger at her. The blade poisons her, and as goblin slingers try and take her down, she retreats back through the brush. Kirin is also poisoned as he exchanges blows with the lizardman.
Elenya is brought down by slingers and arrows, falling from the tree. As he lands beside V2Z4, he sees she still breaths. Silvertooth emerges from the battle line, and starts cutting through goblins, trying to reach the slingers and remove them from play. Kirin swings his massive sword again and again, killing about half a dozen foes, including one lizardman, before suffering a crippling wound that knocks him unconscious.
The earth elemental closes and grapples with a dire wolf, saving a battered V2Z4 from further punishment. A lizardman takes aim at V2Z4, and hits the second dire wolf instead, by accident. That dire wolf tries to jump in and help his kin, but the arrow was laced with a paralyzing agent, and it falls unconscious.
Finally, after fierce battling, the enemy's numbers were reduced to to less than ten. The party pushes forward. Sibyll reappears behind a lizardman, dispatching him swiftly. In the final fray, Thourin takes an arrow, and the paralysant puts him under. V2Z4, the elemental, Silvertooth, and Sibyll are all that stands when the last foes are put the the blade and fist.
GM Commentary: That battle took three hours. I was 90% sure of a TPK (or Total Party Kill, for those unfamiliar with the acronym), so the enemy was not going for the kill, except against Kaz and the elemental. They wanted more sacrifices. Despite overwhelming odds, the party was victorious, which astounded me. There was also a joke about finishing off Kirin while he was unconscious - something about the player of Kirin having to reroll a new character every three sessions as being a "thing" (he played Acealos, who died in Session 3). Notably, the player of Kirin has yet to be present at any battle, except for that bar brawl. His character kicks so much ass, its a shame he hasn't been there to live it, yet.
After the battle, they freed the boar-man's daughter. They learn she is a healer, and she helps them patch up their wounds. Kaz is brought back from the brink of death, but his two crippling wounds will take months to heal, thus putting him out of commission. Sibyll goes about torturing the two surviving lizardmen, and the party uses her sadism to get some answers. They learn that this whole group belong to something called Icurnas, which they believe is a location, and that they worship the "god of the Dead World." Unable to get anything else, they give the last pair a swift death after Sibyll made them suffer sufficiently.
V2Z4 and Thourin walk over to where they found the boar-man's daughter. She was placed in a dark symbol, and V2Z4 identifies Abyssal runes. He had seen them before, left over from the war in his homeland. Thourin communes with the earth (after the GM was convinced to let him). He sees a vision of another world, dark and twisted, and a mirror of their own. The land was crying out, and the spot where the symbol was had been corrupted by this other world. After all their information, Silvertooth holds a theory that agents of the Abyss were trying to start up a new war where they were. He then goes off in search of treasure.
He finds a cave, guarded by a single lizardman. He gets Sibyll, who takes him out with ease. They find an enormous wealth of gold coins with the cave, and split it up among the party. After taking a day to rest and heal, they set sail back to the port.
They deliver the girl to her father, and he rewards them as promised. After they tell him the battle they had to fight, he vows to them a debt of gratitude, saying that he and his tribe of thirty warriors will help them whenever they should ask. They ask him about the force they fought, and he says he has never heard of goblins and lizardmen working together, nor has he heard of Icurnas. Lastly, they ask him if he knows anything about the Abyss, and though he does not, he tells them of a tribe or boar-men in the southern continent, called Vorpaltusk, that fought in the war.
With their bounty and experience gained from the adventure, they make plans to stay at the port and hone their skills before setting off on their next adventure.
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