Wilderlands: Session 12

 

This is part of an ongoing campaign. You can find the other sessions over on the sidebar.

This session was run on July 25, 2022.

 

 

7 Sweetrain 4433

 

 

The session started in Byrny with the party (minus Vargr, Creng, and Cozsari) having been in town for a couple of hours. They decided to attempt to recruit some hirelings before heading out the next day to face the White Worm Tribe. Before starting their recruitment drive, Stranger went by Tulip’s Roadhouse to see if she had any idea where the best place to look for recruits was. She told him that, since they were trying to recruit on such short notice, it would be best to just go around to the different taverns and perhaps try to attract attention using their bard friend. While Stranger was talking to Tulip, Gwythian sought an audience with Governor Hetalan who gave him permission and advised him that taverns would be the best place to seek hirelings.

 

They went around to the taverns in town, using Gwythian as an opening act before Duycken made a pitch about why hirelings should join them. Gwythian noticed that many of the townsfolk seemed to be reacting poorly to Duycken’s tales of charging heedlessly into battle and never retreating even in the face of overwhelming odds. Finally, in the Golden Chimera, a middle-aged man in chainmail expressed interest.

 

He introduced himself as Beathag Moor, a cordwainer. He explained that he had been a soldier before retiring to his current profession. He indicated that he haad fought river pirates and Dearthwood orcs during his campaigning years and asked what foes they intended to fight. When they explained they would be fighting the White Worm Tribe of goblins, he remarked, “I fought some goblins in the early part of my career. It is good training for a youngster.”

 

He asked them what they were paying, and Duycken told him they were paying 10gp a week. He asked if there would be a treasure share and Duycken told him there would not be. Gwythian, who attempted to answer before Duycken on this question, stomped on Duycken’s webbing in frustration. They told him to meet them in the morning and he left.

 

The party had a few more things to attend to before calling it a night. Duycken, who was still injured from their adventures in Stormwind Manor, decided to see if he couls pay one of the temples in town to heal him. While the Temple of Athena agreed right away, he still made donations at all of the temples just on principal. Gwythian also paid the temple to let him safely store his items there while they adventured.

 

They made a quick shopping trip and bought a potion of cure light wounds for Gwythian and Stranger ordered a special sheathe for “Father of Swords,” his magical two-handed sword. After leaving the store, the returned to the Golden Chimera and turned in for the night.

 

8 Sweetrain 4433

 

In the morning, they were surprised to find no sign of Beathag downstairs waiting for him. In his place was a young woman and a young man, both around 18 years old. The young man introduced himself as Daniel Moor and his sister as Teres Moor. Daniel was squat with skin blotchy from acne and chestnut hair. Teres was a slim woman with an olive complexion and chestnut hair with a small mole under her left eye. Daniel explained that their father had told them that the party was looking for hirelings and that he said their mission seemed like good training for young people.

 

This last minute switch really ruffled Duycken’s feathers and he told them that he would only pay six gold pieces to the both of them for the whole week. They accepted this. Gwythian noticed that they were not well equipped, neither had armor and Daniel had only a sword, while Teres had a crossbow. They provided Teres with a sword and Greek ensemble, and Daniel with scale mail and some javelins.

 

With their hirelings properly equipped, they headed back to Stormview Manor, reaching the dilapidated mansion around midday. Once there, they picked up Vargr, Cozsari, and Creng and headed for the White Worm Tribe.

 

As they moved west through the mountains, Stanger heard the sound of buzzing coming from the north. They decided to re-route to the south to avoid whatever was making the sound, but it seemed to follow them. Stranger climbed a tree and saw a flight of seven goblins mounted on giant wasps heading straight for them. Creng informed them that this was certainly the hated Wasp Swarmer tribe, and they decided to try to hide before they reached them. 

 

 

 

Uggmar directed the camouflage process and accidently made noise crashing through the brush while trying to cover Cozsari with branches. The Wasp Swarmers heard them and drew closer.

 

Gwythian stepped forward and attempted to parley with Uggmar serving as an interpreter. He expressed an interest in joining forces against the hated White Worm Tribe. The wasp Swarmers seemed skeptical at first, but Gwythian was able to convince them that they were seeking vengeance for an attack by the White Worm Tribe on a human settlement. The Wasp Swarmers, impressed by Cozsari, agreed to help them attack the White Worm Tribe camp. 

 

 

 

 

The White Worm camp was down in a valley between two mountains, so they got a good look at it before they entered. They could see it was dominated by a large teardrop-shaped structure in the center. The structure was fifty feet high and an off-white color. Strange blue veins climbed it from the base. Creng informed them that the structure was made from the worm secretions.

 

In addition to the large central structure, many smaller, hut-sized, buildings were spread throughout the camp. They also seemed to have been constructed from the worm secretions as they were the same off-white color with blue veins as the central structure.

 

The only easy path into the village was to enter it using the path from the south. All of the other approaches would require the party to climb down and would be slow and risky. They did not want to chance falling or leaving themselves open to missile fire if they were discovered during their descent. The Wasp Swarmers were able to fly, thus not hindered by the walls, and they decided to have them attack from the east. They hoped that a two pronged attack would allow them to draw off enough of the goblins to allow them to deal with the initial wave of defenders.

 

It was obvious from up high that there were somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty able-bodied goblins in the camp as well as roughly thirty worms moving around the area. They would have to avoid getting bogged down and surrounded or they could be quickly overwhelmed. They hoped that Cozsari would be instrumental to avoiding this.

 

 

The Wasp Swarmers attacked first, engaging goblins and worms in the eastern part of the camp. At the time of initial contact, the enemy was dispersed throughout the camp, but they started to shift towards the attack. Some of the shamans started to gather near the central building.

 

 

The party moved in from the south and Duycken immediately charged the goblins crouched behind a wall of spikes to the west. This started to pull some of the enemies towards the new danger to the south.

 

 

Stranger and Argus moved in to help him while Vargr and Uggmar moved up and began engaging the goblins to the west with missile attacks. Vargr, worried about the level of initiative that the giantess had shown in their last engagement, instructed Cozsari to stick by his side and not run off. She moved up right next to him and stopped, waiting. Gwythian, Daniel, and Teres held back and engaged with missile weapons.

 

 

As fighting on both fronts continued, the Wasp Swarmers began taking casualties due to the number of goblins and worms pulled to defend against their attack. More shamans made their way to the group by the central structure and they all began chanting.

 

 

The battle thickened around the party and the party’s front began to lose cohesion. Goblins were making their way around the left flank and were in danger of reaching the party’s archers in the rear. Duycken dashed back to the archers in hopes of being able to charge the oncoming goblins from there to stop their advance. Stranger took wounds while fighting at the goblin picket and had to withdraw to the center. He attempted to cast entangle on the mass of goblins approaching from the north west, but failed to cast the spell. Stranger and Cozsari were now drawing a swarm of arrows from the goblin archers and a constant stream of acid spit from the worms. Gwythian tried to shift his fire to the group of chanting shaman near the central structure, but it did not seem to stop whatever they were doing.

 

 

On the right, the Wasp Swarmers were taking heavy casualties as more goblins and worms made their way down from the north. The goblins were able to commit a small number of their forces to melee, primarily the worms who could inflict acid burns when they were hit, while the rest stood off and engaged with bows. The White Worm Tribe killed the three Wasp Swarmers farthest to the north and were attempting to meet up with their friends to the south to kill the remaining four.  An ominous glyph appeared on the ground in the center of the shamans.

 

 

Duycken, who had hoped to charge the shamans, recognized the danger of the collapsing assault to the east and charged in to help the remaining Wasp Swarmers. Back in the center, Stranger and Cozsari continued to take heavy fire from the goblins, even as the giantess was able to easily dispose of those that came within the reach of her club. The goblins approaching from the west were able to round the flank and engage Gwythian and the two hirelings in the party’s rear. Daniel quickly succumbed to their attacks and Teres was badly wounded. Stranger, badly wounded, had to retreat from the front lines.

 

 

Gwythian called for a retreat and pulled the unconscious Daniel from the field of battle. Uggmar, Creng, and Stranger were not currently engaged in melee and seemed to have a clear line to retreat, but Argus, Cozsari, and Vargr were heavily engaged and in danger of taking attacks if the attempted a full retreat, or getting cut off by the goblins moving in from the west if they tried a fighting withdraw.