Lost in the Woods

Lost in the Woods is the 18th session of the New Dawn Memories campaign. It is the sixth session of the And Miles to Go before I Sleep story arc.
= Synopsis =
The Uninvited and Amnen raid a goblin camp, rescuing children but unearthing a sinister network. After a chaotic battle, they escape with the kids but are ambushed by creatures of the dark, leaving some captured and others lost in the treacherous mountains.
= Development =
== Part 1 ==
The Uninvited explain to Amnen what they learned when they heard the poem from the Medallion of Records. They tell him about the names mentioned in the poem.
Amnen explains to them that his ancestor Rarrosh Wellcall spent his whole life trying to unlock the poems from the Medallion. He lived deep in the mountains above Brable. Amnen isn’t sure, however, if he is still alive.
As Amnen gets his Medallion back from Weneon, he goes to his tent to pack up so they can continue traveling to the goblin camp.
Suddenly, a giant rock is hurled towards Amnen from the woods, but he manages to evade it. A cyclops and a troll attack the party. The Uninvited defeat them and Amnen presents them with one arrow of goblin slaying.
They continue their journey and Kilijan experiences flashbacks of when his village of Kelwentown was raided by Garresh and his minions. He recalls the moment his mother stood between Ferren, one of Garresh's goons, and him. Ferren slew his mother and took Kilijan and an orb artifact the village was protecting. As Ferren was bragging to the other minions of Garresh about the loot, Kilijan watched his village burn to the ground from the heights of the hot air balloon they were traveling in. 
The party gets closer to the goblin camp, they learn from Amnen how to recognize goblin steps. He shows them how in the dirt he can tell that numerous goblins have traveled this same path. Furthermore, he explains that they probably dragged bodies behind them in the direction of the camp.
As they approach the campsite, situated at a height of a few hundred feet above Brable, the group commences devising their assault on the camp.
== Part 2 ==
Assisted by Amnen, they positioned themselves near the goblin camp and launched their assault. The goblins' first lines of defense were broken by Kilijan and Manasa, while Lorkhan threw a fireball at the camp's main structure, a big tent in the south-eastern part of the camp. The building went up in flames, causing a great commotion in the camp. 
Weneon climbed the mountain side to the camp in order to get a better vantage point, from which he saw half the garrisoned troops trying to put out the fire. The other half were ordered by a bugbear general to defend the camp. Earlier in the day, a recording of Mycha's whistling was placed close to the bridge by Kilijan, who managed to entice a horde of goblins to the nearby structure. When the goblin horde ran over the bridge, it collapsed beneath them, caused by Lorkhan's prior sabotaging of the bridge's beams.
The bugbear captain, not knowing where to focus his attention, decides to gather archers to oversee the ongoing assault. Weneon witnessed how the goblins at the burning building pulled a 10-year-old girl from the flames, who was barely hanging on. Weneon observes the goblins attempting to extinguish the fire while simultaneously attempting to retrieve additional items (or people) from the building.
Another fireball cast by Lorkhan hits the goblin horde running down the hillside, and the party runs full steam ahead, overrunning the rest of the goblins. The bugbear captain runs to the camp to gather additional troops, but he is hit by Weneon's arrow of slaying, which slices his head open. 
Seeing this brutal display, the unarmed goblins start to flee to the woods, while the party snipes as many as they could down, while Wenon runs to the unconscious girl and carries her to safety.
Lorkhan immediately soaks a blanket in water and runs into the burning building. The smoke-filled building prevents him from seeing, so Lorkhan checks by touching to see if there are any more children who need to be rescued. He feels out a deceased child's body and hears another one cough nearby. He manages to save an 8-year-old boy and then runs out of the building, performing first aid immediately on the kid.
Kilijan uses the same tactic, but does not manage to find anyone alive, retrieving another deceased teenage girl from the flames.
Manasa goes to the hillside to give Amnen the sign to join them. Amnen arrives at the campsite, truck by the display of violence and wreckage he witnesses there. However, besides the horrific images he sees, he is all the more struck by the number of structures the goblins managed to build "right under our noses", as Amnen put it.
The party asks Amnen if he recognizes the children. Amnen answers with "no", but assures the party that the children will be taken care of in Brable.
As the party loots the camp, Amnen is going from tent to tent, inspecting various decorations hanging on the outside walls. Standard goblin ornaments, dry bones and teeth from various animals hung on strings. However, Weneon and Manasa see how Amnen grabs one of the ornaments and pockets it.
The party sets the camp ablaze and leaves for Brable with two saved children at their side.
== Part 3 ==
Amnen is cautious during their return down the mountain to Brable. He avoids the goblin paths and leads the party through the safest route possible. They take turns carrying the children: Fen Strom, a 8-year-old boy, and Ademia Kern, a 10 year-old-girl.
Around midnight, the party asks Amnen if they'll be taking a rest, which Amnen declines. He states that he wants to bring the kids to Brable as soon as possible, and that the smoke from the burned goblin camp might alert others to this part of the mountain.
The party is interrupted by a sound coming from the goblin path, some 200 feet downhill from them. They see two goblins dragging a bag with a living being inside of it in the direction of the goblin camp. Lorkhan and Manasa snipe them with spells, killing them instantly. Amnen runs down the hill and opens the bag. Inside: an afraid 7-year-old boy. Amnen tries to calm him down and unties him, to which the boy starts running further down the hill.
Weneon runs after the boy, but looses sight of him after a few minutes. The rest of the party catches up with Weneon in the dark, thick woods. Manasa suggested to Amnen to give Ralf, Amnen's dog, the bag the boy was in to sniff and track him. They do so, and Ralf leads them ever deeper into the woods.
Ralf, all of a sudden, stops and the party hears the roaring sound of giant footsteps near them. They try to hide and see the silhouette of a cyclops passing by them, while bending over tree trunks. A scream is heard deeper in the woods. The boy.
The cyclops runs towards the scream, while the party briefly discusses what to do. They decide to run after the cyclops. Weneon and Lorkahn start running, while Manasa stays a bit longer to let Ralf smell him so he can find him better later. Kilijan also stays for a moment, talking to Amnen and giving him his spear to protect the children.
When trying to catch up to Weneon and Lorkhan, Kilijan, Manasa and Mycha realize that they lost their orientation in the pitch-dark woods.
Weneon and Lorkhan are lost as well. All they see is numerous bend trees around them, from cyclops passing by. Weneon climbs a tree to see if he can figure out where they are, while Lorkhan lights a camp fire. 
The fire is seen in the distance by Kilijan, Manasa, and Mycha. However, as soon as they see it, they hear three cyclops around them running towards the campfire in the dark.
The cyclops acts swift and surprises Lorkhan and Weneon, knocking them out with one hit.
Manasa, Kilijan, and Mycha hear the rumble, but, as they arrive at the location where the fire was, the cyclops were already gone, alongside Lorkhan and Weneon.
Category:Sessions