Zoom 2021-05-06 21:00

Day 100:
The party prepares to go on a dog hunt. They hire a poor-condition wagon and mules for 6sp (maximum liability 10gp if trashed), and supplies to lightly ‘fortify’ it. They also get a shield for Brokev (5gp), another pair of Bullseye and Shuttered lanterns and 2 lots of oil (10g), 40 caltrops (1gp) some trapping nets and wire/nails/hooks etc for Caradoc to make traps.
They make enquiries about the Dwarf who took the Sallahan contract – no info.
Two groups of about 40 medium cavalry were seen going out the South gate.
When the party was ready to leave (around 11:00am) they checked with the city guard what was happening with the cavalry: Apparently the attacks on livestock were getting worse, so these armoured patrols were being sent out to deal with it. Farms were being 'evacuated' and livestock were being brought in to pens near the city to save them from being devoured. No one had actually witnessed any attack, but they had all been at night.
Trundling along the track to South/SouthWest we were overtaken by another cavalry patrol - and one member stopped to ask our business etc. Explaining we were on a ‘sheep-devouring dog hunt’ he suggested we stake out a farm to the SouthWest that had recently been abandoned due to the raids – there would be some poorly livestock left behind there to act as bait. The patrols signalled ‘trouble’ to each other by firing a lightning bolt or fireball into the sky.
We got to the farmhouse as directed (had 4 mangy sheep, a dopey donkey, farmhouse, barn and byre) and set up the best defensible position we could in the byre.
Around midnight, we saw a lightning bolt in the distance.
Around 2pm we heard some agitated yapping/barking in the distance – angry, but not distressed. We thought it safe to send Tooit to investigate. He saw a group of (what we now know are) Blink-dogs, trying to scavenge from a ‘large long thin’ creature that was sitting/feeding on a pile of carcasses. This creature looked up and spotted Tooit and cast some kind of spell, doing 18hp damage and killing him outright. The creature was ‘bigger than a Wyvern, possibly a bit bigger than a Drake.’
Later on, the yapping/barking changed character to dogs ‘in distress’ and fighting – and shortly after they was spotted heading towards the barn. As the dogs closed, we started with missile weapons and the dogs decided to attack us – blinking all over us like fury.
We fought and killed the 8 attacking blink-dogs, plus 3 wounded stragglers. We learned the follows:
* They show up as evil with a Detect evil. (So, evil-enhanced-Wild-blink-dogs)
* Sleep spells work 50% of the time – implying 4+1 to 4+4 hit dice.
* They can blink out of Entangles, and like biting you on the ass.
As the party caught it’s collective breath and started healing up etc, they felt a chill breeze coming towards them...