Chapter Twenty-Three: Kank

We are going to scout the fort again before making another move.

Kriv asks Lorenzo to try to see if the kanks are in the enclosure, while Vex will see through his shadow.  Lorenzo sneaks in by burrowing under the wall, he sees one kank inside the enclosure.

We see many guards in the courtyard and some up in the towers.  We don't see the three slaves who were repairing the wall.  Vex recognizes the elf that led us to the elven camp with the druid (Fana) who is keeping watch alongside the guards in the south tower.  Vex notices that Fana doesn't look comfortable.

We guess that reinforcements could arrive from Tyr would take 4 days (2 there and 2 back), and they won't go to the other nearby forts which are run by rival Houses.  e.g. House Stel (crossed black scimitars on a white field).

We probably can't move the plant, so we probably want to take the fort

Vex wants to try to contact Fana, and Kriv is going to punch her off the tower so that we can kidnap her.  The plan is for Xa'oc and Aruna to sneak up to the wall underneath Fana and catch her as she falls and run away real fast.

              We sneak up using Aruna's "pass without trace" and wait 100' away.  Aruna and Xa'oc sneak up to the wall.  Kriv knocks Fana off the wall with a psychic hammer, Xa'oc leaps into the air to catch her with his second set of arms.  Xa'oc and Aruna intend to run back to the group (leaving no tracks).  One of the guards shoots at Aruna, but she catches the arrow.  We bravely run away.

Kriv says, "You're welcome, you've been rescued."  Fana tries to escape Xa'oc's grasp.  Vex tries to hypnotic pattern Fana, but fails.  Kriv picks her up.

Xa'oc: "We are trying to rescue you"

Fana: "They have Jengi!"

Vex: "We will rescue her along with everyone else"

Fana is convinced and we make it back to our lair, leaving no tracks.  Fana: "After you destroyed the place that I live, it was difficult to survive, so we got captured."

The mercenaries sent for help, so reinforcements are coming.  They always have at least person in the towers at all times.  Up until now, only one person during the day.  Usually one person, but they've changed their habits now.

Another mul slave named Selkin might be willing to help, he might be guarding the north east corner.  The rest of the slaves are all underground and too weak to fight. They put Fana on the wall to help defend the fort with her mind or else they would kill Jengi. There is a trapdoor in the middle of the courtyard that leads to the plant and the slaves.

Nirin the dwarf heals Fana, we give her food and water.

Kriv's plan is to wait until day, and then take out the guards one at a time using a combination of his psychic hammer and Vex's spell sniping.  Kriv feeds Lorenzo in order to maintain his loyalty after the charm spell wears off.

We take a long rest and Xa'oc keeps watch.

Xa'oc talks to the sword, asking Amara for training on how combine Mistsong with his gythka.

Kriv chooses not to be offended that Xa’oc did not ask him.

While speaking with Amara, Xa'oc feels as though someone else takes control of his arms for a moment.  Xa'oc informs Kriv of this as soon as we wake up.

Kriv: "This is ill-advised."

Xa'oc: "My former master is teaching me how to fight better."

Kriv: "Or something that sounds like your master is manipulating you. It seems that things that go about offering power are not usually doing it for free."

Xa'oc: "We lost you once, we lost Vex once, I cannot let that happen again."

Kriv: "What does it want in exchange for what it offers."

Xa'oc: "It has asked for nothing"

Kriv: "I would seek to know what the terms of the agreement are, what will whatever lives in the sword want when you're done"

Xa'oc: "I shall ask the next time we rest."

We test out our murder algorithm:  Aruna casts pass without trace.  We conceal Vex in a sniper nest 200' away, Aruna will try to catch any arrows that get shot at her, Fana is with them.  Tenneth, Xa'oc, and Kriv creep to 60' away and Kriv pulls a guard off the tower and Vex blasts them.

What actually happens is…

A guard falls hard and gets hit with a couple blasts from Vex and dies.  Another guard falls off another tower thanks to Kriv and dies on impact.  All of the remaining guards descend safely from the towers.  Kriv, Tenneth, and Xa'oc wait a few minutes to see if any guards emerge from the gate.  After five minutes we don't see any activity.

Kriv casts pass without trace and the trio retreat to the others.  The group sneaks around to get a look at the entrance from 200' away.  Vex snipes at a guard who was peeking from the third tower, forcing them to take full cover.  Once we get a good view of the entrance, we see the door open, and a kank with a rider emerges.

Vex murders the rider from a distance.  A guard walks out the gate and shoots at Kriv with an arrow.  Xa'oc prepares to use Mistsong if any guards approach.  Five more guards emerge with longbows.  Xa'oc catches the arrow that would have hit him.  Tenneth hits a competent guard with a dart from his blowgun.

Kriv casts animal friendship on the kank, and the kank makes its save, and it looks angry.  Aruna tries to stun the kank but ends up just punching it a bunch.

Vex blasts the competent guard twice.

Kriv casts animal friendship on the kank again and this time the kank fails its save.

The competent guard moves closer towards us and hits Kriv with another arrow. Xa'oc blasts the competent guard with mist from Mistsong.  The other five guards also move forward and rain arrows upon us.

A dozen more guards are mustering in the courtyard, emerging from the building in the NE corner, including two more competent archers, which both hit Kriv with more arrows.  Aruna waits at a distance for the guards to get close enough to hit.  Xa'oc takes another shot at the injured competent guard, crushing him to death with smoke from Mistsong, and then starts running away.

A stampede of guards, mostly armed with forks, start chasing us.  Another volley of arrows hit Kriv, taking him out. Ten archers are outside and ten with swords are outside.  Aruna runs up and casts Darkness on the gate, hoping to scare.  Vex climbs onto the kank and feeds Kriv one of his healing potions.

Kriv gets the kank to dash away and tells us all to flee.  The typical archers advance and fire another volley at Kriv and Vex, knocking out Kriv and hurting Vex.  Xa'oc runs to the kank and heals Kriv with his white claw.

The competent archers hit Vex with another arrow.  Aruna catches up with us.  Vex starts blasting the archers that are chasing us.  Kriv gets the kank to dash away.