Session 12&13 - S2E02 - Before the Dawn Pt 2 - Rescue at Azlant Ridge

Several days later, we are NW of Bloodcover. Many days of harried travel to stay ahead of the Aspice Consortium mercenaries. We've seen the horsemen through the trees, but Scavola keeps the horses moving so they don't catch up.

We hear a crying behind us and the mercenaries have given up the chase, or at least stopped to rest. Scavola stops to rest the horses, get them food, etc. and we are tasked with standing guard over the caravan.

We have a camp a little bit away from the wagons. We hear a whistle from the jungle and the horsemen pop out of the woods.

Encounter #1

Captain Calgradine has a moustache and charges Skaar and hits for a critical with a lance for 31 damage!

The other horsemen shoot some arrows at Ash and Aegnor. Ash charges the captain and deals 9 damage. Skaar drinks a potion, but loses more HP from the AoO from the captain's lance. Aegnor lights up the captain for 12 more damage. Brayden takes a bow shot and hits the captain for 7 more damage. Wulfbaella goes after Mercenary1 and kills him dead.

The Captain steps back and lances Ash. Ash steps up and misses the captain. The Mercenaries shoot their bows and miss. Skarr finds a way through the lance threat zone, rages up and attacks the captain with a power attack. Aaand he misses. Aegnor casts a sorceror burning hands, and disables the captain. Brayden casts unshakeable chill on the captain, but the captain saves. Wulfbaella charges the captain and kills him dead.

Ash moves towards the horseman, and both the horsemen bug out. Aegnor heals up the party with his wand of infernal healing.

</encounter>

Scavola shows up after the battle, and says we need to hit the road, because there are more horsemen coming!

We hit the road, and as we're on the trail, we hear a bellowing roar from the jungle, and then the screetching and chattering of monkeys.

We get to the dig site camp and there is a palisade with piles and piles of ape carcases. There is a cloud of flies raising of from the garden of stench.

The lookout at the gate sees us and opens the gate. A woman with a short sword comes out to greet us, and then we hear a horn and see a bunch of Aspice consortium mercenaries behind us being chased by the army of apes. She says "Welcome to Azlant Ridge, I see you've met the locals". She is Juliet Diaz. We tell her we have the supplies. She says they have been attacked nearly every day for the last 10 months. Brayden tries to find out what their strategy is, but they're just trying to survive. (Band of brothers in the desert with Apes instead of Nazis).

We get a tour of the dig site. The North wall is being repaired. There is a terraced digging area, with a pearlescent sphere in the middle. Magic peeps can see that this is a magic item. Every time they hear the roar the sphere grows brighter, bright enough to blind you. When the roar gets closer, the light changes, like we should be afraid. There was a test dig on the east side of the camp, and they found a door in the cliff side. As we climb out of the terrace, the mercenaries arrive with horses with no riders. There are about a dozen men, that are afraid for their lives. They start working to repair the North wall.

We head to the door in the cliff side. It's big (15'x10') and covered in designs, patterns, pictographs, etc. The door is set back into the rock of the cliff face. No magic vibes. Magic people try to read the glyphs. Aegnor's scroll of comprehend languages, allows him to make out words and phrases. It is ancient Azlanti (I know right?), and he sees the glyphs for war, combat, weapons and colonies. We pull out the key and Juliet says, "Hey the runes on that key look familiar". She asks to see the key more closely. Jay's snoring causes the party to move to a different tent and eventually retire for the night.