Zoom 2021-02-18 20:00

These notes are very sketchy, but I hope I've got the main points:

* The Tres Amigos+1 agreed a 48 hour truce from when reinforcements arrived (sworn on in the name of Shanah).
* The Hobbit is called Kheran and is a priest of Shanah (fights with sword and crossbow)
* The Ariel is called Timul – she and the human both 5th level multi-classed (mage?) druids – Timul's eagle familiar (now latent) was able to cast a control weather.
* With the truce agreed they appear to assist wholeheartedly in the defence of the village, and cast supporting spells (heals, invis etc) on our party members. (Umar and Francis were healed to full Hps by them, Wun cured himself up to 13HPs, Bazin cured Garaf to full Hps and Dougal to 5Hps)

The Blue Witch (Wyldwood faith) was said by one of the orcs to be the 'Guardian of Nature for the area, and stops the dessert from growing'.

The goblins bodies did not have any indications on them that they were worshipers of the Wild. Their attack on the village didn't seem to have any objective other than to kill the inhabitants and cause havoc.

We recovered 3 usable healing potions from the Blue Witch's stores.

Francis organised the defence of the keep, and Caradoc set up some firetrap/flour explosive traps in the village.

Key points from the 'battle' for the keep:

* An army of 300-400 goblins followed the initial scouts towards the village.
* A spell was cast in the middle of the army causing a large pool of darkness to cover part of the army.
* At some point as the army approached, there was some combat within the left flank of the goblins for 3 or 4 minutes. It was too far away for us to know what happened.
* Tooit spotted a bat flying in a distinctly un-bat-like manner around the keep. Twoo flew down from the tower to tell the parties, whereupon the bat was Faerie Fired and died in a hail of magic missiles, arrows and crossbow bolts from the assembled company. And there was much rejoicing.
* As the army approached closer, a plant growth was used around the palisade to improve its defensiveness.
* Caradoc's firetrap/flour bomb went off in the village – a spectacular sight and as encouraging to the defenders as it was deadly to the goblins who had set it off.
* Without any means for the goblins to launch an attack on the palisade that had any hope of succeeding, they didn't try – and contented themselves with trashing the village and then went off to the SouthEast towards the dessert. (10pm ish)

We lent 2 orc scouts some horses to track their departure.

Francis was warmly congratulated for organising a most successful defence! (And for hitting the bat with an arrow. Maybe barn doors are just too big a target for him, and he should simply stick to small targets in future.)

At midnight, a baby was heard crying in the base of the tower – a baby Ariel had just been born (well, appeared!), and the villagers began some kind of ritual. 10 minutes later, Timul went to the baby, bowed, and pledged her life to it (and other villagers and 2 orcs did as well.) Her Eagle totem manifested – and then shrank down back to a fledgling – and the baby Ariel got a bit older.

At about 1.00am, a group of Maratasen arrived (along with Brokef) and were somewhat disappointed to observe that there hadn't actually been much of a fight at all. Some of them also pledged themselves to the baby Ariel.