Investigating the letter retrieved from band of werewolves, turned out to be invitation from Lady Atreides to leader of werewolves, in five days at her manor, along with map that was provided to said location. Party quickly developed an argument over if they should attempt to invade it in hopes of gaining more information about their foe or not. In the end, party was split in two sides, with Bhelan leading Meulin and Dovan in opinion that risk of being captured and horribly tortured to death was worth what they could find, and Baltazar, Geralt and Airy declaring that such attempt would be suicide, and that they would have no part on it if the trio decided to launch their invasion. In the end, Baltazar pointed out that manor was on their way to the capital, and as such, they could decide what to do it later, as they neared it.
As party was preparing to set out towards human capital again, they noticed Yokeron the halfling having disappeared during the argument, so they were left only with Ellie the half-elven cleric to accompany them. A brief problem was encountered, as they now a party of seven with only four horses between them. Airy, as usual, sitting on Baltazar’s shoulder, Geralt summoning a phantom steed to serve as his mount, and Dovan taking Geralt’s horse, left Elli without one. Through an unusually knightly act from Baltazar, he offered her a ride, resulting with everyone mounted and fit to travel, after somehow fitting an entire camp’s worth of loot in their packs.
There must be a curse laid upon profession of adventuring, for no trip on the road has ever been passed without something drastic happening between two locations. This was once again proven to be true, as our mismatched band of adventurers came across a lone gnome, resting on a rock by road. As party approached, he called out a greeting… and in the same intake of breath, demanded a toll for using his road. He was after all, revealed by further questioning, the self appointed authority governing this road on behalf of “Free gnomes movement”, whose apparent goal was to free gnomish race from enslavement by dwarves, and using this reason to ransack any travelers in the process (though Dovan bad-mouthing the gnome may have had something to do with it). After brief exchange, including ridiculous demand of one thousand gold toll, nearby trees and bushes burst into now familiar black fire, slightly chilling gnome ambushers, and with that, the party engaged once again in what they do best; killing and pillaging, even though quite few showed their distaste for Baltazar’s approach, and seeming disregard for lives.
From first moments of the fight, it seemed that gnomes were badly outmatched by somewhat skilled group of adventurers, as Dovan, spewing obscenities about “free gnomes” rushed nearest ambusher as he skipped out of his bush, black flames licking his slightly chilled behind. This feeling of easy victory was soon changed however, as the leader gnome dashed off his rock, screaming orders in gnomish. Soon afterwards, a colossal red dragon burst out through nearby trees, severely changing course of the battle. Our heroes were not willing to give up so easily however, and moved to engage both gnomes and dragon. Geralt charged forward astride on his phantom steed, covering a swarm of gnomes in stinky, greenish cloud of stink, which in turn, resulted in few vomiting gnomes. Sadly, he seemed to forget he was riding, as gnomish bolt flew at him from nearby trees, Geralt teleported few feet to the side… ending up sprawled on dusty road, as his steed stayed where it was. At the same time, Airy used her wand to blast charging gnomes with ball of fire, searing off Geralt’s eyebrows once more. While brief hilarity ensued from some members of the party, Bhelan moved to toss bolt of fire at nearest gnome archer, high upon his tree, among other things melting his shoes off and causing severe burns on some less pleasant places. But Meulin, “Mother of Dragons”, wasn’t willing to engage what she saw as creature of majesty, and instead pleaded to red dragon to be honored with it’s name, and be told why such grand beast would aid mere toll collectors. Alas, dragon’s only response was three rays of molten fire, aimed at closest offender, Geralt. Even as Geralt teleported again out of the way for one of them. Two other rays struck true, searing holes in his robes and almost leaving him with early appointment with death.
With Geralt sent scampering back to gentle care of Elli, who thus far had decided to say out of the fighting, Bhelan, Baltazar, Dovan, Airy and Meulin began to take out gnomes in earnest, quickly cutting down few of them and advancing towards towering dragon. They moved closer, supported by Meulin’s precise arrows (which by now, had pinned the poor gnome with molten shoes into tree he was sitting in by his leg) and her spike growth spell along with Airy’s fireballs, dragon opened its maw and let out screech akin to grinding of metal against metal. This terrifying noise was too much for Bhelan and Dovan, who proceeded to drop their weapons and flee as fast as they could from towering creature (which surprisingly, had been set slightly ablaze by Airy’s fireball), Baltazar teleported to the side, avoiding this fearsome effect, though not spared of grinding noise. In response, he set the ground beneath dragon ablaze in black fire, causing large portions of it to sear away, revealing monstrosity to be a clockwork creature. As Bhelan and Dovan kept fleeing, and Geralt was being mended by Elli, Airy and Baltazar continued to assault clockwork dragon, while Meulin, determined to stop her companions from fleeing, tied piece of rope between her arrows, and fired them after Dovan, tripping the terrified dwarf. Meanwhile, dragon construct finally toppled over in flames, unmoving.
Party started to cheer for a moment, when leader gnome barked new orders, and from other side of the road, a creature resembling the legendary Tarrasque, though significantly smaller than the dragon, charged out through trees, almost tearing Nepeta apart. During this, Geralt threw a spell after both new monstrosity and the gnome, covering both in Black Tentacles. While the small Tarrasque easily avoided being grappled, towering still easily above ten feet, gnome was stuck fast. A new set of black fire burst out of ground beneath both Tarrasque and gnome, proving this monster to be another clockwork creation. Few remaining gnomes had by now fallen to Airy’s arrows and Meulin’s Spike Growth spell, and gnome leader and his remaining construct quickly followed in blaze.
Afterwards, including already habitual ransacking everything, including cutting dragon and Tarrasque constructs up for parts, one gnome, caught alive during the fight, was woken up and interrogated. There was little new information from him regarding gnome freedom movement, apart from, fact that they were disorganized groups with no central camps or connections. Gnome was then left to Dovan, who’d been eagerly sharpening his axe nearby. But Baltazar’s decision was met with opposition, both Bhelan and Geralt leaping into what seemed to be gnome’s quick execution in hands of Dovan. While Dovan maintained argument that he was only going to talk with the gnome, resulting in Bhelan stripping him of his weapons before that would be allowed, Geralt cut the gnome loose, handed him a healing potion, and sent him on his merry way before dwarf could get his hands on the gnome’s neck.
After all was settled, including Airy discovering series of graves, which seemed to be dwarven and one elven grave together, and demanding loudly that they’d be dug up for loot, and refused by most of the party, they were once again on their way. They didn’t again get far either, as party saw lone, ragged figure staggering towards them along the road. This turned out to be Xianaya, elven druidess they’d traveled with a while back. Group moved to see what had gotten their friend in such horrible condition, and after Geralt summoned a rope trick for privacy, Xianaya shared her tale while being tended by Elli and fed by Geralt. She’d been captured by Atreides’s servants on her way to capital, and taken to the same manor part of the party had been considering assaulting. Unfortunately, she’d been a bait to her mother, one of famed Seal Protectors, group of people who guard seals to the veil, keeping other planes from invading material plane. Her mother had been captured, but Xianaya, herself, had managed to escape. She asked party to save her mother, herself being in too bad condition, emotionally and physically, to try it. For once, our heroes unanimously agreed on something, and promised to save her mother, setting to plan their assault on manor which was deemed pure suicide by half of them just days before.
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