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Previously on “Storm King’s Thunder”
PROGRAMMING NOTE: Due to two people being out of town, there will be no D&D session this week (6/16). Session 10 should resume on 6/23
We kept going. We trudged North. Yetis be damned, we had to make it to Bryn Shander soon. We were not going to survive out here.
The damn beasts were hunting us. Their fear of fire kept them distant, Bryseis made sure of that. Halfred was a hunter of monstrosities and could track them easily. It was more unnerving getting constant updates on their whereabouts. They circled around us, flanked us, herded us.
We came up to a pair of small ridges on either side of the road we were following. One of the creatures lay waiting. Bryseis fired up her Dancing Lights as a protective barrier, and we moved as a scared, huddled group, knowing full well the power these things wielded. We were in their territory, at their mercy.
The Yeti leapt down when we tried to pass and roared defiantly. We heard its mate answer the roar some distance behind us.
The scars from my near death experience itched savagely under my robes and leathers. I could succumb to fear, or let the rage building inside me take over. I couldn’t feel the calming serenity I had been so carefully taught. Only fear and hatred. It was dangerous to give in, but it could also be a weapon.
I threw down my torch at the creature. It glowed softly in the snow. The Yeti jerked back for only an instant, then crouched down on all fours to let loose a chilling scream.
I was already numb to the constant cold around me. I let myself feel numb to the fear as well. I focused my mind and reached into my chest, withdrawing the psi-glaive that manifests from my psychic energy.
Before the others could react, I screamed back, both in my mind and out loud, and charged at the beast.
Things went much better for us this week after the disastrous encounter with the Yetis last week. The fire from the Dancing Lights was able to keep them at bay, letting T.I.M. finally snap out of their paralyzing Chilling Gaze and heal poor Kazin’s dying ass.
Despite PCs falling left and right in the first few weeks, we hadn’t used our own Lingering Injuries house rules until now. My PC got to be the first, yay. I failed the CON save and rolled to see which terrible injury would befall me.
A natural 20, ha! That means I get a non-outwardly visible scar with no effect. It did end up being a fun role-playing tool, as Kazin now had horrible scratch marks on his chest.
Kazin just had a one-two punch last week where he lost his friend Zephyros in a dramatic exodus, then nearly died from a ridiculous multi-crit attack from a Yeti.
I liked the idea of the Yetis backing off only to stick with us as we traveled.
One thing my group is abysmal at is coming up with any kind of tactical plan. Our resources started out very limited but at level 4 we’re starting to gain in power and options.
The Yetis were separated and we were coming up to one of them. We decided to simply huddle up and slowly move forward with a ring of Dancing Lights around us, thinking it would let us pass.
Wrong! One of them jumped down and threatened us, with the other not far behind trying to flank.
It was here I let role-playing take over any logical action – Kazin charged the beast out of fear and hatred for what had happened. It turned out to be a solid move as we were able to collectively destroy the Yeti before the other could arrive, letting us split them up (it also helped that they rolled mid-range initiative and didn’t get any damn crits).
With the Yetis defeated and Kazin thoroughly blood-soaked from some cathartic corpse-defiling we journeyed onward and made it to Bryn Shander, the largest city in the Ten Town regions in the snowy Northern part of the Sword Coast.
It’s weird to think that at level 4 we’re just now reaching our first real town (Nightstone was more of a dungeon). We finally had a chance to sell loot and buy some equipment and talk with some locals.
An overly-friendly dwarf at the entrance gave us a helpful rundown of the main areas in town that could interest us, while she mentioned a sheriff that would be eager to hear our story.
Apparently words of our exploits at Nightstone had already reached this far North, which worried us. At the inn we met a Lord’s Alliance knight who started out friendly, but appeared to have some history with Bryseis, and warned us of Zhentarim in the area.
We got rooms at the Kelvin’s Comfort inn for a much-needed Long Rest. You’d think an Inn in a town would be the safest place to rest. We were quickly proven wrong when half a dozen hired killers crept into our rooms, stabbing at us while we slept!
T.I.M.’s Warforged feature of not actually sleeping helped a bit, but not enough to save us from repeated stealth-attack stabs thanks to the assassin’s high initiative rolls.
We’re a relatively squishy, long-range party and this was as close of quarters as you can get.
We took some nasty damage in the fight; Bryseis nearly went down. But the assassins were no match for us once we sprang up and repelled them. We kept one of them alive to hopefully answer some questions. Being famous in this world just means you have a bigger target on your back, but hopefully we can get some answers.
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