Capturing Hippogriffs

Last weekend we had a 4th players join the party that was already lugging around four NPC hirelings. Next week I have a fifth player who has asked to join. I believe that is my limit. We shall see how things go if all five players show up. It might be the tipping point in an online game where not everyone can talk at once. I do not want to get to the point where some players feel they cannot get their opinion heard.

I used Roll20's Dynamic Lighting for the first time in this session. I had a small orc lair planned and it was perfect for this use. It went really well. The players enjoyed it - especially the elven thief who could see things with his dark vision that others could not. I also enjoyed it as a game master. I did not have to spend time revealing areas and it meant I could move orcs around who were currently out of sight. It was a very small cave dungeon and players still lost track of where they had been. It definitely was an addition to the game session.

Session 26: Hippogriff Hunt

As the session opens, the adventurers prepare to enter the orc lair. Some concerns are voiced that the Orcs may be alerted to them. Carric advances carefully ahead of the rest of the party down the sloping tunnel. He checks carefully but does not find any traps. They round a corner and from in the lead Carric spots, some orcs milling about in a cave further ahead with his dark vision. Dag comes up close behind Carric. The rest of the party stays back around the corner under the light of Lakima’s staff. Carric also spots an orc shaman or witch doctor alone in a small cave and decides to sneak up upon him. He manages to slip silently through the tunnel right up behind the shaman. He goes to stab the orc in the back but at the last moment, the witch doctor hears him and whirls about shouting. Carric misses his strike.

The shouting orc brings the rest of the party to the attack. Lakima moves forward with the light so that the humans can see in the dark. Eathwund charges forward and attacks the orcs in a side cave near a cooking fire. Lantosh follows Eathwund. Dag moves to aid Carric. Lakima and Domago stay in the rear. The shaman switches his attack to Dag and clubs the dwarf solidly knocking him to his knees. Carric stabs the shaman. Eathwund slashes through several of the orcs. Lantosh tries to help but struggles in the dim light. Domago moves up and casts Cure Light Wounds on Dag.

Unbeknownst to the heroes, a short distance away at the bottom of a pit lies a human caravan guard named Grimble. Grimble was captured in an ambush a few weeks earlier and has been kept in the pit for days. The orcs occasionally feeding him scraps. Grimble hears shouting, sees the orc guards running off, and then hears the sound of fighting. He takes a chance and cautiously climbs up out of the pit (the new PC is introduced).

The fighting continues. The heroes also see some tougher looking orcs and a large orc with a headdress in a side cave. These orcs stay out of the fight so they can protect the chief. They also know that the entrance to the cave is trapped. The shaman is attacked by Dag and Carric but holds his own. Lakima comes over and casts Atanzibar’s Acrid Finger and directs the acid spray at the shaman. This causes the shaman to turn and run off into the cave with the orc leader. Eathwund finishes off the last few orcs in the cave. Meanwhile, Domago spots Grimble climbing out of the pit and goes over to help the stranger.

The entire group of adventurers moves toward the last cave in the lair. The orc leader, a pair of bodyguards, the shaman, and a few female orcs are all waiting in the last cave but not advancing. Dag gives his old shortsword to Gimble when the stranger asks for a weapon. Carric asks Dag to talk to the orcs and convince them to surrender. But Dag argues against it. “We got them trapped, let’s kill them!” They argue back and forth. Lantosh comes over and offers to speak to the orcs. The group, except for Dag, agree and Lantosh calls out to the shaman in orcish. Soon they hear the orc leader joining the conversation. Lantosh tells the others that the orcs agree to leave without taking their treasure - but they want to take some sacks of food. The heroes agree and the orcs carefully file past the heroes. The female orcs pick up some sacks of food that looks like it was stolen from human caravans. Dag and Carric follow the orcs from a safe distance and make sure they do not attack their camp where Nash is camped. They follow and direct the orcs to head north.

While Carric and Dag are away the remaining heroes search the cave. They find crates full of stolen clothing, blankets, and furs. Barrels of ale and beer. A few clay jugs or cheap wine and two treasure chests. Grimble flips open the first unlocked chest to find that it is full of thousands of copper and silver coins. The second chest is locked and Grimble finds he cannot open it. He asks the others if he should smash it open. Lakima tells him to wait. There might be something breakable inside. Lantosh lights a lantern and heads out of the caves looking for Carric. He finds the elf and takes his place guarding the entrance. Carric comes back to the cave and tries to pick the lock on the chest but he fails. He picks up a nearby rock and smashes the chest repeatedly until the lock is broken off. Inside he finds bags of gold coins, a pouch with some gems in it, and some necklaces.

The adventurers haul the coins and other treasure out of the caves and bring them over to their nearby camp. They sit down for an hour and decide on how to handle the hippogriffs. They conclude that it is best to wait until morning. The mules are brought around to the caves and led inside by Nash. Everyone else moves into the caves. The bodies of the orcs that were killed outside the caves and the bodies in the caves are all dragged into a large pile near the cave entrance. One hero maintains watch in shifts as the rest sleep for the rest of the night. They notice that a few scavengers are drawn to the pile of dead orcs in the night.

When the sun comes up they see activity at the nearby hippogriff aerie. Two hippogriffs take flight and immediately notice the pile of dead orcs. They circle a few times before one lands on a nearby mesa. This hippogriff watches for a short time and then hops down to the corpses. It starts ripping into the orc corpses. After a few minutes, the second hippogriff descends and joins its mate. Once both hippogriffs are occupied with the orcs, Lakima casts Lightning Bolt from inside the cave mouth. The bolt strikes both hippogriffs with devastating effect. The creatures are burned and fall to the ground struggling to rise. The rest of the heroes run out of the caves and attack the hippogriffs while they are struggling on the ground. They quickly kill them.

There is a brief discussion about butchering the hippogriffs. In the end, they decide to leave them for now. The entire group including Nash on the wagon, move over to the base of the mesa with the hippogriff nest. Lakima casts Levitate and ascends slowly to the top of the 60-foot mesa. He lets down a rope to Carric who climbs up easily. Carric moves over to scout the nest while Lakima helps Dag up the slope. Once the dwarf is atop the mesa he pulls the rest of the group up. Carric makes his way through piles of debris from trees and the bones of animals and humanoids. He peers into the nest and is surprised to see four hippogriff fledglings. He comes back and tells the other adventurers. Lakima sneaks up and casts Sleep putting all four of the hippogriffs to sleep. While most of the adventurers work to carefully lift the fledgling hippogriffs down the slope and put them into the wagon, Carric searches the mesa. He locates a battered shield and a necklace amongst the debris around the nest. All four fledglings fit in the caged wagon but it does not leave any room for the hippogriff corpses. They decide to leave them after taking some feathers. 

The rest of the day is spent traveling back to the Sommerfeld homestead where they left their horses in the care of the locals. Ivo greets them and asks about the hippogriffs and the orcs. The patriarch Marek joins them that evening around the fire sharing some homemade ale. The next day they head toward the Dolm river and leave the Northern Hills. But they do not get away without incident. As they head for the road around midday they are attacked by a pair of Axebeak (giant flightless birds). Dag and Carric are injured by one of the birds. Eathwund kills one and Lakima kills the other, striking it six times with darts. Dag and Grimble cut up the giant birds for the meat.

As evening falls, they make it to the familiar Restless Knight Inn. Lotti Feilding the owner greets them and they tell her and her kids about the hippogriffs. The inn is quiet - they are the only travelers this night. So they rent all four rooms. The next morning Lakima gives Lotti a flyer to post advertising the sale of the four hippogriff fledglings. He worked on it during the evening.

The adventurers make the trek to Edgerton the next morning arriving in the early afternoon. They have a brief discussion with the city guards at the gate. The guards are not sure how to handle adventurers entering the town with live creatures. Eventually, they settle on a tax to enter and assign a guard to make sure nothing untoward happens. They head toward the Watch Post and talk to Sergeant Frans. After a little negotiating it is agreed they can park the wagon in Market Square under guard. Eathwund stays with the wagon. Nash takes the horses and mules to the stables and the rest of the group heads to the Chapter House.

As they approach home they are surprised to see a guard outside and four workmen replacing the front door. Inside they find Huntley their manservant with his arm in a sling. Huntley tells them that a group of men in hoods attempted to batter down the door last night. He and a workman he hired named Davish managed to hold the door closed. He was injured and the door was wrecked. Carric heads off to check in on some of his contacts in the underworld. Lakima takes a necklace they found at the hippogriff aerie to give to Alayna. He also gives her a bag full of hippogriff feathers.

Carric goes to the Bishops’ Rest Inn and finds Nuen is not around. He finds a drunken Nuen in the nearby Frozen Crow tavern. Nuen starts to tell his friends about what a great guy Carric is - he almost tells them about the gift of gold Carric gave him but Carric stops him and takes him aside to tell him to be quiet about it. Nuen does not seem to understand the importance of staying quiet. Carric leaves and goes to the Low Market to check on the street urchin gang. He finds Maik again. The boy tells him he has heard that a new gang in Mirdton attacked the Chapter House last night. Word in the market is that this King Rat is moving on other gangs - pushing them out. People are afraid to walk about Mirdton at night as people are going missing. Carric thanks the boy for the information. He returns to the Chapter House. On the way, he spots Eathwund watching the wagon and stops to let Eathwund know that the Chapter House was attacked and who he suspects was behind it.

At the Chapter House the group discusses what to do with the hippogriffs. Lakima wants to try and sell them and is busy creating posters to advertise the sale. Carric argues for keeping them and training them. However, he has not been able to find anyone who thinks they can train them. He tells everyone that he suspects King Rat was behind the attempted break-in. That night Grimble relieves Eathwund at the wagon. He devises a tent to cover the wagons to allow the hippogriffs to get some sleep without people watching them. The market stays somewhat busy all night. Carric heads off and checks in with contacts at some other inns and taverns. He is able to confirm most of what Maik told him.

The next morning Eathwund goes out to the wagon to relieve Grimble. He starts charging locals 1 copper to be allowed to look under the tent covering at the hippogriff fledglings. Lakima buys some meat from a local butcher to give to the hippogriffs. Lakima splits up the loot giving half shares to Dag and Lantosh. Lantosh puts most of his share in the vault but Dag happily puts the coins in a sack and heads out for a day on the town.