Session 07

The Raider's Camp
The session began as the group continued along the raiders path towards the camp. They tied up the lone unconscious survivor from their previous ambush, and left him to his fate in the wilderness after having taken his cult leathers. As before, Thia the ranger scouted slightly ahead until they came upon a final bend in the path, after which they saw the camp in a small valley below them. They looked upon the valley between the large foothills around them, and in the center of this depression was a tall horseshoe shaped craggy hill, rising up above their current height. Small pockets of woods dotted the sides of the horseshoe hill, and the valley and surrounding hills were also covered with moderate vegetation. In the opening of the horseshoe was the only visible entrance and exit into the camp, denoted by a wooden watchtower and a group of humanoids on the ground nearby.

The group briefly discussed their options, and while they considered sneaking around the back and scaling the three hundred foot high horseshoe crag, they instead decided to don their stolen cult leather uniforms and to stroll in as stragglers from the raid. Except of course for Rufus, who as a halfling could not fit into any of the human sized cult outfits. In the end it was decided that Rufus would ride silently inside Rachen's backpack. As they went down into the small valley under the cover of forest the sounds of the camp grew as the sun dipped behind the hills and they approached the entrance. The outer guard post around the watchtower was just starting to return to life, and others were coming in and out of the camp, but most were still in regular worn clothing.

The parties cult uniforms caused suspicion and questions from one of the guards, but they smooth talked their way past indicating they were a group of rearguards returning before night fell. Once inside, the party traveled through the main path that snaked through the almost three football field sized space, getting a feel for the layout of the small tent city. The main path rose up levels as it snaked towards the rear of the horseshoe enclosed space, and it was obvious there were many different groups occupying the space. Towards the front and lowest levels, were many dozens of short and filthy tents that housed more kobolds than could be counted. Those tents appeared to be made of animal skin with bloodied symbols painted on them.

Past the kobold tents they took stock of the various groupings of much larger cloth human tents and their painted insignias, and decided to split up to recon. The entire scene was of post battle revelry, with laughing, drinking, and celebrating individuals. In the middle of the camp there appeared to be a number of mercenary groups, with the most numerous being the professional Stormblades, the rough and less disciplined Red Sun, and the loud and rowdy Dark Sail pirates. Cadmus, having once been a member of the Red Sun, immediately fell in with the group, got himself recognized by an old acquaintance named Laphroaig, and then got himself embedded into a game of dragon poker. He could never resist a game of cards. During the games, not only did Cadmus win some Golden Griffons, he also learned from Laphroaig that the camp is breaking up in a few days, and rumored to be heading north towards ‘the Landing’ - the city of Black Landing.

In the back and highest levels of the camp was where the various groups of cultists kept their tents. Even among them, there appeared to be three distinct groups. First noticed where the strange blues, who seemed fanatical, crazy, and were looked upon with disdain from the other two groups present: black and red cultists. Marcus and Thia broke off past the blues and explored the area of the black cultists, and there they found the prisoner tents. Not seeing his master, Marcus continued along towards the center of the cultist area, in which there was a large clearing with a series of wooden posts but only one prisoner tied to them.

As Marcus walked past, keeping his distance from the two guards, he noticed his master, Leosin, was indeed the prisoner tied up in the center. When Marcus passed by him, when the guards did not appear to be watching, he noticed Leosin look him right in the eye and wink. Thia walked along the back wall of the camp, beyond the black cultists area towards a cave entrance. It was heavily guarded by around eight guards in splint mail with three ambush drakes on leashes, and so she kept her distance. As time went on more cultists disappeared into their tents and reemerged in their cult uniforms.

Rachen, with Rufus in his backpack constantly peeking out of the pack and whispering to his carrier, walked a wide circle around the other heavily guarded area in the back of the cultist area, the largest and tallest tent. Another eight splint wearing guards with ambush drakes gathered around the front entrance of the tent, with occasionally a pair circling around. Their distraction came when the same adult blue dragon that attacked Greenest came swooping over the small horseshoe valley and landed atop the highest peak of the hill. While most of the eyes were skyward, Rachen quickly walked around the backside of the tent, nearest the cliff walls, and dropped his backpack next to the edge. Rufus popped out of the bag slightly while Rachen kept watch and lifted the bottom of the leader’s tent to peer inside.

Aside from noticing immediately a thick line of white powder just on the inside of the tent all the way around, Rufus saw the black dragonborn female they had heard about, and another white human female in purple robes standing around a table. He took in all the mundane details he could - table, another splint wearing guard, some chests, two bed cots - before he quietly dropped the tent and ducked back into his pack. Rachen picked up the pack and slung it across his back before the next patrol came circling behind him, at which point he was already heading back into the main cultist area of the camp. He avoided any looks from the guards, but could feel their eyes upon him.

Of all the party, Lachlan fared the worst. As he walked near the red cultists tents he was roped into a hazing ritual of torture known as cutting. “Hey you recruit, have you had your cutting yet? if you wanna join the Red Hand we've got your chance right here!” Alone and without much recourse, Lachlan reluctantly agreed and began cutting into a weak and beaten prisoner with a small blade they handed him, as the reds gathered around chanting and watching.

Thia, Marcus, and Rachen rejoined near the center of the cultist area and saw what was happening to Lachlan, with no obvious way to stop it. So, they decided to try and start a distraction, some sort of fight between the reds and the Dark Sail pirates nearby. When their antagonizing appeared to be ineffective towards the pirates who only wanted to get drunker, it was Cadmus who noticed his friends attempts. First towards his mate Laphroaig, and then to other Red Sun, Cadmus tried to convince them of rumors the Stormblades were trying to keep some of the Suns’ pay for themselves. Being that the Red Sun hated the Stormblades and only really cared about getting paid, the approach rang true and soon there was an out of control brawl happening between mercenaries.

The distraction was beginning to work, as many of the red cultists were peeling away from the group surrounding Lachlan, when all of a sudden the booming and growling voice of the blue dragon erupted from above, “REZMIR SAYS STOP!” With a power that only fear can provide, almost the entirety of the brawl stopped at once, and all eyes went to the sky. As the crowd began to disperse, a sullen faced scrawny guard came up to Rachen and confronted him. The guard said he thought he recognized Rachen as a defender from Greenest. Cadmus had approached the group while this was happening, and helped reassure the guard that Rachen and his friends were on 'our' side. The guard seeming dissatisfied went his own way into the thinning crowd anyway.

The session ended there with the party together except for the poor wizard Lachlan.

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