Where the party is attacked by a band of ferocious beastmen as they try to escape the thick forests of the Reikwald.. A GRUESOME TASK The party searched and found little of value. Baroon cut the strands of webbing around the corpse of the man and his dog, and said a prayer over their corpses, while Dronk and Cornelius talked amongst themselves. "These spiders must have some powerful poison, what nearly killed Baroon.." said Cornelius. Dronk nodded. "Let's cut it out of them." Dronk drew a long knife and set to the gruesome task, with Cornelius observing and trying to help. Black ichor and unnamable parts fell from the stinking, heaving corpses of the horse-sized spiders. After some time, by which the sun had nearly entirely set, they were able to extract a handful of intact poison glands. Meanwhile, Hugo and Drake decided they would take one of the large cords of firewood that remained in the charcoal-burners camp back the The Wayward Derelict to trade later. While Dronk and Cornelius hacked at the spider corpses, Hugo and Drake began dragging the huge stack of wood, which was laid out on a large canvas mat. Their progress, however, was slow. After Cornelius and Dronk gathered the parts, the party left the clearing, dragging the firewood at a slow pace, heading back towards Diesdorf. They soon abandoned it, as the sun set completely, and the forest now plunged into darkness took on a sinister aspect. They thought they heard movement under the shadowed boughs. THE AMBUSH They started moving more quickly down the path..with Drake leading. However, in the dim light of Mannsleib, Drake became lost without realizing it, losing the path and instead following a dried creek bed. It was at the same time he noticed this that the sound of a horn burst out like thunder from nearby, and from the trees all around the party emerged goat-headed hulking humanoids with cloven feet - beastmen! In their hands they clutched spears, crude swords, and drawn bows. Arrows flew through the air, one clipping Dronk's face. The party began to battle their attackers, with arrows raining down. On the horizon a larger shape emerged - a huge beastman with metal-tipped horns, carrying an enormous axe. A minotaur! It roared, and as it did so, another roar could be heard. It looked down in time to see a small figure with an orange mohawk and oversized axe - Red - rush it and nearly disembowel it in a single blow. The minotaur - known to his people as Gore-Horn - ferociously attacked Red, beating him with repeated swings of his massive axe. Meanwhile, Dronk shot at a beastman who kept ducking behind trees, Hugo began breaking their heads left and right, with mighty swings of Vilkas, his silvered war mail. Hugo rushed from foe, to foe, an engine of death, beastmen falling before him like wheat before the harvester's scythe. Cornelius unleashed blasts of frost magic that seared the attackers. Drake decapitated one beastmen in a single swing, then turned in time to take a spear to the chest. Luckily, the wound was minor and Drake reached out with a mailed fist to grasp the things neck, before bashing it with the pommel of his greatsword and cleaving it in twain, blood splattering his face. Baroon began chanting prayers to Sigmar, his hands waving widely, in deep concentration. GORE-HORN'S DOOM It seemed the party had the upper hand on their attackers - and then more beastmen rushed from all directions. They came down on the party in waves, and the group was forced into a smaller circle, as they hewed and blasted their foes in all directions. Red and the minotaur fought viciously, with Red opening a massive gash in the creatures chest. However, Red was caught off balance and Gore-Horn's axe found him, chopping deep into his shoulder. They rained down blows on one another, and both of them were severly bloodied. Gore-Horn now seemed enraged, with snot flying from his massive nostrils. Unseen to Red, more beastmen had emerged from behind and beside him and moved quietly to attack his exposed flanks. The party continued to fight, but Cornelius and Baroon, seeing Red hard-pressed, broke free from the melee and rushed to his aid. Cornelius clapped his hands together, muttering arcane incantations and a loud crack like that of thunder echoed around the dark forest, sending the beastmen surrounding Red to sprawl in the dust, where they did not get up. At this point Gore-Horn, seeing his opponent badly wounded, went for the kill - swinging his axe down like a black thunderbolt. Red looked up, seeing his doom approach - and somehow, Gore-Horn missed by a hair - Red feeling the wind from the axe passing his cheek. Gore-Horn roared, but had left himself open - and Red, tired though he was, lept at it, coming inside the minotaur's reach and bringing his axe up into it's jaw, cleaving it open. Gore-Horn howled once, and fell to the forest floor, shaking the ground. Meanwhile the party was slaughtering the attackers, but more kept coming. For every beastman they cut down, another would emerge. As Gore-Horn collapsed in a ruin of muscle and horn, the horn suddenly sounded again, loudly. The beastmen suddenly turned, and began running back into the shadows of the forest. The group, breathing heavily, bloodied but not beaten, did not give chase. ESCAPE FROM THE REIKWALD
Instead, they tried to find their way back onto the road, ever wary of the beastmen returning. After hacking through dense thickets and blundering through thickly entwined woods for some time, they found the road just as rosy fingered dawn struck, sending her gentle light out to greet them as though to reassure them they had escaped the grasp of the beastmen. The party made their way down the road for several hours to reach Diesdorf, where the guards could only stand in open-mouthed shock staring at Red, covered in blood of himself and his enemies, carrying a severed minotaurs head as a grisly trophy of his victory. They hurriedly opened the gates but said nothing as "Hugo and Friends"(tm) strutted through the gates and down to the quay where the Wayward Derelict waited. Back at the boat, Red washed himself in the Reik, while the rest gathered on the deck. Drake asked Dronk to come belowdecks with him to speak, and they went below, with Hugo following.Drake confronted Dronk about the Bretonnian brandy smuggling he had concealed from the group. An angry discussion followed, Hugo agreeing with Drake that he couldnt hide these things from the group, with Dronk finally conceding he should have been honest, and Drake forgiving him. The group thus reconciled, they cast off from Diesdorf's quay and headed south, down the Reik. To Grissenwold. To the Black Peaks. To Eletza Helgen.
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The WizardIn time, you will come to know the tragic extent of my failings... Past Journals
September 2017
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