A Tabletop Trip into Phlan XI: We Thri-Kreen

Evading the furious orc patrols, the party regrouped in the shadow of a low hill a few miles away from the orc camp…whereupon a very angry Girald punched Inigo right in the face. A fight might have broken out, but the group was too worried about escaping to let the rogue and ranger battle it out. Vilanestra solved the problem by offering to teleport the badly-wounded MacTavish, Aeryn, Wolf and the slave escapees back to Phlan. They accepted and spent a comfortable night in the inn resting up, while Girald, Inigo, and Rajmani spent a restless and rainy night in the wilderness hiding from orcs. The next day, with spells re-memorized, Vilanestra teleported them back as well and the party was reunited.

After making it clear that the party owed her, the elf mage gave them a little cash to re-equip, and then she and Girald departed to continue the search for Ren the White, while Rajmani stayed at the inn to rest up a little longer. Most of the party re-equipped at Jerome of Melvaunt’s shop while MacTavish did penance at the Temple of Tempus, after which he was awarded a holy symbol to replace the one he’d lost to the orcs. They were now re-equipped, but unemployed.

Being the proactive type, Aeryn went to visit Poryphrys Cadorna hoping for a free dinner and a commission for the party. After a night of…active negotiation, she returned with both. Apparently, after the clearing of Sokol Keep, a powerful Phlan merchant family called Bivant hoped to capitalize on the now-reopened shipping by importing a boatload of hopeful young women from around the Moonsea to Phlan as spouses to the guards and colonists – and decided to save on costs by transporting their young heir, Galon Bivant, to Phlan in the same ship. Unfortunately, the ship was captured en route from Hillsfar by that notorious scourge of the Moonsea, Captain Scabbard. Scabbard demanded a rich ransom for the Bivant heir, and the problem of recovering him had been dumped in Cadorna’s lap.

At the lure of 20,000 gps (with 5,000 in advance and another 10,000 promised as a bonus should the party be able to deliver Scabbard’s head) the PCs accepted with alacrity and rushed to get themselves outfitted for the day-long journey to Scabbard’s pirate fortress in Stormy Bay. As they did, Rajmani approached them and offered to help out, if the party first helped her deal with a tribe of Thri-Kreen hunting out all the game in the area. Reasoning that a pretty druid/ranger would be an asset against the pirates, the party accepted and they all rode north of Phlan to the insect men’s lair. 

The Thri-Kreen village appeared, from the surface, to be a series of seven low and irregular mounds. With visions of insect hordes dancing in their heads, the PCs started to think twice about this side trip, though Rajmani eventually got them moving with a deft combination of insults and flattery. She and Inigo headed into the group of mounds, while the rest of the party waited at the village perimeter. Not long after, a single Thri-Kreen peeked out from one of the mounds – and took an arrow from Ginallath in its shoulder. Chittering loudly, the mantis-warrior leaped to the attack and the fight was on.

Two more Thri-Kreen exited the mounds to attack MacTavish, Aeryn, Wolf, and Ginallath, and a second pair engaged Rajmani and Inigo. Happy at the opportunity to have something to kill, Inigo chopped his opponent down and Raj quickly dispatched the other. Eager to find another opponent, Inigo rushed into one of the mounds. Finding a tunnel leading underground, the elf thought nothing about leaping into it. Raj grinned wryly and followed. They found themselves in a small tunnel system beneath the village, with Thri-Kreen constantly sniping at them with throwing wedges.

As elf and ranger fought underground, the rest of the party finished their opponents and began to move into the village. Ginallath carefully inspected every mound entrance, scattering caltrops to discourage surprise attacks. Their reconaissance was disturbed by a second group of Thri-Kreen, returning from the hunt. This group avoided contact with the party, giving them a volley of throwing wedges before disappearing underground.

The PCs still on the surface were not really excited about going into the tunnels after them (for some reason our group of players HATES tunnels), but one by one they descended – except for Ginallath, who was guarding the rear, or watching for re-enforcements, or something. Reunited with Inigo and Raj below ground, the party searched the winding tunnels until they found themselves at the entrance to a large inner chamber dominated by a large unexcavated pillar, nestled in which was a large golden mantis statue guarded by two Thri-Kreen.

Noticing the party, the guards hurled their throwing wedges and prepared for battle as Inigo, Raj, and MacTavish rushed into the room – only to be ambushed by three more Thri-Kreen and their chieftain, dropping from the ceiling. Wolf and Aeryn soon joined in. The fight was tough and the party was hampered by the low light and confined spaces. MacTavish accidentally banged his funnybone with his mace and dropped his shield, Inigo bumped his head, and Wolf actually stabbed himself with his longsword (they all rolled these fumbles in the same round too…the Fumble Deck got quite a workout). One by one, however, the mantis warriors fell. Raj and Inigo accounted for three of them, Wolf slew the chieftain in a brutal slugging match that left him almost dead as well, and MacTavish finished the last Thri-Kreen after it almost eviscerated him with a single well-rolled crit.

With the Thri-Kreen dead and the balance of nature restored, the party lost no time searching through their loot. Apart from the obviously valuable statue, the mantis warriors had assembled a sizable pile of cash (7000gp), five nice-looking gems, and a store of weapons from the travellers they’d waylaid- some of which McTavish’s orisons revealed were magical. Also clearly magical was a ring they discovered, still attached to a skeletal finger.

The defeat of the Thri-Kreen helped restore the party’s morale as well as its material fortunes, both almost at zero after their defeat by Mace. Loading up the valuables, they began to plan for their confrontation with Captain Scabbard and his pirates…

A Tabletop Trip into Phlan X, The Rescue, Part II

Things were looking bad for the hard-luck crew of PCs, with some cowering in a pit from a shower of crossbow bolts and others fighting a desperate battle for the gate. In the end, what saved them was not their skill at arms or mighty spells, but a horrible mistake made by one unfortunate Orc.

This Orc, Hrakh, of the Broken Rock clan of the Plain of Thar, had the misfortune to be stationed in the left ballista tower by the gate when Rajmani and Beck appeared and began slaying the ballista crews. Hrakh had the further misfortune to be just that much more skilled than his fellows: he actually managed to land a hit on Beck.

This was a Bad Thing. For everybody.

Howling in pain, Beck revealed that he’d gotten a lot more than cheap liquor in his fight with Raymo of Phlan and promptly transformed into a mindless lupine killing machine, tearing Hrakh and the rest of the ballista crew into red rags with his claws. Rajmani, realizing she had a choice between jumping from the tower and being torn limb from limb by Werewolf Beck, picked the long drop and placed her fate in the hands of Mielikki. Several broken ribs later, she found herself hurt but alive a few feet from Ginallath and the oncoming orcs.

With a roar, Werewolf Beck launched himself from the tower into the courtyard – and into the path of the orcs. Grishak and his minions froze for a fatal second – giving Rajmani time to revive Ginallath with a healing potion while Werewolf Beck ripped into the luckless orc subchief.

Meanwhile in the pit, MacTavish, Aeryn, Inigo, and Girald had abandoned cover and were desperately trying to climb the sides of the pit. Girald scrambled up nimbly (being a high-level Rogue has benefits) and engaged the guards at that end of the pit while the PCs climbed up and joined him. It was a tough fight – the PCs daggers against the heavily armed orcs – but they eventually prevailed.

As the battle raged, Rajmani and GInallath opened the gate, letting an extremely annoyed Wolf join the fight. Back to back, the three of them cleared the remaining orcs near the gate while Werewolf Beck raged through the orc camp, killing anything that moved. Out of spells and realizing it was time to go, MacTavish and Aeryn headed for the gate while Girald and Inigo worked to get the last remaining slaves out of the pit to freedom. This became a problem when Werewolf Beck, to whom the slave pit was essentially an Old Country Buffet flung himself headlong into the pit and began tearing apart anyone he could get his claws on. Chalking this up as possibly one of his worst days ever, Girald told Inigo to run for it while he descended into the pit to deal with Werewolf Beck. Inigo, not having any weapons capable of harming a lycanthrope, obliged and joined the rest of the party at the gate.

The party was reunited for all of five seconds before Wolf split off to try and find their gear, only to be discouraged by more orcs spilling out of a cavern system beneath the camp. Running back to the Gate, Wolf was joined by Girald (who explained tersely that Beck was “no longer a problem”), Rajmani, and the remaining five slaves.  By this time, Vilanestra and Vola had arrived, and the party withdrew from the fortress under cover of the elf mage’s spells – bloodied, poor again, but wiser in experience.