Session 2: Part 1 of 2

It’s morning now, and our three adventurers have just finished breakfast.

Largo leads the team back to the orc camp, whose gates are closed and only one guard is standing outside. K’sagsoda and Dax hang back while the large Goliath approaches.

The guard, startled by the big man’s appearance – and remembering what he and his friends did yesterday – clears his throat before addressing him. “What you want?”

An ashen hand grips the guard’s shoulder tightly. “Chief. Now.”

With a mild whimper, the guard turns and opens the gate, and an unexpected sight is revealed.

Bloodstains on the ground, signs of struggle, and only three orcs visible in the camp where there had once been twenty. A large orc, easily standing a full head above the rest – but still shorter than Largo – steps out of his tent, thick arms crossed over his broad chest.

“Were you here yesterday?” He asks as K’sagsoda and Dax approach slowly, maintaining a good distance.

“I need to talk to you.”

“My men thought your display threatening, given my absence. What do you want?”

“We need information.”

“What about?”

“We’re looking for a temple that’s supposed to be somewhere out here.”

The chief nods. “Used to be one.”

“Do you know where it is?”

With a snap of his fingers, one of the three orcs in camp rushes to a far tent. “Maybe,” the chief nods, the orc coming back to Largo and handing him the torn piece of a map with an area circled, “that’d be about where your temple is.”

“I’m also looking for maybe… I scratch your back, you scratch mine. You’ve given us this map, so is there anything we could maybe do for you?”

The chief thinks for a moment, weighing his options carefully.

“The mine. A woman came through here not long ago, asking if we wanted to join her. Most of us said ‘no,’ but some wanted to leave with her,” he says, gesturing to the blood stains on the ground, “they changed their minds later. She headed to our mine and now we can’t use it. Clear it out and I’ll give you a prize for your time, but bring back proof it’s cleared.”

Largo nods. “Seems fair enough to me, Chief. Do we go through your camp to get to it?”

“No, you leave.” The chief gruffs, pointing to the only exit to his camp, and also presumably the same direction as the mine.

The adventurers leave and trek the little ways to the mine, finding the entrance blocked by rubble. Largo attempts to move the boulders out of the way.

[Rolls a natural 1.]

Seeing this large barbarian fail to move even a single rock, Dax steps forward and manages to move a couple rocks, after which Largo takes over and, with a massive sweep of his arms, clears the debris seemingly effortlessly before heading inside, K’sagsoda in the lead. Lucky, too, as there is a log suspended above them, ready to splatter anyone who would enter against the wall, but the trap remains untouched.

Laughter makes its way to their ears, a sort of giggling. Just around the corner they can see three gnolls, two armed with spears and one armed with a bow. In front of them are four hyenas.

They are dispatched with relative ease.

Using their stealth to make their way through the stone tunnels, they head into a small dead end to search for anything useful.

Carefully walking back into the main tunnel, the party happens upon a grisly sight:

A large chamber with a fire crackling in the center. On the ground is a dead guard wearing the colors of the Leed soldiers, beside him stand three gnolls huddled in terror. On the opposite side of the fire is a large creature with reddish-brown fur as it sits in a squat holding a gnoll by the arm, its feet off the ground.

It lifts the wriggling gnoll and takes a bite out of its side. The gnoll gives a yip and stops moving almost instantly. After feasting, the large creature makes a growl and the three gnolls rush to fulfill whatever command it has given, fleeing in terror.

Largo reaches out with his greataxe and catches two gnolls off guard, killing them both in a single hit each, whispering, “Ears,” to K’sagsoda, who knocks an arrow and damages the third.

Dax, terrified of whatever is in the cave ahead of them, has no intention of harming a fleeing creature, so Largo finishes it with a thrown hand axe. They advance on the creature on the other side of the fire.

The manticore rears up on its hind legs and roars, blood still dripping from its crooked teeth.

[This mine was completely unplanned; definitely took a paragraph or two from Critical Role]

K’sagsoda knocks an arrow and strikes the beast, but to little effect as it completely ignores the arrow in its chest.

Largo leaps over the fire separating them and goes into a frenzied rage, attacking recklessly against this beast causing it severe pain but barely slowing it down.

The manticore snarls, the spines on its tail quivering as they launch from the tail at the Aarakocra ranger, taking him down to half health in a single blow.

Shaking himself, Dax manages to fully heal the marksman as he knocks another arrow to strike again, this time causing significantly more damage, Largo taking advantage of its pain to bury his greataxe into its shoulder.

Strangely, the creature makes no attempt to leave the area of the altar, upon which candles and a single basket rest.

With a great swing of his axe, Largo cleaves the manticore’s head from its body, watching as it rolls with a sickening thump. He turns and sees the basket on the altar, and inside is the manticore’s baby, fast asleep.

Dax apprroaches, gesturing to the basket. “What is that?”

“The beast’s child. We should take it back to Leed, see if they can raise it to protect them.”

The half-elf’s face twists in disgust, pointing to the downed manticore, “You want one of those things alive? In Leed?”

“It is not a thing, it’s a baby.”

“It’s the baby of one of those. They cannot be trained!” Dax exclaims, grabbing for the basket, but Largo keeps it out of his reach.

Angered, Dax casts Command on Largo, who fails his saving throw. “Give.”

Largo gives him his greataxe.

He attempts another Command but fails, instead striking at the barbarian with Inflict Wounds.

[Dax rolls a 25 to hit versus Largo’s AC of 18.]

As the wave of necrotic energy hits him, Largo drops the baby’s basket and Dax takes it from him.

“Don’t,” Largo begins, clutching his side where the spell hit, “touch. That. Baby.”

Dax’s left hand holds his holy symbol while the other hand holding the basket burns with Sacred Flame, igniting both baby and basket.

TBC