Monday August 26, cont. - Three wyverns (small ones it would turn out) approached the ship from high off the starboard bow. A tough fight ensued, including firing the ship's elemental-powered air cannon.
As the fight with the 3 young wyverns progressed, 3 more adult wyverns appeared from low off the stern (2 being ridden by hobgoblins). A few more crew members were killed, and the remainder of the crew took a good bit of damage in fending off the others.
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| 3 young wyvern |
At one point, Arian the sorcerer cast Fly on Thalmyr the dwarven paladin, and he flew over the side and down below the ship. A number of wyvern attacks put Thalmyr in a spot where one failed saving throw would send him plummeting hundreds of feet to a sure death, but he made the save and survived. Enough damage was done to the wyverns that the three wounded survivors fled off to the southeast.
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| ...and 3 more adults |
Continuing north into the Forbidden Hills, the ship flew over a ruined town on the north shore of a lake. Sharp eyes detected landmarks that they recognized, and the party was able to figure out that the ruins below them were the ruins they knew as Nirinas, the town on the other side of the gate in the ruins of Ranatayza, near Fulcher's Hold and close to home.
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| Nirinas and the Forbidden Hills (1 mile hexes in Hexographer) |
The passed over the ruins without stopping, and spent an uneventful night camped a few miles north of the ruins.
In the morning, they continued the last few miles north to the Gods' Theater, which was easy enough to find, being a giant-sized amphitheater carved into the side of a large hill adjacent to the old road. The explored the site for a while, and then searched for the ravine through the hills that would take them to the cave and the gatestone.
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| The Gods' Theater |
With the directions from the map, the ravine was easy enough to find, and they sailed the sky ship up the ravine to a secluded valley between the surrounding hills. There was a pond fed by several streams in the center of the valley, and had some scattered ruins on the eastern side. There was a very large cave mouth at the top of an old road leading up from the ruins.
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| Lara's Cave |
As Octavian brought the ship in to land on a flat spot south of the pond, sharp eyes spotted a number of small humanoid creatures darting out of the ruins and into the nearby trees...
Next - Into the Cave...
GM Commentary - Another fun session with a blend of a tough fight (where Thalmyr almost died), some exploring, and some exposition about lore and history of the world. As far as maps, I still use Hexographer for the main maps of the world (at a one hex equals six miles scale), but have pretty much stopped using the software for the detail scale (like the 1 hex equals 1 mile scale shown above - from a detail map done long ago). I am finding it much more enjoyable to sketch out the smaller scale maps by hand.
Interacting with the World (what the characters learned...or were reminded of) - They visited a landmark that might tie into something down the road. More importantly, they learned that the "place beyond the gate" that they have been to several times is actually the ruins of the Onorian temple town of Nirinas, and they know where the location actually is on a map. They also know that the "home" end of the Ranatayza gate is only about a day's travel from Fulcher's Hold, and that the Nirinas side of the gate is only about a day's travel south of this new hoped-for gate location to a tropical land. These could be very useful in getting around...
Present - (again, too long ago, and I don't know...)
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