Malta Session 48: Tengu At Breakfast, the Giant Drow and Lex Is Killed After Three Natural 20s

We pick up in the morning after a full night’s rest at the Barn. The night before our characters discussed facing the giant drow the first thing today, however; at breakfast we experience an uneasy feeling just as Jabari’s cloak indicates the presence of tengu. A quick look around and Lete picks out an odd individual sitting at a table not from our character's own table.

Jabari excuses himself  to cast a few spells before returning invisible (and undetectable) as well as being able to see invisible creatures for an upper hand in the situation.

Before long another disguised tengu joins the table where it seems this individual was recognized and expected.

Jabari, on his way back, spots two invisible flyers (my magic) flying away from him west towards the ocean. Noting that, Jabari returns to the Barn just as a small tell-tale sign of something invisible escaping just before being noticed. Captain Jabari continues to observe and notices an Italian patron that is focused on Lermang. Lete, at the table, talks of exposing or bagging one of the tengu to the other characters. Jabari attempts to dispel the tengu’s disguise. While the dispel failed to have the desired effect; the tengu reacted, got up from the table, and headed in the direction of the door. Jabari switches to the second tengu with a mythic dispel magic.

The second target, for the briefest time reverts to a tengu, then to a non-descript human. The second tengu then jolts up and runs for the door. Lete moves and immediately grapples this tengu while Carlo catches up to a building the first tengu ran to.

Soon both tengu are captured. The Knights are called for and Xenophon Erastos, the Knight of the Flame will arrive. Lete calls them out as being infiltrators and before long the tengu admit to just eating; however the individuals at the table where these two impostors were eating were asking questions about where their friends were if these two were tengu?

After about ten minutes Xenophon offers to take them to the castle. Lete and Carlo offer to assist him and accompany the Knight to the castle while explaining to him the danger these tengu indicate: They are of The Colony and are involved in replacing city leadership on Malta and are furthermore allied to Egypt and the Church of Tiamat.

After second breakfast and after some rigorous questions from some of the patrons and the giant Carlo and Lete return. Jabari however, still seeing invisible, spies the small invisible creature once again. At first it looked like a baby with small ram horns and tiny wings. However the creature vanished and was transported away without being fully identified. 

Mythic Baby

Not long after our characters are on the road with the mind of hunting the giant drow.

A half hour into our journey Jabari gets the distinct impression that someone else had been in the area where the bodies of Elsar and the unidentified male were found; this person was investigating in much the same way Jabari was investigating- trying to pickup on subtle impressions.

We continue for another two and a half hours passing travelers and daily road travel, but eventually we find a lack of animal life and are soon following a slope down where it opens up into a large worked cave opening where, in the angles of the opening, are a lot of ominous webbing.

As we approach, the scene comes off with a fear effect; many of us become shaken but Lermang becomes frightened and flees before the fun begins. We press on and enter a chamber with four chests, one in each corner, and a dead grey render in the center that look like it was in a horrific fight not more than a couple of days ago.

Marco flips open one of the chests; when it opens it releases cool perfumed air, inside appear to be clothes. Marco moves to another chest where he finds empty vials, a healers kit, waterproof cases and a small variety of clothes. Moving on each chest appears to contain a single cold stone and personal items of some unknown individual. Lete rules out the possibility of tengu cache of items.

Our character’s continue. The floor begins to slope down and eventually our characters begin to hear sounds of speech: a woman’s voice who says the name Ildgar. “Ildgar assures ***** here”

 

We continue on and around a corner to encounter not only the giant drow but three other drow, an imp, and a huge grey render/drider flesh-crafted thing.

The battle turned in their favor quickly with both Lex and Marco falling to the giant. As battle waged on the drow would flee the battle. In the end it was Lete who stuck down the drow giant and ended the fight.

Lete removes the head of the giant as the other characters retrieve the body of Lex and the fallen giant's belongings before Jabari teleports our characters to Nogammon’s druid grove to hopefully save Lex' life. (Marco was revived late in the battle) When we arrive all of us fall into a deep healing slumber- all save for Lete.

The giant drow: Large scimitar, +3 unholy and conductive; magical half plate and a shield (held for trade); magical belt physical might +4 str / dex (Lete); two magical rings (electricity resistance minor (Carlo), fire resistance major- needs sized); (10) +1 long spears; two scrolls (defile armor, invisibility) (Jabari) and large potions (CSW (Lete), delay posion (Carlo), haste (Marco)); as well as a magical scale of deflection on the greyrender/drider.

Two days pass during the healing sleep. At the end of the two days there is much to explain to the old centaur about restoring life to souls that have passed. But after a total of four days Nogammon reincarnates Lex, the unchained rogue's old body absorbed into the earth.

After a time we are sure the drow were warned of our coming and after at least one of us fell, the drow believed that was all it would take for some or all of them to become ‘mythic.’