Encounter at West Wood Pass

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Rick7475
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Encounter at West Wood Pass

Post by Rick7475 »

I, Declan Johanson, Knight of the Mystic Fire, write this report of our encounter with a Gruumsh strike force at West Wood Pass, whose intent was to destroy the village of Renvanna. I do not know what has become of Aelenta or Magolir, of whom our forces from the Mystran House of Wonder have allied with on numerous missions. Memories of my first mission as a squire of the Third Circle to Skull Port still haunt me to this day, and I pray to Our Lady that they are not languishing in a Cyric dungeon as I did watching my team members disected alive.


But to the point. I am Declan, resident of Waterdeep. My father was a Knight Sergeant of the Waterdeep Cavalry who married my mother, then an Acolyte of the House of Wonder. i have 2 older brothers and 2 older sisters. When my father retired from the cavalry he started Johan and Sons Saddlery and Tack Shop. Unfortunately for me, the business only had room for his 2 oldest sons. My sisters married and I the youngest was left to decide my life. My father followed Torm, mostly in name, but had connections with the Third Circle from cavalry friends. I was undecided between Mystra and Torm, but chose the latter to please my father as he was proud to offer his son to the Order. I should also note my father's mother, the only one he has every known since his birth mother was killed while he and his sister were infants, is elven, Aerisi Syivar, who made sure to teach us reading and writing and proper speech in elven. She has many secrets and talents I have yet to discover having met my grandfather when he was a knight with the Lord's Alliance.


That out of the way, I was still reeling over the loss of Sheshe and Luva, trying not to blame Aelenta for walking away from that dungeon of Plague Rat filth without my 2 close friends. But honestly, why does he not evacuate those naive elves from Renvanna? Their stubborn arrogance will be the reason for their painfully untimely demise. But onto the encounter. I do not know all of Nova's connections, but as a veteran of the Shadow War she must have many. She sent for us to meet about information she receieved about a Gruumsh strike force preparing to assault the elvish village. We knew what they were after, and being orcs would not treat the elves well. We met at the glorious pool of radiance outside the temple to discuss plans. Peartlin, gracefully mounted, Grom, Betty, Nova and myself. Without our usuall guide of Aelenta, we would be at a disadvantage in that forest. I knew the village well, have toured its non-existant defenses and hidden entries. We decided to portal to the village from the heavliy guarded Seldarine Temple in Waterdeep, hoping we may pick up a guide from the elven rangers.

As we entered the village I went right to the ranger station, where I had been many times before. Fearing the orcs may have already infiltrated invisibly to the station where what they sought may be stored. There were few elves around, only one outside the station, no guards posted anywhere, they are so few in number. Inside the almost empty station I spied a hooded figure rifling through the rangers storage cabinet where what the orcs sought was probably stored, though not with the bulk of an orc, that didn't mean other forces were involved. I ordered him to halt in Elvish. He turned and I could not make out his face and he did not lower his hood. I must have been overly concerned and my voiced raised as Betty asked me to calm down and Nova took over talking to the figure while the others arrived. Finally revealing himself as a ranger we potentially had our guide. He was not a scout, however, and remained quiet in the beginning, obviously naively shocked that such a heavily armed force could so easily enter the village virtually unnoticed. Peartlin, still mounted even in the ranger station, knew him and said his name was Ril.

So we set out, Grom flying around and Peartlin glued to his saddle. Into the forest we went. At first discussing the location of the pass, where Grom, flying up and down indicated west. Ril was a little more talkative relieved at knowing Peartlin, acknowledged Grom's navigation. Traipsing through the mosquito black fly hornet ridden tangled nettle hot sweaty woods we encountered several wolves, worgs, beetles, spiders, and ettins. I am not sure why the elves consider this to be home, still, it is far better than the sewers of Waterdeep, though not by much.

We reached the pass. It was quiet, Very quiet. Slowly we advanced. Nova and Grom pointed to something moving. It was large and fleshy. What on earth was that thing? And then all hell broke loose! They charged! All my gold for a scout! The thing later I learned was a flesh golem! Bloody Fang Orcs with some type of undead summons and golems! They hit us hard. I blessed my beautiful bastard sword and swung into the flesh golem. I didn't see the others, but was surrounded by the Orc chief, some undead warlord skeleton, the flesh golem, and a couple of other orcs. By the Lady I pounded them and held my ground. However my damage was not getting through. I saw them casting buffs before they attacked, it looked like stoneskin. I was hit with spells that penetrated my spell shield, my strength was reduced. They surrounded me. I heard Betty scream as she went down. I could see Peartlin taking a beating but still mounted. Nothing would knock that halfling knight off his celestial mount! Grom was staggering under his wounds. The position was untenable. I could not hold out long from the beating I was taking. Nova had moved back and was summoning her Behemoth shields. We needed a hard shield wall front against this assault. I pulled back taking some hits, not bad, to Nova's position. A Behemoth Shield Construct was destroyed holding off the Orc forces as we regrouped. Betty was only knocked out wounded and she regained consciousness to help with the fight. Nova must have cast dispelling because when I turned back to face the Orcs flanking around our shields my blessed blade cut into the Orc chiefs flesh. With magic missiles, arrows, our blades and the constructs the orcs and their summoned minions and golems went down. What a fight! We breathed a sigh of relief and bandaged and bound our wounds. We talked about advancing. Grom thought we had had enough. Ril was clearly in shock stuffing his back pack with orc remains. Nova said nothing and began to move ahead with her constructs. She fired missiles at orcs ahead, taking them out. I moved up with her and the constructs. She fired again taking out another orc or 2. Then as we advanced along with river we came across their camp. It appeared empty. I called everyone up. We went through their camp, knocking over their evil totems and kicking over their tents. Nova found their armory chest and went through it. We found several summons stones, Guardgoyles, a Flesh golem and a Clay golem. We will destroy the flesh golem stone. The Guardgoyle stones were distributed. I already had one along with a Behemoth Shield. There were gems in the chest we took for enchanting. Ril got a Guardgoyle to show his elven friends. It was some fight. We were tired. So we slowly made our way back. This is all I will write for now.
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