busyIn the aftermath of the fight with the warband, the party was somewhat injured and in no physical condition to deal with whatever was making the howling sounds. They quickly looted the bodies of the dead of anything of value, giving the survivors of the attack their fair share, and then convinced the survivors - a man by the name of Tannar, a woman by the name of Syla, and several other men, women, and children who were in shock and didn't say anything - to accompany them as quickly as possible. The characters fled with the group, and found shelter in a small series of caves, just as the howling creatures that had been following them attacked - a pack of rabid wolves! The party defended themselves, and Tannar proved to be competent with a bow, and so the threat was dealt with rather quickly and through the use of a few more Style points. The characters learned from Tannar and Syla that the refugees came from the former city of Glithnol (none of them knew of it), and were seeking refuge in any village they could find. They also gleaned from them that the warband members that had attacked them were a scouting part of the Blood Bear tribe! The party agreed to take the survivors back to Chanord, despite Barm Vaks (Nick)'s protests about taking a "stinking elf" back to the village, and some concerns about the possibility of the Blood Bears following the trail left to Chanord, but Tannar and Syla convinced the rest of the player characters that the refugees had useful skills that the folk of Chanord could use.
After taking the survivors to Chanord, and then retracing their steps back to where they first encountered the refugees, Kiarra Foxten (Kathy) and Devron Sharpis (SteveB) convinced Barm that they needed to follow the Blood Bear scouts' trail back to the main group, so as to assess the threat and possibly deal with them. Against his better judgement, Barm agreed. Once he had led the characters to where they needed to be, Kiarra and Teela Goran (Joanne) went off to scout, and came back to tell the characters that they Blood Bears were camped in what appeared to be the ruins of a small town or village. They told the rest that there were only 10 or so of the tribe, including a shaman of some sort with them, a tall goblin with an evil sneer, but that they appeared pretty badly off, as they had obviously had their own hardships and struggles to face during their travels. The characters debated what to do, and finally as dawn arrived, they decided how to handle the situation. Arriving at the campsite as the warband was preparing to break camp, Torvu Peng (Tom) made out that he had just stumbled upon their camp, and that he was grateful to have found them. The leader of the warband, one Chavis Greeg, was suspicious of Torvu, but let him into the camp, although Grezzik, the goblin shaman, was more distrustful. While Kiarra shadowed the warband and kept an eye on Torvu, the rest of the player characters went ahead to lay their plans into motion. Torvu told the warband leader and the shaman of a series of small ruins near the river, where a small tribe of humans lived. He suggested the warband attack them, and take what they needed. Chavis agreed to this, and the warband set off, following Torvu's lead. We ended the session just as the warband with Torvu in tow arrived on the edge of the ruins...with the rest of the party waiting to ambush them in the ruins of the village.
Needless to say, the players were somewhat annoyed at where I ended the session, but by that time it was late at night, and we were all tired. A pretty good session, I thought, with a bit of everything going on in it, and I glossed over some of the points and stuff that happened during the game.
In the meantime, I'll post separately about what's going on with the Sunday gaming group, as they've almost got their characters ready to go for the Desolation game that I plan to run. So far, things are looking really good on that front. :)