There was a sense that the Dark Rider was following us in the Ethereal plane, but soon enough we were convinced that we had lost him in the thickest part of the woods. Thank the Morninglord we escaped, for I cannot conceive how we would defeat an enemy who can retreat into the ghost realm to heal whenever we wound him gravely enough. Our health and healing will run out long before he would likely exhaust that particular trick.
We continued on our journey to Arganvosthold, determined to leave Krezk and the insurmountable obstacle of the Dark Rider as far behind us as we could. With the aid of Janlynn's miraculous Water Walking spell we easily passed our first obstacle and forded the Raven River. We were moving as quickly as we could while still trying to be quiet and hopefully slip past any dangers that lay ahead. I think most of us were thinking of our second encounter and defeat at the hands of a Dark Rider and spoke very little along the way.
Shortly after the river crossing, about an hour into our trip, we encountered a group of Druids and strange, large tree beings. Both parties hunkered down in the foliage for defense and a silence fell upon the forest. What would the Druids do? We found out soon enough as one of the mud covered, ugly humans raised himself up and started gesturing. Nim called out and nothing but gibberish came back. This was the first time a group of Druids that we encountered did not immediately try to destroy us. Nim moved forward to parley with the leader of the other group. They met in the no-man's land between our two tense groups.
The lead Druid met Nim and there was no getting around the fact that neither could understand the language of the other, but certain messages are universal. The Druid was anxiously indicating that he wanted our group to head north of their position. He did not want us going past him, or to the south. This definitely peaked our interest and concern - what could they be doing that they felt they should steer us clear of it rather than try to kill us? Nim decided to acquiesce and led us north. This would not take us out of our way too badly, and after skirting them, we would just go back to our original course.
Sometime later, still quietly muttering amongst ourselves about the strange behavior of the Druids, we came upon the sad sight of the remains of three humans; two adults and a small child held between them. There was not much left but skeletal remains and some rotten remains of clothing. Janlynn muttered some words of Lathander upon the scene and we continued on. There was nothing we could do for those unfortunate souls now.
Our next chance encounter in the dense Svalich Woods would truly test our mettle. We were skirting the edge of a steep rocky hill and Nim spotted some men in the woods around the corner. They were fairly well dressed with no apparent weapons. Before Nim could even tell us what he saw and perhaps discuss how to handle them, Uphir stepped heavily upon a broken pile of downed tree branches and things took a decisive turn. The four individuals dropped low and searched for the source of the sound. Soon they were tearing through the forest in a run directly towards our group.
We all moved to hide behind the nearest trees, not knowing exactly what was coming. Nim hid so well they rushed right past him at the head of the party in the scout position. Just as they were almost upon all of our hiding spots, Nim could be heard hissing "Vampires!" This was enough for us to spring into action, but I think all of us were somewhat uncertain of how the battle would go as we had not fought actual vampires before.
Akkiir and Uphir rushed forward to meet them in close combat, while Nim moved back from his hiding position to help. I cast a Faerie Fire upon the group of them and managed to outline two of them in green auras. As they came closer, Janlynn called forth the majesty of Lathander, thrusting her shield forth and calling upon ancient words of power, she sent two of the foul creatures backwards as if hit with the force of a giant. Soon they were fleeing before her might away into the forest.
This began the desperate turbulence of battle. Focusing attacks on one of the remaining melee vampires, it soon fell before the onslaught. The vampires preferred attack is to launch themselves hungrily upon their enemies using their wiry bodies to grapple them as their fanged maws seek to sink into bare flesh. Akkiir used his Chill Touch on one of the fleeing vampires, breaking the powerful hold that Janlynn held over it. It turned to rejoin the battle. Nim ran forward to engage that one while Tetsuo used his shadow step and amazing speed to quickly overtake the other fleeing vampire, also breaking its turning effect.
I fired my Fey blasts at any target I saw, helping where I could. Uphir finished off the remaining vampire attacking our main group while Nim and Akkiir fought hard against the first fleeing vampire. Tetsuo battled the other fleeing vampire alone, using his agility to try and stay out of its grasp. Unfortunatley, Tetsuo found himself captured in the grasp of his opponent and suffered a vicious vampire bite. He escaped the grapple and used his Shadow Step to retreat.
Uphir, and Janlynn finished off their remaining opponent at almost the same time as Nim and Akkiir slew theirs. The vampire in front of Tetsuo seems to realize just how badly the battle is going and flees for all he is worth east through the forest. Both Tetsuo and Nim share the same look and soon are both chasing after the undead creature through the twisting trees. Uphir rushes to follow but does not have the same uncanny speed that her two comrades do. She will arrive late to that battle. Janlynn and I work on burning the remains of the vampires - just in case!
Before long Nim and Tetsuo run down the last Vampire and use their masterful agility and attacks to both weave in and out, attacking the creature with vicious strikes. The vampire managed to get a solid hit with its uncannily sharp clawed hands on Nim, but that was the last surge of a defeated creature. Soon it lay fallen before them. Tetsuo, perhaps inspired by Ulwin and his speech about the Grim Order, called for its head to be cut from its body while he carved the end of one of his torches into a spike. He set the body alight and then rammed the sharpened end through the creature's chest, spiking it to the ground.
After the battle, all of the vampire bodies were watched to make sure they were suitably destroyed and were not regenerating; as so many creatures in this infernal place do. We were not terribly wounded over all, but Tetsuo, Nim and Uphhir all felt the weakening effects of being bitten by vampires. Janlynn seemed fairly certain that they could be healed of these afflictions by the sacred shrine in Krezk.
We traveled a little farther east to get away from that area in case there would be reinforcements for the vampires. We decided to take a short rest and Akkiir created the most unique construct I had ever seen. He had created a completely transparent dome, which we could all take shelter from the rain under. He called it "Leomund's Tiny Hut". He even mentioned that it was indestructible. I can see many uses for such a handy spell. We rested well under the dome; I sang some songs of battles won to help us celebrate our victory over our first vampires. It was mesmerizing to watch the rain running in rivulets across the surface of the dome with not a bit of it entering our magnificent sanctuary.
Soon enough we were on our way again and found ourselves skirting the northern boundary of the steep mountains and the Svalich woods. Mount Ghakis could be seen looking imposing far, far above. We crossed the track that led to the pass through the mountains and wondered what adventures we would encounter there, for surely one of our many quests would take us in that direction at some point. As we got closer to Arganvosthold we asked Muriel to be our advanced scout and to assess the surroundings in the next mile or so ahead of us. When she returned she mentioned a group of Siren Bats and their Lost Children riders ahead, so she led us in a path to avoid them.
As soon as we were free of that threat another literally snuck up on us. A group of Shadow Mastiffs had been following us, blending into the shadows, and it was only Nim's sharp eyes that noticed them as he looked back upon us from his scouting position and he cried out just in time. There was a flurry of activity as our group leapt into action. Uphir and Nim rushed to the rear of our group to engage them in melee while Janlynn activated her ever useful Spirit Guardians spell to defend us all.
Akkiir revealed a new talent he had developed and cast an exploding ball of fire behind us and into the midst of the creatures. The heat from the blast washed over us all and through the light of the fire many Mastiffs were revealed among the shadows. Not to be outdone, I used a trick that I had been working on and cast a Shatter spell into the center of their pack. Trees were ripped asunder and broken branches flew all about as the thunderous force of my spell rocked through their entire area.
We had softened them up with our spells and now it was time to receive their charge. Unfortunately, Janlynn suffered a vicious bite from one of the Mastiffs.
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