Kingmaker: Rivers Run Red, Session 18, Part 1

A Cry for Help

As winter descended upon the Stolen Lands, the party was determined to venture forth on one more expedition. Their goal was to finish exploring the portion of the Kamelands that lay within the borders of their current map. I should note that I have told the players that they are able to venture beyond the bounds of their Greenbelt map (i.e. the hex map from books 1 & 2), but so far they have not been interested in doing so.

Unnoticed by the explorers, a strange quadrupedal form stalked them as they traversed the hills and valleys near the Little Sellen River. It watched over them, listening to them talk, and paid particular attention to the names they used. Then, as then sun set on a chilly day, the creature hid behind a rock as the adventurers approached a deep chasm. When they rode close to the opposite side of the gap, the vile leucrotta called out to them. “Help! Please help, Satampra, Breen, and Boliden!” it cried, “Help me, Simon, Iofur, and Mestinous! Help!” To each person of the company, the voice was heard as the cries of a loved one, and many of the group found the sound impossible to ignore.

Satampra the swashbuckler quickly dismounted and, with the help of his elven boots, leaped across the chasm. But instead of a damsel in distress, he discovered a hairy horse-like monster with a large mouth. The thing bit him, and kicked him, and he reeled backwards. Breen the monk, being a monk, had no trouble also leaping to the other side, while Iofur the druid wildshaped into an air elemental to fly across. Boliden the barbarian started to scale down the cliff side.

Mestinous the elven wizard and Simon the cleric had seen (heard?) through the illusion and wondered how they could break their companions free of the leucrotta’s control. The wizard summoned a spell of dispel magic through his bonded sword and attempted to release Iofur’s mind, but was unable to unravel the enchantment. Simon fired a divine blast at the monster, and actually hit for once, burning its hair and flesh.

The situation was getting crowded around the leucrotta, and it sought some space. It kicked at Satampra, knocking him into the chasm, and then tried to eat Breen. Breen was badly wounded by the creature’s deadly bite, and leaped back across the gap to receive some healing. Mestinous summoned a lantern archon to harass the leucrotta, and then followed that with a fireball.

Satampra climbed back up to fight the monster while Breen hurled rocks at it. The leucrotta was starting to realize that it had bitten off more than it could digest, and ran away. But Mestinous zapped it with his mega-magic missile wand and Breen battered it with an impossible fusillade of rocks, and it collapsed (impossible because I hadn’t yet looked up exactly how Breen’s archetype worked, and ruled in his favor in the moment). Iofur’s and Boliden’s heads cleared, and Satampra ran over to behead the thing.

After that encounter, the group ventured south to the bottom of their map, and then cut west. Along the way they ran into plenty of random encounters, but none that were worth playing out, in my opinion. A single barghest or will-o-wisp, or 1-6 thylacines are not a threat to a group of 6^th level PCs. So I let them fill in the map with no further molestations. They did run across some herders who claimed they were standing in Mivon lands, and who had not seen any trolls. “Trolls live in the Narlmarches, do they not? That’s what my nanna always said. ‘Don’t be going into the forest, Wally! The trolls will getcha!’”

When they reached the border between the Kamelands and the Narlmarches, they turned north. They had time to explore 2 more hexes before needing to return to Stagfell for a kingdom turn, which meant that they would miss one particular hex that is crucial to the end of the adventure. Which was fine by me! The description of the owlbear lair doesn’t actually say what to do if the players arrive there before the final event. Or maybe it’s buried deeper in the dungeon text; I will have to re-read that part of the adventure.

Next: singing the blues!