There's been rumours of "storm huttawas" in the mountains which had beastmasters all a titter with excitement for a while, but turns out that elementalists think it is a sign of the presence of a source of true air, which has the shipwrights positively drooling. So it was that an ork Air Sailor named Helga Brightmore and a dwarf Elementalist named Dorsha Mennanir were looking for an escort up the mountains to investigate.
I joined three relatively new adepts I'd never met before: Sandrin an elf Air Sailor, Rama an obsidiman Warrior (I appreciate that he didn't require us to use his full name unlike some other obsidiman I could name), and Zivilyn a windling Shaman for what I naively expected to be a quiet hike under the open sky, a nice change of pace after the Blood Bees, with no dark and cramped tunnels full of incessant buzzing and most importantly no horrors behind the scenes. I was mostly right even...
What I'd forgotten is that it's still winter, and apparently the incessant raining was not just a thing that happened last year... the next 2 days were a dreary slog in the cold and wet. I found myself missing Dvarim and his knack for making good shelter out of anything at hand, but at least Dorsha was willing to offer air mattresses and hot food for everyone.
Master would probably have described this as a great opportunity for self improvement, but I note that the old (and I mean old for an obsidiman) fart was staying nice an cosy in his home not pulling wet snow out of his boots with me, so I was quite happy to partake in all the available comforts in the name of "only using my strength when absolutely necessary".
Sandrin ably guided us up the mountains following Dorsha's hints based on waving a tuning fork around, Zivilyn kept an eye out for threats and I, as usual, went about the business of keeping us fed.
The first day went by soggily and the second was playing out as an identical reprise, when Zivilyn spotted some harpies? I'll call them harpies since none of the people that usually tell me what things are were around. The harpies were circling in the sky above us and started dropping as Zivilyn pointed them out. The first one to get close flung some filth from it's body at Rama, I guess they have something in common with monkeys or maybe pigeons? I also really hope that wasn't actually poop. The fight was brief and not particularly challenging, however one of the harpies showed signs of what I would describe as storm infusion, reminiscent of the mutations in Ironbark Grove.
A short while later, as we were walking through a gorge, several huttawas showed up, also showing the effects of elemental infusion, once again Zivilyn's sharp eyes saved us from an ambush, however I worry about the little guy's willingness to fly in the rain. I heard it's really dangerous for their wings. The fight against the huttawas was more challenging, as hitting them would cause electrical backlash which Sandrin discovered to his shock. Once he was on the ground, the some of the huttawas classified his as "snack" and tried to rip him apart. As the highest circle adept in the group, other than our employers who were staying out of the fight, I felt responsible for the others so I waded in to protect the Air Sailor. The rest of the fight was fairly brutal, with huttawas constantly trying to snatch Zivilyn out of the air and eventually succeeding, me and Rama trying to keep them focuses on, and general chaos.
Eventually we gained the upper hand and the huttawas started retreating, Zivilyn murdered one with spirit crows, I chased another up the side of the gorge and punted it in the opposite wall and the fight was over. Overall the greatest danger when facing storm huttawas seems to be in the electrical backlash. I also discovered that an adult troll hand can fit down an huttawa's mouth and the heart can be extracted this way, I would not advise trying this maneuver intentionally as the electrical backlash inside may be even stronger.
Towards the end of the day, we reached an area full of cave or cave like formations, when suddenly a crossbow bolt missed us. Turns out we'd found the remains of another expedition looking for our prize. They were three dwarves from some mining company in Throal, and two were severely injured in a crystal raider attack. Rama took a look at their wound and offered what help he could. Zivilyn did something with dinner, most excellently cooked by Rama, which seemed to help the wounded.
The next day we figure were were only a few hours away from the elemental node so we promised the dwarves we'd escort them to Throal on the way back. We kept climbing higher into the mountains until we heard some voices speaking in trollish ahead. Catching bits and pieces I figured they were crystal raiders of the Broken Spear moot, here to claim the true air for themselves. Thinking back to the stories I heard, I told the others that we could attempt diplomacy, but crystal raider diplomacy involves beating your interlocutor into submission.
We approached the crystal raiders fully prepared for a heated "discussion" when Dorsha noticed that they had an elementalist fiddling with the air node, screamed something about fools and rushed in. Helga rushed in to incercept one of the raiders that was moving towards Dorsha, leaving us to deal with the remaining half a dozen raiders.
Their opening arguments were fairly weak, a thrown spear that fell well short of Rama and some flailing at Sandrin. My rebuttal was from the fist to the face school of oratory and dropped the biggest and meanest one on the first try. After that they quickly yielded to our superior arguments with no actual casualties, probably a first in crystal raider diplomacy. Interspersed with the arguments were lightning strikes apparently caused by the manipulations of the elemental node. The first two struck down two of the crystal raiders but the next two homed in on me, maybe because I was the only one in metal armour, the first narrowly missed me while the second struck but to be honest was more of a tickle.
The crystal raiders agreed to be taken prisoner for ransoming, Dorsha brought the elemental node back under control, and we prepared for the journey back. Standing there on the cliff top, looking at Barsaive spread below me, after engaging in the most stereotypical of trollish activities, I felt something stir in my heart, the call of the sky and the way of the raiders? Rama's deliciously spicy breakfast? Only time would tell...
As promised on the way back we picked up the surveyors, who were extremely grateful for the help. One of them still had a broken leg so Rama and I took turns carrying the makeshift stretcher.Statistics:Posted by sigfriedmcwild — Wed Apr 15, 2020 9:30 pm
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