105 - The Battle in the Camp Concludes

The fight continued to rage in Xanden’s camp.

As Xanden continued to burn to death, Quitrix and Rhiid were confronted by his pet basilisk. Rhiid managed to resist the petrification and struck out against the monster, taking off one of its legs. As the creature reared up in pain, Quitrix dove in underneath it and carved it open from belly to throat. As she turned to the guards, Quitrix felt Vinfer’s sword settle into her hand, almost as if it was at home there. She flicked the switch and blue-white chevrons appeared down the length of the blade, which then split and flicked out into a magical whip.

With both their leader and his pet monster dead, the remaining members of Xanden’s Boys began to waver, and several of them began to break and run. Naveen continued to struggle with the guard she was duelling on the walls, but Luna was able to drop another lightning strike on him to keep the fight even. Meanwhile, a barely-standing Ravathyra made her way around the storehouse and put an arrow into the back of a guard fighting Quitrix and Rhiid. The critical blow broke the guard’s will to fight and he attempted to flee, but a lightning-fast Rhiid cut him down with his magical shadow blade.

Vinfer and the Halflings exchanged fire with Serena, who made her way towards the cover of the treasure pile in the middle of the camp as the battle continued to turn against the bandits. Naveen gained the upper hand in her duel with the guard on the walls, and Rhiid used an Eldritch Blast to bring down the other remaining guard. As the bandit numbers thinned, Quitrix moved and unleashed her mage hand once again, using it to quickly unlatch Serena’s quiver, making the elf drop her supply of arrows.

Meanwhile, Rava tried to climb up atop the building roofs to secure a better vantage point, but her attempt to leap from one to the other fell flat. Literally. Picking herself up, she noticed Xanden’s sword in the firepit and attempted to retrieve it and burned herself on the heated blade.

Luna and Quitrix combined to burn more bandits with lightning and fire, and Serena finally decided the fight was lost and tried to join the last bandits in attempting to escape the camp. Naveen saw her moving and leapt down from the tower above, daggers in hand, and carved into the last enemy leader. Luna dropped another lightning strike onto Serena before transforming into a panther, heading down the cliff to join the fight personally.

The party closed in on Serena and the last couple of bandits. Quitrix and Rhiid unleashed their rage upon the bandits, the Halfling carving them up with whip-strikes from Lash as Rhiid fired off magical blasts. Luna engaged Serena in personal combat before she dropped one final lightning strike. The bolt carved through Serena’s arm and took it clean off, killing the archer instantly.

With Xanden’s Boys defeated, the party surveyed the wrecked and burning camp. Vinfer descended from the clifftop with his Halflings to help them sort out the loot. The elder Halfling suggested letting the camp burn, not eager to let another bandit leader claim it before the Cathars could return.

Rava had already collected Xanden’s sword, and moved to investigate the dead bandit leader’s room. There the shadow-elf found a letter, signed by an A.R., urging Xanden to take advantage of the Cathars’ annihilation to take over the forest.

Quitrix collected Serena’s quiver as a souvenir, while Luna and Naveen examined Serena’s equipment and noticed that her bracers and armour appeared to be enchanted. Rhiid was able to identify the bracers as Bracers of Archery, but didn’t recognise the armour. Meanwhile, Quitrix showed the dead sniper’s arrows to Rhiid, who determined they were of much higher quality than normal, making them easy to match to the ones he found on Kamui’s family’s wagon – Serena had been the one to kill them.

Taking Serena’s items and Xanden’s sword, the party and the Halflings loaded everything else onto a cart and made their way back to Skafin. There the Halflings put on a great feast in the tavern to celebrate the party’s victory over the bandits. The new friends partied well into the night, as they moved up to LEVEL SIX.

In the morning, Quitrix and Rhiid first visited Vinfer and Kamui. Quitrix spoke to the old Cathar about what they would do after the party returned from Harborview, suggesting that Vinfer and Kamui could accompany them to the mainland. Vinfer agreed, already feeling like his grandson could use a new start and less reminders of his deceased parents. Rhiid, meanwhile, offered to place a blessing upon young Kamui. Vinfer agreed cautiously, and watched as Rhiid cast a spell over the young Halfling – though unbeknownst to all but Rhiid, he had actually cast a Pact of the Fiend…

The two left the retired Cathars’ estate and rejoined their party, who took Vinfer’s advice to visit Anasette’s Adventuring Supplies. It was only after Anasette rewarded the party by letting them access her rare items that the party remembered they had yet to actually count their takings from Xanden’s camp.

After a furious morning counting the loot, the party was left with a large haul: some 1500 silver, 1200 gold, and 50 platinum, in addition to jewellery worth almost 500 gold, a box of 30 quartz pieces, two amethysts and a pure black pearl worth 500 gold pieces. Amidst the random jewellery the party also found a strange necklace of red-glowing beads, which Rhiid realised were magical in nature.

The party returned to Anasette’s, who used her basic magical knowledge to analyse the various magical items the party had collected. She was able to look over Xanden’s sword and determined it to be a SWORD OF WOUNDING, a rare item worth some 20,000 gold. She identified Serena’s armour as GLAMOURISED ARMOUR, able to assume any appearance determined by its owner – the party decided it should go to Naveen. And the necklace discovered in the loot was discovered to be a NECKLACE OF FIREBALLS, each of the beads imbued with the powerful explosion magic. Rhiid hung onto them, and also purchased some improved Adamantine-studded armour and a Cloak of Protection, noting that he only existed because his father never used one.

Rava purchased a handful of potions while Quitrix picked up a magical Rope of Climbing to finalise the party’s purchases. Leaving the remaining heavy items under lock and key with Vinfer, the party moved on towards their main goal: the zombie-infested forest around Harborview.

While Quitrix wasn’t paying attention, the rest of the party meandered up the main road and soon came upon a scene of devastation. Fragments of Cathar armour lay strewn about, along with pierces of corpses. The party had found the site of the battle, and to their horror, they realised there was not a single intact body among the carnage.

The party’s investigations were interrupted by a small clump of zombies who emerged from the surrounding forest. The party drew their weapons and engaged them – Naveen broke out Xanden’s sword, but found the longsword far clumsier than her trust rapier and was unable to slay the zombie. Quitrix launched a fire bolt, while Rhiid fired his trusty Eldritch Blast – but found his blood-powered magic neutered by the undead fiends. Luna imbued her staff with the power of nature and waded into combat, finding it particularly effective at crushing rotting zombie flesh.

Before she engaged in close quarters, Quitrix cast her Mage-Hand and began using to distract the zombies. She grabbed the remains of their garments and pulled them off the rotting corpses. Despite nearly making herself sick at the sight she unleashed, Quitrix used the distraction to destroy one Zombie before repeating the trick on another.

Altogether, the party made short work of the handful of shambling horrors… but as they surveyed the results of the skirmish laid out upon the main road, they heard the distant sounds of moaning and shuffling as a much larger group of zombies descended upon them…