LIKE A LAMIA TO THE SLAUGHTER-12/10/2021-A Kavel Perspective

Prologue - Chatter at Morgana’s Starbright’s Woodcarving Workshop

I was just finishing my fiftieth practice spoon, when one of the other woodcarvers came into the shop with a story about some recent travellers in Daring Heights. Apparently the travellers’ homes were destroyed by a Lamia - whatever that is - and they sought help.

I showed Morgana my latest spoon and she felt I’d made some progress, but twenty more attempts were needed before moving on to other woodcarving.
I needed a break from spoons, and it seemed like I could be useful to these travellers. So, I made this point to Morgana, and excused myself to find them. But where would they be? I decided to check out all the cheaper taverns.


The Red House

What a shit hole.

I’ve been staying at the Three Headed Dragon in one of their poorer looking rooms. As I walked in the door and saw a squalid looking tavern full of down on their luck deadbeats - I knew I made the right choice avoiding this place before. I suppose, to be fair, if my abode was destroyed and my gold stolen, then I’d have no choice but to stay here too.

It seemed like it was going to be hard to spot a group of travellers in need, since everyone here was in need of help. But there was an individual out of place here; with fiery red hair, and wearing a purple long coat.

“Comrade Glint!”, I said, as I walked towards my Tiefling ally. Glint was talking to five dishevelled travellers with tears in their clothing. All human. Four men. One woman. These were the travellers seeking help, and they all looked saddened, but their mood changed as I stood next to Glint. Now they were delighted. I guessed that Glint might have been giving one of his lectures. He knows a lot of things, but they don’t interest me.

I went to one of Glint’s academic presentations recently. It was up in Bloody Creek. The presentation was on Alan Shearer, the T.Rex and something to do with biology. I don’t remember much. I was bored within the first ten minutes. So, I left to get some wood from the Angelbark Forest. I then came back to the lecture, sat down, and carved my thirtieth to thirty-fifth practice spoon. I only went to the lecture to see comrade Alan and check he was alright. I never saw him after the brave act he did for me and the adventurers I was with at the time. He was fine! This was good to know. I tried to lift him up. But, I could not manage it, he is immense in size!


More Adventurers Arrive

There was some music coming from behind me. I turned around and a very talkative Human man with coloured hair made his presence known. He offered the travellers his help. He too was an adventurer, a musical magic-user. He called himself Breeze. Glint was familiar with him.

Two more adventurers turned up, who Glint could also vouch for.
The Yuan-ti man, Ragtag, looked a little messy, but still several times more smart than the locals of the Red House. I couldn’t tell whether he was a magic-user or a fighter.
The last adventurer, an Elf called Yinmaris. I guessed he was a magic-user. He was a very considerate man. He was the most concerned about the travellers, offering them some of his gold.


The Tail of the Travellers and What We Were Up Against

The travellers recanted an attack from a Lamia and its lackeys who were Jackalweres. These jackalweres could take the appearance of a jackal, a human, and also a hybrid of the two. I still had no clue about this Lamia. But, these five travellers were the only survivors of the attack. They were stone masons - very admirable - and were hired to repair a temple at the Sunset mountains. Mountains! I was all in at this point.
I was a fellow mason, and I’ve been trying to get to a mountain to find more mountain-born, read, strong folk, since I got to Kantas! My fellow adventurers, however, still had a few questions. So, we stayed in this tragic establishment for a little while longer.

Glint got round to explaining what a Lamia was. Some lion creature with a human head and a magic-user who was particularly good at charming with their magic.

“Glint. If I smash the Lamia in the head, will it die?”, I asked my more knowledgeable comrade.

“Yes. I don’t see why not”, came his reply. Okay then! I am ready to go!

Unfortunately, there was more talking. I thought about getting a beer, but I saw Ragtag had one, but wasn’t drinking the brown treacle inside his flagon. I also didn’t have any wood to carve. So, I had to just stand there and listen.

The travellers were set to accompany us, show us the way to the lamia, and through us get revenge for the killed forty people in their encampment. There would be a lot of burial for the remaining stonemasons to do. They were drinking the beer sludge. No wonder, given their situation. They also had what must be spirits in front of them, in these corked vials.

The magic-users in my team seemed to be casting some mind spells on the travellers. I don’t know why. But, the leader of the group did confess that there was some gold they left at the encampment that they were willing to share with us. With that information, we finally made a move out of the Red House and onto the road.


Travelling to the Sunset Mountain - Sticking to the Feythorn Forest

I haven't travelled this way before, because I was told the road to the Sunset Mountain was hazardous. We were travelling off-road and heading to the Feythorn Forest.

The travellers kept to themselves mainly. When it was time to camp for the evening, we found a location at the bottom of a hill. We took watchs at night. Kristoff and Johan from the travellers made a fire for us and shared guard duty with us adventurers.

Day two of our expected three day journey to the temple where the Lamia resided, had us hug the border of the Feythorn Forest some more, until we eventually turned away to get nearer to the mountain peaks we could see in the far distance.

We encamped beside a crescent rock formation that the travellers remembered as part of the landmarks for retracing their steps back to where their stone mason encampment was.

Karen and Stephen helped with watch duty, as did Tomas, forced by Karen. These were the names of the other travellers.

During mine and Glint’s watch with some of the travellers, we could hear a noise like dogs yapping. Breeze appeared from the tent he was sharing with Yinmaris to relieve us of our watch. We told him about the noise, which we assumed was coming from the jackalweres.

Breeze had a spell to give himself darkvision, which he also cast on Karen. Before Glint turned in for the night, he used his magic to cast a magical, invisible snare in the location he best thought a Jackalwere would approach. I watched him to check he wasn’t pranking me. I think I saw a snare turn invisible? I’m not sure.

Glint went to sleep in the tent he was sharing with Ragtail - and their two familiars. I noted that most magic-users seem to have familiars. Do they think it compensates for their usual meager strength? I knew Glint’s owl, Stryx. Ragtail, Ragtag’s demon imp - this was new to me.

I went to sleep in the tent I was sharing with no one. I wasn’t being particular. At 7ft 4” it was simply inconvenient to share a tent.

We were ambushed while we slept!

It was only until much later could Breeze tell us how we were ambushed, and that Karen tried to use a sleeping spell on him, as he began to alert us to the ever approaching sound of Jackals.


Ambushed in the Night!

I could hear Breeze’s voice as it shouted into my tent from the entrance, “Wake up! Karen’s a Jackalwere!” Or something like that. I wasn’t sure. I was still a little asleep. I could hear other things happening. Was Karen laughing? It sounded hideous. Why was she even laughing? Someone’s with Breeze by my tent? Who? There’s a sound of a struggle too, like people who can’t escape. There’s definitely people attacking. And the yapping dog noise is much closer!

Did someone else just magically appear by my tent near Breeze?... Let’s find out!

I got up and walked through my tent’s entrance. Right in front of me, Johan, transformed into a hybrid jackalwere, was aggressing Breeze. I roared in Johan’s face as my barbarian rage filled my body.

“Boo”, said Breeze as he cast a spell on Johan and the Jackal by his side. This seemed to inflict agony to their minds. Johan made to flee. He must have forgotten where I was. I seized the opportunity and brought my Cakan poleaxe’s percussive side down on Johan’s head, killing him. I had time to survey the field. Where did all this web come from? It was on fire, and holding a couple of the jackalweres in place.

Ragtag and Ragtail were double teaming Tomas, now also a hybrid. Ragtag blasted Tomas with magic from afar. Ragtail bit and stuck Tomas with his teeth and tail.

The webbing was burning it’s captives. This included Tomas, who tried to flee like Johan, but the fiery webs clung to him. He managed to move five steps before falling over dead. Christof and Stephen, who must have been caught in the fiery web whilst they slept, had managed to roll out the flames on themselves, but they were damaged by the fire nevertheless.

“On with the killing already are we?”Glint said, giving me the side eye, as he cast a spell on Christof, Stephen and Karen - who was now standing in front of me. Karen remained standing, not affected by the spell. The other two jackal people went back to sleep.

Accused of being quick to use violence, I thought to myself, “I bet the fiery web that killed Tomas came from you Glint”.

With the exception of Karen who was on her feet, I was surrounded by prone and easy targets. Credit to my comrades’ spells! They had all stepped back out of the kill zone too. Are these mixed signals? My comrades talk of non-violent options, but then their actions suggests they want me to go on a smashing rampage?

Karen transformed into her hybrid form, while Tomas clawed at Ragtail.

In the distance - oh my - there was a jackal caught up in Glint’s Snare spell. It wasn’t a prank after all, but a real spell!

A jackal had joined Karen to fight me. This spurred her on as she successfully landed some claw attacks on me. The Jackal sank its teeth into me. None of their attacks pierced my stone-like skin deeply. None of them were likely too, when I’m in a battle rage.

Yinmaris, standing next to Breeze and Glint outside the killzone in their own magic-users corner, cast a spell that made one of the Jackals fearful of him. It is impressive to think that my size and physique will intimidate people. But, a magic-user has managed to intimidate someone without a hulking presence, but with a spell. Respect.

Karen looked at the fearful Jackal to her right. This was really stupid of her. I was standing in front of her and smashed her in the head with the cakan. She fell dead on the ground and I noticed all the dead Jackalweres, no matter what form they took, they died as a jackal.

Ragtag and Ragtails teamwork soon saw Tomas fall over dead as Ragtag darted into melee range and delivered the finishing blow up close with his rapier.

The magic users carried on with their volley of spells. Breeze hurt one of the jackals, seemingly with just his words. Glint put more of the jackals surrounding me to sleep. But then, another hybrid engaged Ragtail, and in a puff of smoke Ragtail was gone. The killer looked at the battlefield, saw his fallen allies and the way the fight was headed, He turned and ran.

Yinmaris began to tie up the sleeping jackal in front of him. I had a refreshed killing zone in front of me. Easy, prone prey to smash - but I chose the retreater as my target. I caught up to the hybrid and smacked him in the back with my cakan, and then pierced his sides with the spike end. A bolt of magic, originating from far behind me, hit the hybrid hard in the back. The force of the impact killed the hybrid before it landed on the ground. I turned and gave Ragtag a thumbs up. Nice aim.

Back at centre field - diplomacy was sneaking into my kill zone. Glint had tied up Kristoff. Breeze at least took the opportunity to attack the prone Stephen with his dagger. A good strike, but Stephen, now awake after being attacked, had enough health to transform into his hybrid form and swipe his claws at Breeze. It was good Breeze appeared to be able to magically cure his wounds - he needed it.

Yinmaris decided it was time for a chat with our captives, but I noticed he cast a magical armour on himself. Good to know he isn’t entirely indoctrinated by the school of diplomacy. I certainly am not. I ran back to the kill zone and bludgeoned the hybrid Stephen with my poleaxe. Involuntarily, Stephen transformed into a jackal, dead. There was a prone jackal just out of reach for my maul - but not my cakan. I stabbed the jackal with the spike, and another jackalwere met its end.

The jackal caught in Glint’s magical snare was still there, although now human and rotating around sad. We had two tied-up captives in rope. I decided that now was an acceptable time to move to diplomacy.

“I am fine with diplomatic methods now comrades”, I announced to the team.

The jackalwere, Peter did all the talking for the surviving members of his crew, answering Yinmaris’s every question. The jackalweres were bad people. They like to play tricks on the innocent, like lure them off road and attack them, like how they did with us!

They are scared of the lamia that leads them, Yinmaris assured them that we were going to kill the lamia, regardless of how many more jackalweres were loyal to her, and that the captives here should consider changing their behavior.

There were many fallen jackals around us as Yinmaris tried to reach out to our prisoners. The others on my team seemed convinced that joining the City Watch at Daring Heights was a great move for the captive jackalwere. Last week, my team had let a thief go, instead of taking him into the City Watch. Now we were reforming bandits to join the City Watch!

“Hey Glint!”, I said, having remembered something from other adventures with him, “are you going to roast one of these dogs, like you did with the pumpkin and duck before?” He did seem to do this a lot.

At that point, it seemed Yinmaris’s arguments had swayed Peter and the others that reforming and joining the City Watch was for the best.

Peter gave us directions to the lamia, called ‘Mistiffelees’, or something like that. Turns out she resided in a tomb rather than a temple. The temple was a lie to appeal to the more religious amongst my team. Peter said that the jackalweres would have used magic potions to read our thoughts back at the Red House to figure out what would get us on our feet and follow them into a trap. The bit about them being stone-masons and the mountain must have been for me!

We ransacked their gear. Turns out those vials of spirits weren't booze, but surprise; magic potions. Potions for invisibility and detecting thoughts. There were five potions in total. I ended up with one of the invisibility potions.


Back in Daring Heights

We escorted our three captives into the City Watch and watched them join up. We did not head back out to face the lamia. Instead, we just informed the City Watch. Though, I would like to join the next adventuring party that takes up that task.

It was the end of the adventure. It was time for a celebratory drink and goodbyes. No one suggested the Red House for this.