Besieged

Day 32: Not much has been going on these past couple weeks. The city has been busy rebuilding, and our party has taken time to relax. We’ve all kept up with work and training and everything, but not much has been noteworthy for this journal.

Today, however, we have been called by Marius to act. Scouts in the west have seen the Legion transporting two colossal siege towers within range of Fastigum, accompanied by four huge desert drakes and battalions of legionnaires. Of course they wanted our help in dealing with this situation.

We met up with a captain of the guard and the construct we met way back when in that maze mission for the church. The captain explained the situation to us, as well as the positions of known enemies. There were four armored Scions of Arkhosia, the long-winged prodigies of the dragonborn race, in strategic positions along the steep cliff tops on either side of the mountain path. There was just enough room for the drakes pulling the siege towers to pass through, so it would be fairly easy for us to blockade it enough to at least stop them. But before all that, we needed to take care of the scions.

Day 33: We came to the mountain path in the dead of night, sneaking on one side of the high ground. We were told the cliffs were steep, but they looked effing vertical to me. One wrong step and you would take a straight drop down, well over 100 feet. We would have to be careful, but then again so would the scions.

Akai used his invisibility amulet to sneak up on the two dragonborn on our side of the path while Zedyethe and Arliim took a rope down to the lower ground. I kept my magic ready, hoping to catch them with a Feather Fall spell. 

My magical senses made me aware that Akai was right up against the closest enemies, ready to attack. Meanwhile, the two on the rope were seen by the dragonborn, the ones across the chasm calling out and beginning to fly towards us. Zedyethe and I locked eyes and she knew my plan. She convinced Arliim to let go and the both plummeted toward the ground. I let loose my spell and the two landed softly on their feet at the bottom. Now, however, all the scions were on edge and on the move. Akai, still invisible, grabbed one of the dragonborn by the wing as it began to take flight, making it tumble and crash down brutally. As the other one closest to him tried to do the same, the monk leaped on its back and literally surfed upon its helpless frame down the cliff side.

Seeing the immediate enemies taken care of, the rest of us focused on the two flying at us. Our ranged attacks killed one before it even hit the ground. I used a Gust of Wind spell to knock down the other one, expecting it to fall to its doom. Buuuuut, Akai somehow managed to prop the wings of the scion he was riding up and used them to glide into my falling target, landing an explosive blow and propelling it even faster into the ground. Show off.

With the scions taken care of, we began barricading the path and coming up with a plan.

The drakes pulling the massive siege engines were much bigger than I had thought. I had some experience with desert drakes back home, but none nearly as big as these were. It may turn out more difficult than we had thought, but we still went to work. Zedyethe and Arliim took the high ground, the hyenma ready with a grappling arrow and the pretty oracle holding the invisibility amulet. Their plan was used to grapple onto a tower, send Zedyethe invisibly up to the top, and command the soldiers there to fire at her own mercy.

On the ground, the rest of us prepared to incapacitate or at least stop the approaching war band. Bender (the construct) took out the medusa head it had claimed from the sewer maze and ran forward, holding it for all the approaching soldiers to see. Most were turned to stone as soon as they came near, and it made its way directly to the drakes. The head’s magic had no effect on them other than making them angry. One proceeded to leap out at the construct, and chase ensued. The drake pulled on the siege tower, snapping the chains and causing the machine to jerk towards the cliff. I decided to try out one of my new spells, waiting for the timing to be perfect. Bender lead the beast into the crowd of soldiers, half of them still petrified, and I released my magic into the middle of it all. A field of black ooze appeared all around them, sticking their feet into the ground. A moment later, hundreds of thick, black, rubbery tentacles launched from below and grappled everything they could find. Including the drake. The proud creature struggled against the magical trap, but to no avail.

From the top of the siege tower, we could see volley after volley of cannon fire being launched into the second tower and the soldiers below. So Zedyethe’s part of the plan worked perfectly. To top it all off, she commanded the soldiers to leap off of the tower, one by one. Finally, she decided to jump off herself, expecting me to Feather Fall her to safety. She was outside my range, so I had to hurry. She was about ¾ of the way down before I finally had her within my spell’s reach. That was too close for my comfort. But she was safe and we had won the day! We went about disarming the legionnaires and tying them up, waiting for the Green Guard to come and collect.