TNT Part 2 – The Saucy Hills

 

The crew: Bear [Ian], Debbie [Steven], Dexter [Jamie], Gillard [Kevin], Myrtle [Andrew], Oliver [Jeff], Ouzo [Darryl], Scuttle [Chris], Tu [Shane], a full complement at Darryl’s new place.

“Get off to the Saucy Hills then” suggested Brian Crab, 2IC at the Toluene REAL Temple.

Local area map showing the Saucy Hills

We were temporarily staying at the Trino REAL Temple after exposing and destroying yet another MALACHAI shrine located below the Ravished Incubus Inn in Trino.

The next morning we slipped the magical Telescope into the Bag of Holding and set off on the road to Nitro, a one day trip. From Nitro we were expecting an off-road journey of two-three days across the Strontime Hills and on up into the Saucy Hills. And there, nestled in a hidden valley, we hoped to find Nitro Lake and the bulk of the coven witches.

“Tell me again why we didn’t kill that single witch Hayley up in Penstoke, but we are racing off to take on four or more witches in their stronghold retreat?” queried Tu.

“Because we must” stated Myrtle, “VINGT-ET-UN has spoken!”

“And besides” she added smugly, “We hold the deed for the land there!”

The day was uneventful, cruising along the Trino-Nitro highway, dead flat and dead straight.

“This is dead boring” grumbled Scuttle.

But we arrived in Nitro, just before dark, and took some rooms in the Rouges Lookout Inn. We had decided to stay at the Rotund Baroness (Bear liked the sound of the baroness) but they only had a single room available, so we moved on to the Rouges Lookout, the only other Inn in town!

A hearty dinner was consumed, some hot baths taken, and a restful night’s sleep had.

Lightning and heavy rain

The next morning, after a search of the town for houses with coven symbols (none), we arranged to leave the wagon at the Inn and prepared to depart. The weather was shocking though, rain bucketing down from a grey-black sky, lightning blasting, and a freezing Kilberly wind gusting across the plains from the direction of Strontime.

“It’s a bit wet” complained Ouzo, “can’t we wait till the weather is better?”

“Yeah” chipped in Bear, “I don’t want to have to clean rust off my armour again”

So we waited another day, enjoying the bar in the Rouges Lookout, drinking and chatting to the locals. Apparently, there were no REAL priests in Nitro, no one had heard of a large hairy fella named Zarbo (the suspected werewolf on the run from Toluene from some months ago), there had been no recent troubles with undead, or witches, and a lot of the land around Nitro Lake up in the Saucy Hills was owned by Ophelia. And she did not like visitors!

“But you can probably hunt in the hills without trouble” suggested a local.

The next day the weather was much improved, and Ouzo gave us permission to set off into the hills.

“Very kind of you,” laughed Dexter.

Given our recent experiences with what we suspected were wizard’s Familiar’s and/or were‑creatures in the employ of the coven witches, we kept a sharp eye out for birds of the black variety, and any other animals acting suspicious, i.e., observing us.

Dexter was very disappointed that we did not actually see anything suspicious that day. He unerringly led us through the foothills and found the perfect campsite for that first night. He felt that we were at least a day from our destination and said a campfire would be fine. We had a comfortable warm night, and nothing disturbed us. Probably because we kept a decent watch with everyone on high alert, except Debbie of course.

Dexter roused us from our warm beds early in the morning and after breaking our fast, we started out towards the higher hills ahead.

“Tell me again why we didn’t kill that lone witch Hayley up in Penstoke, but we are racing off to take on four or more witches in their stronghold retreat?” queried Tu.

“Yeah yeah” muttered Gillard.

After most of the day slogging up hills and manoeuvring through the rough terrain, Dexter stopped us with a quiet “Hush, I see something ahead”

Two dead deer

He had spotted two animals lying in the leaves and scrubby undergrowth in our path ahead. Investigation revealed two large deer, their backs broken, and quite dead.

“Looks like two others have been carried off” he commented, “maybe twenty-four hours ago”

Tu cast around for tracks but could not find anything. Dexter reported three sets of large humanoid footprints leading away into the hills, about where we were headed! He suggested we move away from the locations and find a defensible location for the night.

“Hey, look” exclaimed Debbie, “two dead things!”

Dexter led us up a small valley to the foot of a bluff where there was a rocky overhang for shelter and some bush and undergrowth for concealment. We set up our camp, no fire tonight, and settled in for the evening. Bear, Dexter, and his cat Cellar took the first watch, while the rest of us slept.

A few hours later Dexter noticed that the horses were getting skittish, and Cellar was up on all fours with her fur bristling, staring down the valley. Immediately thereafter he heard twigs snapping and branches breaking from the woods. Thumping Bear to get his attention, Dexter set about quietly rousing the sleeping party.

Oliver pulled the magic Telescope out of the Bag of Holding and Tu set it up next to a tree with a good view down the valley towards the approaching noises. Dexter bounded over to the nearest big tree and hopped up it, like a cat. Cellar hissed and raced up the bluff behind us, away from whatever was coming for us.

A deep and quiet voice rumbled up from the bush.

“Ssshhh, keep quiet you big idiot. They’ll hear us!”

“Shut up yourself Fred”

Just then there was a hissing snarl from behind us on the hill and Cellar flashed back down like a bolt of black lightning. There was obviously something up there too! Dexter was still up his tree and was covering the area in front with his bow. The rest of us set ourselves up in an ambush formation, facing out and down the valley, and Myrtle kept an eye on the hillside behind.

And a good thing too, she saw a huge humanoid shape loom over the top of the bluff and hurl a giant boulder down towards us.

“Incoming” she yelled and ducked behind a tree.

But it was too late for Oliver. The boulder smashed through the sparce bush straight towards him. It collected him in the chest, picked him up, and smashed him to the ground with a mighty crump.

“Ugggh” Oliver grunted as he leapt back to his feet and let fly a Magic Missile straight back.

“How are you even conscious?” yelled Myrtle as she cast a Light spell at the creature.

[Oliver always maintains an Armour spell on himself. This provides damage reduction equivalent to Chain Mail armour, three points, without the encumbrance of the physical weight. Plus, he was lucky, the damage roll was only five, so Oliver suffered two damage from his maximum five hit points available.]

The Light was established on a branch just behind the creature’s head and revealed a huge humanoid shape standing among the trees at the top of the bluff. It held another huge boulder in one hand and was glaring down at us.

Debbie had surprisingly noticed the two-foot diameter boulder bouncing off Oliver’s chest and smashing along past the party and down the valley. She struck up a rousing battle hymn on her flute as Dexter and Ouzo let fly arrows. Ouzo’s arrow embedded itself into the creature’s jaw, but Dexter’s one skittered off the tree in front of him and flew past the creature into the forest. Fortunately, the creature decided to retreat, and ducked back out of sight.

Meanwhile, from the other direction, down the valley, the grunting voices and sounds of movement had resolved into two more of the same huge creatures. Myrtle spun towards them and cast another Light spell at the eyes of the bigger one and his head lit up like a REAL beacon.

Creatures attack

Tu and Dexter shot arrows this time, both bouncing harmlessly off the smaller one’s chest. But the blindness induced by the Light spell seemed to put them off, and the smaller one grabbed the larger by the arm and dragged him off into the trees.

“Come on Fred, run” we heard as they disappeared down the valley and their crashing and smashing through the bush faded away in the distance.

As their noises disappeared, the horses calmed, Dexter climbed down from his tree, and Cellar crept back to the camp and jumped onto Dexter’s lap.

“Well” stated Bear, “that wasn’t so bad”

Some hours later everyone was resting again. Myrtle and Oliver were on the second watch, and they noticed the horses becoming skittish again. They quickly, but quietly, roused the others, and everyone moved into cover. Tu took a look down the valley using the magic telescope but could not see anything. Myrtle pushed him aside and also took a look. She was able to spot three large shapes crouched in the trees about a hundred yards out.

“Just give us the horses” rumbled a voice from the tress.

“Just piss off” yelled Bear, “and we’ll refrain from killing you”

“Not” he then whispered.

“They are moving in” reported Myrtle from the telescope.

But we already knew that. There was a great thumping of heavy feet and the crashing of branches being brushed aside or broken. It was a clear night and the light from above was sufficient to see relatively clearly once they started to close. Each of the three were carrying a boulder in each hand.

Oliver shot off a Magic Missile, and those with bows let fly a barrage of arrows.

Three boulders came flying in towards us from the creatures. Tu and Myrtle were both hit glancing blows and staggered back, while the third rock crashed along the ground and came to rest near Gillard’s hiding spot.

“Sod that” squeaked Gillard, leaping up and charging.

Myrtle cast a Cure on herself, and simultaneously another barrage of arrows and a Magic Missile flew off towards the creatures.

Another three boulders came blasting at us, but we were onto them now and they all fell harmlessly to the ground around our campsite. Then they closed to within thirty yards and Myrtle hit the one in front with her Light spell. He staggered off to side, totally blinded.

Tu tried to take a bow shot at the next creature but placed his foot down on one of the thrown boulders, tripped and stumbled forwards. His arrow shot off into the canopy overhead. And then the creatures were amongst us, and the battle become a real melee.

There were lots of wild swings, an excellent critical hit by Dexter, and sneaky backstab attacks by Ouzo. Gillard took a mighty blow to the helmet and was knocked unconscious, until Myrtle was able to get close enough to cast a Cure and bring her around again. Tu made and received a number of solid blows, but also dodged a number of wild swings by the creatures. But it was Bear that made the massive killing strike that took out the first creature.

Then everyone turned to the second creature, the last one in melee combat, who was swinging wildly at Tu. All the fighters surrounded it and battered away. Gillard took another crunching blow to the shoulder that knocked her down, unconscious again.

The third one was already blinded by Myrtle’s Light spell so it should prove easier to kill than the other two. It was thrashing about in the undergrowth, swinging its massive club in wild arcs in every direction.

The horses were still rearing and neighing shrilly in a panic, and Cellar the cat had disappeared into the surrounding forest again. The giant boulders that the creatures had previously been throwing at us were scattered around the campsite.

Tu’s armour was sporting some large new dents, and his crushed chest was still causing breathing difficulty.  Gillard lay sprawled on the ground where the previous creature had clubbed him into unconsciousness, for the second time! A slow trickle of blood seeped down her face from a rapidly swelling contusion on her forehead.

Myrtle hurried to her aid as Bear, Dexter, and Ouzo charged at the savage creature. It was time to end it once and for all.

In a rapid flurry of many blows, and a strategic dodge of its huge club by Bear, the creature eventually toppled over and hit the ground with a resounding crash.

“Smackwater” exclaimed Bear, “Lucky there were only three of those brutes”

Witches in the forest

“Tell me again why we didn’t kill that single witch Hayley up in Penstoke, but we are racing off to take on four or more witches in their forest stronghold retreat?” grumbled Tu.