The Daimyo's Gambit - Game Thread

Using teamwork, you all scramble up the surface of cliffface to the landing. You pay no particular mind to covering your tracks here as you can see the torches of the hobgoblin patrols far down the mountain far from the path you journeyed to get here. Once Feng secures the rope, the party finds it easier to get up the steep cliff and gets to the top mostly without incident. As Kildrak climbed though, he lost his footing to some loose stone and ripped his cloak when it caught on some rocks during his recovery, leaving a small strip flapping in the wind.

As you all stand here at the base of the final ascent, you wonder whether this would be a good time for rest or whether you want to push on for the night. The sun has finally settled and the moon has already risen into the sky. It is bright enough to use it for climbing but many of you are winded from the journey to this point. You could push on at the risk of exhaustion.

You all begin to nestle in and watch the show below as you prepare camp. The hobgoblin's torches zig and zag across the base of the mountain. You watch as the torches descend the mountain into the village below and it is too hard to make out but you can here distant cries from below. Only one hut is set aflame though and before long the hobgoblins move on into the forest, leaving an eerily silent sobbing in their wake.

It's not smart to light a fire up here so it'll be cold rations and tight jackets as the wind picks up here nearer to the top. You all feel that while you are mostly hidden from eyes coming from below, you would be easily spotted by anyone from above so you move your bedrolls as far from the edge as possible and get ready for bed. Feng finds a higher roost.

The team takes watch throughout the night. Easy to see and track by their torches are the hobgoblins searching for you.

Urki: Down off in the valley, the torches spread out in a single rank along the forest. They police the forest for as long as you watch.

Ai Shan: The long police line of torches in the forest finish their sweep and begin to convene again in the village. The hobgoblins set another hut on fire as they head back up the mountain.

Fēng: The torches far below begin to sweep the lower levels of the mountain stronghold. You can hear the occasional shout drift up to your roost as teams are sent around the base of the mountain.

Kildrak: The teams of hobgoblin torches encircle the base of the mountain and eventually rendezvous where they separated. They move up a tier to the middle mountain and begin their encircling again.

Cassandra: The hobgoblins finish their loop of the middle mountain and you can hear some squabbling from down below. Most of the torches are snuffed and you can see the few that still remain head back to the various barracks from which they originated.

Everyone's watch is 2 hours long giving every other team member the 8 hours for a long rest.

Urki and Fēng, you both remember different things but together they begin to form a picture. Urki, while you have never seen these crow riders, you have heard stories of the Grigoran forces swooping in on their black birds to detain and capture enemies of the state. Mostly they are told as campfire tales for surely the Archmage Grigori would not stoop to such tactics now that he is the one true Archmage of the Council. Fēng, your intuitions tell you something else. To you, the flight of birds is first nature. The flight path of these birds, and their riders included, are on a direct course for your landing. If they meant to fly around they would have changed direction by now. There is no way they could see you through normal means, yet it would appear they are flying straight for you and your group. The only other thing in this direction would be the keep that is high above you but if they were heading for that, they would surely be higher in the sky.

The sun is still resting below the horizon but it won't be too long before it will be up.

All of you would know of the Archmage Grigori. It was a world event when the dwarven archmage that lived under the mountain consolidated the power of the council and took the Archmage Martin prisoner. His dwarven mages follow his style of heavy armor spellcasting focusing on Abjuration magicks.