Mercenaries & Mines

The party prepared meticulously for battle with the mercenaries from Praxis. They dug dozens of holes to contain explosive stuffed animal land mines, invented new magical rituals to create long-lived barriers and illusions of a fake door, laid tripwires, and completely failed to define any sort of actual battle plan. After about a day of preparation, the party heard an angry ooking in the forest that seemed to indicate some sort of battle. They held their ground in the clearing, and waited for the mercenaries to get closer. Eventually, the mercenaries' arrival at the clearing was announced by one them tripping over a tripwire. The group was composed of three martial-type people with broadswords and a pair of mages. Gregory tried to warn them away, but they ignored the warning, and the battle was joined.

At first, the party stuck to their positions behind the barriers. From their protected position on top of the hill, they fired a barrage of magical attacks on the mercenaries as they tried to cover the open ground of the clearing. However, as the melee warriors reached the group, Wei Clumsy Grumpy Wizard stepped out from cover and was swarmed by the warriors. That drew the rest of the party out from cover. Most of them rushed to her aid, while Din Morat ran out into the clearing to duel the two mages. Briar protected Wei with a powerful shield bubble to protect her while she recovered from the intial assault. That led the warriors to switch their focus to Briar instead, but the rest of the group stepped in to block the warriors from reaching her, using the cleverly designed barriers to control the mercenaries' movement.

Meanwhile, Din Morat had difficulty fighting the mages alone. The mages kept their distance from Din Morat and split up to avoid being caught, peppering them with powerful life-draining magic that Din Morat was weak against. They managed to drive one of the mages into a land mine, bloodying the mage, but were still fighting a losing battle. The rest of the party noticed the danger Din Morat was in a little later than would have been ideal, and Din Morat was forced to feign death to try to divert the mages' attention. Unfortunately, the mages were not fooled, and they very nearly killed Din Morat with their magic despite Briar's healing. Gregory sprinted over in a rage to distract one of the mages while Briar mended Din Morat's wounds and the rest of the party joined in, and in a single burst of activity the party killed all of the remaining mercenaries.

After the battle, the party tended their wounds and prepared for the next assault, but to Gregory's surprise, no further mercenary attacks came. A couple of days later, Gregory was relieved of his post by a pair of more elite Nullwardens, and the party left with him to go do whatever they wanted.

Join us this week to deal with the moonwolf, try to address the plague of mutated animals in general, travel to Praxis, or do whatever else you want!

Stupid Awards

Wei Clumsy Grumpy Wizard:

• Infinite Landmines
• Into the Maw
• Nobody Puts Wei Wei In The Bubble
• So Brave!
• Teddy Bear Picnic

Briar:

• All Hands Meeting
• Helpful Bubble
• Invisible Hand
• Real Heal
• Teddy Bear Picnic

"Bench" McSmashy:

• Bench Wielding Ballerina
• This Land Is Mine Land

Din Morat:

• Leeroy Jenkins vs. Mages
• Loop to Landmine
• Strategy Shmategy

Gregory:

• Papa Bear