Episode 22

After defeating the undead spider golem and reuniting Bixx with his wife, the party find themselves planning their next course of action.

The party decides to set up an ambush just outside of Baaha and wait for the dark figure to return. Cade will move towards the ruins with some scouts and on spotting the figure returning he will fall back to the village and warn the others. Nok-Nok and Cade head to Bixx's home in search of scouts while Taman and Galhaphé head to Cheif's home to see if he can aid them.

Galhaphé finds out why Cheif is known as "Big Fart" and manages to stop herself from vomiting while running out of Cheif's chambers. Taman stands his ground and manages to discuss possible scouts and their plan to setup an ambush just outside of Baaha for when their target returns. Cheif is very interested and says he will spread the word in the village for volunteers.

At Bixx's home, Nok-Nok and Cade find that Bixx's only focus is caring for his wife who seems to have been traumatized by the whole experience. Nok-Nok asks for volunteers and Biff and Baff agree that they still harbor some hatred and will aid in finding the ones responsible for all the chaos in their village. Both Biff and Baff are well trained scouts.

Cade starts on his journey towards the ancient ruins. Whilst standing around and discussing the ambush site, the party notice some goblins pointing in the direction of the ruins and discussing amongst themselves. The party asks them a few questions and learn that they are discussing where the ambush is going to take place. They also learn that it is the first time since the figures arrival at Baaha that it has left, suggesting that it may not return. The party notices building materials being brought to the ambush site and an additional wall being built between the ambush site and the village. It seems Cheif was only interested in where he should add more defenses should the dark figure return and not in aiding with scouts and the ambush itself.

With the new information, Nok-Nok, Taman and Galhaphé decide it best to catch up with Cade and head to the ruins as the figure may never return. Galhaphé transforms herself into a bear and proceeds to carry the other two whilst running at full pace to catch up with Cade. After an hours run, she shakes violently and the other two know it's time to dismount before she turns back to her normal form. Cade hears a bear growl and some heavy thuds behind their scouting party and they immediately fall into more covered positions while moving towards the sound. After a short distance he recognizes the three figures he sees before them and moves to greet them enquiring as to why they are there. They explain the situation and after a brief discussion it is agreed that Cade would still move on ahead with Biff and Baff and camp outside the ruins. The rest will follow at their own pace and Cade would send them messages with what they find while scouting the area. Cade moves forwards while the rest find a place to set up camp. Cade will leave marks on the trees to indicate where they went to make it easier for the rest to follow.

During Cade and his scouting party's travels towards the ruins, Cade spots an owlbear which seems to be agitated and looking for something. The scouting party hides in the bushes before noticing it running off towards the west. A short while later they hear screams and roars as it seems the owlbear has found what it was looking for. After giving it enough time to leave the area, Cade and his scouting party moves to the location of the fight. They find a cart and four humanoids torn apart on the ground. One still seems to be alive and Cade proceeds to see if he can aid the person. "Get the cart to the goblin village" is the only words Cade hears before he passes away. Searching the corpses reveal three males and one female all dressed in roughly made red burlap robes and wearing crudely made signet rings with a dragon like image on them. Cade takes what he can before noticing a dead owlbear cub on the back of the cart along with some other artifact finds. He finds and stuffs some more gems into his pockets. They carry on towards the ruins and set up camp about two and a half hours outside of the ruins. The plan being to scout the next morning while the rest of his party catch up to them.

After a full days travel, Nok-Nok, Taman and Galhaphé find a suitable spot off their main path to set up camp. Most of the night is uneventful except for the early ours, towards the end of their rest, Galhaphé hears footfalls of a person passing by a fair distance from their camp. She ignores them and decides not to wake Nok-Nok out of fear for his reaction. After waking they head out towards the ruins once again, eating and drinking while they move.

Cade wakes to find Biff and Baff has captured a human. He proceeds to ask who he is and why he was heading to the ruins. He learns that the person is called Killian and that he harvests mushrooms in the ruins. Frustrated, Cade decides to put the scouting on hold and double back top the others with their captive to see if they can learn anything from him.

On reaching the others Cade explains what had transpired and Galhaphé makes the connection of that he must have been the one running past their camp earlier in the day. Taman notices that he looks like a hermit and does not appear to be harmful but still proceeds with caution. They learn that some special mushrooms grow in the ruins and that Killian does not know about any persons in the ruins. Cade threatens him with death if he does not give him one good piece of information about the ruins and Killian after consulting with Peter his imaginary friend, gives up one of the better location to find the mushrooms in the ruins. Cade also forces him to draw a map of the ruins. After 30 minutes of interrogation and receiving a crudely drawn map, the party lets Killian go, telling him to leave the area, he agrees and runs straight towards the ruins.

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