Session 54
Session Information
Session Date: 21st Dec 2025
Saga: 7th Saga - Winter Warriors
Attendance: Sam Gallon,Rowan Hales,Tom Brothers,Caleb Hamlet
Session Summary
The session was defined by a brutal, near-fatal ambush in the frozen forest as the party faced the cursed hunters and their giant enforcer. The battlefield fractured instantly: Mordecai stalled the giant with subtle magic, Drache was locked in desperate melee with invisible stalkers, Viktor fought for his life against overwhelming odds, and Aidan and Ringo were forced into constant motion. Halfbie remained hidden, directing the fight through their manifest mind and Eldritch Cannon. Despite clever tactics—Ringo felling a hunter permanently and Mordecai forcing the giant to retreat—the party was steadily overwhelmed. Viktor fell first, and desperation mounted as the hunters closed in and the giant returned to the fray.
At the breaking point, Chenris seized control of Halfbie and unleashed devastating fireballs directly into the melee. The explosions obliterated several stalkers and stalled their unnatural resurrections—but at enormous risk, nearly killing Drache outright. Healing magic pulled Viktor back from death, only for him to be cut down again moments later. One by one, the party collapsed under the relentless assault until only Aidan remained standing. In a final reversal, Halfbie reclaimed control and unleashed powerful restorative magic, reviving Viktor and Mordecai, who in turn flooded the battlefield with healing. Renewed, the party crushed the remaining resistance: the stalkers fled for good, and Drache personally tore the giant down in a cathartic, brutal finish.
In the aftermath, tensions flared. Viktor confronted Halfbie over the fireballs, quickly realising Chenris had intervened, though the party chose to let the matter lie—for now. Examination of the fallen hunters revealed unusual arrows made from “Hunter’s metal,” raising suspicions about the influence and secrecy of Ringo’s people. That night, the group camped beneath Leomund’s Tiny Hut, sharing warmth, wary conversation, and deeply questionable meat that Ringo insisted was venison despite smelling—and tasting—like beef. With Blackwall still unstable and the Hunter Society looming as an unknown power, the party rested uneasily, knowing they had survived only by the thinnest of margins.
Full Session Notes
The battle fractured into a symphony of chaos. Three desperate fights unfolded simultaneously: Mordecai stood alone before the hulking giant. Drache's battle axe wove a desperate perimeter against two stalking shadows. At the same time, across the field, Aidan and Ringo danced with a pair of their own. Viktor, beset by three, fought for each breath. From behind the gnarled bark of a snow-covered tree, Halfbie watched, their physical form hidden as their manifest mind and Eldritch Cannon extended their will into the fray.
Seizing a moment, Ringo broke away, and Aidan vanished into a distraction. Their two assailants, now without prey, turned their icy blades on Viktor, cutting him down. The sight was a trigger. With a roar that ignored all tactical sense, Drache charged to his ally's defence, weathering two brutal strikes meant to stop him. The stalkers swarmed, encircling the doctor and the barbarian in a tightening ring of steel.
While his companions drowned in the tide, Mordecai wielded a subtler weapon. A whispered Suggestion slithered into the giant's mind. The massive creature blinked, its club slipping from numb fingers to thud against the earth. Unopposed, it began a slow, ponderous retreat. From behind the tree, Halfbie's cannon spat a pulse of mending energy toward Drache and Viktor, even as their magic lashed the stalkers. Ringo's shot whistled through the air, felling a stalker, and it stayed down. No unnatural reanimation. A clue, lost in the desperation.
It was not enough. The onslaught was a hammer, and Viktor fell, his breath stilling. High above, through the eyes of their spectral self, Halfbie watched. Their body, disguised with twigs and leaves, sat motionless, a spellbook on their lap. Their eyes narrowed, their voice now a blade of ice. "When such an elegant solution appears before you," Chenris muttered, "one would be a fool not to take notice."
The very air screamed in protest. A fierce, orange glow drowned the battlefield as a sphere of primordial fire bloomed above the fray. Drache had only a moment to look up in dismay before it crashed down upon him, a sun made wrath. The explosion engulfed him and the stalkers that hemmed him in. The giant whirled, its retreat forgotten at the sight of its slowly resurrecting, burning friends. Rage reignited; it charged Mordecai, who danced aside by a hair's breadth.
Singed, smoking, but burning with a fury that matched the flames, Drache fought on, his axe a wild, roaring arc. From their sanctuary, Chenris watched the chaos her fire had sown, a smirk touching his lips. "Luire-Sonosin," he whispered. And the battlefield exploded a second time. Another fireball tore the heart from the battlefield, a shockwave of blistering heat scattering bodies and hope alike. The stalkers around Drache were cinders, their resurrections slowing to a crawl. But Drache's fury now had a new target: the tree, and the ally who had made him collateral. He was a breath from charging when a wave of cool, healing energy washed over him, a merciful gift to say sorry.
The healing had done its primary work: Viktor's eyes snapped open with a ragged gasp. But life was a fleeting gift. A stalker was there in an instant, plunging a blade of spectral ice into his chest, silencing him once more.
The tide began to turn, but at a grisly price. Stalkers fell, their unnatural animation finally spent, but they dragged Drache and then Viktor back into darkness with them. Mordecai and Ringo were next, shattered by the giant's returning club. Silence, thick and heavy, fell, broken only by the ragged breaths of Aidan. He stood alone, blade trembling but raised, against a giant and figures who refused to die.
Behind the tree, Halfbie's physical eyes opened. Their mind's eye surveyed the carnage, the bloodied forms of their friends strewn like broken dolls. "Now this simply won't do," they chimed, a strange lightness in the void.
Their manifest mind glided to Viktor. A sparkle of golden light, liquid and warm, flowed over the doctor's still form. He gasped, life rushing back in. His bleary eyes caught a similar, smaller explosion of healing light by Mordecai, who stirred, clawing back to consciousness. Standing, bloodied but unbowed, Viktor raised a hand, his voice a resonant chant. "Te’-Sorwyn." The words unleashed a wave of healing energy that washed over the battlefield, pulling each companion, gasping, from the brink back into the fight.
Renewed, they were a storm. The remaining stalkers, seeing their comrades truly fallen, broke and fled. Drache ignored them entirely. His world had narrowed to the giant. He was upon it, a whirlwind of vengeful steel, each blow a thunderclap of pain that tore a scream from the beast. Halfbie sent Magic Missiles sailing after the fleeing stalkers, but their power was spent. The party's focus, their unified wrath, was now a lance aimed at a single heart. Under their combined assault, the giant could not stand. It wavered, roared its final defiance, and fell, shaking the earth one last time.
They all stood around their giant's body, their breath visible against the sheer cold of the battlefield. Halfbie slammed their book shut and rushed to join their party. Viktor was upon them in an instant with the power of his Misty Step, materialising in front of the boy with shadows that fell like leaves in the autumn. His face was a mask of rage, and he demanded to know what Halfbie was thinking during the fight.
Halfbie's head cocked like a pup trying to understand an alien concept, and they said they were wondering whether they wanted stew or soup for dinner. Victor's eyes blinked in shock before realising Chenris had most likely taken over, as exploding a fireball above their comrades was much too clinical a move for Halfbie.
The party let them off the hook, but still exchanged annoyed glances amongst themselves. Viktor beckoned the boy over to the corpses to analyse it. One of them still had the arrow that Ringo had shot into it. Viktor pulled it out and, after a brief inspection, found nothing out of the ordinary apart from the metal being much shinier than he would expect from the typical Iron used arrows. Halfbie also couldn't come up with anything new, so they joined Ringo, who had constructed a campfire to help warm everyone up.
Sitting down cross-legged, Halfbie began to chant and, after a few minutes, summoned Leomand's Tiny Hut. The forcefield instantly surrounded them, helping capture the heat. Ringo was astounded and commented that he had never experienced such luxury. Halfbie smiled, " We like to treat our workers well", before lying down and reading their book.
Ringo, for his part, retrieved the meat that smelled suspiciously like steak from his patch and began to grill it. Viktor took the meat prematurely and started eating it. It was essentially a raw meeting, and when questioned, he said he likes his meat rare.
Between mouthfuls of raw meat, he asked Ringo about the arrow he pulled from the deathless clan. Ringo was incredibly cagey about the details, simply stating that it was 'Hunter's metal' and that only members of the Hunter's society could get them.
Viktor used the sending spell to contact Steve Ulan. The spell allowed him to send a message of 25 words or fewer to anyone he was familiar with. His message was "How is the situation in Blackwell at the moment? Can you give us an update?"
Steve Ulan soon replied with "Rebels in the forest, people dispacted, everything ok otherwise"
Viktor nodded and signalled for Mordecai to set up private communication with the other members of the party. He explained that he was fearful that, if the hunter society was the only group capable of making arrows that could kill the deathless clan, it must mean they had tremendous influence in the region. Everyone agreed it would be a good idea to keep an eye on Ringo and learn more about the situation.
Looking at the suspicious meat, Mordecai asked, "This is nothing against your cooking. Why does it smell like beef? Didn't you say it was venison?"
"Correct, it doesn't really matter though, meat's meat", he gruffly responded, getting irritated by the question.
"I'll eat it. Does it taste like beef?" asked Mordecai, to which the Hunter nodded his head.
"Why not just call it beef?"
The Hunter shrugged and grabbed a piece, and took a large bite.
Before taking a bite, Drache quietly cast Bless on himself, Mordecai and Halfbie and checked if it was poisoned. The food wasn't poisoned, but his blessing helped the food go down without anything happening, unbeknownst to the rest of the party.
Viktor was about to take another bite before asking Ringo if this was Human meat, and they weren't bein' cannibals by eatin' it. The question filled Ringo with rage as he screamed, "the fuck you think i am?!"
"Viktor that isn't very nice", chimed Halfbie.
Viktor apologised and took another piece of meat before they turned in for the night.