Episode 11: The Hunt Begins

"'Joined by a special guest, the party hunts for answers only to find themselves the ones being hunted...'"

Episode Events
Walking through the now open door, the path begins to slowly decline, becoming a staircase downwards. With a feeling of unease, Taxi, Sylnan, and Hilltree feel severely disoriented. The party realizes they are standing at the beginning of a maze, and for Taxi, Slynan, and Hilltree, it appears that the turns in the hallways continuously change.

Sylnan takes lead through the maze, leading the party through despite the disorientation he is experiencing. The party approaches a four way intersection in the maze, and begins hearing footsteps drawing near. The party discovers a red haired half elf. It is Redd, who is lost within the maze.

The party begin traveling into the maze, walking for thirty more minutes. Redd and Taxi hear a faint whisper sound and the sound of cloth unwrapping, causing them to stop traveling. Suddenly a gauze-like material shoots from the walls behind them, creating a barrier blocking where they just came, and two shadowy, legless figures appear. Combat ensues.

Slynan takes his returning daggers and attempts to stab at the ghosts, both hitting the shadow creature. Br'aad casts Hideous Laughter on the one closest to him, failing. He gives Redd Bardic Inspiration. Taxi wildshapes into a snake. As the one closest to Slynan moves towards him, Redd and Slynan begin to hear distant conversations all around them. They each take psychic damage, but the creature grabs Sylnan's face, causing him to hear a voice in the back of his mind telling him to feel the corruption. He takes more damage. Velrisa swings her warhammer, missing. Hilltree runs up, stabbing into the creature with a scimitar, damaging the enemy. Redd attempts to light the creature on fire, burning away some of the cloth wrapped around it. The cloth reforms on the creature shortly after. Redd tries to grapple the ghostly creature, but the creature fazes through him. The creature in front of Mountain, Taxi, and Velrisa begins to move towards them, and they all begin hearing the distant voices in their minds. Mountain takes psychic damage. Taxi, in snake form, bites at the apparition. Velrisa attacks at the creature. The ghost goes up toward Mountain and attempts to tie him in the cloth, Mountain dodges out of the way but still takes psychic damage. Mountain slashes at it with Flametongue, cleaving the entire apparition in half, killing it. Redd casts an eldritch blast, killing the final creature. Combat ends.

Slynan and Hilltree still feel disoriented, but Taxi no longer does. Instead, Taxi begins to feel a pain in his head, and sees a vision. Taxi sees a man with white braided hair, sitting leaning forward on a cast iron throne, looking directly at Taxi, smiling. The vision fades, and Taxi is back with the party. As the party argues over who should lead, Taxi describes the vision he saw. Observing from the back, Redd hears the voice of his patron. His patron, a Minotaur, leads the party through the maze via a trail of light. The party find themselves standing before a large iron double gate. Sylnan and Hilltree's effects fade, as Sylnan has a vision of the same white haired man that Taxi saw previously, this time standing up out of the throne and walking down a staircase. The figure stands close, smirks, and simply says, "looks like the hunt has started". The vision ends, and in the distance, a church bell loudly chimes once.

As the party steps through the doorway, the large doors behind them shut. The room begins to light, and standing in front of the party is the white haired male. Behind the man there are another set of double doors. The man informs the party that to reach who they desire, which he refers to as Zhahid, they will have to complete the hunt. The man opens the doors, and the party walks through, now standing in a forest, night sky above them. The doors close behind them, and the church bell rings once more.

Surrounding them is an active and living forest, with animals and trees, unlike The Barren. Taxi wildshapes into a dog and begins looking for tracks of humanoids, unable to find any. Mountain pulls out his sword, waiting for the hunters to arrive, meanwhile Redd begins to summon a familiar. Br'aad attempts to camouflage with leaves and sticks as he follows Taxi, doing a mediocre job. Sylnan searches around, covering his tracks as he moves, eventually scouting from a tree above Mountain and Redd. Velrisa stays with Mountain and Redd.

Taxi senses a presence as he searches around, but cannot see or smell anything. Taxi and Br'aad head back to the group, suddenly hearing a large tree falling down in the distance and heavy footsteps. They continue heading back to the group.

Redd finishes his familiar summoning spell, summoning a hawk. Naming the hawk Frank, Redd sends Frank out to scout for the group. Finally rejoining the group, Taxi and Br'aad inform everyone that they should all relocate due to the large footfall they heard earlier. Taxi comments on how the hunter is a terrible predator for making so much noise, and it met with a laugh close by. As an invisibility field dissipates, a large devil like creature stands to the side of the party, 10 to 11 feet tall. His body a pale tan color with red marks over it, scratched and gouged. There are two large tusks that emerge from the flesh of the neck, there is no flesh in the face, only a skull with white and red eyes.

As the creature is laughing, Br'aad attempts to cast Tashia's Hideous Laughter onto it, failing. The creature falls silent, scanning the group. The creature has a dagger, crossbow, set of arrows, and is wearing a purple cape. This creature thanks Taxi and Br'aad for leading him back to the others, and makes it clear to the group that the hunters are competing to kill them.

Taxi jumps to hit the hunter in the face with his quarterstaff, but the hunter grabs Taxi by his hand, dangling him. The hunter crushes Taxi's hand and wrist, breaking it completely. Combat ensues. Sylnan jumps out of the tree, running up a tree behind the hunter, jumping onto the back of the hunter, puncturing in with a dagger to get a hold. The hunter then tries to elbow Sylnan off, but misses, so he goes forward at Velrisa. Getting an attack of opportunity, Taxi kicks into the hunters legs. Velrisa gets stabbed by the hunter, getting poisoned by the dagger. Velrisa tries to Hellish Rebuke, but the fire does not effect the hunter. Hilltree stabs the hunter's foot, and disengages and hides behind Br'aad. Velrisa heals herself, also curing herself from the poison. Velrisa moves around, trying not to attract his attention, and moves next to Mountain. Redd fires Eldritch Blast as the hunters knee, hitting twice. Mountain, being significantly shorter than the hunter, nervously holds Flametounge above his head and runs straight in between the hunter's legs, hitting. Mountain goes back to hit again, but the hunter knocks the sword out of Mountain's hand. Br'aad uses Mantle of Inspiration, flicking off the mud and leaves he applied to himself earlier, and inspires the party as he now glistens in the light. Mountain uses the distraction that Br'aad has caused to run away a few feet. Br'aad casts suggestion, telling him to go back to where he came from, but the hunter is immune to the charming spell. Taxi, hand completely crushed, gets up and runs at the hunter, attempting to hit him in the jaw with the quarterstaff, successfully hitting him in the chest. Taxi uses Flurry of Blows on the hunter. Sylnan tries to launch himself up onto the creatures shoulders, dropping his daggers, and prepares to dodge. The hunter tries to stab at Sylnan, hitting him, knocking Sylnan out. The hunter scans the group one more, asking which one wants to die next.