9/27/2023 Godday, Death Week, Sea Season, Year of the Overlord 2164 Following the bloody battles against the giant slime and the halflings, the party retreated to Ole’s camp in the forest of Montlieb to rest before attempting to retake the town of Strum. Stolson mentioned that the uberhobgoblin had apparently disappeared, which worried him, but the party didn’t seem too concerned. Around this time, Ebenezer approached the party and suggested he could summon a sprite to scout Strum. When the party largely ignored his idea, Ebenezer took this as tacit permission and went off to a different part of the camp to summon the Sprite. The sprite scouted Strum and reported back that there were many halflings in the town and that human prisoners were bound and distributed in buildings throughout the town. The party decided they wanted more information so Tempest cast “Invisibility” on herself and flew into Strum undetected. Tempest first investigated the all shrine, where she witnessed a halfling torturing a child while two halfling guards stood watch outside. Tempest cast “Command” on the torturer, ordering him to “flee”. The halfling immediately ran out of the shrine, much to the confusion of the two guards outside. Tempest then cast “Invisibility” on herself again and scouted many more buildings before coming to the blacksmith. There, Tempest found a similar setup to the all shrine. There was a family inside, watched by a halfling, with two more halflings standing guard just outside. Again, Tempest flew down and cast “Command” on the guard inside the smithy, ordering him to “flee”. Tempest freed the blacksmith, and together they quickly killed the two guards outside. Then Tempest cast “Invisibility” on herself, the blacksmith, and his family and they all quietly fled the town together. After regrouping with the party outside of Strum, the party discussed what they had learned and formulated a plan of attack. The party decided to wait another day before assaulting Strum. The next day, Freeze Day of Fertility Week, the party attacked from the north at night. Gunther cast “Dust Storm” to cover their advance into Strum. Unfortunately, the halflings had spellcasters of their own and immediately dispelled the dust storm! A group of about ten giant spiders rushed toward the party, shooting webs at them. Half the party became ensnared by the spider webs while the other half of the party tried to free them. At this point, it was apparent the battle was not going in their favor, and the party would need to retreat and regroup. A ballista fired a massive bolt at Tempest. It looked like she would certainly be hit, but she cast “Shield” on herself, and was just able to deflect the bolt. As Maeddes tried to free Tempest with the spiders bearing down on them, Tempest cast “Thunder Step” and teleported herself and Maeddes further away from Strum.  Meanwhile, Igny, Chance, Gunther, and Dethjak became surrounded by giant spiders. Dethjak told the party that he could teleport them all to safety, if they just said the word. Chance and Igny both went down, and Gunther accepted Dethjak’s offer, bringing the entire battered party back to Ole’s camp. And with that the session ended. TL;DR: The party attacked Strum, but their plans went awry and they barely escaped.