Portent Order will arrive soon with a contingent of spellguard in the moments after Cohoreth ripped open the top of a vis tanker and found it unexpectedly empty. A quick investigation reveals no vis, no evidence there was ever vis, no vis under the tanker, no other openings. The next tanker, undamaged, remains locked and obscure as to whether anything is actually inside. The tankers are thickly imbued with protection magic so just maybe the emptiness is a convincing illusion.
Portent Order ropes a cone of silence and again reminds Charlie Company that whatever they think they know, think they don’t know, or don’t know what to think about what they don’t know, they are compelled to keep quiet about it.
Professor Steele, meanwhile, can’t find his lower half with both warforged hands. Ander, still in debt to Barronar Truesilver and her mortal agent Hops for the revivification even after making a downpayment with the magical rain of 250gp, agrees to make a deep dive into the digestive remains of Cohoreth’s vanquished worm mount. Ander recovers several halves of several warforged including a few reusable pieces of Professor Steele.
Professor Steele relates some of his experiences from the other side of the portal. A multifaceted crystalline, light-absorbing black, one meter tall, malevolent evil entity telepathically commands the Quori invasion forces. Professor Steele proposes disrupting any portals bridging in the Plane of Dreams. Silverymoon’s research resources are tapped to quickly concoct a ritual to create an arcane tuning fork that misaligns any portal in the region when struck. The device’s operation is entrusted to an apprentice, Andy the Forkist.
A couple or few days are spent reorganizing the caravan around the remaining undamaged tankers which may or may not contain anything of value. The caravan sets off for Everlund with Charlie in the vanguard.
On the first day of the journey it begins to rain. The rain persists for days degrading the road to a figurative quagmire, then a literal quagmire, and finally a littoral quagmire. Ash, scouting ahead of the first carriage, spots a few areas of bubbling mud. Amateur climatologist Watc makes a determination that no natural weather pattern produces so much rain in this region. Ash hears something on the wind.
Gnoll raiders swoop out of the low clouds on the backs of shadowy black darkenbeasts in a strafing flank all down the caravan. The riders send a barrage of arrows. The darkenbeasts claw and bite as they fly over.
Quick-acting Sqyylarr, from horseback, sentinels a passing darkenbeast, throwing it into a team of horse and skidding its gnoll rider into the mud. Ash picks off a passing gnoll with his new longbow. Hops tries out his new returning hand axe on a gnoll. Briar joins Hops on the back of the lead tanker to draw the barrages of gnoll arrows away from Hops and to himself with his new cursed shield. Watc streaks a fireball into the raiders’ path incinerating a few of the riders. Ander engages his shoulder force ballista with a firebolt chaser. Sqyylarr and raging Barika make a charge for the prone, grounded gnoll and wipe him out while his darkenbeast fights to defend him.
The darkenbeasts wheel around for another strafe. Elemental mudmen rise from the bubbling mud. Ash turns his longbow against the muddy new threat. Briar adds a moonbeam. Hops entreats the mother’s favor for the good health of the warrior types. Watc continues her fireballs and takes shelter behind a carriage. Ander’s turret malfunctions, damaging its own targeting system. Sqyylarr’s maul makes the first darkenbeast fatality. It reverts to a wolf, completely ordinary other than being dead. Briar makes a fatal parting chop on a passing darkenbeast. It also reverts to a common woodland animal. Its gnoll rider tumbles to its death. The mudmen hurl mud at the tanker’s defenders, but they are seemingly intent on getting to the tanker itself.
Several squads of knight-led soldiers arrive from the north and east. The close formations of soldiers invite fireballs which Watc and Ander obligingly provide.
Watc and Barika interpose themselves between the advancing mudmen and the tankers, but the mudmens’ determination prevails and they pick up the tanker, with Hops and Briar on top, to carry it off.
Ash makes his way up to a tactical ridge and discovers a lurking red wizard apprentice. Ash fills the apprentice with arrows. A darkenbeast lands to defend the apprentice, but the moment Ash slays the apprentice the darkenbeasts all revert to woodland animals who flee the battle. Ash spies the apprentice’s red robed master on a ridge to the north and sends over a flight of arrows.
Sqyylarr, intent on finishing what she started, trades hits with a mudman. Because the other mudmen, intent on carrying off the tank, are indifferent to Barika, Barika adopts indifference back at them and instead engages a knight perfectly willing to flail her. Ander has a similar notion and drops scorching rays on two other knights. One of those rays is such a stunning failure that it incapacitates Ander. Briar summons rapid growth impeding plants over most of the area. Hops hoists his holy symbol channeling the mother’s life preserving refreshment for the injured. A bonus spiritual mace appears and snaps the red wizard in the face.
A knight flails Watc hiding behind the carriage. She misty steps into a nearby tree, providing an excellent magic missile path to the red wizard. The knight lobs a couple of harmless javelins into the tree before climbing up to Watc who misty steps back to the carriage.
Briar and Hops surf the mudman-borne tanker right up to the red wizard. Briar misty steps into the red wizard’s personal space. A knight castles the red wizard, taking his place. The wizard retreats away either magically or martially, no one knows for sure. But when he leaves, the mudmen become suddenly uncoordinated, abandoning the tanker and attacking any convenient target. One finds Sqyylarr convenient, but the other tears into the squad of soldiers surrounding Barika. Ash shoots a soldier off of Sqyylarr and leads a painfully slow chase through the thick vegetation. His soldier pursuers are, in turn, pursued by Hops’s spiritual mace.
Sqyylarr finally emerges victorious over her mudman nemesis who gloops down to an adobe brick. Briar, Barika, and Ander work on the remaining knights. The knights see how the battle is going and withdraw with their lives if not their honor.
The caravan, though damaged and in disarray, is successfully defended. Apparently the red wizards of Thay have not abandoned their pursuit of vis.