ToA: Session 26

Enter Tortle
Having lost everyone's favorite murder bot, the party spent a moment to remember their fallen comrade. Then followed the ritual looting of his corpse, leading to a loud argument between Fargus and Daedalus about the proper way to respectfully use the dead machine's body (apparently it's ok to make amulets out of his core, but not use his body in the construction of raft). The time for grieving and looting had to be kept brief though, as they still had a ghoul horde to overtake. A few minor skirmishes later, they finally reached Camp Vengeance.

The camp had seen better days. While not technically under siege, it was surrounded by the ghoul horde, limiting the influx of supplies to the camp. This, coupled with the ever increasing number of dead and wounded meant the situation in the camp was tense. However, not all was death and gloom, for in the camp they stumbled upon an old squad member. Introducing, Kinlek! Kinlek had, among other former members of the Desolation Squad, been called to Xen'drik by Daedalus, and some of them had made their way into the jungle. Kinlek was among this group, but decided to stay behind in Camp Vengeance. Here he helped with heling the sick and wounded, though most kept a bit of distance, due to his odd smells and weird mannerisms.

Kinlek agreed to join the squad, and immediately went off to make preparations for his departure. First stop was telling Niles, the camps commander, that he was leaving. This was obviously not great news, but understandable, and he assured Kinlek that the camp would manage without him, though he would be sorely missed. Meanwhile, Wolf Rigor and Sister Kayas, who work for the commander, met with the rest of the party. They were interested in any info on the mysterious disease, and the party had plenty of it. Too much, in fact, and only with a timely intervention by Neb did they prevent the 2 from falling into the deepest depths of despair. Once the shock at passed, they asked about our reasons for going up river, a path no one usually took. Going to save the "chosen ones" (aka the Golden Company) seemed to make sense to them, though they rightfully scoffed a bit at the whole chosen ones bit, as they had a tendency to be a let down.

Having finished with their preparations, the party went out into the jungle again, deftly avoiding the undead horde. Sailing up the river the party came across the telltale signs of frost giants. Having had good dealings with frost giants in the past, our heroes saw no reason to avoid them, and soon enough they stumbled upon 3 frost giants near the river bank. They seemed overly friendly, introducing themselves as Hruknar, Hjalrik and Roald. As the party went ashore, they quickly learned why. See, Kinlek is a reptile, and smells, so the giants put 2 and 2 together and figured he was Dragonbait. That only left one question; Which one of us is Artus Cimber?

'''Will the squad be able to defuse the situation now that diplo-bot is no longer with them? Or will more of them join him in death? Find out next time on Tomb of Annihilation!'''