Here's a little of what happened last night.
For what happened in days 1-22, go to the itinerary.
Day 23.
The party spends an unenventful night with Pelford camped some distance from the wagon.
Day 24.
Strigil and Pelford take the horses and wagon back to Orval as the rest of the band walk north to Quimby. They arrive in the late afternoon, and spend some time scouting. Strigil introduces Pelford to the other survivors and summons a phantom steed to carry him to Quimby. While waiting for Strigil to return, Balsa and Nequam scout to the river, and get a better look at the Banktocks. Large, red-scaled skin, and red skulls with bulging eyes, able to leap up to a 14 foot wall and pull themselves over effortlessly. They also discover that the river does indeed support life, with light grass and a few trees, but strangely, some of the trees are scorched and burned, reduced to stumps.
The party is reunited around eight o'clock. With the help of Strigil's Arcane Eye and some sneaking by Nequam, they get a pretty good idea of the layout of the town. It is guarded by about thirty Bantocks. They go to the ruined farmhouse west of town and poke around. The dry creek is full of bones. Mirth startles the others by creating a few skeletons from them.The party returns to the edge of the city for more scouting, but Mirth stays behind at the farmhouse. Three Bantocks appear running west along Deepriver. They discover Mirth and attack her. They destroy the skeletons and chase her back toward the town. Balsa hears the commotion and the party runs to Mirth's rescue. About seven hundred feet away, one of them shoots a fireball that causes the Bantocks some suffering. They are then easily dispatched by Mirth and Balsa.Mirth speaks with a dead body and discovers only that the guards are being controlled by a mysterious outside mind....The party sleeps near the dry creek.
Day 25.
In the morning, Balsa suggests a plan to attract the guards to the center of the town. After some debate and analysis, they agree to start the operation. Lothar seems even more overconfident than usual. Huddled together in an invisibility sphere, they get near the broken bridge at the town center. Strigil evokes a ghost sound and conjures some formian workers. The thirty-three guards run to the disturbance. One Fireball, Glyph of Warding, and Entanglement later, things aren't looking so good for the guards.The rest of the fighting is mostly melee, but the river and the entanglement help keep the Bantocks from attacking in concentration. One batters Strigil into unconsciousness, but Mirth helps him back up. Balsa almost goes down, but Mirth likewise keeps her going. Nequam, concerned about his efficacy in heavy battle, manages some valuable sneak attacks.Lothar cleaves (and scores critical hits) repeatedly. Strigil, feeling intimidated, levitates himself out of harm's way. Within two minutes, all thirty-three Bantocks are killed.
We discover that the chance of hitting is about 75%, but the chance of remembering you have a second attack is only 40%. The rolling confirms that Lothar worships High-roneus, and Balsa worships E-Low-na.