Joy brings the holy sword down upon the head of the abomination and indeed, she smites the heck of out it. The skeleton explodes under the power of the divine swing, sending bone fragments and tattered armor blasting out before her.

Ylion leaps over Merek to defend Rumble, biting savagely into the shoulder of the gloomstalker. Even though it doesn’t exactly have flesh, there is resistance as the great lion jaws bite down, and a horrible yelp of pain from the shadowfell creature. While digging into it with her teeth, Ylion swipes at the gloomstalker with her claws, but is unable to find purchase as the thing thrashes about with her teeth sunk into its ethereal flesh.

Merek creates an ear-splitting burst right over the back of the creature, which dissipates its form almost entirely. Its twisted face slackens in surprise as its annihilated form reforms almost instantly, but now has trouble maintaining itself. Large segments of its form are missing from its shadowy body. Randa makes sure that the creature is injured further by shooting an arrow right into the creature’s belly, where it also bursts!

The shadowy wings beat the air and it screams again as its head whips around on its long neck. It becomes frenzied and it paws at the air wildly to get at the crew.

The skeletal archer meanwhile fires another arrow at Joy but her shield comes up and the arrow shatters upon some metal reinforcement.

The gloomstalker reaches out with a deadly grip and slashes at Randa with its talons, driving its blades into her body and spraying Merek with her blood.

DM: Randa - Attack 15, 10 Slashing Damage, 10 Necrotic Damage.

The creature then attempts to bite the giant lion back.

DM: Ylis – Attack Natural 20, 15 Piercing Damage, 14 Necrotic Damage.

The creature then bamfs away, reappearing right next to Joy, on the far side, where it prepares to strike what it seems to think is vulnerable and isolated prey. The gloomstalker’s form continues to have difficulty maintaining itself and it starting to dissipate (shadow version of Bloody).

DM: It is your turn. Bring us home!

Feeling light headed from blood loss and drained of her natural magic Randa pivots and fires again at the creature hoping to kill it before it inflicts more damage on her friends.

Attack: 11 Damage: 3 

Ylion rushes up to the archer to interpose herself between it and Rumble then looks at the shadow smoke creature near Joy. "I'll deal with you later boney, I got business to attend." A circle of light appears above her brow and a gentle ray of light descends upon the black creature. 

Moonbeam

DC 14 CON save vs 6 Radiant damage, save for half.

Merek hurls another mote of flame at the creature, one arm still trying to hold his guts in as he staggers toward it.

Cast: Fire Bolt

Attack: 17 Damage: 6

Joy prepares to head for the Gloomstalker as the skeletal warrior shatters, only for the abomination to teleport right where she wants it. "Big mistake," she growls, raising her blade and bringing it down in another dawn-infused smite.

Action: Lucky longsword to hit 17, damage 13 slashing + 4 radiant and sap

Bonus Action: divine Smite, 9 radiant damage

Randa’s aim wavers due to sudden massive blood loss and her arrow goes wide. It does however, serve to distract the gloomstalker. It tracks the arrow as it flies on by. Ylis uses this opportunity to deliver a rather crushing blast of Radiant Damage in the form of Moonbeam. The light chews away at the shadow. Merek, holding his gaping wound, manages to pelt the creature with another Fire Bolt as it squawks in pain. It’s evil visage glares murder at the Fellowship. So blinded by rage is it, that it doesn’t even notice Joy whirl around and bring her divinely powered longsword down upon its head, evaporating it completely.

The headless body stumbles about for a few moments before collapsing, then evaporates entirely under the continues shine of the Moonbeam.

DM: Combat is over.

The Fellowship turn to see Ayo’s crew struggle, successfully, to bring down their gloomstalker. Ayo runs up the crouching back of Maggie, who jumps from a crouched position, launching Ayo high into the air just as their gloomstalker is just taking flight. She shouts a magnificent battle cry before slicing down with Deliverance. It bites into the neck of the creature, nearly severing the creature’s head. Both it and Ayo fall back to the earth hard.

Dermot runs in to help Ayo, sprawled out onto the floor. “Ayo, you fool!” he shouts, hands glowing as the gloomstalker kicks and rakes the earth with its claws in its death-throws.

Irvan is unconscious, but stable, Maggie’s leather armor is a ruin and appears to have been dealt some heavy damage, which had been magically healed, Dermot is completely unscathed, but looking exhausted from the work of keeping everyone alive, and Entropy is gleefully hacking at the corpse as it continues to fight. Galsariad stands to the side, unharmed. Physically anyway.

Ayo rolls her head to the side as she wakes under Dermot's healing hands. She grunts an orcish grunt and calls out to the Merek. "I guess... I guess we found the missing ones you mentioned, eh? Heh."

Ylion trots over to Randa, then Merek, a circle of light between her cabbit brows. "You guys are tough! Let's see what I can do to stop the bleeding." She then playfully whaps them in the shoulders.

lvl 2 Cure Wounds for 29 healing on Randa.

lvl 2 Cure Wounds for 14 healing on Merek.

Then she dances over to Irvan and pounces on his unconscious form, "Wake up silly!"

lvl 1 Cure Wounds for 14 healing.

She looks about to see if anybody else is badly hurt. 

Randa nods thanks to Ylion then rushes over towards Ayo before stopping herself awkwardly part way there and, with a slight flush to her cheeks, turning back to regard her own companions.

" Everyone alright?  Sorry.....that was some of the worst shooting in my life.......those things just creep me out."

Joy pauses to take a breath and sheathe her sword before hurrying to heal any damage left over after Ylis' and Dermot's efforts (Lay on Hands, +20 HP spread across the parties, prioritizing whoever needs it most).

"I'm fine," she answers Randa with a reassuring smile as she works, thinking little of her small flesh wound compared to the others' injuries, "And don't worry about it. They are...unnatural to say the least. Fighting them is new territory for all of us."

She stares for a moment when she notices Entropy still slashing away at the creature in its death throes, a little unnerved before reminding herself that it had hurt her friends badly.

"Merek, Gal. These things...Is someone summoning them? How did they get here?" They can't afford any more showing up right now.

DM Note: When the gloomstalker died, the necromantic power fueling the skeleton ceased and the creature collapsed into a heap of bones. 

"Thank you." Merek says to Ylis as the druid's magic sews his flesh back together. He tries to think if there is anything that could summon these creatures or they're naturally occurring.

DM: Merek isn't sure if anyone could be blamed for summoning these creatures. Just as before, these abominations are not his area of study, so his information is limited. Theoretically it might be possible, as creatures from other planes are known to be summoned to the Material plane. All of what Merek knows is that they are a murderous vestige of the Calamity. 

 "Hmm, all I know is that these are a murderous vestige of the Calamity. Theoretically, it might be possible to have summoned these creatures to this plane from another, but I don't know if that's the case here." Merek responds to Joy.

Randa scans the area for the mammoths, the last thing they need are panicking pachyderms running through......

The mammoths had taken the opportunity to leave you to your fate when the gloomstalkers abandoned them and attacked you. They can only faintly be seen in the distance now. 

Ylis transforms back to bunny girl and goes to comfort Rumble and tell him how brave and strong he was. She spends the time to brush the grass out of his fur and redo his braids.

Ayo looks over her crew and, as gently as she can, rouses Irvan from his unconsciousness. He wakes with a start and seems to forget where he is, but the instinctual knowledge that he was viciously attacked is at the forefront of his mind and he slashes out wildly with his dagger. Irvan is so quick that Ayo only manages to avoid it because Irvan was cutting at the air rather than her. She falls back onto her rear as his senses slowly return to him.

“Irvan, are you good?”

His eyes dart from her to everyone else in the two parties as clarity returns. He looks down and while holding the dagger still, uses both hands to yank open his shirt. He palpates his chest, expecting blood to gush forth like a squeezed sponge, but he is whole. He looks back at everyone in confusion. Dermot gives a mock salute. “Got you stitched right up. Chest looked like a cherry pie after my 11 brothers and sisters got their hands on it.”

Irvan’s mind is processing for a moment, but his tongue starts to work again. “Thanks.” Dermot nods.

Galsariad is wandering off aimlessly into the Wastes when Ayo scrambles to her feet and chases after him. She pulls his arm and he looks at her with glassy eyes and a vacant expression. She speaks a few words to him quietly and then she leads him back to the camp, helping him into the wagon. Ayo looks worried.

Entropy ends her personal party puffing air hard through her mouth. She rips a necklace off and jams her sword into the earth, where she kneels and prays. When she is done, she looks absolutely euphoric. She struts about, helping the others into the wagon as well. Maggie limps in and Ayo tries to check on her, but Maggie places a hand on her shoulder and shakes her head.

“Young Ayo, you put forth your best effort during this challenging and unanticipated situation. This was a critical test of your leadership abilities, and although the outcome fell short of our hopes, we emerged victorious, and most importantly, everyone survived, albeit with some injuries and emotional scars. It’s essential to recognize that effective leadership does not always guarantee that everyone will remain unharmed. In the heat of battle, when weapons are drawn and conflicts arise, it is inevitable that someone or something will face dire consequences. Embrace the lessons learned from this experience, as they will shape your growth as a leader in the future.”

Ayo nods in acknowledgement, but she doesn’t seem to believe the words herself. After Maggie is loaded up into the rear, she takes one last look at Galsariad, still sitting and staring in shock. She looks at the Fellowship. Her expression is difficult to read, which is especially unusual as Ayo generally wears her emotions on her sleeve. She heaves herself into the coachman’s seat and calls out to the Fellowship.

“Are we ready to get going?”