|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
9 Ready'Reat, 580 CY, Munevar and Environs
We've all been in Munevar for a day or two and everyone was looking for something to do. But imagine our horror/shock/surprise/giddy happiness to find Luwarb, the Baalzite from Errantkeep looking around the place, trying to decide whether or not Munevar "deserves" to have a more permanent Baalzite presence. Cedric was beside himself with..."happiness", yeah that's it. Isaac said that we could expect to see a whole lot of money flowing into the area if they do put a temple up here.
About Luwarb. He goes around swathed in black robes with gold trim all the time. His head is always close-shaven and his eyes are constantly wide, as though he were permanently surprised. His holy symbol is a cut gem topped by a crown. He also wears fairly gaudy jewelry.
10-23 Ready'Reat, 580 CY, Munevar and environs
Everyone who needed to hone their skills or train in new ones took the next week or two to do so. Darcius trained with Dedric, Oliver with Adamane (more on him), Ryvvik with Voliker, and everyone else did their thing.
Isaac began working on a bow that may end up becoming legendary for it's craftsmanship. Using only the finest materials and preparing it painstakingly, he began working on it, only to realize he'd pasted together the wrong sides of the first layer. Back to the drawing board.
Other things of note:
Munevar has begun taking control of the administration of Cherrin. To that end, Stewart the Steward was sent to establish a police presence. This left a vacancy to fill in Munevar's constabulary. All the deputies moved up a rank, and a new one was added to the rolls, a Ragorth by name. He was drawn from the ranks of the militia.Luwarb left Munevar for Rauxes to ask for funds and men to establish a more permanent presence in Munevar. He cited the recent growth of Munevar's realm as a good cause for a temple. He'll be back. With more bald friends in gold lamme...sigh.
And the big one: Prince Darrien of Dastryth, a prince from the east of Errantkeep sent a delegate. His message was simple but courteous. He laid claim to the lands of Cherrin, as the had belonged to his brother previously, and should have become his with Delbin's death. He offered one thousand Ivids for his trouble, since Herrell had performed some small service for Prince Marinn. Of course, Darrien turns out to be the brother of Marinn as well. And Marinn and Darrien are at odds. So now Herrell has a contested piece of land, a cordial relationship with one of the players and a veiled threat from the other. Not an enviable position.
Adamane
A ranger of the Adri. He's rather well known in the woods. His previous tenure as a Hero of the Bloody Dawn, a successful adventuring company is legendary in the northlands of Aerdi. He was searching for a protégé to inherit his mantle and fame. He accepted Oliver as one of his trainees. The main tenet of being one of the rangers of the Adri was, "Protect the people first, and the forest second." It took two weeks of hard work, but Oliver returned a little windburnt and a lot more dangerous.DM: Adamane is training a handful of rangers. He does this to enhance the pressence of good honest folk within the area, and more recently to find a succeeder to his fame, and responsibilities. Does Oliver have what it takes? Maybe. Can Oliver convince Adamane he is the man for the job? Not unless he starts taking Adamane's suggestions more seriously.
24 Ready'Reat, 580 CY, Munevar and Adri Forest
Adamane asked Oliver a price for his training services:The band of slavers operating in the Adri, which we'd previously dealt with in some small measure. Seems the rangers, operating in and around the wood, were fed up with the presence of Tasos and his operation. They wanted to attack the slaver camp in the forest, but were not sure who they may be offending. Adamane wanted Oliver to make all possible effort to discover who supplied this bandit and report back.
Oliver gathered his friends in the tavern in Munevar and laid it all on the table. No one was being asked to go, but volunteers would probably be appreciated. Not surprisingly, everyone was happy to accompany him on this mission, it was actually a small form of payback.
Our initial plan was to pose a would-be slavers, to gain entrance to the slaver compound. Our knowledge of the wood and the information we'd extracted from our prisoner previously was invaluable. The other option was a well in the compound attached to an underground stream which came to the surface a mile away. We decided the well would make a satisfactory emergency escape route. We also decided on false names.
Isaac = Ellis
Oliver = Darrien
Darcius = Darc
Cedric = Bert
Ryvvik = Ryvvik
Galen = DornWe met Adamane in the fringe of the Adri and he led us deeper into the wood. Our first night was cold as it began to rain. We made first contact with a group of slavers early in the second day. It almost went poorly. Arrows were drawn and Isaac fired before Oliver could invoke the name of Tasos to stop hostilities. We had no trouble with the second party of slavers we ran into, using Tasos' name again. They escorted us back to the slaver compound and set us up in a sod roofed barracks. We were told to wait for Tasos to come talk to us and make ourselves comfortable. We spent some time looking for information, but nothing serious was discovered. DM: Adamane decided to leave the party before they encountered any slavers because he was concerned they might recognize him and know the party worked for the rangers.
Shortly after our arrival the door opened and a smaller man, with long, greasy black hair came in. We easily recognized him as Tasos, by his tooth-studded leather armor. He gave us a quick questioning and warned us that loitering around the compound would not be tolerated. He also warned us to not antagonize the rangers in the woods. We were told to work the northern part of the forest, as the southern fringe had been heavily "harvested" recently. With that he and his goon squad turned and left.
We had run of the camp that night and went about searching in various ways. Oliver and Galen went low-key, hoping to get the information they wanted by working the drinking establishment in the compound. It lead almost nowhere, but Galen sang a cool song, "What do you do with a drunken Slaver?"
Isaac and Darcius spent some time skulking around and investigating the buildings inside the palisade. They climbed up the side of Tasos' house and tried to see inside. Because of the weather or mistrust of his subordinates, the windows were shuttered very tight. Giving up when they were almost discovered they returned to the barracks where Ryvvik had been having some success in getting some information. He came to the conclusion that we were wasting our time pussyfooting around and that we should kill Tasos and get the information we need through more direct means.
Now, since I left to go to work and I'm waiting for Isaac's portion of this journal, I'll substitute it with a portion of my favorite movie script....
Ripley, wearing a flight jacket and headset, files into the ship with the hulking troopers. Inside they pass directly into the APC we saw loaded earlier and take seats facing each other across a narrow aisle. They will drop already strapped into their ground vehicle for rapid deployment.
A KLAXON SOUNDS, signaling depressurization of the cargo lock. Hudson prowls the aisle, his movements predatory and exaggerated. Ripley watches him working his way toward her.
HUDSON I am ready, man. Ready to get it on. Check-it-out. I am the ultimate badass...state of the badass art. You do not want to fuck with me. Hey, Ripley, don't worry. Me and my squad of ultimate badasses will protect you. Check-it-out...
He slaps the SERVO-CANNON controls in the GUN BAY above them.
HUDSON Independently targeting particle-beam phalanx. VWAP! Fry half a city with this puppy. We got tactical smart missiles, phased-plasma pulse-rifles, RPG's. We got sonic eeelectronic ballbreakers, we got nukes, we got knives...sharp sticks --
Hicks grabs Hudson by his battle harness and pulls him into a seat. His voice is low, but it carries.
HICKS Save it.
HUDSON Sure, Hicks.
DM: Oookay… that was strange…
GIMME THAT PEN, I’LL TELL IT RIGHT!
After an unsuccessful attempt at reconnaissance, Darcius and I returned to the inn in a mood more foul than we were wet. Without drawing too many stares, we gathered the rest of the guys, dragging Galen from the stage in the process. We went back into the long house and gathered our wits. Oliver, Ryvvik and I went around back to relieve some internal pressure brought about by the ales we drank and started talking about a plan. Our plan was to very quickly apprehend the guards guarding Tasos’ house and take their place. We would then gain access to the house and lock ourselves in, leaving Tasos and his slave girls alone with us. Our first step would be to take care of the guards in the long houses, making sure they couldn’t provide support at an inopportune time.
The Plan goes into effect
Galen, Darcius, Cedric and I feigned sleep and Ryvvik and Oliver take watch with the two guards taking their own watch-loyalty is in short supply here, with good reason. Ryvvik passed around his wineskin and got the guards a bit groggy, Ryvvik then went into a dark corner for some repose of his own grabbing Cedric’s crossbow on the way. From the dark corner Ryvvik grazed the guard with a bolt and he went down. Instantly the guard sitting beside Oliver complained of having a slit throat and collapsed as well. The rest of us now alert we put the rest of the guards to the cudgel, insuring their ineffectiveness. From there, Galen and Oliver went outside to move into position in the stead of the guards at Tasos’ front door. The rest of us moved for the second longhouse. Ryvvik told me that Galen has a sleep enchantment to knock the guards out quickly and effectively. We stormed into the second longhouse, stapling the residents to the wall with arrow fire. We checked the window and see that Oliver and Galen are in position according to the plan but a guard from the gatehouse approaching them out of suspicion. Rao be praised for the good temperament he granted me at that moment to prevent me from putting five holes in that guy.
Galen motioned for him to go around the back of Tasos house and check some mysterious sound and meanwhile he tried to hide the sleeping guards. He wasn’t fast enough however and the guard called the guard towers to attention. The rest of us made a run from the longhouse to Tasos’ front door, Darcius leading the way. He kicked in the front door and the rest of us went inside, Galen and Oliver making short work of the alerting guard while I was returning arrow fire to the guard tower.
Once inside Tasos’ house Darcius and Oliver begin barring the front door like we saw some zombies do in Delcouth some weeks before. Galen, Ryvvik and Cedric started up the stairs toward Tasos’ house guards and I watched the front door to make sure we didn't get any company. The battle continued upstairs rather well until Tasos himself made his appearance using one of his whores as a shield-the coward. It wasn’t too long until Darcius was felled by Tasos and Galen came down requesting my help upstairs. Leaving Oliver to guard the front door, I went upstairs to find Cedric tending to the fallen slave girl-she seemed to have a great bruise on her face-and Ryvvik belching black flame onto Tasos, burning him badly-and I thought those ales at the bar were watered down.... DM: Tasos used the girl as a shield and Cedric clobbered her with his readied action: hit the first person to come out of the door. We use the optional ready action rule in the DMG stating that the PC needs to pass a wisdom check DC 15 of carry out his ready action regardless. Cedric failed and the girl went down.
I ran up the stairs to stand up to Tasos, we exchanged powerful blows before I forced him to retreat to the window. He would have made it if it weren’t for another gout of horrid black flame spewing forth from Ryvvik’s mouth, engulfing Tasos whole. This blast threw Tasos out the window rather than allowing him to jump out gracefully. I fired an arrow into his heart as he lay on the ground, hopefully delivering the final blow. Oliver told us that the guards have been trying to force their way into the house for some time now, and have just managed to take the stairs. Galen and Oliver quickly ransacked Tasos office grabbing many papers off his desk and grabbing a chest before we bar the door to Tasos lounge. The slave girls are terrified but I imagine they were glad to see some retribution rain down on their tormentor-perhaps Cedric has a point about St. Cuthbert after all.
A quick glance out the window revealed we are pinned down to this room by a dozen archer hiding all over the courtyard of the compound. From out of nowhere, a hideous eagle flew into the lounge diving to claw out my eyes. Three quick shots caused the creature to fall. Ryvvik informed us we were being cast upon by a summoner, just as a large monster made of wax appeared behind Cedric and earned the wrath of the holy cudgel. It is a good thing Tasos didn’t trust his own men, otherwise we definitely wouldn’t be able to hold his bed chamber for so long. I fired some warning shots out the window and receive about half a dozen warning shots back-they told me I won’t win this fire fight. DM: More readied actions - the first person to be visable in the window gets shot. If Isaac didn't have 50% cover he would have likely been much worse off.
Ryvvik prepared an escape through the back window rappelling down the wall and running over to the nearest guard tower. I picked off the guard there before he managed to retract his ladder. Cedric had revived Darcius by this point and he seemed ready to escape with the rest of us. Galen created a diversion sending the foot soldiers into disarray. One by one, we climbed down the back wall and ran toward the guard tower. Oliver covered us from the gatehouse tower while I made sure that no guard came from behind us. Once we were in the guard tower, Darcius and I brought the ladder up while people used the rope to climb outside the palisade walls. Using some last minute strikes on other guard towers, we climbed down the ladder, knocked the ladder over just in case. The slavers opened the gate and started to give chase but the arrow and bolt fire from the darkness made them reconsider and they decided to count their losses instead.
25 ready'reat, 580 CY, Adri Wood
We trudged through the black forest in the freezing rain until dawn, until Oliver lead us back to Adamane’s camp. We arrived in there by noon, exhausted and drenched. Adamane was shocked to see us again so soon, we gave him a quick account of what occurred and asked him to keep watch while we gather some much needed shuteye.
Upon awakening, Oliver Darcius, Adamane and I decided to see exactly what we found. Overall we found correspondence between Tasos and a man named Pervost, a buyer. It seems Pervost makes monthly visits to purchase slaves. We found directives from Tasos to his men telling them to ‘harvest’ from the northern wilderness communities rather than the settled towns of the Kingdom proper. We found maps indicating possible locations of Pervost’s camp. It seems Tasos likes to keep his friends close and enemies even closer.
Lastly, we found Tasos' cache of money to pay his slavers, a mighty sum -more than twenty pounds of coin! All of this made Adamane smile, including the knowledge that Tasos was mortally injured. We then formulated a plan to get the Adri rangers together and make another assault on this camp while its leader is felled. We plan to use the well to sneak into the camp and try to rout the slavers entirely.
Right now, however, Ryvvik is pestering me to write his name in red ink to make it stand out more. Enough pen scratching for now, my eyes are beginning to feel heavy again.
