Dramatis Personæ

Brother Mendel (Herodian)
Dane Sardock (Winston)
Gabriel Auditore (Rigil Kent)
Gestlin the Unpredictable (CommJunkee)
Magnifico the Clown (Feste)
Rainald North-Hammer (Gigermann)
With
Radskyrta (GamingBallistic)

Of Endings and Beginnings

22 Mar 2014

As the cold spring rain poured down, and the sun lowered in the West, the last of the Heroes of Wallace arrived at the Saucy Wench, having been summoned by their fellow, Sir Dane Sardock, commander of Wallace’s guard and general of his army. Brother Mendel had traveled a day and a half from his monastery to the East, where he instructed all who would learn in the Huallapans’ alien magicks; with him, he brought a promising student, Gestlin the Unpredictable, already a well-traveled, powerful and talented—if a bit unpredictable—guild-wizard. Magnifico had come from his holdings to the Northeast and was already entertaining the other patrons; he traveled with his two young dragons, Primus and Secundus, now grown to the size of horses, sleeping in a nearby barn (story). Sir Rainald North-Hammer had returned from his homeland on the coasts of the Nomad Lands a month or two back and settled with his family on his holdings nearby to the West, on the border of the desert (story), and had ridden in with Sir Gabriel Auditore, whom he had fetched from his holdings in the North highlands, having been back from his secret business in Megalos for a month or two as well (story). Sir Dane dispatched Radskyrta, sergeant of the Wallace guard and long-time fellow of the Heroes, to inform Lady Justalyne of Simonton, wife of Malcolm, Lord Wallace, that the Heroes had at last been assembled. He sped back to the keep through the rain and insisted upon delivering the news in person to Her Ladyship before returning to the inn to drink with his friends and hear their stories, informing them that Her Ladyship wished an audience in the morning.

Having rested and washed away the dust of the road, the Heroes assembled in the morning and entered the keep, where they met in the bailey the children of Lord Wallace, William II and Nyssa, who regarded Sir Dane as an “uncle” (or plaything), and the newcomers as curiosities. Lady Justalyn emerged, collected her children and bade them all come into the hall to speak with her. There she told those that were not already aware that His Lordship had traveled to Yibyorak on a mission of trade, arranged by her merchant father in Simonton, about a year ago, and has not been heard from since. She had sent others to look for him, but none had returned. She pleaded with the Heroes, friends of her husband, to go find him and return him unharmed. The Heroes did not hesitate, but swore to her that they would see it done.

All that day the Heroes made their preparations to leave on the morrow for Simonton, where Lord Wallace had himself departed. Lady Justalyn had placed at their disposal Councillor Truss, Lord Wallace’s administrator, to see to anything they would need or desire for their journey. She also sent the fastest horse to bring word to her father, Alistare Cray in Simonton, to arrange for them a boat to sail upriver to Yibyorak. Rainald met his family at the city gates, and spent the day with them in town before saying his reluctant goodbyes; he left his wife, Hildra, in charge of his affairs at home, with his uncle, Hrothgar, as council. Gestlin’s wagon was filled to capacity with whatever stores they could want for, and all that had none were given a strong horse. Radskyrta, long a loyal friend to Wallace, also volunteered to come along, “having seen a little too much ease since the war was ended.” In the early morning they set out on the South Way to Ferrier, and on to Simonton, which they expected to take a fortnight in all, weather (gods) permitting.

Six days on the road the Heroes arrived at Ferrier, looking much as they had left it—ruined by the invasion, though somewhat less abandoned today. As they rode through the gates unhindered, they spotted a sinister fellow brazenly leering at their imagined wealth; Radskyrta rode over to the man and demanded he shove off, so the man bowed and took his leave, but not before cleverly signaling ahead. The Heroes knew they were to be ambushed, and elected to stride boldly into the trap and spring it.

Poor bandits knew not what they had stumbled into.

As they crossed the river bridge that bisected the town, a near-dozen thieves leapt from hiding, some firing crossbows from cover, others charging the bridge at both ends with sword and shield. Gabriel dismounted and fell back to the near-side of the bridge and fended off three sword-wielding foes on his own, out of sight of the others. Gestlin remained atop his wagon and flung fireballs at some crossbow-wielding enemies, lighting more buildings on fire than ruffians, but disrupting their efforts all the same. Magnifico stood nearby, giving the enemy a vicious taunting and siccing his dragons on them; Primus and Secundus leapt from atop the wagon at “Grandfather’s” command and playfully fought over one of the bandits as they fetched him back to their master. Radskyrta impetuously spurred his horse forward and charged across the bridge, cursing his foes as he ran them down, merrily swinging his sword like a farmer reaping a bountiful harvest—it had clearly been too long. On foot, Dane and Brother Mendel advanced across the bridge behind Rainald, under a hail of crossbow bolts; Dane felled his share of enemies across the river with the bow, as did Rainald with spear and shield those that approached the bridge, while Mendel readied himself to heal any wounded. It was over quickly, with all of the thieves fallen save one that Radskyrta led back at sword-point.

Aside from a bit of soreness resulting from a blow or two that failed to penetrate Rainald’s armor, none of the Heroes were injured. Primus and Secundus had gotten a bit confused in the fray, and were hissing menacingly at Gabriel before Magnifico called them back to heel. Then, surrounded by the menacing Knights of Caithness that were his company, Magnifico began to demand of their prisoner what this business was all about…

Notes

• This Banestorm campaign is probably the second-longest running campaign for this group, and the characters are at a pretty high level—around 300. It actually began under a different GM (Marcus) for a brief run, but was later taken over by Ronnke. The last run ended with the Heroes going back in time to find an artifact to rid the world of alien invaders. After the run was over, ten years passed, that included a return to the alien world to crush the invaders, a great crusade, and the Heroes were rewarded with land and title by their patron, Lord Wallace
• We were joined this time by Douglas Cole, writer for GURPS, who wanted to observe a Fantasy Grounds game in action; we all enjoyed his participation, and we look forward to a potential later return
• Radskyrta (“Red-Shirt” in Old English) was an unnamed NPC in Wallace’s employ during the early days of the campaign, expected to die for his master, but failed over time to ever do so, though he did come close a time or two; in the end, we grew to like him enough that, nevermind his name, he’s really been promoted out of the “fodder” role
• Lord Wallace has been the group’s patron for most of the campaign; they’ve all been through so much crap together that they’re practically family
• Ferrier is a key place for this group; it was in the sewers of Ferrier that they found and entered the portal to the Otherworld, and it was the first Caithness city they encountered upon their return several months later, found razed and bereft of life as a result of the aliens’ assault