Dramatis Personæ

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

Of Robbers and Businessmen

29 Mar 2014

Magnifico demanded the one captive taken from the fight at the Ferrier bridge give up his employer; being in no condition to fight back or escape, the brigand told the Heroes of “The Seven,” a local robber-gang that operates out of the city. Shortly thereafter, the city watch finally showed up to collect the dead, wounded and incarcerated. Upon the Heroes’ inquiry, the guard-sergeant admitted that the watch here was woefully short-handed and powerless to do anything about the gang’s activities; they controlled several areas in town, one of interest being a tavern down the street a bit. After a brief discussion, the Heroes determined that they should do what they could to stamp out this menace, such that it would trouble the good people of Caithness (themselves, in particular) no more, and made their way over to the indicated tavern to “kick the hornets’ nest” and see what might come out. On the building’s eaves, they spotted a “7” scratched into the wood, and deduced they’d arrived at the right place. Radskyrta stayed outside with Gestlin’s wagon, the horses and the dragons, while the rest dismounted.

A couple of ne’er-do-wells loitered outside the door, one of whom asked after the price of one of the dragons; Magnifico insisted they were not for sale at any price, and insulted the man when he continued to press, in disregard of Magnifico’s very serious, and final answer. Then the party pushed past and entered the establishment.

The tavern was packed with patrons—probably half the town’s population—with a number of topless female employees making their way from table to table in search of coin, by one means or another. Dane found an empty chair near a table, while the rest squeezed in at the bar. Magnifico loudly announced their presence to all present, but for lack of anything further to announce, the denizens quickly lost interest in the brightly arrayed, hunchbacked old man. The Heroes ordered drinks, and as they sipped, they scanned the crowd for seedy characters that might have taken notice of their presence, or their purses. One of the wenches identified Gestlin as a potential mark, and sidled up to him to work her magic, flustering him greatly. Magnifico “rescued” him with a song of Enthrallment, and the woman clung to him instead; he began to hint to her at his desire to speak with “The Boss,” offering what would turn out to be too little coin for the information, and she moved on to looser purses elsewhere. The Clown then turned to the bartender toward the same purpose, quoting a line from a famous play. With no knowledge of that play, thus without the proper context, the bartender took it the wrong way (or the right way, really); smiling, he offered the Heroes another round of drinks on the house. After having drunk the second round, Rainald, Gestlin and Magnifico passed out in place, poisoned; Brother Mendel and Gabriel were still nursing their first cup, and Dane wasn’t at the bar to be served the second, so they alone remained conscious, to see the half-dozen or so sword-armed thugs make their way through the crowd toward them. In a flash, Gabriel drew his rapier and assumed a fighting stance, as the bartender demanded the surrender of their weapons on their sleeping friends’ lives, and commanded his men to bar the door. The crowd continued their revelry as if this were a common sight at this establishment. Gabriel was still indignant at the earlier ambush, and seeing his fellows poisoned so, quickly regarded the enemy forces; they were not a match even for the three of them, and after confirming the others’ readiness by subtle nod, declined the bartender’s demand with a flash of steel.

Two thugs charged Gabriel, who danced ’round them, killing one. Two thugs charged Brother Mendel and stabbed him twice; he fell seated, back against the bar. One thug found Dane at his table, and managed to cut him down as he fumbled for his bow. One thug charged over to Gestlin and grabbed him by the hair, pulling his head back to slit his throat; out of the corner of his eye, Gabriel spotted Gestlin’s impending doom, and quick-drawing his magical elven throwing-blade, flung it at the would-be murderer, striking him deep between the fourth and fifth ribs. Brother Mendel’s attackers both had him at sword-point, so he feigned compliance; eschewing obvious casting movements or words, he magically healed himself, then Dane, and looked to the others. Dane recovered and drew his shortsword, and after a brief exchange, slashed his attacker near-fatally, as a few more armed thugs pressed through the crowd to join the fray. Gabriel felled another while slipping over to finish off Gestlin’s would-be murderer as he reached for his dropped weapon, then turned to meet two of the newcomers. The bartender, who had not raised a hand thus far, produced a loaded hand-crossbow, and again demanded Gabriel surrender, or Brother Mendel would die. Gabriel glanced back at Mendel, who despite the two sword-points at his chest signaled that he had his situation sorted; again Gabriel refused the bartender’s demand, contorting his body out of the path of the bartender’s crossbow bolt as he turned his blade on the other thugs. As Brother Mendel’s attackers moved on their leader’s command, he Commanded one of his attackers to drop his weapon and swatted the other’s sword away with his quarterstaff, before blasting him in the chest with a Sunbolt, burning him near-through and setting his clothing ablaze. Meanwhile, Dane exchanged with another foe interposed between himself and his endangered fellows, and was struck again, driven back. At the same time, Gabriel had his two new opponents bleeding and on their backs when the bartender finally screamed, “Enough!” and called out to his men to stand down. As the thugs that were still able backed away at their leader’s command, Gabriel and Dane relaxed a bit, and started to collect their sleeping comrades to leave. Brother Mendel however had not taken the inhospitality well, and darted around the open end of the bar, saying, “God will forgive you. But I will not!” before blasting the bartender with a Sunbolt to the chest, setting him afire like a screaming, flailing man-torch.

The thugs made no attempt at retaliation; the unconscious Rainald, Gestlin and Magnifico were dragged out of the tavern by their fellows, and heaved into Gestlin’s wagon. Still defiant, Brother Mendel used a Scribe spell to deface the “7” on the eaves. Fearing further attempts on their lives if they were to remain in town, they decided instead to immediately leave town, and camp down the road—were they not on a mission, they might have loitered nearby and finished the job more thoroughly. At camp an hour later, Rainald came to. The others took a bit more effort, both being of lesser constitution; Mendel spent some hours to perform a weave to rid them of the poison. By the time they returned to their travels in the morning, all were healed and refreshed.

6 Apr 2014

After another week on the road, the Heroes arrived at Simonton, and approached the gates openly, remembering their past exploits in the walled city’s defense from the Vasar advance. At the gate, they saw the memorial statue of Dane watching over the road to the West, and all marveled at what it must be like to have their own town where they were the hero-of-legend. Dane, however, had no interest in the trappings of fame, though he immediately found them thrust upon him as the townsfolk reacted to his presence with excitement, thronging him. A sergeant-of-the-guard, eager to meet the Hero of Simonton, led them to the manor of Alistare Cray, wealthy merchant father of Lady Justalyn, father-in-law of Lord Wallace.

Master Cray welcomed the Heroes at his gate, having received word by Lady Justalyn’s messenger some days ago to arrange for their voyage to find Lord Wallace, though he was very surprised to see a pair of dragons with them. After some deliberation, they all decided to house Primus and Secundus at one of his warehouses at the city’s docks. Afterward, when the Heroes had time to refresh after their long journey, Master Cray returned to see to the Heroes’ needs for the mission ahead. They asked about all the particulars of Lord Wallace’s disappearance, what was known and unknown, and what preparations had been made. Master Cray appeared forthright and open, and gave them all the information he had; he had arranged for Lord Wallace and his Master-of-Coin to travel by ship to Yibyorak a year ago, and had received no word from his contacts there that Lord Wallace had ever arrived; there were a number of places along the journey known for pirate activity, though they usually went only after cargo, tending to let the ships go without further molestation; he had a ship, the Gleaming Endeavor, prepared for the Heroes a couple of days ago, able to take on Gestlin’s wagon and their horses, with no further cargo to be carried save for provisions for the journey, which was expected to take around a month—it was ready to go as soon as they wanted to leave. After some discussion, it was unanimously agreed that they would get right to it, staying the night in Simonton and embarking first thing in the morning.

Notes

• Lesson Learned: When you kick the hornets’ nest, have a plan, and don’t try to be too clever 😛
• When Magnifico turned his attention to the bartender, he ended up rolling a Critical Failure on Streetwise
• When the swords came out, those that were still standing evaluated the situation; the enemy were not armored, and had no shields, and Gabriel figured he could take (enough of) them, but it would be a gamble, especially if the dice decided not to cooperate—could easily have been a TPK, and we very nearly lost Gestlin on his second session, if not for a very lucky, perfect throw by Gabriel
• The enemy of the previous runs of this campaign were aliens from another world, and used a “new” magic referred to as “weaving” (due to the somatic motions of those using it), represented by Ritual Path Magic; in the course of things, Brother Mendel learned how to do it, though he’s no expert at it
• Between the time the Heroes returned from the Otherworld and went back to it on Crusade (outside the game), they fought in several sieges against the Vasar, mostly losing ground the whole way; Simonton was such a siege, and the city was ultimately lost, though the Heroes’ efforts, with Dane as general, resulted in much of the population’s escape to the South
• Magnifico’s dragons, Primus and Secundus, were taken after their mother and father were slain by the Heroes in the Otherworld—these dragons are not native to Yrth—and raised by Magnifico over the last ten years. In the previous run, they were small and mostly just a curiosity, but now they’re big enough that traveling with them is proving…complicated