Dramatis Personæ
Brother Mendel (Herodian)
Dane Sardock (Winston)
Gabriel Auditore (Rigil Kent)
Gestlin the Unpredictable (CommJunkee)
Magnifico the Clown (Feste)
Merasiël Alethmist (Melissa)
Rainald North-Hammer (Gigermann)
Of Slaves and Assassins
24 Apr 2014
After splitting up the ransom for the Templar captain and his cohort, the Heroes headed out for Proximo’s estate, to perform their demonstration as promised (they had briefly considered leaving immediately for Tredroy). As they crossed the river, they spotted a cage-wagon further up the street, laden with human(oid) cargo, headed the same direction; they happened to notice a familiar face inside the cage amongst the other unfortunates, specifically, that of their former war-companion, Merasiël. They all rushed up to the wagon to confirm that it was she, and it was; she recognized the Heroes immediately, and claimed she had been wrongfully imprisoned through a case of mistaken identity, and sold into slavery. The slave-cart driver demanded these well-armed strangers surrounding his cart step off and allow him to continue, and he was getting a bit bothered as the Heroes tried to convince him to let their friend go free; he gruffly explained that these slaves were the lawful property of Proximo, and were being delivered to him now. The driver being distracted by the Heroes’ argument, Gestlin impulsively activated Smil-Blam and cast Blink on Merasiël; she appeared outside the cage, next to Gestlin. The slave-driver immediately became irate, and bellowed for the guard, saying that the Heroes were “stealing” his slaves. A pair of guards left their post at the bridge to answer the call, to find a heated argument between the slave-driver and this gaggle of armed adventurers over “ownership” of one of the slave-driver’s stock, confused all the more by the cries from the other slaves in the cage to be released as well. However, as Brother Mendel turned to the guard to plead the Heroes’ case, the guard-supervisor must have mistaken him for some old antagonist of his, for he immediately drew his weapon and took up a combative stance—he surely would have run Brother Mendel through had he not been backed by his fellows—and demanded the gaggle immediately disperse; whatever Brother Mendel said to try to calm the man seemed only to make it worse. Rather than fight the lawful city guards over what was, technically, a crime they had committed, the Heroes convinced the guard to escort the lot of them to Proximo’s estate, where the matter would be settled.
Proximo met the entourage at his gates. After the guards’ explanation, he was a bit put out at the Heroes’ apparent betrayal, but Brother Mendel spoke to their good intentions, and their desire to make due recompense, and Proximo’s demeanor was cooled. They gathered together ten gold marks to compensate Proximo for the loss of his property, and satisfied, Merasiël was set free (officially this time). Brother Mendel asked how the necklace had worked out; Proximo admitted it appeared to have worked as advertised, and thanked them for the worthy gift. With the slaves taken inside, and the driver and guards now gone their way, the group moved to the south garden of Proximo’s estate. Neither Proximo nor any others present were told of the nature of the demonstration prior to its performance, that it was to be an illusion. As soon as they were ready, the show was begun: this time, rather than their usual recounting of the story of their adventures in the Otherworld against the Vasa, Magnifico and Brother Mendel prepared a performance consisting of the opening of a portal to the Otherworld a few paces before the viewers, where a great battle raged between Men and Vasa, before a pair of full-grown dragons (of the sort they had encountered there) descended upon the field and slaughtered all present without discrimination. The carnage was magnificent, the illusory performance encompassing sight, smell, sound, and even the heat and such. As the dragons appeared, Magnifico screamed that they had lost control of the portal, and the fighting spilled through to engulf the audience. The other Heroes were in on the play as well: Gabriel drew his sword and “fought” the invaders before tumbling out of the way of a fireball; also Gestlin cast magical strikes through the portal. Rainald, standing at the back to ensure things didn’t get out of hand, had to interrupt Merasiël before she could leap into the fray (as she had not been clued in). When Proximo’s face revealed their success—that he believed what he saw was real—the illusion was allowed to dissipate.
Proximo was greatly impressed, calling for food and drink to be brought out while they discussed the details of future performances. Merasiël sorely wanted her gear returned, especially her ancestral blades, and Proximo promised he would see if he could get them back for her, though they would need to buy them back; on request, Merasiël was taken inside to bathe, and was given some new clothes (which were of typical Wazifi fashion). The Heroes then inquired what news Proximo’s contacts had discovered regarding Lord Wallace’s disappearance, keeping to themselves what they already knew; Proximo revealed that one of his ships had picked up some shipwrecked sailors in Keyhole Bay, bearing an “important prisoner,” and taken them to Hadaton, where they later departed, presumably for Tredroy. He had also heard that the Templars had taken Lord Wallace captive, confirming what the Heroes had drawn from the Templar captain, though Proximo knew of no other details. Then, the Heroes talked of wanting to go to Tredroy, and Proximo was happy to make whatever arrangements were needed to make it so, and would deliver the happy news to Aamir Rahmani as well (he was away from the estate, but still in town). It was decided they would leave Craine immediately on the morrow, providing Merasiël’s weapons could be found in that time. Proximo penned some letters for his contacts at the show’s tour cities, encouraging them to make all the arrangements there in his name, and gave them to the Heroes. They parted company in good spirits.
After returning to the Gleaming endeavor and informing Captain Finn of their intentions, the Heroes retired back to the Crimson Mug Inn for the rest of the day. Some time later, a package was delivered to them: Merasiël’s knives; another eight gold marks were ponied up for their redemption—she was very thankful for their return, but rather depressed at how much money she “owed” the company as a result of her misfortune. In the evening, after much drinking (including some spectacular spills by Gestlin, resulting in his spending far more coin than he intended to compensate for lost drinkage and wet clothing), the company retired to bed. Sometime in the middle of the night, most of the Heroes awoke to the sound of someone creeping in their room; as they started out of bed, they saw the flash of steel in the darkness, as an assassin leapt forward and attempted to knife them:
- Rainald went for his nearby hammer, but dropped it when his assailant landed with a knee across his throat. He managed to avoid being stabbed as the two struggled; he got two hands around the attacker’s throat, and got one of his arms slashed nearly to the bone in the process. Merasiël had not been similarly visited, and arrived at Rainald’s room, flying in behind the assassin to stab him in the back, just before Rainald snapped his neck with his hands. Rainald tossed the now-dead man aside, and Merasiël made sure he wouldn’t be getting back up, before rushing down the hall to help the others.
- Gestlin rolled clear of his would-be murderer and managed to cast Stun on him; as the assassin tried to recover, Gestlin cast Sleep, and the killer fell to the floor unconscious. Gestlin then quickly threw open the window shutters and checked to see if it was clear, then cast Apportation on the sleeping attacker and levitated him out of the window, and up.
- Brother Mendel tried to go for his staff in the darkness, being night-blind, and got cut by the effectively-invisible assailant; as the killer was atop him, Brother Mendel managed to Command him to “roll off,” and the assassin involuntarily obliged. Scrambling to his feet while Brother Mendel fumbled for his staff, he was trapped by the arrival of Gabriel and Magnifico at the doorway behind him; the killer fled between them into the hallway to escape, but was not fast enough to get clear before Gabriel could run him through multiple times with his family’s rapier.
- Dane briefly considered reaching for his bow, but grabbed his shortsword instead; he and his assassin exchanged steel, back and forth, both landing weak blows here and there. The would-be murderer had his back to the room’s window when Gabriel, now finished with the one in the hallway, arrived at Dane’s door to join the dance; the assailant went for the window, but was not fast enough to reach it before Gabriel could run him through.
Brother Mendel tended the wounded, including himself, while the others summoned the guard and reassured the other guests that it was over. Gestlin had the only surviving assassin still fast asleep and floating outside the inn window; Magnifico bade him float the assassin close by, so that he could cast Mind Search on him. The unconscious killer could not resist Magnifico’s spell, and they learned that he was sent by the Assassins’ Guild on behalf of an unknown client to claim a ten gold mark bounty on each of their heads—excepting Merasiël, who was not known to be with the Heroes until earlier this day. Having learned what they felt they could, Gestlin floated the sleeping assassin back out of the window and high into the night sky, after which he let the man go, dropping him to land at the feet of the guards as they approached the inn.
Notes
- This session marked the return of Melissa from her hiatus. The character, Merasiël, is a timelost she-elf rogue/assassin-type the Heroes met before she was timelost—when they time-traveled back a thousand years to locate a mighty artifact. Now stuck in her future, she fought beside the Heroes in the Crusade, and as did most of them, disappeared to go their separate ways for seven years or so afterward, until now
- The attempted “rescue” of Merasiël was a comedy-of-errors. Rainald’s first reaction was to ask “How much for that woman?” Once Gestlin jumped the gun, and Blinked her out of the cage, it was pandemonium. Then the guards showed up: Brother Mendel rolled an 18 on Diplomacy, while the guard rolled a 4 on his Reaction—if it were Mendel by himself, he would have certainly been attacked. Once things were smoothed over with Proximo, it was back to Rainald’s idea 😛
- We would have liked to go straight to Tredroy, given the information we got last time, but it appeared that it would be faster to sail around Al-Wazif and upriver to Tredroy than to cross the desert “as the crow flies.” Given the route would take us past Bannock, we figured we might as well go ahead and do a show there—it’s on the way, and we would likely stop there anyway
- The assassins caught everyone unarmed and unarmored, and could potentially have killed someone, especially if they had ended up in the right rooms to start (like Magnifico’s). As it was, we pulled it off anyway, though not without injury
- As a GURPS player, though my opinion is that the Neck Snap Technique is a bit too “cinematic,” I’ve always been looking for an opportunity to use it. Finally, I found my opportunity, and rolled max damage—swing of 2d+2=14, ×1.5 for the neck location =21 HP; the poor bastard died instantly. Satisfaction, for once 😛
