Year One: The Pirate Ransom Job

• A month has passed since the Grand Tourney. At the Heroes Guild, the Company are tasked by Reyvanna the Black to escort a ransom from Arl Highhorse of Bannerhall to Richport. This ransom is for pirates, who have captured Garak Highhorse.
• Upton Whiteglove, a Highhorse servant, will accompany the ransom, along with Pilip the Mute, the carriage driver. The Company meet them the following morning and it is decided that Brother Getwelle will also ride in the carriage as added defense.
• A day out, a pursuing band of mercenaries decide to move against the carriage, but the Company counterattacks, with Ser Magnus deciding to charge. As Lëodan and Murdok pepper the mercs with arrows and bolts, Ser Kenrick lances one merc with his charge, killing the man straight away, and Wizards’ Guild Initiate Towme revs up a dagger wrought of ice that he will use against a foe shortly. This attempted robbery turns into a rout, with the mercenaries losing more than half their number and fleeing. Two injured are captured along with a corpse, as well as a captured light warhorse; interrogation reveals very little.
• After dropping off the prisoners at Taxford where they are likely to executed for banditry, the Company continues on, pausing briefly when an ornate (and magical) sling is discovered in Ser Magnus’ tack. Being the greedy sort, Murdok quickly claims that it belongs to him and Ser Kenrick has no reason to doubt him … although everyone else does.
• At Richport, quickly learn that Erner Blackmarket, the man facilitating the ransom exchange, is in the pillory for trafficking with pirates. Brother Getwelle uses his clerical status to gain access to the man and learns that the pirates are sailing into a trap intended to seize the ransom. The Company must change the rendezvous point by rearranging the discreet signal flags on the lighthouse.
• Despite Ser Kenrick’s nominal assistance (caused no doubt by his discomfort in further dealings with the underworld), the Company is able to successfully accomplish this by working together to map out a route and then distract the militia at the lighthouse, while Lëodan sneaks past them to change the flags. They then relocate to the alternate meeting spot.
• Late that night, the pirates arrive at the meeting spot, led by their master, the Dread Pirate himself. The ransom is exchanged and Master Garak Highhorse is released from captivity. Once the pirates are gone, he reveals that the Magpie was behind his capture as he (Garak) was digging into the man’s identity. He now has a name: Harmin of Grudgehold, possibly a disgraced member of the Heroes’ Guild.
• The Company returns to the Capital, now with more information than before that they intend to turn over to the proper authorities for further investigation…

Player Notes:

• There was some post Tourney stuff handled in the beginning that isn’t in the recap. Over the week, the GM and I dealt with the grand melee, determining that Ser Kenrick ended up in third place there too. Due to his various disadvantages – CoH (Chivalry), Honesty, Truthfulness – I determined that Kenrick was giving half of his winnings to House Graveward since he fought under Ser Kanneth’s livery for half of the tourney. Sadly, this included the jousting armor. He also tracked down Ser Kanneth’s courtly love and apologized to the baroness for keeping the truth from her about Ser Kanneth’s death. Finally, we established that Lady Prissia Highhorse, one of the princess’ ladies-in-waiting, was who provided him her favor; as Kenrick has some issues with her older brother, this could hopefully lead to some shenanigans in the future. Dustan officially graduated to Apprentice Mage by buying Rank … I think most of us thought he already was an apprentice in that regard, but evidently, using Jedi lexicon, he was previously just a Youngling and is now Padawan level. Which kind of means he needs a proper master, I think. Also, much to Murdok’s surprise (and possible concern), that magic mirror he buried turned back up in Dustan’s belongings … though it was a bit dirty.
• The fight with the mercenaries turned into a rout very quickly. First blood went to Kenrick who straight up killed a dude with his war lance, then Leo became the killing machine that we all know and love. Sadly, Brother Getwelle was not able to participate in the fight due to it not reaching him. We ended up with a new light warhorse, three suits of mail (cheap) and a handful of weapons that we’re intending to sell.
• The magical sling showing up out of nowhere caught the players a little off-guard, I think. I for one kept expecting it to lead to something else, like a shopkeeper or something accusing us of theft.
• It’s a good thing the other characters were effective during the skill challenge to change the signals because Kenrick flat out failed. We explained that failure in-game as him being really uncomfortable with the entirely too frequent working with criminals thing that the Guild is involved in … and actually, Getwelle should be as well since he’s got Honesty also (which seems odd, given his character.)

See the Daniverse Blog for the GM’s post-game debrief.