Meet 6, Adv 1, 7/7/12

There was some more skulduggery as the group was learning how to be a group together, and another low level adventure hook dangled at them. It has been difficult to get them to leave the town and the surrounding environs but I think I should get them on the road and to a local adventure very soon. Assuming they stop dividing up into 3's and 4's.

Write up follows:

We returned to Shakun with Lirea in tow, returned the cart and horse to Zarik Ikarsbane, and split up. Again.

Fist’al took Lirea back to his place after stopping for a little food, where he proceeded to enjoy Lirea carnally for the rest of the evening. Multiple times.

As for the dog house @ Flimflam’s, it looked pretty decent. The gnome went to visit Eherego @ Exotic Transportation and paid him for his work and then took Whosea home and chained him up in the backyard.

We were offered another job, this time escorting the stabler and two of his boys on a trip to Ferron. Would be leaving on the 8th. Pay was 2 nobles per day per member who came with a 5 noble bonus for every bandit they encountered that the group would stop and capture for justice. It would be a 4-5 day trip and would be leaving on the 8th. We talked about it and said we would seriously consider it come that time.

Meanwhile Ironboar a few others went back to the Tanners and rooted around the place looking for anything of value that had been there. It took some time but a couple of flensing knives, a poor sloping 5’ drying and stretching rack, and a bloodletting bucket netted out their findings as far as leatherworking gear was concerned. They did also discover a small cask which Ironboar proceeded to pop open and drink from – and he announced, “This is some serious piss-shit beer.” Then he took a swallow and added, “It’s pretty good!” Outside of Tempi, no one else took him up on tasting it.

There was a room with a strange feeling in it, a few skeletal remains on the floor, and some of the items began to shake and the door slammed closed on its own. Ironboar charged the door and burst it open – the wrong way – blowing the door off its hinges. The strange feeling ended and the gnome proceeded to kick all the skeletons apart for good measure.

As an aside he did dig through the vagrant’s abandoned clothing and took a pair of pants and a shirt, put them on, and then hacked off the ends that stuck past his ankles and wrists. Gnome barbarian fitting in. They took their treasures with them back to the Waywocket home where they stored them in the upstairs bedroom. Then they went to the Rhyback home and had a short meal with Tempi’s mom.

Meanwhile Flimflam and Enthir went to the Broman home and went to look at and for the dead dog that Enthir told the leader about – along with the concerns that the dog looked like Whosea and had a number of wounds like Ironboar had done to Brandone. Flimflam wanted to put the dog to rest so they dug a grave near the back of the place by the ruined hedge and then buried it. After that he used his power from Demeter and caused a section of the garden (including the hedge) to grow and thicken, filling in and helping to cover the dog’s grave.

By this time Device had finished at the temple grounds and wasn’t sure where to go so he went to the Waywocket home. It was locked and no one was there. So he went around back to try and get in and while looking he heard a growl. And there was Whosea, in his house, with a chain around his neck and angry. He made to lunge and Device held his ground. He was bit, scratched, chewed and battered before he finally broke and ran, covered in dog bites and limping badly. Hurt, the cleric limped home and figured he would just rest.

He met his father there and Derrick Rhyback wanted to know why he was here and what happened. Device sort of lied to his father about a wild dog attack and yes he did win. No he did not have the carcass (mom had made Cat Stew earlier today). All he wanted was to eat, strip off his clothes, and go to sleep.

The party rested and the next day we had some errands to run and things to do. We sped through it and learned:

• The herbalist was sure there was rose and galangal and maybe blood in the goblinwater potion and would let us know for sure in the next day or two.
• We met with the Dormanger family and tried to get Verim and Lirea the change to talk. Orin wanted nothing to do with Lirea and wanted her to stay away. Lirea was going to ask Verim to accompany her to the tower with the party as he was handy, she liked him, and he knew of Brandone and the others. Orin tentatively agreed to it until Ironboar and he got into a verbal altercation and it came close to blows. As Ironboar said, “I’m trying to shut my mouth, but they keep talking to me!”
• As far as Ironboar was concerned, he only mentioned his time in the field 6 times. He must have been tired.
• We all agreed to gear up and get good rest and be ready for leaving in the morning – meeting with the Dormangers and a few others around 8 AM. It was 3 hours or so to the tower according to Lirea.

As the meeting ended we had two instances where the 4th wall was shattered – one was Marcus who had already lied to the party about the killing of the dog and refused to come clean about it who uttered, “This party lies so much that I am the most honest one here.”

The other was Ironboar’s controlled, Matt, who upon being lambasted by at least 2 of the party members for another Ironboar-ism and problem making moment, exclaimed, “It’s Ironboar! I can’t control him!”

Meet 5, Adv 1, 6/30/12

Splitting the party.

In the dungeon it happens and there is tension. In a town it happens and I have to make damned sure that everyone gets enough face time. It is too easy to get lost town adventuring and some poor schmuck is left sitting there most of the evening.

However I don't have to "make adventure" happen for this group - they are doing just fine making up their own intrigue and already we have in Meeting 5: death threats and untrustworthiness and thievery and all the good stuff that is the heart of older style gaming.

I'm enjoying the hell out of it.

Write up follows:

The party reconvened at the Waywocket home and proceeded to fill Flimflam with despair as they talked about their successes as well as their failures regarding what they had set out to do. Device came last and reported that the two homeless squatters were badly hurt and were currently on the Temple Grounds at the Hospice where they were resting up and tended to.

There was much arguing with Ironboar again about his actions but it went nowhere slowly. Bandages were handed out and the group got themselves ready after a short lunch to go out into the town once again.

Enthir and Marcus would go to the Broman home, Flimflam would go to the Herbalist, and Device, Fist’al, Tempi, and Ironboar would head back to Tanner’s Way.

The wheels fell off the cart quickly as the mob was abound the Broman home and Enthir and Marcus were identified as members of the adventurer’s guild. There was talk of spells and hexes and maybe evil spirits and curses from the Broman family and it would be laid to rest. Enthir mistakenly mentioned Brandone in jail and a mob of 70 or so started marching on the militia house to take Brandone out and have his blood somehow lay the evil spirits to rest. Marcus bled into the crowd and Enthir was carried along with it.

Meanwhile Flimflam had met with the Herbalist and they talked about rose scents and what not. Then she was going to go back to the militia house and check on Brandone to not only check his wound, but also to rouse him. The two of them met with the Captain of the guard, Thragriel, and then visited Brandone. He was breathing shallowly but alive.

The herbalist was surprised at how slight his wound appeared and remarked that Flimflam’s healing spell was more effective than he thought. It seemed suspicious to the druid and he watched carefully as Brandone was given some herbs under his nose and he woke up alert. There was a brief conversation between him and Flimflam and we heard the mob approaching. The militia drew themselves up ready and the Captain was ordering the group to disperse.

Then Brandone grew “nuts” and the smell of roses was heavy off of him. He charged the wall in an attempt to break it down with his face but the wall held. Plus the wounds he had on him seemed to fall off. Then the herbalist and Feril in the next cell grew tired and slumped a bit. After a few more hits Brandone seemed to sag, the smell of roses faded, and he fell over unconscious.

Meanwhile the rest of the group was back at Tanner’s Way, looking over Lirea and Brandone’s squatting home for a bit. Tempi was positioning himself at Sutor’s forge to look over the place, but he did talk to Fist’al first and confided in him that Ironboar had found some more of the rose water stuff and he had it. This bothered Fist’al as Ironboar and he were at odds with one another. So he wanted to go back to the squatter home and look over Ironboar’s backpack.

The gnome barbarian was getting bandaged again by Device who was watching the elf come in and creep up to Ironboar’s backpack. This alerted the gnome who whirled around just in time to stop the elf from taking it. There was some yelling and accusations and Fist’al ran outside. Tempi got involved, the half-orc was furious with Fist’al for betraying his trust and some more punches were thrown but Fist’al was like, “screw this” and was high tailing it to the Militia to talk to Flimflam and let them know what was going on.

Meanwhile Ironboar took the vials he had hidden in his backpack OUT and hid them in the house in a pillow before rejoining the others and also making his way to speak to his father.

At the militia we discovered that most of the mob had been dispersed and there was to be no lynching of Brandone to end the dreaded sleeping curse that was affecting those who traveled too near the Broman home. We learned about Brandone’s seeming superhuman feat and healing and then his knocking out. Ironboar had convinced Tempi to give up his vial of rose-water spice to Flimflam who gave it to the herbalist who said she would do what she could to identify the ingredients and let us know what we were dealing with. We then all went back to the Waywocket home for a nice after noon argument.

Enthir and Marcus wanted nothing to do with this so they went to the Broman home to stake out Exotic Transportation and see if Lirea showed up.

There was talk of Fist’al being a traitor and Ironboar being a liar and hiding and stealing and overall just douchbaggery. Flimflam tried to set it all to right but there was no easy way out of the argument so it just ended on its own when Enthir and Marcus came up and let us know that Lirea had bought a mule from Eherego and was riding out of Westgate out of town towards Orland.

We needed to follow and do it soon. Fist’al went out the gate and then began running/jogging in order to close the distance and catch up. The rest of the group went to the guildhalls, met with Zarik, asked to borrow his cart and horses (which he agreed to reluctantly) and then climbed on. Meanwhile Ironboar snuck BACK to the squatter home and took his vials once again out of the pillow and hid them deep in his bedroll before rejoining everyone.

Fist’al kept pace and eventually got to with a few hundred yards of Lirea and her slow moving mule. When she trundled off the road and went south past the last homestead marking he sped up and left a series of arrows in the road pointing the direction she was riding and then followed.

The group rode off and almost rode past Fist’al’s markings but did turn at length and went south as well. They caught up with Fist’al, helped the thief aboard, and then rode on until they were able to hail and stop Lirea.

We spoke with her for some time and learned a few things. Her brother was a fuck up. He fell in with the drug users maybe 3 months ago and had been using ever since. They hadn’t lived in her parent’s house because they were not a noble family and the home was not theirs. However, Baron Taugis had told them that he would hold the home for them for 1 year, allowing them to get the 115 crowns needed to once more buy into it.

Their younger sister Edan was not going to live with them during this time so they had indentured her to a nice family in Ferron where she would act as a house maid and eventually learn seamstrissing skills. They were given 60 crowns up front and would have to return 40 of it after 2 years when they would get their sister back. Lirea had been very against this entire thing but Brandone had convinced her of the possibilities of turning the 60 crowns into the 115 they needed.

His plans never worked. They were always just barely making it one step above the last. Eventually the last one was to have a homestead and turn one hard planting and harvesting season into enough coin to buy Edan out of her indentured servitude and then pay off the Baron for the home. But there was all this talk of stealing what they needed and Lirea wanted zero to do with it. And now he was arrested and she was done. The drugs he was taking was something that he and the other guys had called Goblinwater and it did make him high, unfocused, and crazy.

She was going to Mahr’s Tower, to the southwest of Shakun. It was a little known old mage’s tower that Brandone’s friends had been using as a base of operations for a time now. Between Brandone and her that was over 60 crowns that was there that was theirs that she was going to use to buy her sister out and then go revisit the Baron and try to talk him down on the price.

She agreed to come back to Shakun with us and we would all talk to her boyfriend Verim on the 4th and then go to the tower together on the 5th.

Meet 4, Adv 1, 6/23/12

The new group is still going through their growing pains, but this time they don't have a dungeon to try their fumblings on but the town and it's people. And we have had altercations (almost deadly) at least three times, sleep spells going off on townsfolk, as well as two party members tearing their clothes to shreds and hurting themselves badly while fleeing.

I have not stopped laughing most meetings.

Write up follows:

The party was at the Waywocket home when the fighting began. Ironboar was fighting with Device and Fist’al, claiming that no one came to help out (Tempi did!) when he was getting stabbed. Flimflam was trying to mediate but the gnomish barbarian and the half-orc cleric were trading barbs back and forth while Ironboar regaled everyone about how in the field, there are times to make decisions and not talk about it. In fact he brought up the need to react fast like in the field 12 times.

As he was pointing out, “I did MY part as a team,” which caused some head scratching. It was 42 minutes of back and forth before Flimflam took out the pipe and weed and Ironboar eventually calmed down. It was an uneasy peace but we did manage to put it briefly behind us and discuss what our next course of action was to be.

There were three: 1) Someone was going to need to talk to Bradone and the other thug taken into custody, 2) someone should go to the herbalist and learn about rose smells and some of the strange behavior Bradone was displaying, and 3) we should check out Tanner’s Way and see if can find Lirea there.

No matter what, Ironboar was NOT going to be in on the questioning, although he DESPERATELY wanted to be the one. HE did point out that the need to get information and the danger involved sometime was not to be taken lightly and “This is not a game” – which momentarily poked a hole in the fourth wall around the table.

We settled on: Flimflam would go to the herbalist, Enthir, Marcus, and Fist’al would go to the militia to question the prisoners, and finally Tempi, Ironboar, and Device would poke around Tanner’s Way for clues. We agreed to meet back at the Waywocket’s around 3ish and scattered at just after quarter past 10.

Flimflam left the Waywocket home with Whosea and turned right at the end of the block, heading towards Exotic Transportation. Once there he spoke long with Eherego about the lack of war rhino’s and riding pegasi but settled eventually on the prospect of training the 120 lb mass of hunting dog that he now owned into a riding dog. They went back and forth for a while, also commissioning a half-assed build dog house and chain run for the animal to be built by Eherego’s sons, settling on a total of 17 crowns paid in 4 installments over 3 weeks.

Enthir, Marcus, and Fist’al did make their way past the gallows to the militia house where they spoke to Captain Thragriel. The three of them were led to the back of the militia house where 4 small cells were arranged. One of them held the injured and unconscious Bradone Broman while the other had his captured friend, Feril.

The 3 of them learned that Bradone was badly injured but lucky to be alive as the wounds came close to his carotid artery. The herbalist would be back this afternoon about 1:30 to check on him and should let us know if could be questioned then. As for Feril, he did tell us that there were 8 of them that wanted to have their own homestead and Bradone was the “leader” of the group. He had 2 friends that he had been talking/hanging out with lately who had been giving him the rose scented spicy water – some sort of drug. He has been a bit weird but still their friend.

As for the thefts, Feril said they had been knocking off the furthest homesteads and in regards to Verim getting wounded, he thinks it was Bradone who had done it. Just before it happened he got nutty and ordered everyone to drop everything and run for the back gate.

Tempi, Ironboar, and Device left the Waywocket home and traveled southeast across town towards Sutor’s Forge and eventually the run down section referred to as “Tanner’s Way”. Long it had been a slummy section of town but after Shakun had been under the cruel overlording of the Leech and his torturous use of the tannery, this part of town had not been cleaned up, repaired, or even properly patrolled. Most of the buildings were hovels and single story thatched dwellings.

The three of them walked the dirty streets for a bit, seeing dogs, cats, rats, and even a few furtive people hiding in the alleys and broken shells. Eventually they came to the Tannery and decided to check it out first. The door was closed and once forced open showed the gloomy interior of the Tannery. Most of the place was in terrible disrepair. There was a catwalk with 4 doors on the second floor and Device volunteered to hang right outside the main door while Tempi and Ironboar went up each opposite stair to the floor above.

Flimflam went next to the Herbalist where he talked about the effects of rose scented herbs and possible effects. They did not come to much of an accord and the gnomish druid left with no questioned answered.

As for the 3 elves, their questioning of Feril did let them know that Lirea was unhappy with Bradone’s new friends and they usually stayed in Tanner’s Way somewhere. Yes she did sleep around but used her body more as a bargaining chip than just slutting around. As for Verim, she was seeing him and the rest of the group didn’t think much of the farm boy. They left, talking once again with Captain Thragriel and reiterated they would be back later this afternoon. They left and headed towards the Broman home to poke around some more.

As Ironboar and Tempi looked over tow of the four doors they gave them a kick and started two vagrants to come bursting out of another, central door. They took a look at the group and one tried to bull his way past Tempi while the other saw Ironboar chasing towards him and he hung over the catwalk and dropped 12 feet to the ground – rolling to his feet with only some superficial scratches on him.

Tempi elbowed the fleeing one near him into the chain rail and then wrapped his arms around his neck in an effort to knock him out. When he was struggling and scratching at the half-orc he did grow a bit angry and kneed the bum hard. In the nuts. Very hard. The bum cried, pissed himself, and passed out in agony.

Ironboar charged down the stairs and yelled at Device to “stop that guy”. The guy in question hit the doors with a smack and Device was surprised, unable to stop him in time. The barbarian hit the streets, turned left, and charged after the fleeing man, Device right behind him.

Flimflam went to Sern’s General store and spent a few minutes haggling with the shopkeep on a gnomish felt cone hat.

Ironboar was growling as the bum tore into a hovel and disappeared inside. Device yelled out, “Right behind you!” and without pause, Ironboar flew into the home. It was a shit hole and warren. He leapt over a tipped over chest of drawers, heard a noise to the left, and blew through a hole in the wall. He charged right into the next house and heard noises upstairs while two frightened vagrants pointed upward in time to his howling cries of, “Where’d he go!?!?!” He grabbed the ladder/stairs and crawled/raced up them.

The three elves were going to the Broman home when Master and Misses Todron came out to thank them for their help in fixing the curse and that he had no gout flare up since yesterday. He did say that he was talking to other friends of his about the group’s skill and the Meriks next door wanted to hire the group. We were pleased and found out it was to move a couch, a heavy couch, from the upper floor to the lower. Less enthused we thanked him and said we’d contact them soon, heading onward to the Broman place.

Ironboar was at the top of the loft where he spied a hole in the thatch and noises from outside. Device was cursing but shouting to “keep going, I’m right behind you.” Bursting out the hole, the gnome heard the running vagrant and charged up the slope of thatch. At the top he saw the other guy already on the next roof and scrambling to get into another hole there. Running at full tilt he jumped across the intervening space and tried to grab at the fleeing man’s foot but failed miserably and instead plowed his should and neck into the hidden support roofing beam, making himself see stars and allowing the fleeing man to make it inside.

Flimflam then took a nice walk across town to the Hall of Heroes where we used the key Zarik had lent him to poke around the long unused building.

Marcus volunteered to stay outside the home near the front gate while Enthir and Fist’al would check out the grounds and eventually the inside of the home one more time. The scout and mage made their way to the gardens and smelled something foul amidst the roses.

Ironboar climbed up to the hole, pulled himself in, and was on the second floor loft of another peasant’s home. The fleeing vagrant had made it to the bottom of the stairs and on seeing the gnome gave shriek of fright and made to run. It was then that Ironboar used himself as a weapon, throwing himself OFF the loft and landing feet first on the running bum. His boot cracked the man’s collar bone as 180 lbs of gnome and all his gear landed at a 9’ drop from above. The bum hit the ground, Ironboar wrapped his hand in the man’s hair, and then lifted up and smashed his face into the floor to knock him out (and breaking his nose).

He called to Device and the half-orc cleric came, to hear Ironboar say, “Got him.”. Got him? He was badly bruised, right shoulder hanging 4 inches lower than his left, bleeding, and his nose was a mass of busted chewed up cartilage. Using one of his last cure minor wounds he was able to stabilize the unconscious man and then fireman carried him out of the hovel and the two of them walked back to the Tannery and Tempi.

Device was livid – Tempi’s guy was out completely and his nuts were paste and Ironboar’s was badly wounded and would need hospice care at least. The gnome didn’t care and said, “But they ran – had to stop them.” Eventually Tempi’s guy woke up, in terrible pain. Name was Genorin and we coaxed out of him that Lirea might be living in a home behind the Tannery – brown door and one green shutter on left window. Ironboar and Tempi went to check it out, with orders from Device to “LOOK – DON’T GET INTO A FIGHT” and to bring the information to Waywocket home and tell Flimflam. He was going to stay and help the two men for now.

Enthir and Fist’al discovered the dead dog in the garden and the wounds were just like the same ones that Ironboar did earlier today on Bradone. The dog also looked like Whosea. This disturbed the two elves who would be telling Flimflam about this later. A fast detect magic revealed no magic in the area and none on the ground floor. The two elves checked the ground floor one more time and then went back to the 2nd floor.

Marcus was in the front waiting when a group of pilgrims stopped on the other side of the hedgerow outside the Broman home. A realtor was talking about the house and the Final 30 and the good location. It was when he offered to show the place that Marcus panicked and kicked the gate shut. Someone outside yelled “Hey” and “What’s going on”. It was then that he grabbed another handful of rose petals, tossed them ahead, and called out a sleep spell.

Putting nine of the 10 visitors to sleep. The last one was surprised and making lots of noise – so Marcus ran. He cut and ran around the back of the Broman house as fast as he could. He did not alert Fist’al or Enthir inside, instead he booked. As he hit the deck he charged to the end and leapt – attempting to clear the thorn bushes and make it to the grassy garden area beyond.

He failed.

His legs got tangled up and he shredded his pants, the thorns cutting into his flesh and ripping his skin below. In pain he grit his teeth and kept on running.

Inside the home Fist’al heard the sound of yelling out front and then crashing and cursing out back. Peeking through a window he spotted a lone figure charging across the garden area and vaulting into the Waywocket backyard! He told Enthir that it must be one of Bradone’s buddies and they should get him now. The two of them charged towards the back of the house, closing the door and locking it swiftly behind them.

Meanwhile Marcus failed to clear the Waywocket hedges and his pants were nothing just shredded cloth falling off his waist. He was bleeding terribly and had two painful wounds. He limped to the back door and it was locked, and so were a number of windows. He did get lucky and managed to rip the lock on one of the living room windows open, clambering in and slamming it closed behind him.

Limping and in pain he went to the kitchen where he pumped the well handle and filled the wash basin. Then he proceeded to remove the last of his leggings and tried to staunch the flow of blood and clean himself up.

Fist’al jumped over the hedges but Enthir did not, instead he too hurt himself on them, rolling over the tops and ruining his shirt in the process. As they made it to the Waywocket yard Enthir instead slammed his waist into the hedges, flipped over the top, and rolled to a painful stop, in pain and covered in blood. Fist’al just looked at him and shook his head, before going up to the house and looking around. Someone was in the kitchen. Lock picks out, he broke into the home.

As Marcus was finishing up he heard the click of a lock, a breeze of fresh air, and a single creak of flooring from the living room. He took out his bow and backed up, eyes firmly fixed on the door. Both Marcus and Fist’al played cat a mouse for a minute or two until they realized they knew each other. Then Fist’al berated Marcus for not only firing off another sleep spell, but by NOT warning them in the house that visitors were here and running away. Enthir was just glad to clean himself next at the kitchen sink.

Ironboar and Tempi found the house in question and then it was a quick look in and a boot to the door and BAM – they were in. They heard a slamming door further inside the hovel and the two of them went looking.

The found the only other door led to the front of the place – and the main street near Sutor’s Forge (Hi Forge, Tempi waved). Lirea had been here but she was gone now. So the two of them proceeded to tear the place apart – and they found two items of interest – a pillow made of sky blue cloth shot through with white thread and 4 vials of amber colored semi-opaque liquid in small vials that smelled faintly roselike. They pocketed the items and after getting Device who was transporting the two injured men to the Temple Grounds to rest and maybe get medical attention, the 3 companions were heading back to the Waywocket home to find out what the other’s had found and share their own news as well. Time is roughly 12:30 in the afternoon.

Meet 3, Adv 1, 6/9/12

Wheels came off the rails for this meeting. I write my adventures in advance, laying them out before the party runs into them - it's a combination of me being fully prepared as well as having the general path of the adventure already in place. The group is always free to do what they want, but sometimes they do go in their direction and I have to DM off the cuff.

I actually like making the shit up as I go along. And it's a good thing because that's exactly what I did here about half way through the night. The group is moving in whatever direction they feel they need to - and we have 7 distinct and strong willed characters around the table - each with their own opinion on what's important and what should be done next and in what order.

Write up follows:

Flimflam was awakened late at night by Whosea who needed to seriously pee. The gnomish druid took Whosea for a short walk outside before coming back in to get an interrupted night sleep. As for the rest of the group, Tempi had the hardest time waking up as he had been very drunk the night before. His father was unresponsive to his plight and suggested strongly again that the younger Rhyback child should leave the house at some point and have his own place.

By 7 AM we had all reconvened at the Waywocket home where we talked about what our plans were for the day. The main crux of the conversation was a 3 way round about between Device, Flimflam, and Ironboar – with the orcish priest complaining that Flimflam was letting his son run away with his actions and not trying to reign him in. They talked for awhile but honestly there was little resolved.

We had settled on the fact that we should scout Tanner’s Way, the large stretch of street and run down hovels on the south east corner of town around where the old Tannery was. It was an unsafe place under the best of times but we were thinking of going there and shaking down the residents there for whatever we could find or get in order to locate Lirea and Bradone Broman.

We spent some time talking about splitting up and covering the main roadways, and maybe placing someone with a bow on a rooftop to scout out for any fleeing people.

It was about 8 when we had a knock at the door, a young man looking for Fist’al. The elven scout came forward and received a cryptic message that long and short said the Broman’s were not in Tanner’s Way and in fact, one of them was watching the house – this house, right now.

Whazzawhat?

We checked every window and looked everywhere. We noted that the back of the Waywocket home was in visible sight of the old Broman home. But even after 10 minutes of careful checking at the windows, we could see no sign of any watchers there. Eventually Fist’al and Marcus climbed onto the thatch roof and stayed low, looking at the Broman house from a higher loft. Still didn’t see anyone.

Eventually Fist’al did note that we were being watched – but not from the Broman house – from the gallows on the west end of town square. There were people under the gallows (only about 110’ from the Waywocket front door) and they were the watchers. Marcus climbed down and went back in, telling the rest of the group of what was going on.

We came up with a plan. We would all leave the house, out the back door, through the garden, over the hedge all, and around the side street. From there we would come upon the group from behind them by coming around the armory. Everything went without a hitch and when we arrived at the armory, Fist’al and Marcus stayed further behind with bows out and arrows at the ready.

The group approached the gallows – there were three thugs and Bradone and they were sharing a pair of ale jacks amongst themselves. It was a surprise that we were there and they tripped over themselves a bit in an effort to avoid a confrontation that was already here. Bradone spoke to the group and Flimflam was the speaker for us. He admitted he was watching the house, said he was allowed to. Tomorrow he’d watch a different house.

Then he stonewalled and did not answer any question directly, outright lying in some places. It wasn’t until Ironboar began by commenting on his sister and her slutty ways that he grew wroth. The party was trying to goad him into a fight. The smell of roses was getting strong off of him and he was developing a strange tic. Two of his friends made to run and then he lunged forward. Fist’al shot, hitting the Broman elder in the leg and then in the back. Marcus held his blow. Tempi fell upon the other thug, wrapping his arms around his neck and driving his knee in his gut. They went down punching and struggling but the half-orc’s strength was beyond measure.

As for Bradone, Ironboar was fighting with him as Whosea made to bite at his legs. It was when the 9” knife blade came out and the Broman male started quivering and shouting and slobbering, stabbing it into the gnome barbarian’s shoulder that Ironboar let himself go. He let his bloodlust take over, Grabbing the knife and twisting. There was the sickening crunch of breaking fingers and then he stabbed Bradone.

16 times.

5 of them in the neck.

At this point the militia arrived and we were able to calm Ironboar down. Enough people verified that we were attacked first and did defend ourselves. Ironboar was reprimanded that he should be more like Tempi and show some restraint (which did draw a chuckle). As for Broman, a fast Cure Minor brought him stable and he was bandaged up. From there he was going to be brought to the jail and we spent a few minutes answering questions (attacks in town, arrows flying, an almost death – adventuring charter or not – we had to step carefully as this was NOT the wild west and we had to answer for our actions).

We hoped to be able to question Bradone after he was better and as it was Plantmonth the 3rd and roughly 9:30, we talked about what our next actions were and what to do next.