Meet 36, Adv 3, 6/22/13

The framework for this adventure was based upon the party's relationship with the new Marshall. Depending on whether they were deputized or not was going to dictate the direction the adventure went.

Feeling uncomfortable with Marshall Westwinter, they opted to forego the honor and thereby defined the way this little town-jaunt was going to go.

Write up follows:

Over the 4 weeks that we trained we also had our equipment repaired, sold off odd bits of esoterica we had found, purchased new supplies and items we thought would come in handy, and made sure our home was in fine repair and well stocked.

 

Auri was a constant appearance at the Hall of Heroes, although getting any real conversation out of her was difficult as she was very non-descript in her answers and most of her past was still a shrouded mystery. She spent the majority of her day painting, working on some heroic 4 part depiction of Tempi’s final days.

 

As for the rest of us we read books, wrote spells, made contacts, and tried to learn what we could of Marshall Ippsilas Westwinter and his deputies. The Marshall himself was a Centurion during the Goblin Purge and his charter and appointment came directly from King Argos in his desire to “ensure law” to all the towns, cities, and thorps to the west of Elvenkeep that had suffered the most under the goblin yoke and most recently from the organized banditry that was plaguing the roads. Aristocratic, militant, exacting – he seemed to be well received by the people of Shakun although he had made some waves with the established militia and the Captain of the Guard, Thragriel.

 

His deputies were next. An Amazonian woman of 6’2” and 200 lbs., Caladis was his right-hand person and although capable with sword and spear, sported a massive 16# double-bitted war-axe as her weapon of choice. She was terse and showed no emotion except for quiet disgust unless with the Marshall. Sterkis of Woodhelven was next, a wood elven archer who supposedly had some skill as a sharpshooter, greasy looking and furtive, he was known for his long bow which was almost as tall as he was.

 

After that was Zerphis of Gul, a bladesman who was fond of rapier and dirk combat and had spent much of his time patrolling the Elven quarter as well as Tanner’s Way. According to Fist’al, even Pellis the Rugmerchant (local leader of the thieves guild) gave this guy a wide berth and avoided contact with him. Lastly was Belamy Freespell, a booming voiced and friendly personage who although had a broadsword at his waist, was more proud of his ironwood Barmeerian made heavy crossbow. The presence of an overly large tom-cat named Magnum that often shadowed his steps made the locals think that Belamy might be a sorcerer of some sort.

 

It was on the 24^th of Heatmonth, just as the summer was beginning to flow and the temperatures rise that we were paid a visit by Marshal Westwinter and his deputy Caladis. We welcomed to the Hall of Heroes and the Marshall wasted no time in getting to the heart of the meeting, which was to ask the party to be deputized to, as he put it, “promise to support and defend the people and property of Shakun against all banditry and lawlessness in the name of Baron Taugis and King Argos.”

 

Needless to say we were stunned. We tried to ask questions and work around this but the Marshall was looking for an answer now. Our questioning of his request only seemed to irritate the Marshall who began to lose confidence in us. He wondered aloud at what type of adventurers we were, if we were rabble-rousers or not. He asked to see our charter which we presented and he pointed out that Geld, Auri, and Bildad were NOT on the charter and therefore were not entitled to stay at the Hall of Heroes and should find lodging elsewhere. He also wondered if the town Exquecher, Gilderoy Farwalk, had come in to take our quarterly tax responsibility.

 

We begged for time to see if taking the deputation would conflict with our current charter with Baron Taugis and settled on finding out and an answer on the 26^th. The Marshall left, Caladis with him, reminding the party that Geld, Auri, and Bildad had to be out and someplace else by 10 PM.

 

After he left we realized that the Marshall being pissed at us for not jumping at his request was going to be a thorn in our side. He had mentioned bandit attacks between here and Orland over the last week or so and that if that was the case, we were not performing our current charter as adventurers. Also, since he ostensibly answered to King Argos and not Baron Taugis, the Marshall was a bit outside the normal chain of command. By having us be deputized we would then be under his “command” so to speak and not the Baron’s. This was a bit beyond us for now.

 

Auri went to the Rhyback’s to sleep, Bildad going with her. Marcus put up Geld in the Pixie Down Inn for the night. As expected, we were “checked” just after 10 PM and assured the deputies that we were good, and the 3 non-signed members were not staying here. We rested and the next morning gathered together and made our way to Town Hall to meet with the Magistrate and add BIl, Auri, and Geld to the Charter.

 

We noted that Sterkis, the elven deputy, was watching us during our trip across Town Square and did NOT see him upon our leaving. From there we went to see Baron Taugis and spoke to him in couched terms about the Marshall where we were given to learn that the Marshall was actually following the letter of the laws in question if not the spirit. We left the Baron and returned home where we were asked to show our Charter and then had to sit with the Exquecher as he went over our finances and made sure our tax responsibility was up to date.

 

After he left we talked long about the deputation and eventually decided that we would NOT accept the tin stars the Marshal was offering. Belamy Freespell did show up to visit with us on the 25^thand even though we knew he was checking up on us, he was engaging, conversational, and seemingly friendly. We did try to get his drunk of Bullywug wine but the effects instead seemed to pass on to his cat and he remained clear-headed.

 

As expected, on the morning of the 26^th @ 8:30 promptly AM, Marshall Westwinter and Deputy Caladis returned where we respectfully declined his offer of deputation and told him that we wanted to maintain our focus as adventurers first and maintain our primary allegiance to Baron Taugis.

 

It went over like a drunk dwarf at an elvish wedding.

 

The Marshall had just left, incensed and disappointed at our decision and hoping that we would at one point come to our senses and revisit this issue.

Meet 35, Adv 3, 6/15/13

This was the unofficial soft-start of the 3rd adventure I called "All the King's Horses". It was to be a mostly town adventure, much needed from the constant d20 sword rattling and dungeon crawling we had been in as of late.

One of the things that came up was the introduction of the new character Auri, a femal half-orcish fighter - played by the same player who had recently lost Tempi. There was a sort of expected, "hey, welcome," time and intro but during the role-playing, it morphed into a wedding between the dead former character and new character - which was both humorous and morbid at the same time.

Write-up follows:

Following the notes as they appeared on the Hall of Heroes, we went to visit Baron Taugis @ Castle Canastel and were surprised to find the place poorly guarded by a single inebriated guardsman. We had some conversation and learned it was the Baron’s daughter’s 14^th birthday 3 days ago and the party was still going on. The guard tottered off to go announce us and we realized that there was no one in the barbican either watching. This was not normal and we were very concerned. Eventually the guard returned and escorted us in, but not until he was tricked into eating a goodberry that Flimflam had prepared earlier to restore sobriety.

 

Head clear, he escorted us to the banquet hall where we feinted drinking. There were almost a dozen very inebriated people here, a mix of keep staff and guardsmen. From here we went off to the audience hall where the Baron was sitting in various ill fitting clothing and his daughter was making out with two men. Many signs of drunkenness and lewdness were taking place. Fearing something diabolical, Fergus used his abilities and assured us that there was an aura of evil coming from the floor and walls.

 

We got the Baron sober (more goodberry) and a handful of guards as well as his family (his daughter was chased up to her chambers). There was supposedly only 2 casks of ale for the party put it had been three days and they kept finding more cask of ale in the larder – so the party has been stretching on.

 

With the party now ending and the drunkenness coming to an end we talk to the Baron about Brandone Broman and the bandits who has suffered from goblinwater and their deaths in the basement. It was maybe 2 weeks ago and the bodies were given last rites by a visiting priest of Hades and then interred in the Potter’s Field in an unmarked grave.

 

The priest of Hades had been here for 3 days and Father Gavilerin had vouched for him. Did he have something to do with the evil? And what was with the casks of seemingly endless ale? We checked over the basement fully and found that 4 more water casks had some of the ale in it. We were given permission to take one back to our Hall to study and then looked over the rest, deciding that the origin point of the evil might be the dungeons where the two men died and the priest of Hades had done his ritual.

 

We left the baron’s and split up: Flimflam headed to the Rhyback’s to let them know of Tempi’s passing, Fist’al headed to the Broman Estate to meet with Lirea, and Fergus and Bill went off to the Temple grounds to talk with Gavilerin and see about the Hadesian priest that had visited earlier. Marcus and Geld had stayed at the Hall to work on the aviary noted to Perrin, the artifact seeker who had hired the party some time ago.

 

Flimflam went to Mamma Rhyback and Derrick and did his best to explain what had happened to Tempi and how he had died. Meanwhile the Rhyback’s had a half-orcish female fighter in the house who had come to marry Tempi (some sort of planned nuptial). There was much tears and blaming of Flimflam of this matter. During the difficult conversation it came around that Tempi SHOULD marry Auri (the half-orcish girl) and Flimflam should do the ceremony. Then afterwards he could be buried without issue.

 

The gnome was flabbergasted and it didn’t take much (other than SERIOUSLY disappointing the 350 lb 6’9” barely calm and collected Mamma Rhyback) to be convinced to do this. Auri (who had been crying) was thrilled at this and was whirled away to get the planning in place. The wedding would be tomorrow @ noon…with Tempi’s internment to follow.

 

Fist’al went to the Broman home where Lirea was thrilled to see him. Eden (her sister, 9 years old) was asleep and Lirea’s home had gone under some repairs, but still much was to be done. He shared some Bullywug Wine with her and the two of them became drunk, where they retired to her bedroom and spent the rest of the night enjoying one another carnally.

 

Lastly Fergus and Bil went to the Temple where the met Gavilerin and learned that the priest was a travelling priest of Hades but one he had met before. The feeling that some sort of evil ritual was performed was bothersome to the venerable Father who agreed that he would go on the morrow @ perform a cleansing on the area, hopefully enough to diminish the evil aura.

 

On leaving Fergus did visit the shrine of Zeus and made a donation there before the two of them returned to the Hall of Heroes.

 

The aviary was sent and Flimflam informed the party of the ceremony he would be performing tomorrow on the dead Tempi. They checked over the body – he was in bad shape and smelling and rotting. Fergus worked on a coat stand with extra bracing to hang Tempi on during the ceremony and Flimflam wanted to go in the morning to the Undertaker and get some shrouds and linens.

 

In the morning Fist’al returned, taking the long way around to check out the new Marshall’s home (construction was going on there), as well as getting an invitation to…Tempi and Auri’s wedding. It was apparently going to be a town-wide event. Flimflam ate fast and went to Nadere the Herbalist to talk with her about the men who had died in the Dungeon and to talk to her about getting some Myrrh to help combat Tempi’s growing fecund stink. She suggested the undertaker and Flimflam went off to Southgate.

 

There he was stopped by the guards who had been given explicit orders NOT to let him out (Mamma Rhyback had feared he would run). Meanwhile Town Square was being retrofitted for the wedding and most of the townsfolk passed said they would definitely be there. The guards went and got the Undertaker who dickered with Flimflam to the tune of 13 and a half nobles to help prepare Tempi’s body for the wedding and funeral to follow but would need 2 hours to get it to happen.

 

So they raced back to the Hall and got the body ready. The “tempi-stand” was going to be touch and go to see if it would hold (the party went with “please hold!!!”) and we followed the aisle to the Town Hall where Tempi was wheel barrowed in place and then lifted to the stand…which held for now.

 

The wedding march began and in the view of over 1,000 townsfolk and visitors, Auri was escorted down the aisle, wearing white, led by Derrick and Mamma Rhyback to meet her husband, marry him, and then proceed to his already prepared gravesite. During Flimflam’s impassioned oratory, the tempi-stand groaned and broke. Only Fergus’ quick thinking stopped the dead half-orc from falling…him and three of the other ushers, the four of them literally holding Tempi aloft and pleading with Flimflam to finish the ceremony.

 

Eventually it ended and Auri became Auri Rhyback. Gifts were given, we learned that part of the price Flimflam had to pay was to automatically admit Auri into the party as a full member, and then once the papers were notarized, Tempi was placed in a coffin and then led to the graveyard where he was lowered to his final resting place and buried.

 

During the massive town party afterwards Fist’al snuck back to the Marshall’s house where we posed as a laborer and gave the carpenters a hand. Marshall Westwinter returned and took some note of Fist’al but seemed to dismiss his presence shortly afterwards. Unable to leave now without attracting attention Fist’al worked until 5 and then returned to the Hall after getting a mental layout of the 1^st floor of the Marshall’s home.

 

We began our training the next day and for the next almost 3 weeks worked hard on our skills. During the training Perrin did show and not only paid us for the statue of Zeus, but also bought the Statue of Apollo and the Malachite festooned vase with Hercules on it, giving the party enough money to pay for training as well as have a few extra coins in our pocket. We agreed that if he had other jobs we’d be interested and he said if we found any other religious themed artifacts he’d be happy to buy them.

 

Training was going to be over on Heatmonth the 24 but there were other things going on in Shakun during this time that was going to keep the group’s free time occupied as they were to learn.

Meet 34, Adv 2, 5/25/13

And this ends adventure two. The party did what they expected and had a nice wilderness treck back (lots of chatting at the table, hence the lack of "getting things done"). There are some bookkeeping that have to take place next meeting and then it's roll roll roll into adventure 3.

Write up follows:

We trucked out of Candlewick, walking south in effort to reach the clearing beyond the Endless Forest. Fergus and Urthar were pulling our laden cart, forcing it both around and over the large tree roots that made up the floor of the forest. As we approached the border though, the old growth was replaced with new growth, which also meant underbrush and other flora to slow us down. Ben added his weight to the cart, pushing along with the two men pulling.

By 11:30 we were out and we pressed on, following the border as we went. Fergus and Flimflam were being very cognizant of the forest, trying to find the huntsman cottage once again. By 2:30 we arrived there and let ourselves in. It was the same as the last time we were here, nothing new having happened in our absence.

We rested and thought about trying to find Kair Konig again, talking about our options and what we could try, when Kair himself arrived, alerted to our presence by the number of strange figures in the woods as well as what his animal companions advised of him.

We traded him some of Korlok’s blood and talked about our options. He knew about the dryad acorns Flimflam was carrying and spoke to the gnome in depth about what his options were, eventually the two druids coming to a solution that (spoken in Sylvan), was in the best interests of druids, no necessarily the party or general civilization at large.

We rested the night and left the next day on the 27th, heading the long way to home. We ran across a troupe of 13 halflings and a single gnome travelling to the oracle at Titestory to find out why the gnomish young man was having terrible dreams and a seemingly bout of bad luck dogging his steps. They went with us to the Roaring Treant Inn on the traderoads where we rested for the night after much drinking and carousing.

On the morn of the 29th when we attempted to leave we were pressured to buy a sway-backed nag from a travelling dyer who we thanked but moved on (after Fist’al stole his sample pouch because the guy was being a douchebag). And it was in the evening of the 29th that we arrived finally in Shakun.

We made our way to the Hall of Heroes where we had a note to 1) contact Ms. Rhyback who wanted to have Tempi meet someone (awkward!!), 2) contact Baron Taugis on our return for something regarding the Waywocket home, and 3) Meet with Centurion Westwinter, the new Marshall, when we were able to.

We split treasure, paid off Link, Urthar, and Ben (actually giving Ben the magic shield we found). From here we wanted to rest and then begin the process of training and re-equipping ourselves over the next few weeks.