Meet 47, Adv 3, 10/5/13

This marked the "resting" point for this adventure and although it was likely the party would reach here, it was not a given that it would happen. The group had learned before of the Sperthik Homestead and some of the strange youths that had been staying there. They could have disturbed the gathering there before this time and altered the plan.

 

As it was, they did get some wind, and made some changes so that the adventure, as written, was inexoriably changed since the youths did not “do their damage” and leave as expected, but were stopped in town and at the gates – meaning the rest of this adventure is going to be dramatically different since there are less youths around to partake in mischief.

 

Write up follows:

 

We rested well and awoke early on Firemonth the 13^th, with the intentions of going to maybe visit Mahr’s Tower as it was a location that the destructive youths had used before. However, @ 7:30 Lirea came to visit with some news. It seems that a number of Brandone’s former friends and acquaintances had been gathering @ the Sperthik Homestead and were planning something big in town today, against not only the Marshal and his deputies, but also the watch, and the Adventuring group. She only just managed to escape them and came back here immediately to let us know what was going on.

 

We sent her home immediately and then separated to inform and warn the people of Shakun. Geld was sent to fill up water barrels and buckets from the main well in Town Square. Mummus went to Captain Thragrial, Fist’al went to Marshall Westwinter, and Marcus to Baron Taugis. Once everyone was given a heads up we reconvened @ the Hall of Heroes to prepare.

 

Unfortunately, some things had been occurring. A few youths were found near Northgate with some pots of oil. A number of citizenry were growing concerned with Geld’s water gathering and a large number of them were crowding the well, also hoping to get some what seemed to be much needed water.

 

Flimflam, Auri, and Mummus were @ the well with Geld, trying to calm the people down and get our own buckets back to the Hall. Marcus, Fergus, and Fist’al were at the Hall, battening down the windows and fortifying the place.

 

And then what seemed to be a hay cart was wheeled in front of the Hall’s front door and torched. Other youths tried to bust in the shutters, but Fergus’ locks were holding and no one could get in. In the streets, we could hear some smashing and breaking sounds to the south and east of us, and a large number of youths were charging the crowd around the well with clubs and truncheons, trying to scatter them. Our party tried to push their way west ward, to the side of the crowd and hoped to circle back to the Hall.

 

Fergus pulled one of the windows open and got into a conflict with a few of the youth’s there, shield up and ready trident flashing. A lit pot was tossed in to the house but Fist’al was able to smother it. Meanwhile @ the front door, Marcus climbed to the 2^nd floor and peered out the shuttered window. He could see the hay cart and there were 4 youth standing around it, pitchforks showing the flaming hay back up into the cart when it threatened to spill out. He concentrated on the cart and cast Affect Normal Fires, shrinking the fire down in size – and after the youths got closer, he then doubled it past its original dimension – engulfing the 4 of them and burning 3 of them almost to death, the 4^th terribly wounded. He concentrated on the cart after that, keeping the fire low to prevent damage to the Hall.

 

The rest of the party had managed to escape the press of bodies and was picking their way around the gallows, making it to the Militia. It was here that they were able to get a 5 count of the militia men to join them and they raced across Main Street, hoping to move the buring cart out of the way. A few youths broke away from the main pack to intercept, but angry 17 year old wild-eyed farmers were no match for armored and prepared militia men, and one by one, the youths were neutralized.

 

Fergus was holding the window against the rioters outside and Fist’al was able to finally help out with some well place bow use. Outside the hall, the militia men and party regrouped and charged towards the Hall to shove the burning cart out of the way. Down the block a couple of more youths arrived, these with bows and they proceeded to pepper the area with arrows. Somewhere else in town we heard more crashing and smoke was rising into the sky north as well as east of us.

 

Fergus leapt out the window once the last local youth was neutralized and charged the two men with bows, laying into them until the battle was over.

 

At the end of the day, the damages were calculated. 8 townsfolk dead, over 60 wounded, militia forces reduced by 17. 92 youths had taken part in the riots, 5 of which had died during the conflict and another 26 wounded. The Hall of Heroes was lightly burned along the north way, Ungoth’s Distillery was ransacked, the Four Rings Brothel was compromised, Town Hall had some fire and glass damage, Sern’s General Store was trashed, Maltok’s Bowyer and Fletchery was in bad shape. It was going to take over 2 weeks to fix the damage and over 300 crows to repair just the torn up cobbles, roves, doors, windows, walls, and other structural problems. This doesn’t count the thousands and thousands of crowns of damaged, burned, or broken wares that were lost during the day.

 

A meeting was held @ the end of the day with all the movers and shakers in Shakun, the party was invited, where a curfew was established of 6:30 to anyone under the age of 21. There was talk of going after the families of the youths for recompense to the town but it was not ratified. We then talked about having 20 of the Royal Dragoons come out here from Argos to help patrol and keep the peace, but learned that it would cost Shakun well over 1,000 crows for this – money the town just does not have.

 

We need a windfall and a way to “end this perversion once and for all and bring those who glorify it to justice @ the end of the rope.”

 

Finally it was decided that the party would be commissioned to “seek out any treasures and long forgotten dungeons that litter the countryside” and bring back the fortunes they find. Baron Taugis would handle the party’s training for this go ‘round and they would be responsible to return 50% of the found bounty back to Shakun in the interests of repairing and replacing the needed infrastructure about the city.

Meet 46, Adv 3, 9/28/13

The group has been diligent in checking out possible leads and have done a great job in finding out what tidbits have come there way to date. But they are getting a bit frustrated as they are "reacting" and no "pro-acting" to the situations as they are being presented.

So they have made two decisions - one, the check the local caves themselves and two, to go back to Mahr's Tower on the morrow and see if they can find something there.

Both are excellent ideas.

As for the Lamia - that was a "WTF?" situation when a bad roll in the wandering monster chart had one popping up. We talked our way our (and gave up a horse!) and went on our way. Just for fun, when the meetin was done we wanted to see how we would have fared against the Lamia - and after 20-odd points of damage to it, it was pretty much a TPK.

Write-up follows:

The group went to the Rescent homestead where they gained access by quoting the Marshal’s decree. Mac Rescent was not happy at this and told the group they would have to leave their weaponry behind. His goodwife brought them to the house where the party got a feeling that Master Rescent was a bit of a brute and definitely in control of the family and its people. A surreptitious investigation of the home itself didn’t reveal anything to the group so they went out to the fence line and began their investigation.

 

The fences themselves were badly rusted, not entirely through but enough so that they were not going to last or provide any strength. It also covered the entire northern length of the Homestead, from the Mekarin fence @ the eastern side, across the 800 feet to the western side and the bars of the cemetery.

 

Magic showed nothing and there were few if any signs of passage. We did stumble across a single print, bare foot and slighter and smaller than human sized. A search for evil did result in spotting a faint aura which we traced – it went BACK into the farm from the fence maybe 30 odd feet and then…ended. We searched diligently and did find a few ragged remains of fool’s cap mushrooms. The same fugus that appears in toadstool rings.

 

We spent a few hours seriously plotting out the areas in question and deduced that some dozen and a half toadstool rings were opened up and the goblin’s (again – assuming) dragged something across the fence line –causing it to rest. We also drew a line and noted that it missed the Mekarin Homestead and did seem to lead to the collapsed barrow in the cemetery.

 

From there we had lunch and went back to the land north of the Rescent and Mekarin Homesteads where we verified our findings so far to date. We took our findings to the Baron and noted that there was a surprising LACK of youthful adults on the streets. Those that we did encounter were fairly normal and all we spoke to stated that the other had been sort of scarce since yesterday.

 

On word of the Baron and the Marshal we rode out to investigate some of the local caves to see if the goblins were nearby once again and using them as staging grounds to either encounter Shakun, influence the youths, or portal in and out via the toadstool rings. We had Zarik loan us both Codron and Groon for the trip and investigate the closest cave first.

 

It was a simple hole in the ground and mostly packed earth – but it was when it began to narrow and the bats within scattered that we decided to leave and avoid getting caught in the possible cave-in. We then checked another one, the one that Fergus had tossed the Hadesnium in a short earlier. It was still undisturbed and there was no sign of anyone here. We left and was heading back to Shakun.

 

It was here that we were caught in the open by a 10’ tall chimeric form of a large lioness with the upper portion and body of a comely naked woman. Her obvious canines, great size, and off-putting appearance and demeanor had us on the defensive as she introduced herself as “Maach” and wanted one of our horses to eat.

 

It was not much of a stretch for us to give her one of the geldings and departed swiftly with one pack animal down, Fergus complaining bitterly of giant spiders, trolls, and now, “What the hell was that? A Sphinx? Lammasu? Lamia? I mean – what’s going on out here?”

 

Where returned to town and had to answer the “lost horse”problem before we were called to the cemetery for another investigation. The two graves closest to the barrow that hall collapsed, had also sunk in like a sink hole. More dead rats abounded. It was investigated and one of the bodies was missing.

 

We went back to the hall exhausted and talked about what to do next. The lack of kid’s was bothersome and we voted on taking a trip to Mahr’s Tower in the interest of hunting down the youths of the town and see if they are gathering there. @ the same time, Fergus had a vision from Poseidon of some horses @ a similar location that needed his help. We hoped to ride out in the morning, maybe be gone by 9ish.

Meet 45, Adv 3, 9/21/13

At this point the party has met one of the NPC pivotal people in this point of the campaign - a 6th level druid who is here investigating the murder of his master (a 10th level druid). It points to most likely a similar person who the party is seeking - by the ubiquitous nomenclature of Johan Smith.

We know nothing of this person other than he keeps popping up around here - and always around the penchant for troubling times.

Seeing how fast a one on one between the druid, Festin, and one of our own resulted in a poor turn out for one of our own - we anticipate having Festin as an ally in this matter.

We'll have to see how this continues.

Write up follows:

The party dragged Fist’al to the Hospice where he was immediately placed in a private room and given treatment by Father Gavilerin. He seemed in bad shape from the animal attack but would survive his wounds. From there, Mummus, Marcus, and Geld went and gathered their gear before heading to the Pixie Down Inn with the local constabulary to investigate where this figure came from and what was the origin of his attack/flight.

 

What was learned was the room, number 7 on the 2^nd floor, had been rented to a Johan Smith and someone was inside, rooting through his belongings. They were interrupted and fled out the window where they crawled up the wall and escaped across the rooftops. Johan was furious at this and checked out immediately. He had his bag and a few cases (oversized, from what we were told) and supposedly was going to arrange transportation away. What was left in the room was a handful of dirt, some leaves, a few oversized spiders with their legs torn out, and a few grasshoppers, also with legs seemingly chewed off. The three friends returned to the Hall to meet with Auri and hopefully find Fergus and Flimflam back from their ride.

 

As for the two of them, they gathered up the discarded clothing as well as what Flimflam identified as a druid’s disk (4 leaves painted – 6^th level) and rode off with the bag of Hadesnium to discard it in the closest cave. Once done, they turned and rode back where they met up with the party and we all shared our thoughts and discovery. Flimflam was convinced we had a druid to deal with, one more powerful than himself and identified some of the found items as items used to cast Spider Climb and Jump – which coincided with the druid’s actions following his escape.

 

Meanwhile, Fist’al awoke to find a figure in a cowled robe standing near him. He identified himself as Festin Farmer and all he wanted was to get his stuff back. He didn’t mean to hurt Fist’al this much, but the guy did fly over the wall and attack him – he was only defending himself. At this point he drained some of Fist’al’s strength, but did restore him so he wouldn’t be bedridden for a few days. He commented he’d be back later to had Fist’al talk to the “knight looking pompous douchebag” and get his stuff – especially his disk, back.

 

At quarter after 4, the party was @ the Hospice together where they got the lay-down from Fist’al and watched one of the many youths in town storm out with vitriol and anger. From there the party went to the Brothel, leaving Flimflam behind along with the druid’s gear, to talk and meet with Festin if/when he returns. At the 4 Rings, they did learn that the mysterious fighter, Kadan, had checked in last night and rented 2 girls. Then they went to the stables – and found no sign that Johan Smith had come to get horses or to leave. Same with the gates, no gate guard reported seeing Johan or his description passing through in the last 2 hours.

 

Ok, we assumed he was still in town. So we went to Exotic Transportation and spoke with Eherego, learning that this Johan did come in late a few days ago and had a few large chests with him. No he wasn’t here now. He did remind the party to bring them any strange or exotic animal and he would train it for them to ride – strongly suggesting that Mummus the half-orc would look wonderful on a bear.

 

Lastly they had gone to Pixie Down Inn and looked through the older records, finding that Johan Smith (or at least that name) checked in roughly every other week and always stayed in Room 7 – staying 2 nights each time.

 

This brought us back to Flimflam who along with Fist’al did meet with Festin Farmer, returned the druid’s stuff, and learned that he was here following up on the murder of his master some 8 months plus ago by someone named Johan Smith, working for a Marilee Gerison. The same name as the person involved with the banditry around Shakun.

 

Festin’s master was slain by from what the animals around @ his time of death described, some fire and lightning from a flying dragon-like creature. Festin has been struggling to find Johan, tracking him slowly to this place. He had some skill in masking his appearance as well as from magical sight. Festin did NOT want to be noticed and was very uncomfortable in the city walls. He would contact Flimflam now and again via birds and they would share information that way back and forth.

 

We checked Fist’al out of the Hospice and the group returned to the Hall where we shared information and rested. The next few days passed quickly, with the increase in youth tensions getting higher. It was on Firemonth the 12^th that we were asked to visit the Rescent Homestead – the 1^st Homestead right next to the cemetery. It seemed that there was a strange phenomenon of 800’ of fencing being rusted – and only along the northern boundary of the Homestead.

Meet 44, Adv 3, 9/7/13

The right man for the right job.

It happens in every group, someone tries to do something that is outside of their character's capabilities and it bites them in the ass. That was this meeting when our resident elven scout (read - thief) tried to take on the rooftop fleeing figure by his lonesome.

Let's look at this in total. The "enemy" can:
* move faster than normal people can run.
* capable of great leaps either through skill or spell.
* escapes the city through a display of athleticism and superior spell power.
* once outside the city wall - has some way to completely camouflage himself from detection.

And our 110 lb elven thief has:
* under 20 hp's.
* a fly potion.

When he did catch up to the mystery assailant who was revealed to be a druid, he was outclassed, outgunned, and outmatched - dying (going to -3) in a single round of summoned animal fueled combat.

This was a reminder that not everyone is capable to handling every assailant we run across.

Write up follows:

The walk around the cemetery resulted in again, no issue or problems. Maybe the teens in the area had learned their lesson? Tensions were still high in town, but there had been no further outbreaks of violence or escalation of existing issues.

The next morn was bright and sunny, the temperatures already in the low 70’s and going to get much hotter during the day. The group was going over their possible destinations for the day when a knock was heard at the door. We opened and met with Mummus O’Donnell, half-orcish traveler. We learned that he had been in Shakun for two weeks, doing business for his family, the merchant traders O’Donnell. Primarily his mission these last few months were to travel about and find out what needs to be imported in the various holdings and thorps and towns and report it back via aviary or post to his father to make future caravans more in line with what the distant holdings needed.

However, Mummus was a half-orc – the result of a dalliance of his mother and an orcish gladiator some 16-17 years ago. Which made his presence a constant embarrassment to man he referred to as father. So his “fact finding” trip was also to get the large, strong, fighter guild trained 4^th son out of Argosility and away from any spot light.

Mummus wanted to join the party but after already an issue and run-in with Sheriff Westwinter, we wanted to not only talk amongst ourselves, but clear it with the magistrate. Mummus was sent to Town Hall along with Fergus to clear his stay at the Hall of Heroes and the rest of the party voted the approval to have the half-orcish fighter join (Auri was very taken with the good looking O’Donnell and spoke the most on his acceptance to the party).

Once cleared, we had a small meeting with Pelis and were talking on our next step when there was a deep rumbling, the ground shook, and a cloud of dust and grit rose from the south. The group ran, along with a number of excited citizens, eventually coming out of town and back once more to the cemetery. One of the barrows had collapsed; luckily no one was there when it happened. We joined the watch along with the Marshall and some of his deputies, also meeting with the now healthy Undertaker and his staff.

The barrow had collapsed through its center, running almost 30’ diameter, and dropped maybe 10-12’ feet from what we could tell. We helped in the investigation and one of the watch discovered a single unshod footprint in the soft earth. And its placement let us know the figure was heading into the collapsed barrow and it occurred after the collapse! No one was here, and the ruin showed no obvious holes for someone to climb or hide in.

We then made our way to the Mekarin Homestead – just down the road from the cemetery, the homestead that the bad milk had come from. We entered, no one was home. Detecting evil showed none and we saw no signs of issue or problem. The cows appeared to be ok, and Flimflam opted to talk with them. The cows hadn’t been milked this morning and were in some pain so we helped in that matter. The cows did talk of feeling poorly and also commented on the farmer’s daughter being harsh and cruel in her milking, often using her fingernails.

We left the farm and returned to the cemetery where at best could be determined, 3 bodies were missing. There should have been 27, only 24 were accounted for. The barrow was “closed” maybe 8 months ago. We did note a number of mice and rat bodies about, all dead. There were also a number of beetle carapaces about. And it was here we deduced there might be no animals in the surrounding area. A Detect Animal spell verified this, no vermin, rats, mice, or insects for hundreds of feet around this barrow.

From here we went to Tanner’s Way and looked over at the same house we had been at before, this time no wasting time just entering the place. Flimflam also got message from the contact he had made in the Way that the 3^rd guy hadn’t been back and the two guys inside were smoking stolen weed. We looked over the place and found not only the stolen weed, but other things they had picked up from the Way, including a bag of ground up Hadesnium.

Crap.

We had to get rid of it and wanted to take it to the caves again to dump within. Flimflam and Fergus were going to head to the staples and get a horse, ride out an hour or so, drop it into a cave, and return home.

It was 2 PM when the rest of the party heard the sound of the watch whistle being blown. They decided to investigate and followed the cries and tweets, dismayed to find the watch chasing a single figure that was leaping FROM the Pixie Down Inn and TO our home! It ran across the roof and made a beeline for the Charcoaler.and jumped! 20’! Fist’al was furious as this seemed similar to the issue he had with his double the other day – although this figure was moving differently.

Marcus and Mummus followed the street and chased that way, while the watch was coming around the corner. Fist’al opened his bottle of “fly” and drank it down. The figure made 1 more jump from Sutor’s Forge to the edge of Tanner’s Way and then scrambled down to the street beyond. The elf and half-orc hit the alley fast and skipped through trying to catch up. Fist’al took to the air, flying forward to give chase.

The running figure was outdistancing the party and it ran faster and faster and then stuck its hands out and in front of one of the wall houses on Tanner’s Way a six count stand of birch trees burst from the ground. If gripped the tops and was lifted skyward, over the wall, and it catapulted forward and was gone!

Sonofacrap!

Fist’al pushed himself to catch up, eventually clearing the wall, and seeing…nothing! Where the hell? He flew down and after 30, 40 seconds of looking about, grit his teeth and decided the figure we was chasing might be a druid of some sort. So he took out his dagger and started slashing all the close trees and big bushes. His suspicions were correct and one of the trees morphed back into a person and the person summoned…a giant lynx!

The oversized cat clawed and bit as the elf who tried to fly away but was knocked unconscious as he drifted upward and sailed slowly over the wall. Marcus used his Chain-Rod to bring the passed out elf back down and he was then taken to the hospice as his wounds seemed very bad.

Meanwhile riding out of town, Flimflam and Fergus noticed the commotion and raced on horseback closer to help out. The gnome was knocked from the horse and Fergus continued to give chase. The figure that was there seemed to glow greenish and then transformed to a hawk and flew away before the two friends could catch him.