Meet 60, Adv 3.5, 3/15/14

This was our wrap-up meeting for the 2nd half of the adventure - and adventure that ended no where near the place that it had originated in. In fact - the party wasn't "there" for the end of the adventure and had abandoned the plot about 3/4 of the way through.

At this point they will have to clean up their pile of "purloined" treasures and pay off their hirelings as well as Baron Taugis and the citizenry of Shakun. Three of the party members had gone up in level (Half of Marcus, Mummus, and Taryn - the new gnomish cleric) and one of the party members retired (Sanric the bounty hunter) - to be replaced with his new character - a sorcerer.

The party has dealt with their internal betrayal and hopefully have the catharsis that it would demand - allowing us to move on to the next adventure and do so without any problems.

Write up follows:

So there it was, 12:30 AM, on Workmonth the 18^th and we snuck out of Elvenkeep through the Church of Poseidon’s controlled Horsegate – a normally livestock passage through the thick walls along the northern border of the stronghold. The guards on duty paid us no mind and we took to the road travelling west. The dark hours passed for some time until just after dawn where we rested the horses and got some minimal sleep before pressing on – eventually making Ferron @ 8 PM that night.

 

We had no pursuit and kept to ourselves during the trip, avoiding any travelers and any possible questions that might follow. At Ferron we did NOT stay at one of the fancier hotels, instead going somewhere off the beaten path where Sanric grabbed a suite for himself and the rest of the group fended in the Commonroom or bunked with Flimflam and his animals.

 

At 6 AM we were up and on our way, knowing that we wanted at some point to have conversation with the Leatherworker’s Guild here and maybe entice some of the journeymen to come out to Shakun and work on reopening the Tannery there – jumpstart the decade long defunct leather industry. We arrived at Timberton @ 9 PM that evening where we took room at a matron dowager who let us a place to sleep, eating sparsely and again – answering no questions.

 

On Workmonth the 20^th we were up and again, on our way by 6 AM – knowing that it was not going to be until tomorrow evening that we’d be back in Shakun. It was around 1 PM that day that a 5’ wide, 17’ long, 2’ tall very fast lizard emerged from the woods, glanced at us, and took off very fast. Flimflam used a speak with animal spell and had conversation with the racing lizard, eventually convincing it to follow us and we would keep it sated with deer meat.

 

We made the Roaring Treant Inn by 7 PM that night where we took rooms and rested our horses. Flimflam had some conversation with the stableboy, Taulib, happy to see that the young man had continued with his adoption of Demeter as his patron goddess and the two of them further expanded on the stableboy’s indoctrination to Flimflam’s religion.

 

On Workmonth the 21^st, amidst the dreary late summer rain, we were on our way by 7 AM, racing lizard keeping pace as we travelled on. It was about 4 PM when we hit the lizard with a sleep spell, hobbled it with lengths of rope and muzzled it as well, and then loaded most of it onto the cart and continued on our way to Shakun. When the lizard awoke, it was wroth and tried to escape, but the ropes held it in place and eventually it seemed to burn itself out a bit and grew weary and lank from expending too much energy.

 

We made Shakun by 7 PM on Workmonth the 21^st and took care of a few things. Eherego gave us 1000 crowns for the racing lizard, and Higrane (the stablemaster) was furious that we had kept the few horses that the town had for 2 weeks longer than originally expected. This pushed back @ least 3 caravans and impacted much of the local farmers and homsesteaders that were depending on the original schedule. We paid the extended rental fees and apologized for the situation – admitting that we needed to open the traderoads between here and Heatherfield so that Shakun could get some new horses and ponies.

 

We met with the Baron @ 8:30 PM where we also saw the Marshall and the Captain of the Guard. We had learned of the strange uprising that occurred 5 days ago, over 20 of the youth’s that had died during the uprising had arisen as ghouls and swarmed over the walls from the cemetery where they made attack on the city, tearing through Tanner’s Way and making it as far as the Pixie Down Inn. They were eventually stopped though a joint effort of the town’s fighter’s, the Marshall’s men, Zarik Ikarsbane and his warriors’ in training, the militia, and most surprisingly – a visiting fighter and sellsword named Kadan who lead the charge and turned the tide on the undead scourge.

 

We learned that the appraisers from the Argosilitian Mage’s Guild was still here and was waiting to see us and help Baron Taugis and the party come up with a fair and equitable amount for what we had found as well as what the town was able to earn. We had much to do and were happy to finally be home and not have to run out anymore. So we left the Baron Fist’al’s head and made out way back to the Hall of Heroes were we were hoping to get some sleep and face the new day on the morrow.

Meet 59, Adv 3.5, 3/8/14

As a group about the table, the party was pretty furious at Fist'al (and lesserly to the player playing him) so much so that when the betrayal occurred, the game had come to a crashing stop, adventure forgotten, and we had a new focus. Also, Flimflam had said at that time, "We're going to find that bastard and make him eat his own dick."

Obviously an "anger" statement and not one to be taken literally. Except that was definitely on the table and one of the many plans for the elven murderer - and when they had the opportunity, that is exactly what they had made the culprit do.

Let me tell you, for a table of guys, we were all a bit grossed out at it. I also think that the death of Fist'al and our "missing" the rest of the regular adventure was sort of a catharsis for us - and we'll be a tighter group because of it.

Our roster of people are in flux but after the next write-up I should be able to post it correctly without a problem.

Write up follows:

With our false documents in hand we went to Elvengate, a southern entrance to Woodhelven located up against Elvenkeep. The guards there were only nominally suspicious of us, addressing Marcus primarily and reminding him (and the rest of us) that anything that might go wrong would be on his head.

We were through the gate and proceeded as best we could in a south-southeasterly direction, hoping to find the encampment Fist’al was hiding in before he moved on. A three count of elven Dragoons rode out to us, verified our paperwork, and seemed to be only marginally interested in the cover story we had concocted. The party felt a bit out of place, the forest was old – terribly old – and we knew we had to step lightly, and get out.

A number of unicorns had emerged at one point, the group was pretty much ensorcelled by their appearance, but the equines had then moved on. We were looking for the Shimmerstream – a major waterway in Woodhelven that we knew from the scrying before ran very close to the encampment Fist’al was hiding in.

It was just about 10 to 5 that we came upon it, and we were also hailed by a figure in the forest. An elven female emerged from some distance and questioned why we were here. Guessing her to be scout for the encampment, we tried to draw her out in conversation but she was having none of it. Instead she was willing to escort us around the training lands of “The Brotherhood of the Silent Shot” and guide us on our way to Elvenkeep.

We allowed her (Celwyn) to do so, noting that she did walk us some 500 north and then turned at a right angle and walked us some 300 west – giving the group the feeling where the encampment actually was. We also were able to pick up faint sounds and bird calls from behind Celwyn, making us even more aware that the Brotherhood (and maybe even Fist’al) were out there. The jig was about up, because Fist’al would see any of us, or catch our name – he’d most likely run.

It was here that we then turned and dove for cover, while Auri and Mummus tackled Celwyn and finished her off before she could do anything more than bark in surprise. Arrows filled the air as we scrambled off our horses, the group being on the receiving end of the crazy fusillade of feathered shafts falling about us. On the enemy side we did hear one of the member cast a bless spell, which resulted in the arrows falling with a bit more accuracy.

The group returned fire but the amount of trees and cover made it difficult to get an accurate shot on either side. What we did do though, was concentrate most of our fire on the enemy cleric, forcing him to seek shelter and prevented him from casting spells as freely and as fast as expected.

The group sneaked their way forward, jumping from behind one tree and racing to the next one, bringing the fight closer and closer to the elven contingent. Flimflam held onto his precious bottle of “Elven Control” and was trying to get within 30’ of Fist’al – supposedly how far we had to be for the potion to work. But in our struggle to get closer fast enough, we came within range of one of the elven defenders who fired off a sleep spell – which dropped Whosea and Auri – but was NOT powerful enough to also knock out Flimflam. And our gnomish leader quaffed his potion, took control of Fist’al and had the thief/murderer step out and shout, “Enough!”

With Flimflam controlling Fist’al we were able to sort of allow the Brotherhood of the Silent Shot to let us go, Fist’al “volunteering” to lead us out. We went, hoping against hope that we could far enough from the Brotherhood as possible and NOT run across any other elven contingent in the forest. Especially while using an extremely illegal “potion of Elven Control”. We ticked off the minutes – knowing that we had 60 minutes of the potion to be used before it would end.

At 20 minutes north of the Brotherhood, we had Fist’al strip off all his armor, weaponry, and magical items, the rest of the party quickly scooping them us and hiding them throughout the party. And then it became gruesome and Flimflam forced Fist’al to bend himself completely over in, swing his leg over his head…and then physically eat his own manhood from his own body and swallow it. Even though it was something Flimflam had said he would make Fist’al do, it was still terrible to behold; blood running down his chin, the former thief chewing his own flesh off and swallowing it.

From here we then forced him to swallow the potion of polymorph, turning him into a donkey. Which immediately broke the potion of elven control since he was no longer an elf. A calm animal spell eased him up and we dropped rope and bridle on his neck and escorted Fist’al out of the elven forest where we entered Elvenkeep through the main gate. From here we went to the Temple of Poseidon where the priests were thrilled to have the murderer brought in for justice.

And their justice was a multi-tiered thing of brutality and cruelty – rape, torture, death, healing, breaking and battering. Over 30 times Fist’al’s heart stopped beating during the 6 days of torture, the priests continuously bringing back north of 0 hps. But it was midnight the 17^th or Workmonth, Fist’al had been broken and we were given supplies for the long journey back to Shakun. The only thing left was the removal of Fist’al’s head with a burning hot sword and the cauterized grisly item placed at the bottom of a leather-lined sack filled with oats.

Meet 58, Adv 3.5, 3/1/14

The group did a lot of travel on this adventure and I could have sped it up and hand-waved most of it, but decided not to. Multiple reasons: to show the passage of time, to allow the opportunity for road encounters, and to give the world scope and size - not dots of civilization and things to do with bland greyness between.

At this meeting the party did make it to Elvenkeep and I was able to give them a sense of scale to the size of it. Mentioned often, first time actually seen. They had no time to explore it, limiting themselves to the Temple of Poseidon and Artemis - but there was enough of a gravitas to it that I don't think they were short changed.

Write up follows:

Workmonth the 7^th, on the road back from Orland to Shakun, 9:30 PM. We talked about of plans and wanted to literally stop in Shakun briefly, get fresh horses, send some missives ahead to every church, shrine, and temple of Poseidon that the rookery of Shakun would reach. We slept soundly and moved on the morning of the next day.

We hit a merchant caravan at 7:30 AM, heavily armed and armored. They were willing to ride with us and we shared food and time with them. It was @ 3 PM on Workmonth the 8^th that we arrived @ Shakun. We went to the Sperthik Homestead and met with Master Sperthik. Some information was shared about his horse and we ended up giving him the 57 crowns the supposed wizard, Caleris, had paid for it (but not the blue topaz that Flimflam held on to). He thanked us (getting 3 times the value for his horse) and said he was taking his family soon and move to Orland. He asked us that if his daughter, Giselle, ever came and asked, we were NOT to tell her that they had gone to Orland.

Once in Shakun we split up and arranged new horses, wrote a number of missives to be sent via aviary – including reading one sent here from Fist’al’s family! They had said that they wanted the armor and would make an offer – but if Fist’al had a way to take it from the barbarians, that he should do so. The letter was critical of Baron Taugis and humankind in general and the party was aghast to read some of the things they were learning.

We also had conversation with Pelis, shared with him Fist’al’s duplicity and his hiring of Lashulak to throw us off the scent. The thief guild master was angry. He gave us a contact name in Elvenkeep to meet up with that should allow us some sort of passage into Woodhelven.

Finally we concluded our time in Shakun with the Baron and then by 4 PM, rode out and travelled east towards The Roaring Treant Inn and then Timberton beyond. We made it to the Treant @ 10 PM, the horses worn out and our own bodies tired. We slept soundly and were awake @ 6:30 AM. After breaking our fast, praying, and readying the horses – we were gone @ 7:45 AM, on Workmonth the 9^th.

We rode up to Timberton by 5 PM and opted to ride on, eventually coming to a stop @ 8 PM – the horses once again beyond weary and the 6 of us ate a fast and cold meal of travel rations before crawling into our bedrolls and falling asleep. The only interest during the night were a family of 5 skunks that had taken an interest in our trash and Marcus hit them with a sleep spell and then dragged them elsewhere to avoid exposure to the party.

We awoke on Workmonth the 10^th at 4:30 and prayed, broke our fast, and then rode onward. We hit Ferron by 1 PM and again decided to push the horses and keep going. We met up with a caravan by 6 PM and joined them, sharing once again what we had as well as 2 people for watch during the night. Camp was established @ 7 pm and the group settled down for sleep by 8.

On Workmonth the 11^th @ 6 AM we awoke, bit the caravan a farewell, and rode on to Elvenkeep – pushing the horses once again. We knew that this was not going to be good for our steeds in the long run, but for now and the fact that we were trying to make it to our quarry before he was lost to us in Woodhelven it was an acceptable.

The miles passed and it was @ 1 PM that we arrived as the massive structure known as Elven Keep.

Huge 45’ seamless walls forged centuries ago by dwarven slaves before the Kinslayer Wars and Deepingdale Uprising, they encircled a tremendous area of land with many houses and structures both outside the outer walls as well as inside. Supposedly a garrison of over 1,200 warriors strong with about 1/4^th of them elven, it sat large and imposing on the border of Woodhelven – offering a barrier to the elven lands, the settled East, and the frontier West.

Once here we made our way to the Temple of Poseidon, once of the larger main ones @ the Keep and met with the Patriarch. We explained who we were, what we were doing, and brought him up to speed on our seeking of Fist’al (he had already gotten our missive a few days ago and the word had gone out). The brothers and sisters of Poseidon were wroth @ Fist’al and wanted to bring him to justice sooner rather than later.

It was at this point that we asked about possible scrying for Fist’al and the patriarch agreed to do so for us. We were able to see Fist’al had achieved Woodhelven and was in some sort of scout training camp – talking to 9 or 10 other elves. He seemed well received and in good cheer. We were able to deduce there camp was a few miles past the Elvenkeep/Woodhelven gate and we would need to sneak in there somehow.

Sanric and Auri went to the Temple of Artemis to meet with the elven Melisander archer and priest – a very comely and charismatic person who within just a few minutes, had Auri panting in want. A deal was struck for a letter allowing them past the border (with Marcus as the focal personage) but it wouldn’t last for too long. During the forging of the document Sanric practiced archery with the Artemisian acolytes while Auri was bedded by the very attractive Melisander.

All that left in the plan was how to sneak Fist’al out (the church of Poseidon wanted some time with Fist’al for his slaying of one of their members and paladins). Flimflam was working on a trade with an alchemist loyal to Demeter for a polymorph potion where the imbiber would take on the form of a donkey for 1 hour.

At this point it was 3 PM on Workmonth the 11^th and we wanted to get ourselves together and make the trip into Woodhelven and get Fist’al back – before ANYONE gets word to him that we were either following him – or this close.

Meet 57, Adv 3.5, 2/22/14

At this point, the character that is Fist'al is no longer being controlled by the original player and is now an NPC. However, before this happened, the player had given me some feedback on how he wanted Fist'al to escape and came up with a plan (rough form) to throw the party off his trail.

And it worked.

The group is now 4 days behind their quarry - in the wrong direction, and needs to race ahead of the clock and him if they are ever going to find him in time and bring him to justice.

Write up follows:

Workmonth the 6^th, the group awoke and moved themselves around, shaking the dust off their rooms and opening windows. There was talk about spending 4 days or so working around town until the Appraisers showed up to value the elven chain and our other belongings and what we would have to do to ameliorate the situation between Fergus and Fist’al.

And speaking of Fergus, he still wasn’t down for breakfast yet. Flimflam wearily climbed to his feet and trudged up the stairs to knock on the paladin’s room. It was while he was just outside of it that he noticed Whosea had gotten quiet, the mastiff snarling at the closed portal, his hackles raised and ready. Unsure of opening the door, the gnome whispered to Marcus and Auri to give him a hand and they shoved the door aside.

Fergus Shelby O’Kain, Paladin of Poseidon, one of 5 in the entire kingdom. Was slain.

The paladin and our friend was on the ground, staring upwards with sightless eyes, a brutal hole in the middle of his muscular chest, blood soaking everything: mattress, blanket, pillow. The shutters were open and a warm breeze was playing on the cooling body. Nothing else in the room was missing.

We quickly convened and grabbed equipment while a few of us made an effort to find out what happened. We noted that Fist’al was not around and a couple of us went about, looking for our erstwhile elven companion – originally to get his help. But as his normal haunts and jaunts came up empty: Lirea, Pixie Down, Pelis, etc… we grew even more concerned as to where he was and WHAT might have happened. So we searched his room.

And noticed that every piece of his personal  belongings were gone.

At this point our thoughts shifted from, “We need everyone together to help solve this”, to “holy crap –one of our own for the last 5 months killed a paladin in his room late last night while he was sleeping”.

We convened at Pelis the Rugmerchants and while there, explaining what happened to the guild leader, he connected us to a bounty hunter of some renown: Sanric. Heavily tattooed, having some skill and capability, he heard of our plight and was willing to help out – collecting murderers was his specialty. The bounty was placed at 500 dead, 1000 alive, as per Baron Taugis and we rented horse and then headed westward towards Orland, following some clues that Pelis had given us based upon information he had overheard Fist’al talk about.

We had learned that no gate guard remembered Fist’al (or anyone) leaving that late, but a single horse had been stolen from the Sperthik Homestead early in the morning. So we went there and felt comfortable that what happened was Fist’al escaped through a rope tossed over the wall in Tanner’s Way, made his way to the Sperthik Homestead, one of the most western homesteads and we know had no guard dogs or support people, stole their singular nag, and rode west.

It was 10:30 AM when we took off and we rode as hard as we could, daring to push the horses when able too. The miles were left behind. We came upon a merchant bringing hay to Orland, two kids on top helping to hold the hay in place. He reported that hours earlier he had come upon a lone rider heavily cowled riding the same way, but otherwise no one else. Must have been Fist’al.

The night dropped and we rested, watching as little as possible to make sure the animals were not too winded and on the 7^th of Workmonth, by 7 Am we were off, riding through the Orlandian Woods northward towards our location. Knowing bandits were normally in the area we kept a keen eye out but saw no one. Sanric and Geld helped us keep the animals in good shape and guided the weaker riders where necessary in order to get the best speed from our steeds.

It was 3 PM when we came upon Southtower, the gateway/watch tower on the way to Orland proper. We announced ourselves, our business, and asked the rider if there was anyone who had just come into town. We were assured so and directed to the Inn where we could make our attention known and capture/question the suspected Fist’al.

We rode in and hitched up our horses, entering the inn with care. Maybe half a dozen people, one of them heavily cowled and in the corner near the steps. A few VERY bedraggled whores were plying wares that no one wanted. We talked to the innkeep, watching the cowled figure carefully and upon mentioning Fist’al’s name and murder and paladin and bounty the man in question got up, went up the steps quickly, grabbed one of the whores and shut the door behind him – just a moment ahead of Sanric followed by the rest of us. Auri, after watching which room the figure went in to, went OUTSIDE the inn, watching the windows to make sure the figure didn’t try to escape this way.

We were convincing the hooker to open the door, while the other one was trying to alternately convince us to leave her alone and to come along with her for a good time. While this was going on Auri noticed the male figure inside open the window and make to escape that way – but on seeing the Amazonian Half-Orcish fighter, he turned tail and returned to the interior with a sheepish smile.

We finally made the woman and man inside open the door and pushed our way in. The man was named Lashulak, and was a young member in Pelis’ employ in Shakun. He had been given a job by Fist’al in which he had “to lead a bunch of fools the wrong way to Orland, lose them, and then return home” while the elf rode the other direction, hoping to make it to Elven Keep ASAP.

Fuck. We were duped.

We got the entire plan and the renting of a good riding horse earlier that day (by Lashulak) that had been hidden in an abandoned Homestead. The separation of Fist’al and Lashulak, riding opposite directions, and the eventual sending of 25 crowns as a note to the young man as final payment for his efforts.

Auri, able to speak Cant, was able to identify that Lashulak kept calling himself 17, and canted enough herself to make Lashulak trust us as members of the thieves guild – or at least affiliated with it.

So we thanked the Marshal @ Orland, commandeered Lashulak’s steed that he had taken from the Sperthik family, and rode out of Orland on our way back to Shakun. We plowed through the Orlandian Woods without real issue until we came upon a singular elderly gentleman. Wearing long robes, sporting a jaunty wizard’s hat, and carrying a 7’ staff gnarled and festooned with crystals he wanted to buy our lone horse, saying his feet hurt from the walking. We were going to say no but he pulled out a pocket of coins (57 of them) and a blue citrine worth another 50 crowns.

So we sold the man, named Caleris – a sage and seer from Brewer’s Bridge, the Sperthik horse and wished him well, moving on in our ride towards Shakun through the dark late summer night.

Meet 56, Adv 3.5, 2/8/14

Greed.

In this meeting, our group fell victim to it. Through a series of mysterious strange rolls and random happenstance, we had one character have the benefit of finding a set of Elven Chainmail +2, Bracers of Defense +2, and a Ring of Protection +1. Coupled with the party's dismissal and often-times disdain - there was little interest in sharing and what happened was a "you vs me" mentality after some period of time.

And then it came down to role-playing. It was a terrific role-playing period at the table - but a shitty friends around the table moment.

One character brutally murdered another character in his sleep and then absconded with his found magical gear after leaving a false trail for the group to follow.

It literally brought the game to a stop and almost 2 hours of discussion followed. @ the time of this writing 3 weeks later in real time - it's still not fully resolved and put to bed for the players in question. We've had some shake-up at the table and new characters are flowing fast and furious. Stay tuned to follow along!

Write up follows:

Fist’al expressed his unhappiness with the group over being left for dead and the party countered with that they could not find him and they sacrificed some of their magic to get him back. It was a tense night, with most of the pointed glares running between Fist’al and Fergus.

Later that night, Fist’al had an opportunity to talk with Flimflam and express to him the concerns he has on turning over/mentioning the elven chainmail to the Baron. It is a singular piece that if turned over to Baron Taugis, would be worth such funds that we could not ever have the opportunity to claim for ourselves. Fist’al tried to get Flimflam to understand this point and even if we don’t “keep it”, at least don’t mention it for a few days so he could write to his family and attempt to get them to purchase it.

The two of them talked at length until Fist’al seemed comfortable that Flimflam would be seriously contemplating his request, even going so far as to add, “and don’t let the paladin sway you otherwise.” After this, past 11 PM, the group settled to sleep.

During the night a herd of wild horses came within range of the camp, but Marcus who was on watch, let them go and the rest of night passed without issue. We awoke the following day, bandages were changed, splints removed, and healing dispensed. We ate and then saddled up and moved on. It was obvious to us now that Mahr’s Tower had moved during our stay there as the hills we were in were not the same we had ridden in earlier. In fact it took us over 6 hours to get back to an area that we recognized and then the remainder of the day to come to Shakun.

We were surprised and blessed to come upon a small scattering of shaggy short horn wild cattle and with some effort, gathered the 10 cattle together and were able to bring them to Shakun as well. It was Workmonth the 4th, 9:30 PM when we finally came through the gates. We went to Exotic Transportation and set about a deal with Eherego on stabling the cattle for a few days until we could arrange sale/turn over to the town. The agreed upon price was 1 cow to stable the other 9 for 4 or 5 days, and said cow would be used to offset his spiraling food costs on the griffons he had and was training.

We then went to the Pixie Down Inn and drank, ate, and relaxed until almost midnight where we went back to the Hall of Heores and rested.

We awoke on the 5th of Workmonth @ 9 AM and broke our fast before going about our possible missions of the day, knowing the 1st was going to be taking a trip to see the Baron and filling him in on what we’ve found and possible abatement of our loan and spiraling costs. Fist’al was going to the Aviary and would be back in a few after sending out letter to his parents about the armor and after he was gone, the group talked intently about what was going to happen, settling on telling the Baron everything – even though we knew it would seriously upset Fist’al.

Fist’al took a long time to return which concerned the group and two of them took a trip to the aviary and eventually Pelis the Rugmerchant’s, always seemingly a few steps behind Fist’al – who had come back to the Hall with some skewered lamb on a stick and knowledge that some merchant family was going to invest in Sern’s General store and take it over.

And then, once the two other members had returned, we filled Fist’al in on our plan to come clean and complete to Baron Taugis which drove the elf absolutely furious. He was incensed and upset and incredulous – at one point flat out asking Flimflam if it was Fergus who had ultimately changed his mind. When no one denied or gainsayed it, he grew wroth and clammed up – following the group to Castle Canastal and the Baron.

We told Baron Taugis of everything found, which pleased the Baron who announced he would send for a tower mage/appraiser from Gul or Argosility to come and give us a true value for some of the treasures found. Then sale (or purchase) would follow and eventually funds would be dispensed. Appraised wouldn’t be here for at least 4 days or so – which placated Fist’al (seemingly) that he would have enough time to get an answer from his family on the missive he sent.

From here we spent the remainder of the day cleaning up, taking care of what items we would hope to sell/trade, and talking about or next step. Going back to Mahr’s Tower was seen as dangerous (the mage was awake, and appeared to be more powerful than we were willing to chance) so we were going to take a few days off, talk to the appraiser, and decide then what would be next. Fergus worked on a birdhouse, and Flimflam went out, finding a wild raven he could charm and befriend – adding it to his menagerie.

Not trusting Fist’al’s reticence and silence, Marcus attempted to cast an ESP spell on the thief, but his thoughts were almost entirely about how he disliked Fergus and derided him constantly in his thoughts. The group went to sleep, our angry elven scout going first, and we would see what the morrow would bring.

And unknowing to them at this time – it was going to bring blood, betrayal, and death.