This wrapped up the 2nd adventure for the group. If Squeeze and his cronies would have won, it would have been taken back to Brinster Demesne and tortured until the other half of the party could arrive with the Lord Marshall to help spring them. It also would have meant that perhaps Braddock could have made his escape with LOTS of ill gotten goods and escaped justice.
Didn't happen. Group was spot on and the Squeeze fight went south very fast for the NPC. And yes, I decided that even without a head and cooked, you can raise a still mostly whole goat from the dead.
Write up follows:
After verifying with Larry that the hand off the material to the Lord Marshall’s man went without a problem, Tropor Darbeard was almost exhausted with relief. He then invited the party out to join him and his wife, his man Savaris and his wife out to the Wooly Pegasus; perhaps the most expensive and best restaurant in all of Thak and the surrounding area.
So the group went back to the barracks, got cleaned up, bathed, and were each given a courtier’s shirt compliments on Tropor so they would at least fit the establishment. Einar was feeling weary from the journey and begged off, going to sleep early instead.
We arrived at the Wooly Pegasus, a stately 1 floor affair near the Myr Demesne. The building was heavy stone and whitewashed, the interior clean and brightly colored and lit as well; gold and silver filigree work was present on most of the surfaces. Normally it could seat 30, but even with our large dinner party, there was still half as many seats still empty.
The wait staff was on point, keeping our glasses and mugs filled, and the meticulously made food coming one course after the next. It was somewhere after the third course (a butternut squash soup) when we heard the angry sounds at the front door and the maître de was shoved aside and around the glass block wall came Squeeze and a batch of hired thugs with truncheons held in their grasp.
Fuck. Again?
Wanted to know where we were, know we are here. Saw us and was promising to fuck us up. A quip was made that he was robbed recently? And then the group burst into action. Many of us ran for the doors separating us from the kitchen, Connal and Negan holding their ground enough to make sure Tropor and our companions as well as the wait staff and others dining here had a chance to try and flee out the back entrance.
As for the rest of the group, they fled through the back door to the kitchen but prepared themselves to stand their ground there. Larry turned to the meal prep area and yelled at the cooks to “get the braised goat off the damned oven now” while he gathered up knives and cleavers. Darius raced to the back by the oven itself and gathered up the 4 4’ long meat skewers there. Avulstein dropped his necromantic rats out of the bag he carried and commanded the skeletons to run back into the dining room. Negan called to Odin and dropped a 5’ tall demonic manes in front of Squeeze, stopping the ¼ ogre in place.
However Squeeze had his own guys with him and while the thugs were upsetting tables and knocking people down, a few chucked 2’ metal pipes at the two party members still standing there before a final one hurled a handful of rose petals forward and yelled some arcanic words.
Connal and Negan hit the ground sleeping.
The bad guys ran forward confident in finishing off the two sleeping members of the group. However, we were ready for them. Avulstein yelled to his rats to attack the sleeping party members while holding the kitchen door open. This allowed Darius to turn and hurl one of his skewers like a javelin, slamming it into one of the approaching thugs and causing him to scream. Our necromancer meanwhile tossed his scroll of animate dead animals to Larry who unfurled it while the cooks took the entire braised and cooked goat off the oven, still with the spit sticking out of it. Larry read the scroll and necromantic energies ran through the sorcerer/thief and then hit the goat.
Which stood up. Hooves missing, no head, cooked, and with a 4’ skewer through its body, it turned to Larry who started grinning madly. Meanwhile as Squeeze was figuring out his blows were ineffective to the manes, he picked it up and tossed it across the room with an angry crash. Then before the thugs could get close enough to coup de grace Connal or Negan, Avulstein’s rats hit them and did enough damage to wake the two men up so that when they were struck seconds later by the thugs, it was not the expected killing blows.
While Negan was grabbing at one of the guys’ legs, Connal rolled off the table and went toe to toe with the thugs in the area. Then Avulstein yelled out his own sleep spell through the door and dropped the thug mage and the throwing and beating thugs back there.
And then the damned undead goat came through the door, spring boarded off Negan’s chest, and drove the spear into the closest thug and then drove it to the ground, kicking it to death.
And that was the turn of the battle.
The thugs began looking for the exit as the distant whistles of the watch were being heard. Larry slipped on a chef’s coat and ran out the kitchen and through the dining area, pretending to be one of the cooks as he traveled behind the fleeing thugs on their way out of the Wooly Pegasus. A stab to a sleeping figure and then a stab at another fleeing thug was achieved before he hit the street and blended in.
The group surrounded Squeeze and after a few blows the Brinster’s man realized he was done and gave up, axe hitting the ground. The thugs were rounded up, Squeeze was taken into custody, and the Lord Marshall came to thank Tropor and the group for their efforts. He promised that a letter of recommendation would be sent with the party with his name on it.
We went back to the Wooly Pegasus, the wait staff comped the meal for Tropor, and due to the excitement, the remaining tables were filled. The party passed on the recently reanimated braised goat but it was served to the other patrons who were unaware of its…recent rising.
The next morning we all gathered outside the Brinster Demesne where Braddock, his 1st son, his controller, and another 4-5 count of his top men were arrested by the Lord Marshall. The next few days showed a trial where the upper men of the echelon were found guilty of a variety of charges and were going to Gorok where there would be placed to work at the Penal Copper Mines for a period of 10 years.
The Brinster Demesne would be under the stewardship of Cugan, the 2nd son (3rd child) who had nothing to do with the entire mess. The profits from the League deal would be divided out 75% to House Darbeard, 20% to Stoutbelly Mines, and 5% to Gerti Greatpick.
Squeeze was kept in the stocks for 4 days before he took the fall for the entire mess and was hung from the neck until dead.
The party is hoping to finish their training over the next 2 weeks and then catch the caravan heading to Sorton at that time.
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