So the party decided to head back to town. There were things to buy, rest needed, and we had dodged the council too many times, doing it again would seem like an insult and would be counter for us should we need their support later. It was 11 AM on Restmonth the 10th when we finally rolled up, giving the guards on Burne’s tower a half-hearted wave. We decided to start off again as usual by visiting Auva and letting the Village Elder know what was going on in order to get him at least on our side.
Ventatta met us at the gate and he took care of our horse and cart while we went in and had some early lunch with the elder statesman. Auva was fascinated to hear what we had been up to and commiserate with us on our current state and exhausted appearance. We wanted the chance to go back again and hoped that we would be doing so soon to finish up things with Lareth. We estimated in 3 days the next caravan would show and at that time, the brigands would be reequipped and more importantly, Rannos Davi and whoever in town was in with Lareth would get word of our doing.
Auva was going to have the council gather in a few hours and let us know that the Siksalli’s returned to Nyr Dyv. A new person had arrived yesterday, a half-ogre who was looking for the rest of the party. On learning about him, the group assumed it was Furd. He was a combat assistant at the Veboncac University that had been repurposed just when the college was being evacuated. He was supposed to go with the party but had been given a different position he had to follow.
Right now he was at the Inn of the Welcome Wench. We thanked Auva, told him we’d be there and to send for us then, and we looked forward for a chance to relax and put together a list of things we were going to need.
We left the Ton Elder and made our way west to the main hub where we left the horse and cart with Ales the Stablemaster. On entering the Wench we saw Furd who was at the bar. Furd was over 7’ tall, olive toned skin, and for a half-ogre was more than pleasing to the eye. Flowing hair, chiseled features, a strong jaw, broad chest and huge arms. He sported a 6’ sword on his back and was idly twirling a length of branch while chatting with Ostler Gundigroot.
“FURD!”
“MY FRIENDS!”
We all back slapped and caught up. Turns out one of the administrators had overstepped his limits and grabbed the commissions of a number of the members of the Fighter’s guild to help him, his staff, and his belongings get safe. Once that was done, he released everyone to return to their former commissions and Furd had to travel overland for over 2 weeks to find the party at Hommlet. They in turn filled their friend in on what they had been doing as well as what the next step was to be. Elmo and Furd had a bit of a professional pissing competition, the huge friendly ranger and the larger attractive half-ogre taking each other’s measure for now.
Eventually as suspected, the council called for us to come to them and we went to the Village hall just north of the Welcome Wench. We wanted to talk about what happened and impress upon the council that the job was not done and that they were close to resolving it. We entered and once again besides seeing Auva, bade our introductions to Terjon of the Church of St Cuthburt, Burne the Magister, Rufus his friend and master builder, Ostler Gundigroot of the Welcome Wench, Captain of the Guard Peri, Mytch the Miller, and Jaroo of the Gnarley Woods.
Each of us took turns trying to make our case, Elmo having a turn and for some reason, even Furd being asked to speak. Pestle was doing her best to remind the group not be baited by either Burne’s insults or Terjon’s time wasting. There were some real concerns brought up, the main one by Mytch being simply – instead of the party going out to the moathouse to confront Lareth, after already being forced to run from the person, shouldn’t their efforts be better put to use in bolstering the town’s defenses especially if the demonics were indeed coming?
Terjon offered to help out with a number of holy waters and his own people to join in, if the group would align themselves with him and his interests. No dice. It eventually went to vote and 4 of the 7 agreed we were allowed to still work outside the restrictions of using the low road and get this matter resolved and soon.
Happy with the verdict, we had a list of things we wanted to purchase and hunt down today, hoping after a good night’s rest, that we would be on the road in the morn tomorrow and head back to the Moathouse to take Lareth down for good.
No comments:
Post a Comment