587 CY, Wealsun the 13th: Training!

8 July 2015

Back in Verbobonc, everyone trained and leveled up. The cleric, the fighter, and the elf magic-user all went up one level, the PCs to 3rd and the magic-user to 4th. The thieves trained longer and went up two levels, to 4th. Unbeknownst to Graham and Karox, their training was paid for in part by the takings from the inn.

Taking advantage of the greater selection of merchants and goods in the bustling town of 13,000 people, Billet Graham bought plate mail and exchanged his large shield for a medium shield, which is easier to use.

To Kheldar's dismay—but not surprise—when asked about providing help with the known Evil in the moathouse and its dungeons, the viscount responded that he had no one to spare at present, and that he was confident in the party's continued success, as they had "hit those miscreants hard, by Cuthbert!" He also remarked that he expected the baddies would be busy regrouping, and perhaps even reconsidering whatever schemes they had in motion near Hommlet. Wilfrick readily assented to sending a letter of confidence in Kheldar, by courier, to the Mage Burne of Hommlet, to clear up any lingering doubts as to his character.

Over the course of their two weeks of training and resting, Billet Graham took on another bearer at the recommendation of a local Canon--another stalwart worshipper of Saint Cuthbert, of course. Unlike his predecessor, Barry was tall, loud, and definitely male. Perhaps not the brightest, but his faith and his back were strong. Also of note, another of the faithful, a trickster named Rook, joined the party. He appeared to be of the wildlands to the west: slight of build, with golden skin and straight, black hair, well adorned in jewelry and most ingratiating.

Except for Kheldar, everyone's training was concluded as of the penultimate day of Wealsun. They enjoyed a short celebration that evening, followed by a day of rest during Kheldar's last day of training, and set out for Hommlet once more on the first day of the festival week of Richfest.

587 CY, First Day of the Festival Week of Richfest: To Hommlet!

The trip to Hommlet was uneventful, praise Cuthbert.

On the way into the village, Anaïs stopped off at the moneychanger’s, to give him a gift of Velunan ham. Lem was despondent, and revealed that he had been robbed just the day before. The thieves killed one of his dogs, and got away with a number of uncut emeralds.

The others continued on to the Inn of the Welcome Wench. Karox ordered up the Dinner of Seven Courses, expanded to eight courses for the week of Richfest, with a lovely poached river trout preceding the first of the meats.

As soon as Anaïs arrived in the common room, the mage Burne swooped in, and invited the entire party of heroes to feast with him in the back room. And so they did. Burne asked after everyone’s welfare, and related village news: the only Evil of note in the past fortnight had been a burglary at the moneychanger’s, and a fatal attack on his dog by some animal both silent and vicious.

Over dessert, Burne finally got to the meat of what he wanted: help with the inn burglary of a month past. The party asked if Valiniriel had not returned: he had not. Burne said that in any case, he had not trusted the elf to return in a timely manner, and so had called in an old friend, Brendara, to assist in the questioning. Brendara had cleared Kobort and Turuko of the theft, and simultaneously learned that Turuko suspected Furnok of Ferd, seconding Burne’s suspicions. Unfortunately, Furnok had left the day before, and no one even knew which direction he had gone. Nonetheless, Rufus took a few men and went in search of the shifty fellow, to no avail.

Burne asked the heroes many questions:

• What do you know of Kobort and Turuko?
• What do you know of Furnok of Ferd?
• What do you know of the robbery of this inn, one month ago?
• Have you seen or heard about any of the jewelry stolen from ostler Gundigoot and his good wife?
• Whom do you suspect of this burglary?
• Do you have any ideas about how the burglary could have been accomplished?

Meanwhile, Brendara was listening from the adjoining room, and began her ESP spell as soon as she heard him preparing his first question.

Those with guilty thoughts had to make four Cool checks (Wisdom, +4 for being skilled liars and not having much in the way of conscience). Kheldar did well, though he did let thoughts of Ostler Gundigoot’s living quarters come to mind. Anaïs did much worse: she completely failed to control her thoughts, and (as came out later), recollected killing Valiniriel in an alley in Verbobonc. Really and thoroughly killing him. Oh, shit.

The response was swift and unexpected: first, Anaïs fell asleep at the table, then Kheldar.

Brendara came into the room. Burne picked up Anaïs, and Brendara picked up Kheldar. Karox got to her feet, but felt a blade at the back of her neck, as Rufus intervened. The new guy, Rook, tried valiantly to talk people out of rash action, but when Billet Graham came across the table at the magic-users, Rook gave up on diplomacy and hid under the table. Burne dropped Anaïs, and countered the spell Graham was starting (Sanctuary), by casting Hold Person on him. The only one still active, Karox turned to fight, and Rufus hit her hard in the face and neck with the blade and guard of his sword. She was undeterred, but unable to keep the magic-users from carrying her compatriots out of the room as Rufus held her off. Rook made himself invisible and followed the magic-users at a discreet distance, while Karox continued to attack Rufus. Rufus was calm about it, though her continued attacks were reducing that calm. He finally convinced her that her friends had been lawfully taken into custody, and she was not going to get them back by violence. He said that they would be held and tried as he and Burne saw fit. Then he left her, and jogged after the magic-users.

Rook followed Burne and Brendara to the tower, though he declined to sneak inside. He overheard their discussion on the way, and so knew at least why Anaïs and Kheldar had been arrested: Brendara had seen a murder in Anaïs’ mind. Anaïs had vividly recollected stabbing an elvish man in an alley, making sure he was dead. Brendara hadn’t seen what led up to the violence, though she had the impression it hadn’t been self-defense. She had taken Kheldar because she knew the two rogues were close. Burne agreed it was the most prudent move.

The Hold Person spell on Graham lapsed after a while, after which he and Karox went to ask Canon Terjon for advice. Unfortunately, though they knocked at both of the rear doors of the church, neither Calmert nor Terjon answered.

Meanwhile Kheldar talked with Burne, Rufus and Brendara. He claimed (truly) to know nothing of whatever death Brendara had seen in Anaïs’ mind. Brendara’s ESP bore that out, and he used the viscount’s letter as further leverage, so that in the end Burne was convinced of his innocence and they let him go.

Anaïs’ case was not nearly so easy: through judicious use of truth, lies and something in between, she pled that Valiniriel had “assaulted” her (here, she used her feelings of anger and helplessness at his blunt blackmailing regarding the inn heist, to manufacture thoughts and feelings she hoped would fool Brendara’s scanning). She claimed that she had felt she had no recourse, lest he assault her again. Burne was plainly unhappy at the thought of letting a murder go unpunished, but Anaïs and Kheldar were very convincing. It was, after all, something that had occurred out of Burne’s jurisdiction, it was done in self defense, and Brendara had strong sympathy for the pretty half-elven girl.

In the end, Burne and Rufus decided they could let Anaïs go only on the condition that Kheldar would be responsible for her actions, and suffer any penalty along with her, for future transgressions. Of course, Kheldar agreed. In addition, Burne and Rufus confiscated 1500 gold pieces from Anaïs, that she claimed as the proceeds of Valiniriel’s purse.

So … joyous reunion …. some sleep … and another hike out to the moathouse in the morning.

587 CY, Second Day of the Festival Week of Richfest: Dungeon!

The trip to the moathouse was quiet and uneventful. There were no frog attacks, and no new tenants in the moathouse. The adventurers quickly, yet cautiously, opened the secret door and descended the stairs to the antechamber. The broken secret door was still broken, and once more, they went through the other secret door, to the west.

First surprise: the ogre’s body was gone. They opened the door to the large, L-shaped room, and threw a torch down the southerly leg, so they could see any zombies that might lurk there. It was unoccupied, and in fact there were no discarded zombie bodies, so someone had cleaned up. Kheldar reconnoitered the westerly leg of the room using his new elvish cloak, while the others waited in the doorway.

Second surprise: Kheldar found the ogre’s body. It was standing stock still, among a gaggle of other zombies, all crowded together on the far side of the other stairway. There were some familiar faces there, and some badly burned ones. Hmm …. The zombies didn’t spot him, so he sneaked back to the others.

After a long conference, the party elected to split up around the stairway, and attack the zombies. Kheldar fired the first shot, a flask of oil with a burning rag around its neck. That was the signal for the others to step up and do the same. Soon, some zombies were charred beyond use, and their companions were moving to attack the adventurers.

Standing at the foot of the stairs, Karox discovered a dripping green slime in the archway, when it dripped on her shoulder. Her armor was soon sizzling and smoking. That didn’t seem like a good development …. Anaïs had encountered Green Slime before, and told her to take the armor off quickly, without touching the deadly slime. Karox stepped back and swiftly unbuckled her pauldron, dropping it to the floor with no mishap.

Meanwhile, Billet Graham took a position at the other end of the staircase, and presented his holy symbol of Saint Cuthbert, a silver cudgel. In a firm, loud voice, he commanded the undead to depart, and two of them quickly fled from him, though unfortunately the ogre was not fazed. In the short battle that followed, Kheldar notably took one of the zombies down with a sling bullet through the eye; Karox hacked one from crown to breastbone, and beheaded another. Anaïs and Graham also did their parts.

The only one of the party who held back was the newest member, Rook.  His sole contribution was an attempt to throw a vial of holy water in the face of a weakened zombie that threatened the ladies and Kheldar.  However, his lack of combat experience showed: he hit Karox with the holy water, succeeding only in drenching the back of her neck, and splashing Ricky/Pædro.  Kheldar's abominable little friend was quite upset at his impromptu bath, making noises that sounded as if someone had stitched a tomcat to a chihuahua.

After the battle, Kheldar was determined to dismember the zombies, to prevent recycling. Rook and Barry kept watch over him, while the others retreated to the ogre’s former room, to rest and be healed. A sweaty half-hour later, the zombies were diced, and Pædro the six-legged rat-mole had found two doors behind the pile of junk against the west wall (barrels, crates and shelving, all broken). Rather than open new doors, Kheldar insisted that they check out the southern corridor/leg of the room, with its five doors and archway.

With good luck and a keen eye, Anaïs found a small green gemstone behind a loose stone in the first of the five cells. A search of the other cells netted a foul stench, an unidentifiable gobbet of flesh, and a puddle. Through the arch was a torture chamber, complete with two bodies: one on a stretching rack, some parts removed; the other mostly a skeleton, manacled to a general purpose torturing bench. Still in a dismembering mood, Kheldar cut the heads off, while Pædro/Ricky found something tasty on the floor. The thieves searched the walls and floor for secret doors or anything else of interest, but found nothing there.

Satisfied that they were alone, for the time being, the party went back to the main staircase room and moved the junk away from the two doors. Both were in good repair, with new, well oiled locks. And naturally, both were locked. Kheldar unlocked the one on the right, and stood back while Karox opened it ….