A Book Deal

Characters

Mirella the witch – MU 1 – Magic user 1 – A curious seeker of knowledge, with a niggling worry about getting burned at the stake. 

William – Fighter 1 – A confident middle-aged warrior, scruffy and brave. 

Ferdinand Scheller – Fighter 1 – another Halberdier, equally tall, and equally well built. 

Karl – Archer – An Ostlander and comrade of Ferdinand. 

Ugine – Heavy footman – follower of Mirella. 

Baistaine – Light footman – follower of William. 

Arthur – Cleric 1 – a weak armed bible beater. 

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The party marched out to Xyntillan keen to return to it’s basement and the wine casks they found there. 

Arriving in the early evening, they decided to make their camp in the outskirts of the castle, in the woodland.  William took the first watch. Ferdinand and his buddy Karl the second. But when it came to Pickles the halflings turn he saw some torchlight approaching the camp. 

He quickly woke his friends, who made their way north, deeper into the woods. Pickles remained behind, using his smallness to his advantage, hiding in a bush. Four armed men and a dwarf were led into the camp by turban a wearing mage magus. They were speaking in a language Pickles couldn’t understand, but the hiding Mirella nearby recognised the mage as Vusorin Zaa, someone who had been looking to steal her spell book. 

Brave William took his steed Sunshine to the west out of the wood, a cunning plan was forming. 

Zaa’s men scoured the camp, looking for footprints or evidence. Then, from the South came a clambering racket and shouts of “Quickly, lets get away!” 

It was William, and he was trying to lead the evil party away. Zaa took the bait, he and his men marched south with their weapons drawn. William led them on a merry chase, quickly outrunning them through the dark and into another woodland. Whilst charging his steed through the woods he saw in the distance a wide open fire and men figures around it. Possibly bandits, he considered. 

Whilst this was happening the rest of the party moved east out of the wood and tried to circle around, hoping to flank Zaa and his troupe. But after thirty minutes of movement, they couldn’t not find him. 

William, darted into another piece of woodland, hoping to make it back to his friends without encountering any nastiness. He happened upon Zaa’s men hiding, but with a quick lash of Sunshines reigns was away. 

After this midnight runaround the castle the party made another camp and waited for dawn. 

The rosey sun emerged and they marched to the Grand entrance. They recognised the two gargoyle statues, and anticipated the animation of them when they opened the doors. The gargoyle on the right laughed mockingly, the left statue animated and clicked its fingers. 

They opened the doors, praying not to find the ghostly butler they happened upon last time. It seemed that they were in luck, so they moved to the eastern door, where last time they found the cellar door. 

Ferdinand bravely opened the door. But was surprised when a cackling laugh in the room erupted, and a green vaporous hand came through the door itself and tried to grab him. 

“Flee!” 

As the party marched backward defensively to the door, a melee erupted. The ghost butler raved madly about his precious papers, a list of enemies, that had been stolen. Indeed, the party had destroyed these inadvertently on their last expedition. 

Arrows were loosed, holy water was thrown, but alas, not a single blow struck true. As Ferdinand was touched by the ghost and drained of all youth, his withered husk fell to the stone floor with a puff of dust. Karl was next to feel the cold touch of death, then the retainer Ugine. Lo’ death, thou art tyrannous. The rest of the group ran as fast as their legs could take them. 

“Well that wasn’t a very profitable.” 

As they took a quick breather a merry cleric named Arthur arrived, on the look out for high adventure. 

“Good thing you’ve arrived, our numbers were recently thinned.” 

With no thief in the party, and no grappling hook, the party desperately wanted to get up to the second floor window, where long ago they collected tapestries. They tried to fashion a grappling hook from a rope and crowbar. They tossed this up, failing miserably, it even bounced from the stone and tumbled onto their heads. One toss struck the glass, but found no purchase on the window frame. 

“Lets go over to that gazebo.” They were referring to a large outbuilding they’d only seen from afar. They moved towards it. But, who would come marching out of the trees, only that dreadful wizard Zaa and his goons. 

“Shall we fight?” 

“We should run.”

“They outnumber us, a fight would be death.”

“I’ll go. It is my spell book they want.” Brave Mirella said, and off she marched over to the evil party. After a bit of banter back and forth, she decided to hand over her spell book into the groping fingers of Vusorin Zaa. 

“We’ll get him back some day.” Mirella’s friends comforted her. 

William swam his horse across the wide river, toeing a rope and fixing this to a tree. The rest of the party swam along this line and they had crossed the river towards the strange stone gazebo. 

As they walked towards it, they witness a long necked creature rise up from the bleak waters of the lake. It swam towards them, its needle toothed maw slavering with hunger. The party fled inland, towards the structure and into safety. 

The structure was a six columned open aired gazebo, each pillar was carved into a shape. A saracen, a templar, a monk, a belly dancer, a djinn and a satyr. In the centre of the pavilion there was a bronze statue of a piping goat headed satyr, women swooning at its feet, oxidised green with age. It stood on a large plinth. The party toyed with the structure for some time before deciding to sing to it, this caused the statue to animate and pipe a strange musing. The plinth popped open and inside was a large gilded gondola and a chest. In the container were six emerald robes, simple goat shaped masks, and a clerical hand bell. 

“Take it all and lets get out of here.”

And so they did. What will they do next.