Player Characters
- Malik – Fighter 1 – a Thalazian blade master, with a spiffing helmet decoration.
- Cleitus – Magic-user 1 – a thin young man with a fascination for the moribund.
- Aetos – Magic-user 1 – An Urr experimenter in the arcane.
- Eos – Assassin 1 – a scrappy killer in the making.
Retainers
- Antifus – Ranger 1 – a wise walker of the wild.
- Brutus the wardog.
- Mamercus – fighter 1 – likes a drink, likes a fight, in for a penny, in for a pound.
- Dill – man-at-arms – wild red haired warrior.
The night was long and cold after the parties return to Rubble Diamond. Many things occurred during the downtime period between games, things that shall remain secret. The party, led by Jassan, had a meeting with the elders of the village. It was decided that the sword of Gunther Wyrmslayer should be presented to Lord Blanbot in the north. Jassan and Aetos spent the evening in the luxuriant villa of ruling merchant and factory owner Bianor. They emerged in the morning looking rather worse for ware, and not uttering a word of what occurred within.
The party discussed what they would do next. Jassan would stay behind with the sword, while Eos proposed the party help him with with a profitable job. Eos had been given a contract to assassinate a wizard in Grand Alum and retrieve his spell book. For this he would gain 720 gp. The person offering this work was the wizard’s rival, both were apparently apprentices to a great sorcerer. It seemed like good coin for easy work. All remaining PCs agreed to tag along and split the reward, all except Niarchos the paladin, who Malik though it wise not to bring on this adventure. Very wise too, for he’d definitely disagree with such bloody business.
The horses were strapped with their bridles, mounted, and whipped towards the east. Off they went again, south of the vineyard of Pralan the cyclops. Whilst traversing this area they witnessed the jungle snap back as a figure lunged into the long grass. Behind this dark shadow several armed men carrying swords and longbows darted into the grass. Being mounted and aware of an ambush the party peeled off to the north as quickly as possible. As they fled, the long grass parted and a great panther came darting after them. Looking over his shoulder Aetos saw a barbaric man riding the great cat, calling after them and lashing a whip. The horses were far to fast for this lithe beast and they made away. Some hours later they were in the small village of Grand Alum.
They arrived at the tavern and paid for a nights stay. It was still early, only around ten in the morning. The PCs decided to gather some rumours. Who was this wizard and where was he staying? They soon learned that he was staying in the very inn they now stood, and apparently guarded by seven barbarians.
The party lingered in the bar around for quite a few hours, hoping to see if the wizard would emerge. Finally the barbarian guards arrived, led by a warrior wearing blue scale mail. The barbarians all floundered to celebrate and toast their leader, a broad shouldered Thalazian named Cratus. The barbarians spent hours drinking, gambling and bantering. Eventually their leader received a lovely meal of roasted quail and honied parsnips. He taste tested the meal for poison and took it upstairs to his ‘master.’
The steel was hot! The party finally found their opportunity to strike at the wizard. Cleitus developed a cunning plan. He ordered the barbarians several rounds of wine. After the excessive amount they’d already consumed, several of them began to pass out or vomit.
Malik and Antifus went upstairs to see what room the wizard might be in, followed by Eos. Soon Cratus came out of a door carrying the dirty tray, and locked it behind him. There was an intense stare down in the hallway between the two Thalazians, but Cratus soon went back downstairs. Eos then tried to pick the lock to the wizards room, but failed.
Back in the bar the barbarians were a drunken wreck and decided to go to bed. Cratus descended the stairs and Cleitus once again tried his tactic of plying alcohol to his victim. After a couple of rounds of wine Cratus was vomiting through a window, just in time for Eos to come back downstairs and lift the keys from him.
The stumbling warrior finally decided to go back upstairs to hit the hay. Alas, they heard his cries when he couldn’t find his key chain and began banging on the barbarians door to let him in. Cleitus and Eos ran upstairs to see what the kerfuffle was about. Cratus and two barbarians, drunk and raging, marched off to find their keys. Cleitus figured this was the perfect time to cast his sleep scroll. All three men hit the floor like wet mops.
This initiated a serious conversation between the characters. Should they drag these men into their room and slit their throats? Could they do that? No, no, they would let them sleep, and instead kill the wizard and flee.
Using the key Eos opened the door to the wizards room as quietly as he could. Inside a hunched figure worked at a desk, and peering over him was a two-foot tall genderless creature. Eos snuck into the room, grabbed the wizard and quickly slit his throat. Blood pumped all over the assassin, but he sealed his victims mouth to prevent any scream. As soon as the wizard died, the strange grey man atop the table melted like a candle and erupted into flames. Malik and Cleitus rushed into the room and collected the papers strewn about the table.
They searched but couldn’t find a spell book. After patting down the corpse they felt a mass in the chest. They parted the wizards tunic and saw a terrible tiny grey man growing out of the corpses chest. It clutched the spell book tightly. They snapped off its terrible little arms and collected the book.
“What the hell do we do now?” Two of the party were covered in blood, there was a weird mutated corpse with its throat slit, and a bizarre melted man on the table. They came up with a plan in record time. They’d frame Cratus, the man paid to guard the wizard. They dragged the sleeping warrior into the room and drooped him over the bloody body, knife in hand. Then they washed up as best they could and fled the inn; though not before Cleitus decided to ‘gift’ Silas the inn-keep twenty gold pieces.
“We were never here.”
They mounted their horse and rode into the night, a job well done. Alas, they rode so hard they totally lost their bearings. After an hour of riding too and fro they found themselves at a woodland they didn’t recognise. A perfect place to camp? Apparently so. The party set up a series of watches and untethered their bed rolls.
In the dead of night, two moons gibbous overhead, a terrible mewling was heard by Eos. It was like a barking or shrieking, but definitely not from the mouth of a dog. Eos lit a torch and peered into the wood’s yawning mouth. Eight needle lined maws came rushing out at him. Giant weasels! Brutus the wardog began howling and the party awoke in panic. Dill, the recent hire, ran headlong into the fray but was instantly torn apart by three of the fiends. Confused and dazed the party darted around the campsite swinging at the creatures. The weasels lunged and snapped at their quarry. One was felled, then another, but Eos had one leap on his face slash his eyes. Then Antifus was surrounded and set upon. Brutus the hound slew one of them, just for another to leap on his haunches and tear out his throat. Defeat seemed imminent, but finally another weasel was crushed below a blade. The remaining creatures fled.
The party started to regroup, wrapping a bandage around Antifus and calculated their losses.
Dead – Brutus the wardog, Dill, Eos.
What will they do next?
Also posted at Dragonsfoot
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