Starday, 1st of Readying 690 SV
16.00
After realising they could have easily met their demise, the party gets ready to return towards Rendrick. The male assailant is buried by Curtis after which Caernym finishes some rites to send the poor man's soul towards Heironeous for judgement.
Curtis pulls along the stretcher with Tamris on it, while Killigan supports Hanne. Along the way, several breaks are taken to make sure Hanne and Tamris are still stable. Caernym winces during every break when he sees Curtis' not so gentle way of dropping the wounded Tamris, and the strong liquor being poured into the poor ranger's mouth.
19.30
The party arrives at the farm of John Gallows where they ask John to provide a wagon and horse to more easily transport the wounded. While Killigan takes care of little Beatrice, the others load everyone onto the wagon and depart for their final stretch towards Rendrick. Curtis and John speak about several creative endeavours of woodwork and animal skins which they'll pull off together some day.
20.00
When they're about to reach Rendrick, suddenly panic ensues on the market. People starting fleeing in all directions while screaming : "The wolf ! The wolf is here !" and the alarmbell starts ringing. Curtis runs towards the bell and encounters one of Valorin's archer henchmen. Killigan and Caernym approach the market from a different side and encounter 3 hunters who don't want to let them pass. Curtis spots Rain and hinders the archer's shot, then disarms the archer and breaks his bow on his knee.
While the leader of the three hunters is slighty distracted by Killigan, Caernym wastes no time and punches the guy in the face after which Killigan pushes him to the ground. Killigan then starts mumbling in Dwarfish, which he hopes noone understands, and acts as if he's casting a terrible spell. Caernym casts light on Killigan's bracelet, enhancing the effect. (DM: I didn't know the spelldescription by heart at the time of play, but it was too great a scene so the rules got bent a bit). The hunters buy the hoax and run off. Killigan and Caernym then spot Valorin in the market.
In the meanwhile Curtis spots Grogan perched on one of the stalls with his sword drawn. While Curtis approaches, Grogan suddenly jumps off and an angry howl is heard. Curtis arrives at the scene and sees Grogan and Rain at eachother's throats. Since Rain matches the silverpelt description, they have been given by the mayor, Curtis tries to bodycheck Grogan away from the wolf. Grogan sidesteps this attack and Curtis ends up in a nearby market stall where he's immediately attacked by Gayle, Grogan's wolf.
Caernym tries to hinder Grogan by engaging him in combat as well but feinting attacks here and there. Killigan approached the scene from a different side and arrives in the backs of Valorin and another archer who are watching the combat unfold. Killigan then throws a torch he had taken from one of the market stalls towards Gayle, quicly followed by one of his throwing daggers. Both hit their intended target.
Curtis grabs Gayle, screaming at the wolf loudly, flings it to the side and heads for Grogan. At that moment, Grogan is hit by an arrow and the party sees the arrival of Hanne and Nileth'tan accompanied by a huge grizzly bear.
Nileth'tan then forcefully has to restrain Curtis who keeps on hitting Grogan. The local constable then cuffs Grogan and takes him to jail.
Then everyone heads for the Inn where Helen is taking care of Tamris and Rain. Curtis gives his rabbit to Gayle, who seems to have befriended Hanne. At the Inn, Caernym checks if Helen needs any help tending the wounded, while Killigan pretends to be pretty badly injured in order for Hanne to feel for him. Curtis on the other hand is on a quest for food and already regrets giving his rabbit to Gayle.
22.00
After having eaten, Curtis goes to bed and the rest quickly follows. Caernym spends some time watching over Tamris, performs some minor healing on Hanne and reads from the Book of Penitance until he's relieved by Nileth'tan. Killigan and Hanne share a nice moment together at the top of the stairs when Killigan hands over his potion against burns. It even involved a little kiss on the forehead and a 'score' yell in dwarfish from Killigan.
Sunday, 2nd of Readying 690 SV
2.00
Caernym and Killigan almost simultaneously notice a large glow of fire from somewhere in the village. While Killigan jumps down from the balcony, Caernym quickly dons his armor, wakes up the rest of the party, and heads towards the stables to get a horse.
As they arrive near the fire, Caernym and Nileth'tan start to organise the villagers into putting out the flames, and eventually, when they realise they can't save the building, to make sure the fire doesn't reach other buildings. Curtis stands around confused as he tries to comprehend why the liquid from the buckets douses the fire and the strong liquor in his bottle doesn't.
When Caernym tries to break down the door and enter the burning building, he is stopped by Curtis. Caernym catches a glimpse of what appears to be two bodies, before he is pulled back by Curtis, while the roof crashes down.
Killigan has spent all this time, trying to figure out, where he'd be now if it had been him who had started the fire. He looks for tracks, suspicious behaviour from onlookers, hiding places, and so on but finds nothing.
Then suddenly, it dawns on Killigan and Caernym that this fire could have been a diversion in order to lure everyone away from the wounded Tamris. The party races back to the Inn but finds both Tamris and Rain unharmed.
Memorable moments of roleplay
- DM: Killigan finally appraising Hanne's armor and seeing the look on the player's face when he realizes its value.
- DM: Killigan faking to be a mage about to cast a terrible spell, aided by Caernym's light spell and me screwing up my INT check for the involved NPCs.
- DM: Curtis trying to bodycheck Grogan but missing and bodychecking one of the innocent market stalls instead.
- DM: Caernym's surprised look when Nileth'tan tells him the party did a good job.
Player comments
- DM: Finally another session of this campaign and it's very nice to see the players anxious to continue. Again I had anticipated a much larger part of the story to be finished by now but I'm not willing to cut short some great roleplaying just to advance the plot. When I'm focusing on one player for a part of the story, the others just continue talking to each other in character so that's great. Due to a busy outgame schedule I had to mainly improvise since I hadn't actually read the adventure I was supposed to play but I wonder if anyone noticed that. They did however completely catch me off guard with a plot hook that suddenly dawned on all of them (well almost all of them) which I didn't even think about. It would indeed have been cool to use the fire as a diversion and in the meantime assassinate Tamris. Very cool idea guys, I wish it had been mine.
- Curtis: I really enjoyed this session, a lot of fun, excitement, danger and great roleplaying moments ( especially the "Cheese!!! Cheese out of your nose!!! in dwarfish ) . Can't wait for next one, and I think I can speak for all of us when I say, we didn't notice your lack of time for preparation at all. Everything went smoothly.
| Session 2 | Session 4 |
