Sapphire:Sessions:20150606
Feast Time 7 dawns overcast and drizzly. After breakfast the four walk through the village of Eimoor (EYE-more), noting that among the predominantly human populace are a handful of goblins who mostly seem to be traders. No other dwarves or elves are seen.
The young female apprentice welcomes them into Jacinto's house. She shows them into a parlor where wine, cheese, and fresh hot bread are laid out. Jacinto, a goblet of wine in his hand, rises to greet them. He reports that he had tried to cast a Seek spell on Tholadan which failed, not because it was blocked, but likely because Tholadan was out of range. He is waiting to hear back from his contacts regarding the so-called Tower Mage. Hearing that the group is planning to ride south to the Maston border, Jacinto says he will have dinner prepared when we return.
The road is fairly well maintained and carries a good bit of traffic. The group passes several wagons and a handful of patrols. But five miles from the border, in the middle of the road, they come upon a wagon turned on its side. The bodies of two dead men, a merchant and a hired guard, are sprawled nearby. Various goods, including foodstuffs, lie scattered about. A wooden box built into the side of the wagon has had its top ripped off; whatever was inside is missing. Shawna immediately rides off following the horse tracks that lead away from the road. Chalker sends Yasser to follow her.
Chalker examines the wreck and the area around it. "This wasn't a good place for an ambush," he muses. Logically, the robbers should have taken everything, including the wagon. By leaving such blatant evidence of their crime in plain sight, were the perpetrators sending some sort of message? Perhaps mocking the guard patrols, or frightening other traders?
A quarter-mile off the road, Shawna and Yasser ride past a dead man on the ground, his throat cut. Some minutes later Shawna catches sight of their quarry -- five men and four horses. One man leads a horse upon which another man, who by his appearance is the trader whose wagon was robbed, sits slumped, his wrists bound to the saddlehorn. None of them have any inkling that they are being followed.
Shawna rides to within fifteen yards, glances at Yasser, draws her sword, and sends her horse charging forward. With an ear-piercing shout she gallops between two horses, slapping the right-hand horse on the rump with the flat of her blade. At this, four of the five horses spook and scatter in all directions; the fifth horse is the one with the trader tied to its back.
Her horse continuing forward, Shawna swings her sword at a rider whose frightened horse is losing its footing and starting to fall; the rider (M) Blinks, reappearing two yards away. One of the men (R1), armed with a sword and a knife, turns around to see Yasser bearing down upon him; he tries to dive out of the way, but Yasser's horse tramples him and he cries out in pain.
M scans the situation, taking three steps backward. The mam who had been leading the horse (R2) vaults up into the saddle behind the trader. Shawna, observing that M has six fingers on each hand, growls and throws a spell at him; vegetation grows rapidly upward, Entangling M.
M attempts a Fire spell, which has little effect on the green entangling vegetation. Shawna throws Lightning at him, causing M to stagger. Yasser rides up beside R2, shoving him so hard he breaks the man's left arm; the man tumbles off the horse.
Shawna swings at M's neck, opening a bleeding scratch. R2 collapses to the ground. Some yards away, another man (R3) gets to his feet; he shakes his arms and a knife falls into each of his hands. Yasser grabs the reins of the trader's horse. Ahn-Lee comes within sight and sees a man (R4) staring at Shawna and Yasser; his leg is bleeding.
Shawna slices through M's shoulder and deep into his chest; blood spurts out and he collapses, held upright only by the entangling vegetation. R3 kisses one of his knives, then raises it for a throw. R4 pulls out a belt knife, his attention on Shawna. Yasser brings his horse and the trader's horse to a stop and starts to turn back toward the melee. Chalker TKs the knife that R3 kissed and drives it point-first into his foot; unexpectedly, the knife bursts into flame and starts to melt.
Chalker TKs R3's other knife away, dangling it well out of R3's reach. Ahn-Lee leaps off his horse, driving his shoulder into R4 and landing on top of him. Yasser trots on back with the two horses.
Ahn-Lee jerks R4's knife arm back; R4 screams as his shoulder tendons snap. R2 and R3 are dead; R1 has passed out from shock due to his broken leg. "Nice knife," Ahn-Lee says to R4, getting him to his feet and walking him back to the group.
Shawna cuts away the vegetation from M (after making certain he is dead) and searches him. Chalker says to her quietly, "Make sure to behead that one; you've seen them, right?" Shawna shoots Chalker a glance; "I see we need to talk." In one of M's belt pouches she finds ten rings of soft iron; they aren't magical. She also finds 7gp, 8sp, and 3cp, a bag of diamonds and rubies, a fine sword and fighting knife, a pouch with three crushed spellstones, and a pouch containing human fingerbones.
Chalker questions R4, "What were you doing out here in the woods?" He can say only that he was hired out to "that guy over there," indicating the dead mage.
Yasser has learned the trader's name; "Who wants to talk to Mister Dariant Plum?" "I do!" Chalker volunteers. Plum stammers his thanks to the group. "Two of my men attacked me... Jake died defending us..." Chalker asks, "What was in the secret compartment?" Plum blanches; "The wagon belonged to me and my partner... he must have put something in there without my knowing..." Chalker moves the floating knife a little closer, and Plum exclaims, "I'm the victim here! I was betrayed and robbed! ... The pale guy, he said they were family heirlooms... anyone who touched them was going to die... he looked forward to my blood..."
Chalker moves the knife yet closer, and Plum pulls himself together. "There was gold and silver and gemstones... a ceremonial plaque... some special dinnerware and an ornate candlestick... they were worth thousands! He just threw them all into a big bag and slung it over a horse's back. He sure didn't treat them like treasures... What *is* he?" Chalker: "He's a fancy vampire." Plum, hesitantly: "Is he one of Mother's children?" Chalker answers in the negative, and Plum seems relieved.
Meanwhile, Shawna decapitates the bale (for that is the mage's race). This act dissipates a very powerful ritually-placed spell of some kind.
Yasser asks R4, "Are you ready to turn your life around?" R4, whose name is Tanner, offers to lead them into the swamp to where several bands of thieves hide out.
Yasser first-aids R1 (he's gotten better at it), brings him back to consciousness using Chalker's method (i.e. slapping him awake), and walks him over to the group. Yasser: "Hey there, Sunshine." R1: "My name's Ned." Yasser: "So where were you taking those goods, Sunshine?" Ned points in the direction of the pale man's corpse. Yasser: "He was going to kill you, so technically I saved your life. You owe me information." Ned: "Just let me go." Yasser, incredulously: "*Let* you *go*?" Ned claims that three hours away there are two more of the pale men "working the swamp."
Chalker returns with two of the horses. He searches through the large bag that Plum had described, finding gold, silver, gems, two carved candlesticks, plates crafted from silver, a plaque. Some items are inscribed with names, some of which have an Elven base. A prominent male and female name seem to Shawna to be Bale names. Chalker thinks he recognizes at least one family name from his experiences in Yavalin. Shawna observes with barely-suppressed anger, "Many of these objects are tainted with unwilling blood."
Chalker abruptly wheels on Plum, looking him straight in the eye, demanding, "Tell me where you got these." "They were bought from a man in Lavinia... he said they came from a wrecked ship... said he 'couldn't abide them anymore' so he let them go cheap, 400 gold for the lot. He'd been going to sell them in Tidell or Zondell, maybe." Chalker insists on the man's identity, and Plum says, "His name was Keith Boyd."
Chalker: "You'll have to chalk this off to a 400gp loss. Agree? You need to forget you ever met that pale man. He was going to kill you and raise you as a zombie." Yasser: "Don't go selling any more candlesticks."
Chalker asks Shawna to burn the bale's corpse. She lifts her face to the heavens for a moment, then raises her arms and calls down fire from the sky. As the corpse burns, she throws the bale's head into the flames. She makes sure the fire does not spread and that the body is completely consumed.
The group continues their interrupted journey south, reaching Bordertown around 2pm. There is an unexpectedly heavy military presence there, and they soon learn that Count Hilford Xavier, Baron Dean Burkes, and Earl Sanford Dawson are all in the area.
Ahn-Lee and Yasser go to a bar called the Ram's Head. Yasser slaps a silver piece on the bar, saying "Gimme the strongest drink in the house."
Shawna and Chalker converse privately about bales. Chalker describes some of his experiences in Yavalin. Shawna is very surprised to learn that not only was Yavalin ruled by a bale (Lord Barshar), but he had gathered dozens of bales and encouraged them to settle in the country. The natives of Yavalin, including humans, goblins, orcs, and other more exotic races, had been nothing more than slaves and thralls (and zombie fodder) until Chalker and his companions sparked the revolution, headed by the human mage Talina and a man known as Blacksmith.
Chalker and Shawna locate the military headquarters. Chalker introduces himself to Sergeant Carter as the ambassador from Dolyena and requests a meeting with Count Xavier and Baron Burkes. The Count's personality is that of a hard but fair man; pragmatic; gives observance to the First Chosen, particularly Gauder and Cor. Baron Burkes is idealistic and willful. After an interesting discussion, the Count says he will send for the bandit to lead us into the swamp.
Chalker and Shawna find Yasser and Ahn-Lee at the Ram's Head. Ahn-Lee plays darts, sandbagging a bit to encourage the other patrons to bet against him, and rakes in 14cp. Shawna collects bets as Yasser arm-wrestles the locals and and wins dramatically.
There is another group of four adventurers at one of the tables: Yarrow, a male human; Tyree, a male elf; Dyter, a female human fighter with two swords strapped to her back; Tyolin, a female mage. Ahn-Lee starts flirting with Dyter. Shawna recognizes Tyree as a young elf in his wanderlust phase. Tyolin remembers Chalker; she had worked at Dolyena's mage guild and went on a courier run about five years ago. Tyolin is a level 3 mage who has been exposed to demons (but there are no 'hooks'); strong-willed; greedy; slightly connected to Cor and lightly touched by Roo. When she looks at Chalker's aura, she turns pale and sinks back in her seat.
Shawna murmurs the word "bales" to Tyree. He says there's said to be an evil temple somewhere in the swamp.
Tyolin brings out a golden locket, which she holds in her palm. Etched on the locket are the words "finder's stone."
Ahn-Lee to Dyter: "Nice swords." Dyter: "I was trained by a master. Where are you from?" Ahn-Lee: "I'm from Sapphire."
Yarrow seems to have heard of Yasser's former group... or maybe he's only fishing for information about them.
Tyolin stops and points; Tylee brings up a small crossbow and shoots a creature in the eye. They claim it was a 'stepchild' of the Mother of Night.
Gradually the other group tells more of their story. They are looking for some ruins in the swamp. The locket will open a stairway down into the ruins. They started their adventure with ten people; the other six are dead or departed. Tyolin: "I told Yarrow that if we didn't get at least two more people, I wasn't going."
Chalker looks at Yarrow's Aura; the latter jerks his head around at Chalker and his eyes glow slightly. Yarrow is deeply attached to and blessed by Mensep and Gauder; strong-willed; a thief; neither good nor evil; bloodlust; is loyal and has a sense of duty toward companions.
Chalker alerts the Baron, who will send 25 men with us. "I want to have most of this place cleared out by tomorrow."
The next day Ahn-Lee volunteers to do some scouting, and Yarrow sends Dyter with him. Ahn-Lee spots a watcher in a tree stand and shoots him in the vitals, killing him. Dyter points out another watcher who might have spotted Ahn-Lee; she tells Ahn-Lee to stand still, and while she draws the watcher's attention, Ahn-Lee shoots him. The watcher yanks out the bolt (causing more damage than the shot itself) and utters a muffled yell; Ahn-Lee shoots him again and he falls out of the tree stand.
Ahn-Lee and Dyter come upon a small hut in a clearing, with about sixty people sitting around campfires. Ahn-Lee runs back to notify Chalker. Chalker tells the corporal to bring up the rest of the column and circle around the clearing. "We will attack in ten minutes."
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