It is evening. The guards have been dispatched to check on Dessa’s Aunt (note: not the mother of Dalla — the Aunt was never married and has no children). Food, drinks, and lodging tonight are free for us! We retire for the evening after a night of good celebration.
Rem’e is concerned about the letter he received – and keeps his eyes open for ruffians coming into town. Rem’e shares his concerns with all of us.
The morning is a little tired – a bit of hair of dog seems in order. Morning oblations come early, and Rem’e practices his ocarina while Rhun prays to Sarenrae … the sound does not ease Rhun’s nerves with the remains of the ale pounding in his head. At breakfast we eat arugula and soft boiled eggs. Liadan asks Rhun about his dreams – Rhun discusses his dreams of the crone and his worries that his father’s legacy is cursing him.
“Who let the horses in! Look at these long faces — I don’t want to interrupt your arugula, but I’m getting a drink…” Tsarbagnus stumbles over, quite probably still drunk, “..and I’m not going to be in town much longer, but I’d love to have a word with Ariza before I go. Bartender! Whiskey!” He stumbles off.
Liadan and Ariza wonder at the rune on the stone … it looked like a delta.
Ariza is interested in speaking with Tsarbagnus but wants first to find out what’s going on with the Aunt. Rem’e goes to find Dessa at her office – she’s not there. He asks a serving boy if Dessa is about.
“She’s out visiting farms, checking on people.”
Liadan visits Gemma and takes her on a morning meditation walk as part of her apprenticeship. The day dawns into a typical day on the bluff. We can hear the hammer hitting anvil, merchants begin opening shops.
We visit Tabar and ask whether he’s seen any rough looking humans come through. He notes that lots of people come and go – there’s even a large caravan coming into town now. Ariza watches the caravan – a rather large one with four wagons – a little far away to see now.
Ariza sees Tuxel Wu speaking with a couple of guards. Ariza scrutinizes the guards … they seem to be paying close attention to what Tuxel is saying. She looks closely at Tuxel’s lips and reads, “We’re going to set this place to rights, don’t you worry.”
Ariza watches for Legs (the dog) but doesn’t see him.
Liadan talks to Gemma about what she has in her spellbook. Gemma has a number of first level transmutation spells: animate rope, reduce person, silent image, sleep, magic weapon, identify, and expeditious retreat. Gemma is tall and skinny, not very strong, but she’s smart, nimble, and very well educated. She has no aptitude for necromancy or conjurations … she doesn’t get summoning monsters.
The caravan gets closer — trade master Warsh is leading the caravan.
Rem’e asks Rhun about the dragon prophesy, and we agree that we want to go back to the kobold cave if we can. Liadan, Rem’e, and Rhun meet up with Ariza. Rem’e asks, “Should we go and visit Habistaw?” Ariza responds, “Most certainly – he’s much more interesting than all of you.”
We get up to the second floor and we hear a dull boom and smell a sulfuric smell… Ariza knocks on the door. Habistaw opens the door, and suddenly the whole floor smells like rotten eggs. Habistaw opens the door coughing a little, “Oh – Ariza, it’s you! What can I do for you?” *cough*
Ariza opens some of the windows. “Are you ok?”
“Oh yes – just some experiments – got to keep knowledge flowing.”
Ariza looks for alchemy equipment but doesn’t see anything – mostly just jewelry making equipment.
“Ugh – I’m never going to get the smell out of these scrolls!” We help Habistaw air out the scrolls. Liadan introduces Gemma to Habistaw.
“Oh yes – sorry to hear about your family, but you’re in good hands now.” Habistaw shakes Gemma’s hand. She noticeably is having trouble with the smell. Liadan asks Gemma if she knows prestidigitation … she does, so they clear out the smell from the room. There are shouts of complaint from down the hall.
Habistaw asks, “Do you want to sit? What are you doing? Innocent victims.”
Ariza answers: “First off, as you probably heard, we dispatched a bugbear — and we found this amulet.” Liadan pulls out the amulet and asks if he can give us any insight into it. Habistaw looks at it, “This belonged to a bugbear?? Do you mind if you leave it with me for a while? Of course I’ll look into it.”
Ariza: “Also we’re not satisfied with the kobold caves … and these two oafs grew too quickly…” (she eyes Rhun and Liadan), “and we’d like to investigate more about the dragon.”
“Well it’s dead – so what’s there to investigate? Necessary sacrifices. What?”
Rhun: “…That future hasn’t happened yet… We never saw the dragon. Can we get more reduce person potions?”
“Oh… what reducing potions? Two killers.“
Ariza: “Is there anything you can do to help find Cronen?”
“I’m not sure I can do much for people not wanting to be seen.”
Ariza reflects on Habistaw’s interjections: innocent victims, necessary sacrifices,two killers…
Rem’e pulls out his ocarina and tries to play, Rhun encourages him. Rem’e chokes out an elementary song or two despite the stink of brimstone. Habistaw applauds loudly. Rem’e bows with a flourish.
Liadan presses Habistaw about finding Cronen… Habistaw declares that the room is too stinky, “I can’t bear it” and he walks out of the room leaving us in it.
Ariza looks at his crystal ball – removing the cloth. It just looks like a clear ball. Gemma is looking wide eyed around the room. Ariza and Liadan can’t tell what Habistaw was doing. It doesn’t seem like alchemist’s file.
Gemma says, “Excuse me… I can’t, I can’t….” and holding her nose, she turns and walks out the door.
By the time we get downstairs, Rem’e has already managed to have a change of clothes… smelling much better… we have no idea how he managed that.
Ariza goes looking for Tzarbagnus. He’s still drinking at the bar. Ariza goes to have a drink with him.
Rem’e, Rhun, and Liadan go visit Tudik Warsh at the caravan. Rem’e is paying attention to the wagons. The people look regular – he recognizes some of the blood brothers … seems they had an easy trip.. no visible wounds, they seem in good spirits. Tuxel is managing the unloading, filling the gap in leadership. It seems they are starting to stock up the bluff for the winter months.
Rem’e waves at Tudic. He welcomes them. “How have things been at the bluff. It’s been a peaceful couple of trips.”
Rem’e explains that things have been interesting here. Tudik notes, “that’s an old saying – may you live in interesting times!”
Tuxel notices us, but doesn’t say anything – continuing to direct the unloading.
Rhun asks Warsh if his travelers are all prospectors or if there are others. He seems to believe that all of his travelers are good sorts. He does wonder about where Cronen is. “Oh … and what’s that smell?”
Back at the inn, Tzarbagnus speaks to Ariza. “…Hey, what’s that smell?…. I’ll tell you Ariza, you saved my bearded butt. When you come back to Amber, you come and talk to Kiff – we’ve got ourselves a bit of an organization, and you’d fit right in. And it pays well.”
“Does it pay well, or does it pay great?”
“Are you well or are you great? It pays to have the support of the locals when you’re trying to make a living. And if you’re great, you’ll make a bundle.” He slaps her on the back.
We look around – Ariza checks to see if the soldiers and tradesmen mind Tuxel running the show. Seems they are more interested in following orders.
Tzarbanius pushes by Rhun, Rem’e, and Liadan as we come back in. Liadan cleans up Ariza, Rhun, and herself to make the smell go away. Liadan checks on Gemma – she has also cleaned up. Liadan says, “I just came to check on you. You may join us for lunch.”
We hang out in the common room for a while. We then ask around among the gate guards if any of the four soldiers sent out to Dessa’s Aunt returned. “Yep – nobody has come back. Dessa went out this morning.”
Rhun asks how we would get out to the Aunt’s house …”Dilla’s house is on the outskirts: it’s quite a ways out there.”
It’s quiet now with most workers out at harvest.
We decide to wait for Habistaw in the common room. Rem’e learns a few bawdy songs from some boys in the tavern … he promises not to let anyone know where he learned it. Rem’e plays his newly learned songs loudly and the boys take off in a hurry, not wanting to get in trouble, but throwing him a thumbs up as they run.
The evening comes – farmers come in to drink their fill. Half way through the meal, a serving boy approaches: “Pardon me dragon slayer, Ariza, Habistaw sends you this.” Rem’e spits some of his corn out trying not to guffaw. Ariza tosses the boy a coin. The boy thanks her profusely.
The letter reads, “Oh Ariza – I’ve learned so much about this amulet – come up when you’re done with dinner. I’d come down but I’m not very popular right now in the common room.”
We go up after dinner … the room still smells fairly bad.
Habistaw holds up the amulet. “This is a very interesting device – it’s an ‘Amulet of Infernal Orders’ — very interesting that a bugbear had this. Good thing that none of you heroes wore it – it would make a good person insane. And, it can be used to call devils!”
Ariza: “How much is it worth?”
“Probably a couple thousand…but probably a lot more if you found the other one – they always come in pairs. If you have both, you can communicate with the other through it.”
Ariza thinks out loud, “Who was he talking to…”
The amulet is a gold chain with a pendent holding a large red stone, likely a ruby.
Rem’e asks how we might make use of it, but Habistaw doesn’t know. Ariza suggests finding a shifty friend who might be able to help. Liadan asks about the shrinking spell – Habistaw doesn’t know where he got the spells. But, he asks us to get him some bacon. “I’m famished.”
We ask Liadan if she knows enough about the amulet to determine if we can be tracked by simply carrying it. Rhun and Liadan put their heads together and know that the other side can’t skry us when we merely carry it. We give it to Ariza to hang on to.
Dessa returns in the evening. She’s a little stiff from riding all day. Usually Cronen makes the rounds. She feels good about her rounds and doesn’t seem particularly troubled about her aunt. The harvest is going well, and things seem peaceful.
Rem’e steps to the front of the room and performs the song he learned from the kids on his ocarina. He plays pretty competently, dancing around suggestively … some gyration … Half the bar begins singing the bawdy song about a farmers daughter who had a lot of clothes on on a hot day. It makes a rousing chorus. “Give that man a beer!”
Ariza says with a smile, “Give that half-man a beer.” Rem’e rebuts, “I’m all man.”
The rest of us ask Dessa if we should head out to her aunt’s house – she’s not worried. If the guards don’t come back tomorrow, she thinks it’s a good idea to visit.
Ariza goes out to spy on Tuxel. His house is dark. She has no luck tracking him.
In the middle of the night, Rhun dreams that he is the inquisitor — and on the rack is his father; the tools are in Rhun’s hand; behind him is an older female voice giving Rhun direction. Rhun turns to face the voice, but it remains behind him. “Try a cut on his leg… “ Rhun resists. Rem’e and Rhun are both woken by the sound of a dog barking. Rhun tires to shake off the dream.
Rem’e shakes Rhun – “You were muttering about cutting and legs …”
The sound of the barking dog wakes Liadan. Ariza stayed up outside, and hears the dog barking over near the Smithy. She walks over to investigate but can’t find the dog.
Rhun jumps up from bed and goes to the window but can’t tell where the barking is coming from.
Ariza, walking by the smithy recalls that she should get some daggers replaced. It’s too early for Lexera to be open, so she goes to have breakfast and will return to Lexera later.
The caravan is going to leave today, and Tsarbagnus is going to travel on it. Liadan sees Warsh eat in a most peculiar way – placing meat between two pieces of bread and eating it like that.
The bustle outside gets louder … then louder. We begin to hear sound of distress. Some of the servers go to the door to check it out. Rhun also steps to the door. Stephano has returned on a stretcher – his wolf is not with him. Rhun steps forward and heals him.
Stephano: “Dessa – we were beset… by brigands … we were hard pressed.” He’s been through the gauntlet – he has wounds, he has burns.
Rhun asks “Who did this to you, where did it happen, and where is Cronen?”
Stephano points down the main road off to the wilds. “Right over there. They killed Runner and left me for dead. I guess they took Cronen.”
Dessa is super worried. Tuxel is saying to the crowd, “If we had some proper order around her this surely wouldn’t have happened!” Ariza makes a point to step on his foot on her way to the smithy to gather her daggers.
Liadan assures Dessa that we are going to look into it. We gather our weapons, and Ariza meets us. We ask one of the guards to direct us – “Go to the end of the farmlands, there’s a big maple. We didn’t see anybody out there.”
It takes us about two hours to walk out past the fields. When we get out near the maple tree, in the distance there are a couple of birds circling in the direction of Della Appledoor’s farm. We find the narrow lane that leads to her farm, and we stealthily walk the trail. Liadan finds it very quiet.
All of us creep down the lane and find the farm …something seems off. There is a cottage and a barn. Rhun notices that no one is out and working. There are crops on a small field but no animals.
Liadan casts mage armor and detects magic. Ariza and Rem’e begin to creep towards the barn, when out of the barn comes a very large man carrying a great axe. Rem’e looks to Rhun and signs a request for “Eagle’s Splendor”. Rhun casts it on Rem’e.
We see that the man’s axe is clean – like one who knows how to use it. Looking potentially half-orcish, and eating something, he goes into the cottage.
Ariza sneaks over towards the back of the barn; Rem’e puts himself into position to provide cover for her. They are quiet as mice – on this cold day, a couple of small clouds seem to cover their creeping – Liadan and Rhun can barely see them as they move towards the barn.
The door to the barn is is half open. Ariza steps inside – and on the floor of the barn there is a roughly butchered cow. Ariza sneaks up to the house motioning caution to Rhun and Liadan who creep in slowly from the edge of the forest to be within range of bows and magic.
Through the window, Ariza sees four unsavory-looking burly characters sitting inside. No aunt seems to be present. We see some suspicious wet patches in the grass near the house, and some indications of struggle. Ariza signals to us that there are four large men inside.
Ariza and Rem’e head back to Liadan and Rhun to make a plan. Liadan and Rhun prepare the sleep and command spells respectively. Rem’e will stand in front of the house and play his bawdy song and sing to draw them out. Ariza is going to the far side of the cottage to sneak up behind. Rhun and Liadan will sneak within 35 feet of the cottage, passing through the barn.
Rem’e approaches the cottage playing his ocarina and intermittently yelling bawdy tunes. The door slams open and a half-orc steps onto the porch with axe in hand. As Ariza approaches the cottage she sees four dead bodies at the back – the four guards from Basilisk Bluff. But as Rhun and Liadan enter the barn, they incautiously knock over some tools and draw the orc’s attention.
BATTLE!
- Rem’e pulls his gun and shoots, hitting!
- Enemies:
- The half-orc charges forward and swings his axe, but he misses.
- Another brigand rushes forward and flanks Rem’e on the far side.
- The shutters open and a crossbow bolt goes whistling overhead
- Rhun casts spirtual weapon and attacks the half orc but misses
- Liadan hits the half-orc with two magic missiles!
- Ariza crouches around the corner waiting for another person to come out of the door.
- Rem’e steps back in preparation to shoot – the half-orc steps right up with him hurting him badly.
- Enemies:
- Guy behind Rem’e attacks with daggers and hits
- The half-orc swings with his axe and hits!
- The man in the cottage shoots a crossbow bolt and crits Liadan!
- Another man jumps out of the cottage and Ariza attacks, hitting him. He turns and casts a spell at her. “You little rat!” Ariza takes an attack of opportunity but misses – then gets overwhelmed with terror at this ugly human!
- Rhun’s magic weapon attacks and staggers the half-orc; he then draws forth a small fire elemental and sets it on the man standing on the porch who catches on fire.
- Liadan casts scorching ray, misses wildly, and it nearly hits Rem’e – Liaden is unnerved by this and is frightened for a round!
- Ariza runs away, terrified!
- Rem’e steps back five feet and the half-orc steps up with him. Rem’e moves to total defense.
- Enemies:
- The dagger fighter flanks Rem’e, swings and misses!
- The half-orc pops a potion and steadies himself.
- The wizard doesn’t even try to put out the fire on him – and tries to frighten Rhun – but doesn’t succeed. But Rhun is hit by a crossbow bolt and critted!
- Rhun – spirtual weapon hits the half orc and the fire elemental hits the wizard! He then channels healing on Liadan, Rem’e, and himself.
- Liadan drops the half-orc with a magic missile, and hits the dagger fighter.
- Rem’e takes a five-foot step, rapid reloads, and unloads everything he has on the dagger fighter.
- Enemies:
- The half-orc is not getting back up.
- The wizard guy turns his cruel wicked face towards Rem’e and attempts to frighten Rem’e, who shakes it off.
- The dagger fellow steps forward and swings at Rem’e and misses.
- The crossbow fighter in the cottage comes outside of the house and charges all the way to Rem’e, flanking him.
- Rhun’s spirtual weapon and fire elemental attack the wizard but miss. Rhun casts Inheritor’s Smite and attacks, hits, and bull rushes the wizard knocking him back into the fire elemental who hits! The wizard’s clothes have all burned off, but he is still standing.
- Liadan runs forward and touches the wizard with shocking grasp hurting him – but he’s still standing!
- Ariza rushes forward to attack the crossbow fighter and hits with a sneak attack.
- Rem’e fights defensively, steps back avoiding an attack of opportunity from the crossbow fighter, rapid reloads dragon’s breath and shoots! The dagger wielder falls!
- Enemies:
- The wizard steps back five feet and vanishes!
- The crossbow wielder swings at Rem’e and hits with a dagger.
- Rhun’s fire elemental tries to hit the wizard where he was last seen to no avail. Rhun runs over to the crossbow fighter and hits with his scimitar.
- Liadan casts a force missile on the same fighter and drops him.
- Ariza throws a tanglefoot back at the square near where the wizard was; it splatters all around in a ten-foot radius.
- Rem’e steps forward and fires a cone into the general vicinity of the wizard but his gun gets disabled.
- Rhun steps forward and does burning hands but doesn’t seem to hit anything.
- Liadan throws sandy soil into the air but it doesn’t land on anything.
Rhun casts cure moderate wounds on Rem’e, then walks a distance off and channels energy on himself.
Rem’e examines the bodies behind the house. They are clearly the soldiers who were sent over to check on the aunt.
Ariza and Liadan check out the house. Up in the loft, where Aunt Dilla normally sleeps, they find a rolled up piece of canvas filled with sharp metal implements. Also nearby is a book with a weird symbol on the cover. There are two columns of four straight lines each. Liadan knows that the eight major houses of the empire have a symbol, each a trigram …having a fourth row is odd. It resembles a symbol of one of the noble houses, but it’s not. The journal is in common. It’s the aunt’s journal. The first three lines represent the Kun’s symbol.
Thumbing through the journal, it seems like a reasonably normal journal.
Rem’e and Rhun trade places with Ariza and Liadan – we search and find nothing different. Rhun looks at the metal implements: they are clearly implements of torture.
We hear a harsh yell from outside the window – and the wizard appears, shocking Liadan in shocking grasp (ouch)! Ariza steps forward and drops him!!
- 65 gold
- On the wizard we find a gold band with a little diamond chip in it. We recognize it as the wedding ring stolen from the barkeep! Rem’e holds onto it.
- Seven potions between them!
- 2 vials of liquid ice
- 2 cure moderate wounds
- 1 potion of bull strength
- 1 potion of detect undead
- 1 potion of true strike
- Four master works daggers.
- The wizard has a ring ….with abjuration powers; Rhun’s senses can’t make anything of it – but Liadan can see it’s a ring of Lesser Fire Resistance — allowing a reduction of first 10 points of fire damage every round.
We check the barn. Aside from the cruelly butchered animal, there’s little of interest.
We look around for tracks of the aunt – with the combat and difficulty tracking we don’t find much, but off in the distance on the top of the hill, do we see a dog?
3200 xp (800 per)