|
Sindelle would keep up and tend to any needs the others have en route but isn't much for tracking in the wilderness. She'll activate Deathwatch once we reach the suspicious campsite, her wand of bless as always in hand and Life link active on the whole party as they spread out. "Or maybe a trail of breadcrumbs leading us into a trap...or if we're lucky, just a trail to follow. Which is which, we will hopefully learn quickly."
Entering the ruins, you see they are occupied. A man in half-plate wit a long polearm on his back stands in the center of The Bondstones. A quick look around reveals a group of 4 other archers, all with bows trained on the group, standing in strategic places.
"Halt there!" cries the man in the center, reaching for his weapon. "Where's the jester, Pathfinders? And what have you done with my brother? We can't have strangers poking around in our business, so you'd best explain yourselves!"
The man is not friendly, and his tone is commanding as if he is used to giving orders that are quickly obeyed.
|
|
Sindelle opens her arms to show that she doesn't really have any weapons to speak of and takes a very demure tone to the man in the center.
"กรุณารอ?!"
then she tries to calm her breathing to speak normally. "Hold, please? We are not your enemy! We're looking for this jester ourselves...and you know us but we not you my lord, nor who your brother is?"
He looks at Sindelle, wavering a bit in his harsh tone. "Lady, I do not wish to harm you or make enemies of the Society, but I must insist you stop this subterfuge and tell me where my brother is immediately. I have been sent here to determine his whereabouts, and that is what I aim to do. I don't know how the Society is mixed up with Sabas, but the tales of their intrigue are legendary. I urge you to tell me the whereabouts of my brother or point me in the direction of the jester. All due respect, by anything else is a waste of my time."
His men do not lessen their war-like stance, and he seems prepared to take this to the next level if needed.
|
"What the Society has a certain reputation, I am sure you will agree that even a good family may have a dark horse from time to time. And it may be we are being played as much as you seem to think you are. Perhaps we might all benefit by sharing information?' suggests the elf.
"We are searching for a "jester" that has stolen three heirlooms from Makarius Bourtze. One has already been used to summon a variety of horrible creatures that assaulted us last night. That is what we know at the moment. I am Valandil. You now know as much as we do. Would you share your name with us? I assume Sabas is your brother?"
"I suggest you put away yoru trinket, Pathfinder." says the leader to Stugbu, bristling. "I don't know what foul magicks it performs, but unless you want filled with arrows, it needs to go away."
The man stares daggers at Valandil. "I think you know very well who my brother is. What have you done with him? I do NOT appreciate the insinuation that he is some kind of "dark horse". Trying to pretend as if I am talking about the Jester, bah! I'll ask you once again before i give the command to fire. Where is my brother?" The man growls threateningly, feeling provoked by Valandil's neutral words. He raises his arm, when it drops the arrows will fly.
|
Stugbu, sensing no 'bad guys' within the range of his Wayfinder's detect evil, agrees to put it away for the moment. "Ok, Ok! Me put Wayfinder away. It say you not bad guy, so me no want to fight. We good guys, so we should be friends. Stugbu bit confused with who Jester, who brother, who horse...but me don't know where Sabas is, we came here to find him." The half-orc looks hopefully across to his much smarter companions, hoping they can help explain things to the cranky man.
The grouchy commander blinks a bit at Stugbu's words, then lowers his arm and motions for the men to lower their bows, which they do. "I sense no falsehood in this simple one," he says gravely. "If he confirms that you don't know my brother, I guess I must believe you. Let us talk a bit and clear up the confusion between us." He shoulders his long polearm and steps forward. "My name is Wager. My brother is Baran, a soldier loyal to House Disaren. He was sent here by his liege to find why the Jester, Sabas, had stopped reporting. Baran then went missing himself, and I came to find him. That's when I ran into you. If you don't know my brother, than at least tell me what you know of this Sabas, and I will find him and get my information that way."
The man seems, if not friendly, at least willing to discuss the situation, rather than shoot first.
|
|
Valandil steps forward to repeat his story.
"We were told by Makarius Bourtze, whom I understand is at odds with your lord, that the "Jester" - presumably this Sabas, has stolen three items of power that his family guarded. We conjecture that one of them was used to summon some foul hags that attacked Bourtze and later ourselves." he says, starting the story.
"While Disaren and Bourtze seem to have a history of being at odds with each other, for little rational reason other than tradition, there seems little need for ourselves to be so affected. You want to find your brother and this 'Jester' and so do we. To be honest, we only want to the return of the three items he has stolen. What you do with the Jester is of little concern to us."
|
|
Sindelle tries to stifle a giggle as Touchy "touches" on the same idea she had and continues to try and speak in a pleasant and soothing tone.
"We need not be enemies, my lord Wager, please. As my companions have said, we are trying to follow this jester's path as well as you. The information we have been going on is that his trail would turn north towards Disaren lands once he fled far enough from Bourtze territory." She takes a cautious step forward, her sultry gaze sweeping over the archers as she speaks this next part. "Perhaps we can find more productive solutions than simply standing on formerly hallowed ground with your soldiers'...arrows pointed at our bosom?"
Wager frowns at Touchy's words. "I did not send the Jester anywhere, sir. If he was sent by House Disaren, I do not know it. I am more concerned with my brother's whereabouts than the petty jealousies of some run-down noble houses."
To Sindelle he is much more courteous as she works her wiles on him. "Lady, my men will stand down. If you say the Jester is on this path, my men and I will hunt him down. I will bring him, and these items he stole, back to you. Perhaps I can yet catch him up. You will excuse my discourtesy, but we must be off. We will report back to you here when we have him."
He bows low to the lady, and turns and begins striding off to where his men and mounts are on the far side of the Bondstones.
|
|
Sindelle smiles courteously to Wager and his men as they turn to leave waiting until their backs are turned before she shakes her head and giggles a little bit as the soldiers get out of earshot before replying to Valandil.
"Customers biting off more than they can chew isn't really the cook's concern...unless they've got chelaxian barristers for friends, that is."
She gives her friends a little wink before looking anew at their surroundings.
"I'd suggest we look here a bit. If the jester did go that way, they'll at least slow him down for us. I'm frankly surprised they just took what we heard from Bourtze and are going for it...suddenly I'm very glad that I didn't say where we got that information in the first place!"
|
|
"They really nice guys!" Stugbu watches Wager and his men striding away. "Me kinda miss them."
Looking around to the rest of the group, Stugbu frowns. "So, we still just looking for Jester, or for brother and Dark Horse as well? Oh, and is Dark Horse black or just very dark brown? Just so Stugbu know what to look for."
|
Wager frowns at Touchy's words. "I did not send the Jester anywhere, sir. If he was sent by House Disaren, I do not know it."
"My brother is Baran, a soldier loyal to House Disaren. He was sent here by his liege to find why the Jester, Sabas, had stopped reporting."
______________________
Touchy chuckles along with Sindelle. "Not the brightest tool in the box for sure." He says. "But still a tool."
"If they're the ones that set this Jester fellow loose, then lost the leash... well, if that comes back to bite them, that'd be a total shame." He chuckles again, the sarcasm almost dripping, clearly with no sympathy for the man's fate.
"Met this woman from the River Kingdoms once..." He muses suddenly. "Bit me... right on the ass." He points to the area in question. "Still got the scar. Also got the red ache something awful..." He grins. "Took a week to shake it, but totally worth it."
Wager frowns at Touchy's words. "I did not send the Jester anywhere, sir. If he was sent by House Disaren, I do not know it."
"My brother is Baran, a soldier loyal to House Disaren. He was sent here by his liege to find why the Jester, Sabas, had stopped reporting."
Wager and his archers ride off in a grand show of force heading for the abandoned canal following the path you suggested. A quick recon of the Bondstones reveals only a small scrap of parchment that has been discarded or dropped by accident.
Closer examination reveals some difficult to read writing, but it appears to say "Wager - borrowed 4500gp from your stash. Will pay you when I return. - Baran."
The group spreads otu more among the Bondstones and searches for a long time, turing over rocks and examining all the now-shattered decorative stonework, but finds nothing of use or value.
Given that you are on foot, and both the jester and Wager were mounted means your chance of catching up to them soon is limited. You do set out from the Bondstones following the jester's sparse trail across rolling grassland before you run across the long-forgotten canal that seems to be the guidepost for the trail.
As night is falling on the first day's pursuit you reach the crossroads where a ruined and overgrown roadway stretches off to teh northeast. This is the road that Tribune Bourtze suspected the jester was aiming for as it leads back to Disaren lands about a day's travel to along the ruined track.
None of the farmers or rare travelers along the ruined road to Disaren lands can recall seeing the jester or the armed party that might be in pursuit. Another traveling group that is comig from the west, along the canal, does mentino seeing both groups, the last one about half-days leads from you. It seems the jester isn't headed back to Disaren after all...
Setting out in the AM to along the canal, all wondering where Sabas could be making for, you keep moving as quickly as you can. As the sun lowers on the second day of pursuit, you approach a ruined set of locks on the silt-filled canal.
The jester's trail winds through a tangled thicket alogn the marshy banks of a boggy canal. Foul secretions drip from withered trees, and broad patches of ground lie barren, as if scorched.
Almost lost among the thorny tangle, structures crumble beside the abandoned canal. Heaped debris -- the remains of the pumps and waterwheels that once powered the canal's locks -- clutter their interior. The battered structures now guard a causeway of broken stone and tangled driftwood, a crude dam allowing foot traffic to avoid the swamps that line the silt-filled canal.
Torn body parts lie scattered near the buildings. Bright spatters of blood discolor the bleached stone walls and lie smeared in wide swaths across the ground.
The group makes it way carefully out onto the "causeway" which is really just crumbling stone and piles of debris. There Valandil sees the torn up remains of at least 6-7 men. It is relatively easy to identify the dismembered corpse of Wager and his men, but there are one or two others whose clothes you don't recognize. All the men's remains are covered with a thick slime and partially burned as if by acid, in many places. A large bronze chest lies among the corpses, still closed and locked.
Stugbu does not discern any evil auras present.
It appears the men were enjoined in combat of some kind, when something tore them to pieces. Just as you make that discovery, something huge and ugly rises from the muddy canal below the makeshift causeway.
A massive grey-brown slug leaves a viscous trail of slime as it moves over the mud and shallow water, headed your direction.
The Ruined Locks - Round 1
24 Wit
13 Valandil
11 Sindelle
10 Touchy
10 Stugbu
7 Giant Slug
|
|
"The giant slug will be hard to hurt with blugeoning weapons. It is highly vulnerable to salt though." mentions the wizard.
"If that slug is responsible for the deaths of all these men, then it is likely a fearsom combatant."
He twiddles his fingers and a mass of black tentacles appears trashing around the slug, trying to grasp hold of it and keep it in place.
But the slug manages to avoid their grasping tendrils. For now.
|
|
Touchy makes his way along the causeway cautiously, not able to move far on the unstable ground. He pulls out his shield as he goes, taking up his whip in the other hand.
"As much as I'm all for grabbing chests." He says, in response to Stugbu's suggestion. "I'm guessing that thing has the advantage on this ground!"
The Ruined Locks - Round 1 - concluded
As the large slug crashes out of the boggy mud, Wit reacts quickly and launches a javelin, but the thrown weapon only glances harmlessly off the rubbery body of the slug.
Valandil casts a spell which creates a mass of grasping and pulling tentacles on the surface fo the mud below the crumbling locks. The tentacles grasp at the slug, but cannot hold it fast this turn. They do create difficult terrain which will slow the inevitable crawl of the creature. Near the fallen bodies, Valandil can also see an acid-scarred satchel among the bodies.
Sindelle uses her wand to give blessing to the party, aiding their attacks in the coming fight.
Touchy readies his shield and whip as he moves forward along the causeway.
Stugbu moves closer to the chest and the destroyed corpses.
The slug slowly moves through the black tentacles.
End of Round 1