Defenders Log Entry #6: Damn Assasins
Drew, 1st level ranger, 15 hp, played by Jack
Morgan, 2nd level fighter, 12 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 2nd level druid, 10 hp, played by Jeremy
Felix, 1st level fighter, 10 hp, played by Alex
Gaston, 1st level fighter, 10 hp, played by Sean
Tyveris, 1st level cleric of Nevron, 10 hp, played by Joel
After waiting for about a month for Quentin and Drew to finish their service to the druids, the remaining four members of the party, Drew, Quentin, Felix, and Morgan set off for Benct with hopes of recruiting new party members. The found a caravan and set off.
About two days out (halfway in between Benct and Restenford), a scraggly man approached the caravan. He claimed to have to friends hiding in a tree about fifteen minutes away with a bear trying to kill them. The guards refused to go, and the party suspected it might be a trap. Going with their instincts that the man seemed to be telling the truth, the party followed him.
He led them up through the forest, to where a bear was indeed slashing at a tree, though no one was visible in it. Drew suggested that Quentin approach with the levitation belt in case of danger to himself and try to calm the bear down. As he was halfway through doing that, four crossbow bolts whipped out from four directions, one hitting Drew and the other Quentin.
Deja vu.
The party turned and ran away as quickly as possible. But it was not quickly enough. Quentin and Drew both started taking damage from the poison in the bolts.
Luckily Quentin was able to shirk the poison quickly enough to remain standing. Drew also threw off the effects, though he took severe damage.
The party turned to head generally toward the caravan now, at top speed. But it wasn't long before they ran into the second ambush.
Sigh.
This one totally failed, as they traditionally do with us. One crossbow bolt hit Morgan, who yanked it out immediately. Another bandit yelled something like, "Greetings from the Green Diamond!" and promptly missed Drew. (That, by the way, is the name of the bandit group we slaughtered earlier) Quentin hit the dirt. Felix sprinted ahead and ripped one of the crossbowmen apart. Drew shot the other man in front. That left a broadsword wielder and a crossbowman.
The broadsword man somehow managed to sneak up behind Quentin's position and started hacking at him, fortunately missing. Felix whirled, sprinted, and crashed into the man with his shield, forcing himself between them and injuring him in the process. Morgan was charging as well, and hit the broadsword man. The crossbowman, meanwhile, shot down Drew and started drawing a two-handed sword.
Quentin rose up and began casting Entangle. The man switched to drawing a dagger, and had it out just as the spell hit him.
Meanwhile, Felix had gotten slashed up by the broadsword man, and Morgan pressed the attack, felling him. The final man through the dagger at Felix, missing badly. In response, Felix charged... and ran into the Entangle. The man drew out his two-handed sword and slashed at Felix, missing by inches. Meanwhile Morgan shot him full of arrows and he finally dropped.
We recovered quite a bit of money, some random weapons, and what we later found out was magical: a broadsword, medium shield, and a necklace.
The party, beaten but alive and standing (Quentin healed Drew), went back to the bear. We quickly discovered it had been chained and that there was a bag of food in the tree. We tossed it some rations, and Quentin spoke to it, calming it down. Finally, we cut down the rations, unleashed it, and set it free.
Then we followed the tracks a little ways and found some abandoned packs with worthless stuff which we destroyed.
We then rejoined the caravan and continued to Benct. In Benct, we picked up two new Northerners, Tyveris, cleric of Nevron, and Gaston, a warrior (both are from the same tribe-- Tyveris is played by Joel, and Gaston by Sean). Gaston has two dogs, one a guard dog and one a hunting dog. Tyveris is a bit bulky (fat) and jovial, but sensitive to remarks about his face, which contains a broken nose and a faint imprint of a hammer.
Traveling around Benct was quite interesting, and we met a few shady characters, including the barkeep and the pawnshop broker. The barkeep even had a weird mission for us-- go to the last room upstairs and clear the ghosts out of it and get treasure from the pirate's spirit. Apparently, the law has decreed that since 13 people died in there in the space of two weeks, he can no longer rent out the room. Sensible ordinance.
We resisted the temptation and instead headed back to Restenford. There Morgan and Quentin trained to 2nd level!
We gave up the sword in salvage tax, but identified the other two items in Barnacus. The shield is a Shield of the Worms (medium shield +1, resists poison as well). The necklace is a Necklace of Goblins-- it allows the wearer to speak Goblin and a few other languages, but Goblin as a native speaker.
We returned and the Baron had a new mission for us from a Major of the Petethalian Navy. We accepted, but here is a brief outline:
One of the small islands in between here and Sark contained a temple to the god of thieves. It was attacked by pirates in June and mostly destroyed. The pirates were basically annihilated as well, and the navy cleared out the remaining pirates. But they want someone outside of the navy to encourage the "withdrawal" of the remaining people living on the island by any means possible. Our job is to encourage them to leave, bribe them away, scare them away, or kill them. For additional fun, there are skeletons that just pop up on the beaches, but they are generally easy to escape.
Reward: 2000 gp.
An interesting mission.
Log Supplement III: The Death Toll
And the dead people (in order of demise):
* Anwvyn, 1st level elven thief, played by Alan, killed by a fungus beetle
* Grison, 1st level dwarven fighter, played by Sean, killed by bandits
* Soldan, 1st level human cleric of Sylban, played by Alex, killed by bandits
* Ethan, 1st level human woodsman, played by Kyle, killed by ballista bolt (from bandits)
* Celeste, 1st level Phaulkonian cleric (human), played by Sean, killed by ogres
* Darellon, 1st level human woodsman, played by Joel, killed by ogres