The World of Telvar

Furthermore, the Lord Mayor of Garroten had conscripted all fast horses and stabled them to be kept on reserve due to the increased bandit activity between Restenford and Garroten (which, if you'll recall, we experienced firsthand). Whether there is a connection...

Cassian spent a few hours playing cards (she is a former teamster) with some of the people who frequent the inn. There was a gnome, who introduced himself but said little, and looked uncomfortable playing with Cassian. Apparently he does some handiwork around the castle. There was also a human dog trainer who liked to hunt. The card dealer was a human named Willfong. Grison played cards with him the first time we were here. In addition, Captain Bazmar, the unsubtle guy Cassian spoke with the day before, the body person, tipped his cup at her.

Since no one seemed willing to give us the big information we needed (there is a huge atmosphere of paranoia when referring to the Garroten assassin's guild), we waited to speak to Harper.

Harper turned out to be an old jolly man, looking suspiciously like Santa Claus-- flowing beard, etc. He was quite charming, but also quite clearly senile and a bit nuts. After a few vague sentences had destroyed any hope of proper communication, Harper was firmly convinced that someone had converted the Baron to Osprem and he had gone on vacation. When told the Baron was missing, he started looking through his desk drawers.

When we asked for a Commune, he spun four wheels, labeled 0-9, and said, "8192 gold pieces!"

Since we had only about 1000 gp, this was a tad much, and we didn't really think he was reliable. Then he invited us to go crab hunting-- there are these giant crabs (about 30 hp) that hide in the sand and try to kill you, but they're very tasty.

Felix and Perry politely declined. Desperately trying to stick to the point, they asked Harper if he had any enemies who might be involved. Harper responded:

"I don't know. Hmmm." He rang a bell. A harried looking bulky individual appeared at the door.
"Yes, Harper?" he said, sounding bored.
"Do I have any enemies, Harmon?"
"No, Harper."
"Well, I guess that settles that. You can go Harmon."
"Yes, Harper."

It went on like that. We learned nothing at all, and walked out to the main reception area.

Working there was Harmon. We spoke with him about our problem, and he turned out to be a totally reasonable guy. He said a Commune would cost the standard rate of 5000 gp, and Harper would cast it for us tomorrow, assuming he remembered to take it as a spell. There was a 1 in 3 chance.

We discussed crab hunting, and decided that we would join Harper since we really didn't have much else to do. We back to the inn to plan Commune questions, and the innkeeper Abram came in. He spoke briefly and said that although he was neutral had some suggestions for us. There are three people in town we can trust: Harper, who would never willingly betray us, Balmoro, and Martin, both of whom have a signficant interest in taking care of the "problem in Garroten." Although it is not Abram's fight, he told us who to watch:

Don't trust the gnome or dog trainer.

Later we spoke with Balmoro again, and he said he would only help us if we had a good plan for dealing with this, and that if the assassins were involved, we should return.

February 28th--We met Harper that morning, along with Harmon and Pingbo (some small human whose parents clearly didn't like him). Harper had no armor and carried little besides a spiffy hammer and a smile of joy. Harmon was decked out quite impressively and carried a flail.

Balinor, Felix, and Harper wandered down to the beach with Harmon, Pingbo, Cassian, Quentin, and Perry tailing behind. Harmon was apparently there to watch out for one of the OTHER bazillion dangers on Lendore, just in case. Cassian spoke with him a bit. Quentin looked annoyed that we were here to kill crabs for sport.

Balinor was grinning from ear to ear at the chance to smash some crabs. He got his chance when two leaped out at him and Harper. Harper yelled "Whee!" and did absolutely massive amounts of damage. Balinor dropped his in three straight hits. While Balinor was grabbed by one and took damage, the crabs just seemed to be deflected by something from Harper, who continued smashing them. Felix was less pleased, since his short sword was not as effective.

By the end of the day, we had killed a good-sized spider (which we left dead) and four or five crabs, whose legs were stowed in Pingbo's frame pack. We then had a delicious dinner and gave Osprem a 50 gp donation.

Incredibly, Harper had actually taken the Commune spell, and actually cast it for us. The results were astounding:

1. Is the Baron of Restenford dead? YES.
2. Is his body raisable? YES.
3. Is the body in Garroten? YES.
4. Is the Assassins' Guild responsible? YES.
5. Is Abram having roast beef for dinner tomorrow? NO. (that was Harper--he had a 20% chance of doing that on any given question)
6. Is there a group of bandits planning to attack Restenford? NO.
7. Is a representative of the Duke of Kroten (Benct) responsible? NO.
8. Is the body located north of the temple of Osprem in Garroten (this roughly split the map in half--binary search)? YES.
9. Is the body in the castle of the Lord Mayor of Garroten?

YES.

Oh dear.

The Commune couldn't have been much more helpful than that. Basil, the shocked aide of Harper, and Harmon immediately conferred with us. It was universally decided that this was what we might term, a "mess."

Of course, the party left the church grumbling about the stupid waste of money that spell was. (ruse)

Quentin relayed everything to Martin the druid, who was quite alarmed. Martin's communication from Restenford stated that they would have some delays in putting together the money (we had left our tuning fork and dagger +1 as collateral). Apparently, the Baron didn't actually tell anyone how to get at the money-- so Peltar and Almax are chipping in!

There was a silly encounter with someone who believe is the town fool (confirmed by Abram). Some drunk ex-teamster named Presca was in the bushes nearby and stumbled out of them suddenly. We dismissed the incident.

We went to the theatre to talk to Balmoro. He said we had ten minutes, then he would as cover throw us out angrily and tell us never to come back. He revealed to us that the two flunkies of the guild that he knew were the gnome and dog trainer. The gnome apparently does not speak Gnomish, and is likely a midget posing as one. The dog trainer doesn't know much about dogs. Furthermore, we later learned that Captain Bazmar occasionally goes and ties colored ribbons on their doors, which doesn't bode well for him either. Balmoro pointed out that a huge gamble would be to ask the Lord Mayor for help, since we don't know if she was actually involved. Balmoro knows that the Lord Mayor does not object to assassins, but he was surprised that she would be helping them so overtly.

As planned he threw us out angrily, and we left. That night, Captain Bazmar once again related the story of some creature in Lake Farmin near Garroten, and how some POWERFUL ADVENTURERS (staring straight at us) should go and take it out. Vast treasure and all that. Considering last time out we had an evil artifact, we passed on the unsubtle hint. The party has decided that Captain Bazmar is simply incapable of being subtle, but he was trying to do so there.

March 1st-- Continuing a fine tradition, when the going got uncertain, we got Auguries. We purchased two pearls and made an appointment with the Lord Mayor. That way, just before the appointment we would cast two Auguries (in case of failure or incorrect answers), to see if it would be beneficial to speak with her on this matter.

The first augury: Disaster is unlikely to be averted.

Even if we got a contradictory response, I think it was quite clear we weren't going to attempt it, so we kept the second Augury and met with her instead to ask for some horses. In addition, when she asked what our business was, Quentin responded that we were just touring. This was of course a blatant lie and it is certain that she knows it is. Quentin's dislike of her is quite apparent. (She sent us to our death in the forest with the mad wizard Telvar's castle on our second adventure. Since then the Defenders have not been a big fan of her)

The Lord Mayor had two aides, one kind of more normal fighter type, and a cleric of Kord (identified later by Cassian). Disturbing, to say the least. Of course, so is the large statue to Kord in front of the castle.

Martin's communication of the day informed us that one of Peltar's students, a strong fighter we knew named Colemac, and two lower guards would be arriving with 4000 gp, both to pay for the Commune (as cover) and provide reinforcements for us.

Cassian spoke with some birds, and Quentin's animals scouted out the castle. There were a number of guard dogs, and absolutely no defenders on the northern towers, but 2-4 on the southern ones. The garrison is estimated at roughly 30 men, slightly lower level but more numerous Restenford's garrison. Several of them are orcs, who have good infravision.

Incredibly, Cassian's crow friend knew of a secret door that people occasionally went in and out of near the base of the back side of the castle.

It should be noted that while Garroten has a well-lit bridge as the only access from the Barnacus (south) side, there are zero defenses to the Restenford (north) side. This is because Garroten is likely acting as a fence for the bandits to the north, but not the ones to the south. The party's opinion of Garroten is headed Benct-ward.

The astrology of the day before was not good, (I can't remember specifically) but the signs were improving now.

March 2nd-- we went touring around town and met some of the local personalities, hoping to keep the assassins from suspecting our knowledge. We discovered the dour dwarf (picture Gilbert Gottfried) who ran the weapon shop, and was saying things like, "You never know when bandits will attack."

There was a beautiful, muscular, charming, but incredibly dangerous woman with a sword and a flowing dress, and a set of likely magical bracers running one of the shops. Her husband was also handsome and dashing. We were annoyed. Morgan was entranced.

There was a mean half-orc armorer who made pretty nice armor and was obviously wearing a suit of mithril chain around the shop.

Finally, the jeweler only worked through a tiny slit and peephole behind metal bars. I love Garroten. Trust all the way.

That night, Cassian and Perry checked out the secret door. Casting Detect Magic, then Silence (on a rock), Cassian walked to the bushes near the door out of infravision range and noted that the door was non-magical. Perry approached under cover of Silence and examined the door. It was untrapped, made out of wood, with absolutely no hatch to open it from this side. However, we think that Perry could explain to Felix how to use a crowbar to open it such that it could even be close again. The wood is compounded by some kind of earthern material on the other side, making it a reasonably heavy door.

March 3rd-- In the morning we purchased horses at exorbitant rates to replace the lost ones.

Showing up in town at lunchtime was the student of Peltar, a 4th level wizard. She noted that her most relevant spells were Sleep, Invisibility, and Stinking Cloud. Accompanying her was Colemac, a half elf named (?), and a human named Halco.

Colemac explained that there were now about 30 bandits out there. If we were going to leave town, perhaps Barnacus might be a better option. It is becoming increasingly clear the bandits were hired to stop us.

We discussed several plans. The mage wants to perform a surgical strike involving Invisibility and such, grab the body, and run. Colemac wants to find out who the assassins are, kill everyone in the castle while they're sleeping, and destroy the assassins' guild entirely in one blow. Ambitious, and not even lazy!

Plans are being concocted. I think most of the party has realized that we are not going to find every assassin no matter what, and having them escape with huge grudges against us is not good. Furthermore, the Lord Mayor is reputedly a powerful mage, and would be a major obstacle. A sweep of the castle would be devastating, but it isn't clear we have anywhere near the manpower to do it. Of course, this is not a universal opinion.

Other plan: surgical strike. Perry, Felix, and Morgan go inside invisible and with a rock of silence for Felix, and they go looking for the Baron and drag him out. Then we flee at top speed out the south exit toward Barnacus on horseback.

It is interesting to note that Martin assures us the three south bridge guards would be willing to aid us if they knew the Lord Mayor had done this crime. So getting past them shouldn't be a problem. The best way would be to have someone race ahead of the party and have them somehow "not be there" when we go past. If we're lucky, no one in Garroten will even figure out that anything happened until morning!

Another note: we know the Baron is in an unscryable area, which leaves two main options: 1) He is in a room with walls of stone ten feet thick, which blocks scrying. This means he is almost certainly in some sort of dungeon level on the bottom, probably fairly near the secret exit. Or 2) he is in a lead box, which is also unscryable. Unfortunately, then he could be anywhere including, say, the Lord Mayor's bedroom or something.

The last thing of note that Quentin will mention later (he has not yet told the party) is that there is a friend of Almax here, also willing to help, but trying to avoid discussion about him for now. He is very interested in taking down the guild.

Some notes on Raise Dead:

We have several possiblities once we have the Baron. We've pretty much decided on going to Barnacus rather than Restenford to avoid the bandits. Furthermore, that's where the Archbishop of Nevron is. Raise Dead works at one day per level of the caster, which is quite high in Barnacus (say 11th or 12th). So there we have a small margin of error. We would never make it to Restenford in time.

Lastly, we have a scroll of Raise Dead ourselves, which we learned was cast at 12th level! So that is extra insurance. If Balmoro has a way of contacting Barnacus ahead of us, we would really appreciate it if he could notify the Archbishop we're coming. This way he will definitely have Raise Dead in memory on that day. If this fails, and we don't have another day, he can use our scroll. Worst case: we don't even get to Barnacus in time. Desperation requires that Cassian attempt to cast the spell off of the scroll. This has a 25% chance of failure, but may be our only option.

The last question: why is the Baron still raisable anyway? What are they doing in there? Donald and other party members have suggested that either she's spirit wracking him or something, or is Speaking with Dead and discovering how to get at his treasure.

Well, that was FAR more successful than we could have imagined but the hard part is still to come. Stay tuned!

Joel/Balinor