Morday, 6 Brightday 204
After some small remonstrance the party is persuaded to leave the
mysterious columns behind them and set off on the next part of their
quest. Gunlarr leads the party back toward the Village of the Eighteen
Churches, as the group reasons that the Village is the best place
to sell the poison sacks they have collected from the dead wyverns,
buy horses and get the information they need about the oldest of
dragons. The ranger, although anxious to return as quickly as possible,
decides to lead the party an alternative route to their destination.
It will be longer, but will hopefully avoid any further contact
with undead creatures moving south from the Haunted Woods.
By lunchtime the group are on the North Timberlake Road, and by
late afternoon have the village of Oakholme in sight. Gunlarr suggests
that the party pause at the tavern in Oakholme for a rest. From
this point it is two days walk along the road to The Village. Looking
down on Oakholme, they can see that it is a relatively small town
(probably no more than 800 people) and that it is built around an
ancient oak tree that stands in the village square. At present the
town is full of horsemen and heavily armoured questors who are also
resting after completing (or failing) the first part of Narramac’s
quest. The party wanders into the town and swiftly hit the tavern
off the town square where they order four ales and two waters. They
begin to rest themselves in the pleasant summer subshine.
A little more than half an hour later a horseman gallops into town,
a look of shock and amazement ethced on his face. He brings his
horse to a halt in the town square and announces incredible news
to the assembled: "Sir Kordell, paladin lord of the Order of
the Roaring Lion has slain the dragon, Gerrius! He has claimed a
tooth of the oldest dragon! The corpse is still there, and anyone
can claim a tooth from it!"
In an instant, Oakholme begins to empty. Even if a tooth of Gerrius
isn’t the answer to the riddle everyone, including the party,
reasons that it’s better to have one than not. A man leaps
from the crowd, pushes the messenger off his horse and gallops out
of town. Minsc gives chase, but soon loses the thief. Gunlarr says
he’ll wait in the tavern as the rest of the party go and investigate.
Minsc, Nicos and Raza head off as Ravenna and Elias buy some supplies
(a skin of ale). However, thanks to the crowds they soon catch up.
A wall of people and horses follow the messenger’s directions
and fill the south track out of Oakholme. Swaying her way up the
road in an obvious daze a young girl, probably a little less than
Ravenna’s age, blunders into the crowd. She is knocked off
her feet by one of the horses and then bundled into the drainage
ditch by the swell of people. Although the event is noticed by many,
the green haze of avarice has fallen over the eyes of the questors
and no-one stops. No-one except our heroes.
Minsc leaps into the ditch and lifts the young girls head out of
the water. With the help of Nicos and Raza the unconscious form
is gently lifted up and on to the road. The rest of the party quickly
arrives. It is obvious that the girl has been beaten and beaten
quite severely. There is heavy brusing about her face and cuts on
her fore-arms. A quick examination by Arvan reveals that several
of the girl’s ribs have been fractured where she has been kicked;
is obvious that the girl has been raped and by the amount of blood
the rape was probably the first time she had experienced intercourse.
The whole group is sickened, but Ravenna particularly feels for
the girl.
Aravn uses his powers to heal the girl. His magic repairs the cuts
and seals the skin, reduces the bruising and helps with the pain.
The ribs will have to be left to heal on their own. Arvan wanders
away from the scene, he sits on the side of the road with Tok and
Carax to consider matters. After a few minutes the girl slowly regains
consciousness. She is a bit groggy and confused by the presence
of these strangers. She thanks them, and says that her name is Honour,
but her words and actions make it clear that she does not want the
matter taken any further. That she has somewhere to be, and that
she must leave. Minsc and Nicos, seeing that there is little they
can do for the time being, opt to follow the trail south and see
if they can lay their hands on one of Gerrius’ teeth. They
shouldn’t get gone more than a couple of hours.
Honour begins to walk away back to town but Ravenna is having none
of this. She casts charm person on the girl, compelling her friendship
and her confidence. As the spell takes effect, Honour falls into
Ravenna’s arms and starts crying. Despite the spell Honour
will not reveal the identity of her attacker; she refuses Ravenna’s
help saying that there is nothing she can do. Ravenna presses her
for more information. Honour is a peasent and an orphan, whose employment
barely keeps her alive. She is betrothed to a farmhand called Ozrik,
but he left a fortnight ago to take part in Narramac’s quest
and she hasn’t seen him since. Ravenna suggests that Honour
leave Oakholme with the party. They can accompany back to Uris where
Ravenna can find Honour work with her uncle in in the capital -
the party could meet up with Ozrik in a month’s time when all
the questors return to Mount Korvast. Honour refuses the offer,
although she is tempted. Eventually Honour looks at the sky, sees
that she is late and hurries on. Ravenna goes with her while Elias
and Raza tag along behind. Honour is walking around the village
and, before long, the group can see a small cottage, a few out-buildings
and a manor house rising up before them. It is about a quarter of
a mile to the south-west of town.
"Who lives there?" Ravenna asks. Honour says that the
manner belongs to her employer and master, Squire Osroth. "Is
that the man who did this to you?" Ravenna presses; Honour’s
silence leads the sorceress to believe that Osroth is indeed the
attacker. Honour begs Ravenna not to do anything, as she will only
make matters worse. The entire thing was her own fault, if she had
not resisted him then she wouldn’t have been hurt so badly.
Ravenna herself knows that the law of the land is unlikely to side
with a peasent against a squire and sees that more direct action
is necessary. At that moment, Raza spies a figure leaving the manor
from a side door and storming over toward the two girls; he tries
to communicate this to Elias but the crossbow-man is momentarily
fascinated by the local flora. Ravenna doesn’t see this until
the last moment.
"Honour!" is the shout from a neatly dressed woman who
has seen upwards of twelve years. "Where do you think you have
been! Get back into the house this instant!" She rages the
last few yards and seizes Honour by the cuff. The girl winces in
pain and begins to apologise to ‘Miss Irith’. Raza and
Elias can feel Ravenna’s hackles go up and instinctively take
a step backwards. She glares at Irith (although Irith looks like
the sort of woman who could out-stare a skeleton), and begins an
argument of substantial volume. Irith is undeterred, calling Ravenna
a stupid girl and telling her to remove herself from the squire’s
lands. Ravenna responds with a cause fear spell that has no effect
on Irith who warns her about using her ‘evil hocus-pocus’
on god-fearing folk. She begins to drag a distraught and apologetic
Honour away. Ravenna is beside herself with rage and calls out that
the next time she and Irith meet, Irith will be lying dead at her
feet.
Elias and Raza try to calm Ravenna down. They agree that they should
do something, but they are not sure what and should therefore wait
until Nicos and Minsc return. They head back towards the village
and spy the messenger who announced the death of Gerrius wandering
back towards town. He seems in a faint stupour and nearly blunders
into the meditating Arvan, although the half-orc doesn’t appear
to notice. Sensing something amiss, Elias rushes over to intercept
the messenger. He stands in front of him, only to have the man walk
into him. There is definitely something odd going on, and a discreet
spell tells him that there is magic about the man although he cannot
identify what it is. He knocks the messenger over, and finally brings
the man to his senses by slapping him about his face.
The messenger is called Darrick and he seems to have no recollection
of riding into the village and making his announcement. Instinctively
Elias begins to fear for Nicos and Minsc. They explain to Darrick
exactly what transpired, and slowly the horror of realisation dawns
on his face. "Oh gods," he says, "I was tricked.
The dragon.... the dragon isn’t dead!"
Nicos and Minsc are hurrying to catch up with the crowd of questors,
but they are still someway behind. The light is failing and it will
be moonrise in a less than half an hour. They had travelled the
track almost directly south, and a quarter of a mile ago it had
left the sparse woodland into a large plain. About a quarter of
a mile ahead the twosome can see what seems to be the corpse of
a large drgaon and over a hundred people clustering around it. Minsc
pauses; the dragon is only two hundred feet long (the same size
as the one that over flew the group a few days previously) - it
cannot be Gerrius; Gerrius should be three times that size. How
could Sir Kordell of all people, have made such a fundamental mistake?
Suddenly, before their eyes, Minsc and Nicos see the image of the
dragon’s corpse shimmer and change. It is immediately evident
that the decomposing remains was an elaborate illusiuon: a living,
breathing red dragon stands in the clearing. The questors panic,
a stream of flame erupts from the dragon’s mouth and in an
instant half their number are dead. Nicos and Minsc stand stupefied
as they see the dragon carve into the group with hideous ease. With
a sweep of its powerful tail six men lie dead, the sound of their
spines snapping audible even from such a distance. Horses are skewered
on powerful claws, and then the dragon launches into the air. Nicos
finds his sense first and runs as fast as he can back to the forest;
Minsc is only moments behind him. He is a paladin; he knows no fear,
but he’s not an idiot and he dives into comparitive safety
of the trees without a backward glance. From the hiding place in
a hollow tree they can hear the dragon rending and slashing at the
remaining questors. The can feel the heat from its deadly breath.
Neither is under any illusion: every single one of the scores that
left Oakholme at the messenger’s word have been killed. Nicos
starts to pray.
Back at Oakholme the red flash from the dragon’s breath is
clearly visible on the horizon. As the moons rise, Elias does his
best to hustle the group out of the obvious target of the town and
into the woodland. He rushes to the pub and pries Gunlarr away from
his third pint of the evening. Darrick is overcome with remorse
for what he has done. Arvan is roused from his introspection and
the group bundles into the trees. They can hear of the approaching
dragon and can clearly see it silhouetted against the moons as it
circles Oaksholme. It is the same dragon that over-flew the party
earlier in the week. Gunlarr’s face becomes one of realisation,
and he identifies the beast as Furnice - a particularly vindictive
creature that hadn’t been seen in the area for two years. The
fact that he has returned means trouble.
Eventually, Furnice flies away to the north. The group wonder what
to do next, and whether there is anything left of Nicos and Minsc
to save. At this point the duo in question arrive back at Oakholme.
They explain that if they had been with the original group they
surely would have perished. Elias is impressed by Furnice’s
cunning. Ravenna appraises Nicos and Mincs of the situation with
Honour. Minsc agrees that the matter is serious, but he believes
that they should not take matters into their own hands. This is
a matter for the law. If there is a problem with the squire then
it should be brought to the attention of the duke or one of his
representatives. He believes that this village probably falls under
the purview of Duke Colharn of Northmeet. The matter should be turned
over to him. The rest of the group, including Ravenna, agree to
this course although if Duke Colharn doesn’t do anything she
plans to return and exact her own vengeance. However, while the
rest of the group have been discussing this Arvan has more than
taken the initiative.
A druid of grim determination, Arvan walks purposefully toward
the manor. He spies two guards protecting the building, one standing
under the front porch and the second by the fire pit on the patio,
but is undaunted doing little more than unfastening his shield when
he is called upon to stop. Both guards launch arrows at the druid,
but they miss the mark. Arvan breaks into a run. The guard by the
gate reaches up and rings the warning bell loudly. Within moments
a pair of guards are peering out of a downstairs window, and another
two have joined the first on the front step. More arrows are fired,
all equally ineffective.
As Arvan gets within range he draws upon his magical reserves and
creates an obscuring mist about the front of the house, hiding the
door and all the windows on the ground floor (except for the patio,
and its doors through into the kitchen). The unscathed half-orc
enters the mist himself and proceeds to one of the shuttered windows.
The guard on the patio yells to his friends whether he should fire
into the mist, blindly hoping to hit the interloper - his answer
is a resounding "No!" Arvan’s seeming indomitability
has the guards spooked, and none seem to want to approach him as
he wrestles with the window. Eventually one finds the courage and
races forward to deal with the druid. Arvan hears him coming and
calmly backhands the guard into unconsciousness with one hand, while
punching through the heavy shutters and ripping them away from the
wall with the other.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party is still debating what to do about
Osroth when Arvan’s disappearance is noticed. Realising where
he’s gone Nicos, Ravenna, Elias and Raza decide to aid their
companion. They try to keep their intentions from Minsc, but the
way in which they begin to cast a number of protective magicks on
each other, including a magical disguise in the case of Ravenna,
does little to convince him. Elias assertion that they are off to
hunt rabbits is not entirely convincing either, but he lets them
run off into the night, remaining with Gunlarr to ponder this turn
of events.
While the rest of the party is barely shifting into first gear,
Arvan has clambered through the window to find himself in a large
reception room. To his left is the front door and two other exits,
there are stairs leading to the first floor and two doors to the
right. One door leads to the kitchen. Arvan can hear frightened
voices within and, striding over, yanks the door open and pokes
his head around. In the kitchen are Miss Irith, the housekeeper,
Honour and two other female servants. The young girls are frightened
at Arvan’s sudden appearance and start to scream. "Where
is he?" Arvan demands. Irith is determined to tell Arvan nothing,
but behind her back one of the nameless servants points to a second
door off the kitchen.
At this point Raza has reached the manor. Seeing the mist and a
guard standing on the patio he leaps into the air and plants a flying
kick that knocks the guard unconscious. He approaches the shuttered
windows to the kitchen, through the crack in the window he can see
Arvan talking with the servants. He hides in a shadow and waits
for the others. Ravenna and her wolf cub are the next to arrive
on the patio. Inside, Arvan has spied two guards crossing the hallway
to the kitchen to apprehend him. He runs through the kitchen and
through the second door the servant indicated. The guards burst
into the kitchen and begin to head after Arvan. Raza sends a fist
to smash down the doors, breaking two fingers as Ravenna calmly
opens the unlocked portal. She leaps into the room and, swinging
her heavy staff knocks Irith around the head. There is a sickened
crunch as the old woman’s skull gives way and Irith falls to
the floor. Ravenna is pleased with herself although Honour and the
others are terrified and barrel past Raza and run screaming into
the night.
Honour could not recognise Ravenna through her magical disguise,
a disguise Ravenna now drops to gloat over the semiconscious Irith
- to show the old woman who it was who brought her to this. At this
point the guards who were pursuing Arvan turn back to tackle Ravenna.
One slices the sorceress across the shoulder, she lets fly with
a ray of frost but only succeeds in quick-freezing some hanging
saucepans together. Raza leaps to her rescue and bravely distracts
the guards by hammering the hell out of thin air, three feet to
their left. At this juncture, Nicos finally arrives with a maniacal
glee etched on his face. Summoning the power of Calafax he engulfs
the kitchen in an arc of fire. Raza and one guard dodge out of the
way, Ravenna is wounded and the second guard is instantly killed.
Nicos laughs insanely.
In the meantime, Arvan has entered a large dining room. The table
is set for only one person, and by the way the chair is lying on
the ground, the far door to the back terrace is open and the curtain
is flapping in the wind, Arvan can tell that whoever was in here
has done a runner. He pursues out onto the terrace, sees that a
door back into the main hallway was open and gives chase. As he
re-enters the main hallway, Arvan catches a glimpse of some swift
feet disappearing up the stairs, but he is distracted as the remaining
two guards have re-entered the house through the front door, draw
their swords and run to meet him.
The slow-moving Elias only now arrives at the house, his cross-bow
at the ready. He can see movement in an upstairs window, but opts
not to fire. Closing on the manor, he blunders through the mist
toward the front door looking for trouble. At the same moment in
the kitchen, the surviving guard drops his weapon and surrenders
to Ravenna, Raza and Nicos. They accept his surrender, ignore him,
and head after Arvan.
The half-orc, in the meantime, has conjured several gallons of
water which he drops on the heads of his two opponents as way of
distraction. The guards flail their swords at him to no avail as
he dodges past them and runs upstairs. His foes are about to follow,
as Elias wanders through the front door and straight into melee.
He quickly draws his sword and stabs one of his opponents dead.
The other looks a little worried, but fights on. At this moment,
Raza, Ravenna and Nicos charge in from the patio. "Don’t
kill them!" Raza cries. Elias shrugs and plants his heavy boots
in the man’s gonads. He screams and topples to the floor, unconscious.
The group can hear movement upstairs and follows it.
While this has been happening Arvan has arrived on the landing.
There are several doors to choose from, but only one stands invitingly
open. On the landing, sitting on a comfortable chair is a woman
of about 35 seasons, who is an obvious imbecile. She is rocking
herself back and forward, drool is congealing on her chin. Arvan
ignores her for the time being and goes through the open door into
a lounge. There is a large comfortable room and off it, a bedroom
with a big bed. On the bed is a naked girl, little older than Honour,
who is desperately trying to cover herself up. Arvan’s attention
is drawn, however, by the furious bald man holding a heavy crossbow
on him; a man whose cry - "Get out of my house!" - confirms
him as the squire. Before Arvan can react Squire Osroth fires the
bolt at him. By luck, it harmlessly imbeds itself in Arvan’s
shield. Even as Osroth is reaching to grab his longsword, Arvan
is upon him pinning the man’s arms. The naked woman slides
discreetly under the bed.
The rest of the group now thunders to the top of the stairs. They
all notice the drooling woman, but only Elias goes over to her.
He realises that she is the figure he considered shooting on his
way to the house. The other three head into the bedroom where Arvan
holds Osroth. Arvan doesn’t seem too pleased to see the rest
of the party, and evidently wanted to handle this on his own. However,
Ravenna’s obvious rage is not to be gainsaid, and his plans
of giving Osroth a quiet talking to are lost as the trio plan what
to do with the man. At first Osroth thinks the party are thieves
in it for the money, when he learns their true motive he becomes
almost as angry as Ravenna. He owns these girls, he says, they are
only peasants and he can do whatever he wants to them. He clothes
them, gives them a roof over their head, they owe him everything.
All he was doing to Honour was teaching her some respect. This does
little to settle Ravenna’s mood and she threatens to kill the
squire. Nicos and Raza begin to suggest a list of unpleasant things
they might do to Osroth as punishment for his crime. Osroth maintains
that he has committed no crime, he has nothing to apologise for
and it is the party themselves that are criminals in this endeavour.
Arvan tries quietly to reason with the man, to make him see the
error of his ways, but to no avail. Ravenna believes that more direct
action is necessary.
Meanwhile on the landing, Elias has sat down opposite the drooling
woman. For a few minutes he tries to talk to her, but succeeds in
doing little more than make her smile (and entice her to poke him
in the eye). He feels pity for the woman and realises that she is
completely dependent on Squire Osroth. Entering the bedroom he tells
the rest of the party this, says that they cannot kill Osroth, because
the woman outside will suffer. Elias then leaves, not wanting to
watch what the party does next. The naked woman under the bed slips
out, smiles a terrified smile at the party and runs away as fast
as can. Elias heads searches the other rooms on the top floor, the
strange woman waving at him as he passes. In another bedroom he
finds a portrait of the squire on his wedding day. The woman outside
is the squire’s wife. The portrait has the caption "Squire
and Lady Osroth" - evidently the squire married above his station.
Elias begins to rob the place, but feeling a strange compunction
he opts to leave the jewellery the woman is wearing in the picture.
He takes some other jewellery (necklaces, bracelets and a ring)
as well as an elegant silk dress that he thinks may fit a certain
bard. His rummagings are only interrupted by the sound of one of
the guards downstairs waking up. Elias hurries to him and kicks
him into unconsciousness once more. Then he hears the scream from
the squire’s bedchamber and knows that Ravenna has acted.
Between them Ravenna, Nicos and Raza had decided to castrate the
squire to teach him a lesson. Arvan is marginally disgusted by the
actions of the rest of the group. He is disappointed in them and
in the squire. He leaves Osroth a note that reads "You will
learn. You must" and stands aside. Ravenna uses the dagger
Elias has lent her for the task. As Raza and Nicos holds the unconscious
squire, Ravenna does the deed and is covered in the squire’s
blood. He awakens in a roar of agony and then swiftly passes out.
Arvan administers a healing spell so that the squire won’t
die of blood loss and the group departs. By this time all the guards
who can have run away. Irith still lies bleeding in the kitchen
and will probably die in unattended, but she is ignored by the group.
Realising that they have probably overstayed their welcome they
leg it out of the house. On his way out Elias grabs a rabbit from
the kitchen and jabs a cross bolt into it unconvincingly.
Once outside the party splits. Elias, Raza and Nicos return to
Minsc and Gunlarr while Ravenna persuades Arvan to follow the tracks
of the servants to see if she can find Honour. Ravenna realises
that after their actions, Honour’s life won’t be worth
tuppence. Arvan finds the tracks and follows them back to Oakholme,
but loses them on the cobbled streets. They press on anyway, calling
Honour’s name. This attracts the attention of a powerfully
built man in chain-mail who introduces himself as Constable Trench.
Is he notices the blood covering Ravenna he chooses not to mention
it. Ravenna is becoming a little frightened, but maintains that
she is looking to Honour. Trench directs her to Squire Osroth’s
manor saying that Honour works and lives there. Ravenna thanks the
constable and leaves town with Arvan.
Meanwhile, Minsc is completely unconvinced that the rest of the
group went rabbit hunting, despite Elias’ protestations to
the contrary. Indeed, Elias’ whole story is rather shot down
in flames when Minsc points out that the rabbit Elias is sporting
as evidence has been smoked. Minsc is very suspicious of the group,
but has no evidence to go on. No evidence until a blood-spattered
Ravenna returns to the scene. "What happened?" asks the
paladin, but receives no response. Gunlarr is equally terrified
that the group has done something mind-numbingly stupid, and tries
to hold them to account for their actions. This is doubly true when
Ravenna returns Elias' dagger to him and thanks him for it. "What
happened?" Minsc asks more forcefully. At this point the group
can see and hear a horseman riding out to the manor. It is Constable
Trench. The law is about to discover what they had done. Ravenna
says that there is no time to explain, that Honour’s life is
in danger and that they have to track her down. Arvan lost her tracks
but, as a ranger, Ravenna believes that Gunlarr can find them again.
Gunlarr isn’t happy about it, but will help in an innocent
life is at stake. Minsc still wants to know what happened, and can
tell that the rest of the group from Nicos to Raza are spinning
him a line.
The group of seven returns to Oakholme, and after about ten minutes
Gunlarr has picked up what he believes to be Honour’s tracks.
Ravenna is pleased, but it is a short lived sensation. Minsc has
been using this time to consider his options. Something suspect
obviously happened at the manor. Ravenna has blood on her and was
carrying a large knife. From the off-hand remarks the others had
been making, it is evident that the group did something to the squire
as punishment for the rape and brutalisation of Honour. This matter
should have been brought to the attention of the duke, the group
and particularly Ravenna (whom Minsc is convinced is the ring-leader)
should not have taken matters into their own hands. Minsc is a paladin,
and there is only one course open to him. He steps forward and announces
that he placing Ravenna under arrest until this matter is cleared
up. He tries to subdue her, but she slips out of his grasp. Arvan
grabs Minsc and tries to hold him back. The paladin struggles and,
although Arvan is stronger, it is only a matter of time before he
breaks free.
Ravenna is beside herself. She is determined to find and save Honour.
It is obvious that Minsc will not be deflected from his current
path, and that he wants to see Ravenna locked up and brought to
trial. "We have no choice," says Ravenna to Minsc’s
face. "We have to kill him." The rest of the group is
agog. "There are some things you just can’t justify,"
says Elias. Gunlarr declares that he won’t permit it and will
stand against Ravenna. The six questors, chosen by Narramac, stand
in a quiet Oakholme. They are on the verge of blows. Things will
never be the same again.
Prodigal Wizard
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