Morday, 6 Brightday 204 [continued]
Minsc struggles free of Arvan and grabs Ravenna. "I am placing
you under arrest," he says as Arvan grabs him by the shoulders
and yanks him away. Ravenna mentally commands her familiar, Snowy,
to go for Minsc’s throat. The wolf cub does its best to savage
the paladin’s ankle. Elias draws a bead on Ravenna with his
crossbow, telling her to call off the wolf. He says that he will
shoot her if she doesn’t. "Guys, guys... chill,"
is Nicos’ well thought-out contribution to the discussion,
as Raza also lends a voice of reason to the proceedings. They need
to discuss this, he says.
Minsc agrees. He says that he is willing to listen. Ravenna says
that there is no time to explain. They have to find Honour before
the squire does, and she asks Gunlarr to see if he can pick up the
track again. Gunlarr shakes his head slowly. If there wasn’t
an innocent at stake, he wouldn’t have anything to do with
this. Minsc still demands an explanation, he wants to know what
happened at the manor, why Ravenna was covered in blood. He knows
that they did something terrible to the squire, he wants to know
what. But Ravenna isn’t saying, and Minsc can sense that the
rest of the group are still be economic with the truth. However,
the paladin’s wish to protect an innocent overrides his curiosity
for the moment, he will go with the party; "But I’m keeping
an eye on you," he says pointing at Ravenna.
Gunlarr has found a trail, although he can’t be certain that
it is Honour’s. The party takes the chance, and follow the
ranger to the village square, the inn and around the back of the
inn into a large stable. The tracks go inside, Gunlarr says. Ravenna
and Minsc enter the barn leaving Arvan, Nicos, Elias, Raza and Gunlarr
outside. Elias and Nicos take bets on which one of the two is coming
out alive. Nicos backs Ravenna. Inside the barn, Minsc catches sight
of movement under the straw in the hayloft. He and Ravenna climb
to investigate, the sorceress calling Honour’s name. There
is no response, so Ravenna roots through the hay revealing a red-headed
servant from the manor. It is not Honour. The girl screams at Ravenna’s
approach (outside things look good for Elias winning a shilling).
Minsc can see that the girl is terrified of Ravenna. "Don’t
hurt me!" she pleads. Ravenna endeavours to explain that she
has no intention of hurting the girl, but that Honour was in deadly
danger. "Danger from you!" the servant screams. "You
killed Rex," she sobs, "You burned Rex."
"Rex?" Minsc asks, "Who’s Rex? What have you
done?" As Ravenna turns to explain that it was not her but
Nicos, the servant takes the opportunity to escape and leaps from
the hayloft. She lands badly, striking one of the lower partitions,
whimpers and falls to the ground. Arvan is inside the barn in an
instant, attending to the girl. Minsc and Ravenna descend to the
see if they can help. Outside the party see the door to the inn
opening. Two figures, the landlady carrying a crossbow and a man
carrying a large axe, exit and head towards the barn. Gunlarr, Elias
and Raza hide on the far side of a high bank. Nicos, doesn’t
know where to go, blunders up and down and then runs straight into
them. The landlady points the crossbow squarely at the fire cleric.
"Stay where you are," she says. "Where are your friends?"
Nicos pauses for a moment, weighing up his options. "They’re
in the barn," he says.
Minsc, Ravenna and Arvan hear the barn door open, and turn to see
Nicos walk slowly in, his hands above his head. He is followed by
the landlady of the tavern, he has a crossbow aimed at the small
of his back. "Over there," the woman gestures to the far
side of the barn. Nicos, Minsc and Ravenna obey immediately, Arvan
quickly finished attending to the girl. "That’s Niamh!"
says the man, "From the manor." The woman tells Arvan
to get away from the girl, the fact that he is a half-orc does little
to convince her that Arvan is anything other than a vicious killer.
Eventually Arvan walks away. Suddenly, a youngster of about fourteen
seasons enters through the open doors. It is the landlady’s
son, Rek. She sends the lad off to fetch the constable, and settles
down to guard the foursome. Her husband tends to Niamh; the girl
is still unconscious.
Outside, the others are uncertain of what to do next. Raza has
the idea of running through the village yelling "The dragon
is coming, the dragon is coming!" and hopefully cause a major
distraction. Elias and Gunlarr are unconvinced, but the monk heads
off anyway, with only a small degree of success. He doesn’t
move the landlady or her husband, certainly. Inside the barn, the
rest of the group decide that something must be done. Arvan casts
a flare of light at the landlady, distracts her and charges for
the door. The crossbow goes off, the bolt finding its way to Arvan’s
armour, but not into him. The landlord stands to block the door,
but Ravenna casts a cause fear on him, and sends the man screaming
into the street. Arvan grabs the landlady’s crossbow from her
and tosses it into the hayloft. He then takes another look at Niamh
as Ravenna and Nicos bundle past him into the night. The landlady
is shocked and backs away from Arvan as Minsc arrives to render
aid. The druid decides that the servant girl will recover and steps
out into the alley. Raza has returned from his abortive expedition,
and the group assemble outside the barn (except Elias who is still
hiding on the other side of the bank).
Minsc is getting progressively more annoyed at Ravenna as the sorceress
asks Gunlarr to see if he can pick up the trail again. The entire
group is, therefore, looking at the ground when a swordsman and
two bowmen stride up the road. Only Minsc notices them, and he doesn’t
bother to say anything to the rest of the party. The threesome are
Deputy Bran, and two members of the militia called Drak and Sorn.
Bran stops about twenty feet from the party completely unnoticed
and yells "Drop your weapons, you’re all under arrest!"
The party’s response is swift and violent. With the aid of
a true strike spell Elias fires his crossbow and disarms Bran of
his short sword from thirty paces! The deputy is a little taken
back by this. Drak returns fire at Elias, only barely missing. Raza
then charges in at the lawmen. Sorn shoots probably the best shot
of his life at the monk, but Raza bats it aside with the flat of
his hand. He attacks Sorn with an impressive flurry of blows. None
of them hitting. Sorn takes the opportunity to knife Raza in the
stomach; even Bran swings at the monk with his dagger but misses
the target. Nicos, Gunlarr and Minsc sit this one out, leaving Arvan
to power across the dirt road and engage the deputy. He slices him
once with his sickle to indicate that he means business and then
falls back on pounding Bran’s face with his ample fists. Bran
continues to use his knife, but is at a disadvantage against the
larger half-orc. Ravenna aims a ray of frost at Sorn, striking him
and Elias ducks for cover to recast his spell. Drak takes an arrow
and shoots Ravenna in the shoulder. The sorceress collapses into
unconsciousness. Minsc takes this opportunity to tie her up and
effect an arrest. As Raza and Arvan’s battles continue, Elias
hops up and shoots a bolt directly into Sorn’s short bow, ruining
the weapon. Sorn drops the bow and charges up the slope to Elias,
who draws his sword and prepares to close with him. Raza eventually
takes down Sorn, and Arvan wins against Bran, but not before the
landlady from the barn has recovered her crossbow and shot the half-orc
in the back. At this point Raza can hear hoof-beats and sees a large
horse ridden by Constable Trench bearing down on them.
Trench gallops through the combat, unsheathing his sword and cutting
down Arvan where he stands. He reins his horse to standstill and
dismounts. "Are you going to continue this madness, or are
you going to surrender?" he asks. Elias is about to reply when
Drak sticks his longsword into Elias’ chest. Everything goes
black for the crossbow-man right about then. Raza says that he is
willing to surrender. Trench tells him to lie face down in the mud.
He calls to Drak to drag the one is was fighting down and make sure
that he doesn’t die; and tells the landlady (Delilah) to stay
in the barn. He found her husband, Samuel, racing through the town
like a mad fool. Trench recognises Gunlarr and asks Minsc who he
is and what’s going on. Minsc tells him all that he knows,
Raza adds that the squire was an evil man who deserved to be punished.
"We’ll do this back at the gaol," Trench says. Gunlarr
and Minsc point out that they have had nothing to do with any of
this. Raza is convinced that the constable will want to cover this
up. Trench examines his fallen men and revives Bran and Sorn. He
sends Drak to get the wagon, and when he returns he throws the party
on board. Nicos and Ravenna have been identified as spell-casters
and are gagged and the whole group is taken to the lock-up.
In the early hours before dawn, the party (Arvan and Elias still
unconscious) are shut into cells barely large enough to hold one
person. Nicos and Ravenna are left bound and gagged. The constable
says that he will deal with them in the morning but Raza won’t
leave him be. He says that Trench is just going to cover everything
up and that squire will escape. Trench is suddenly very angry.
"You should be glad that I haven’t pass judgement on
you as you have done on me," he yells at Raza. "There
is a way of things in this land. Authority comes from the top down,
from the king to the duke, from the duke to the earl, from the earl
to the knight, from the knight to the squire and the from the squire
to the rest of us. People at the bottom don’t have a lot of
choices or a lot of freedom. You say that Honour is in trouble -
how much more trouble would she be in without the squire. She’s
an orphan - no family, no money. She’ll never be able to afford
to marry that Ozrik of her’s. Without the squire and Irith
to take her in she’d be on the streets, a beggar or worse."
"What if it had been your daughter?" snaps Raza.
The constable turns his head away as if he has no answer, then
he says, "You want to talk about innocents? Talk about Rex
and Thomas. Two men who were just doing their jobs that you butchered
this evening."
"If they knew what the squire was doing then they were accomplices."
"Were they? Not everyone has the luxury of being brought up
in a cosy monastery where you know where the next meal is coming
from and always have clothes on your back. They don’t work,
they starve - you think they have a choice? All you’ve done
is kill two good men you were just trying to get by. Two men that
I’ve known since I was a boy. You’ve killed them and you’ve
doomed their wives and their children, because now they have no-one
to support them." Trench storms out of the room.
Sunday, 7 Brightday 204
Ravenna and Nicos eventually manage to untie themselves. They are
left until well into the afternoon before anyone appears. The constable
and two guards arrive with a healer who administers to Elias and
Arvan before leaving again. Minsc patiently meditates waiting for
the truth to come out. Gunlarr is getting a little antsy, knowing
that Heena could be alive tomorrow and he’s trapped in a prison
cell. In the evening the party is fed, and they lurch uncomfortably
into another day. Time is ticking ever onwards.
Vítday, 8 Brightday 204
Mid-morning, Constable Trench enters and removes Minsc and Gunlarr
from their cells. They are taken into an outer office where they
find Deputy Bran and two men that they do not recognise. They are
introduced to Mayor Gulgill and Squire Osroth. Trench asks Osroth
if these two were part of the attack on his manor; Osroth says (in
a falsetto tone) that he has never seen them before in his life.
Trench nods and thanks the squire for his help. Osroth makes it
perfectly clear that he wants those who assaulted him put to death
in no short measure. Gulgill makes a number of conciliatory noises
and the squire leaves.
The mayor is of the opinion that the party in the cells should
be executed in accordance with the squire’s wishes. Trench
shakes his head and disagrees. In matters such as this, Trench says,
with the squire so close to the case, there is not alternative but
to turn it over to the duke in Northmeet. Gulgill doesn’t like
it, but Trench won’t be gainsaid on this matter. He will send
a fast messenger to Northmeet, and then make preparations to take
the party there for incarceration until their trial. The group will
leave in the morning, and the journey should take about two days
along the road. The constable turns to Minsc and Gunlarr. He says
that they are innocent and can go, but he would appreciate it if
they would travel to Northmeet and talk to the guard there. They
might eventually be called to give evidence in the trial, although
that may not be for many weeks, or even months. Minsc agrees, but
Gunlarr says that he has pressing business and will be returning
home as soon as possible.
Inside the cells, Raza is shouting for the constable. Deputy Bran
arrives to see what all the fuss is about. Raza says that they don’t
have time for this and they have to be going on the quest. "Oh,
I’m so sorry we’re inconveniencing you," says Bran
before leaving the monk to shout at the walls.
Minsc and Gunlarr leave the gaol. Gunlarr heads off to The Village
and Minsc goes to the inn. The constable tells the rest of the party
that they will be leaving for Northmeet in the morning. They are
fed and then bed down for the night, they are all in low spirits
– except Nicos who is celebrating the end of the Dark of Calafax
by setting fire to his bedding.
Terday, 9 Brightday 204
The party are awakened early in the morning. They are all manacled
(including the unconscious ones) and led out to the wagon, where
they are attached to the vehicle by a long sturdy chain. Bran, Sorn
and Drak will accompany them to Northmeet. Minsc also joins them,
much to the derision of the rest of the group. He bears it well.
With a lurch the wagon rolls out of Oakholme. Ravenna’s familiar,
Snowy, who had been fending for itself all this time, tags along
behind looking puzzled. The journey is more-or-less uneventful.
They pass Ariadne, Carrac and the other members of their party,
off hunting for a tooth from the maw of the oldest of dragons. The
quest seems to be slipping away from them as time passes. Overnight,
the group remains chained to the wagon and no opportunity of escape
suggests itself. Minsc uses his powers of healing to restore Arvan
to consciousness. The druid is not pleased with his current predicament.
Zephday, 10 Brightday 204
The wagon travels onward. Mid-morning they are met by six soldiers
from Northmeet who will accompany the group the rest of the way.
By the evening, they have reached the large walled city of Northmeet.
They can see the impressive Northmeet Castle, home of Duke Colharn,
rising out of the middle of the town on a steep hill. The wagon
is jeered as it enters the city gates and is peppered by small stones
and rotten vegetables as the peasants make sport with the prisoners.
Raza’s shouts that Squire Osroth is an evil man are lost under
the clamour of a hundred voices. The horses lead the party up and
through the gate into the outer wall of the castle. From there it
is only a few hundred yards before they cross the drawbridge into
the castle proper. There the wagon stops and a dozen armoured men
march out to meet it.
The leader of the group introduces himself to Bran as Captain Skellig.
Skellig salutes Minsc saying that he is glad of he help of a paladin,
and that he will soon teach this rabble the error of their ways.
"We have done nothing wrong!" announces Raza. "Osroth
was a cold and evil man..." he is quickly clubbed unconscious
by a guard. Bran, Sorn and Drak are shown to some quarters. Skellig
tells Minsc that the paladin will probably be called to the trial,
but that probably won’t be for months as Duke Colharn has other
problems at the moment, particularly with the return of the dragon
Furnice. Minsc says that he would be happy to help track down Furnice,
and Skellig is sure that the knight could do with the help. Minsc
asks what is to become of the party’s possessions. Skellig
says that they will be held until after the trial, Minsc asks if
he can take the wyvern egg. Skellig sees no reason why not and gives
it to the paladin. He then asks Minsc if he will just answer a few
questions pertaining to the identity of the group. Minsc agrees,
and leaves with Skellig. He does not return.
The group are roughly man-handled into a stone keep and taken down
a flight of stairs. There they are briefly interrogated, stripped,
washed down in very cold water and then have all their body hair
shaved off to prevent disease and given rags to wear. They are marched
to a room contained about twenty iron-barred cells. The room is
currently empty; each member of the group is thrust into an empty
cell. There is only one exit from the room that is guarded by two
stern looking men. These guards can see everything that transpires.
Escaping will not be easy. Arvan reaches through the bars to touch
Elias, finally able to use his magic to wake the man up. Suffice
to say that when Elias comes to, he wishes he hadn’t.
Caladay, 11 Brightday 204
Nicos uses his holy day to pray to Calafax for help. None seems
immediately forthcoming. The party decide to bide their time and
wait for their opportunity to escape. The guards arrive in the morning
to feed them and remove their slop bucket. In order to pass the
time profitably Ravenna teaches Elias the spell change self hoping
that it will be some use in an eventual escape.
Sharday, 12 Brightday 204
The day progresses in much the same way as the previous one. Arvan
uses his magic to make sure all members of the party are fully healed.
Ravenna teaches Elias charm person. The food gets worse, and Raza
is beginning to lose all hope for the quest.
Morday, 13 Brightday 204
The routine changes slightly on this day. A few hours after getting
their food one of the guards comes up to the cells, running his
sword along the iron bars. "Right then," he says, "you’ve
all been good little prisoners. Stay like that for the next week
and we’ll think about moving you downstairs where there’s
more room." The guard grins a toothy grin and turns to Elias.
"You! Your wife is here!"
Elias is momentarily puzzled. "My wife?" he says, then
shrugs and gets to his feet. The guard unlocks Elias’ cell
and leads him away. With Elias gone the rest of the group do their
best to whisper a plan to one another. Application of successive
burning hands and create water spells might succeed in smashing
the lock. Alternatively they could charm both guards into releasing
them, subdue, steal their uniforms and, using a change self spell
then march out pretending to be taking the remaining prisoners somewhere
else and escape. A bold and audacious plan.
Elias is shown into a bear stone room. A second later a cloaked
woman is brought in by one of the guards. Elias strains his eyes
to see who it is. The woman allows her cloak to fall back and rushed
toward her ‘husband’. "Elias! Elias I was so worried,"
says Alessandre embracing the crossbowman and planting a lasting
kiss on his lips. Alessandre asks the guard for a little privacy,
who surprisingly obliges, and then stands grinning at Elias. "You
are in such shit," she definitively. Elias nods. Alessandre
asks exactly what happened to bring them to such a place; Elias
tells all and Alessandre whistles slowly. "You are so shafted.
I’ve never been this shafted. You have a talent for it, you
know." She goes on to ask after the others and to say that
she doesn’t like him bald. Nicos could carry it off, she says,
but Elias looks like a large mal-formed potato.
Alessandre says that she wants to help, but she doesn’t have
much time. Her group have a wyvern egg and are on the way to find
this tooth thing. Alexi thinks he knows where he’s heading,
but he won’t tell the rest of the group anything. Anyway, she
says, getting really excited. She has news - news from the Village
of the Eighteen Churches that is bound to effect them. She says
that two days after the party left the Village the head of the Watches,
Ulish Van Caspan, discovered the theft of Heena’s finger from
the temple. He was beside himself with rage, rightly blamed Belarus
Rothsman and got the Justicians to call a conclave of all the churches.
This happened the following day when Van Caspan spoke to the heads
of all the churches. Rothsman was accused of theft and Van Caspan
demanded that he return the stolen item forthwith or face the consequences.
Rothsman rather unwisely told him to go to hell (although less politely).
The council chamber erupted. The Watchers called on the Church of
Fire to be excluded from the Village. Rothsman’s response was
"Try and make us, you arthritic old arse-bandit". Things
went from bad to worse. The Justicians (under Morrittius) called
for calm and a vote on the matter. Rothsman said he wouldn’t
take part in an on his faith and storms out. Luther Mardit stood
with him saying that the Church of Contention would use its army
to support the Church of Fire if necessary and that the resurrection
would take place. The Church of Life allied themselves with the
Watchers for obvious reasons. That evening, the Watchers held a
vigil outside the Tower of Fire in the Village. By the following
morning, however, the Temple of the Watchers had been hit by a dozen
fireballs, the roof and the interior trappings were gutted. The
Bombastics were blamed but Van Caspan suspected that the Church
of Fire put them up to it, and accused Rothsman of being a closet
Bombast. Rothsman’s response is "Come here and say that
you little sack of shit!" Rothsman was more determined than
ever to go ahead with the resurrection on 8th Brightday. More reasonable
members of the priesthood have sent word to Tarrashar, head head
cleric from Uris to intercede. As far as it stands at present, Rothsman
has been persuaded to hold off on the resurrection until he hears
from the high priest. In the meantime the Justicians have cordoned
off the Village. No-one is getting in or out with their say-so.
Elias is shocked. Alessandre takes some pleasure in telling him
there is more. Colharn’s knights have checked the names of
the party to see if any of them are already wanted. There is a delegation
of Watchers on the way here from The Village to arrest Ravenna.
They are also looking for Gunlarr. Elias is not a happy man. Alessandre
says that she isn’t very good a making plans, but she’ll
help if she can. What can they do though? At that moment there’s
banking on the door and the guard demands how long they will be.
"Give it a minute," yells Alessandre, "It’s
cold in here, he’ll get it right in a minute!" Elias scowls
at her.
Alessandre suggests making the two of them invisible, but cannot
see how they will get past the guards. She has a lockpick she can
give to Elias, if he has somewhere to conceal it. There is another
bang at the door. Alessandre begins to scream and whimper rhythmically.
"Just a few more moments," she pants and then adds to
Elias "We don’t have much time." Elias agrees. He
is says that he and the others will have to break out without her
help. She concurs, and says that there is a tavern just outside
the castle walls called The Castle Inn. If they head into the stables
she will meet them there and give them what help she can. When?
It will have to be soon. Elias says later tonight, and Alessandre
agrees. Now, does he want the lock pick?
Elias nods. "Well, bend over then," Alessandre says and
inserts it as delicately as she can up Elias’ back passage.
Elias screams in pain and surprise. "That’s it!"
Alessandre calls to the guard, "He’s done." The guard
comes back in. Elias embraces Alessandre who goes along with it,
with a look of quiet amusement on her face. She tells him that little
Nicos is missing him terribly, but little Minsc is being brave.
Elias is led back to his cell, waddling badly because of the lock
pick up his arse. When he is thrown back in with the others he tells
them what happened. They quickly compare plans and for the first
time in a week there is a little optimism. They will be able to
escape. Escape so they can hunt down Minsc!
Prodigal Wizard
Index | Previous Session
| Next Session
|
