Campaign Log

The adventure continued last Wednesday at Pawn & Pint. Rocks had been acquired, but those who were looking for the party to provide swords were not fooled. In fact, several members of the party had grown worried that they had made some powerful enemies and death might be a real threat.

With the City Watch departing to leave the holy warriors to deal with the body hanging from the rafters in the barn, Wilby joins the others from where he had been watching. Immediately he suggests:

It may be time to arrange your deaths.

Once the others realized Wilby had not suggested killing them himself, they quickly started planning various options. Questions emerged around how to acquire bodies and how to plan their deaths so they would not be considered deserters.

Wilby also suggested that their salvage payout may never arrive. He fears it may be a ploy to keep them in town and give those threatening the party knowledge of a time and place to find them. If they forgo the salvage, plan their own deaths, and turn mercenary, they stand to make a sizable payout if they go to the front and sell their services. With Unferth here, he would make a good front man for a mercenary company.

Before they could leave the barn, Lord Artest, Gemma and Howl’s commander, arrives with several other holy warriors. He pulls the party aside, informing them he heard a rumor they would be in this part of the city. He has also heard talk that they have made some powerful enemies. While he has never spoken publicly about his feelings of Duke Burdger and that family, he does not have much like for their politics and does not trust them.

Artest also informs them that their salvage letters of credit have been held up. To avoid more death, as he had heard three of the City Guard that bunked next to Rowan, Simon, and Wilby had been murdered with their throats slit in the bunks. As a result, he was sending them south immediately. They are to report to a local priestess named Caldia and tell her they are there to offer relief and support. They should go there with haste and not report back to the barracks. They should take Unferth with them and try to keep him safe, as the rest of his sailor companions have turned up date and likely he may know something that others want silenced.

The party takes the advice and immediately sets off to the south for Gevton, which is on the other side of Dentar. The trip takes more than a five days

The small town of Gevton has a stone wall, and in good times, boasts over one thousand people. The party arrives to find the town somewhat deserted, with more than half the population deployed to the front. Women, children, and the old are the primary residents. Everyone they see takes immediate note of their presence.

Most of the buildings are waddle and daub with ceramic roof tiles. A handful of buildings are stone or timber with wooden cladding. At the east entrance to the town, there is a carter with animal pens. The center of the town is filled with a large three story stone tower that is forty-feet by fifty. A market area fills the open space around the tower, though it is not market day. A dam has created a small pond in the green space west of the tower.

The temple of Felis sits on the other side of the stream. A small wall delineates a small set of fields from the trees and grass of the city.

Three posh homes stand in the southwest corner of the city. Their estates reflect a wealth that seems slightly out of place with the mood of the town.

The party heads to the temple to report in, but they find the building empty. Not wanting to wait, they head back across one of the three bridges to locate a public house. They walk past The Frostbite and follow Gemma eagerly into The Ugly Duckling (which has nothing to do with me watching Tangled the day before this session).

Inside the rather rough establishment, Unferth heads up to the barkeep and offers him up a silver coin and asks for an ale. He also inquires as to discount for those serving the church (as he’s run into that before). The barkeep will provide a discount and all the party, save Wilby and Rowan, partake of the beverage.

Unferth will inquire if Priestess Caldia is frequently in the tavern, but the barkeep replies, “Only occasionally. The priestess is rather busying being the only one left in the city.” They talk for a bit longer and eat. But before they have had a chance to get too comfortable, a woman who is obviously a priestess comes into The Ugly Duckling and comes up to the party.

“What are you doing here?” she demands. “Your presence is going to cause me trouble. The whole town knows you are here.”

Some of the party starts to explain, revealing a bit more information than other members may feel comfortable with, but Caldia halts the conversation so they can return to the temple and talk more privately.

Back at the temple, the party works to convince Caldia they had no knowledge of anything going on in Gevton. They are here only to avoid trouble back in Antar. Her initial thought is that she’s going to be stuck baby sitting a number of trouble makers, but knowing Artest sent them reassures her somewhat.

She tells them that she has been watching a group of four people whom she believes are Senzar warlocks. They came into the city a few days ago and appear to be waiting for someone. Her evidence of their witchcraft includes the fact that they were able to rent a series of flats from a man what would not normally do that and the landlord is bending over backwards to accommodate them.

Another group of strangers had just entered the city the day before and she suspects that these two groups might be trying to arrange a meeting.  Only, the party’s sudden appearance is likely to have spooked these two groups and it will make it hard for her to catch them in the act of whatever they are planning.

Wilby and Rowan volunteer to watch the foreigners and Caldia agrees to that effort. The suspected Senzar she explains are staying in a building near the southeast corner of the town. The two party members head out and find places they can observe different sides of the building. Wilby takes up position in the green space along the southern wall, while Rowan finds a place on the far street between the buildings.

During the night, Wilby spots a small person, perhaps a young boy, who approaches the back of the building. The door is answered by someone inside and the young person departs back to the north. No other activity occurs in the night.

The next day, the party awakes to find Caldia already gone for the day. Wilby takes off to check outside the city (with the plan to return disguised as a peasant) while the party heads to a public house for breakfast.

After Wilby returns to town, and while the party is eating, storm clouds suddenly emerge out of a clear sky. The column of dark clouds almost instantly unleashes lightning into the middle of the city.

The party hears the crackling of lightning as well as multiple rolls of thunder. The noise is coming from just outside the building they are in and so they quickly go to investigate. The find the alley where the attack occurred and come upon a man trying to pull another man away. Unferth throws an axe, but misses, striking the building. The man takes off down and quickly disappears before Rowan can catch him.

The alley is full of overturned debris. Priestess Caldia has been burned almost beyond recognition. Her body appears to have been the target of multiple lightning strikes. Gemma tries to offer aid, but it is too late.

Wilby, disguised as a peasant, quickly checks over one of the bodies of the men who appeared to have been opposing Caldia. While their clothing is typical of Cothel, he notes the man’s pouch is full of Kyntian coins.

The city guard of Gevton comes into the alley and Wilby makes a quiet departure, leaving the others to explain their presence.

Several members of the guard are unsettled to see Priestess Caldia is dead. They take the party members present to the keep to speak with Lord Erwel about what they know.

Inside the keep, they find a thin man of athletic build behind an old wooden desk. He will inquire about their presence in Gavton and what they know about the attack that just occurred. Gemma steps forward and explains they are merely in the city to offer relief for Caldia and spend some time training. The Antar City Watch were sent to escort them and Unferth is a traveler in their company.

Lord Erwel takes Gemma at her word and the party is sent back to the temple. Lord Erwel will have Priestess Caldia’s body delivered later in the day.

When the party returns to the temple, a building with a large worship room, flanked by cells for residence on either side, Wilby finds himself a closest to rest and sleep within. The others start going through Caldia’s belongs, looking for clues as to what is going on, as well as valuables.

As evening sets in, Caldia’s body is placed in state in the middle of the temple. Many people come by to pay tribute, but as evening sets in, the flow of people stops and the party gets ready for the night.

Wibly takes up a position of watch inside the temple. Unferth and Rowan will head to an inn on the northwestern side of the city to sleep. Gemma and Howl sleep in some of the empty dormitory rooms, and Simon, who has been quiet this session, will watch from outside the temple.

As the night grows older, Simon will spot some people heading toward the temple and runs off to get Unferth and Rowan. Wilby will spot three people coming into the temple, but concealed in the corner, they do not notice him.

Two of the people will cross the open floor, each heading for a separate wing to check for people. The third will remain by the main entrance. After the two people head through the doors near the back of the temple chamber, Wilby attempts to close on the man near the entrance, but the man sees him and Wilby shoots his bow. Wilby misses the man, who closes the distance and slices Wilby with his short sword.

Gemma, having heard the commotion, wakes and instantly turns herself invisible until she knows what is going on.

The invader, a man who appears to be a foreigner, swings again, hitting Wilby a second time and in response, Wilby uses his hidden powers to draws forth a field to help protect him from additional blows.

Gemma comes out of her room and looks down the hall to see a man heading back toward the door into the main temple. She unleashes a beam of crackling energy into the man.

Unferth and Rowan see Wilby dealing with a swordman and they charge forward. Unferth, using his axe of death, chops deep into the man facing Wilby, dropping the man to the floor. With the casual blow, he continues on toward the man who has emerged from the door on the far right side of the temple.

Rowan and Wilby, both free to use their bows, fire at the man who is standing in the doorway on the left side of the temple.

The man on the right side of the temple, faced with the hulking Unferth, attempts to drive the barbarian back, but his thunderous magic only shakes Unferth. However, Unferth, feels himself seize up and cannot move.

The man in the left doorway suddenly becomes hazy and indistinct.

Howl, woken by the barbarian’s roars, rushes from his room and tries to make the man at the far end of the hallway sleep with the power of his will, but the man resists Howl’s influence and ignores the effort.

Unferth manages to shake off the paralyzing effect and buries his axe into the man before him.

Gemma continues to use her beams of energy, doing damage again and again to the man at the end of the hall. Howl again attempts to exert his force of will on the man, offering him the suggestion that surrender is the wiser choice.

In response, the man throws a flash of light at Howl, striking him painfully with the blinding light.

Wilby and Rowan shoot their bows, but the man in the doorway is too indistinct to hit.

Unferth, seeing a target, races across the room, moving around the body of Caldia, to reach the man. Seeing the approach of four people, the man in the doorway throws a rock with each hand, one at Unferth and Rowan, the other at Gemma and Howl. Both rocks explode into a ball of flame that consume the four party members.

Fortunately, Gemma, Howl, and Rowan reacted quickly enough and they avoid the worst of the blast. Unferth, bred from the tough men across the straights, took the full brunt of the flames and continued forward. He tries to hit the blury man, but is deadly axe misses the mark.

Gemma, using her powers, redirected some of the blast she took back at the man, burning him in return, which drops him to the grond.

Outside, Wilby spots another man with a bow. He takes aim and fires, but the man moves and avoids the deadly shaft.

Enrage at missing the blurry man, Unferth rushes the fourth man who had come to the main entrance to see the chaos inside. This time, Unferth does not miss and the last man collapses in a heap on the floor.

Battered and burned, the party takes stock in the events. The four men, while dressed in typical Cothish clothing, all have darker complexions and carry coins that do not look familiar. They conclude these four men our Senzar warlocks.

Howl finds another rock in the pouch of the man he had faced. When Howl checks for witchcraft, he find the rock and a ring on the man glow with the indication they possess magical properties. Additionally, a short sword the other warlock carried glows. Rowan takes the sword, while Howl takes the other items.

Having found a body to use to fake at least one of their deaths, Howl changes clothing with a Senzar and then Gemma burns the body beyond recognition. The plan now is for Howl to turn invisible so he can sneak out of the city with Wilby (under the pretense that Wilby will be reporting the events back to Antar).