Campaign Log

Well, last Wednesday at Pawn & Pint was actually the last time we met at the original location. This week we will be at 613 Walnut!

Unfortunately, this summary will not be as detailed (again, due to the fact I am yet to possess a TARDIS).

Last week saw the party setting up a new lair at the ruins where they had discovered a concealed cellar that had been abandoned (aside from some watery beast that caused a bit of trouble). In the morning, the party had spread out to check different things. While they were doing that, the sounds of horses moving through the woods from the east could be heard.

The call, and response, of birds was heard through the camp and several people hid or took cover. Eventually, Wilby spotted a group of soldiers dressed in colors of Duchess Estel coming into the camp (later they will spot some advance scouts that got past Wilby and Unferth).

Wilby and Unferth came forth to greet the soldiers, which was lead by a woman in fancy chain armor. Her companion, a man in chain armor, had a form of Felis’ holy symbol woven in the links of his armor.

The woman demanded to know if they were deserters or thieves, but Wilby said no, they were on a mission to warn the King about potential treachery, but were too late, as they had heard the King was dead and Prince Joshua was taken prisoner.

The woman replied that she had heard the Prince was dead. She and her people were pursuing a group of Senzar who had captured people under her protection. Three groups of invaders were causing trouble.

Several others came forth, including Ishen, who curtsied before the Duchess, saying she recognizes her from her oath taking ceremony.

The party informed Duchess Estel that they had killed several Senzar in the mountains and freed as many of the hostages as they could. The skeptical look on the Duchess’ part was answered by Ishen, who informed the Duchess that there were multiple holy warriors in the group.

The party offered to help the Duchess and she said that if they were honorable soldiers, they could help by pursuing one of the two other group of Senzar that had been raiding small communities for slaves. To which, Unferth said they were “Honorable enough.”

The party headed after one group while the Duchess and her men went after the other.

After a day of traveling and asking for information from ransacked villages, they located a ruined keep where the main entrance and one tower had collapsed and much of the stone robbed away. Both of the floors of the two-story building was exposed on the southwest corner.

Rowan did an initial investigation and saw a few watchers, but could not get a great feel for the numbers inside (though they suspected at least 15). They regrouped and planned to draw out small numbers of the Senzar so they could take them out piece by piece instead of performing a frontal assault.

To that effort, Gemma and Rowan formed a team, Howl and Unferth formed another team, and Wilby and Ishen held back to ask as support.

In the morning, Gemma and Rowan lit a fire around some abandoned buildings to the west of the keep. Their effort drew out several soldiers and an invisible Senzar warlock. They battled ferociously, killing the soldiers fairly easily with bow, sword, and magic, but the warlock extracted a painful price on them before simply stepping through a portal and disappearing as Wilby joined them to offer support.

Unferth and Howl headed east in the morning, following one of many tracks that showed the Senzar coming and going. They camped out and waited. They spotted a group of seven Seznar escorting fifteen prisoners toward the keep and Howl utilized his powers to summon fog out of nothing, thereby isolate a couple of soldiers so that Unferth could run up and hack off parts of their bodies with his axe. That worked until the remaining Senzar started killing the prisoners so that they could make an escape and run back to the keep. In all, five prisoners died, five were injured, and five came out unharmed.

The Honorable Enough heroes helped the injured as best as they could, then returned to the others of their party.

That night, they decided to attack the keep again, this time using the exploding ball of fire that Gemma still carried. She called upon her powers to give her lift so that she could fly over the keep and drop the ball down one of the chimneys, with the hope that it would kill many people in the keep. She was rewarded with an explosion that sent flames out of ruined second-floor openings.

The party, who had been waiting for a mass exodus, was disappointed that the Senzar had not fled and that the damp and somewhat rotten keep did not burn. Resolved that they might not kill them that evening, they headed away from the keep and set up a small campsite and utilized Howl’s magic to create a warm dome that protected them.

After the dome formed, several of them stepped out of the protection to start taking up a guard for the night. As soon as they did, the area was enveloped in flames. They looked around and saw the Senzar mage that Gemma and Rowan had fought earlier in the day. They moved to attack him, but a second ball of fire engulfed them, with many people taking damage.

Unfortunately for the Seznar mage, the retaliation was swift and more deadly than he anticipated and he was slain before he had a chance to escape.

The party, using Unferth’s uncanny ability to see distant things, noticed a group of soldiers running from the keep. They thought to go into pursuit, but smoke billowed out from the keep. They suspected the Senzar might be trying to kill any hostages as a diversion and they quickly ran to the keep to see if they could help anyone.

The smoke was coming from the tower on the northwest and southeast sides. Both of which had stairs leading down into a basement. The northwest stairs were mostly blocked, but they were able to navigate down the southeast stairs and find a group of Colthish peasants bound and choking on the smoke-filled air.

Fortunately for the peasants, the Murder Hobos turn out to be Honorable Enough and were able to rescue them.