Campaign Log

Last Wednesday at Pawn & Pint to try and rescue Rowan’s friend the action went underground (and inside a building). For those that want to go to the beginning, here is the post that started this campaign.

We pick up from the prior session at the farmhouse south of Vantar. Dead bandits and thieves littered the scene (with one prisoner taken by Tyr). The snow cat was gone and Eric had nothing to use to get enough money so he could pay back Hecktor and free Jessica.

Tyr, however, claimed to be an expert blacksmith (please see the full plate mail she is wearing) and she could turn the steel cage into several suits of armor and make a small fortune doing that. They could then use that money to rescue Jessica. As to the fact that it normally would take a year to do that and Jessica and Erik had but a handful of days … well, Tyr has the favor of Felis and can do the work in a matter of hours instead of months.  (This is the point where you ask, what can go wrong … and then the DM smiles.)

With that plan in mind, they buried the bodies (to prevent the spread of disease), loaded the cage on the cart, and headed back to Vantar. By the time they arrived, it was late in the evening and the guards at the gate asked about the cage.

Tyr, being an honest person, explained the whole event. He even turned over the man who thought he was going to be Tyr’s servant. That led the man to accuse the part of being thieves as well. What saved the party from being taken into custody was that they summoned Tyr’s supervisor from the temple. However, the guards declared the cage as evidence and confiscated it for the trial.

At this point, Erek departed so that his bad position with the local crime lord would not taint the rest of the party, which went back to the public-house and the inn. Tyr, however, makes a stop at his former blacksmith master to see if he has a customer willing to pay 1,500 gold for plate armor (Tyr has some additional steel available). Rowan, Wilby, and Cynder get some rest while Unferth and Quai spend part of the night drinking, and for Unferth at least, he spends the time listening to rumors.

What Unferth learned is that some great explosion happened in the mountains and that much of the Senzar army was crushed in a landslide. The Prince managed to survive and is on his way back to Antar with many other soldiers that were being used as slaves to mine for lost artifacts. Unfortunately, Duke Burdger is not happy with this event and is vying for the barons to declare him king in place of the Prince. With the country’s wealth stolen by the former Queen and taken north to Kynto, Burdger is hoping that his personal fortune will sway opinion.

On the Jessica front, the next day Tyr finds out that there are no current customers looking for a suit of full plate armor at the moment. He also cannot get the church to pay the money they are looking for. So he convinces Erek and Unferth to take him to Hector where we will try to sell his services to the crime lord.

After a bit of work, they are permitted an audience, but the conversation does not go as expected. Hector is angered that Erek would involve a priest in what is a matter of a personal debt. Hector says “The psychotic man has lied about having a woman involved and is trying to take advantage of the situation. It is just a personal debt, nothing else.” As a result, Tyr negotiates a bargain of her own where Hector will attempt to find a customer looking for plate armor for a 40% cut of the price, but that deal has nothing to do with Erik’s debt.

Afterward the meeting, Erik now has to pay 1,500 gold and has three days to do so.

Rowan attempts a different tactic and starts asking around on his own about places where Jessica might be held and of the three locations that Erek suspects, Rowan narrows in on one two-story building that is a small curio store acting as a front for stolen goods.

With little to no planning, Unferth and Tyr go inside the shop to cause a distraction by picking a fight with a young man and an old woman who were working behind the counter. The rest of the party remained outside the small shop.

It did not take long before they caused trouble and Unferth’s axe handle was connecting with the man’s face. The man and old woman turned out to be tougher than they appeared and the noise draws another man from the back room.

Unferth ended up getting poisoned and the toxin made him feel as thick as a whole pot of congealed bacon fat. But Tyr noticed the impact of the poison and used Felis’ power to counter the toxin. Quai comes in from the back window as Unferth kills the first man. Then combat moves into the backroom. Tyr spares the dead man with aid from Felis and starts demanding Unferth stop the bloodshed. Quai then punches Unferth and the barbarian takes a dive.

Tyr heals the nearly dead man as she apologizes for the prank gone wrong. Then she drags Unferth out the front door while Quai tries to claim he works with the city watch to track down those two. The people in the shop appreciate the help but would prefer he leave.

Rowan snuck into the shop’s front room and hid behind the counter and listens to the conversation that takes place after Quai leaves. The old woman says she will check on the woman while another is told to report the event to Hector, leaving just the original man behind.

After the man from the backroom leaves to report to Hector, they decide to go back into the shop, believing this is the location where they can rescue Jessica. This time Tyr temporarily blinds and silences the original man using Felis’ powers. He then ties the man to a chair while Wibly checks out the door in the back room leading to the narrow hall. In the hall, Wilby finds a trap door under a rug.

Unferth ends up using his axe on the trapdoor latch (since the area is silenced) while Rowan picks the lock to the reinforced door (finding a storage room with good). Quai takes a seat in the outer back room and Cynder watches the man who is tied to the chair.

With the trapdoor opened, it reveals a set of stairs going down, Wilby, Rowan, Tyr, and Unferth go down into the passage underground. Lamps and voices can be heard and at the end of the passage appears to be a room with a table and some cooking equipment.

Wilby moves to the end of the passage, while Tyr (in plate armor) makes noises behind them. Suddenly the voices stop.

Wilby’s peak around the corner is rewarded with an arrow that just misses him. Combat quickly ensues with the four of them rushing forward into the room. They are engaged by a man with a short bow (down the narrow hall to the north), the old woman, a younger woman, and another man all on the other side of the table. The combat is fierce as their foes are not simple men that fall easily.

Wilby and Rowan move deeper into the room, while Unferth and Tyr rush toward the northern passage and the man with the bow. Eventually, the man with the bow reveals some witchcraft and shoots bolts of energy at Unferth and he electrocutes Tyr as Tyr runs past him to the door at the far end of the passage.

Wilby, Rowan, and Unferth damage and kill three of the four people as Tyr uses more of Felis’ power to shape the stone floor and walls to form a barricade between everyone else and the door at the end of the hall. This seals Tyr off from any support.

Upstairs, Cynder and Quai, though they can now hear the commotion below, sit tight and remain where they are.

The man with the bow (and magic) gets past the others and manages to make it up the stairs with Wilby and Unferth pursuing. Quai sees the man coming and decides to use one of the firestones he acquired from the Senzar. He lobs the rock toward the narrow hallway, but misses, and the stone bounces off the wall and lands in the room where he is still sitting in the chair. As a ranger I know says, you have to be willing to fireball your own position. Normally, that ranger has enemies surrounding him when he does that. In this case, Quai, Cynder, and the man tied to the chair are the only ones to get burned.

The Bowman continues to fend off Unferth and Wilby as he makes his way toward the window on the back of the shop. With Cynder’s help, and the significant damage others have done, Unferth manages to finally remove the man’s head and an arm with his axe. The unfortunate thing is the man had a stone in his hand that falls to the ground. A moment later, the room is filled with lightning. Quai manages to avoid the energy, but Unferth and Cynder take significant damage.

Downstairs, Rowan is blocked from pursuing Tyr, so he unlocks the reinforced door leading to another storeroom with goods. No Jessica present.

Tyr, manages to get through the door and finds a room with an iron cage. A woman is locked inside and he asks if her name starts with a “J” (as the party, aside from Rowan and Wilby, were having a hard time remembering “Jessica”). The woman responds, no stupid, Jessica starts with an “I” in the Cothish alphabet. (Which for Wilby and myself was very funny because we remember Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.) After a bit of work, Tyr breaks the lock from the cage and starts work on the other door.

The rescue is to be continued in the next session …