Game 1
Hob (Alan), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Wyot (Jeff), Walter (Joe), Morton (Darren)
We have been sent from the monastery to a nearby fishing village to retrieve enough fish to satisfy the brothers in the monastery. As we arrive on the road we hear sounds of alarm. Seems vikings have landed in the village and begun their seige.
Immediately we run into the main road to confront the viking hordes. There's about 4 or 5 in the immediate area who are typical vikings and one badass viking who is making two attacks at a time.
Fastest is not always best! Hob is first and winds up engaging one of them reasonably soon, but he's only carrying a kitchen knife and he's not a figher (+ for bravery, - for brains). The two bowmen (Frederick and Walter) will try and pluck away from a range though that won't always be the case. Wyot wades right in and rushes the big man! He does good damage too, but he's down inside a few rounds because that guy is a monster. Walther and Frederick will have intermittent problems with being in melee combat while using ranged weapons or firing into a melee (at disasdvantage). As Wyot is down and bleeding out with no one easily able to get to him, and a few others are injured, Morton says a prayer, and for a brief moment the area is bathed in rays of golden sunlight from above, and all allies get 1 HP back. The fight continues, and several of the barbarians are knocked down. When they berserker rage they seem to get some hitpoints back or something.
Their leader eventually does this too. When he comes back though he decides to target the one who dropped him (I believe this was Frederick) which causes him to exhibit some magic, as he shouts something, glows, and then leaps high into the air, coming back down again on the other side of us where Frederick is and engages him. He will eventually knock Frederick down to bleeding out status, and then hack away at others, at which point Morton announces in Latin (so the Vikings won't understand) that "this is the last time I can do this" and then heals a second time. This time for 2 HP. The barbarian leader sees this and shouts out to his men what is probably a retreat order because he leaps over us and heads for the docks. He doesn't get far before he's brougt down with a parting shot. The other vikings leave. Many didn't even come ashore. Others did, but left when they got some loot.
Reinforcements show up quite a while later after we're already helping the injured. Our drill captain (who wasn't even there to see what happened) dresses us down for doing the wrong things. We are commended by someone else in the order for probably saving the whole village since for some reason there were no troops on hand to watch out.
We are rewarded with being able to select a second weapon if we want one (Or assemblage of small throwing weapons in Hob's case).
Wyot (Jeff), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Hob (Alan), Joe (Walter), Morton (Darren)
We've settled into an Eat-Sleep-Pray cycle. One market day we are sent to the market. Our job is to patrol, watch for trouble, stop thieves, mitigate disputes.
Hob witnesses a kid stealing a head of cabbage, pursues the kid to where he handed it off to a little girl. He shames the kid into not stealing and gives him two coppers to go pay for it. Seems this is fairly common among the guards who would rather pay to help out he poor than arrest them, though there are a few who will lean on the thieves. Morton can't reconcile this, since helping the poor is what Jesus would do, but stealing is a sin. Later, the church would be no help with this.
Right after lunch a retailer voices alarm at his lamb suddenly being missing. We search around and find a trail of lamb poops, though no lamb prints, so he's likley being carried away. We follow footprints of child and end up outside town at a cemetery. After seeing the doors close on a mausoleum, we break in courtesy of the strong contingency (Wyot and Robert). Inside we find a family who, once he arrives from circling the outside, Walter finds familiar. It's his very own family. Turns out when the church gave the family some money and they encouraged him to go with the church, not long after that his father was hunting and fell prey to something. He is cursed and is currently a dark shadowy figure with deep green skin and leaves and branches extending from him. He still protects the family but he's a danger to anyone who comes near them. Walter managest to approach him without causing a fight. We vow to find out from the church if and how we can dispose of this curse.
As we are leaving the cemetery, we encounter more thugs who boast about what they are going to do to those inside. Hob hurls a dager and takes out their leader with one shot. Morton engages but does nothing. Half of them flee, the others get taken down by the team, with two dying and two being knocked unconscious. Morton rememebers he can remove hunger with his healing, so he does that for the family betfore we leave. We hall the downed thugs back to the market, explain to Captain Cauldwell about what happened, but Walter is not present because he doesn't want to have to lie about his family being involved and doesn't want to talk to the aggressive Cauldwell and possibly inspire some kind of violence against his cursed father. He saves that story for when we get back to the monastery. There he confesses. Maybe the Monsignor, who won't be around for about a month, can help with the curse. In the mean time we will get the family food and try to keep them safe.
We are back at the market the next time we are to keep an eye on things when suddenly out of the sky comes the largest robin ever witnessed. Being in the collossal range (4 squares wide), it knocks people over when it flaps its wings and when it tries to peck someone like they're a worm he pretty much rips them apart. He claims two civilian victims before we injure it enough (mostly courtesy of Walter's bow) that it flies away. We can't figure out how to tal the giant bird so it escapes.
Robert (Paul)/, Frederick (Evan), Hob (Alan), Wyot (Jeff), Walter (Joe), Morton(Darren)
We continue similar duties over the next few months. Eventually we are given the opportunity to go after the bandits who are such an issue in the countryside. We are given a couple days to prepare, but we weren't prepared. But then neither were the other templars. There were two other groups that would be encroaching on the settlement from the other sides. We will all approach separately.
Our group goes up a path, and after a while our advance man, Hob, spots a man in the trees. We try to split up and hide, then Wyot decides to act as a target since he's not armored. He walks out, the man challenges him, he stops and plays innocent wanderer (all the while encouraging us to move up). That's when Morton tries to crawl up and gets spotted and the man fires. Hob has been angling around to get to him from behind, but it just turns into a ranged attack outting. The man takes an arrow (or dagger?) and goes down. Morton stops his bleeding and we advance.
By the time we reach the village, minutes before dawn (when the attack was to be), it's already under way. Our biggest problem is that they are living in the trees in tree houses and on platforms with linking rope bridges. Once they pull up the ladders and knotted ropes we're stuck with trying to find a way up. So we do a lot of hiding behind trees and running between them. One of the bandits gets taken out with ranged attacks allowing Morton to climb up, take his bow and arrow, and return fire. The others alternate between advancing from tree-to-tree and running away. Hob moves in close enough to start throwing daggers. Fortunately for us, Walter shows up and starts plucking them out of the trees with his deadly marksmanship. Slowly they get picked off one-by-one whle our other forces work their way to us. When we get up the tree in one area, it is discovered that not all the enemies were strangers: One, a young kid, is a co-opted prisoner of the brigands, the younger brother of our own Robert Sinclair, who falls apart at the sight of his dead brother. We take him back for burial, along with prisoners and future execution fodder.
In order to find out where the rest of his family are or how his brother got there, Robert interrogates a man quite painfully. Once Walter puts an arrow in him to softten him up, the bandit tells us the kid was nabbed from his family farm and pressed into service over time, falling under the medieval equivalence of Stockholm Syndrom.
We survive the holidays, getting the late half of Christmas Eve and the early half of Christmas day off. After that we're told that we will be going to the Duke's Soiree in his castle. We're asked about what we care to bring (by the GM) who lets us know that wearing full arms and armor to such an event might be a faux pas, though sometimes weapons are brougth and checked in. The place is only 3 hours from home so most of us opt not to cause a stir, though some do bring their weapons for check-in.
Once there we are introduced in a perfunctory way to some in the household, and then we are given the unexpected news that we are not honored guests, we are "the help". We're brought to the kitchen and put to work. A couple of us don't mind (laboring is prefereable to shmoozing with strangers who can have an impact on your future).
While working the kitch, sounds of alarm happen and then four other helpers take off their laborer apparel and reveal armor and weapons! Seems we're under attack. We engage them and actually do pretty well for a bunch of guys with kitchen implements. Outside a fire has erupted. A few (Robert and Hob) run south to the fire. Frederick tries to go north to swing around to where our weapons are (but finds the gate is locked). Sensing the fire is a diversion (and being covered by others) Morton runs to the double doors closest to the Duke's chambers but can't get through; it's well-barred and he, Wyot, Frederick, and Walter run south through the doors Hob had gone through.
Hob and Robert and in the room full of fire, trying to pull people free and end up with Wyot (with one hit pont left) trying to assist, while the others run toward the Duke's main hall. On the way they encounter two men who are searching and (from their banter) are looking for "the treasure" that the "Stag Lord" says will be there. Walter, Frederick, and Morton engage the two men and take one out. At the time that we call the game for the night, Robert and Hob are suffering from smoke inhalation for the next 5 minutes (thus at many minuses), some of us were poisoned by drinking the wine that was passed out, many are injured, Morton has used one of his two heals, and Wyot has reached the Duke's hall to discover that something is currently afoot.
Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Walter (Joe), Hob (Alan), Morton (Darren)
The fight continues without Wyot who is a no-show. We take out the assassin we are engaged with but by the time we make it to the main hall everything is in chaos! Asassins are everywhere, trying to take out everyone including the Duke! Two of them engage with Walter and Frederick. Hob continues to save guys by dragging them away from the fire into the courtyard. Morton runs to the Duke who is under attack by the master assassin, who promptly enshrouds all three of them in darkness, which helps keep Morton and the Duke away from the other assassins, but makes them prey to the Master Assassin and his poison-soaked blade.
Walter goes down, Hob arrives to stop the bleeding of Walter around the time that Frederick goes down. Rob's fists of stone take down some assassins in short order. If he hits they go down! When the Duke drops they try to retreat, cloaked in darkness. Now that Morton can see everyone he does a heal, using what we think is his last effort (I don't know if I used one in Game 3). Robert pursues the bad guys but thinks better of it when the crossbows come out. Frederick decides to ruch out there and takes a bolt to the chest and drops again! Robert drags him into the room where Walter stops him from bleeding to death.
We help with the fire, the unconscious guys, and then we start to try to figure out where the treasure is in the house; the treasure the Stag lord sent them for. Incidentally, though the stag lord is mentioned twice and the Master Assassin says to tell the Duke that "The stag lord sends his regards", the Duke denies knowing what that is. The duke does not wilt under Hob's attempt to question him about why people would want to kill him.
Rob and Hob take analyze the saying on the plaque in the statue hall. After moving some statue arms they get a passage to open. Unsure whether to tell the possibly crooked Duke about it they confere withe Father O'donnel, who puts them to a moral test with hilariously neurotic results before letting them off the hook and they show the duke the treasure. The father indicates to him that it would be appropriate to reward the church for such findings. The treasure includes such things as a sword, a goblet, a coin, and other things.
Frederick tries to get more smithing/crafting time to mixed results. After Hob offers to take up his chores to free him up, they okay the idea. But it won't matter because things are changing...
We are sent to an audience with the Duke. This time we are given new duties and some rewards (of sorts)...
+1 diplomacy medal (only usable on people in Durham; 50sp value); We are made full squires. We get 50sp reward for finding the treasure. We get new duties that involve crossing over Hadrian's wall and bringing Christianity to he heathens of the north. We will be missionaries headed to an outpost called Waverly, where we'll go to an abbey and set up defenses. We also get a signet ring that symobolizes we have a leader, which we should decide on later. No one seems 100% appropriate. There's a bunch of other stuff: Wagons, a treasury, people...
Oh yeh, we're supposed to take up to 13 more people. A couple young people seek us out immediately. Sylar and Loader. Sylar seeks out Morton for approval and Loader seeks out Walter. We pick out people to bring. Father O'Donnell confesses to Hob that he's being sent along because the Duke is basically trying to get him out of the way. Walter wants to bring his family but his cursed father might be a problem.
Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Hob (Alan), Wyot (Jeff), Walter (Joe), Morton(Darren)
We spend quite a while on logistics. We gather a list of people we would like to take with us, for the Duke's approval. But before we get that far, we meet another priest who was sent to help Walter with his Daddy Issues. The group of us, the priest (an exorcism specialist) and his two guards head to the crypt. While Walter's family let us in, as soon as the priest tries his anti-voodoo, "Pops" springs to attention and comes after him. The priest is spent after the first three rounds of the fight, which he spends first trying to bind the spirit, then bind it again, and failing that he decides to dispel a power the spirit has put up that is causing a debris field to make him pretty much unseeable in that area. Now that he's out of effort, that only leave the slugfest. It takes a LOT of hits to take him down, but with no way left to flee, he gets cornered and brought down.
The Duke approves out people (some of which are Walter's relatives). But he has reservations about 13 year old Sylar. He feels that in a few years the kid may be like us. He'll let us have him for three years and then we must bring him back.
There's a bunch of paranoia about us being followed as we go down the trail, mostly because he was very specific about our deadline for leaving. While this could be in order to send us into a trap, it's more likely this is to get us out of town while something happens. But we trave.
On the road we encounter a woman. A tall, beautiful, full armored blonde woman, who when asked refers to herself as the "Light of Heaven". She wants to fight our champion and in return she will pledge herself to the service of our band. We aren't sure we care. I mean, sure she's hot, and you have to be good to get a suit of armor like that, and she uses a two handed sword with ease...
It is decided that Robert will fight her and the terms are 'til yield. He gets in a great first strike, she follows up with a nice hit (she gets two attacks/turn) and he gets in another blow before she yields. Then suddenly the rules change. "I will return to challenge you two more times and if you win I am at your service." WAIT A SECOND! Two more times? These weren't the terms five minutes ago!
It gets colder as we travel north. Eventually we encounter an enormous tree felled in the road. Atop it is a douchey bandit captain who demands we turn over our "1000 silver pennies". That he knows how much money was in our treasury when we started is a sign that someone is giving them information. Robert will not stand for it and promptly rushes the ones at the front and skewers them on his lance! It's not a mass combat between their 50 or so people and our people. In the fight we lose the two hunters and a guard. Everyone else survives and we route the bad guys when Morton heals everyone back by a couple points but they continue to take causalties. One guy captured doesn't give up much information and he's taken to the next town and turned over to the guards.
Days later, we're traveling and the sound of a woman screaming is followed by a splashing noise. Only Morton hears it and rushes ahead to see. He hears it again identical to the first time and now something seems up, but he keeps looking. By the time it happens the third time we see the source: Two ice toads, one of whom is making one sound and the other following it up with the second. The whole shoreline is covered in fist-sized toads with razor-sharp teeth and claws! Another mass-combat breaks out and we just do as much damage as we can. Mortong burns heals in successive rounds. By the time the amphibian uprising is put down we lost all but 4 guards. PCs are a live as are peasants.
Frederick (Evan), Hob (Alan), Wyot (Jeff), Morton (Darren) and briefly Robert (Paul)
We reach a town and get leads on two other odd things: "The Cauldron", which is an area with volcanic activity that may be demonic, and also a two-headed horse was born here. We eschew both of these items in favor of going back and nuking frogs. We spend quite a while putting down the frogs, who are coming from a hole in the ice and a cave that is below the surface. We destroy a lot so it will take a while for them to come back.
From town we continue up and encounter three Fomorian giants who demand food! Hob does his best to talk them down and ultimately we get away with only giving them a few bags of potatoes and we get by. Seems people don't often give them stuff.
When we arrive at the next major town in Umberland we are "asked" by twenty of the Duke's men to come dine with the Duke. He demands 1,000 sp in order to head north through his land else we should head back. Alternately he hints that we should go and kill his rival in Tyne and Wear (a neighboring county). We say we'll go see the leader in Tyne and Wear. Hob decides to hang back and watch for people following us. There are indeed guys following us; Hob doesn't hide well, so when he's discovered in the bushes he pretends he was in there relieving himself.
We reach Tyne, to see Majordomo Granger. We head to his estate. (Jim then gives us a link to a differnt gaming setup called owlbear.rodeo where we fooled arond with a map). We try to find the guy at his estate but he's not there. We go to town. We encounter the same guys that Hob found on the road and they play dumb.
Eventually we head back to the estate because Granger was not at the Keep where he should be working. We meet with him and discuss his desired assassination. He knew this was coming and we conspire to figure out how to get him out of here.
Robert (Paul), Walter (Joe), Hob (Alan), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), and Mortong (Darren)
We're at the Granger manor trying to figure out our next move. It takes a while before we come to the conclusion that we're going to see the family to the dock and send them off before we return to Duke Dickson to tell him his problem is solved, and if anyone tries to prevent us we'll deal with them. Problem is that Hob starts to think about there being an insider in the manor, and it turns out there is: The kitchen boy in this place has excused himself and left for no authorized reason. We will find out later he's a spy not for Duke Dickson but for Wear, the people for whom Granger keeps books.
We ar assailed on the road to town but once Robert starts beating the crap out of them they flee. When we arrive in town there's alreayd a welcoming committee of people from Wear. These guards instruct us that we are to turn over Granger to them because he doesn't have a writ of passage. We decline. A fight breaks down. Because of the mass combat rules, it's only a couple rounds before our guards are killed, leaving just us. We manage to whittle the other forces down to just their captain and two men before he submits. We stick Granger on the boat and send him north. Frederick suggests we should join him on the boat and that will get us up the coast faster toward the place in Umberland. We go and land somewhere and then head to the capitol to check on our people.
Dickson is not thrilled that we didn't kill Granger. We pointed out that we are not assassins, we're the church. He decides out of spite that our people have decided they want to stay in town and not head north, including the priest. He suggests we stay overnight and we can meet with our people in the morning. Unwilling to start a fight with the Duke right then, we agree and ar promptly locked into two rooms. The only one skinny enough to fit out the windows is Hob, so he, being sneaky, proceeds to do all our recon work. He finds where our people are (at the stables), where the priest is (in the church at the cloister) and during one of his many skulks through town manages to overhear some people discussing assisting us. Seems the Duke is not as beloved as we hear, especially not to the people directly underneath him, who live in fear. We may have some assistance in drunkening/luring away the guards.
We are still working on our plan. On the surface the ideas are:
Hob (Alan), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Walter (Joe), Morton (Darren)
More discussion and planning. Ultimately we decide to kidnap the Duke and use him as leverage to exit. Hob goes back down from the tower to give word to our people to be ready, goes back up and gives the ice frog corpses to Frederick to make an object to mimic voice sounds, shoudl we need it. Finally we decide the simplest plan is the best plan: Kidnap the ducke and use him as leverage to get us out. Hob manages to take out the guards with the help of the kitchen people and we are set free.
We head to the Duke and fight his guards, who raise enough alarm to alert the Duke and his advisors that we are coming. By the time we make it there, Robert runs right into the sweet spot where he can be nearly surrounded by bad guys. Hob moves in to assist. Morton wastes one heal right off, for minimum effect. Frederick runs headlong into the Duke's chamber and has to deal with the Duke and his guard, who flank him. When one of the guards gets taken out the giant advisor moves into his place and now we're in trouble. And then Frederick is in trouble when the Duke calls for help and the giant runs in to help him with Frederick. (Frederick had failed a save otherwise be compelled to leave, but made the save later on and now was doing damage to the Duke). Robert goes down and Morton tries to fill in his spot after dragging him away from harm. He can't quite see everyone to heal and he only has one heal so he tries to hold it until he can see Frederick as well, who drops.
The duke and the giant and his guard proceed to try and escape through a hidden exit while we deal with another guard and the swordman advisor. By the time sword guy is down, they are headed into the tunnel. Morton uses the last heal to get Frederick and Robert back up, and the pursuit is on. We limp after them, Walter flinging arrows whenever possible and eventually we pursue them to the stables where a fight is already in progress. It seems our people have already begun their resistance. Eventually the giant goes down and we deal with a couple more guards, but the last few drop their arms and yield when Hob appeals to them with the logic that they can be rid of the Duke. (Only of course we were lying because we dind't actually get rid of the Duke, we just chased him out of the city.)
We get our people and run out of the city as far as we can handle in one night. At that point we spot a rider headed for the next town and take him out. He did indeed have a warning that we were coming their way. We head out into the wild a little ways in an attempt to avoid the nexxt city and any potential soldiers who might be waiting for us.
Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Hob (Alan), Wyot (Jeff), Walter (Joe), Morton(Darren)
We travel the back roads, avoid the potentially hazardous cities of North Umberland. Down one road we eventually come across a MASSIVE stag. Seems that we've all heard tales of it as a legend that predates us. When Robert comes toward it, it indicates a potential charge, so instead he rolls it an apple and it likes that. It doesn't move though. So we give it the rest of our winter apples. Unfortunately it still remains, but by using some of the food we give it as bait we get it to move aside just enough to let us by. I follows us for a while because hey, free food, but eventually it leaves when it doesn't get more.
We sleep at a farm and establish a potential trading friend. As we get close to the next settlement, find some seemingly minor peril. On the road is a massive pile of leaves that seems to have eaten a number of things, including a local dog, squirrel, and rabbit, and currently has a dog barking at it and people standing around looking at it. We show up and decide to try the obvious first: Throw fire at it. However, it smothers the fire itself.
By now Fredrick has completed work on his new magic Crossbow, so he unleashes a bolt into it and apparently that works! It moves up and tries to wrap him up with tentacles and pull him into the pile, but he gets away. Hob decides to leap into the pile, perhaps confusing it with your average pile of leaves that you dad just swept up. He promptly is nearly suffocated by it as he has to make his way back out. After this its mostly Walter (using Fredrick's magic crossbow) and Robert using his magical fighting skills that help diminish this thing. Each time it takes enough damage (without eating something) is shrinks a magnitude. When it is gone it disperses into black ash.
We get to Hardian's wall and talk our way through, which is not hard. They don't seem to be aware of our Duke-ruffling ways. On the other side as we get closer to the Abbey at Waverly, we come across a wagon that was headed our direction until it got beseiged by one HUGE feathery lizard-bird and four of its smaller kin.
This fight is going pretty well in our favor until it decides pick up Robert and run off with him. Then it becomes a game of strategy. Since it's not "threatening" when it has a mouthful of templar, Hob pursues it with full moves and uses the part where it tries to run away as an attack of opportunity. That plus plenty of arrows cause it to die (And a final dagger through the eye).
We get to Waverly. Father O'Donnel had told us about the Nun who used to live there and when we arrive she's still there, likely in her 80's, except she shows no signs of age at all! She's still young and vital.
Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Hob (Alan), Wyot (Jeff), Walter (Joe), Morton(Darren)
We break bread with Sister Magadlene, who seems to have no aged a day since the departure of Father O'Donnel, decades ago. Next day the local bandits show up expcting "taxes" down at the trading post. We go there but we don't engage, as the sister asked us to let it be. We instead eye the ruined castle on the hill. It's a spooky looking joint primarly used for folk tales and kids dares. As we consider this place, we head from the trading post back to the abbey. After talking with Sister Magdalene, she has a more pressing issue for us. It seems the groundskeeper has vanished.
Exploring the grounds we end up finding a spot where someone was likely dragged into the mausoleum. We get our shit together and go in, as the lock is already broken, so someone already broke in. Some of us (those who actually make perception rolls) notice that the place is deconsecrated. God's presences is felt less in hnere and Walter (natural 20) can tell you it will only get worse the further we go in.
But we don't go far because in the second room we encounter a small horde of undead. A cool wind both closes the door (leaving Hob, the only who can see in the dark, behind us) and kills our torches. Two of us spend a round lighting them. There's a scuffle where lots of points of damage are taken from skeletons. The group being primarily pointy/slashy types aren't doing as much damage. Robert gets the chance to try out his fray die on them, to good effect. We beat this group, but have to retreat due to injury. Too bad, because we can hear something in the next room trying to get in to where we are.
When we go back the next day we are less ready for this fight than we think. But first, there's a meeting with Granger, where we discuss setting up the town government. Hob stays behind because his paranoia has him worried about that tomb, in front of which he assembles a bonfire. It's not an unfounded fear, as during the night the dead therein try to test the jury-rigged lock set up by Frederick. They stop trying at dawn.
So we go in. Robert insists we let him go in first and that we need to learn to run away. He ends up in the middle of the room when he triggers a whole new batch of skeletons in the place of the ones we crunched. Only he's the only target, rolls crappy initiative, and ends up with virtually all of them on him. Wyot is inside and keeps the door from closing and draws one. There's a long protracted fight during which Robert tries to get everyone out of the room first before he retreats as well, but unfortunately the round before we can make good on that, he goes down. Fortuantely, Wyot grabs him and drags him through the door. We start to deal with them by taking out any that come through the doorway one at a time but instead we opt to retreat due to all the damage (and Hob yelling "Get out you idiots!").
We will heal a couple days then go back in again. We're planning some way to hinder the enemy.
Hob (Alan), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Wyot (Jeff), Walter (Joe), Morton (Darren)
Lots of planning for the mausoleum seige. Lots of trying to get jobs for pilgrims around town. Morton heals publicly (with Nuns present) and the nuns seem freaked out. The junior nuns are in awe whereas Sister Magdalene is more worried.
When we finally get to the mausoleum fight, we have our newly crafted cage door crafted but when we get in there we end up with a shadow creature who asks why we've invaded his domain. without a fight happening, we find out that he killed the groundskeeper because he robbed from the tomb. This shadow (A general named Callum or McCallum... I can't remember) was once a soldier from North Umberland area who came north and after many victories eventually was killed and interred here. However, he was awakened two decades ago when the veil between the living and the dead in this area thinned and he awoke.
He gave us back the groundskeeper's body in return for trying to take care of the problem at the Ruins, which we kind of figured was the problem but now we have had confirmed.
Turns out the nun wants us to play down our abilities. Anything crazy god-like we do may draw attention to the abbey. It turns out she's young becaue every year on the 1st of January she drinks from the font and stays young. Others show up to have their sicknesses healed. They attend church all year for the right to do this.
Hob (Alan), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Wyot (Jeff), Walter (Joe), Morton (Darren)
Town political positions finalized (Immortalized in Evan's spreadsheet and on the PC's page of this site. One of the local traders is pissed off because he went to North Umberland to trade and on the way back he was charged 50sp to get back past Hadrian's wall. We're working on something involving using the waterways to perform trade. In the meantime we've had to post notices that Duke Dickson has decided to charge people fees as they try to come back from his land and that you take that into account when you try to travel there. This particular trader got reimbursed by Morton.
We decide we want to check out the Ruins. Seems that when you try to enter hte structures some kind of compulsion oversomes some people and tries to compel them to jump into the well, which is deep and dark and pretty gross, because people have been jumping into it for at least two decades and dying there. First to fail his save here is Walter, when then left us trying to bring him back up using ropes and Hob's ability to run up and down walls. He tries to convince us it's great down there but nobody is buying that, and once we have him back up he even tries to get back in there again.
Frederick develops a "bucket that grabs" and we lift bones out of the well for later burial. A cap is put on the well for now, something to prevent player characters disposed to jump in the well to have to take a few turns to uncover it first.
Earlier when we were exploring, Robert found a disgusting worm-like creature which he killed and Wyot found a trap door. So after we do some prep and then come back and variously pass our saves to get into the ruins without well-diving, we open the hatch. There are stairs and then a dungeon complete with cells and a pair of double-doors overgrown with black vines. Robert picks a door not too close to the vines and that seems to trigger a shadow creature from each of the cells to come out and face us. It's not easy, but they are defeated, leaving us with the tougher problem, which is the vines. They try to drag in various players, including Wyot, Robert, Morton, and Hob, before we finally destroy it with oil and fire. We retreat to heal ourselves after collecting the remains from the cells so that we don't have to face the same creatures next time (whe hope).
Hob (Alan), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Wyot (Jeff), Walter (Joe), Morton (Darren)
We rest up and then go back to continue clearing the castle ruins. The plant that guarded the door is starting to resprout but it's currently not a danger so we burn it and then move to the main course: The evil door. The twins of destruction get the door open and inside are two wraiths and a legionaire captain who somehow got the name "Captain Spooky". A fight happened in which because these guys were right at a doorway, only the two guys in front and our archer who can fire into crowds were able to engage. They came at us with all of the following effects: The captain tries to "command" some of us and fails. He breathes a foul darkness that does damage. He's somehow able to "Fray" die us even though we're not "extras". The wraiths of course hit for damage and are difficult to hit. There's a pretty good fight in which Morton burned all his heals in the first four rounds and so Wyot went down at least once. When these guys finally drop we dispose of their bones and the place feels better already. Among the wraiths is a small iron cross that seems to be magic, and the captain's gladius was masterwork and in great shape.
Morton had asked about if there were a sage or wise person in the area and it turns out there's a local witch, Black Aggie, who comes to town occasionally and sells potions at the market. Walter contacts the local hunter and has him let her know we need her services because we think she might be able to tell us some things about the Gladius and the Cross. She's pleasant enough although some of us are not necessarily sure about her not being some kind of spawn of satan. But she does look over the items and they are a Cross that, when imbued with 1 life point to bind it to the person, that person can use it to neutralize the evil effort-soaking power of an area (on themselves), and if they burn an effort they can extend that to their allies for the scene. The Gladius must similarly be bound and then it gives the owner a "command" power, used to not only command troops but pass communication to their lieutenants non-verbally--they'll just know what your orders are.
We throw 4 dominion into a saw mill. Frederick finishes work on his guard tower. And a ship in the harbor is encircled by a giant black eel and crushed, then it eats the humany goodness therein. It's driven off when Walter puts all sorts of arrows into it from a distance. It is at large in the sea and we are gathering plans regarding either hunting it somehow or baiting it.
The Iron Cross is in Morton's possession, although he's ambivalent since while it is a cross it is also of unknown origin and fears using a dark power of some kind; but he'll try it once and render judgement. Our troop commander, Robert, has the gladius.
Hob (Alan), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Wyot (Jeff), Walter (Joe), Morton (Darren)
Sorry, this recap will suck. Game at 6pm, at 6:05 AT&T had an outage; game ended at 9pm and my outage ended at 8:35. So I got 30 minutes of actually seeing the game. Most of the roleplay took place during my downtime, so all I have is combat in this recap.
The investigation into possible violation of Grainger's daughter by one of the guards (sorry I don't have more details), there's a row at the harbor as the alarms are sounding. Last time they happened it was the big-ass eel. This time it's 5 viking longboats with 100 men headed for shore. Walter with his impossible shooting range fires from a distance. Everyone else is on the ground. Robert is the only one who doesn't join a group and acts individually while the others lend their +1 to the various teams. The vikings are lead by an 8ft tall berserker. Morton will spend all four of the rounds of combat doing his heals until he's out (but is a perfect 4-for-4). Robert smacks away at the viking, who has an impossible amount of hit points. The infantries take a lot of damage, in fact our forces take proportionally more than they do, but we have twice as many people. Eventually they are routed and the remaining vikings head back to the boats and push off. Two boats depart, leaving 3 behind, for us to repurpose.
Frederick finishes his own chain armor and makes a mace for Morton and Knife or something for Hob.
We recover a couple masterwork 2-h swords from the big viking, who is dead. All the recovered axes can be smelted for iron for used in other things. The dead are laid to rest and the viking corpses are taken to a different section not on sacred ground in order to be buried.
Hob (Alan), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Wyot (Jeff), Walter (Joe), Morton (Darren)
Robert has six fingers on each hand! When this is noticed he flees breakfast and runs off. He's later found at the Ruins and is wiling to come back and face Father O'donnell. It turns out that when offered power by a magical woman in his dreams (a female angel that visited us all), he took her up on it. Apparently whatever power he asked for came with this particular side effect. He confesses to Father O'Donnell and ends up deciding that in addition to renouncing her and repenting, he takes it upon himself to cut off his extra thumbs! (Unfortunately they return the next day.)
Our Eel fishing attempt goes well! Walter manages to get it hooked and then the horses yank it up on shore. After it is shot and stabbed it dies and we dispose of it up the coast by burning it.
The trader who works with Grainger has returned to town. He gives us the news that Tyne and Weare has been annexed by North Umberland. Looks like war is likely between some of the lands south of the wall. Also, cost of goods coming from down south is increasing.
There's a feud brewing between two families (the Lorens who are sheep herders and the Hardens who are goat herders). Wyot goes out as ambassador and takes Robert and Frederick with him. Seems the Lorens stole Renee, the daughter of the Hardens. This is on the tail of the other side losing their son recently.
Footprints found at the scene of the girl's disappearance lead u into the wild. There's a race against time to find them before war breaks out between the two families. While on the path the group is assailed by plant-like wolf creatures who use their pack tactics to double-up on most of us (Morton being excluded sincehe was in the middle of the huddle throwing out heals). We take some damage, most of which gets healed back by said healer, but lose one horse that we were unable to retrieve after they fled.
The footprints lead to a hole in the path where the girl obviously wound up. It looks deep and dark and Hob the seer-in-the-dark is going in first.
Hob (Alan), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Walter (Joe), Morton (Darren)
Last game we left off at the edge of a hole down which it's likely the girl we are seeking (Renee) had fallen with her boyfriend (Jace? Chase?). We send Hob down to take a look. While he's down there, Frederick fells a tree and we slide it into the hole so we can come down. Hob finds a girl down there but doesn't make his presence known until we arrive. The girl says Jace is across on the other side of a pit where he went to look for another way yout. Once down in the hole we put pole across the pit to make it easier for us to cross, which we can do if we take precautions without a roll. On the other side the cavern vends and ultilmately leads to a puddle of black water before turning and continuing. So Walter is trying to follow some tracks he found (oversized rat-tracks) wtih the assistance of Morton, when the black pool attacks! This black oozed starts ruining armor right away. Walter disengages further into the caves which triggers bats!
So now we've got a swarm of bats coming out way. Morton retreats away and around a corner which seems like a wise choice, except he's the party's healer (with only two heals left) and the part are fighting pool of ooze and swarm of bats that get stronger each time they suck some blood, which they do every turn. So now it's a back and forth regarding the size of the mob as they get wittled down and then replenish until finally Robert gets the log back across the pit (Yes, it had been moved) and everyone can devote their time to attacking the bats.
We know the girl is holding back information. Our presumption is that the boyfriend is some sort of were-rat. We need to recover the kid soon. So after a long argument about just going back and trying to stop the war versus bringing back both kids, we finally send Hob to sneak down there and look for the kid. He manages to find the the oversized Rat, but he also finds a cavern full of hundreds of smaller bats and one big-ass Man-Bat! He ends up having to run for the exit and takes the Rat with him. By the time he's back and up-top the Bat-man is repelled by various arrow shots that wound hm pretty well so he runs back into his cave.
We're injured and depleted of heals so we rush back to hold off the feud. We've got plenty of time, except by the time that they get back the Hardins have gone off to kill the Lardyns (Laryns?) ahead of schedule. So there's a mad dash in the dark to the scene of the pending battle when we find them starting up. The two leads meet first and get in a shot each before we intrude and try to broker a peace.
At this point we know both families have some sort of secret. One is a family of were-rats, and the other has a similar secret that we don't know specifically yet. The Hardins want satisfaction for the death of the young boy (who was killed by the Rat-boy to keep him from spilling to the family that the two were going to run away together). Mr. Laryn-Lardyn decides that the kids should marry (at the suggestion of one of our folks--I'd give credit but I can't remember if it was Walter, Hob, or Frederick that suggested it), and the patriarch further suggests they exchange some of their flocks (sheep and goats) and that his family actually give more as a means of bridging the divide. It's also known that if we have to haul rat-boy in for the murder of the boy then the girl has to go in too, and that the families secrets all come out in a trial.
Some of us are uneasy about these spawns of Satan, but Hob contests that we have powers and could just easily be considered unholy, though I don't know how that could be.
Hob (Alan), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Wyot (Jeff), Morton (Darren)
At church there's a large crowd including some out-of-towners (Scotsmen). They've come to see "The Saint" and to petition (in crude and forceful terms) the church to stop bogarting the healer. Morton slips out rather than deal with that. Information gathering yields essentially that they want Morton to come visit and fix their brokeness. Morton is terrified of their craziness, and wouldn't mind healing the injured but he can't fix most of the things they're going to want fixed. We consider a healing tour, but first we've got other things.
We've got a man-bat to deal with. We go and set up to burn-out the man-bat when we are beset by three hideous tentacled creatures from the deep. We eventually defeat them, stuff the cave full of kindling and light her up! It's likely the man-bat was out at the time, we discover, and the pool is still there but we avoid it. Lots of ashes of dead bats though. We fill in the hole as best we can.
In the meantime we split up into a couple groups. Hob, Wyot and Morton go out and check out the reports of something demonic swooping in and taking out sheep. Sounds like it's our man-bat. And Robert and Frederick go out to look into something about rampant bunnies taking over entire farms. Turns out they're the size of St. Bernards.
While we were away, the town was visited by the horned lord's people, expecting tribute. They were run off by the guards. So they've threatened retribution. But we've got this whole issue with bunnies to take care of so we send all our troops and the whole team out to engage the furry enemy. Turns out thousands of rabbits' feet were not enough luck to save them as we met the enemy in mass combat and rabbit stew is the order of the day. We track the stragglers back to a large hole in a cliffside which is likely the entrance to their burrow...
Hob (Alan), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Walter (Joe), Morton (Darren)
Hob checks out the burrow and finds the rabbits are mostly small ones. So we decide to scope out the nearby standing stones. On the way we are met by Black Aggie and our local huntsman fleeing 4 giant phase spiders. We wind up engaging them and eek out a victory, mostly because Robert can actually hit things.
We go back to the burrow, set some fires outside to keep them in while the army rests. Next day we go in fully efforted-up, and there's a couple big masses of small bunnies that do minimal (but noticable) damage to us but TONS of damage to our army, while we are in the cave fighting the big bunnies and their paretns... two human/humanoid beings with rabbit feet/paws and heads. The female of which is squeezing out a stead stream of small rabbits. Hob winds up fighting those two inside the cavern while we face down the big rabbits at the bottleneck of the cavern. By the time we make it in there Hob drops twice due to injury and Morton burns through all his heals, which is especially bad...
Because once we're done and go out to our army they're tattered and we lost another 19 (rounded up to 20) men and they aren't happy that no one was there to heal them. We go back to town and on the way we see plumes of smoke. We'll pretty sure that's barbarian work.
Yup, while we were gone a bear with wings came in and trashed a bunch of residences, while men who are likely minions of the stag lord set fire to some of our more important structures. While we were gone the 20 guards we left behind defended the town but we lost all but two of them.
The townspeople also are not happy that we were not around to heal and defend them.
Hob (Alan), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Wyott (Jeff), Walter (Joe), Morton (Darren)
We decide the next course of action will be to try and continue the search for the bad guys. Walter had found their trail the night before and we'd followed it until nightfall, but had to break off, so this time we decide to go out fully equipped and continue. During the travel as night approaches we find a large snake in our path. The gut instinct is "It's not hurting us, let it pass" but then Frederick points out that we'll just have to come back out and kill it later. So while Frederick is ready to snipe at it (and does), Robert goes right into the mouth of it and engages. About now Walter shows up (because Joe shows up) and we eventually take the beast down. We set up camp.
We find the location of the bandits. There's a camp that we manage to scope out, but it's not easy to tell if everyone is there or where their leader is. We wind up taking this information with us and heading home to gather our troops. On the way home, which is by a more direct route, we pass through Hexam. The leadership there is kind enough and Frederick mentions him that "The Saint" is with them and now he wants to meet the saint and he wants to tell his people so they can all get blessed, etc. We talk him into letting us lay low because we're on a mission, but someone in his household lets the rest of town know and the house is nearly surrounded the with villagers who want to touch the saint. We leave in the wee hours of the morning before daylight so that we can get away relatively untouched.
We gather our troops once home and and head back (avoiding Hexam) to the Bandit camp. From Hob's surveillance we know they have people spying in the woods. He finds is a nice crossing spot so we can hook up a rope and let the soldiers cross without too much trouble, but it's within sight of the blind where two of the bandits live. We end up having to murder them to keep them from getting word back. It's an entertaining sequence in which Hob uses his verticality to walk up the tree, steal their hammer and then their breasplate that they usually use to make warning noise, and the rest of us just unload arrows at them until they're down.
This is where we leave off. There's also some stuff about paranoia that may or may not be warranted from Frederick and Spymaster Hob who were worried enough about spies going on in advance to warn that we were coming that we actually headed north like we were going to the next town but diverted to the bandit camp, hopefully to throw off anyone spying on us.
Hob (Alan), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Wyott (Jeff), Walter (Joe), Darren (Morton)
We engage the enemy at their camp. The Stag Lord summons some additional help in the form of a huge water elemental, then on the second turn a second elemental. Our troops target the Stag Lord, not the two groups of other troops and that works well, forcing him to hide for a couple turns to try and recover. The water elementals can blast our troops to cause them to fall down. We do enough damage to cause the first batch of enemy troops to run. The Staglord tries to fly off and gets shot down. That causes the elementals to collapse and the other group of troops to run. It's just us.
On the way back Frederick steers us toward Hexam to let the Mayor know that there's a new sheriff in town. Frederick and the Mayor go round-and-round about the cost of garrisoning troops, etc. We stay overnight. Word comes from Waverly that it was under attack by flying bear, so we let the troops sleep and we head through the night to town in the dark guided by seeing-eyed-Hob. The Waverly guard claim to have captured a possible spy of the stag lord.
The spy tells about Dovan, a blue haired minion of the stag lord who has horns. Turns out we didn't kill the stag lord. (Subtract Rejoicing.) Some of our kind go out to investigate this guy's farm to look for clues (and find none) and he fingered his neighbor, a Frenchman named Pugeot, who claims to be innocent (and might very well be for all we know). There's some kind of shady deal made between our knights and this captive in wihch he'll get to go away if his information is true. Apparently the stag lord lives in a castle out in the swamp. So there's that danger. Oh, and they called the bear into town by leaving a pile of apples in a specific spot for the bear, then it goes and does belly flops on the houses.
Oh, and Morton has an entourage. Seems a group of soldiers have gotten together and decided to keep the "Saint" safe, all on their own. They are not taking time off from their duties.
We have levelled at long last! Gained are: Another +1 Basic Attack Bonuse (brnging a standard character to +2), a skill (selected from things you've been practicing or attempting in game), +1 in a stat (and the adjustments related to it), a Talent of our choice (knowing that you're not eligible for another one of the cool magical ones until next level if you already got one at 1st level), and +1 HP + 1/2 Con bonus (round up) to HP,
Hob (Alan), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Morton (Darren)
We start out with a WHOLE BUNCH of monthly accounting. At the end of it, we have committed 3 Dominion to recruiting more soldiers and creating a place to house them. The many pressing problems we have right now are...
We want to go take down the standing stones next but it seems that the procedure for calling on the owlbear involve us leaving town, the apples being left in a designated spot, and the owlbear showing up the next morning. So we decide to try to take it out before we leave town. We split the troops up around town to keep an eye on things and then bed down in the barracks nearby.
In the night, Frederick wakes up to a stabbing pain, which is appropriate since he's being stabbed in the chest. The assassin who tried to kill the Duke back in the day is now trying to kill Frederick and because of his field of darkness only Hob can see him. That doesn't stop us all from taking a shot at him again and again. Frederick goes down to injury after about the 4th or 5th hit. Assassin moves on to Morton who can't see anyone to heal them, and Robert moves into help. Morton comes out fine but Robert goes down. Because we're trying to bottle him up inside the barracks and he's taken a few hits, the assassin tries to run, and Hob follows, taking free stabas as he goes until he finally wheels around and stabs Hob, not quite taking him down (because of his "not this round" talent) but eventually Hob does go down and the cloud of darkness disappears into the wild. He got away.
So we lost a bunch of men, Morton saved a couple. Dawn comes and we're back to full and at full mana. And here comes the owlbear!
It easily squashes the first building, takes a few hits from people, but to no effect. And the grappling hooks just slide off of it. When it leaps and lands in a building next to Hob and Morton they both get to hit it since they both have magic weapons and they do some damage! Next up is Robert and his every-melee-attack-i-do-is-magic power. We're making good progress and apparently it doesn't often get hurt. Eventauly it decides to just belly flop it's way out of town taking buildings as it goes. We can't keep up. So enemy number two gets away.
We spend a ton of money on rebuilidng once again.
Hob (Alan), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Morton (Darren)
We scheme. We are close to leaving for the standing stones when we get word that six men from Edignurgh are on their way down. Sounds like diplomats, so we table our plans. In the meantime the father gives his Sunday sermon on the importance of not assuming everything pretty is made by God and that the devil sends pretty emissaries too.
After church, Gregor from up north, tries to insist on attention from the Saint, but is stymied by the lack of interest from Robert. He vaguely threatens that we'll be sorry. Attempts to keep an eye on that group fail.
The Edinburgers shows up and are pissed that we haven't sent an emissary to the King and that we have annexed their land. We argue against, but ultimately things are put aside for the night. Hob keeps an eye on the two factions, as Gregor's group has shown up in town again and it's observed that the two factions know each other, so it's likley they work under the same auspices. Hob's presence maanages to keep the two groups apart most of the night.
Next day we decide F this guy. Frederick calls for a meeting but after several hours of waiting for him, we just send him a message that we've got more pressing matters, then we leave town to go take down some standing stones. When we finally arrive there, a circle of protective trees have shown up in the middle of the stones, and Hob's attempt to sneak in results in him being attacked, Robert being attacked, and Frederick pelted with a barrage of acorns. The mass of tress are too slow to chase us down but they can move! When we run away they reset back to start.
Attempts to set fire to it with improvised means fail. We head back to town because this is just not working, AND our crew of hangers-on have witnessed the evil trees so we have a deterrent.
Frederick starts making some kind of flammable ammo. The king in Ediburgh is assembling 500 men, who should be gathered within a week. We know it takes that long for the envoys to get back there, so this was prettty much going to happen from the start.
So we've got problems in every direction and every on of them is as pressing as the next.
Hob (Alan), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Morton (Darren)
There's a discussion of possibly beating the envoys back to Edinburgh to give the king our spin on things before the envoys do. But there's a LOT of things going on right now...
And much more.
Ultimately, Frederick gives the magic arrows he's made to a detachment of archers and they are sent to take care of the chicken problem. Delegating! The rest of us pile into the viking longboat and head for Edinburgh, knowing that there's a good chance that we cold end up captives there if we reveal our powers, but we do what we gotta do.
On the way our boat is accosted by an enormous eel but it gets defeated with a loss of only one troop. As we approach Edinburgh we can see that also en route to the city is a floatilla of Viking ships! We can hurry and be there just minutes before them or we can take another strategy. We decide to seek landfall, because floating a viking ship into harbor ahead of a viking armada is a bad idea. Once ashore, the troops stay with the boat with an order to return home in 3 days if we don't return and we head to the city. Guards note us going against he flow of traffic (which is out of the city) and question us but we convince them we are there to fight the Vikings so they let us through.
At the harbor we don't announce who we are we simply join a detachment of troops and start fighting. Another long, brutal fight occurs against a mob of vikings. As with last time, when they go down, most of the time they get back up again. Plus they're extra strong and get two attacks. We take a ton of injury. Robert does lots of damage but goes down twice. Morton uses all his heals, then wades in to the fight as well. Morton's healing and Robert's fray-damage cause the troops to rally to our side and we survive the fight.
Morton uses lay hands to put a point back on everyone, but there's still much more going on as the troops are attempting to leave with the goods.
Hob (Alan), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Wyott (Jeff), Morton (Darren)
We pick up in Edinburgh where we've done our best to assist the soldiery of the city to defend the lower docks, but it seems that the upper docks feel to the barbarian hordes, who then made their way through the gate to the market at the city center befroe being driven back out the gate. Now they occupy the buildings in the port outside the wall. While Morton helps with the injuries with Wyot and Frederick nearby, Robert has gone off incognito to a pub to listen to what's up with the soldiers, and Hob has gone recon, going over the wall to scope out the enemy occupation.
Morton has a soldier come up to him who got saved through healing and is thanked and handed note sealed with the wax seal of Edinburgh. It smells of sweet perfume. In fancy penmanship it says basically that we've been noticed and now we need to get out of town for our own safety.
Robert is in a bar when he gets wind of the fact that the guards have been told that when they go south it's to obtain that healer, and that if they ever get him they'll never let him go because: free healer. He slips out to come find us.
Now that we're all on the same page we wonder where Hob is as he's been gone a long time. About now Morton notices we're being followed by six knights in fine armor who do not carry the blood and wear of those who've been in combat. A plan is half-hatched... We make for the horses once Robert causes a distraction to let Frederick and Mort slip away. It works. Frederick uses his some strange and chaotic logic to create a path to the gate that confuses the heck out of the pursuers. Once Robert and Wyot are happy the guys are confused, they come find us at the horses. We conceal a note on the horse and leave it. We slip out of hte city.
So what's Hob up to? Well, he's taking down troop positions and numbers, drawing a map, and trying to convince the Edinburgers to take it and use it against the vikings. But his desperate need to have done SOMETHING for these people weighs on him and he decides to rescue at least one person. However, what he finds is a family of three (Woman and two children) who are captive in a house. What happens next is a pattern of him stealing a child to take to safety. the child waking up, him failing to convince the child he's a good guy, then having to gag the kid. Second time goes exactly the same except this kid he convinces, so the kid helps him wake the mother up. She wants revenge on the men, but Morton narrowly convinces her to let sleeping vikings lie! They eventually get over the wall with the help of some rope, a few guards, and the willing participation of those rescued.
Hob comes back to our sleep area and finds us cleaned out. He goes to the horses and finds just the one. He doesn't see a note but then he knows where we'd go, so he heads out and meets up with us just before dawn.
We're a few miles from our departure boat, and with a heal in us, when we see people fleeing from ahead. We then see one of those people being felled by a cow. Yes, a cow. The Hell cow has fire coming from beneath its hooves and it easily tramples and eats a man with its carnivore teeth. In the ensuing fight, it finds a path and does a move-through on us, its horns doing straight damage (no converson), so it would have done enough to take down Wyot (if he didn't have the feat that lets him avoid such a killing blow), it does a ton of damage to Robert, then does enoough to put Morton down (he was still injured). The group did do a slew of opportunity attacks on that rush though. (Note: In addition to doing straight damage, doing it on a move-through which got 3 people and at least 1 horse, Jim also forgot that the creature could make people fall if they fail a strength roll and it had fire damage. So, don't mess with Bessie.)
It eventually fled because it had taking something like 23 points of damage in a couple rounds. With it gone and nobody having any medicine training it looks a bit grim but then Robert makes the at-disadvantage medicine roll and stops the bleeding.
We get to the boat and push off. No eels or other horrors to stop us getting home. The village is still in one piece (Or at least the same number of pieces as it was in when we left). The detachment we sent to take out the monster chickens lost 9 men and only took out 3 of the beasts.
Word comes that a detachment of troops have crossed the wall and are on their way to us. They're well armed and armored and ride on horseback with lances. We gather up to meet them on the road and supposedly the do come in peace. They are the Golden Circle, a company of mercenaries who will only fight for good, not for despots, etc., and have gotten word of our good deeds. They do want money though. So there's a negotiation at the end of which we agree to pay them 4k/month for 5 months, after which it will drop to 3k if both sides decide to continue the partnership.
We warn them against the standing stones and the angelic woman who comes in dreams. They encounter her the first night as they are offered power for a visit at the stones. we warn them off in no uncertain terms. We tell them it's a trap and they seem to agree not to go there.
We're forming a tribunal to prosecute the two criminals we have on hand. One of them is the man caught spying, who ultimately have us information on the Stag Lord. The other criminal we can't remember who he is.
Hob (Alan), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Wyott (Jeff), Morton (Darren)
Trial is held. The guilty man is banished from town after a brief 3-lash whipping. We set to dealing with the giant chickens. Funny thing happens on the way though... as we rest there Hexam we get word that Bellingham is empty. Seems a traveler visiting his sister found the village devoid of people. So now we have a new objective. We send word for troops to come our way and we head up that way. We do indeed find the place depleted and the tracks seem to head north-west. Hob investigates and finds that that they have gone through a swamp town that has some stag lord men hanging out there. We regather with this new information and march our trips there in anticipation of sending in our armed forces to sack them.
Hob sneaks into the village and ties up the boats with extra ties to slow down fleeing scumbags. When we assault it's from the front, sending in our troops in the dawn hours. We have the five of us plus a small group of lancers, and 4 small groups of ground troops. Lancers take the bridge in and block that. Hob is already in the town when hell breaks loose and thus will spend his entire fight on the other side of a building out of the sight of the group, which is bad because as he tries to stop men from fleeing with the boats (that they now have to cut multiple lines from) they pause to try and stab him. He manages to survive the entire fight until the late rounds before he finally succumbs to injury.
Back at the main fight, our troops over all do pretty well since they are a mob vs a man in many cases. We do end up losing 3 troops. Morton holds onto his heals (having wasted one before arrived in order to make the troops not tired from the long trek) and then ends up unleashing them in three successive rounds, none of them helping Hob who is not in sight.
PAUSE---I forgot about the spider/giant ant/bug. I could go back and insert this encoutner into the above paragraphs, but I'm too lazy. Earlier when we were on our way through the wilderness (before we had the troops arrive) we had Wyot and Robert and their horses almost get swallowed up into a sandy pit with a giant bug at the bottom who was biting and poisoning targets. He does ultimately get Robert to fail a save, but by then Hob has leaped into the pit while holding a rope and assumes the John Sparre position atop Robert, then the others haul them both up. The rest is just arrows and stabs until the bug is dead. We now return to our fight already in progress...
So a few of these enemy troops manage to get away but not many, and I think only one of them with a boat. The most entertaining part of the melee would be an exchange where Morton tries to get across to a dock by leaping and being non-athletic he faceplants into the dock and lands in the mud. So as Frederick sees that Hob is now down, the only thing between them (aside swampy water that would make it much longer to get to Hob) is a section of dock upon which Wyot has tackled an enemy and his grappling him but it prevents anyone from passing through. So Robert picks them both up and tosses them aside so Morton can run through. Hob is on the other side of a building whose door is closed, so when he gets there and doesn't have an action to open the door, Robert gets up a full head of steam and charges down the door (using his last effort on a re-roll to get it to fall) so that Morton can do a move and still have an action left to save Hob. Which is good because he has no heals left because no effort (which means no re-roll possible) and manages to make the save. Had he failed, next action is Hob's, and he bleeds out that round.
We find the village has a few people still who are natives, months ago overtaken by the Stag Lord's men. After a lay-on-hands session to get one more point back, we stopped right there.
Hob (Alan), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Wyott (Jeff), Morton (Darren)
We begin by interrogating prisoners, then by questioning the swamp village locals. Some are completley mercenary about responding, wanting something in return. Eventually a few are found that can tell us a few things about what's nearby. Seems up river is a vilage of lizard men who likely have the people of Bellingham as slaves. So that's our next target. We head up river and find a place to camp and change into shifts when Lizardman attack! It's a long slog of a fight mostly because nobody is holding to shoot them when they surface, or some of us aren't carrying or using their ranged weapons. Plus visiblity sucks. First everyone rushes a couple of them at the beach leaving Morton behind to be targeted by a bunch of them. Then everyone rushes back and drives those off. Then we gather on the backside of the island away from them. Frederick and Wyott wind up collecting the boats to overturn and use as cover. When they take enough damage and find they can't reach us from the distance, the lizard men finally depart. We rest some, recover effort, and then head out again.
During the boat trip we are attacked by 5 large aligators with a total of 6 heads. Yes, one of them is two-headed. Robert drives his boat forward onto a sandbar in order to keep from taking penalties while swinging a weapon in a boat, but the two headed aligator hits the boat hard enough to drive it backward and then he has to do the same trick a second time. Morton bails onto land and heals from there all of his heals until being able to join in late in the fight, while everyone else is up-close-and-personal with these things. While Robert and Hob both spend a lot of time wrestling with gators, it's not until late in the fight where one of them gets dragged into the water. Hob ends up being dragged below, until Wyot jumps in after him and someone does the last point of damage to the gator. Hob gets fished out of the water with a round left before he drowns to death. We recover and have to patch at least one boat.
Hob (Alan), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Wyott (Jeff), Morton (Darren)
After Frederick patches one of our boats we set up camp and settle in. This time during the night four lizard men try to steal our boats but they're secured, so instead it turns into a fight. I believe we got most of them (there were 4) but I think one swam away.
We continue our path and come across a cloud in our path which we determine is bugs! We go off the trail, maintain sight of the horde, and come back onto the path on the other side, going around Jim's adventure in our truest fashion.
When we finally find the settlement it's a wooden palisade surrounding a number of large domes that are fairly sturdy. Boats (for human cargo) sit at the swamp's edge. The settlement sits up on a hill and we dispatch Hob to investigate. He comes back with knowledge that a dozen lizardmen walk the grounds, 2 are at the boats, 2 are at the gates, and one delivered food to one of the domes in which a cauldron filled with hideous green gruel is being served to humans who are pale and sickly from humger. He comes back with this information.
While we are deliberating what to do, a bigass anaconda comes our way and we are forced to kill it, in reasonably fast fashion for us. We move off in case we drew attention from town and plot how we'll sleep somewhere and get get our effort and hit points back. Except Hob stayed back to watch if we're being followed, and we are! So a fight happens between us and another four lizardmen, Hob coming in for classic backstab on them, but one guy tries to steal one of our boats. A merry chase ensues in which Robert is paddling like mad, Hob is jumping off and pursuing on land, and Morton is a passenger. With the use of some effort to boost pursuit, we catch up and Hob leaps off the boat into the spot where the lizardman should be and instead winds up in a struggle. Robert ends the struggle by spotting the bad guy through the water and smacking him good. We bring the boat back and find that there are war drums.
What's more, the Lizardmen have mobilized and a group are coming out of the palisade and headed our way. Hob runs up the wall with hope of attaching a rope and then we non-stickyfooted people can climb up easier. Good theory except not everyone has athletics. Wyot turns to deal with the people charging us and winds up with everyone (except Hob) lining up to fight the lizard men. We do a fair job on them, with Hob returning to dart-throw from the wall, and now that we've made a few seconds of space and the lizardmen are coming out through the gates, we run for the rope. Everyone does well except unathletic Morton, who winds up missing the first climb but has pluses from both Hob and Robert on the next try, succeeding. Hob pulls the rope up and over so we can climb out if we need to.
On the inside are a wave of lizardmen, who aren't too bad in general, but they don't have to be! We're pretty injured, Morton has one heal left by now, and these guys do just enough damage to make it very hazardous to face the remaining 7 or so lizardmen and their leader, who is noticably bigger and weilding magic! He's got a woden club with obsidian inlays (Masterwork 2h Maul), and a sharktooth necklace. Robert goes down and Morton uses his last heal, which only buys Robert another round as he'll go down again on the next round when the big one uses his necklace to create a sort of spiritaul avatar of a much bigger croc head that bits Robert putting him back down. Wyot stands in the pocket, Hob throws from afar, Morton gets into position to prevent flanking on some others--but that's his only use because he can't hit anything! Frederick does a lot of shooting things, including the final 4pts to the big one, dropping him. After that, 5 lizardmen lose their morale checks and flee. We fight another 3 or so until one drops and then the other two decide it's time to run aw well. So about 7 lizardmen from the settlement are out in the wild and we are in their settlement.
So apparently the lizardmen trek humans out here, starve them, and then leave them with the fancy cauldron which when heated turns the contents into a terrible gruel that causes the person who eats it to be wracked with pain and slowly convert into a lizardman! The camp is loaded with half-converted people and about 20 who are still human. There are some in an advance stage enough that they are begging to be killed. And with the group of us inside the locked palisade and the badguys gone, we undoubtedly will begin a discussion of Euthenasia.
We leveled to 4th level. +1 Effort, +1 New Skill, +1 Stat point, +1 HP and an additional 1/2 of CON mod (round up) to hit points, and a new Talent.
Hob (Alan), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Wyott (Jeff), Morton (Darren)
It is decided that we will not kill the afflicted human-to-lizardman changers. Instead we haul them and the humans back to the swamp town and go back to the lizard keep. There we go down into the tunnel below the throne and discover chamber full of water with a passage on the far side. After failing some rope shenanigans, we wind up baiting the obvious inhabitant with some food and a stick and it turns out to be Crabthulhu, a crab with tentacles. It tries to drag Robert under but Wyot runs up and thumps it to death. We cross, go down a very long tunnel and wind up in the swamp miles away. There is a camp here and we wind up encountering a pair of insect swarms which proceed to grow when they suck our blood. Many do not have appropriate weapons to fight with so it winds up being Robert and (of all people) Morton who do all the offense, punching and light-raying the horrible swarm of STIRGES.
Further on in the swamp we find the stag lord's aerie, which Hob does some surveillance on. Plenty of opponents here. We are going to need troops. We go back and make sure the people of Bellingham are returned to Hexam. We are working on some proper tactics, like using Robert's new troop movement power to get us all the way there with a large force, and maybe Frederick coming up with something to burn down the walls or we come up with a seige weapon method of creating an opening. At it is right now, if we march there right up to the wall we just end up being picked off from on high.
I know there was more but I waited too long to write it up and didn't leave myself any reminders so this recap will be lacking.
Hob (Alan), Robert (Paul), Frederick (Evan), Morton (Darren)
We're on the road from Hexam, having dropped off the rescued people of Bellingham, when we see the all too familiar columns of smoke coming from home. As we arrive we see that there has been a battle between our troops and the forces of the stag lord! Apparently when we were out looking for him, he was back at our place trashing us! We join battle as there is already a small detachment of our troops and the division of lancers engaging two large groups of the Stag lord's men. What's worse is the Stag Lord himself is on the ruined castle wall firing into our mobs doing straight damage! The first group of troops are trashed quickly! We as individuals don't start taking any real damage until three or so rounds into the fight when enough of our troops are gone that things can start concentrating on us... things like the Owl bear that the Stag Lord orders to attack individuals (starting with Frederick, changing to Morton, then flopping back onto Frederick). Of course by that stage of the fight our combined forces had depleted most of their troops and they'd taken out virtually all of ours. The Stag Lord nearly takes down Robert, to within a point (Morton having already used all his heals on the troop fighting, and his last one to lift Frederick who then got stomped a second time and put down by the Owl Bear). By now, the combination of arrows and hand-to-hand blows have injured the stag lord enough that when the last blow would fell him, he instantly teleports to the other side of the castle. Fortunately he's in Morton's sight and the Owl Bear didn't kill Morton yet so he gets in a critical with a light beam and the Stag lord combusts. He took about a zillion combined blows from Lancelot (using Hob's magic dagger), Robert, and Frederick's arrows, but Morton steals the last blow. Oh, and Hob is down during this. Lancelot had to wait until the enemy got off him before he could staunch the bleeding.
Upset, the only remaining foe, the Owl Bear, proceeds to shriek, causing Morton and Hob to fail fear saves. Hob will recover from it on his turn but Morton gets a round away before he recovers. The owl bear takes some more damage before fleeing off into the countryside and we are in too horrible a shape to pursue.
Subsequent events (things we find out and things that eventually happen):
Thus concludes this run of the campaign.