STARTING A LONG WAY FROM NOWHERE (Friday January 5th 216B) ----------------------------------------------------------- The dread of joining the military is slowly overcome by the prospect of leaving the orphanage and the care of your halfwit mentor Weylan. You were given a stipend for equipping yourself for your new service, and Alberic didn't even charge you for bringing it back from New Towne. Yet in the days that follow the officers in charge of your new duty do not show up. Bored and itching to use your new equipment you decide to explore the woods around town. Rumors have bandits, harpies and other dark ilk lurking in the darkest recesses. The six of you awaiting service decide to go out together (cuz someone has to witness your mighty deeds) A PATH TO TROUBLE (Friday January 5th 216B) ------------------------------------------- From what the group knows the harpy nearby defeated a knight sent to dispatch it. Rather than fight a magical creature like the harpy the party goes looking for some bandits since humans can be easier to deal with than magical beings. The group starts exploring trails in the north woods and finds a pretty well traveled trail in the Bent Woods. A hermit named Edgral is known to live out that way and he might know something about the bandits. On the way to the hermits the group encounters a man who acts suspiciously. When confronted he flees but when the party cornered him it was easy to tell he was a branded thief. He snarled at the group and attacked. The bandit has a trained attack ferret nearby that distracted Korvath long enough for the bandit to critically attack him and take Korvath out of the battle. Essandri stunned the bandit magically and Moge subdued the bandit with his hand and a half sword. Meanwhile Ming and Red Kate found the ferret a much trickier enemy. The creature was finally disposed with help from all, and Korvath was healed via Katie's magic. The group decided to take the bandit for questioning, but before moving far another group of bandits attacked the party to retrieve their comrade. Korvath took the brunt of the assault falling quickly with a mortal blow but holding off the enemies long enough that the party could ready a counter attack. Ming quickly judged the battle before grabbing Katie and cart-wheeling through the battle to get Katie by Korvath's side. Katie quickly healed Korvath before his soul departed his maimed form. Due to Ming's brilliant maneuver the bandits were surrounded and the party was able to rapidly decimate their foes but took a severe beating in return. Now with several bandits to question the party returned to the village but camped outside where there prisoner would not attract the attention of the guards. Katie and Moge returned to town to get healing from Kitera the town's priest. After getting bandaged up Katie returned to the party's camp while Moge decided he had seen enough wilderness for a day and returned to the orphanage to sleep. SHRUBBERY ATTACK (Saturday January 6th 216B) -------------------------------------------- During the night Essandri and Korvath were watching when a pack of vampiric plant creatures burst out of the woods and attacked the party in their beds. The sleeping party members got hit hard. Essandri went down almost immediately and only Korvath and Red Kate seemed capable of affecting the creatures with their weapons. Ming wrestled a creature into the fire and by the end of the battle only Katie and Ming were left standing and they were badly hurt. The party decided camping out in a forest with such creatures nearby was just too dangerous and putting out the fire that attracted them would be too dangerous for the party. Moge was summoned from town and with his help the wounded party members and bandits were moved to the orphanage in the Village of Wall. The group smuggled the bandits into the orphanage with them and then spent most of the day nursing their injuries. Red Kate questioned the prisoners and it was learned that the bandits were a much more substantial threat than previously thought. At least a dozen men, a were-rat, and a powerful leader. The bandit prisoners were turned over to the guards and the party went scrounging for silver weapons. Raenald, the guard captain, returned with papers stating the party would serve their first term in and around Wall. Red Kate came to an understanding with Raenald and he assigned her as party leader and allowed the group to go after the bandits and keep a portion of the recovered goods and items. CAPTIVE AUDIENCE (Sunday January 7th 216B) ------------------------------------------------------- The party decides that the Harpy is too dangerous an ally for the bandits and decides to take care of her first. The party prepares by tying themselves together in pairs and stuffing their ears with wax and cotton. Unfortunately when the Harpy sighted the party its song still managed to affect half of the party. Essandri managed to stun the creature and keep it from killing Korvath whom was held by the bird's song. Everyone broke out of their trance when the bird was stunned and the group was able to quickly bag the bird and loot its nest of around thirty pounds of coinage. The party then began scouting the area the bandits were rumored to be camping. They found a ruined temple with several sentries. The party managed to take out a lone sentry but when other bandits investigated all hell broke loose. Several bandits went down, rats poured up the stairs, barbarians threw large feral dire rats at the party and a hard battle was fought. The group worked closely together and suffered minimal damage. Ming was taken down by a single blow of the bandit leader. Luckily the bandit leader was quickly stunned and the party mowed down the bandits as they tried to get out of the downstairs complex. The party briefly nursed their wounds and began cleaning up after the battle. NEXT TIME : Into the vault and hunting stickmen. REWARDS ------- Items (already handled in session, but here for reference) ----- Thief & Ferret: Mink coat (~200 gp) shortsword 6 darts leather armor studded leather collar Additional Thieves 3 halfspears 3 leather armor 24 gp Kobold 11 gp staff - magic (faint) Harpy magic ring (faint) 1500 copper 250 silver Bandits silver dagger potion (faint) 3 shortsword 2 light flails shortbow 8 arrows sling (24 sling stones) 2 studded leather leather (faint) magic 2 keys (from barbarians) 30 gp Moonstone Gem (50gp) XP Summary (already handled in session, but here for reference) ---------- 1213 XP per character. (-80 for Moge since he was not in the shrubbery attack) Experience Rewards ------------------ none. Reputations ----------- -1 Moge (unreliable character)