Subject: Roleplay: Book Deal (part 5) Journal Entry Day 3 (Escape from Hill House) Everything came out well at Lord Falash's Manor. Lord Winsworth's men had a makeshift bridge ready by mid afternoon and Falash's servants were eventually found unharmed. He had apparently locked them away in a secret basement to protect them from the demons he had summoned. Falash's motives are still a mystery. Perhaps he hoped to use the power vaccuum to obtain another title. Or perhaps he was in league with Lothia. Or it might have been that he just sought to seed chaos and destruction for his demon masters. Either way, it no longer seemed our problem. That night before we left, I had a dream filled with visions of a young girl. The girl had golden blond locks and was playing happily. In the dream no matter what I did she would be burnt alive before my very eyes. None of the others experienced such a vision, but they never saw a man consumed by flames such as these. Maybe the dream is a nightmare from fighting the demon Mnemnoch in the pentagram of hellfire. Or maybe Mnemnoch sends me nightmares to drive me mad. Whatever the dream's source, Lord Winsworth was truly thankful for our continued support and assistance. He gave us access to his keep's armory and we were able to claim new weapons and armor. I was able to weasel one set of unmarked chain from the castle warden, but the warden only had hard leather for the others. We did manage to pick up a bunch of silver daggers and a quiver of lead arrows much to the quartermaster's dismay. I even got a few wineskins and permission to fill them in the kitchen. (Of course the quartermaster probably didn't mean for me to use the Lord's special reserves. ) Joseph sent another letter to his father, and this time guards were sent with the messenger. Gabriel was instructed to send his reply to the bookstore in Haven. Journal Entry Day 4 (Finally, a normal day) The first day after Woodhaven was nice and quiet. It is about time things settled down. The rest of the journey might even be normal. Today we actually passed two towns without encountering any demonic hordes. Terramill is using this time to compose a history of our travels. He asked to see my notes, but Karn distracted us so I never gave them to him. I find myself thinking about the girl from my dreams. Already it is beginning to fade. Perhaps it was just a nightmare. I haven't seen her as clearly as that first night. Demons are reputed to enjoy playing with our thoughts, perhaps he planted that dream. For what cause I do not know. It wouldn't surprise me if Lord Falash was actually the pawn of the demons he thought he controlled. Journal Entry Day 4 (The Ogre Attack!) Last night I slept well and awoke early, but still Ghel was up and running before I awakened. The entire group was on the road by dawn's light. I think with Haven so near we are all eager to get our journey finished. Less than an hour into our journey we hear a women's scream from over the hill in front of us. I scouted ahead, but Ghel rushed past me with Karn close behind. Upon reaching the top of the hill, I see a cart, with some children in it. One ogre is swinging around the mother by the head. After thoroughly smashing the mother back and forth the ogre discarded the shattered form and turned to face a boy guarding the wagon with a pitchfork. Another ogre clears the forest behind the boy and approaches the kids in the wagon from the unprotected flank. Ghel cries a warning to the boy, but the boy is too busy trying to protect the wagon from the closest ogre. With the ogress almost on top of the children in the wagon, I throw my dagger and manage to distract her from her prey. At this moment I find out that she also has some missile weapons as she pulls out a sack of boulders weighing at least a ton. The next few minutes were filled with me dodging and running around in circles while she empties the sack of boulders. (some of them several times my weight.) Meanwhile the others have gathered on the hill and distracted the first ogre by virtue of filling its backside with arrows. Finally I manage to get the ogress to attack me while I stood right in front of a tree. I dodged and her blow toppled the tree right on top of her. While she was momentarily distracted I got in a few attacks, but she managed to get a wild swing in and I expect I will be picking pieces of chainmail out of my chest for months. With the ogres distracted by our group, the kids were able to take shelter. The ogre facing Ghel managed to kick Karn and to almost squish Joseph before the three of them managed to turn the tide. Karn wound up enlarging Ghel and shrinking the ogre until Ghel was able to kick the ogre's butt. The Ogre decided to retreat and called the ogress after him. I let her go since I was not a match for the pair, but Ghel (still enlarged) followed them until they were well out of range. We found the fathers corpse nearby and it doesn't look like we have a chance of saving the mother. Karn tries anyhow, but it soon becomes obvious that the kids are alone in the world. The kids a Cauzel, Delila, and Sammy. Cauzel apparently seized the pitchfork from his father's dying hand and held off the ogres until we got there. Cauzel's mother died protecting Cauzel from a blow that would have smashed him. Sammy seems to be about 8 and is crying about his parents. Both Cauzel and Delila are in their mid to late teens. Cauzel seems to have brushed off his parents death so that he can defend his siblings. Delila is an attractive but obviously shaken teenager. All of them are dressed in their Sunday best, except Cauzel who is in rougher farming clothes. (maybe he doesn't have church clothes?) Terramill calms the kids as we bury the parents. Ghel eventually returns empty handed. (and much smaller) Karn apparently dropped the size spell before Ghel could catch the ogres. With little else to do we perform a crude burial and hitch the children's cart to our wagon. The kids apparently have an uncle Tom in Haven, and we can't just abandon them. Terramill entertains the kids with stories of our adventures, which has a much unexpected effect. Sammy now calls us "the heroes". Cauzel looks at us as if we could walk on water and Delila... Um... She looks at me... A LOT. Journal Entry 5th evening (we finally reach haven!) We get to Haven easily. Sammy complained once or twice about missing his mother, but the other kids seem to calm him before he can get too upset. In Haven, we decide to stay at one of the nicer inns. (for the children's sake) We drop the kids off then run a few errands around town. Apparently the shipment we are supposed to pick up is not in yet. There is a lot of talk about pirates stopping most ships from the North. Also the box of "elvin armor" was addressed to an in between who gave us the name and address of the actual drop point. We are supposed to go to a tavern in Freidholm at noon and ask for Lou. It is about a half days trip, and since we are a few days early we have decided to wait on the delivery until we have learned more about the current situation. Another interesting occurrence, on the way to the book store Ghel and Josheph recognized someone leaving the Bookstore. It appears that the guy name is Frankie, and he used to be a real viscious kid. Apparently he was sent off after being held responsible for another kid's death. Joseph asked me to follow Frankie while the others handle the cargo. Frankie lead me to the northern part of the city, the wealthiest section of town. He went in a large building that had several guards. By asking around nearby I was able to learn that the occupant was Mercurial from Sparlsburg. The name meant nothing to me, but it was obvious that Frankie was definitely hooked up with some powerful friends. I headed back to the bookstore to discover the others had left. Not know where they were, I went back to the inn. Back at the inn the kids had all managed to clean up and Delila had even found some makeup to pretty herself up. She beamed when I said I wanted to take them out. But when I said it was to find their uncle she gave me a stare so black it could have withered flowers. I don't know what to do. I don't want to hurt her, but at the same time I seem to be the only one watching out for them. The others help, but still. Either way we were walking to a place the bartender said I could find some investigators. The crowd was pretty think so I took Sammy's hand so he wouldn't get lost. Delila grabbed my other hand While Cauzel forged ahead through the crowd. I tried to take my hand from Delila, but she managed to twine her fingers in mine and it did make her happy so I finally relented rather than make a fuss. On the way across town Delila told me more about her parents and about Tom. I don't know if I will be able to find this fellow. Pretty much the only thing I have on him is that he has a brother named Pippen and he might not live in Haven Proper, but actually in one of the outlying Hamdens. I checked with a couple different PI's, but the only one who I liked said it would be at least 3 silver for him to have the nearby settlements checked by runners tonight. More days would give him more matches. I gave him half the money and then headed down towards the river on the suggestion of Delila. Causel and Sammy were able to run around in the park by the river, but Delila seemed determined to stay by my side. Almost pleasently by my side. We sat and watched the others play, and she looked at me with those hero worshipping eyes. I really don't know what to do with her. After a while, the others were getting tired and I thought it would be a good idea to head back to the inn. Walking along the river I saw a number of kids splashing in the river. The children seemed fascinated with the kids who were able to move like fish through the water. I might have to look into getting a swimming instructor for us. I wouldn't mind learning how to swim myself. I guess I might try to do that first thing tomorrow. Lord knows it would be a convienient way to keep the kids out of our way during the day. Journal Epologue When I got back to the inn everyone else was already there. I told them about Frankie and learned that Ghel saw a crippled street urchin who seemed to be a cat burgler. Perhaps this is the Shadow bandit. Ghel says he think sthat the kid has some sort of trained lizard. I think the kid could be using the lizard to pick up small objects. That would explain how the theif had been getting through such small openings. Heck that also might explain why magic wards hadn't been triggered. A pet lizard, expeially a non-magical one might not trigger wards that were set for a human thief. It turns out that after the kid saw Ghel he managed to lose him. Imagine that being outrun by a crippled street urchin. Ghel won't hear the end of this one soon. A few things that the others managed to pick up. Apparently something has been killing people out at night. Reports say that the killers remove the victums brains. If this is true it reminded Ghel and Joseph of a group of shapeshifters that had been causing tehm problems back in Gramby a few years back. When someone asked if any mages had been asked to investigate I learned something else interesting. Apparently mages had been disapearing from the city for a while. Karn had investigated this and he seemed o think that the priests had been blaming the mages for the murders. Either way many of the cities prominant mages had been disapearing and a few had turned up dead. You know what I said earlier about things calming down. Wel scratch that. Things are as screwed up as ever. Not knowing what to do next, we decided to sleep on it and talk again in the morning. ------------------- GM SECTION ------------------- Base Experience : 350 points Awards : Group +200 for saving the kids Lando +50 for the summary Favorite Moment of the Night: "Lando's Got a girl friend... Lando's got a girlfriend." GM Notes: I already have written most of what happens in the week between games, but I don't know whether I should let everyone know what happens or whether I should send each person what they learned. I am leaning towards sending everything out, but I wanted to see if anyone wanted to request that I send something privately. What was found will come out tomorrow, but I might print copies to hand out at the session because some people may not get to see it since I have waited so long. At the beginning of the session there will probably be a bit of Q&A and you may have to divy some things up. Until Tomorrow, The GM __ /__) Adventure one: "Book Deal" || /8xxxxx8===============================\ \8xxxxx8===============================/ ||__ \__)