Category: Campaign Diary

← Session 15 | Campaign Summary | Session 17 →

Last time, our heroes ran into old adversaries and once again ruined their plans. These folks are prepared for everything except our heroes, it seems.  Now they’re in jail.

The morning after the excitement at the docks, Friday the 15th, our heroes prepare to travel to the lost city of Saarland.  Gleador the Druid shape-shifts into a Hippogriff, and Lucia the Paladin hops on his back.  They fly northeast, across the river. They see the estate and mill of Lady Evelynn behind them and the beet fields giving way to forests in front of them.  On the horizon, the forests rise into hills.

As they fly over the canopy of the forest, a flock of flying creatures swarm about them.  The creatures are energetic and curious, and seem to have adopted our heroes as playmates.  The creatures are HummingDragons. They have lizard-like faces, elongated bodies (about 4 feet, including the tails) and wings that flap too fast for the naked eye to follow, like hummingbird wings.  Gleador lands to get a better look at these strange creatures.  He has to circle a bit to find an opening in the canopy that admits a horse-sized creature.  The HummingDragons follow, but land on branches, not the ground.  Their claws are made for grasping and can’t open up flat to walk on the ground.  Gleador studies them and finds cocoons nearby. The HummingDragons metamorphose. Their larval form is about the size and shape of a baseball, and rolls up and down tree trunks with the help of long, spindly legs.  The larval form has a sharp proboscis to pierce tree bark and extract sap for food.  Gleador can speak to the HummingDragons because, as an Elf, creatures of the Great Forest are known to him.  He asks if there’s anything cool nearby. The HummingDragons all rush off in the same direction.  Gleador has to run on the forest floor to follow, because there’s not enough room for his 18-foot wingspan below the canopy.  The HummingDragons zoom over a large patch of brambles, heedless of the danger to those who can’t fly.  Gleador leaps and clears the brambles, but a low-hanging branch smacks Lucia off of his back. She tries to hold on to the branch, but slips and falls into the bramble patch.  The thorns do nothing to her plate armor, but the fall hurts a bit. The HummingDragons continue to rush off, leaving our heroes behind.  To delay them Gleador suggests playing hide and seek. A few dart off in different directions, but most aren’t interested and zoom away.  Gleador retrieves Lucia and they try to follow the way the HummingDragons went, but they lose the trail.

Fortunately, Lucia’s quest gives her an unfailing sense of direction towards Saarland. Without that, they’d be lost.  Gleador rises through the canopy and they fly for the rest of the day without incident.  At sundown, they set up camp in the forest.  Lucia casts Sanctuary, so she will know if anyone enters the area with hostile intent.  Gleador keeps his Hippogriff form and lies still, using his Camouflage skill to look like a big rock.

Sometime in the night, a figure approaches: a Halfling woman wearing a black cloak. She has a big traveler’s pack on her back, and several large empty sacks, secured to the main pack by their drawstrings.  She also has an axe across  her shoulders.  She sneaks up to the campsite, using a large rock (actually Gleador) to keep out of the firelight.  Gleador shifts his eyes over to Lucia, who is not reacting like Sanctuary has gone off.  This reassures him, so he shifts his eyes back to watch the newcomer.  She comes right up to him and peers over him at Lucia.  Gleador reveals himself by tapping her on the shoulder with his tail.  She squeals and stumbles back.  One hand goes to her axe, the other to a large amulet around her neck.  Lucia jumps up at the noise and quickly prays to see what her is evil.  She detects the Halfling woman as evil, but, since her quest gives her the power to see through all illusions, she also knows that the evil she detects is fake. This woman can someone pretend to be evil.  Lucia calms the situation and invites the Halfling to share the fire.  The Halfling agrees and swings wide around Gleador to approach the fire.  Her name is Rose, and she’s relieved that Lucia is a real person.  Halfling food is best fresh.  Meat pies and pastries don’t keep on the road.  Rose has some carrots and biscuits which she offers to share.  Lucia asks what brings her to this desolate place.  Rose explains that she harvests rare lumber in the forest.  The axe is for chopping wood, and the empty sacks are for carrying wood.  Lucia knows this is all lies.  Lucia says she’s going to Saarland.  Rose tries ineffectively to stifle a reaction.  Gleador can’t talk in Hippogriff form, so he tries Mister Ed shenanigans to prompt Lucia to ask questions on his behalf.  He fetches a nearby stick and offers it to Rose.  She puts it on the ground, neatly chops it with her axe, and puts the pieces in one of her sacks. Ok, so she knows how to use it as a tool and not just a weapon.  Lucia continues to press her with questions about her work, and Saarland, and Rose gets really uncomfortable.  She jams the last few bites of her supper into her mouth and starts to leave. Thanks, I must be going, see you around, and so on.  Lucia cast Hold Person, paralyzing Rose as she tries to flee.  Rose agrees to come clean if Lucia will please release her.  Lucia agrees.  Rose admits that she goes to Saarland to smuggle out whatever artifacts she can find.  Le Grind (owner of one of the three mills back in Sugar’s Crossing) pays big money for such artifacts.  She warns Lucia not to go to Saarland, because there are ghosts. She disappears into the forest.  Lucia wonders how Rose protected herself from ghosts, but it’s too late to ask.  The rest of the night is uneventful.

In the morning (Saturday the 16th), Lucia directs Gleador where to fly, and in the afternoon they reach the ruins of Saarland.  Saarland’s walls were living trees, 150 feet tall. The ring of closely-packed trees around the hole in the canopy is easy to spot.  Gleador circles the ruins to see what’s happening.  One side of the city, including the wall, is burned. The other side is overgrown with plants, bushes, young trees. Most buildings are either burned or overgrown. Few are intact.  As our heroes watch from above, a few trees move to the burned side of the cities. These living trees are Ents!  Three of them surround a small building with a collapsed roof and start to tear it down.  Spirits fly out of the building and swirl around the Ents, driving them away.  Ents are trying to demolish the ruins to let nature take over, but there are spirits resisting them.  Gleador also notices a squat, powerful-looking building whose gate has been smashed in.  Soren said that raiders struck important targets while the populace rushed to deal with the fire.  This must be one of those important buildings. As Gleador flies near the Ents, they shout, “Begone, grave-robbers!”  Gleador lands within shouting distance, but out of reach and turns back into an Elf.  Perhaps showing that he is a Druid will convince them of his good intentions. He also whispers to Lucia that they should keep the Saarland coin out of sight.  Our heroes call out to the Ents, “We promise we’re not grave-robbers!” “Why did those spirits attack you?” The Ents are not convinced and rip large stones out of the ground and nearby buildings to hurl at our heroes.  Lucia dodges, and Gleador turns into an Air Elemental and lets the boulder pass harmlessly through him. They run from the Ents. Knowing no other landmarks, they head for the secure building Gleador spotted from the air.  The streets are full of tall grass and bushes from years of growth, but even so, our heroes easily outpace the slow Ents.

The building is two storeys tall, mostly stone, and surrounded by a high metal fence.  The fence was probably decorated in the past, but now all but the main posts have been stripped by looters.  The gates were smashed inwards off their hinges.  A sign over the door (carved, not a plaque, so it can’t be removed) indicates that this building was a forge and a storehouse.  The front doors are gone, and the sunlight illuminates a small patch of floor inside.  There’s a corpse just inside the threshold.  Lucia advances to cast Speak with Dead on the corpse. The edges of the shadows around the doorframe stretch and pull towards her, turning into ghastly Spectres, undead spirits who refuse to move on! Gleador unleashes a wide blast of freezing breath, which passes harmlessly through the incorporeal creatures.  He shape-shifts into a Fire Elemental to light up the interior.  As he bursts into flames, the Spectres shrink back, seeking the shadow.  “The Destroyer!” they hiss.  The raiders who sacked Saarland and probably killed these Spectres’ mortal bodies used mainly fire. The Spectres remember!  Gleador has secured some space, so Lucia can examine the body.  It’s fresher than ten years old, so it probably did not fall in the attack on Saarland. Maybe it was a looter and was killed by these Spectres. It carries a number of empty sacks, similar to Rose, and wears a charm around its neck made of leaves and metal.  Lucia grabs the charm. This chamber appears to be a foyer. There’s a reception desk in the center, and benches along the sides.  Everything that isn’t nailed down is long gone.

Our heroes advance into the main chamber.  The center of the room is a huge forge with many openings, surrounded by workbenches. The large chimney goes up to the roof. The second floor is a balcony that overlooks the forge on all sides. There are stair cases at each corner, and smaller doors to side chambers on each side.  Most things that could be carried off or pried out have been ,but there are a few dead bodies and some scorch marks scattered around the floor.  Gleador advances to secure space, pushing Spectres back into the darkness in the corners of the room.  Lucia casts Speak With Dead on an old-looking corpse.  She gets three questions.  When she asks, the responses come not from the skeletal face of the corpse, but from above.  A Spectre peers over the edge of the balcony and speaks for his dead body.

1. How did you die?  Defending the forge for invaders
2. Why did they invade? To steal our treasures
3. Why are you still a Spectre?  Devotion to my craft exceeds devotion to any god

Gleador and Lucia walk the perimeter of the room. As they approach a staircase, a metal canister, maybe a gallon or two, drops from the top of the stairs. Gleador flies straight up to avoid it and is suddenly face to face with a Spectre with several more canisters nearby.  The canister hits Lucia on the head. Her helmet absorbs the impact, but the canister bursts. She’s covered in soft expanding foam. Definitely not a horrible glue trap like in the Dwarven science building.  It doesn’t burn, melt, or freeze her. It has a vaguely chemical smell, but there no immediate harmful effects.  Gleador roars with flame to drive the Spectre back, and it hurls another canister.  Lucia dashes up the stairs to catch it.  The canister springs a leak and a stream of foam slashes across Gleador, extinguishes the flames that it touches.  Lucia realizes that the Spectres have repurposed flame retardant foam that was used in the forge as a weapon against Gleador. The standoff is re-established.  Gleador’s light and heat keeps the Spectres back, so he and Lucia can creep around the balcony and investigate. There’s a lot more stuff up here. It’s much harder for looters to reach.  Lucia grabs a fine wooden box containing delicate metalworking tools. Quite valuable for the right smith.  In the shadows on the other side of the circular balcony, Spectres manipulate the environment to set traps. At the far side of the balcony, above the foyer where they entered, our heroes notice a wall-mounted cabinet with curved marks on the floor in front of it. Apparently this cabinet swings out from the wall, like a secret door.  There’s a big sheet of metal leaning against the cabinet.  Our heroes approach, and Gleador reaches glowing arm around the metal sheet to light up the shadow behind. His arm meets the ghostly arm of Spectre, using the shadow as cover to get close enough to strike!  The two non-solid arms pass through each other, causing damage to each creature.  Gleador blasts a super-heated jet of flame into the metal sheet, heating its center to glowing before bursting through and burning the Spectre behind it. The Spectre howls and flees back into the shadows.  With that trap dealt with, Lucia pulls the cabinet out from the wall, triggering a mechanical trap placed by the original owners.  Pneumatic pistons fire tiny darts!  Lucia uses her shield to smash the mechanism, but a dart finds a gap in her armor and her limbs get heavy. The poisoned darts have paralyzed her! Gleador has a dilemma. As fire, he can’t grab or move Lucia without injuring her, but without fire, the Spectres with overwhelm them. Fortunately, his Chimera ability gives him amazing flexibility. He combines a Salamander for fire breath, and a boyd made of flame, with a monkey tail that is not on fire. He uses the prehensile tail to shove Lucia into the secret compartment and stands guard at the door.

GM note: This is where we had to stop for the evening. Quite a cliff-hanger!

← Session 15 | Campaign Summary | Session 17 →

← Session 14 | Campaign Summary | Session 16 →

Last time, our heroes relaxed and learned a lot about the town of Sugar’s Crossing and about Saarland. They promised a survivor of the Saarland disaster that they would find out why coins from Saarland were found in the living statue they fought back in Fairmeadow.

They head to the docks, which are on the west bank of the river, just south of the bridge. Their apartment and the theater is also on the west side of town, so they don’t have to cross the bridge to reach the docks.  Most of the boats traffic is barges that drift down the river. They are maneuvered into place by small tugboats. They are really small tugboats because their crews are Halflings.  Most people who live in Sugar’s Crossing are Halflings.

One barge has two Giants that push the barge along with poles, like the gondolas in Venice.  The Giants are about 12 feet tall, so these poles are 20-foot tree trunks that are long enough to reach the bottom of the river.  The Giants look ready to go to a Goth club.  They have baggy cargo pants with straps all over, and mesh shirts made out of rope.  The Giants maneuver their barge alongside the dock, and a swarm of Halfling dockhands rush in to begin unloading the barge.  The Giants act as cranes. They reach up to the top of the stacked boxes, and Halflings use the straps and ropes on the Giants’ clothes to climb up and grab packages. A bustle of carefully coordinated activity.

There are two other barges at the dock.  One is being loaded. There’s a line of cargo and passengers.  Some passengers have carts that they will roll on, tie down, then roll off at their destination, like a modern ferry.  Gleador and Opal recognize some people waiting to board.  There’s Opal, a Dwarf woman who assaulted Lucia on her first night in Fairmeadow!  She’s with two other figures, one taller and one shorter than her. They have a cart, drawn by a pony and covered by a tarp. Gleador was tranformed into a panther when he met Opal, so she would not recognize his Elf form, but she does spot Lucia!  There’s a bit of crowd between the two groups. Lucia hesitates to see Opal’s reaction.  Gleador splits off from Lucia, trying to look like an unrelated person who happened to be walking alongside Lucia for a moment.  Opal tries to subtly warn her companions about Lucia. They furtively glance at her and the short one checks the tarp to make sure their cargo is hidden.  Lucia moves towards them.  Opal hails the nearest guard, pointing at Lucia.  Sugar’s Crossing is a major port, so there are guards everywhere to protect commerce.  Gleador tries and fails to shapeshift into a Elf that looks just like himself, but with fox ears for better hearing: Gleador, but more anime.  The guard is convinced by Opal, motions a second guard over, and confronts Lucia.  They say, “What’s your business here on the docks. We hear you’re a troublemaker. If you’re not boarding a ship or picking up cargo, you need to leave.”  She says she’s sightseeing, and there’s no rule against that.  There’s a tourist area at the end of the dock with rides and souvenirs and such.  The guards say that, if she’s a tourist, she should go down there and stay out of this section of the docks.  There’s heavy cargo moving in and out all the time. She could get in the way or be hurt.  She and the guards start moving towards the tourist area.

Lucia: “I’m just wondering, who said I was a trouble maker? I don’t even know anyone here.”

Guard: “You want us to expose that person to retaliation? We’ve heard this one before. We’re not fools.”

Lucia’s path takes her close to Opal’s cart.  Lucia wants to reach out and move the tarp to see what’s underneath, but decides that drawing her sword to do that would be foolish.  Setting the cart of fire is also a bad idea. Gleador wanders close as well.  At this distance, Lucia & Gleador recognize the short person sitting on the cart as the pickpocket that they caught in the Brace of Pigs bar, way back in Session 2.  Gleador yells, “Lucia, look! It’s the thieves from the Fairmeadow Fair! The ones we were deputized to stop!”  The guards are very motivated to prevent thievery, so they demand an explanation.  “What thieves, where? What’s all this now?”  Gleador says that they caught the short one picking pockets, and that Opal attacked them at night.

Gleador: “Lucia, don’t you recognize them?”

Lucia: “I do! I bet they were the ones who said we were troublemakers, because we did make a lot of trouble for them.”

The guards aren’t sure who to trust.  One stays with Gleador and Lucia, and the other approaches the Halfling to search him.  The Halfling cooperates.  His cloak does have lots of little pockets, but they are empty.  He says, “I’ve only got the one coin purse.” The guard by our heroes calls out, “Check under the tarp. Maybe that’s where they’re hiding things.” The second guard thinks that’s reasonable.

GM note: I thought that Opal and her gang were stuck, but then I remembered that I had planned for this a few sessions back, but it never came up.  Now I get to spring my amazing plan!

Several things happen very quickly.  Opal yells, “Plan Z!” and shoves the guard away from the cart.  Her Human and Halfling companions draw swords and cut the harness holding the pony to the cart.  Gleador jams his shillelagh between the spokes of the cart’s wheel to prevent it from moving.  The Human runs towards the edge of the dock. The Halfling takes a potion from his belt and drinks it.  Opal tries to shove Gleador away the cart.  Lucia intercepts and shoves Opal up against the cart. The sound of Opal’s body impacting the cart and her head being thrown back into the cargo under the tarp indicates that both the cart & the cargo are metallic.  Gleador runs after the human. The human leaps into the river. Gleador takes a flying leap after her. As soon as he is concealed under the water, he transforms into a chimera with dolphin tail, alligator body, and dolphin echolocation.  The Halfling moves some levers on his seat. The cart jerks forward, but the shillelagh prevents the wheel from turning.  He backs up the cart to try to break the shillelagh.  Lucia is holding Opal against the back of the cart and binding her, so when the cart suddenly backs up, they are both knocked down. Lucia gets up first and holds Opal at swordpoint.

Under the water, the Human swims under the barge and pulls out a potion to drink it.  The potion is in a leather pouch, so even though she’s underwater, she can drink it by squeezing the pouch like a Capri Sun.  Gleador lunges to make her drop the potion. He tries to bite her legs, but she’s doing the breaststroke kick, so she pulls her legs away from each other and Gleador’s alligator maw closes right between them.  She’s very surprised.

The two Dwarf guards move to separate Lucia and Opal. The Halfling is still trying to break the shillelagh and move the cart.  Lucia uses “I am the Law!” to command the guards to go after the Halfling while she secures Opal.  The guards don’t like having their authority challenged, so they attack Lucia. Lucia defends, but badly. The guards don’t land any blows, but they maneuver Lucia away from the cart.  Opal sees her chance, pulls the shillelagh out of the wheel, and jumps on as the cart speeds away without anything pulling it.  It crashes through the line of people waiting to board the barge, heading straight for the edge of the dock.

Underwater directly below the barge, Gleador & the Human are facing off, when the cart hits the water above and behind them. Gleador slams the Human against the underside of the barge, taking a sword blow in return. The air is knocked out of her lungs, bubbling all around them. She gasps in a bunch of water and does not panic or begin to drown. Gleador realizes that she drank a potion of water breathing.  The cart sinks to the bottom of the river and starts driving downstream, kicking up a plume of mud behind it.

Lucia is in the middle of a panicked crowd on the dock with two guards trying to subdue her.  She berates them for letting the real criminals get away and tries to fight her way to the edge of the dock to see what happened to the cart.  When she turns away, one guard hooks her leg and knocks her down.  More guards are on their way, but have to push through the crowd of people trying to escape the brawl.  People on the barges are yelling about stuff happening in the water.

Underwater, Gleador tries to break the Human’s arm with a tail swipe.  He’s hit on the way in, but she drops the sword and goes limp.  As she slowly sinks towards the river bed, the cart tries to get under her and catch her.

Lucia’s on the ground with two guards standing over her. They won’t be distracted by the cart. Other people will be dispatched to handle it. They are going to make sure that everyone who has disrupted the docks is captured, and that means her.  More guards approach and try to get a sitrep. There are at least four people and a cart in the water.  What’s pulling the cart? That horse right there was pulling the cart. That’s a pony, not a horse.  Also, how can it be pulling the cart if it’s here and the cart is underwater? The guards standing near Lucia are distracted, giving her an opening. She can bolt into the crowd, but if she pauses to pick up her sword, the guards will have enough time to stop her. Is freedom worth the loss of her sword?

GM note:  We spent a long time trying to answer that question. How much does a sword cost? How difficult is it to find a supplier? What are the chances I could circle back and pick the sword up? In the future, I need to keep the game moving.

Lucia disappears into the crowd, leaving her sword behind. She goes to the edge of the dock.  She can’t see anything underwater. All the actors are under the barge, and the cart has churned up a lot of mud.

Gleador can see, because he’s under the barge with the incapacitated Human and the Halfling driving the cart to intercept her.  Gleador grabs her and drags her away.  The Halfling pulls out a handheld harpoon gun and fires at Gleador.  Gleador uses the Alligator Death Roll ability to evade the dart. He returns to Elf form and pushes the Human to the surface.

Since sound travels so well underwater, Gleador hears Opal say, “Shelley’s weak! Drive on!”  The cart starts moving downriver, abandoning their incapacitated buddy.  Gleador pops up and hands Shelley off the the onlookers at the edge of the dock. “Help her! She’s injured!” He dives back underwater to pursue the cart.  He uses the plume of mud kicked up by the cart to cover his next transformation.

The dock workers have hooks, poles, and ropes to pull Shelley out of the water.  Lucia’s Quest requires Hospitality. She must help anyone in need, and right now, that’s Shelley.  Lucia would really like to pursue the cart, but doesn’t want to lose the quest, so she uses Lay on Hands on Shelley.  She fails. The crowd around Shelley sees Shelley react in fear as an armor-clad person pushes through the crowd and grabs her broken arm.  Shelley screams and passes out.  Lucia wonders if she has fulfilled her quest’s requirements.  Does she have to succeed in helping those in need, or is trying good enough? The dock workers, shocked by Lucia’s apparently cruelty, push her back to the edge of the dock with their tools and call for the guards.  Lucia tries to push through the crowd with her shield, but is knocked into the river.  Her plate armor drags her down.

Gleador changes his transformation when he sees Lucia fall into the river.  He combines a water dragon (water jet breath weapon) dolphin (echolocation) and flying dragon wings.  Gleador swims to Lucia and she grabs on.  Gleador swims just under the surface, so Lucia’s head is above the surface.  As they zoom downriver after the fleeing cart, they look behind them.  A giant from another barge jumps into the river and starts poking around in the muddy water with his barge pole, trying to find anyone else who went overboard.

The cart rushes downriver on the river bed, kicking up a big plume of mud.  Gleador is gaining, his long water-dragon body just below the river’s surface.  Lucia looks like a poor water-skier being dragged behind a boat.  She’s out of the water to her waist, cutting a big wake in the river’s surface.  As they approach, Opal fires the harpoon gun. Gleador fires a water jet, which swats the dart away, knocks Opal and the Halfling off the cart, and rips the tarp off the cart.  The cart’s mysterious cargo is revealed: a metal statue of a dwarf, just like the one that came to life and ruined the auction back in Session 4!  The cart keeps going at full speed, without a pony to pull it or a driver to guide it.

The Halfling swims towards shore, but Opal reloads the harpoon gun and plans to grapple herself back to the runaway cart.  Gleador carries Lucia to the shore. She’s ready to bash this Halfling with her shield.  Gleador pauses to see if she’s going to be alright.  The Halfling gets to shore, and sees a fully-armored Paladin and a water dragon waiting for him.  There’s no way he’s winning this. He surrenders.  Lucia takes his sword and dagger.  She can use the Halfling-sized sword as a dagger. She ties him up.

Gleador pursues the cart.  Opal has grappled back to the cart and is firing darts backwards as the cart drives itself.  Gleador pulls alongside and blasts a water jet at the top of the cart. The cart flips out from under Opal, who is then yanked after it by her line. The statue is flung clear and lands headfirst in the mud at a weird angle.  The cart lands upside-down on top of Opal, wheels still spinning. Gleador shoves the cart onto its side.  It starts skidding in a circle as the wheels kick up mud.  Opal uses the controls to stop the wheels.  Once again, Gleador has appeared as a weird monster, so once again, Opal panics and lashes out with her sword. Gleador tries to wrestle the sword away from her, but gets stabbed for his trouble.  She swims for the statue. Gleador wraps his long body around Opal and constricts her until she stops struggling.  He carries her to shore, within shouting distance of Opal, who has secured the Halfling.

They are out of sight of Sugar’s Crossing now, but a few Naga troops have been mobilized and are quickly swimming towards them.  Four snake-like heads skim above the water’s surface. Lucia calls out, “We caught them! The cart is down there!”  Two Naga heads turn towards the shore, and the other two heads disappear under the water.  A moment later, the two Naga reappear, confirming that the cart is there, and no one else is underwater.

The Naga demand an explanation. Lucia and Gleador explain that these people are thieves and muggers that they encountered in Fairmeadow. They name-drop Pepe. They also warn the Naga not to touch the statue that’s underwater, since a statue just like it what wrecked the auction at the Fairmeadow Fair.  Especially do not touch any switches on the statue.  We don’t know what they do. The Naga will check on their story, but it seems legit, so they will take Opal and the Halfling back to town in custody. Gleador and Lucia are allowed to accompany the Naga under their own power.

Three Naga come ashore to slither along with their prisoners.  One Naga swims ahead to fetch someone to recover the cart and statue from the riverbed.  The Naga say that if they were on duty instead of the Dwarfs when all this happened, no one would have gotten past the docks.  They are proud of their amphibious capabilities. It took a while for the Dwarfs at the dock to call for the Naga troops, which is why they had such a big head start. Our heroes explain that the statue is very dangerous and unpredictable and leaving it unattended may be foolish. One of the three Naga says, “I’m not scared of your statue.  I’ll stay behind and watch it.”  The leader warns him not to touch any switches or controls on either the statue or the cart, even though the self-driving cart might be cool.

The party (Gleador, Lucia, Opal, Halfling, Naga commander, one Naga tail-soldier) returns to the Sugar’s Crossing dock.  There are lots of Dwarf guards around, but not the two that gave Lucia trouble.  The commander of the Dwarf security force is there, identifiable by his fancy hat.  There’s also a fancy magical Halfling named Lightfoot who has been brought in to confirm our heroes’ story.  Lightfoot is using an enchanted tea set to communicate with Pepe remotely.  It’s Halfling tradition to get together and share stories over tea. Halflings think it’s weird that Humans throw out the tea and look at the junk left in the bottom of the cup.  That’s silly.  Pour the tea, let it sit, and look into the reflection.  If your friend is also making tea at the same time, you see your friend in the reflection.  It’s quite a sight seeing this fancy Halfling sitting on the floor whispering into a teacup surrounded by grumpy Dwarfs.

Pepe confirms our heroes’ story except for one thing. Opal doesn’t have a statue like the one that wrecked Fairmeadow. It’s the same statue.  It was stolen from Fairmeadow’s town hall a few days ago.  The Dwarf commander says that Gleador and Lucia are OK. They were telling the truth.  The people they were fighting were dangerous known criminals.  Just one thing, though.  It was really mean of Lucia to break Shelley’s arm when she was already injured and half-drowned.  Excessive force, to be sure.  Our heroes weapons are returned.  A Giant sets out to retrieve the cart and statue on a raft that looks small only because its pilot is so large. When he reaches the wreck, the Giant jumps in, sinks to the bottom and picks the statue and cart up over his head to put them on the raft. He’s really strong.

Shelley is with a healer. Opal and the Halfling (named Billy) are in custody.  The poor pony that was pulling the cart has been taken to a stable.

The Giant (his name is Ommm. Exactly three Ms. Omm is his cousin.) returns with the cart and statue on his raft.  The Dwarf-sized statue barely passes Ommm’s knees.  It looks very non-threatening.  Opal yells, “That’s mine! You have no right.  It’s my birthright, my property! It was lost. I was taking it back.”

Gleador: How can you prove it’s yours?

Opal: My family name is stamped under the statue’s left arm.

Lucia’s senses can pierce lies and she does not detect any lies.

Gleador: Describe your sense of property ownership.

It’s got my name on it. We didn’t sell them. It has to be stolen.  Them?  How many are there?  She is not sure. This is the first functional one that she’s found.  She has parts of maybe five.  They are miners.

How do you control them?  “It’s easy,” she says, gesturing towards the statue. Everyone rushes to stop her from touching anything.  Set it to collect.  It collects metal. Then you set it to return and it returns.  But how do you get to the switch to change it to return mode?  (The statue tossed our heroes around when they tried to turn the switch)  Just wait until the pack is full, and then it will stop. Our heroes are shocked that it’s that easy.

Lucia detects that Opal and Billy are evil. Shelley isn’t here, so her status is unknown.

The Oolites built the statue shortly before the Oolite family lost their fortune.  Opal was not around to see what happened, but something went bad around the time the Oolites opened a new mine with the robots. The exact disaster is a family secret that the old generation won’t talk about. Opal isn’t content to accept the loss of the family’s old status.  She wants to regain it by using these mining robots, but she doesn’t know where to mine, exactly.

GM notes: Players are willing to spend forever asking all sorts of questions, and why not? Their enemy is captured. I need a way to make them ask the important questions and then move on.

The Dwarf captain tells them to wrap it up, so they can get the docks back to working order. Lucia re-iterates how dangerous the statue is. Ommm is not impressed and figures he could just throw it in the river if it went crazy.  Gleador wishes Ommm was around when they fought the statue in Fairmeadow.

Lucia wonders what the pickpocket was for. Opal explains that the opening bid for the statue was 500 gold.  Oolites aren’t rich anymore, so they had to steal the money to bid on the statue.  How did Shelley get involved?  She was a historian that Opal consulted and she was impressed by Opal’s goal to recover her family’s artifacts.  She’s a softy. The guards take Opal, Billy, the cart, and the statue to the fort.  The commander anticipates arguing with Pepe about which town was more damaged and who gets to try them first.  As she’s dragged away, Opal yells, ‘I’m not responsible for what people who don’t know how to operate the statue did! If I had been able to buy it, none of this would have happened! It’s your fault!”  Gleador yells after her, “Who owned it before the auction?” The commander says, “Didn’t you check the auction records?”  Our heroes remember that it was sold by Hama, an agent who did not reveal who she was selling the statue for.

The crowd breaks up, and our heroes are free to pursue whatever they want.  Gleador is hurt, but he can heal overnight. Is the statue involved with the coins? They were trying to figure out the Saarland coin mystery and didn’t make any progress.  The coins were found in the statue’s backpack, but our heroes theorize that the coins may have been in another item at auction, not in the statue originally. They decide to track down Hama, and learn that she’s staying with Lady Evelynn.  Lady Evelynn is scary, and they don’t want to go back into her lair.  They will go to Saarland instead.  They will head out in the morning.  They visit the tourist part of the dock and spend another night in the apartment building

← Session 14 | Campaign Summary | Session 16 →

← Session 13 | Campaign Summary | Session 15 →

Last time, our heroes teleported into the mansion of a spooky noblewoman on the outskirts of Sugar’s Crossing. They avoided her ire (possibly re-directing it to the mayor of Templeton) and entered the city of Sugar’s Crossing.

Sugar’s Crossing is so named because it straddles a major river, and the beets from the surrounding fields are refined in the three great mills on that river.  The owner of the mills are always vying for power in the city. Lady Evelynn owns one mill. The others are owned by the Miller and le Grind familes. The bridge over the river is fortified against attack, and the fort for the garrison is right next to it.  Instead of a city hall, there’s a forum: an open area where people give speeches and hold debates to influence policy.  The storyteller’s theater is on the west edge of town, near the main road.

The theater has two big plays each day that are free to the public. These are basic, staple stories of the history of Sugar’s Crossing. There are rotating exhibitions that one can pay to see. One can also hire experts to expound on any subject one is interested in.  Lucia attends the morning’s free show. It covers the founding of Sugar’s Crossing, and the rivalry of the two old mills that face each other across the river: Miller & le Grind.  A pair of star-crossed lovers are torn apart by the family strife, and must meet in secret under the bridge.  They decide to abandon their family and flee the strife. Each builds a canoe. They meet in the middle of the river and lash their boats together to form a catamaran, which is more stable than their separate boats.  They set off down the river, never to return.  The play ends when an actor dressed as Lady Evelynn bursts in, throwing the stage into chaos.

While Lucia is watching this history lesson, Gleador looks for someone to gossip with. He finds a chatty, clever halfling named Pan who runs a food stall.  Pan sells ground & spiced meats & starches wrapped in leaves, kinda like Indian samosas. Gleador asks for the latest gossip. There’s always competition and backstabbing between the mills as they vie to control town policy.  The harvest party barge came through a few days ago. You just missed it.  It sets off from upriver when harvest begins and slowly winds down the river, stopping in each town for a celebration and to buy & sell crops.  Gleador asks if Pan heard about all the trouble at the Fairmeadow Fair, especially the living statue that disrupted the auction. The food stall has a split counter: one at halfling-height, the other at human height. Pan climbs up to the human counter to lean in conspiratorially and whisper in Gleador’s ear.  Pan says the auction is sometimes used to launder contraband. It’s a bit of an open secret. No contraband was noticed this time.

Gleador and Lucia meet up after their morning expeditions and go back to the theater to hire a specialist.  They ask for an expert on the story of Saarland. They are in luck! One of the storytellers who lives at the theater is a refugee from Saarland.  They go into a back room and meet Soren, an Elf woman.  Gleador coughs significantly at Lucia, trying to send a message. Lucia understands and prays to know what here is evil. Soren is not evil, but she does ask what the performative coughing was about.  Gleador explains that they had to be sure she wasn’t evil. Soren isn’t sure how coughing helps them determine that.  Gleador says that evil people get mad, not inquisitive like Soren.

They start explaining why they are interested in Saarland. When they mention a robot smashing up the auction in Fairmeadow, Soren has to stop them. She’s unfamiliar with the word “robot.” They explain that the living statue was holding coins like this, and they produce the coin from Saarland.  Soren is emotional. Here is a relic of her lost home.  She wants the coin. As a survivor of Saarland, she has a claim to it. Our heroes resist, since they promised to give it back to Pepe. Soren says she won’t tell them the story of Saarland unless they give her the coin.  Gleador tries to convince her that by telling them about Saarland, she’d make them bearers of the lost city’s culture, inspiring them to get justice! Soren isn’t quite convinced.  She wants more assurance. She notices that Lucia is a Paladin, and asks her to swear a quest.  Lucia swears to find who stole the coins.

Soren tells the story of Saarland. It was an Elven city in the woods to the north. It was surrounded by a living wall of close-set conifers and brambles 150 feet high.  One night, the wall on one side of the city suddenly caught fire. The residents organized to fight the fire, but were ambushed by masked invaders. At the same time, on the other side of town, looters appeared and struck the bank, storehouses, and even took valuable tools from artisans’ workshops. The sudden, coordinated attack threw the city into chaos.  The fire spread across the entire wall.  Some raiders were killed once the residents re-organized to the new threat, but their bodies burst into flame. There were no prisoners to question, and not much evidence to look through.  It took three days to contain the fires, and two more days to account for the missing, injured, and slain. Soren only slept once in that time.   The attacks were so precise, people were sure the raiders had inside help. But who?  Some people were missing, but did they flee for their lives during the attack, or leave with the raiders? The unrecognizable corpses of fallen raiders might be Elves from the city, or humans, Orcs, plenty of possibilities.  Some said that the raiders fire-based attacks proved they were demons. The looting convinced others that these were bandits, although the force was larger and better organized than usual bandits. Still others feared this was the vanguard of an invasion.  The community was shattered, and the survivors fled and scattered.  Soren has never returned.  The roads that led to Saarland have not been maintained, so after 10 years the forest has surely overgrown them.  Soren suggests that the sentries that patrol the outskirts of Sugar’s Crossing could find the old paths.  Gleador & Lucia thank Soren for all the information and promise to solve the mystery.

The evening show is about to start, and Lucia wants resolution for that cliff-hanger from the last show.  This show, about Lady Evelynn’s arrival 20 years ago, is a glitzy musical, as opposed to the more dramatic, serious play from this morning.  Lady Evelynn’s outfit is covered in rhinestones. There’s a back-projection system to represent her giant shadow.  The three mill owners circle each other, first one direction, than another.  Lady Evelynn’s arrival does not inspire le Grind & Miller to team up against her. The two-way duel is now a three-way rivalry.

After that show, Gleador and Lucia seek lodging.  In Halfling towns like Sugar’s crossing, family home, apartment complex, and hotel all blend into each other.  Homes are large to accommodate extended families. Some homes have rooms set aside for guests, and some homes charge for those rooms. Gleador and Lucia find some extra-large rooms that fit them.  Gleador has a debility from a previous adventure, so they decide to stay another day to let him rest.  With Lucia’s help, he recovers on the morning of the third day in Sugar’s Crossing.  When she’s not healing Gleador, Lucia attends the special exhibitions at the theater.  She learns a lot of things that may be helpful in future adventures.

GM note:  I made a custom move for listening to stories. Lucia got Hold that she can spend to boost the result of a Spout Lore roll in the future. Spend the Hold and tell us what play or recitation told you this information.

GM note: I was sure they’d at least go look at the river and spot some old foes hiring a boat, but they never left the theater.  I could have forced them into seeing what I wanted them to see by putting the theater on the opposite shore, but I didn’t think of it.

GM note: Well, now they are chasing down a legend. This is far from where I thought the secret coins quest was going to go. Lucia swore a quest, so it’s definitely taking priority over learning about the Oolite robot, and after they went through such trouble to get information about the robot!

← Session 13 | Campaign Summary | Session 15 →

← Session 12 | Campaign Summary | Session 14 →

Last time, our heroes arranged to meet the mayor of Templeton in a magically-protected area, despite the best efforts of the mayor’s special forces. (Why does she even have special forces?!)  They disrupted the mayor’s attempt to teleport in, and all three of them ended up somewhere unknown.

They rush up towards the edge of hyperspace, breaking through the surface into water. They rush up through water, breaking the surface into darkness. Their eyes adjust and they realize they are in an indoor swimming pool. One wall and part of the ceiling are covered in thick curtains, so whatever daylight might be outside does not reach in here.

While our heroes and the mayor are trying to figure out what’s going on, the double doors at one end of the room swing open. Light streams in, backlighting a figure in the doorway and throwing a huge shadow on the far wall.  It’s a female figure, about human size, wearing the kind of robe that might cover a swimsuit.  The last section of each finger is as long as the rest of the finger. Our heroes can’t tell from this distance if they are an extravagent manicure, or claws.  She says, “You’re not on the guest list. How did you get into my house?”

The mayor, a female Dwarf wearing a fancy dress is having trouble staying afloat, as in Lucia, the plate-clad Paladin. The lady of the house notices their distress and says, “Let me give you a hand.”   The shadow on the back wall peels itself off of the wall, becoming three-dimensional and solid, but still see-through. Its giant hands reach into the pool, cutting dark voids through the water, and waiting, palm up, next to the struggling figures. It would be undignified to snatch them up without their permission. Lucia and the mayor climb aboard and are lifted out of the pool. The shadow’s hands come down on the tile floor surrounding the pool and sink into the surface, so Lucia and the mayor’s feet are gently lowered to the floor as the shadow becomes two-dimensional again.  Gleador swims to the edge and pulls himself out. The mysterious woman again demands to know how they got in.  Gleador starts recounting the story of last session, an exciting tale of assassins and chases! The mayor interrupts. She’s the mayor, and these two are dangerous criminals. The mysterious woman shuts her down. “First of all, don’t interrupt.  As I must often point out, my estate is outside city limits, so I answer to no mayor.  Finally, I don’t recognize you.  The two ruling class women exchange formal introductions.  The mayor of Templeton is named Eroc. Their mysterious host is Lady Evelynn.

GM’s note: Phew, it was a pain not referring to them by name! Narration got much easier from her on.

As Gleador continues, Eroc also continues her protests. These ruffians attacked her and are in league with dangerous forces. They should be locked in a dungeon!  Evelynn bristles. “How dare you suggest that I have an dungeon here?  What have you heard?”  Since Gleador has amused her with his story, Evelynn offers the three of them traditional hospitality: one night’s stay. They are also free to leave immediately if they wish.  She is hosting a party tonight, but they simply can’t attend, not in those clothes.  Eroc’s dress may have been acceptable, were it not soaked, but that filthy adventuring gear is right out.  All three accept the offer of a night’s rest, and Evelynn summons a butler to show them to their rooms. Jayce is a very proper butler, a male human with dark hair going grey at the temples. His square jaw is clean-shaven, and his posture is perfect. As he leads them past Lady Evelynn towards the rooms, Eroc scoffs that she is given the same treatment as her kidnappers. Evelynn grabs Eroc’s mouth between a thumb and forefinger (those long gold fingertips are definitely claws, not decorations), pulls her face close, and hisses, “I have offered you hospitality. Do not disrespect me!” Eroc is thoroughly cowed and scurries after Jayce and our heroes. Evelynn stays in the pool room.

Jayce leads the three of them through the unnecessarily large and twisting halls of the mansion. Each section of hall is separated from the next by large double doors. Jayce pauses at a few doors, listening through them for sounds of the party, then selecting a new route. He offers Gleador and Lucia adjoining rooms, but thinks it best if Eroc’s room was a ways off. Each room has a four-poster bed, big windows, typical mansion stuff.  There’s a door to the hall, but also a door from one room to the other. There’s a lock on each side, but Gleador and Lucia want access to each other, so they open both sides. Jayce returns and offers to have their clothes cleaned and dried. He looks them over with a practiced eye and selects nightclothes of the proper sizes from a wardrobe in one of the rooms. (a shin-length shirt and a soft pointy hat with a puff at the tip, like Geppetto wears in Disney’s Pinocchio.)  He waits discreetly in the hall for them to change, then takes their dirty clothes.  Lucia keeps her armor with her, of course. Before leaving, Jayce asks them to stay in their rooms, and says that breakfast and their clean clothes will be brought up in the morning.

Of course, Gleador isn’t going to stay put.  He selects a chimera form for spying on the party downstairs.  A gnat for flight and stealth. Sand for toughness. A coral with contact poison to discourage people from trying to mess with him. If a party guest notices and swats him, his tough body will resist the impact, and they will swiftly develop an itchy rash. He flies down to see what he can see. The ceilings are high and there’s a dull roar of conversation, so no one notices the buzz of his wings. There’s a main hall where guests enter from outside, an adjoining hall with drinks and hors d’oeuvres, and a third hall for dancing. Side chambers are available for people who want to converse more privately.

Everybody who’s anybody in the town of Sugar’s Crossing is here. Sugar’s Crossing is a mill town on the river a few days travel west of Fairmeadow. The human population of Sugar’s Crossing is small. Party guests are elves, dwarves, and halflings mostly. There are some Naga (kinda like snake mermaids) from down south. The port city on the same river as Sugar’s Crossing is in the territory of a Naga ruler called the Sea Viper. There’s also a Dryad from the forests to the north. She’s roughly humanoid, but made of wood and leaves. She’s bound to a tree, and that tree is in a corner of the room, in a pot with wheels and a handle so she can transport it.  The owners of two of the major mills are here. The naga are indeed emissaries of the Sea Viper. Gleador recognizes the Valerie Balfour as the owner of the shipping company whose ledger he read back in Templeton.  Gleador also spots Hama, the agent who brought the living metal statue to auction at Fairmeadow. The last important person he notices is Mayor Eroc! She slipped into a side chamber and is trying to attract the attention of some dwarven soldiers.  Sugar’s Crossing is a bigger, more important town than Fairmeadow. Pepe and his deputies can keep Fairmeadow safe, but Sugar’s Crossing has a garrison of soldiers to protect river traffic, the mills, and other important infrastructure.  The region is a loose federation of independent city-states, and they provide security to Sugar’s Crossing on a rotating basis.  Right now, there’s a dwarven garrison, and Eroc probably has some contacts with them.

Gleador doesn’t want soldiers waiting for them at the edge of town, but he’s always got a plan. He flies back to his room, returns to elven form, and rings for Jayce. There’s a small bell mounted on the desk in his room. When he strikes it, he realizes there’s no clapper inside, but he hears a faint tone far away outside the room. Jayve appears shortly, and asks how he can be of service.  Gleador says he feels bad about the enmity between him and Eroc, and wants to reconcile. Could Jayce please bring Eroc here so Gleador can make peace? Jayce thinks it’s a mark of civilization and right living to seek reconciliation and promises to bring Eroc forthwith. He returns, taken aback, to report that Eroc is not in her room. Gleador feigns worry. Jayce says not to worry, stay here, he’ll have her found.  Gleador and Lucia wait for what seems like a long time before there’s another knock at the door. Jayce isn’t there.  This is a servant they haven’t seen before: a petite female Tiefling. She wears a waterproof leather jacket and cap. The bill of the cap is narrow where it joins the cap to accommodate the two vertical horns that extend from her brows to just past the crown of her head. Her skin is red and curved tusks jut outward from her bottom lip. In contrast to Jayce’s perfect posture and diction, she slouches against the doorframe. (She probably works outside most of the time, away from polite company) “Hey, uhh, we found Eroc. She’s fine. Everything’s fine, but y’all need to stay in your rooms. Can’t chat tonight.  Maybe in the morning?” Our heroes thank her for the information and start to inquire further, but she’s already turning away saying, “Yeah, yeah” with a half-wave.

Gleador has scouted the party and brought trouble to his adversary for doing the same, both without implicating himself. That’s a good night’s work, and with no other pressing business, our heroes rest for the night. Gleador levels up and gains the ability to transform into pure elements. He can be a buffalo made of fire, or augment his already formidable stealth capabilities by turning into wind.

GM’s note: Gleador is insufferable to NPCs, which means he’s delightful to a GM, and this new power will only make that stronger. I look forward to scrambling to deal with the new level of shenanigans he’ll try in the future. Also, there’s a Druid power to imitate other humanoids, the shocking and unheard-of power that makes Andro so dangerous. Gleador didn’t take that power, thoughtfully preserving my NPCs raison d’etre.

In the morning Jayce brings a cart with trays of food on top and clean clothes underneath. He took the liberty of preparing traditional human and elven breakfast food.  Lucia gets delicious bacon and eggs. Gleador isn’t as pleased. He is served river fish, not sea fish like he would get back on the Sapphire Islands. There’s also the breakfast salad of lempins, leafy vegetables which are quite hearty, but less tasty than oatmeal. Jayce did add tasty berries, but Gleador is still telling himself “It’s the thought that counts”  When breakfast is over and our heroes are dressed again, they ask Jayce if they can greet Lady Evelynn as they leave.  Jayce says he’ll inquire and returns shortly to say that Lady Evelynn will see them off. He leads them to the front door, past Eroc’s room. The door is open, and a servant is already cleaning it. Jayce says she didn’t stay for breakfast.  Lucia suspects she never got back to her room after being discovered last night.

Lady Evelynn greets them at the front door wearing a fabulous dress in rose and purple with gold accessories. She wears small round rose-colored glasses that clip to her nose and have no earpieces. She accepts our heroes’ thanks for her hospitality.  Gleador prods Lucia and Lucia asks if Evelynn heard about the metal statue that disturbed the auction at Fairmeadow Fair. Evelynn’s lots were called before the statue was activated, so she got paid. Lucia starts awkwardly explaining the strange coins found in the statue’s possessions, and how they are trying to understand the mystery. Lucia produces the large rectangular coin they’ve been carrying, but Lady Evelynn has stopped listening. She sees the coin and says, “Oh no, there’s no charge. It’s my pleasure to host travelers.” Lucia insists. She wants to know about Saarland, the source of these coins. Evelynn instructs Jayce to point them towards the storytellers in town, and ushers them out the door.

As they walk the considerable distance from the front door to the gates of the estate, Jayce explains that Sugar’s Crossing is home to halfling storytellers, a combination of oral historian and actor. They have a multi-storey round building in town (it resembles Shakespeare’s Globe Theater from our world). They walk past a topiary garden. All the bushes are shaped like predators: wolves, eagles, and stranger beasts not native to this area. Lucia asks “What are those?” and Jayce helpfully explains that they are bushes that are grown in special metal frames and trimmed twice a week to maintain specific shapes.  With that, they reach the edge of Lady Evelynn’s property. The road before them leads to Sugar’s Crossing.

GM’s note: Most of the characters in this session were inspired by League of Legends characters! Lady Evelynn is K/DA Evelynn. Jayce is Debonair Jayce, and the tiefling is K/DA Akali.

← Session 12 | Campaign Summary | Session 14 →

← Session 11 | Campaign Summary | Session 13 →

Last time, our “heroes” laid hands on the Under-Dean Stanton & his assistant Simmons, were banned from the Fortinbras College of Mines, sent six members of the City Watch to the hospital, and delivered an ultimatum to the mayor. They are no longer welcome in town.

The mayor wants Gleador and Lucia brought to City Hall, but that’s in the center of the volcano’s caldera and it’s the deepest building in town. Our heroes don’t expect to escape from there. Their counter-offer, delivered by a City Watch-man dragging his wounded co-worker, is for the mayor to meet them at a rest stop two days walk west of Templeton. The rest stop has powerful magic, and those lit by its fire cannot harm each other. They mayor has three days to get there, and our heroes are watching the road out of Templeton to see if he goes or not.

That morning, the first traffic on the road towards the rest stop are two large carts, drawn by four horses each. The carts are covered by canvas supported by wooden frames, like covered wagons or WWII troop trucks. The canvas is extra-long, covering the sides of the wagon, but the horses are being driven fast, and the wind blows the canvas aside, revealing the name “Mister Bill’s Tack Shop”. That’s the building that Gleador saw burning yesterday. They pursue. Gleador transforms into a chimera of horse and eagle. It also breathes fire.

GM: What animal do you know from that Sapphire Islands that breathes fire?

Gleador’s player: The Giant Salamanders, of course!

GM: I can’t argue with that.

Lucia rides Gleador (on the ground for now) and they swiftly approach the heavy carts. They see the driver of the rear cart look back and shout instructions. Someone in the back of the cart reaches out through the canvas cover and dumps the contents of a bag onto the road: gold coins! Our heroes marvel at this strategy. What is its purpose? They stop and examine the coins. They appear to be normal Templeton gold pieces. Lucia suspects they may be counterfeit, since Flint was creating alloy with the same density as gold for some unknown purpose. The coins don’t appear to be magical, poisonous, or trapped, so our heroes grab a handful. As they are stopped, they look back towards Templeton and see another party approaching. Four figures, taller than Dwarves, wearing black cloaks. Three ride horses, but the leader rides a great wolf. The leader points at our heroes and the group of four accelerates.  Gleador takes to the sky, out-pacing both the riders and the two carts. The carts see the riders approaching and stop. Gleador lands in front of them. One cart has a single driver. The other has a driver and someone riding shotgun. Lucia prays to reveal what is evil and gets five pings: the three visible people and one in the back of each cart. Gleador asks, “Are they after us or after you?” The people on the carts appear confused. A person pops her head out of the back of one cart to see what’s going on. It’s Shaela, one of the dwarves getting alloy from Flint, and probably the one who locked our heroes and Flint in that deathtrap a few sessions ago.

Lucia is really curious what Shaela knows about Flint’s whereabouts, but the three black-cloaked figures on horses are approaching. They have pulled white, skull-themed masks over their faces. The leader and the wolf are not in sight. Lucia prays to see if the riders are evil. They gets a ping from each rider, but not from the horses. She also gets two pings in thin air between her and the carts. The leader and her wolf appear from invisibility poised to strike! The wolf leaps at Lucia (who is still atop Gleador’s fire-breathing Hippogriff)  Lucia braces her shield with her sword beneath it and strikes a heavy blow, aided by the wolf’s momentum. It collapses on Gleador’s shoulders and slides to the ground, but the rider leaped off as the wolf attacked. She is six feet above Lucia, holding a spear that’s attached to her gear with some sort of cable. Gleador unleashes a gout of flame. She drops the spear and throws her cloak around her, twisting in the air and dropping in an ungainly heap to the side, instead of directly in Lucia. Both the wolf and rider are back on their feet quickly. They back away, giving our heroes a respectful distance. The rider gives a hand signal, and the three other riders advance with their spears trying to encircle our heroes.

Gleador takes to the air. The three skull-faced horse-riders winds cranks at their hips to build air pressure, then fire their pneumatic spears at our heroes! Gleador swoops away and circles the group (two carts, four mounted assassins) within shouting distance. Lucia asks what exactly is going on! The wolf-rider, an Orc woman named Beth, yells back that they are a threat to the city, and they mayor has sent her and her team to make sure they are brought back. Gleador doesn’t have to deal with this, he’s a flying horse, so he takes off at full speed for the rest stop. Beth orders her riders to pursue them, and stays to tend to her injured wolf.

Gleador is faster than a horse, and horses must either respect the path of the road or push through unfavorable terrain. They know that the riders know that they are headed for the rest stop, but the hippogriff will reach it by nightfall, and the horses will take hours to catch up.

Gleador and Lucia reach the rest stop at nightfall and Gleador shifts back without regard for the ten or so parties already stopped for the night.  People are cooking dinner together over the large central fire pit. As is tradition, people have brought firewood to stoke and maintain the fire.Gleador looks for animals to use as scouts and allies. Lots of animals gather here, since humans bring food and aren’t allowed to attack them. Gleador sees a pika snatch an unattended hunk of cheese. The cheese’s owner yells and grabs a rock to throw, then puts the rock back down. This is the magic of the rest stop’s fire of community. Those lit by the fire may have means and will for violence, but they cannot act. Even animals are protected. Gleador asks the pika if it and its friends could scout beyond the firelight and warn them when the riders approach. That’s no good. The rest stop may be safe, but just outside, predators gather, waiting for animals to wander from the safety of the light. Indeed, the trees are obviously full of waiting hawks.

Gleador asks around, wondering if anyone has heard of black-cloaked skull-faced riders. People think that’s a great campfire story, and he soon has a circle of eager listeners wanting to hear his spooky tale.  He describes Beth and her group, saying they are bogey-men that wander the roads, and the only way to escape if they pursue you is to thumb your nose and say, “neener neener neener!” They can’t stand being mocked. A young lad, eager to seem brave and smart, scoffs at Gleador’s description of the terrible black wolf that bears the leader of the band. “Everyone knows the Black Beast is more like a giant cat. Not a wolf at all!”

GM note: The Black Beast is a legend started in Fairmeadow only a few days ago, based on the exploits of Gleador himself!

Blogger note: I need a better way to link callbacks. if you, dear reader, don’t remember the Black Beast, how can I easily remind you with the power of hyperlinks & the Internet?

After successfully entertaining the crowd, Gleador looks around for interesting people. He sees a group of people wearing robes that were once white, but are stained with long use over the road. They carry their gear in handcarts, and have no pack animals. Gleador strikes up a conversation with Talion, a young-ish Orc man. Talion explains that they are religious pilgrims returning from a famous shrine, far to the west, past Sugar’s Crossing. The expedition was started by an old human woman named Vanni. The journey is like a river, people join the group as it travels, expanding it. In that sense, Vanni is like the source of the river. Now they are returning, and people leave the group as it passes their hometowns. By the time Vanni returns, she will have been on the road for four months. Our heroes enquire about the shrine, and what rituals the group performed while there.  Gleador has heard that the shrine grants petitioner foresight. Talion expands: Vanni was the reason for the expedition, so she alone went inside and received the foresight, but all had a part in the ritual, and the foresight echoed and rippled outward, granting each participant some small gift.  After his experience at the shrine, Talion recognizes one face in each town he visits. He has no other insight into the people he recognizes, but he’s meditating on the visions and the interactions he has with the people the shrine has shown him. He records it all in a worn leather-bound journal. Tonight, Talion is expecting an Orc woman, but he has checked the camp and hasn’t seen her.  Gleador and Lucia are pretty sure he means Beth, the leader of the strike team pursuing them. She was wearing a cloak and mask, but from her height, build, and the skin they could see on her hands, neck, and shoulders, they are reasonably confident she’s an Orc.

GM note: I told Gleador’s player that Gleador knew the shrine the pilgrim’s went to. He said that the shrine granted foresight, and I thought, “You power-gamer! I’m not giving you an NPC that knows how to get you out of trouble!” Thus, the shrine grants foresight once, for a specific request, not an ongoing power to see the future.

Gleador encourages Lucia to talk to Vanni. Lucia isn’t sure what to say, but goes anyways.  Vanni is quite old, so the pilgrims give her special treatment out of respect both for her leadership of the expedition and her frail physical condition. Vanni recognizes a fellow truth-seeker in Lucia.  She tells Lucia about the trip to the shrine, which leaves the main roads and goes through a forest. That’s why they must use handcarts. Larger vehicles and beasts of burden cannot pass. Lucia asks why Vanni would make such a journey, what was so important to foresee? Vanni looks sad and doesn’t answer directly. Lucia says, “I guess it wasn’t a blessing.”

Vanni: All truth is a blessing. That’s very hard to see, but if you can accept that, it’s enlightenment.

Vanni excuses herself. It’s late, and she is old and tired. Lucia and Gleador also prepare to sleep. Lucia walks the border of the rest stop and casts Sanctuary, so she will be alerted if anyone entered with hostile intent. Our heroes are worried about the strike team somehow out-smarting the magic ward against violence. Gleador says they need to have a serious talk about possible mortal actions.  He suspects the wolf may be a Druid, or at least someone Druid-adjacent, and the combination of evil and power that he sensed has him considering taking a life for the first time.  (They destroyed some zombies when cleaning up the freezer room, but they had been dead for a long time, and had terminal diseases, so it doesn’t count, right?) They go to sleep back-to-back, weapons at hand.

Around 4AM, Lucia hears a ping from her Sanctuary spell, then three more. She sneakily opens an eye and see the four members of the strike team entering the rest stop. Their mounts remain outside. Their cloaks, masks, and armor are laid over the mounts. The strike team approaches unarmed, hands visible. Without the cloaks, their black armor is visible: mostly leather, with partial chainmail. The chain links are coated with a substance that turns them black and prevents them from jangling. Beth approaches to within a few paces and crouches down to address them. She wasn’t able to apprehend them before they reached the rest stop, and she can’t lay hands on them while they are protected within the rest stop’s ward, but she can prevent them from leaving while she waits for further instructions. Beth pulls out some paper and a pencil. It’s not very sharp. Beth reaches for a knife that’s no longer at her side. She glances back at her gear on the wolf, stares at the blunt pencil, and with a sigh, starts writing a message. When she’s done, she fold the paper into an origami bird and throws it into the air, it flies off towards Templeton to magically deliver a message.  “Now we wait”, says Beth.

Gleador is not content to wait, and uses his situational invulnerability to ask an unending series of impertinent questions.

“Who do you work for?” Beth says, “The mayor calls on us to solve special problems that the City Watch and normal channels are not equipped to handle. You are a special problem.”

“Are you like the mayor’s little body party?” Resh, one of the three human riders, chimes in, “You could say it’s a body party once we get involved!”

“Are you going to bring the wolf in? Is he OK out there beyond the fire light? He wasn’t doing so well earlier.” Beth narrows her eyes and hisses, “Don’t you ever talk about my wolf!”

Shortly before dawn, some people start to stir, make breakfast, stoke the fire. One of them is Talion. He spots Beth and arranges to get as close to her as he can while cooking breakfast. Beth notices him stealing glances and goes up to him. “What do you want?” Talion stammers, “Well, I, uh, I saw you in a dream.” Resh calls out, “She’s heard that one before!” Talion is embarrassed. “No, it’s not like that. There’s this shrine, see?”  Beth leans in, “So you saw my face in a vision? Are you sure it was mine? Take a real good look.” She leans uncomfortably close, staring Talion dead in the eye. She suddenly barks a war cry, twisting her face into a terrifying snarl. Talion stumbles back, startled. The riders laugh and jeer and he retreats.

Beth sights a response from Templeton. A larger messenger bird flies towards the rest stop and is snatched out of the air by a hawk! Remember, many predators wait just outside the fire’s protective light. Beth yells, “Aleph!” and points at the hawk. Her wolf turns and runs after the hawk, which flies back into a tree with its prey. Beth also run out of the camp, intercepts Aleph, pulls her knife from her gear and flings it into the hawk’s tree. The hawk falls out dead, still clutching the messenger bird. Beth picks up the hawk by the knife sticking out of it, extracts the messenger bird from its claws, then offers the knife to Aleph, who pulls the hawk off and eats it.  Beth walks back towards her companions. As she crosses the threshhold of the rest stop, she pauses and looks down at the knife in her hand. She takes a step back, throws the knife into the ground, then continues forward. She unfolds the messenger bird, It’s a cloth square about 2 feet on a side, with writing on one side, and magic symbols on the other.  Lucia recognizes the magic symbols as a teleportation spell. Beth reads the message, then hands the cloth to her blonde companion. “Yod, you’re better at this stuff.”

Yod prepares to cast the spell. Gleador is very curious and crowds her, asking what she has, what it’s for, what she’s going to do. Yod raises a hand, then lowers it. She scoots away. Gleador follows. She lays the cloth flat on the ground, then strategically scoots around so that Gleador is crowding her right arm instead of her left. then she grabs a corner of the cloth with her left hand and lifts the cloth with a flourish, yelling a magic word. There’s a puff of pink, glittery smoke, and when it clears, there’s a male Dwarf standing there. He wears a top hat, handlebar mustache, white gloves, tailcoat, and vest. “Ah, wonderful! Good to see you again, Yod! Beth. And these must be our, umm, persons of interest. Good to meet you in person. I’ve heard so much about you. My name is Dory. I must say you’ve put us in a bit of a spot. Allow me to consult with my colleagues.” Dory surveys the scene and huddles with the four riders.

Dory decides that the mayor will come to see Lucia and Gleador, but all these spectators are no good. He goes around the various camps, some of whom are beginning to stir, and offers them 5 gold pieces if they clear out in the next fifteen minutes. Most people are very willing to do so, and hustle to get themselves together.  The pilgrims have no interest in earthly riches, and have several venerable members who mustn’t hustle. Dory maintains his effusive and jovial attitude, but is clearly annoyed. Talion gets between Dory and the group, demanding that he show respect. Beth steps in between Dory and Talion, hand on hips. She’s really good at threatening and belittling people. Talion’s hands keep balling into fists and then suddenly relaxing. Dory, who is 22 inches shorter than his champion, his head out into the space between Beth’s side & her elbow to get a few verbal barbs in himself. Beth has had enough says she’ll wait for Talion outside. She leaves the rest stop and waits at the entrace, which the pilgrims need to pass when they leave.

Dory finds he can’t rush Vanni and the other pilgrims because it would actually be unhealthy for Vanni to move too quickly, so he leaves them alone. Our heroes go to consult with the pilgrims. It seems that Talion will be attacked as soon as he leaves. Talion thinks he has a good chance, and he’s full of righteous anger. He’d probably make a good Paladin, but he is not a Paladin yet. Our heroes tell him that Beth is very dangerous, even without her wolf and weapons. Our heroes will also be attacked as soon as they leave. They are willing to draw the strike team’s attention in order to let the pilgrims flee unharmed. The pilgrims are impressed by our heroes’ self-sacrificing offer. One of the pilgrims steps forward with a tunic painted with some strange symbols. He says that his vision showed him this pattern, and he thinks that Lucia and Gleador should have it. They recognize it as the same teleportation spell that Yod used to bring Dory here.  Racking their brains for arcane lore, they also remember that while being teleported, a person is in neither place. This means that our heroes can disrupt the mayor’s teleportation spell, because the mayor will not be in the rest stop, and thus not protected yet.

Dory gets ready to summon the mayor. He’s annoyed that the summoning cloth has holes in it (from the unfortunate hawk’s talons) and repairs them with a few flicks of his magic wand. Gleador and Lucia crowd close around him. Yod explains that they do this sort of thing and whipsers in Dory’s ear. Dory does the same little dance around the cloth to get one arm free, then snatches the cloth up. At almost the right time, Lucia puts her toe on a corner of the cloth and adds an extra syllable to the magic word Dory yells. The teleportation spell is disrupted, but not in the way she hoped! Both ends of the portal open at once. Dory, Lucia, and Gleador feel the space around them bend down into the space where the cloth used to be and they are pulled down with it! Once past the ground, they find themselves in a large, translucent, glowing tunnel. All around them, similar tunnels or threads stretch for infinite distances in all directions. Looking up, the underside of the ground is not visible, only more threads. They are pulled forward by a current and miles away at the other end, they see a figure racing towards them, no doubt the mayor.  Gleador tries to snatch the teleportation cloth away from Dory, but he resists and the cloth tears. When it does, the thread they are in also tears, splitting and spiraling into at least three different channel headed who knows where. Lucia tries to grab Dory, but he’s aiming for a thread that goes deeper into whatever space this is, below reality. That’s scary, so Lucia lets him go. She and Gleador are above the original thread. The mayor is still racing along and will pass them by if they just float along this thread. They can fight the current, try to push through the wall of the thread and risk what’s in-between the In-Between, or use the teleportation spell on the tunic that the pilgrim gave them. Gleador turns into a dolphin with a frog’s tongue. Lucia grabs his fin and with a mighty thrust he swims against the current to rejoin the original thread. Now our heroes are on a collision course with the mayor. How wil lthe opposing currents interact? The tunnel is wide enough that the three could pass without colliding, or bounce off  each other and continue. Gleador wants to secure the mayor, so he reaches out, arms getting longer and bulkier as he transforms into a gorilla. The gorilla seizes the mayor, who is a Dwarven woman. She’s wearing a formal, refined, but still decorated and beautiful dress. Gleador’s hand crushes one of her puff sleeves and he feels some of the embroidery rip. The three of them are holding on to each other and will all end up in the same place, but where should they go? The rest stop with the mayor’s magician and personal strike team seems bad. Going the other way probably leads to Templeton City Hall, one of the most secure buildings in the city. Lucia pulls out the teleportation tunic and aims for the swamp near Fairmeadow, home to their friends Samantha and Ferdinand. She completely botches the spell. The tunic unravels and weaves itself into the side of the tunnel, creating a branch that sucks the three of them up and up and up. They feel the transition back to real space, and there’s water. They rise and rise. They break the surface. Darkness. To be continued.

GM note: There is little that gives me more freedom than an uncontrolled teleportation spell at the very end of the session! I have a month to figure out where to put them.

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