Session Three: "The Roadblock"

Game Date: May 31, 2008
In-Game Dates: Mansday, Grimander 3rd - Sunday, Grimander 9th, night

Following the tracks back along the broad road to the town of Night Falls, no one in the party is really all that surprised when the tracks lead to a shed behind the mansion of the Funerary Guild. A peek into the shed reveals nothing out of the ordinary, just gardening supplies and a floor full of footprints that match those of the recently un-functioning flesh golem.
The group proceeds around to the front of the mansion and knocks on the door. A manservant answers and ushers them in while he fetches Elder Harken. Harken betrays no surprise at seeing the adventurers, and doesn't even bat an eye when Aiden makes the offhand comment: "Yeah, two of us almost died in that battle with the wraith." Althea, as subtly as possible, casts detect thoughts on Harken while she's relating the details of their discoveries of someone's involvement in attempting to set the wraith free. She gets the mental image of Harken painstakingly breaking up the stones on the floor under the whispered bidding of Arathex's wraith. She makes a magical whisper to the rest of the party informing them of Harken's culpability.
After their tale is done, Harken bids them get some rest at their inn; he offers to carry the good news of their victory to the waiting council members. The suspicious party declines, graciously offering to deliver the good news themselves. Harken is stuck. Daring not to protest too strongly, he leads them from the funerary mansion down the streets to the town hall.
A crowd of citizens has gathered around the council hall. While not quite an angry mob, it's obvious from the noise that emotions are tense as dawn approaches in the East. As the crowd spots the adventurers with Elder Harken, a hush falls over them. Althea and Rowan smile and wave at the crowd, giving them the thumbs-up. A cheer goes up as Harken leads them inside.
The seven other council elders of Night Falls sit around a long wooden table. Chief Elder Genning smiles as the adventurers as they enter. "I take it from the noise outside that you were successful?"
The party assures them that the wraith will not trouble anyone ever again. They tell their story to the council, but this time they mention the note they found, and make their suspicions plain (though Althea does not tell the council of the thoughts she saw in Harken's mind. She hands the scrap of parchment to Genning, who reads it and passes it down the table to each of the elders in turn.
Turning his eyes upon a trembling Harken, Genning asks, "What have you to say for yourself, Elder Harkin?"
Harkin breaks down sobbing, telling them that the wraith forced him to help free the angry spirit by afflicting his daughter with a mysterious illness and threatening to kill his entire family if Harken did not cooperate. Several of the council elders seem swayed by the tearful apology and story, but the party and Genning seem largely unmoved.
"Do you know," speaks Genning after Harken lapses into silence, "what the crowd outside would do to you if they were told you hade placed all their families in such dire peril?" Harken goes pale. "However," continues Genning, "I can also vividly imagine what would happen to the economy of this town if the head of the Funerary Guild was outed as the basest of villains. A decline in the funeral trade could ruin us. Justice will be done, and you, Elder Harken, will pay for your crimes. But in this case, justice must be tempered with prudence."
Genning turns to the party with a grave look on his face. "You have performed far above our hopes and expectations. Yet one more thing will I now ask of you all: will you swear not to tell others of the involvement of Elder Harken in this... madness without the approval of the town council?"
The party agrees, aided in part by the promise of double the original payment for the task. Everyone wearily trudges back to the inn, except for Lumi. Elder Olaf rises from his chair; he is the head of the temple of Pelor in the town. He takes the gnome to the temple, where he casts restoration on her from a scroll. Her complexion returns to normal, and she feels strength flow back into her bones and muscles. She breathes a deep sigh of relief, then staggers as she realizes how tired she really is. Olaf helps her back to the inn, and the party falls in to a deep, restful slumber.
Rising around noon, the party heads downstairs and is greeted with a victory feast. Genning approaches them with their payment and the thanks of the town. When the party asks about the "resolution" of things, Genning, with a glance at all the celebrating citizens around him, merely states that there will be a permanent restructuring in the leadership of the funerary guild. "We obviously need someone better suited to the task of maintaining the graveyard," he says, "someone who will not fail in the execution of his duties."
More loudly he states that this ordeal has taken a great toll on the mind of poor Elder Harken, and the man has suffered a collapse. He is being tended to, but unfortunately, Elder Olaf says that Harken may not be long for this world. Truly, this casts a dark shadow over what should be a great day for the town. And with that, he leaves the party to their feasting.
The party makes it out of town in the early afternoon and heads south, following the well-maintained road towards the royal city of Fallo.
The next day on the road, the skies turn leaden and a thin, cold rain begins to fall. As the day goes on, the wind picks up along with the rain, driving cold water straight into the faces of the party and their mounts. Everyone is cold and miserable. They pass several caravans and a column of soldiers marching eastward, but with the rain and wind, no one does more than glance at the others in passing. The day after that follows much like the same, as do the next three days beyond that. The party is not making any kind of good time along the road with the bitter wind from the South. Lumi makes frequent checks on the party and their mounts, keeping everyone healthy. At least with Aiden's skill with fire magic, the party never has trouble making a fire when they finally set up camp for the night. Still, everything gets wet and soggy, and the road turns from mud to soup under the hooves of their mounts, sucking at their feet with every step. Olly's underside is completely caked with mud. Lumi cleans him up as best she can in the evenings, and curls up next to him at night for warmth.
The next day, Sunday, dawns with the same gray skies, but no rain. The party finds themselves on the outskirts of Fallo, passing farm after farm along the road. Around mid-day the road re-enters a wood that stretches for some miles. Around a sharp bend in the road, the party finds the road blocked by the trunk of a large fallen tree. The party has passed innumerable branches of varying sizes along the road, blown down by the high winds of the past few days, so the tree is greeted by no more than a few groans of irritation.
Rowan, however, notices after a closer look that the tree hasn't been blown down; someone or several someones dropped it across the road purposefully. She alerts her comrades and scans the forest around her, alert for bandits. She thinks she sees something on one side of the road off in the trees, but isn't sure. Peering into the brush on the other side, she sees the figure of a man. He is difficult to spot at first, but it isn't as though he was actively hiding. However, once he sees Rowan spot him, he steps forward from the forest and to the side of the road.
He is human, tall and lean, with stern features and black hair. A longsword and a shortsword hang at his waist, and his hands hover near their hilts, but aren't actually touching them. He demands the party identify themselves, telling them that he is Lanarg, head of the Rangers that guard the wilderness around the royal city. It becomes quickly clear that he suspects them of downing the tree. He tells them his rangers have been scouring the nearby woods in search of bandits. The party convinces Lanarg that they are innocent travelers, and they're just trying to get to Fallo. The sound of a distant carriage approaching reaches their ears, and Lanarg heaves a sigh. He helps the party get their mounts over the fallen trunk and on their way, muttering about not knowing how he's going to get a carriage through this mess. The party re-mounts their steeds and continues down the road, quickly rounding a second bend and are out of sight of the fallen log and the surly Ranger.
Perhaps a minute goes by when they hear a shout behind them. Althea's ears pick up a few of the words, something about protecting a lady, but can't catch the name. She relays what she hears to the party. Someone suggests that there could be a little bit of money involved in aiding some noble in reaching the city safely, and the party turns around and heads back up the way they came.
Before they've gone ten yards the horrible sound of horses screaming in pain tears through the air. Alarmed, everyone spurs their mounts forward at top speed, galloping back towards the fallen tree. Over the sound of pounding hooves, they can hear another scream, this time from a human throat. The sound of metal clashing on metal reaches their ears as well as they round the bend in the road.
Just past the log, a decent sized carriage stands in the middle of the road. The driver, armed and armored, is slumped over in his seat, several feathered shafts sticking out of him. The horses drawing the carriage have collapsed to the ground and lie still. Four men in bright steel armor, some on horseback, some on foot, are fighting several rangers wielding long and short swords. As the party nears the roadblock, arrows sail out from the treeline and take down one of the armored men. Another volley kills the horse under a rider, who falls heavily to the ground. He struggles to regain his feet as more arrows fall around him.
Rowan, her eyes narrowing, casts a spell designed for passing easily through heavily forested areas. As she advances, the treeline magically moves back away from her, eventually exposing the archers who had been hiding in the trees as well as another man clad in the same garb as the rangers, but bearing no weapons. He fires of a spell that strikes the leader of the men defending the carriage. The party notices that the arrows striking the defenders begin to smoke nastily when they strike their targets. Grimly, the party scrambles over the log to the aid of the men and the carriage. Aiden fires off a few searing rays that all but incinerate the enemy mage. From within the treeline bellows the voice of Lanarg, "Kill that magic user!"
The next volley of arrows comes sailing in Aiden's direction, but the warmage activates a magical force shield that deflects almost all the projectiles coming his way. Still, one arrow gets through, penetrating his armor. Aiden gasps in pain as acid begins to dissolve both flesh and armor around the wound.
Althea goes invisible and begins singing a haunting melody, that, while chilling the flesh of her allies, completely un-nerves several of the rangers near her. They fight much less effectively while the eerie music lasts. Lumi enlarges herself to a towering six and a half feet in height, her oversized mace growing in size with her. She takes on the closest Ranger to her, absorbing quite a few blows before finally cracking the skull of her opponent. Rowan concentrates on keeping the archers exposed with the use of her spell. As Caspian rounds the trunk of the tree to take on the nearest foe, Lanarg suddenly emerges from the treeline. He fires his longbow one last time and then draws his own two weapons, a shortsword and a longsword. Caspian charges in and the two of them begin trading blows. Aiden tries to aid Caspian, firing off spell after spell at Lanarg. Lanarg proves a capable warrior, absorbing punishment that would have dropped most fighters and continues to attack Caspian savagely, his two blades hissing as they spew acid into the wounds they create. Caspian, bleeding and smoking from his wounds, activates the magic of his buckler which unleashes a storm of electricity into Lanarg. Caspian then becomes invisible, but before he can press his advantage, Lanarg goes invisible as well. Caspian yells to his allies as he sees branches in the treeline bend and snap as Lanarg's invisible form crashes through them. Rowan, seeing this, uses her headband that let's her see invisible creatures and heads in the direction Lanarg took.
Althea, in the meantime, comes to the aid of the leader of the men protecting the carriage. The hardy warrior has taken multiple arrow hits to his body and limbs, but continues to attack his assailants. Yet as Althea nears him, a black-feathered shaft finds the knight's heart, and he finally succumbs to his wounds in mid-charge. Althea, invisible herself, slices the archer across the back, becoming visible as she does so. As the ranger turns to deal with this new threat, Caspian runs the man through with his sword. Aiden spurs his mount forward after Rowan, and Rowan, still magically pushing back the forest foliage around her, swings gracefully and easily up behind the warmage.
Lumi, Caspian and Althea survey the wreckage and carnage around them. Lumi realizes that the lead knight still has the slightest bit of life in him, and bends over him, healing magic coursing through her hands into the kinght's broken body.
Caspian calls to the occupants of the carriage, telling them that everything is all right. A young woman's voice asks fearfully but authoritatively for someone named DuVroc. The knight Lumi has just healed struggles to his feet, affirming that danger seems to have passed for the moment. A second later, the carriage door opens and a girl of perhaps nineteen summers steps out, surveying the scene with wide eyes. She is honey-haired and beautiful, moving with a self-possessed grace as she steps down. Her gold-flecked eyes shine with unshed tears as she looks at the bodies of her slain protectors. Blinking hard, she introduces herself as the Marchioness Kitala Silvenrede, and her bodyguard is Sir Jallon DuVroc.
Duvroc asks the party to escort them both to the royal city, offering payment for such services. The irony that this is just what they had turned around to do before the attack is not lost on the three of them. Aiden and Rowan return having failed to find Lanarg. Rowan can track Lanarg's footsteps, but hearing that the group wants to escort DuVroc and Kitala to Fallo, she reluctantly abandons the idea of tracking the evil ranger, knowing that there's precious little chance of her taking him on alone.
DuVroc removes a curious signet ring from one of the fallen rangers. The swords of the fallen rangers all have the same emblem as well: A dragon, wings unfurled and mouth open in a roar, curled around a vertical spear. Althea wracks her brain for any tale she might have heard of such a device, but can't think of anything. All of the weapons the rangers used have the same magical property of dealing acid damage. Collecting their armor and weapons as both evidence and spoil, the party moves on with the two newcomers (as well as Kitala's lady-in-waiting, Sara). They reach Fallo without further incident. Aiden is obviously smitten by Kitala, and the young beauty casts a few hesitant but genuine smiles at him. The party learns Kitala is headed to Fallo to see her mother, Daratris Silvenrede. Althea has heard the name before but can't place it. Kitala hasn't seen her mother since she was a very little girl, and was nervous enough about coming here from her previous home in the Elven lands of the Silverleaf Foresthome. The attack has not helped calm her nerves.
At the gates of the city, DuVroc, Kitala and Sara part ways with the adventurers. DuVroc tells them to come to the great temple tomorrow and ask for him, and he will pay them, as promised. With that (and one last glance from Kitala at Aiden), the trio head off into the city. Tired and sore, the party finds a decent inn with luxurious suites to stay in. They wolf down some food while Althea plies her trade as a bard, giving a performance that would be fit for a royal hall. Everything from drinks to employment to marriage is offered the dark-haired beauty between songs. Rowan and Lumi sit and talk, listening to Althea sing while Aiden and Caspian decide to take in the sights of the city.
The two of them end up in walking through a posh neighborhood and recognize one of the names engraved above a stone archway. Kartharine had told the party before they left Brindinsford that should they need assistance, help could be found in the house of Baroness Brelowe Tarmikos. The two soldiers introduce themselves to the baroness and her consort, Sir Ian Shortcloak. The four of them have a pleasant introductory conversation over some brandy, and the two Cardinian soldiers learn several things worth filing away for future reference. One is that Sir Ian seems to know the name of the elf they seek, but can't think of why he knows it. Apparently the surname "Daystar" is extremely common among elves. Another thing is that apparantly Kartherine has something of a reputation for sending adventurers on extremely perilous tasks. Granted, peril is stock in trade of the adventurer's lifestyle, but Ian says that this Daystar fellow won't have been the first person to just disappear while trying to recover things for Kartharine. Or the fifth. Or the tenth.
The baroness agrees to help the party as much as she can, and invites them and the rest of the party to a dinner the following evening.
Heading back to their inn, the Silverthorn, Caspian and Aiden notice that while there are a fair number of guards on patrol around the city, they don't seem to be bothered by heavily armed and heavily armored types. By the time they return to the inn, Rowan is very drunk. Lumi has made some innocent comments about Miel, and Rowan finally bursts into tears. Lumi takes the half-elf upstairs and the two of them have a long talk, mostly about Potter Holm.
One by one, the adventurers drift off to sleep in their separate rooms, each wondering what the following day will bring...