Play Session Day 13

7/29/2019 Play Session Day 13

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Play Day 13 - 25/01/2013In the lands of Taggriell

Date: Sunday 5th Desnus.The party begin this session as they awaken and break camp just off the road thatconnects the villages of Winterhaven and Winewold, after an eventful night of fighting off awandering stone giant.The group quickly and effortlessly break camp, stow away their gear and begin their

journey west again. The day is uneventful and the party enjoy the pleasant warm sun andgentle afternoon breeze.As the sun gets lower and sky darkens, the party stop once again to make camp, choosinga spot about 100 yards away from the road in an open area to the south, providingexcellent visibility around them.

After a simple meal, and the easy conversation between good friends, the party retire forthe night. Arforth says little and manly keeps to himself. Watches are set and the nightsounds of the open grass lands fill the air.

*********The night passes peacefully and the coming sun brings in the dawn of Moonday, the 6th ofDesnus.Once again the party go through their normal morning preparations, after a heartybreakfast. Isabella kneels down and silently prays to her god; Krondor sharpens his bladesand cleans down his armour; Elamros checks his arrows, bow and tools; Seng standsmotionless with eyes closed, his breath steady as he meditates; and finally Arforth sits on alarge smooth stone, his precious spell book clutched in his thin hands as he silently mouthsstrange and secret sounds and occasionally lifts up a hand in a strange gesture or motion.Finally the party are ready to leave and after gathering all their gear set forth again.

As noon is approaching the party finally arrive at Winewold. There are many people aboutin high spirits. Like leaf laden dust devils, they flit about the village in their gay spring attirein celebration of the annual harvest festival. The market square bustles with activity:farmers have brought in their crops to trade and merchants display the latest fashions and


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fads from the cities to the south. Minstrels and bards seeking to earn some coin bring talesof going ons in the world at large, including some about a group of heroes from the eastwho saved Winterhaven from the coming doom of Lord Orcus. However, particularlypopular are songs about the Red Raven, a swashbuckling bandit who steals from the high

and mighty and spends his wealth freely among the common folk. The villages are gratefulthat they are blessed with unusually good weather: the centrepiece of the festival is theVernal Key and Cup, an artifact that has brought good weather to Winewold for manycenturies.There are many contests and competitions being held. To particular interest to the partyare the wrestling and archery contests.Seng and Krondor march up to the entry line for the wrestling and look at half a dozenlarge, strong men waiting to try their luck. Isabella approaches the proprietor of thecontest and attempts to place a wager but can not come to an acceptable agreement.The gruff looking man, dressed in fine clothes and with his black hair slicked back,addresses Isabella, "Madam," he says looking down quickly at the more than ample bosomof the female cleric, "That Dwarf I'll give you 6 to 1 but that young lad there is OBVIOUSLYa trained Monk and I'll give you 2 to 1."Isabella looks bewildered, "A Monk? Him? No,

you must be mistaken. He is a simple farminghand."Seng, at this point, decides to practise hismartial form and starts to perform an elaborateseries of stances and positions. His lean, tonedmuscles look like a carved statue of marble as hishands and feet move with perfect precisionand speed. The crowd roars and claps atthe display. Seng, warming up to thecrowd, starts to call out the names of hisvarious forms, "The Crane. StrikingSnake. Butterfly Hands ....""Not a monk then, hey?" the gruff lookingman speaks.


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Isabella bows her head down, embarrassed, "Argh ..... I think I can hear someone callingme .... good day."The first round commences. Krondor faces off against the current champion. A large brute

of a man, with bulging muscles, that spits at the Dwarf in contempt and disgust.When the call sounds to start Krondor quickly moves towards his over confident opponent,who is busy waving his hands and calling out to the crowd. With a bang the Dwarf strikes afist into the gut of the male, with such force that he doubles over with a look of pain on hisface. Krondor immediately grabs the gasping male and with one mighty heave pushes thebent over male out of the wrestling ring.The crowd erupts! Krondor looks around, surprised by his very lucky, quick victory.Adjacent to them, in another ring, Seng faces of against a solid male. The fight starts andthe monk immediately punches a series of strikes but he slips on a small rock on the groundand falls to one knee. His opponent, attempts to grab the monk but the trained hands ofthe monk snap out to ward off any attempt to hold him. The monk stands up and continuesto strike blow after blow at the male, blood flowing freely from his opponents nose andmouth. The male in return punches hard back. The monk stops most of the blows but someslip through and the force behind them is tremendous. The monk and male trade blows buteventually, with one final strike to the side of the head, the male lands unmoving onto the

ground.Cheering and shouts come from the crowd!Isabella again attempts to negotiate a fair bet with the proprietor and finally comes to anacceptable arrangement. She puts 100 gold pieces down on the Monk.The second round comes and Seng is paired off against Krondor.Isabella smiling, whispers to both Seng and Krondor, "This is great. I have 100 gold on Sengand when he wins I'll make 600 back!""What do you mean - When he wins?" Krondor replies, "I intend to wipe this young lads asson the ground! This is a matter of honour!"Seng smiles, "You may try Master Dwarf. It will be my honour to fight you."


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Isabella curses under her teeth, "Dam it dwarf!" She shouts out at Krondor, "Don't make meDoom you!"The fight starts and Seng quickly takes an upper hand. Krondor finds his luck has

stopped. He tries to push the monk out and nearly runs out the ring. Seng expertly strikesa series of blows that leave the Dwarf falling forwards onto his stomach with a loud groan.The Dwarf slowly tries to get up but then collapses into a heap with a loud groan.Seng is declared the champion as the only remaining fighter has been disqualified forbreaking the rules during the last round.The crowd erupts and a very happy Isabella collects her 600 gold coins from a veryirritated looking proprietor. *********The party, now 600 gold pieces richer, makes it way over to a large field on the side of thefestival that has nearly fifty people waiting for the archery contest.

Each of the party are given a standard crossbow and bolts.A series of targets, at various distances and cover are

spread around. Some of the targets are evenrigged on ingenious mechanical devices that movethem slowly around.

Ten identical ranges are setup side by side. Over the next hour, ten at a time, each of thecontestants steps forward and fires off twelve bolts at the range, trying to get the highestscore.The competition is fierce and many of the people present are obviously very skilled.Isabella, Krondor, Elamros, Seng and Arforth step forward to the ranges when their turncomes.Isabella holds up the crossbow, "This is going to be easy. Watch how it's done."Elamros looks unimpressed, 'We shall see my lady."

Krondor turns side to side, his face in a grimace and growls at the other competitors.


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Isabella turns to the growling Dwarf, "WHAT are you doing? Do you need to ... relive

yourself?""What?" Krondor turns towards the cleric. "No, I'm trying to intimidate our opponents.""Yeah," replies Isabella, "Good luck with that."

A loud voice shouts, "Archers - READY!"The heroes of Winterhaven, along with the other contestants, raise up their loadedcrossbows.

A loud whistle sounds and at once the first volley of bolts flies out.Isabella curses, "This crossbow is rubbish. It won't fire true!"Elamros is quickly reloading his crossbow for his next shot, "Blaming your tools already Isee my lady?"Bolt after bolt flies out. Krondor is shouting and smiling with each shot as he is firing verywell. Elamros calmly sends out each bolt, each hitting their target but not all on centre,which will cost him points.Once all the participants have fired, they all group together in front of a tall male in redrobes who calls out, "Well done archers. Well done. I shall call out the top three places.Please come forward to claim your prizes!"

A cheer goes up from the crowd.

The speaker continues, "In third place, Elamros, with 54 points. In second place, Saina,with 57 points and in first place, Ilpo, with 62 points!"The three figures step forward and with much applause claim their prize. Elamros returnsto the heroes and shows them a blue cloth bag. Contained within are masterwork bolts.Elamros pulls one out and looks intently at it, holding the bolt before his eyes closely, andturning it around before finally saying, "Very fine indeed. These bolts will fly true and far."

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The rest of the afternoon is spent by the party casually wandering around, enjoying thesights and sounds of the festival. They even sit down to watch a puppet show when invitedby a young, enthusiastic man by the name of Aric. The puppet show tells the tale of theRed Raven, who steals some gold coins from a fat lazy, ill mannered trader, and gives the

gold coins to a small blind girl. The crows erupts at the end of the puppet show, shouting,"Red Raven!"As evening comes, the party make their way to a very fancy pub with a clean, well made signout the front, that shows the name of "The Sun's Rest."The owner of the pub, Tahvo Rahla, approaches the party and he arranges one of the besttables in the pub, after Isabella pays him twice for going amount for a nights stay and food.Tahvo brings out a complementary bottle of the pub's best wine when he learns that the

group has the new wrestling champion of Winewold, referring to the victory of Seng intoday's contest.Eventually, the party retire to their very large and well laid out room. The room is secured,and out of habit, watches are set for the night. The night passes uneventfully.

*********In the new morning, Toilday the 7th of Desnus, the party awake to the sounds of manypeople talking in fearful voices in the street outside. The heroes look outside and see thepreviously happy and careful people are now moving about uneasily. There are no stallsopen and no music is playing. Unusual for a festival.

After waiting half an hour for their breakfast, which should have been brought up beforenow, the cautious group gather their gear and head out the room to see what hastranspired.

Approaching Tahvo, they soon learn that the Vernal Key has been stolen from the VernalCup, by none other than the Red Raven they have been hearing about so often. Grabbingsome food from the pub's kitchen the heroes quickly make their way over to the largeInclusive Hall, which is a large church that serves as both a place of worship and the town'smeeting hall.The Vernal Key and Cup are kept in a reliquary above the rostrum in the church, for all tosee its glory.


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When the party approach the Inclusive Hall they see a large group of nervous and scaredlooking people which have gathered outside. Guards have been posted outside the hall butwhen they see the group of seasoned, confident adventurers approach they look

expectantly.Shouts from various voices come out from the large crowrd:"The Wrestling Champion of Winewold,""Heroes! Heroes have come!""They must be here to save us!"The guard opens the door and waves the group in."Are we sure we want to get involved in this?" Isabella whispers, "This is not our problem. Wehave places to get to""Sometimes the journey is more important than the destination," replies Seng."Come on lass, you heard 'em, we're heroes," speaks Krondor. "Look around you. This is asimple village with ordinary people. If we don't do it - no one will."Krondor steps through the door and the rest of the party follow.

Inside, at a table strewn with papers, the elders ofthe village sit in earnest conversation beneath the

gaze of graven gods. At the head of the table sitsthe Winewold reeve, Antero Ikonen. He looks upand see the heroes enter as one of the guards fromoutside bows and whispers into his ear. Looking up,he then welcomes the party and begins:"Last night around midnight, the rector heard anoise from outside this hall. He opened the door

just in time to see a man in a tattered red cape stealaway with the Vernal Key.""Not long after, Larno, in his job to gather the nightsoil, says he saw a man run past his hut, capeflapping like wings behind him, carrying a sack


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under his arm. He swears it was the Red Raven.""You folks would do us a great kindness if you could capture the Red Raven and return theVernal Key. As you know, the relic is part of a pair, the other half being the Vernal Cup

above us here. When the Key is removed from the Cup the Cup becomes unstable in arcaneenergy. The result is that over the next seven days the Cup will slowly freeze everythingwithin 50 miles of here in a snow storm you likes of which you would not believe. And thestorm will not abate unless the Key is returned to the Cup.""I've got to plan for the possibility that we'll have to face this winter storm unaided. If I cantrust you with this task, it would free up the limited militia here to help batten down thevillage against the coming storm. We have a scant week to prepare."Over the next few minutes the party negotiate with the reeve payment for the services inreturning the Key. Isabella drives a hard deal, using the desperate situation to heradvantage. However, Krondor and Seng, feeling sorry for the people of Winewold rein inthe demands of Isabella. The final agreement will see each of the party receive 150 goldpieces and the party will also receive 6 bottles of Royal Elenion Wine, worth 500 goldpieces each.

*********The party then make their way over to the Deerstalkers Lodge after receiving advice togain further information from the trackers there as to the possible location of the RedRaven's camp.Entering the lodge, they are greeted by a male half-elf by the name of Ost Untamoinen.He has been expecting the party as a messenger was sent from the Inclusive Hall prior. Ostis able to tell the party that he believes the Red Raven operates from a hidden base to thenorth, through the Changrove Forrest.Ost agrees to join the party as a tracker free of charge. He arranges to look after theparties cart and horses at the lodge as they will not be able to them through the thickforrest. Lastly he hands the party a metal token and tells them to show this to any of thetraders or shops in the village, to get half price on any equipment or gear. Ost takes hisleave to prepare his own gear and offer a prayer before leaving.

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For the next two hours the party take advantage of the metal token that Ost gave them to

go shopping and various goods are obtained, including cold weather gear.Ost rejoins the group and leads them out of Winewold via a well used and maintained foottrack that leads them north and into the Dwarf Quarry.The track is wide and flat but winds around in a wild fashion as goes around large moundsand small, ragged mountains.

After an hour of walking, during which time Ost keeps examining the ground to check fortracks, the track winds between two large mounds. Elamros stops and looks atop thesouth mound, "Wait. There is a small figure on top of that mound."Ost looks up from the ground he is examining, "Probably a Dwarf. Weird though, mostwould be in the village drinking during festival."Isabella looks up, "Hard to see, he's about 90 yards away and the rocks are blocking theview. Could be a Dwarf working. Just continue and be careful."Cautiously, the party continue. As they get nearer, the sound of falling rock comes fromabove. Large boulders are rolling down the southern mound. A wave of smaller rocks anddirt is also coming down with a grey cloud of dust rising up behind. On the top of mound,two small figures are visible.The group start to move and jump out of the way. Isabella and Krondor, in their heavyarmour, stumble in front of one of the larger boulders. Just as the large grey stone is aboutto roll atop them, Seng grabs both Isabella and Krondor from behind and pulls them outthe way just in time.

Elamros is pulling out his bow and knocking an arrow, "They are trying to send more rocksdown on us!"Quickly the party ready their weapons. Bolt and arrow, from Elamros, Krondor, Seng andIsabella, fly towards the small figures. Ost is using an elaborate looking hunting bow andhis shots are true. Arforth raises his hand and two small blue projectiles of arcane energyhurl forward. The two small figures are hit repeatedly, falling back onto their knees,bloodied. They start to crawl away and out of sight.


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"They're trying to escape. Quickly!" shouts Isabella.Seng runs fast, his legs a blur, and rounds the mound to the other side. He can see twowounded Gnomes making their way down the loose ground of mound.The rest of the party also come round. More arrows are let fly and with one final arrow byElamors, one of the Gnomes falls onto the ground, his lifeless body rolling down the moundin a small cloud of dust.Isabella raises a hand at the remaining Gnome and shouts, "By Cayden - HOLD!"The air between the Cleric and Gnome hazes momentarily and then the Gnome stopsmoving his limbs, as if made of stone. His momentum sends him dangerously forward and herolls down awkwardly, his arms and legs frozen in weird position.The party run towards the two Gnomes.Isabella points to the frozen Gnome, "Get rope and bind him. My Hold spell won't last long.We need to question him.The two Gnomes are searched but have little on them of value or note except twomasterwork short swords.

*********And as the sun raises directly above them in sky, noting it is noon, that is where the playsession ended.

Play Session Day 13

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