|
The next morning, Miranda (with an odd-looking streak of white in her hair) introduces her friend to us. He is Daverim, a priest of Ilmater, Miranda's new-found deity. Dorn has some news too. He has had a vision. It started on his battle temple (the one he's going to build at some point in the future) like his other visions from Torm. Then he saw down, below the earth. There were crowds of people, pools of lava, an island in the lava, and magical runes that bled. Miranda chimes in: "That sounds a lot like a dream I had. In mine, there was a terrasque. The people were all chanting, and the terrasque began to stir. The terrasque had a curvy scimitar type sword." "He who sleep woke," muses Landroval. He looks over the scrolls that we found on the minotaur body. Dorn thinks it's a warning. The cavern looked pretty much natural; Miranda thinks it was springtime in her dream. Beren says our group needs a new name, as the Fellowship of Justford is a little dated. There is much discussion. The Lightbringers? The Seven Flames of Light? How about something mystical like just "The Seven?" It's agreed upon. Landroval, Dorn, Beren, Phae, and I go to Justford to announce the news about killing the dragon and the hydra, and then back to the cave to bring back more loot. Corbin stays back to supervise the work. On the journey, Aranashator tells Landroval about what kind of share of the treasure it wants, and how it will need a proper carriage, a sheath, a velvet-lined platinum box, etc. Also, it wants to become a member of our group. There is some negative response to this (what an understatement). Miranda suggests we drop Aranashator down a well. At this point the sword is making certain comments to Landroval that he chooses not to share. Landroval (feeling rested) identifies the ring as a ring of the ram. The longsword is a +4 lawful defender which Miranda takes. Dorn's armor is dragon scale, looks like there was some problem in its casting, which is why it makes Dorn so hot (even without the armor, he's sweating all the time). It has the same AC as banded mail, and is +4, also makes him immune to dragonfear, and gives protection from heat, although it raises the wearer's body temperature about 25 degrees. Landroval thinks there may be a chance to take the curse off the armor and also off of Dorn, if we had a good enough mage. The full plate from the dragon's hoard is +4 silenced mail. We make it to Justford, tell the Corporal what we did. Dorn tells the man that there is a band of dwarves who might help rebuild the town for a fair price. The townsfolk are happy to hear about the dragon being killed. The Feral Wolf was hit. We talk to Mark--he's okay, but no inn. Dorn invites him to come back with us, maybe teach Dorn something about running an inn. Meanwhile, back at the ranch... Corbin plays his cool lute to "grow" buildings. Miranda talks with Daverim. It is about 2 am that night when the Minotaurs come to Miranda to announce a "Drow invasion." Danarn leads the motley group of refugees in. There is one especially old drow with facial hair (in the form of a goatee), whose name is Temarian. We make it to the cave. There are tons of rats and bugs around the dragon corpse acting really weird. We stay the night, lug everything back. We make it back to the manor house around dusk, and find that it is no longer just a manor house. Corbin is still playing, in fact. There is a town now! There's a map of it somewhere, so I won't go into too much detail. Suffice to say it's got all the good stuff. He also managed to work around the trees, rather than uproot them, giving the town a nice wooded look. Corbin keeps playing until the morning of the third day (way to go!). There are about 117 people in the group that arrived, roughly 25 small family units and some singles. About 20 are "kids" of various ages, from 10 to 100. We remain busy with the drow, and writing letters (like to Storm for a copy of the laws of Myth Drannor), instructing and learning from our town people. We decide at this point that Elven will be our official language. Three days pass in this way, when a rider comes into town, followed by a column of 30 heavily armed persons. (BTW, 2 of the minotaurs in town are weaponsmiths, and there is a quiet dwarf who is a master weaponsmith and armorsmith.) So, coming down the road are twenty-six individuals with half plate, anywhere from silver to golden. The guy in front has black spiky armor. The banner flying depicts the symbol of Bane being crushed by a booted heel. Dorn thinks the spurred boot is a symbol of certain Tormish knights who were wiped out long ago (by Bane), in the Godfall Wars. The Seven of us go out to meet this group and stop a respectable distance away. The one in spiky black armor has only one eye. Dorn and Miranda ride up closer to speak with him. As it turns out, this gentleman is a knight of Torm named Shodain, and he has come to challenge "the Headsman" to a duel. The reason for this is that Shodain swore a long time ago to kill Scalia Darkblade, and he was unable to fulfill his oath because Dorn did it first. So, if he kills Dorn, then he can rest easy knowing he would have killed Scalia. Apparently this system only makes sense to Tormish knights, because Dorn agrees to fight him. He understands what Shodain is thinking: if Dorn does win, then it will be a sign to Shodain from Torm himself that all is as it was meant to be and he will therefore serve Dorn (and through him, Torm). So, they will duel, a clean duel without magical items. As Shodain is removing all of his magical items except for his armor and his sword, Dorn checks himself over. He takes off the ring of ram. Landroval comes up to hold it for him and casts bull's strength on him while he is not looking. The Vicious One comes up and blesses Dorn, basically slaps him on the shoulders and shouts "Rahh!" Everyone in town and in Shodain's group gathers in a big ring to watch. The two Tormites square off. Dorn moves first: he almost gets a critical hit on the first swing, and then, thanks to a little luck of Tymora (Corbin), he does get a crit! With his sneak attack combined, Dorn's first swing does 44 points of damage! That's huge for us! Shodain gets a hit on his turn, for 23, misses with the other two hits. Dorn hits for 20, they trade hits for a while, Dorn keeps getting the iniative, and then, before you know it, the whole thing is over, and Dorn is victorious! Shodain kneels on one knee, and acknowledges Dorn the better fighter. With much fanfare, Dorn leads the entire group to the three temples wrapped around the inn in the middle of town. There is much rejoicing. There is also some jumping in the moat, and Phae gets to pet the Vicious One. By the time morning rolls around, one thing is wonderfully clear--we need more ale. Harad has lots (says Mark) from the North. Miranda says, "That's like the ale Dad used to drink!" I suggest Corbin would be a good negotiater. Corbin and Miranda will go to negotiate. Gwaihir and Landroval accompany them. We make it in four hours; there is a caravan stationed there, and we go into the trade house. Turns out it's a Simbian caravan, displaying their wares in the trade house. Harad is there. Landroval's detect lie gem comes in handy during the negotiations. Miranda buys 1 cask at 60 gp to try, and let Olga try, and if it's good, then we will buy more. As we are leaving the area of Justford, we see Sir Jean and some knights. He's heard about the "dragon" in Justford, and we tell him how we took care of the problem. He says he is grateful for our assistance, and his foresight in choosing us as allies is justified, etc. He seems slightly colder, more formal than last time. Oh well. When we get back to the Angry Dwarf Inn, we let Olga try the ale, but she is horrified by both the taste and the price we paid for it. She says she used to get dwarven ale, the good stuff, from Harad for 25gp a cask -- we'll let her do the negotiating for that in the future. We decide to declare today Founder's Day. Or wait, not today, let's make it the 5th, which gives us a few days (today is the 2nd) to organize a big party and send out invitations. The Vicious One goes hunting with Miranda, and he is surprisingly good at it, and quiet in the woods. Turns out he can send thoughts to Miranda mentally (a "ghostwise halfling"), and is rather surprised that she can send back. They get about five bucks to bring back to the manor house. I go hunting with my wolf pack. Dorn spars with Landroval some to teach him about being a fighter. Daverim is on hand for any cleric needs. So, the day before Founder's Day and the big feast, we are all having breakfast at the manor house when someone on the wall calls out that three people are approaching. We go out to look. The one in the lead is absolutely dazzling in a silver outfit, with two ornate rapiers. The other two are dressed very colorfully, one in red and one in blue. Bright livery, instruments all around. The one in silver introduces himself as Don Aramé, "performer, rapierist, and Lover extraordinaire." Others are his apprentices. He claims to have heard of Miranda, and starts to lay it on REALLY thick. Miranda lets them inside. Dorn invites them to play over at the inn. Landroval goes to see if Corbin has heard of this Don Aramé before. "Yep," Corbin says, "he usually gets run out of town after six months for sleeping with the wrong person's daughter." Great. Miranda invites him to tea. He tries to "woo her." They chat for a while -- he knows much of the doings of people in the North, where her dad is from. Summing up. We will reinstate modified version of laws of Myth Drannor, especially changing the ones that deal with magic. We've sent letters out. We have set up for supplies. We will want to widen the river to facilitate trade. We are upriver from Justford. Landroval gets a nice scabbard prepared, at a cost of 500 gp.
|