Well, you might have thought that it was time for the big battle, but noo, not yet. Turns out that the snow was worse than we thought, and it's going to really delay the approaching army. But it has also caused some problems for some of our allies, and that's what our party is out to take care of now.
So, while Dorn, Phae, Corbin, and Miranda are off at some pass with some paladin, Beren, Gwaihir, and Landroval head out to Darin's Ford to tell them of the plight and see what happened to our first messengers. There's a garrison of about 130 men at Darin's Ford, plus some mercenaries, and the land has been under the rule of a hereditary monarchy for over 200 years, since its founding by one Darin (thus the name). Darin beat back the orcs in the area, and with the permission of the Cormanthir Elves, built a keep and city there at the edge of the forest. The large keep is now the home of the current King, Phillip Darin. King Phillip has had a habit of overextending his finances, giving land to merchants to make up for the debts he incurs with his nice style of living. Sir Thomas of Ashenbinford also wants us to say hi to Paladin Jean Broadblade, the current captain of the Riders, whom he knows. Sir T says Sir J will come back with us. Also, Kazay (the monk-type) has been to Darin's Ford before and will be coming with us. So about dusk, we come upon a three-tower walled keep in a nice river valley. There are about 20 buildings, farms, etc. outside the walls. Landroval casts invisibility on Beren, he goes to look around, and doesn't see anything out of the ordinary. The keep is fairly heavily guarded, gates are closed. The stone wall is about 20' high with crenellations. Beren tries to climb it, but can't get a good grip. He heads for the guardhouse and listens to the men diceing there. They are talking about the loss of the guardsmen, what a shame it is. One says "It sure is convenient that all the captains would be on patrol together when they were attacked." Apparently one captain is up for trial soon. Beren reports back to us, and we all decide to go into the keep. So the four of us walk up, we are stopped by a guard wearing bronze brigadine type armor. Very dark skinned, big man, looks like he's Atherian, southern Simbian, dressed for hot weather (other guards not). He says the captain is Lady Sharee. We tell him our story (missing messengers, battle coming up). He goes to see if the captain will see us. 15 minutes later, he says okay, you can come in. We leave the horses with the grooms and head inside. It's a large keep with plenty of its own supplies, some large towers and a big manor house. The house has double doors that are filigreed with gold; the steps and archway are white quartz (nice). Inside, everything is very rich: walls, floors, furnishings. There is a girl-servant following us cleaning up our footprints as we walk. We are led to a receiving room/library of some sort to wait. Landroval notices a breeze coming from behind one of the bookcases, but just as he is investigating it, Lady Sharee comes from one of the doors on the back wall (on either side of the large fireplace). She is also darkskinned, and is wearing light bronze chain mail, divided skirts and boots with a shield and scimitar. We tell her our story. Landroval asks where she's from. She says she'd be happy to take our message to Lord Darin, but they have been dealing with Drow raids and can't spare any men. She says her father was a Waterdeep merchant and her mother was a local, and then tells us we can go to one of the inns for the night. We tell her we might be able to help with the Drow, she says that might be cool and then dismisses us. As we are leaving the walls, Landroval casts spider walk and walks up the wall to talk to one of the guardsmen (and casts a nice charm person also!). This crossbowman tells Landroval that the captain on trial is Sir Jean! Apparently he is being charged with mutiny, sedition, treason, aiding the Drow, and other stuff. He is allegedly the one who led all the high-ranking guards to ambush. Landroval asks where the new captain, Lady Sharee, came from. The man answers that she's with some Waterdeep merchant, who was given land from Lord Darin. It's a ways out from town, but it includes a big manor house, with ballistas. Sharee and Lord Phillip were the ones who discovered Sir Jean's treason. Since the high ranking guards were killed, Lady Sharee's men "volunteered" to fill in. We head to the Feral Wolf but it's locked up. Landroval climbs up a wall to knock on a window, and we talk to Mark the innkeeper. He agrees to let us in, and even brings us a bit o' meat and cheese. We talk to him a bit. It seems this last parcel of land to the merchant from Waterdeep pretty well squared Lord Phillip's debts (so we can't go in pretending he owes us money). Landroval goes to trance for the night while Beren and Gwaihir go exploring in the forest for signs of the ambush. We see one or two sets of tracks from armored individuals, but there's also a big group, maybe 30, who are going west and trying to hide their tracks. We follow west for about three miles (having to cross the road on the way). We come to a site where the group gathered lengthwise, in a long line. Battle took place here. This must have been the ambush site. There's a dead horse with a symbol of Tier on it. It looks like the group we followed in did the ambushing and also did the winning. We see some drag tracks and piece it together: they dug a pit trap, that's where all the bodies and horses and some wagons got dragged to, then they fired it up and cut all the bits to pieces. There are blood tracks all around the clearing. One horse charged into the place where arrows came from, apparently was successful in getting there, but was then pulled apart. Retreating tracks head back toward the road. We do find a crossbow bolt in a tree, tipped with belladonna and nightshade. The bolt is barbed, with a black shaft, and each barb has a tiny spider on it. We track the retreaters across the road again, come to some kind of camp. They weren't there long, maybe a day, and then the group broke up. Maybe, 10 days ago this was. There are lots of bloodstains on the ground where bodies were for a time. We head back to the inn. Landroval's turn! He's well rested, and he's going to go explore the keep. He starts by casting alter self to look like the guard he befriended, then invisibility and spider climb. Over the wall, in the house and looking for the jail. It takes him a while to find it, but he does. There's some noise inside. He knocks on the door and waits for the guard to peek out. After three times of this (Landroval is still invisible) the guard is fed up and opens the door. Landroval slips inside. Looks like this used to be part of the kitchen or cellar and is being used for a jail now. Landroval casts sleep on the guards and uses their own manacles to tie them up. One wakes while Landroval is gagging him but Landroval reacts by sticking him with his dagger! Landroval is now visible, of course, but it doesn't matter. He goes down the cellar steps and finds a single prisoner, robed, chained, and completely covered. Landroval opens the cell, ungags the man (discovering that he is half drow!). The prisoner says his name is Jean. Landroval asks, "Did Sharee put you here?" Jean is surprised. "As far as I know, she was the one responsible for the ambush," he replies. Landroval asks, "If I brought you a hurt man, could you heal him?" Jean says he could if he weren't tied. So Landroval gets the knifed guard and brings him down, and the paladin heals him. Jean says these guards are mercenaries. All right. So Landroval has Jean completely switch clothes and places with the guard and leave him bound and gagged. Landroval and Jean go back to the main guard room. Landroval buys the other mercenary and puts "the fear of the wizard" in him by casting mage armor and telling him that "Now I will know the instant you betray me, and you will be transported immediately to me, so keep your mouth shut!" Landroval and Jean then swim through the moat, through a locked grate (thanks wizard!) and then they are outside the walls! Landroval casts invisibility on both, and they head back for our inn. Exciting, no? Well then we chat a while with Jean. We find out that Phillip buys most of his wine from Harad, a wealthy merchant, and that sometimes Harad's son Joster is the one who delivers the wine. Jean needs to go get some equipment from a thief/fence/assassin on the edge of town who is now a butcher, so he does that while Landroval goes to talk with Joster. Now he can alter self to look like him! So, head to the keep and get in to the kitchen with no problem. We "unload" the boxes and Landroval goes to pay his buddy at the jail some more gold and reassure him to keep his mouth shut. We then head to the library, to discover Sharee and four men there around a table. Combat! Landroval is frozen by Sharee's mind attack while Beren and Gwaihir beat up on the four guards. Jean tries to strike her from behind, but accidently gets the table instead and is then himself frozen by the mind attack. When Gwaihir and Beren advance on her, though, she tries to run. She turns the room black; but immediately Gwaihir jumps to grapple with her. Landroval casts light, Sir Jean gets a sword on her and that's the end of that. Jean heads for the stairs. When we look her body over, we see that there is a small, diamond-shaped amber gem attached to her forehead. It was hard to see before. Landroval pops it off and without thinking, slaps it to his own forehead where it stays (D'oh!). She also had a crystal shield with silver paint, very sharp edges, very deadly, apparently for throwing. Her silk gloves (which are almost invisible until pulled off) are magic of some sort, Beren takes those. Her bronze chainmail is also really nice. We follow Jean up the stairs. There is a large bedchamber, very richly done out. Jean is explaining to Phillip what the new rules are. Theocracy, he says, "and I'm in charge." We make Phillip give an announcement, and announce also the arrest of all followers of Sharee. We nap, and then head back to Ashenbinford. Jean and his 100 men are not far behind us. He tells us that Sharee's body was missing the next day (Ack!) so we will get to kill her again later. The manor house, by the way, forfeits back to the theocracy, as payment for crimes committed. Maybe he should rename the town. We suggest Justice Ford, or Justford. That's it! We also took a masterwork rapier from her. Turns out the gloves are usually put inside gauntlets, called gloves of Demon Fist, they do extra 1d4/hit. These gloves bond to your skin, and act as +2 weapon for hitting purposes only. The gem in Landroval's forehead is nonmagical (Ack again!), but it appears to allow Landroval to see through lies, and maybe alter self etc. Turns out Sharee is some other language for "killer" or "assassin." She was part of the Black Arachnid group that was kicked out of Waterdeep. They are known for never dropping a contract against someone. Also known for vengeance. After Baal died (almost a religious order) they searched for someone to apprecioate their special talents, and found Llolth. |