A Fox in the Hen House
Summary
Adventure: A Fox in the Hen House
GM: Stephen
Session: Autumn 813wk
Night: Thursday
Location New Windsor
Level: Low
Party:
- Mungo Third Son played by Michael M.
- Laundy the Tigress played by Jenny
- Poppy the Warrior played by Karen
- Horton the Mind Mage played by Errol
- Kerry the Dark Celestial played by Helen
- Marco the Earth Mage played by Mike Y.
- Lathron the E&E played by Simon
Employer: Messieurs Boggis, Bunce and Bean
Summary: Fowl thieves have been raiding farms and evading capture, locals from a neighbouring village are suspect but they have noble connections in Foxcourt and the local law will not act against them unless they are caught red-handed. Expert thief-takers are required.
Scribe Notes
Session one
- 1st day of Fruit - Guild meeting.
We meet up in one of the Guild meeting rooms. There was Lathron, an elf E&E mage. Mungo, a human warrior/ranger. Horton who is a human mind mage. Marco who is a human earth mage with a sabertooth tiger. Kerry who is a female dark celestial mage. I've worked with Kerry before but everyone else is new.
We have been hired by 3 gentlemen from the Foxcourt area. They farm turkeys, chickens, ducks and geese. And someone or something is stealing them, a few dozen each week which is quite a lot. They know who the thief is, a known family in the area due to the thief telling others about it.
The job has 2 parts, part one is to escort the employer back to his home. Part 2 is to catch the thief with loads of actual real evidence so they can't get out of justice. It appears they come from a well known family in the area who has loads of connections. We will be paid 40,000sp which has been paid to the Guild who will hold onto it until the end of the job. We will be advanced 5,000 for equipment for the escorting job.
We are also getting paid some extra sp for information on the portal we will be traveling through. Apparently it hasn't been used since some sort of changes happened to the portal network and the Guild would like to know if it still works and where it goes now and if anything funky has happened to it. We will get paid an extra 600sp for information when we get back, and 1 healing potion each up front to help get us home to report.
Apparently the path through the portal used to take about 3 hours on a straight path through mist. Don't go off the path. So cool, a mini adventure inside a bigger one.
I spend a short amount of time at the library getting a map of the known area [[1]] where we are going and check to see if there are any scribe notes of the area incase we can get some info before we go.
Our employer tells us a bit about the area in Bowcourt and the village they report to.
The River Valley where Alp River runs through is where we are going. The employer lives near to two major town areas in the area.
- Bar-sur-loup, which is the larger of the two towns. It's the northest of the two towns. It's on the river and has a port.
- Raze, which is the smaller of the two towns. It's further south along the river. About a half days river travel. This is the main town that the employers look to in terms of local ruling body.
The thief is a Mr Raynard Fox. He is the relative of some of the nobility in Bar-sur-loup which is the complication. The relatives are sure to sort any minor problem but our employers what him accused so it sticks. With real evidence etc so he can be humiliated in the local courts.
We discuss who will be what roles. Lathron will be party leader, Mungo Mil Sci or Warchief as he calls it and me as the scribe. We discuss what gear we will need and where to stock up and head out where Mungo buys us all drinks to celebrate the acceptance of the job. He seems big on drinking up large.
- 2nd Day of Fruit - Guild
Mungo buys a Luck Amulet in the form of a shark tooth from the witches but forgets to mention he's with the guild or uses any of the merchants in the party. Ends up paying 3,300sp and some fondling from the witch and a bunch of chores.
Marco gets a skin change 1,000sp. Horten buys a rank 4 gutbuster for 600sp. They eventually have to hire a barge back.
More purchases in the guild including healing potions and waters of healing ingredients. Poppy bought some spices (100sp) to use as part of the cover for traveling around Foxcourt of our group being the escort of a merchant elf.
Mungo insists in more drinking at a pub.
- 3rd Day of Fruit - Guild
Morning comes and we prepare for our travel through the brussel sprouts cupboard down stairs. We put on protection spells and go prepared for trouble. Eventually they clear the cupboard and we head through the portal door.
- Party Order
Mungo
Kerry
Marco
Master Bean
Horton
Poppy and Bob
The Misty Path, it's justly described. Our information was the path is straight, head along it for about 3 hours and it comes out in Elfenburg. To keep to the path regardless of what we hear or see as it's trying to get us off he path.
Only problem is we travel along the misty path for a while, can't really see much all around for the mist. But we travel for maybe an hour and we ended up at a fork in the path. Like a Y junction. Definitely a change. We decide to travel on the right path and head along it. The path thins and doesn't look as well used as the first part of the path. This is a new section that wasn't here before. Horton uses one of his mind ping spells to see if anything is actually out there and gets a bounce back from a large levitation type shape on the right. It's having dreams of rising. The Sabertooth Tiger definitely doesn't like the small or vibe of the leviathan. And an hour and a half along the thinner path a door appears on the edge of the path. It's ancient and covered in runes. Some sort of old version of elvish. We don't open the door. Instead we try and copy as many of the symbols to see if anyone else can translate it. Kerry D.A.'d the doorway and got that the door was formally living. And the question of does this portal go to Alusi? The response was yes and no...
We carry on traveling after much discussion about how the door could be super bad and we wont open it to get sucked somewhere weird. And we have Mr Bean with us. Maybe on the way back...
We carry on along the path and after about half an hour we end up at another fork that's like an upside down Y. We theorise that the path has split to go around the something in the middle and rejoined back to the original path. It certainly is bigger and more used like the first part of the path.
We continue along the north of the path and come to an embankment where a path runs across our path. The embankment is huge, you have to climb up the sides and appears to be 12 feet wide. A huge, well used path. We discuss who could have made this and what they could be moving along here. It's a worry. Eventually Marco prods the road, ties a rope on it and crosses up the embankment.
He discovers it's an earth place of power. The mana flows along the road. In fact up on the road you can see over all the mist in this place. Marco decides to use some of the mana on the road and casts enlarge cat on the sabertooth while he's on the road. The spell seems to take hold of the tiger, makes him turn to face west and he seems to be moved by the mana flow. It takes a counterspell to make him stop heading that way. Something in the mana flow on the road.
We all start making our way up and over the road to the path on the other side. Someone hears something way off along the road. And someone else sees something out the corner of their eye in the same direction. The thing way off is identified as orcs and they are heading in this direction. Next person up and over the road mentions they are getting closer and it seems they are moving very fast. Perhaps that spell that almost caught the sabertooth is helping. We quickly speed up crossing the road and eventually make it up and over the road. I'm last and they are almost on us by the time I get over. We head into the plants on the side of the road and head to the path. We hear voices, they chase us into the mist and even throw rocks as weapons as us but as we get further away from the road the mist covers us and they seem reluctant to come into the mist.
We quickly move along the path for another hour and come to the archway of the portal exit which belongs to the elves. Yay! We have reached our destination. Our merchant story is used along with our guarding job to the check point guards so we can enter. They check us our and all is good. As Lathron is an elf, it doesn't seem to take much for them to offer us a barge with crew to take us down river to deliver Mr Bean home safe and sound. We head off that afternoon and make camp on the east side of the river just before dusk.
- Watches
1) Mungo and Marco
2) Poppy and Kerry
3) Lathron and Horton
Session 2
3rd Day of Fruit - Side of the River
While on the river a large flying beast of some sort flies high over us. We pause to see if it does anything but it carries on. I wonder what that was. Apparently the elfs try to manage the wilderness around here to keep the bad monster levels down and help the natural wildlife levels stay healthy. An interesting concept. We make camp on the east side of the Alp River pulling the barge in and anchoring it from each end. The 3 elf guards stay on the barge for the night. We set up watches for the evening. Apparently orcs and goblins have been more active around here and can be quite a problem.
During the night there is a commotion on the other side of the river. Those on watch hear wild splashing and get hollered at by a female. She jumps in the river and swims over. We are all awoken and it appears she is having some troubles with the current so Lathron jumps into the river to give her a hand to reach the bank.
Unfortunately the noise and hollering seems to attracted some orcs and goblins which arrive at the bank edge where the female was. They yell obscenities at the elves who proceed to shoot at them which causes them to move back into the forest edge. We figure they are probably going upriver to cross without us pelting them with arrows and come down the side of the river at us.
We meet the female who is called Laundy and she says she was being chased by the band of orcs and goblins. She's a human and a necromancer so that's going to be interesting. We prepare the camp for incoming, and Kerry casts some witchsights and shadow forms on us to help. And some bone walls are put up to help provide some cover.
They eventually come at us from different sides. It seems they sent some further into the forest to try and flank us. A bunch of goblins try and sneak through the long grass and scrub but failed horribly and we shoot a bunch of them. Then 3 more groups all attack from 3 other directions and it's all on.
There are goblins riding bears, they seem to be controlling the bears so a mage or two in there somewhere. And more groups of goblins trying to sneak towards the camp, even a group in the water who try to cut the barge ropes.
We battle all over the place. Marco casts some smoking magma and gets an area. Horton and Marco try to control the bears to reduce the damage they do to us partially successfully. Bob was very brave and tried to take on a bear all by himself. Eventually after much fighting we were able to get most of the goblins and orcs. A few injuries but mostly were able to be healed. We found 3 mages in their forces and some items that are used for rune portal activations so this might be how so many are getting into the area.
Loot: 3 amulets 2 runeportal activation sticks made of human bone Map of the area but on goblin skin 2 scrolls of counter storm 2 weird soul-ruby rings which are connected And 4 weapons that appear to be weaponsmith rank 5 so worth something to sell or upgrade us or use as spares. A battleaxe, a great axe, a dagger and a spear.
I copy the map into the notes so I don't have to handle the skin... icky.
Session 3
4th day of fruit - early hours of the morning on the side of the river
We clean up from the battle, getting rid of the bodies and grabbing anything sellable. We hop back onto the barge once it's light and travel down the river. We travel through farm land which is getting progressively more people. The area is a strong wine growing area so more farms and then onto the first of the big towns, Bar-sar-loup. It's an old town. High walls of stone, historic buildings etc. Apparently very religious.
We discuss how we will travel to Master Bean's place once we get to Raze without people realizing we are working for him. We come up with a plan of a few will travel with him to keep him safe, and the rest will go ahead and meet us at Mr Bean's residence. Lathron has a spell to help people not notice so he and poppy will accompany Mr Bean.
We arrive at Raze, it's a smaller town and not as old. Unfortunately the sabertooth tiger causes a problem at the port. It scars off a lot of people and the officials want it caged or for the barge to transport us out of the town. That seems the best option as the unseen spell would come off the first time the tiger bumps into anything.
Mr Bean calls for a carriage and Lathron casts the spell on us. And we somehow still get into the carriage and get on our way. Even Mr Bean doesn't notice us with the spell on. The barge drops everyone else off on the other side of the river and they walk towards Mr Beans residence.
His place has the heraldry of a turkey in a field, it's on the carriage and on the gates of his home. After a spot of
SGT Snippets & Gossip
Buffs and Mil Sci
Magic | Rk | Effects | Dur | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Shadowform | 9 | +20 def, 10 in close | 5 hrs | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Witchsight | 9 | see in dark or invisable | 5 hrs | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Strenght of darkness | 7 | +5 Strenght | 80 mins | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Spell | 0 | effects | ? hrs | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
Watch Order
- Marco and tiger
- Laundy and Lathron
- Kerry and Mungo
- Poppy and Horton
Marching Order
- Mungo
- Kerry
- Marco
- Laundy
- Horton
- Poppy and Bob
Places
People
Loot
- From the encounter with Orcs and Goblins on the river.
3 amulets
2 runeportal activation sticks made of human bone
Map of the area but on goblin skin
2 scrolls of counter storm
2 weird soul-ruby rings which are connected
And 4 weapons that appear to be weaponsmith rank 5 so worth something to sell or upgrade us or use as spares. A battleaxe, a great axe, a dagger and a spear.
Calendar
Autumn 813wk: Fruit (4) | ||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Moonday | Duesday | W'ansday | Th'rsday | Frysday | Reapsday | Sunday | ||||||||
Lugnasad | 1 | Guild Meeting | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |||||||
7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | ||||||||
14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | ||||||||
21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | ||||||||
28 | 29 | 30 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||||||||
Autumn 813wk: Harvest (5) | ||||||||||||||
5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | ||||||||
12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | Equinox | 16 | 17 | 18 | |||||||
19 | Harvest Moon | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | |||||||
26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||
Autumn 813wk: Vintage (6) | ||||||||||||||
3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | ||||||||
10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | ||||||||
17 | Blood Moon | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | |||||||
24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | Beerfest |