Priests and Pregnancy

Summary

Adventure: Priests and Pregnancy
GM: Ian Wood
Season: Autumn 794 WK

Party

Callas (a human earth mage)
Romo (your friendly human binder) - voted scribe, how did you guess
Kismet (a human E&E mage) - voted party leader
Whisper (a fine looking elf)
Liessa Varden (a human mind mage)
Kryan (a human illusionist - college?)

Time on adventure: The adventure ran between July 2, 1993 AP and August 1, 1993 AP (atleast that the span of the scribe notes).
Employer: Isil Eth
Mission: Our quest is to help in a delicate situation which has arisen in the barony of Yarrow in Einslieben
Pay: Basically we get 6000s~ up front for our travel expenses and 80,000sp if we succeed.
Original Scribe Notes: Media:Snau9402.zip

Scribe Notes

Our quest is to help in a delicate situation which has arisen in the barony of Yarrow in Einslieben. The basic story is that Margaret (married to Bertran, ruler of the barony) has a step sister Julien who has got herself preggers. That might be all well and good, but Julien is not married, and never has been, and is actually preggers to Margaret’s man. Well, shocking and all that, but there is more to come, if Margaret dies and Julien marries then the barony will pass to her, and thereby out of the family. Well you can’t have that, and Margaret obviously doesn’t want that to happen, I mean then she’d be dead! Anyways, they reckon that Julien should have a bit of a holiday, like 6 months! Well this all sounds too easy, and so it turns out.

Margaret has a son who isn’t to know that Julien is preggers, so we have to take her on a holiday so as it looks a bit like an abduction. It sounds like Julien will co-operate with us (that11 make it a lot easier) and the folks in the barony won’t chase us too hard, so perhaps it might all work. Well to make it worth our while we get offered a good bundle of loot. Basically we get 6000s~ up front for our travel expenses and 80,OOOsp if we succeed. This money will come from reimbursement of two rings which we are given (a gold signet ring with a ruby, and a silver one). I reckons that the gold one is enchanted with true seal, they reckon that Julien will recognise the rings when we show them to her, and since I am such an honest looking chap I get to carry it round with me. When we get to Yarrow we are recommended an inn on the right hand side as we enter the town, by the castle. We also find that Julien has cousins in Middlemarchhauptstadt and Bergelfin who might be able to help, we will find out their names tomorrow.

When our boss goes we discuss the amount of loot we will be making and some possible plans of attack. It all looks quite simple as it is apparently possible to jump through a portal to Bergelfin. And with wings on we could probably get most of the way from there to our destination. All seems well so everyone departs for the ritual night-before booze-up.

July-2

This mornings we get the names of Juliens cousins who may be able to help us. They are Midasel and Tontil in MMHS and Sisel and Bryn in Bergelfin. So with that most useful info we head off for the portal.

Now I’s never been through a portal before and was most surprised to find it down in a cupboard in the guild kitchen. Though the cooks down there didn’t seem very surprised to see us all trudging through with our gears. We step through and in an eye’s blink we are some place else - weird man. I mean one minute in a kitchen the next in an hotel room supposedly in Bergelfin. Being cautious folks we cautiously exit the room and head down a corridor towards the hotel entrance. No-one seems surprised at our appearance so we exit the hotel to the market. While wandering around the posh part of the town kind of looking for the cousins (though how we were to recognise them I don’t know) we hear some raucous sounds behind us and duck into an alley. Unfortunately it is a party of arcs who start hassling us (not recognising us for adventures obviously) and grab Whisper. Well we start getting a bit riled and Kryan spreads a bit of mist while Callus does some hands of earth to hinder the arcs. I put down a frictionless floor to slow them down, but they still get away with Whisper just as a troop of guards arrives. Unfortunately the frictionless floor is still there and they all go for a tumble (quite a laugh really if they hadn’t clicked that it was magics!).

Kismet convinces them that it is the arcs fault and they’ve grabbed our friend and they go thundering off to apprehend said arcs. We race after them and find Whisper installed in a bar on the bar-top, what they had planned for her I don’t likes to think and the guards who were vastly outnumbered were a little shy of going in to get her out. So we managed to frictionless the bar-top and she slides out the door into the arms of the guard captain (Jerome) closely followed by 15 or so arcs. Luckily they manage to calm the arcs and we get away safely, also manage to extract Whisper from Jerome who she seems to have taken a liking to. One of the chaps standing out the pub is actually a tutor for the arcs who grabbed Whisper (chap named Voltar) who knows the Sisel family and takes us to their home. This is quite an imposing 3 storey place. We get an audience with the head Sisel chap who agrees readily enough to look after Julien if we can bring her around in a couple of weeks in the evening. He gives us a storey so that she will recognise we have come from him. The memory is that he gave her a crystal wren 2 years ago. So with this all sorted out when head back through the portal for the night. Did I mention we got a rune reading? Well it said something along the lines that if we show Julien the ring she’ll co-operate - well we think that’s what it meant, who can ever tell with these things.

July-3

Kryan and Kismet head back though the portal to scout out some more information and arrange a coach. They come back saying they’ve booked a carriage for an hour after sun-up the next day. We prepare for our departure. I collect the travel money from the guild and stash it in my ‘inside’ pockets. Some info we collected indicates that Yarrow is in Einslieben (or is that Innslieben?) and that MMHS is on a steep hill surrounded by lots of anti-magi. Our plan is to disguise ourselfs as guides to Whisper. The story is that Whisper is a fine elfin lady (and she is!), Liessa is the man servant, I’m to be the weapon carrier (the natural choice in this lot), Callus is to be a charge maid, Kryan an advisor and guide and Kismet will be a guard. We will also take 1 weeks rations and camping gear with us. We have a lunch at Alfonsos costing us 2gp each!

July-4

To bolster my ability I’m strength of stone’s, hypnotised to be guard like and illusioned to look even better than I do (all a bit over the top I reckons). We jump through the portal (these hotel people must be getting sick of us by now), and head off to the coach service where we pay the rest of the 200gp for the coach, It is a 9 place open coach, quite a massive thing. We travel through to Larany by that evening. It is a very comfortable ride as we work out that the coach isn’t actually touching the ground, it kind of hovers!

Anyways we take 6 rooms at a large inn owned by the company for a mere 11 gold! These guys really know how to get through the money! In the evening we visit the pub to find info on Yarrow, no luck there but hear that we are in Beaucourt country and that there are bandits on the roads expecting tolls.

July-5

As we’ are to depart in the morning we get a priest who wishes to join for 1 days travel us as we are heading in his direction. Kryan seems wary of him, something about being pacted to powers of light. Anyway brother Jonathan is from a fighting order of the order of Uriel - sounds pretty mean. We get to Barcela, the capital of Innslieben, and which has a grand castle on the hill for the evening. The priest wishes to get to Yathow (is this Yarrow?), so we arrange to travel through to Yathow for the night. To get there we turn left just out of town driving through some pretty lush countryside to a place with a river and abbey of the left and huts on the right, the rest of the village and old ruin are across the river. At the abbey we meet Bertrand, the boss, who says we can stay in their quarters. He would like us to take a message through to MMHS. In our quarters we talk to Jerome Sanchuria who tells us that the abbess is called Margaret, and is the previous abbots niece. There is a lady Julien who lives in a ground floor apartment near our living quarters and is a guest for the duration of the war (this all looks very promising!). That night we go to mass and see Julien go in before us. We all get expiated as we enter the temple, and they seem very interested in Kryan who gets invited to the front of the service. It is all just blessings and sacrament which gets a bit tedious.

Afterwards I hear that some of our party tried casting magic in the temple which caused them some major problems (Callus reckons he’s got creeping senility). That evening Jerome comes back to visit us and we toy words with him, he comes round to talking about getting Julien out, suggesting that midnight till half an hour past midnight will be the best time. He reckons he can cover for us for the whole morning and then the whole abbey of 12 would come searching for us. We decide that we couldn’t leave the place through the walls and though we could fly out we couldn’t fly back in. We decide to talk to Julien and Kismet does some ventriloquist stuff to get her down to an invisible bit of wall I’d created...... Hi, I’ve been told I should take over the writing of this journal and that I’m the chap who was writing it previously, not that I can remember doing any of the stuff in here. Anyway the other guys here say I backfired a spell and am amnesiac’d. Who knows, for now I’ll go along with it. Anyway, what I saw was this lassie Julien talking to us through this invisible bit of wall (most strange this magic stuff). And she goes off to get her belongings as we pack up ours.

July-6

Just at midnight we see a chap they say is the abbot leave the temple and some of the party get shadow wings cast on them. One chap called Callus backfires and has to heal himself for 12 minutes as we wait. Anyway we get out the window and Julien joins us. I get tied to a chap called Kryan and She gets tied to the leader called Kismet. We launch into the air, quite scary so I closed my eyes, the rest is what I heard from the others. Apparently Callus tried to go straight up and clipped an overhang but recovered. We all headed off in the direction of MMHS following the road and they decided to land just before a place called Barcela. The landing is quite bruising and I see that Julien is injured as is Whisper, though not as bad. Kryan and Whisper decide they will head off to create a diversion as they think that people from the place we just left will go looking for us. For the next bit of the trip I am tied to the lassie Liessa. Again they take off and I close my eyes. Apparently we keep on flying towards MMHS while Kryan and Whisper head off in another direction looking like a group of 7. We go on towards Burgelfin, stopping at dawn be a copse of trees.

Liessa and I have a bad landing which injures me some, I’m not sure I’m enjoying being with this group. At midday we pay for a ride to Bergelfin on a passing cart, actually I pay for the cart. The rest of the party say I am carrying all the money and should pay for everything. WelI I do seem to have a lot of money, but it seems a bit suspicious to me! On the ride Liessa tries to charm the driver into giving us my money back, but has no luck there. That evening Kryan catches up with us on a borrowed horse but missing Whisper and tells us that they struck problems with the chaps from the abbey (especially that chap brother Jonathan and the border troops) who sound real mean! Callus fixes up my endurance injuries and we hear Juliens story. She has been at the abbey for 6 months as her husband doesn’t support the war in Aladar and her husband, Frederick baron of Yural, (with who she’s been married for 3 years) had to hand her over to the abbey as surety that he would lead wars against Aladar. So they work out they’ve rescued a war hostage rather than the lassie they were looking for, bright chaps these adventurers!

July-7

In the morning we jump on a carriage for the 1 day ride to Elfinburg. On the ride we pass Elfinburg militia going the other way (in green and armed with sticks). Kryan had a late breakfast and catches up with us on his horse. We get to Elfinburg in the evening and find a guard at the gate with brother Jonathan waiting for us, they arrest us for possessing stolen property, namely Julien! Kryan tries to talk us out being chucked in prison and manages to get us to the square by a hotel where he wants to get some beer (a strange request I thought), but they won’t let us in, but friendly chaps that they are they get a barrel of beer for us. In the square we meet up with some other guards (including one sergeant Jerome who they reckoned that Whisper knew well), but they don’t want to help us. So we get taken to the jail and signed in, we put down our names and I notice that the others have different names here (Kismet = Richard, Julien = Margaret, Liessa = Katherine, Callas = Jane, Kryan = ?), not understanding this game I give them the name they told me was mine - Romo.

So we get taken down about 20ft to a 12ft high dungeon, the place is decked out with rushes on the floor, 8 straw pallets and a curtain. I am most unimpressed, I was just travelling with these folks and no part in stealing anything, but it seems I am stuck in with this lot for the duration - bugger. Anyway they bring us a great meal - not bad for a jail. ‘Richard’ scans the place and reckons there are about 16 guards in the building, and up from us is loft of rock an air-gap and then S- loft of dirt and then out to the courtyard. So they decide to try and tunnel out. After much stuffing around I find myself in the air-gap and all the others disappear. A bit worrying, though in a way I am glad to be rid of the others. I explore a bit but find nothing, I try banging on the floor with my main-gauche, but no answer so after about an hour I sleep.

July-8

About 3 hours later I get woken up by the group who have managed to get back into the air-gap. They create a tunnel up to the surface and we exit the place to be met by a group of guards and brother Jonathan. I knew I should have stayed safe in my hole! I put my hands up to surrender but Callas does some magic and they start firing at us I take a mighty arrow in the chest, and I hear that Callas got killed (serves the silly bugger right!). I get given one of my 1Opt healing potions and lie very ill in a new cell they have biffed US in. This one is not much fun, being afloat in water with massive rats racing around and several decomposing bodies and we are all bound with iron shackles. Surprisingly we get breakfast, though we are led to understand that we are going to be left to rot in here! Bloody marvellous. To make matters worse Kryan starts telling stories.

July-9-10-11

3 days in this hell hole with no food, I’m going downhill fast.

July-12

A nobleman appears with bearers outside our cell and asks for our names and about the theft of religious artifacts from Akeila, which it appears we are charged with. We tell the full story of our contract and what happened. Apparently the guild is arranging to get us out. The urielites want to get Julien back using the charge of stealing religious artifacts. Also we were way off course in our mission. Yarrow is north of MMHS and north of Innsburg in Akeila. So we get escorted out of the prison into a coach in the courtyard and taken to a walled house in the posh area of town where we get cleaned up and have our iron chains removed. We are told we will have to stay here for about a week while the charges against us are sorted out - I’ve no problem with that, this is a much better place than the cells.

July-13-14-E

Spend time recuperating. Callas comes back into our company. We get a report from Innslieben that Whisper has been found guilty as charged and sentenced to 10 years servitude, commuted to taking the lords wife to MMHS to buy her a new wardrobe (to be paid by Whisper). We are waiting until Juliens husband finds out that Julien is free and the charges against us get dropped. We hear that Innsburg is north of MMHS and that north of Innsburg is Einsburg.

July-16-17-18

A guild representative turns up. Apparently Juliens husband has heard about Julien, and we are now politically insignificant - nice way with words this chap. So tomorrow we can leave, but are warned to be careful about going through Elfinburg again as the Urielites don’t consider the case closed - in fact we should avoid the environs of Yathow for many years, Julien thinks that some reimbursement will come our way for helping her (though probably not in the near future). Kismet sends a not to a chap Sisel who we were meant to deliver the real Julien to informing him that we are going to be a bit tardy. We talk about leaving Bergelfin by shadow-wings with Kryan creating a mist so no-one sees us leaving - over the whole town. Kryan’s quote on this one “How hard can it be?‘.

Julv-19

We h&r that we have been fined 2000s~ each by Elfinburg. About 5pm we get our papers of release and are informed that we are under parole for 1 year. So we head back to the guild to arrange wings. Now I see why they wanted to get into the hotel in town. There is a portal from there back to the guild. Back at the guild I get the amnesia curse removed. Romo is back! We ask the guard at Bergelfin about leaving their town with wings and the captain of the guard says that is we arrive by dawn then it shouldn’t be a problem.

July-20

Early-in the morning we get wings cast on us and head through to the Burgelfin gate. On the way to the gates we see a mugging and from a distance help the chap getting mugged (maybe these chaps aren’t so bad after all). The captain at the gates wants lgp each to let us out, we all pay up - most of us giving him 2gp. The fly northeast for 4 hours till we get to a cultivated area. Kismet takes a bearing and we head off back to the southwest for an hour and get to MMHS. We stop 10 miles out and then do a hop to 5 miles out. Liessa and Callus decide to stay out of the town so the rest of us walk up the hill to MMHS and surrender our weapons as we enter the town which is full of a mass of company (fighting ones) We get pointed to the wealthy shopping area and as we walk up to it Kryan creates a Whisper look-alike to walk alongside him (jammy bugger).

We go into a cafe to eat and see the real Whisper with another woman. We manage to strike up a conversation about clothes and they offer to show us the shops (Whisper is acting a little strange). So we tag along as they pick up their days purchases and get invited to their hotel where we hear that they’ll be in towns for another 2 days. We get warned by Whisper that it is dangerous to fly around Innsburg. We head off to book a room and a bit later Whisper comes to our room and starts talking and acting like the Whisper of old, letting us know of her predicament - which was as we had heard while recuperating. We meet Callas and Liessa as we head back down to the gates, so we take them back to our hotel and then head out for a night on the town.

July-2 1

We &it merchants in town to see what is heading north. We sign on as guards for goods heading to Quotia (Quotia is a city of Einsburg) for the sum of 5gp each as long as we demonstrate ourselfs capable, we must come back the next morning to demonstrate our skills. We go visit the Tontils and arrange to re-visit in about 2 weeks.

July-22

We go to demonstrate our skills, they aren’t impressed with my animation stunts, but are impressed by the rest of the groups other talents. So we are hired and must find horses. We end up paying 5200s~ for 6 horses, one being a very strong horse, and arrange to leave at noon the following day.

July-23

We lgave as part of a large caravan with 19 wagons, 14 guards, 19 men, 3 dwarfs, 5 women, 7 children. initially we get put as a group in the middle of the caravan, but when the leader hears of our magical abilities we get pushed up towards the front of the caravan. We hear that there is a possibility of bandit attacks both today and tomorrow. As we leave the city we grab our weapons. It is an uncomfortable l/2 days travel and we stop about 8:30pm. We decide to stand 4x2 hour watches over the night (Kismet, Whisper, Liessa and then Callus).

July-24

Get woken about 2:3Oam by a disturbance, so we head off to investigate, we hear that it is a wolf. It gets shot by two of the other guards and then attacks them. It hits one of them who yells that it is a werewolf. Our party attacks it and it gets fried by Kryan, when we chop its head off with a silver sword it turns back to a human - scary! We head back and calm the horses who are skittish after smelling wolf. On the way back Liessa has a tussle with one of the guards but we get her out of harms way. The next morning the guards are sullen as they reckon that Liessa isn’t properly grateful for their help in fighting the werewolf.

Well we get that calmed down and head back to where the fight was last night. We find an amulet with a religious (Michael) sigil which appears to have the effect of dispelling disadvantageous magics and letting Michael know where the wearer is at any time. We get it into a bag and then find that the horses are skittish around the amulet so Whisper carries it as she has a way with horses (as with all creatures!). We catch up to the caravan (who left at 5:45am) just before they get passed by a group of about 50 horsemen. Our scouts come back to tell us to put on armour as it is a bunch of Urielites coming our way. They check along the caravan, but seem to get a payoff so don’t pay us too much attention. On our days trip Kismet has a go at riding hidden under one of the carts and finds it quite easy. By evening we get to Innsburg and find that there are Akeilan forces everywhere, by dusk we get to the town of Innsburg, our wagons are checked and our weapons are taken. As the caravan is checked we notice that the guards don’t check under the carts. We take rooms for the night at the local pub for 3Osp! Luckily we were paid our 360s~ on arrival at the town.

July-25

The captain of the guard wants to know about the horsethief (werewolf) so we tells him what we know, he likes the story so much we get taken to see his lord who asks to hear the whole thing again. This chap tells us to stay in town for a few days until an investigation into the ‘thief has been completed. We check out the merchants guild, but there is nothing leaving until our caravan in 5 days time. However, our caravan leader reckons he can get us a job as far as Quotia at any time we want. If we take the offer he won’t go to Quotia himself, but will pay us 140gp and we travel under guild auspices.

That evening we are summoned to see the lord again, this time he is with an Urielite priest (damn, they’re everywhere). The priest has investigated the werewolf body, reckons it is part of a Michelite plot to disrupt life in the area, and is one of a frequent number of recent sightings. He reckons they often have amulets and geas to ascertain the most useful target, glad we didn’t know that before. He also thinks they may be pissed off with us for killing the werewolf so we should be careful with ourselfs - well no problem there! He says that they are spreading south and targeting the free baronies, but he has no idea where they come from. That evening we arrange a contract for carriage of goods, we will get an extra 40gp if we bring the horses we are given back to Innesburg, we are given an advance of 30gp for tolls on the way, apparently there are unofficial tolls of about 2gp along the road. We get 4 pack-horses and load them with 2801b of herbs (that’s quite a mound of herbs) and 1 horse load of cloth. We also arrange to send the werewolf amulet back to MMHS to a friend of Whispers.

July-26

We head off early with Callas, Whisper, Kismet and Kryan in the lead and Liessa and myself at the rear. The first intersection we reach has border guards and costs us 8gp to get through, we turn left at the crossroads heading towards Aladar, the guards reckon we can get to St Petersburg by evening. We follow a road well travelled by troops (last lot about 1 week ago) north to Einslieben. At noon we get to a toll bridge manned by the local lords militia troops and pay 6gp. We move past a camped army of about 1000 men just after this toll, and by 3pm reach the next toll booth again 6gp (they really seem to have standardised prices around here). That evening we get to St Petersburg and pay yet another 6gp to get in, but only 3gp for the inn. We are told that the towns north are Toldar (l/2 day), Dolmar (1 day), Quotia (2 days), and Monlia (3 days).

July-27

I give Liessa 30gp to pay for tolls for the day and we move off, paying 6gp as we leave. We get to Toldar for lunch, paying 6gp to get through (at least there could be a lunch with that). A little further on there is a smaller toll gate for 3gp, as we head further north we get into hillier terrain. Rounding a comer we get ambushed, with a hail of arrows sent into our midst (what the hell do we pay these tolls for?). Being at the back I stop and try to turn back down the road, but cop an arrow in the side and slide into unconsciousness. I come back to this world lying at the side of the road feeling most unwell, I drink a healing potion which helps and manage to collar my horse. Using it as support I hobble back down the road towards where we were ambushed. Getting back I discover the ambushers made off with one of the pack-horses and most everyone else is fine. Callas removes the arrow from my side.

Kismet, Kryan and Whisper decide to fly off to find the pack-horse and wipe out our attackers, so the rest of us wait just off the road covering our tracks so as not to be seen. One group of merchants pass by while we wait, 4 men and 8 horses. About 2 hours later Kismet comes back with the pack-horse and the gear saying they found their hideout and managed to knock them off. They also have some spoils, a tapestry, some dyes and cloth. A bit further on we get to a clearing with a barricade set up and several dead bodies. We race through in case anyone is still there, but no pursuit, so Kismet and I go back to check out the bodies. It is the merchants who passed earlier and a couple of bandits, all the bodies have been stripped bare. We head onwards with myself ranging at the front to see where the bandits are, a bit further on the bandits turn up a valley to the right, we think there are about 1 dozen horses in the group. We get to Dolmar by about 7pm, pay the standard 6gp toll and tell the captain about the ambush we passed. Pay 5gp for the night and for our horses. Barman tells us that if we turn left at Quotia it is then only 1 day through to Yarrow.

July-28

Have-an uneventful days travel through to Quotia, getting in about 3pm after paying 6gp and depositing our weapons. We find Hugo the merchant to deliver our goods, he tries to cheat us by only offering 70gp for the goods, so talk to the merchant guild representative about the problem, he will get us our 9Ogp, but takes 20gp for himself. He also helps us get rid of our other goods for l/20 of their price. We get 1OOgp for the other goods we brought along. That evening we discuss becoming entertainers to get to Yarrow so I show what can be done with animation and backfire to what seems to be demonic possession. The screams cause a little consternation with our hosts and soon a group of Urielite priests are summoned to exorcise me. The rest of the group try to leave and make me invisible but we get caught as we try to leave the stable. They take us to their church as they think one of us is possessed, only Kismet is not noticed and stays behind where he can look after our goods. We get taken to a service where we must kneel before their alter during the service. While there we feel a warm glow suffuse us and feel like telling them anything they want. They start asking questions about what we are doing which get answered almost truthfully (obtusely).

They decide that Kryan is a heretic and decide to bum him at the stake and we get taken to witness the deed. We see Kryan tied to a pole and then a pyre built up and lit. We all try to help get him out, I try to animate his ropes without success, Kismet tries to start a riot in the crowd, but to no avail. So he starts burning and then amazing fireworks and lights start to fill the sky, it is so amazing that I disbelieve that it could be Kryan burning and see that it is really just a pig. About this time the inn we stayed at starts to bum as well. Callas makes a callous remark about Kryan to Liessa who thinks we have lost Kryan and she goes berserk and attacks Callas. I try to calm her and tell her that it wasn’t Kryan and she berserks at me as well and knocks me down every time I try to get up, so I feign unconsciousness. So Callas and I spend the night in the infirmary at the church getting fixed up, while Liessa gets to rejoin Kryan who is very much alive - he could have let us know!

July-29

Next morning Liessa comes down and apologises, and even better she heals some of my lost endurance. We let Kismet know that we are alive and to come and get us. So about 2pm the horses arrive and we head off to Yarrow. At about 7pm we get to Yarrow and go to the inn to he right of the castle as we come into the town, and take rooms for 6gp including our horses. We look for gossip at the inn that evening and hear about Lord Bertrand baron of Yarrow who pays levies to the count of Einsburg. He has his own singers and entertainers at the castle, so that rules out our first plan. We hear that Baroness Margaret likes fine art (so perhaps our tapestry will get us an audience) and that Lady Julien is still around. We hear that he has a guest at the moment, one Baron Arist who is up from down south (Akiela) with about 40 of his men, but will only be around for about 1 day before heading on.

July-30

We send a message to Gerald who comes to see our tapestry and while gossiping tells us that Julien is planning a trip. He reckons the tapestry is worth 2700s~ and that we can show it to Margaret. Before he leaves Kismet insists on showing him the ring, upon seeing which he arranges to meet us for supper and says we can meet the baroness in the morning. We have a bit of a look at the castle which is on a rise and surrounded by a moat with a bridge and portcullis. It has twin towers and walls about 25ft high and probably 8-10 feet thick and perhaps 6ft thick at the top. We buy us a leg of fortified wine for 2gp. The inn serves great but expensive food and has minstrels in the comer. Gerald comes back with 2 guards who hover in the comer. He tells us that we have an appointment at loam and that he would like us to transport a small trunk back to MMHS or preferably Elfinburg when we go (worth 20gp to us) and he will bring it down to us.

July-31

After-breaking fast we load the tapestry onto a horse and head to the castle. We get taken through a great maze of halls and corridors through the castle and up to a tower to a room where Margaret and Julien are waiting for us. We unroll the tapestry for them and while they discuss it I head off with out guide for a drink. Get a bit drunk, but get back to the group to hear them discussing how they have arranged to get Julien out when we pick up pavment for the tapestry in the morning.

August-1

We gg back to the castle and get taken to see Gerald who gives us a script and the chest to take. Julien is waiting through a door so Kryan makes Whisper and Kismet invisible and then makes Julien look like Whisper (bloody fancy illusionists!). So we just walk out with the script and Julien and the invisible party members right back to the inn. Back at the inn Whisper comes in from her bath and we realise that we only had an illusion of Whisper with us when we went to the castle (aaarrrrrgggh). We pack up and make Julien invisible and leave the town taking the track to the south with no problems.