Prelude to Marriage

Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure: Prelude to Marriage
GM: Terry
Season: Spring 823 wk
Night: Thursday
Location: Online
Level: Medium

Party

• Uthgard - Mill Sci (?)
• Zardoz - Scribe
• Mirage - Party Leader
• Argus Ramhammer
• Lady Arcadia
• Belladona

Employer

Sabastian

Mission

Help a nice young lady complete some quests. She must NOT know the help has come from Uncle Sabastian.

Pay

A combination of Investments, art and silver plus neg loot options

Scribe Notes

Seagate 1 Thaw (Duesday)

We met the day of the Guild Meeting and were directed to an interview and meeting room. There was a suspiciously good wine and cheese provided – I thought perhaps we’d either been directed to a room intended for a senior party, or that the comestibles may be the entire payment. After a while Sabastian appeared and provided both more food and a comprehensive background to the mission.

Sabastian has a niece, a human niece, so I think the relationship is more customary than biological. This niece, one Philippa by name, wishes to marry above her social station. She comes from a very rich but middle class (merchant) family and seeks the hand of a young man who is the fourth son of the Viscount of Westmarch. In order that his family might smile upon this union she wishes to make a “name for herself”, by which we understand she wishes to become a famous hero of the realm, or otherwise distinguish herself in some fashion such that his family will view her as a better matrimonial prospect.

Personally I would have thought the pots of money that her family has would have made her a sufficiently suitable matrimonial prospect for a fourth son, as most noble families have a tendency to be land rich and money poor and generally you can't eat the old castles, but anyway this apparently is the course that the young lady has decided upon and her uncle wishes to aid her in this, despite I might note, the young lady having decided that she doesn't want any help from Uncle Sabastian.

Sabastian, not being one to take no for an answer, is seeking to employ a Guild party to go undercover and pretend to not be a Guild party and to not be sent by Uncle Sabastian in order to aid his niece Philippa in achieving her goals.

[Aside: I'm really not sure this is a good thing as it feels like he's deliberately undermining her hero’s journey in order to feel like he is being helpful, or perhaps he has issues with relinquishing control. It would be interesting to find exactly why he feels compelled to intervene.]

From our perspective however, our motives are that he's prepared to pay us handsomely, to loan us all sorts of items, and to provide us with quite a few other mundane items that we may require for this undertaking. Sabastian took from us quite a laundry list of things which required an entire week to arrange. So far, he's been remarkably generous, so we should perhaps overlook avuncular eccentricities.

We asked a number of questions of Sabastian to determine how we might go about aiding Philippa, and Sabastian clarified a number of things including: famous is not the same as infamous, he would prefer that we did not involve ourselves in regime changes, and that he would be displeased if Philippa came to harm. Based on this we discounted some potential courses of action.

The current plan is to take ship to Freetaun, and then journey north to the capital of Hurrell where we can likely locate our nascent heroine. We then need to (somehow) ingratiate ourselves with her, becoming the sort of useful companions who will appear as small background figures when the official portrait of her is made as a great hero of Aladar. We expect to fine tune the plan and introduce some specifics into the gulf between “meet Philippa” and “Philippa is famous”.

Since we cannot be known to be from Seagate, as this would associate us too closely with Uncle Sabastian, and since we need to explain our rather unusual group comprising a giant, human, dwarf, two elves, and a halfling, along with sundry hangers on, we've had papers drawn up that show us to be members of the Adventurers Guild of Freetaun. We don't know if there was an Adventurer’s Guild in Freetaun, but there is now, and we are it.

After loading down Sabastian with our requests we agreed to meet back a week later at the docks. Sabastian and Uthgard headed off to Brastor, the rest found things to occupy them around Seagate.

On Ship 8 Thaw (Duesday) to 10 Thaw (Th'rsday)

We boarded the ship “Silky Dawn” and met Sabastian's associate, a water mage by the name of Riptide along with the captain of the vessel (Thorne Blackwater) who made some rather undistinguished cabins available to us and advised us to stay clear of the crew and not get in the way of their maritime activities.

On the first night out around 2:00 AM an alarm was raised on the ship and our party member on watch Lady Arcadia raced downstairs to summon the rest of her group.

While I must commend Lady A on her alacrity, the amount of detail supplied was somewhat lacking as she roused us and the sleeping crew, and as we prepared to head to the deck, we were unsure of the nature of the threat.

Making hurried preparations we headed up from below-decks to discover that ship had been boarded by quite a number of pirates. These pirates were rather smellier and more disagreeable than is usual even for members of their unsavoury profession and appeared to be already dead and overgrown with barnacles and other sea life.

Mirage decided to give the attackers a sporting chance by blinding most of our crew leaving the party to bear the brunt of the fighting. Fortunately, the pirates’ decomposing undead nature slowed them and despite their considerable advantage in numbers the party were able to hold their own.

The pirate captain cast a mass fear that affected several the party along with quite a few of the already blinded sailors who took this opportunity to shuffle further away from the combat. On a command from the captain several of the putrescent pirates attempted to close with party members to varying degrees of success but this was not enough to shift the balance and as the number of invaders inevitably dwindled the captain withdrew to a corner of the main deck adjacent to the forecastle and barricaded himself behind a wall of bones.

With the rest of the party still fighting in close, drenched in the effluvia of leaking and decaying pirates, Mirage, Lady Arcadia's wolf and your humble scribe charged across the deck to the fo'c'sle and prepared to engage the captain.

Luna, the wolf, took the captain down in close combat and Mirage and I finished him off. He didn't go without a fight and his chilling touch drained anyone who struck him. With his final breath he whispered words of a curse on Mirage. I wasn’t entirely sure what he said, something about “I go down to the sea” or “see you later”.

On investigation we discovered that Mirage has been cursed to be “hunted by the sea” and while we're not sure what this means I am concerned about being on the same ship as him.

With the pirates dispatched we looked around for where they had come from and observed an upturned hull floating beneath the waves near our ship. As we watched it began to lose position – we think it must have been keeping up with us while the pirate captain was still around and now it was slipping away into the dark. We briefly considered whether we should go diving to investigate the wreck, but we decided that it was not something for which we were well equipped.

Various small items of value were retrieved from the undead pirates – serious washing afterwards was required – and certain items from the captain were put aside for investigation: a hat, a coat, and a compass. The hat at least has a curse on it and should be avoided until we can get it dealt with.

All of the excitement now over the party headed back to sleep and I took over from Arcadia on watch.

The next day was must less entertaining though a sail tore and needed to be mended and the following day rope lines broke in the rigging under a sailor. I'm not sure whether these were just normal day-to-day occurrences on board this ship or if it was an effect of the curse on Mirage.

On the evening of the third day’s sailing, we arrived in Hardock and were put ashore in a dinghy. Our ship departed but will be coming back this way to pick us up. We stayed the night in an inn named the “Thoughtful Dwarf” and while there was some concern about stabling Brutus the boar palms were greased with silver and the problem went away.

Westmarch 11 Thaw (Frysday)

The next morning, we used Wildfires to run north, stopping some distance out of Hurrell to let the spell fade and to have lunch before heading into the city.

For some reason the party decided to split in two and pretend that we didn't know each other until later on when we would meet and then we would know each other, and it was all rather confusing. Arcadia, Belladonna, and Mirage went in the first party (because they looked rather more normal for this sort of place), while Uthgard, Argus (and Brutus), and I made up the second.

The “A team” investigated the large, two-storey, well-appointed inn named the “Dancing Violin” and discovered that Philippa was not going to be performing there today. They booked rooms for themselves, and we continued on and investigated the second inn whose name we had been given.

The “Whispering Parsnip” turned out to be a solidly built single-storey dwarf bar. Argus questioned the barkeep, Uthgard got concerned looks from the patrons, and I sampled the very acceptable ale. Philippa was not there either.

Finally, we made our way to the slightly less salubrious “Dead Crows” where a young woman fitting Phillipa’s description was entertaining an afternoon crowd. While the “A team” went in to meet Philippa the rest of us remained outside, eating bread, and looking as inconspicuous as you might expect a 9-foot hill giant, dwarf, great boar, and halfling to be.

While we were waiting, we were joined by a suave and debonair gentleman whose sudden appearance and manner made me immediately suspicious. Argus identified him as an Avatar of Seir “the Willing Prince” (a demon well known to the Guild). Seir recognised us as adventurers from Seagate and told us that he was seeking someone to take part in some form of combat sporting event on which much money was being wagered. Dismissing Argus and me Seir gripped Uthgard’s arm and vanished, much to our consternation.

Alerting the rest of the party over mind speech they came outside, and we discussed what had just happened. Acadia decided to alert Sabastian by way of a sending stone, a magical device that can send short one-way messages. In her rather nervous state Acadia managed to send the following:

Hi Sabastian, we have a problem. Uthgard was kidnapped by a demon for a fight and we don’t know how to get her back. Help
<long pause>
Please. We found your niece at the Dancing Violn. So we are doing our job too, but I think we would die if we
<pause>
Went to save her. I’m being told to tell you it’s a bad demon, what’s the title, willing prince. Oh we are at the
<pause>
Dancing crow, that’s where she poofed away. but if you could help us please that would be great.
<pause>
oh yeah its Arcadia speaking
<pause>
I hope things are going well for you too

As this veritable salad of verbal confusion was being tossed into the aether, I could only imagine how badly the rather unfortunate sequence of messages was being received by Sabastian.

<CUT SCENE>

INT. GALLERY

Sabastian is standing in front of a partially completed painting. Sipping on a glass of wine, with brush in hand he makes delicate brush strokes on the canvas. His concentration is broken as a look of puzzlement and then panic appears on his face. In large letters he quickly writes the words on the canvas

“demons kidnapped uthgard”

He stares intently at the words on the canvas, then start quickly writing on the canvas again with his paint brush

“found niece think we would die”,

“went to save her bad demon prince”

“dancing crow, help us“

Sabastian stands back from the canvas and stares at the words he has written. He drops his paint brush; it falls to the wooden floor with a thud as he rushes out of the gallery.

My concerns proved unfortunately prophetic when not long afterwards we received messages in return from Sabastian:

Sitrep. What plane, continent, town are you in.
Investigating missing Uthgar.
Extraction party in flight, help on the way.
Detail enemy forces, as much detail as possible.
Provide codeword confirmation.

Argus and I asked to borrow Aracdia’s sending stone, and Argus quickly sent messages to allay Sabastian’s fears and get him to stand down the rescue team:

Don’t worry we are fine, Uthgard was taken by the Willing Prince
Stop. We do not need extraction. We are safe.
Zardoz says "pain au chocolat". No idea what that means.
Please keep an eye out for Uthgard, and Arcadia says she’s sorry.

We suspect that we are not getting any cash bonuses from this job.

The “A team” and Philippa have arranged to busk on the Morrow. I'm hoping that they draw a crowd; it's always easier to dip pockets if the marks are looking elsewhere.

We retired to the Dancing Violin where Argus and I rented another room – apparently now being allowed to be known by the rest of the party – and enjoyed a wonderful night's entertainment of yodelling and throat singing.

In Hurrell 12 Thaw (Reapsday)

After the excitement of yesterday we planned a quiet day to let Sabastian’s nerves settle.

We spent the morning doing general sightseeing and information gathering around the town, with further muddled discussions on the goals of our mission* (and avoiding regime change), and then the “A team” met up with Philippa for an enjoyable lunchtime eating and lying to her.

*The mass-use of love potion was discussed which I was vehemently against. Having grown up with stories of "that event" and the oft-repeated refrain of Flytrap's "Are you sorry yet?" this option presents the possibility of too much chaos, even for me.

Philippa was particularly impressed when she learned that Belladonna was a fire mage and became positively animated discussing her desire to have learned that college and how her family required her to learn Bardic Magics as a safer option. It came out that she has some experience with the more energetic pursuits of an adventurer and has been involved in taking down bandits.

The group headed off to a town square and began practice their playing and discuss different tunes that they knew, getting familiar with each other as musicians and the like. After a while Argus and I joined them, hailing our companions and making ourselves known as guild-mates. We joined in by passing around a hat and attempting to elicit donations for the musicians. We only collected enough for bad beer.

Afterwards we retired back to a tavern and discussed Philippa’s plans for the future. We discussed the possibility of joining forces and Philippa became more than a little excited when we suggested making her a probationary member of the Adventurers Guild of Freetown. We talked about options for quests, what she knew of events in the local area, and where we might find bounties.

We decided to check these out with Philippa heading off to the river dock to talk to the merchants. We returned to our rooms where Belladonna set to work on a Guild membership document for our newest recruit. Arcadia, Argus, and I wandered out to discuss bounties with the Viscount’s guards, compiling the following:

• Bandits, East of Zebrin, 10sp each (noses to be collected as proof);
• Giants in the Taldreyn woods, 50sp. Attacking boats, merchants may offer additional;
• Harpies near Baryd Vale;
• Haunted Mine south of Laserfeld
• Two older wanted posters for: Three-toed Stanhope, for dealings with undead near Wesmarch, and Lunatic Thurmon, a murderer and graverobber near Xarl on the Brandenburg border.

These bounties aren’t what we’d usually look at, but they are perfect for the cover story. The bandits and giants have the advantage of being in proximity of each other, and giant slaying could certainly be spun into a fine heroic tale.

We headed back to our inn and expect to meet up with Philippa in the morning.

Hurrell - Sursan - Aradoc 13 Thaw (Sunday)

Morning brought a pleasant if unremarkable breakfast at the Violin and a meeting with Phillipa who had secured a bounty of 1,000sp from the city merchants for resolving the giant problem, and who was delighted to receive Belladonna’s expertly crafted and entirely authentic certificate affirming her as a probationary member of the Freetown Guild. We also provided her with a small “starter kit” comprised of items from Sabastian likely to help keep her alive.

While we breakfasted a page from the castle delivered Phillipa an impressive looking sealed missive from her beloved. The lovingly scribed scroll proved to contain a poem of such effulgent ebullience that the party were shocked to silence.

 Every time
 I see your face
 It reminds me
 Of you

After recovering our senses, we checked Phillipa’s equipment (a magic sword and armour) and she showed up some one-use items provided to her by her “Uncle Sabastian”. There may have been surreptitious shuffling as the party tucked away similar items – I hid the ones I have, while considering that both my shoes and gloves bear the Sabastian Silverfoot imprimatur should someone examine them closely.

Having agreed that bandits and giants were our best options for bounties – and that giants could lead to epic songs – we considered transport options towards Zebrin and the eastern woods, with some of the party complaining about their amount of baggage and the great distance of some 20 odd miles to travel. We settled on hiring a wagon to carry us as far as Sursan and engaged an available driver.

Ilric the waggoneer was questioned at length about the giant attack and having absolutely no first-hand knowledge of the event or any specialist military knowledge confidently informed us that there were dozens of huge giants, armed with “weapons” and accompanied by other smaller (and unidentified beings), and that a fierce battle that lasted for hours was fought between the attackers and many valiant merchants and guards.

Phillipa, who has heard many of the various stories about the event, confirmed that this was one of the more embellished accounts.

For reasons of purely philosophical interest, I suggested to Ilric that “we had heard” that the leader of the giants had an eyepatch, and that when he removed it his baleful gaze struck his victims dead. I’m curious to see if this gets added to the collected giant attack story canon.

With the party a captive audience on a slow-moving cart our “musically inclined” members then decided that this would be an ideal opportunity for practice. While from memory the traditional collective nouns would be a troupe of minstrels or a melody of harpers, speaking from experience I rather feel that a cacophony of troubadours or a discordance of bards may be more appropriate.

Our journey to Sursan took only a few hours, though it felt longer.

Sursan - Aradoc

Having reached the town, we bid Ilric farewell – leaving him seeking passengers back to Hurrell, and set off directly towards Aradoc, in woods east of Zebrin, lunching en route.

By early evening we reached Aradoc, a small town (or large village) where townsfolk were busily doing various mysterious forest-related things. We secured a single room at the only inn – the Charging Pony – an apparently lower end establishment that nonetheless proved to offer very acceptable ale at a more than reasonable price.

We spent the evening quizzing locals about the location and habits of bandits and discovered that much of the trade here involved herbs and gems from ores in the mountains further to the east. The locals proved unsurprisingly rustic, a good example being Lorian, who had moved here to escape the overwhelming hustle and bustle of Zebrin.

Local law was enforced by “Old Imilmar”, known as “The Bandit Hanger”. It was unclear what official position, if any, this individual held, but we were warned that should we start trouble it would be him who finished it.

The most notable local outlaw was agreed by the locals to be one “Bloody Gavric”, a dwarven ex-miner who had turned to banditry, claim jumping, and general mayhem, and who had attracted perhaps 20 to 30 followers. Soldiers (from the Viscount?) had attempted to run the gang to ground but were unable to locate most in the heavy forest.

Aradoc and environs 14 Thaw (Moonday)

We had a quiet night’s sleep, and in the morning the inn offered an absolutely fantastic and cheap breakfast. As we headed out of town busy folk were doing town things.

The morning was spent wandering in the woods, generally heading east towards the mountains. We began to gain a sense of being watched from the trees and applied some pre-combat spells.

Our path was suddenly blocked by the looming form of a 7-foot-tall dwarf, bones bound in his beard, and armed with double battle-axes who bellowed for us to leave our goods and flee. Disinclined to acquiesce we prepared to fight. As the dwarf repeated his demand and then breathed fire, Argus identified the whole thing as an illusion as unusually small arrows flew in from the left, striking Belladonna and Phillipa. I put a tree to my back, drew weapons and blended.

That the arrows caused confusion confirmed my suspicions that we were dealing not with bandits but with fey fu… err… foolery.

Belladonna created a wall of fire just beyond the trees to the left and Arcadia threw a wall of darkness behind us to prevent us from being flanked. The fire caused a cloud of small invisible shapes to rise from the trees to the left. (Note to self: remember to improve and actually use Witchsight.)

Rather than escalate the conflict we decided to try to and negotiate with the giggling psychopaths, and after bribing them with hard liquor, large meals, and silver we were able to extract the story of how they were now pretending to be Bloody Gavric. (Phillipa also attempted to trade them another "epic" love poem from her beloved, which the pixies promptly shredded and accounted as a negative-value gift. Perhaps they have some taste and culture despite appearances.)

It appears that one day the bandit leader wandered away from his camp in confusion and entered a cave where he drowned in a pool. The fey reiterated that he was a bad man and that they don't know how any of this happened. Further negotiations involving more food and teaching them bawdy songs saw the perfidious toerags leading us to the cave where the terrible accident in which they were not involved occurred, after which they departed.

We entered the cave and explored its dark reaches, finding some distance inside a pool of water from which dwarven feet protruded. The body of the former bandit leader still had one axe strapped to its back and another had been dropped into the pool. Investigation showed that the submerged axe was magical, and Argus waded into the water to retrieve it.

As soon as he lifted the axe a spectral figure appeared in the cave. The undead shade of Gavric exclaimed “My Axe!” and drifted towards Argus where it thrust its hand into his chest bypassing all armour. Its chill touch drained life from Argus who hastily withdrew. The being’s aura revealed that it was a wraith, a creature largely impervious to weapons even those of magical nature. Argus dropped the axe, but the wraith continued its attacks and Brutus grabbed the axe in his mouth in the hope of leading the wraith away and began to run for the cave exit.

We did suggest to Argus that he try striking the wraith with its own magical weapon, but it appears that Argus does not know how to wield an axe. This came as a considerable surprise to me as I thought they were given to infant dwarves as cradle gifts, much as a human child might be given a rattle, or a halfling baby presented with teething lockpicks. I wonder if it would be insensitive to inquire of Argus whether this deficiency is why he is out adventuring rather than still in dwarven society.

In the ensuing melee the wraith struck down Arcadia and then Philippa when she bravely raced to revive her. The wraith finally dissipated after being struck by several bolts of fire from Belladonna, a lightning javelin from Mirage and another lightning bolt from one of Sabastian's magical traps.

We retrieved the axe and exited the cave into welcome afternoon sunlight.

Mil Sci

Watch Order

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Uthgard				Arcadia				Argus
Zardos				Mirage				Belladonna

Skirmish Formations (Front)

Default

Double File

Single File

Buffs

Long Duration Buffs

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	Ut	Za	Mi	AR	LA	Be
Disguise Illusion	12	change height, weight, voice or clothing	13 hours	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Illusionary Aura	6	Partly obscure aura	7 days	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Fire Armour	8	Absorb (36 points magical) fire damage	9 hours	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Fire Proofing	7	Protect vs normal fire	8 hours	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y

Short Duration / Situational Buffs

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	Ut	Za	Mi	AR	LA	Be
Shadow Wings (Za/LA)	6	36 mph	3½ hrs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Witchsight (Za)	6	150' dark, see invisible	3½ hrs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Shadow Form (Za)	10	22% DEF Melee, 11% Close	5½ hrs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Multiple Images	10	Three extra images of the target, which can absorb attacks	11 minutes	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Wildfires	10	Burny speedz! (40mph)	220 mins	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Weapon of Flames	11	+12% SC +6 DM (+11 DM vs vuln)	16 mins	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y

Self Only Buffs

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	Ut	Za	Mi	AR	LA	Be
Ice Armour (Ha)	15		9 hrs	Y
Project Image	20	become invisible. Can move, hear, see, talk thru image	n/a			Y

Calendar

Spring: Thaw 823 (10)
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
		Candlemansa	1	Guild Meeting Seagate	2		3		4		5		6	.
	7		8	Sailing Day	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
Spring: Seedtime 823 (11)
	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
Spring: Blossom 823 (12)
	3		4		5		6		7		8		9
	10		11		12		13		14		15		16
	17		18		19		20		21	Floralia	22		23
	24		25		26		27		28		29		30	Walpurgisnacht