As the voices came closer, the party decided to face the approaching
bandits head on. Except for Kern who slipped on his ring and Bjorn who cast invisibility
and stepped back from the group a bit. Darnorth added a haste spell from his ring as well. Just in case you see.
While Gurruk kept trying to convince Booh that they were his real friends
(which the giant protested between bites of horseflesh) the others
waited. In a few minutes the bandits were close enough to see the party, and
they halted and called out a challenge; “Who’s
there? What do you want?”. Darnorth was
once more elected as spokesperson, all the more since half the bandits appeared
to be dwarves (the others were goblins). He tried to convince them the party ment
no harm, but were old friends of Booh who had come back to get him. The lead
dwarf snarled at this, insisting the giant (who continued to munch on horse)
was with them now and the party could bugger off. Back and forth went the argument. As things got heated , the dwarf bandit sent some goblins back
towards the camp to get reinforcements. He also put down his foot, and demanded
Booh came back to camp. The giant looked a little perplexed at first, but
finally turned to join the bandits. With plan A failed, plan B came into
effect. Bjorn cast web to keep the giant
of uncertain loyalties out of the way, while Erijay cast sleep on the bandits. Pausing
only to slit the throats of the sleeping
bandits, the hasted party then descended on the bandit camp at high speed, while Booh struggled in a rage to
break out of the web.
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Blazing into the camp, Erijay dropped another web on the golden haired Lutrol, while a sleep spell from Bjorn dropped a few of the bandits. As
Lutrol struggled to escape, he transformed into a massive wolf, the golden armor
dropping from his body. The wolf began to tear the web apart, so Bjorn dropped a second one on him for good measure.
Erijay then used her lightning glove,
and Darnorth a lightning bolt from
his ring, to drop two ranks
of bandits, who had opened up on the party with missile fire. The bandits started
to waver, and one group of orcs slipped away behind the biggest hut in the
camp. Meanwhile, Kern had gotten behind Lutrol, and in a surprise attack, drove his sword through the
beast, which died in a howl of rage and pain.
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The few orc bandits still standing, seeing the futility of continuing
the fight, threw down their weapons and begged for mercy. But before they could
be dealt with, a loud eagles cry arose from behind the large shelter, and a
massive griffin rose into the sky. It dove at Kern, but the swift merchant
dodged the creature’s claws and beak. As
it started to swoop away, the rest of the still hasted party arrived to help
Kern, and the flying beast was beaten out of the sky before it could get away.
At this point, Booh arrived in the circle of firelight, his rage soon turning to
confusion and despair as he saw all his ‘new’ friends dead on the ground. Gurruk
went to mollify the giant, while Kern questioned the captive orcs. He learned
they were mercenaries from the Goblin Marches, hired by Lutrol to go a
banditing with him and the goblins and dwarves. Lutrol was a bit full of
himself, saying he was some sort of knight who happened to get infected with
lycanthropy. But he was just another directionless bandit in the eyes of the
orcs. Questioned about treasure, the orcs told them it would be in the large
(Lutrol’s) shelter.
Letting the orcs go, Kern and Darnorth headed for Lutrol's hut. Erijay
checked out the other huts, finding nothing but filth and junk. Riley examined
Lutrol’s armor, which appeared to be steel embossed with bronze. On the chest
was a sunburst symbol. Lutorl’s hut was simply but cleanly furnished, with furs
on the walls and a huge bed in the center. Kern sliced open
the mattress and once the featherssettled, he saw a trap door
hidden in the bed frame below. Opening it up, he found the werewolf’s treasure;
a pile of coins (silver and copper), gems and rich objects (candlesticks, jewelry, goblet, etc). As he started to scoop it all out, there was suddenly a
‘click’ sound from the bottom of the secret chamber. A half dozen darts flew out of a hatch at the bottom and whizzed past Kern’s head.
Looting complete, everyone met around the fire. Gurruk had convinced
Booh that his best bet was to join with the party. The giant would stay out in
the wilderness with Gurruk (no way he’d be allowed in Westmist!) and share in
the party’s fortunes. That agreed, the party bedded down for the night, and at
first light, started the journey back to town. Which almost ended the next night when a surprise attack by a band of bugbears caught most of the party sleeping. Good
luck, good spell casting and good archery managed to save them.
Approaching Westmist on the evening of the second day, they were surprised to see the river crowded with vessels, each flying the royal banner of
Kellowai. Sending Booh and Gurruk on their way, the party made their way to
the town gates to enter as always. But were stopped by a band of guards
they’d never seen before, wearing blue livery with the royal crest. For the
first time in forever, the party was forced to pay gate taxes (100gp!). Asked
why, the sergeant told them only that things were ‘going to be different in
Westmist for awhile’. Back the house they headed, and questioned Riker. Their
majordomo could offered little, saying only that the ships had arrived that
morning, the the town had been flooded with royal troops ever since. An announcement was planned for the town square tomorrow.
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So the next day, off to the square everyone headed, finding a crowd already
gathered. Standing on a platform at one end of the square was a man in a gaudy
outfit of blue, silver and purple. He announced himself as Sir Percival of
Ashlan, Kingdom Herald of Arms. Next to him stood a women in blue, the
commander of the King’s Blue Company who occupied the town. Sir Percival
announced that given the March Barons deception in using the king’s gold to
capture himself an independent realm, his Royal Majesty, King Berthold II, King
of Kellowai, Duke of Mirvor, etc etc etc, hereby invoked the right of ‘Imperium
Soldatus Terminus’. An ancient privilege of the Imperial throne (of which the
King was a partial inherent as King of Kellowai), the right allowed the king to
take over administration of the border marches if the march lord could or would
not perform his duty. Since the king had paid to defend Westmist, the March
Barony of Westmist would be administered directly by the crown until the debt incurred by that defense had been paid (100,000gp). All revenues would go
directly to the crown, and all special rights and privileges granted under the
March Baron were revoked for the duration. For starters, a Kings Head tax was collected by the royal troops from everyone in the square.
With slightly lighter purses then, the party headed to see Afflain. They
cashed in their treasure, except for the armor which the Pashnadi merchant
refused to take (“You want to get me killed trying to fence that armor! Those Knights of the Golden Rays are crazy!”). He
also filled them in with more detail on the scheme to intercept Gilmeshi the
merchant on his return from delivering slaves to Zoloren. From whom Afflain had
not yet heard, in response to the party’s offer to sell the anti-aging statue
from Stonehell.
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