Fort Eugor Score 3

The party was making their way back to their base. Attlee [Kevin] hissed under his voice.

"We got ourselves a tail."

Attlee pulled Argile [Richard] into the shadows, hoping that the tail wouldn't notice. Sure enough, they didn't. They were four figures, and were following the noisy party: Two human males, two half-elves one of whom was a woman.

Attlee needed to tell the group, so he left Argile near two of the followers, and skulked back to the group to tell them. They waited a bit, and then gave the signal to Argile to engage.

Agile stepped forward and clamped his hand over the woman's mouth. She managed to scream, so he punched her and dropped her. Another of the followers near her, drew his short sword and bounded over to engage Argile. Argile disemboweled him with a mighty stroke of his two-handed sword.

Michael Boatman

The rest of the party rushed headlong into the fray. The other two of the followers fled. One climbed a wall, and the other ran. Burrito [Darryl] and Ronny [Deacon] aimed with their cross-bows and shot him, and he fell; skewered and dead before he hit the cobbles. The last one was cornered in an alley and he surrendered.

Back at base, after an hour of creative torture, El Cid [Shane] managed to get the whole sorry story from the this wretch. He was called Michael Boatman, and he and the other three worked for Sam's plantation security to protect the plantation from thieves and burglars. They had been sent to follow the party after the party's wall escapades had been noticed. Michael was quick to add that he had a wife and children who lived in Downtown.

Glenda Stewart

Ronny "worked" on his captive too using his IMAG seduction gift. She was a half-elf named Glenda Stewart, but he ended up not spending much time interrogating after all.

The two were promised that they would be freed after this mission. In the mean time, they would
remain as "guests". Michael in shackles in the cell in the cellar, and Glenda chained to Ronny's bed.

The next day, the group came up with an alternative plan to get into Sam's Estate. That was to set themselves up as scab (asparagus) buyers from Spite city. In Scabport, there were currently two big importers of scabs to Spite: The Spite Scab Trading Company and Spite Scabs. So, the party hired an office and started to work on their front.

This would take several days. [ In this system, the mechanics to achieve this is called a long term plan. ]

_____________________________________________________________________

So, with this plan underway, the party now cast their attention back to Corporal Anton Chung's job. This was a continuance of the previous job for the Knives. Chung said the Knives wanted the Wizards' Guild witch Dalila Hornsby from Fort Eugor to be kidnapped. Chung said they had only four nights to do this. And tonight would be the second night.

WG Dalila Hornsby

So, they did another foray up the hill: Burrito, Sorrow [Jeff], El Cid, Argile and Attlee. Attlee led the mission with his superb skulking skills. It was a success, and they got to the court-yard undetected,  and hid in the old stables in the fort. As this was only ten paces from the old well, they decided to investigate that.

Down went a rope. Burrito opted to stay upstairs to guard, while the other four went down. About a storey or two down, the shaft opened into a chamber; a rough natural cave, and the shaft continued down to water an arm-length's deeper. There was a passage going off to one side which was partially blocked by a pile of smooth rocks. Down here, Sorrow, El Cid and Attlee's "IMAG gifts" tingled and throbbed in time with their heart-beats.

Getting closer this pile of rocks, one could see that they were skulls. A pile of skulls as tall as a man; maybe thirty, neatly stacked. Black skulls. So black that they absorbed light. Worse, Sorrow, El Cid and Attlee were attracted to these skulls.

Attlee was first to fail the temptation, and he touched one. He then immediately grabbed it tight and held onto it, as a blissful look melted his face. In his mind, he could see sobbing screaming people in this very cave being tortured to death by cowled figures; sacrifices of agony. But it brought pleasure and bliss to Attlee's heart, and he relished and bathed in the wonderful feelings of all this suffering and despair. The skulls were of these victims, now black with age, and cursed.

Argile (the only one without an IMAG gift) pulled the blissful Attlee away and knocked the skull from his hand (when Argile touched a skull, he only got visions of horror and revulsion). El Cid and Sorrow also had the blissful visions.

With Argile's help, the group of four got past the skull pile and into the passage beyond. It was a natural passage, probably made by water. But they came to a recent cave-in. When they cleared enough of the rocks away, this made a narrow crawl-way which emerged on the hillside, in a depression behind some bushes, next to the road up the hill. So, this turned out to be another way into the fort.

Attlee tried to sneak a black skull away from the pile in his backpack, but it vanished when he wasn't looking. Presumably back to the pile.

Sorrow went back inside to retrieve Burrito. And brought him out the same route.

The next day passed, and they made plans for the raid tonight.

The plan was to attack in through this new well passage. Everyone would be involved this time, plus they would rent a cohort of mooks to help:  Rita [Ian] with her Light of REAL, Burrito with his crossbow, and the rent-a-crowd would provide a distraction. The rest of the party would enter through the tunnel, and up the well. El Cid, Sorrow and Attlee would climb onto the roof of the keep and abseil into the window like last time, while Moonlight [Chris], Ronny, Huilam [Jamie] and Argile would storm the main door.

Qui audet adipiscitur.

Planning for Scab Score

[ The first hour of the evening was spent doing Downtime Activities for last time. ]

Via the established chain of communication (Sonny from the Bronze Studs, based at the Grapefruit and Corselette, contacted the party via their private notice board in the Luscious Pixie tavern), the party met up with Olivia Bryce for a job.

Olivia was the head of the Vege Scavengers, a Tier 1* group based in the Plantation district. Her group's experts had recently invented some unique anemic asparagus cultivars which they had named "yellow scabs". But the main producer of scabs in Scabport, Sam's Estate, a Tier 4 group, had got wind of this, and they had sent agents to break in to her lair and had stolen these cultivars. Her group did not have much prowling, martial or political prowess, so she wanted someone to recover her yellow scabs.

[ * = The Tier system handles group sizes. Tier 0 is the smallest and Tier 5 the biggest. It is an exponential scale which covers numbers, wealth and political influence. The Knives, the TGP and the Wizards' Guild are the only Tier 5s. ]

The city of Scabport gets it name from "scab" which is a name for the delicious anemic asparagus that is endemic to the Scabport region (and the reason why the city was sited there a thousand years ago). The name "scab" is so-called because, when the asparagus is due to be harvested, the tip secretes a delectable red ooze which, when dried, looks like a crusty scab. Olivia's scab cultivars were yellow in colour and thus were very valuable. They dried to a pus colour.

Olivia suspected that her yellow scabs would be located in the main warehouse on the large grounds of Sam's Estate. This is where Sam's scientific and botanic research was done, so it made sense. The job would pay 9 COIN.

Sam's estate was huge. It was situated just outside of Scabport, between the Spite Gate and the sea [blue markings], and was in a large fenced-off area, two or three bow-shots a side. It was common knowledge that the estate had a large guard contingent, and that they also used hook horrors to supplement the guards.

Hook Horror

The group made some enquiries in the local Funk and Wagnall temple (God of Knowledge). Hook horrors were nasty vicious carnivores, tall and strong as an ogre, and fast as a man. They make excellent guards because, although their normal vision is poor, they can see heat sources (infravison), have darkvision (UV), and can hear superbly too.

Corporal Anton Chung, of the Knives, also had a job for the party. This was continuing from the previous score. The Knives had identified the lady wizard that Sorrow, El Cid, Attlee and Argile had encountered in Fort Eugor. She was named Dalila Hornsby, and was a known operative from the Wizards' Guild.

Dalila Hornsby

"This is serious," said Chung. "If the Wizards' Guild is in cahoots with the TGP [Thieves' Guild Police], then that doesn't bear thinking. But, you have already defeated that mage whore once, so do it again. Bring her in. Bring her alive. You have four nights."

He paused, and added wryly.

"Once again, if you fail, then the Knives will disavow all contact with you. But if you succeed, we will have embarrassing info on the Wizards' Guild. And we can put a stop to this mess. 9 COIN."

Anton Chung then turned his attention to Rita, and arranged another date.

They had a third job offer: They met up with Festoon Thwaite, operative of Simon's Slaves, at the Oyster and Evergreen Limpet tavern. This was a Recovery job to find and bring in some runaway slaves who were last seen in the unoccupied Hodacky residence in the Mansion district. They didn't take this job for two reasons: It didn't pay enough (7 COIN), and why does a big group like Simon's Slaves not have its slave-recovery squads? "It does. You."

That night, the group, sans Rita, went a-scouting.

Sam's plantation was surrounded cleared ground (which was used as a road) and by a wooden palisade. Although guards were not visible all the time, they would pop up occasionally. Huilam [Jamie] guessed that there wasn't a walkway all the way around, but instead various risers at different spots.

Sorrow [Jeff], Attlee [Kevin] and Burrito [Darryl] scaled the wall and surveyed. Yes, no continuous walkway. Yes, platforms and ladders every 25 paces. There were large squares (100 paces a side) of sandy soil dotted with asparagus shoots emerging. Way in the distance, hundreds of paces away, were some low buildings. Beyond that another smaller stockade. And some water towers.

Sorrow crouched down on his wall perch, as a guard walked past on the inside. He did note that she was a half-elf. They waited and surveyed a bit longer. All the guards were half-elves (and two thirteenths of them were women). That made sense, half-elves have infra-vision.

Sorrow decided to creep over (Attlee and Burrito clung on stationary at their perches). He searched for traps ("no traps here") and let himself down. Then he got cold feet, and clambered back over.

A minute later, the spot of the wall where Sorrow had traversed, was lit of by a bright light, as if by a searchlight, from the other side. The gaps between the palisade logs shone like glowing ribbons.

Attlee and Burrito jumped down, and the whole group made a hasty retreat, and melted into the buildings of the far side of the road.

An hour or so later, they decided another probe was in order, but at a different part of the wall. This time, only Attlee and Sorrow attempted it. They climbed the palisade, perched, waited for a lull in the guards, and then Sorrow climbed over. And then back. This time Attlee would stay perched, tens of paces away from Sorrow's traverse, so that he could watch what happened.

Sure enough, the searchlight came on, but less time this time. It was from the roof-top of one of the low buildings in the distance. But the light shone directly at Attlee. He shrieked like a girl and dropped down.

They bid a hasty retreat.

Fort Eugor Score 2

Night Two

Florence Falshot

El Cid led-a-group-action with Sorrow and Attlee, and snuck into the fort. They watched the place for a few hours from a superb vantage point in one of the old ruined stables. There were now eight guards and two wagons up there. The guards were much more alert now, and group was not brave enough to do anything significant. They snuck out, and headed back to Lady Florence and the Falshot's house.

The next day they spent a long conversation to determine exactly what tangible evidence was required. For instance, they had already observed the wagon from the fort enter the TGP compound, and that wasn't good enough. So, what testimony was enough? Who would believe a rag-tag bunch of mercenaries?  Was testimony from Rita, the REAL priestess, enough when she could not lie?

Night Three

Argile led-a-group-action with El Cid, Sorrow and Attlee. [ This was to spend his stress to save the others'. ]

Burrito, Ronny and Huilam provided cover on the hill [ mainly so they could get Huilam's feat's "Weaving the Web" bonus die to the Engagement roll ]. Rita stayed back in the Falshot's residence. Her headlight forehead was not good for sneaking.

The previous night's superb hiding spot had been wrecked during the previous day (by some courtyard construction) so there was scant cover. Nevertheless, they surprised and grabbed a guard. Attlee got his head kicked in [ and had to spend stress to Resist serious damage. ]

The captured guard was badly wounded, jaw smashed in several places and unconscious, and skull dented. When they got him down to the house, Rita cast a Cure on him to save his life, but she could not fix the broken jaw and brain trauma.

That same night, they met up with Chung (who was still on duty at the Spite Gate) and gave him the captive.

The next day, they got a report from Chung.

"He was a hired goon," said Chung. "He didn't know much, nor who had hired him. Get inside and grab me something significant. Tonight is your last night."

Night Four

Argile led-a-group-action again with El Cid, Sorrow and Attlee, with a smaller backup group of just Huilam and Ronny. Rita and Burrito stayed back at the Falshot's house.

The door-side of the keep was now lit up, so they had to sneak around to the back side. There were no windows here, so Sorrow climbed all the way up the side of the building, and onto the wooden roof (a giddy four storeys up). He tossed a rope down so that the other three could climb up. Then they abseiled down [ Finesse action ] into the same window that El Cid and Sorrow explored on Night 1. This room had now been made into a bunk room but it was empty.

The office room, down the corridor, was lit. In here was a man and woman. He was in chain-mail and she was in fancy velour robes with jewellery. El Cid and Argile rushed in and beat them both down. She managed to scream before she was silenced.

Lady Wizard

Someone must have heard the scream, because the ladder (down to the ground floor) started to move; someone was climbing up. It was a long climb, so Argile guarded that while the rest dealt with the two.

The locked room next to the office serendipitously turned out to be a cell, with manacles and all, so the two were quickly dragged in there and chained up and gagged. The group then hurriedly searched the office, found an important-looking ledger, found a TGP seal stamp, and grabbed all the petty cash they could carry. The woman was stripped of her jewellery and she had a scroll case on her, so they took that too.

Toby Archer

There were several men climbing the ladder. Maybe Argile could have held them off. Maybe not. But they didn't wait to find out. All their abseiling ropes were still on the outside, so they quickly left the same way and climbed back onto the roof. Then down the other side, and skulked away.

Later that night, at the Spite Gate, Chung was very happy with the seal and ledger. He was shown the scroll and proclaimed: "Those're magic glyphs. She must be a wizard."

It later turned out that this man in the office was Toby Archer, a minor notable of the TGP.

They kept the scroll, jewellery and petty cash.

Job well done.

Fort Eugor Score

At the mouth of the Scab river, high on a promontory, sits Fort Eugor ("YOU-gore"). It was a fully functional military fort a few hundred years ago, but is abandoned these days. They say it is haunted, which might explain why that area of town has not been developed and built upon. Or maybe it is because, when the tide is low, the mud-flats below just stink.