The Budgie Smugglers (Huilam [Jamie], El Cid [Shane], Sorrow [Jeff], Burrito [Darryl], Moonlight [Chris]) were camped out in their new temporary base on the anti side of the the Siren river. Moonlight had risen, but Tylin, Lammy and Argile had slumped into marmalade. They were carefully laid out, like three freshly dead corpses, on the deck of the expensive hired cart.
The group had spent a careful night watching for any sign of pursuit from the Sirensville militia. There was none, and it was a peaceful night apart from Huilam's fraught chat with Carmilla inside his head (see last session).
Morning dawned; it was another cloudless day, typical of the Wild Coast.
Huilam and Sorrow got disguised up, and went over on the ferry to search around the docks with the intent to find the "stick guy". He was the one with the detector stick that could track the wizards' guild's trunk.
They visited their former base. It appeared empty, and there was no sign of guard activity. The sliding warehouse door was still broken off its rollers, and inside, the iron door of their vault hung at a jaunty angle. Plus there was a sign pinned to the outer door: "Keep out, by order the Militia". They deliberately kept things casual and just walked past. They didn't dare go inside for fear of the place being watched, so there was no thorough search.
As noon approached, they headed back to the ferry, to meet El Cid who was crossing. The stick guy happened to turn up at that very moment, with his four guards. They all crossed on the ferry back to the other side, together.
Earlier that day, in preparation for the arrival of the stick guy, they had made a cunning plan to evade the detector by keeping the trunk, in the expensive hired cart driven by Moonlight, moving continuously around the streets of anti Sirensville. Various party members would be in positions to try to signal to Moonlight which way to go at intersections. Daisy had told them that the stick had a 40 paces detection range. This plan would not be easy, as vision in the busy streets was not a given, and they only had line-of-sight signalling and no instant communications. But the stick guy did walk slowly, so they thought they might pull it off.
So the trunk was kept loaded on the cart (with the marmalading Tylin, Lammy and Argile), ready to go at a moment's notice.
Burrito was on lookout up the top of their temporary base with a good view of the docks (and his crossbow). He saw the group arrive in the ferry, and saw the stick guy. He sounded the alarm.
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| Moonlight's toad Toadster |
Huilam made sure he got off the ferry quickly in order to get into his central position for the plan. It turned out that he hadn't needed to be so hasty, as the four soldiers and stick guy hung back until most of the passengers had disembarked. Huilam scuttled down to the prearranged vantage spot.
But the pre-planning turned out to be all moot, because as soon as the stick guy left the end of the wharf into the dock area, Burrito shot him, through the head.
The four guards reacted quickly and grabbed the detection stick, and hid behind their shields as Burrito slammed some more arrows into them, and they scurried sideways to get out of his line of sight.
One of the four soldiers broke off and sprinted down a side road, but Sorrow's keen eyes determined that he did not have the stick. El Cid and Sorrow moved in and engaged the other three. Burrito started to climb down from his perch, and run around to get into position to help.
Sorrow and El Cid fought a bit, used some oil and fire, dropped one soldier, and gave enough time for Burrito to arrive. He started to shoot, and it did not take long until all three were killed. El Cid grabbed the detection stick.
He punched it into the ground with his IMAG fist, and this smashed it to match-wood. There was a little waft of smoke, and nothing else happened. This was more good luck than good management, as they later found out from Daisy that there could have been a colossal explosion. (And El Cid had used up his special armour.)
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| Generic guard |
The guard that had sprinted away raced past Moonlight on the expensive hired cart, entered the barracks next to the anti gate, and sounded the alarm.
Other soldiers came running out and started to take positions down by the ferry, and in the streets.
Moonlight suddenly slumped over; the Marmalade had overtaken him [ as happens when you leave a game session ].
This gave the group an excuse to relocate everything to the tavern called Carl's. They had already stabled their pack horses at Carl's, so they hid the wizards' trunk under some hay in the same stall that their pack horses were in. The comatose bodies of Moonlight, Tylin, Argile and Lammy were gently laid down in the hay too. This didn't give them any protection from the pack-horses' hooves, bowels and bladders, but then who cares?
Then they made a new cunning plan. What if the guards saw the Budgie Smugglers (sans disguise) rush out of town?
Now that this side of Sirensville was under lock-down due to the murders of the stick guy and the three soldiers on the docks, the ferry had been stopped and the guards were carefully stopping wagons and people leaving the town.
So the group boarded their expensive hired cart and moved towards the open gate. When there was a suitable opportunity, Sorrow spurred the horses on and the cart charged through the gap, past the surprised guards who were two slow to shut the gate or block the cart. A few desultory arrows struck the cart in the rear.
Outside the gate, the Wild Coast rolling plans continued as far as the eye could see. The road was level and smooth out here. A way in the distance, half a league away from the gate, they could see that the road was semi-blocked by a group of carts. There were no Sirensville pennants or other identification that could be seen at this distance, and it looked ominous.
Sorrow spurred the horses on even faster, and they rushed towards this blockade, hell for leather.
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| Ballista |
Rather than stop, Sorrow veered hard left off the road, perpendicular to it, without breaking stride, and the cart careened over the rough plains, bouncing off rocks and holes. Even though it was an expensive hired cart, it could not take this kind of punishment. Plus a second ballista bolt crashed into the side of it, the iron arrow-head protruding through as far as the length of Burrito's forearm. Then the cart's suspension broke, and it slid to a shuddering stop.
The group picked themselves up, and pretended to grab the trunk (a box covered in sacks), which they carried among themselves, and headed in the same direction, using the two expensive cart horses as shields.
Another long-range ballista bolt curved in a graceful arc and hit a horse, killing it instantly. So the group sheltered behind the remaining horse with their fake trunk, and kept moving. The range was now proving to be too far, and the bolts fell short.
In the distance, four black spheres started to move out from the road block, and headed towards them. The group initially thought that these were IMAG priests' spheres but Sorrows' eyes could tell that they weren't; just magical spheres of darkness (like what he had observed in the Storm tomb two days ago).
The group headed inland followed by the spheres. By dropping all pretence of carrying anything heavy, they managed to move fast enough to stay ahead of the spheres for the rest of the day.
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As soon as it was dark, they headed back to the Siren river. Burrito's hunting skills allowed him to cover and disguise the party's tracks. At the river, they headed down stream.
After a couple of hours, they got to the Sirensville walls. The tops of the walls were patrolled, but Sorrow's superior climbing and sneaking skills managed to lay down ropes and get Huilam, El Cid, Burrito and himself back in to Sirensville and back to Carl's tavern.
They slept the rest of the night on comfy mattresses.
Well, Huilam didn't get much sleep. He was disturbed by Carmilla again about midnight. She spoke to him inside his head like last night. But he managed to hold his tongue and say nary a word. She offered 20 COIN for the trunk, but even that wasn't enough to get a bite: 20, 30, 40, 80. Just numbers.
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In the morning, there were more soldiers in the streets, but the ferry was running again.
The group was indolently having breakfast at Carl's, in disguise, when a patrol came through the place, and questioned everyone there. Standard vague questions.
About lunch time Daisy sent a message with Whispering Wind. "We need to talk. Come to the guild. Don't get followed."
Huilam got himself tarted up in a disguise and went over to the other side on the ferry. It was an uneventful trip to the Wizards' Guild.
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| Witch Daisy Crown |
- "Corporal Hearse, of the Sirensville militia, was arrested. Apparently, his loyalty was questionable."
- "The Militia want you lot for all the murders of their troops. They are calling it a massacre now. The militia has never lost so many troops at one time."
- "While I understand you killing a soldier or two in self-defence, I'm not sure why you lot had to kill the downed ones in cold blood. Are you sure your psyches are not being influenced by the evilness of those IMAG lackeys?"
- "My contacts at the gates spotted another fancy hearse, just the one, entering the town this morning. It was carrying two coffins. I made a servant invisible, and sent her to follow. But she never came back."
- "We recovered the Smoking Loon in Two Frime. It will be arriving here late tomorrow. In fact, it will be travelling with the schooner."
- "After your killing spree, I am worried that the town will close the docks. We will cross that bridge if we come to it."
Huilam asked if they ..um.. could have some more COIN for this mission. Daisy pointed out that the agreed price was the recovery of their precious shallop.
"...And I did point out at the time," mused Daisy. "That you could buy two or even three brand new shallops with what I was originally offering. But you were rather insistent. However, we can negotiate some more work later."
She cast Invisibility on Huilam. He first went straight to their old base at the docks. It was clear: no guards and no screamers. So he did a thorough search within.
There were two mortuaries in Sirensville. Huilam spotted a fancy hearse at one. The hearse was empty. Maybe the coffins were stored inside the mortuary, or maybe they had been delivered to some tomb in the cemetery. He wasn't brave enough to sneak inside invisibly to check.
Huilam headed back to the ferry, made himself visible before he got to the docks, took the ferry back over the river, and returned to the group at Carl's.
They all discussed plans. There were four hours left of the day. They didn't want to give those two vampires a chance to rise tonight.
The Budgie Smugglers are VERY dangerous enemies. Powerful and smart, too.
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