Rescue in Brian

Present:

• Sophia Beauchamp (half-elf priest 21) - Ian
• Elvis Ghenna (elf bard) - Shane
• Balder Dash (gnome wizard) - Jamie
• Slim Jim (human rogue) - Darryl
• Walton Formalin (half-elf mystic of 21) - Andrew
• MARMALADE: Red Feuersturm (human temple fighter of Hob) - Chris

• 

  The Golden Compass

  Donk Platebreaker (human fighter) - Jeff
• Malcolm Gandhi (gnome thief) - Kevin
• NPC child Colin
• NPC child Amelia

By Walton

Our party was exploring old mining tunnels under the town of Brian. We had just robbed he tomb of the dwarf miner and had stolen his magical golden Compass.

But this tomb was a side diversion (we were good at being diverted). The main reason we were in Brian was to rescue the mother of two children Amelia and Colin. She was Jermaine, priestess of Aquamarina (Goddess of Water) and was being held captive in the jail of Brian. The town had been overrun by gnolls who were working with a man with Draser livery and a harlequin priestess of Mr Quail, god of Trickery and Mischief.

To avoid the awkward shaft back the way we came, there was a new passage out of the tomb complex. Ignoring the protesting Slim, who wanted to go back, we walked about a hundred paces, and the passage then turned left. 

With dead reckoning, we guessed we were beneath the vicinity of where the Mr Quail priestess had gone. There was a ladder up here. Sophia went for a listen, but she heard only silence. No-one was brave enough to look - we didn't want to meet the harlequin.

The passage continued - an equal distance, but then it just stopped at a blank wall.

"I vill be handling dees," chirped Balder.

And he strode forth, fumbled with the wall, and promptly vanished with a loud magical pop.

It was standard party policy to blindly follow in these circumstances. (If anyone ever wanted an effective party-killer, just make a magic TP that teleports the toucher into lava; the whole party will blindly (and enthusiastically) follow ... and die.)

We all followed and ended up in the cellar of the Brian tavern the Magic Seagull. It was after midnight so no gnoll activity above. This teleport was like the other one in that it would only teleport six people before needing to cool down. We were in no rush, so we just did it slowly and eventually got the whole group through.

So, we all regrouped back to where the Brian tunnels began, in a hill a stone's throw outside the town. Sophia and I were getting low on magical power, and we needed to recharge, so we both took a holy wafer and went to sleep. 

Gold seam

To wile away the eleven hours it took us to recharge, Balder consumed a gem and casts an Identify spell on the magic Compass. Its ability was to give the attuned wearer improved power to detect gold seams [ something like +2 on a Mining skill roll ]

Also, Balder and Slim took compass down a side passage and hid it. Their worry was that it was a unique item and hence would be trackable, in theory.

When we were all awake again, we all went back under Brian again, and made our way back to beneath the Corpulent Jester inn. This inn was next to the next to the cell block with the two gnoll guards outside. 

Ghandi scampered up the ladder and through the trapdoor. Twenty minutes passed and he never came back. Oh dear.

Slim, our second-best sneaker, followed. He came back within the minute and hissed down the trapdoor.

"Ghandi is dead!"

Sophia and I raced up the ladder. The trapdoor opened into a bar area of the inn proper. It looked like this inn had been abandoned since the gnolls invaded. Lucky for us, the trapdoor to the tunnels below was very well concealed and camouflaged. 

There was a bedroom off the inn's common room, and this is where we found Ghandi's body. But he was not dead, but just unconscious. He has been poisoned or ensorcelled.

The effect didn't last too long, and Ghandi came around, right as rain. He was "looting" the bedroom and the wardrobe was trapped. There was a long-dead emaciated corpse under the bed too. 

We had managed to keep our noise down in here. A shout would bring the gnolls from their guard post at the jail next door.

Slim went for an explore too, while the more observant of our group searched the wall which adjoined the jail cell area.

As Slim ascended the stairs (this part of the building was two storey), half-way up, he noticed a line of iron filings on the stair. He carefully stepped over it and got to the top. There was a gloomy hallway with doors off it; the whole level felt cold. He thought he saw shadowy movement from the corner of his eye, so he wisely didn't hang around, and carefully joined us back down in the warm (and did not touch the iron filings on the way down).

While Slim was gone, we indeed DID find a secret door under the stairs. Why this was here, I had no idea, but we certainly took advantage of it!

As I could now cast second level spells with reasonable efficacy, the plan was to have a Silence 5m radius on the back wall of the cell block. That way, the 5m ring of silence would not encompass the two gnoll guards guarding the jail's outside door, and that way the cell occupants, and US, would not need to worry about being noisy.

This was achieved by me leaning out the back window of the tavern's common area and casting the spell on the ground behind the cell block. With the Silence in effect, it was easy to go through the secret door. Ghandi and Slim picked the locks of the three cells and we beckoned all three women out. The presence of the two children allayed any fear the mother might have had.

The spell lasted 10 minutes which was enough time for the lock-picking to go ahead.

RETCON

The three ladies all had spell-caster gags - locked gags to stop any spells [ with the new FSS system, the traditional  "WG grape spell-clearing" no longer works, so these gags were the logical result of the new magic system ].  The three women were Jermaine, the children's mum and Aquamarina priestess, Jemma an Aquamarina mystic and friend of Jermaine, and Esme a wizard who had been captured afterwards by the gnolls. 

With the three freed women in tow, we went back down to the tunnels, Slim hurriedly recovered the hidden compass, and then we hurriedly left Brian, heading for Toluene. If the gnolls pursued, we saw no sign of this. But looking at it from their point of view, the guards would have entered the cell block the next morning, only to find the three cell doors closed and locked (Ghandi relocked them all), and the women gone. We left no other trace.

The trip back to Toluene took nine days - five nights in the mountains and four across farmland, but we were very careful about choosing good campsites [ judicious use of Luck to ensure that we did not fail any Wilderness Survival rolls when selecting campsites ]. There was one night with some kobold trouble, but we are now a large scary party - especially with Jermaine, Jemma and Esme, and the kobolds soon realized they were out-gunned and fled.

Toluene, Brian and Draser

When we got back to Toluene, we had a large list of things to do:

• We said our goodbyes to Jermaine, Jemma, Esme, and the children. 
• I told the Toluene authorities about the gnoll take-over of Brian. As explained in a previous diary entry, Brian was on the borders of the Noah-Basen Confederacy, the Duchy of Draser, the "lakeside protectorate" of Mamba, and Hackerton. But, like the little red hen, all four groups were perfectly happy to participate in the largesse of Brian's gold mines, but as soon as there is any trouble or work to be done in Brian's defence, it is all someone else's problem. Nevertheless, the Toluene council mumbled about doing something. 
• I also wrote a Gnome Post to Hackerton - they are "lawful pedantic" there, so maybe it will strike a chord about laws being broken. Mamba is a small town so its standing garrison is probably too small to afford any soldiers. And Draser wouldn't care a toss. Brian's gold is not flowing much these days, anyway.
• We visited Dimble and updated him about the verbena planting. He was quite happy, and actually paid us. Praise be to Vingt-et-Un! Dimble had some more gifts for "his good gnome friends" Ghandi and Balder. He gave them each a magical necklace (that will improve one skill by 1). But the side-effect was they were magically stuck. 
• We send a message to Druids' Grove about Igbot's death.

Amy Fazarkerley,
Toluene 21 priestess

Sophia and I went to the Vingt-et-Un temple, and paid our tithes, and updated the High Priestess Amy Fazarkerley of all our recent exploits. She was glad for the information. Also, she had some work for us. We needed to go to Draser city to find lady called Simone Fussell. Simone (human) had been sent to Draser for "important investigative temple work", but she had gone silent, and so Amy was worried. (Draser city had no 21 temple - only a shrine). If we took this job - we would need to convince our group - Amy would arrange for us positions as guards on a slave caravan that was about to pass through Toluene in the next few days, en route to Draser. This would give us cover and an excuse to get into Draser.

Draser is not a nice place. It is predominantly human and they are very bigotted (long story). Draser hosts the infamous "Running of the Elves", an annual celebration where (mainly) elves, and criminals have to run the gauntlet through the rough part of town. Those who make it through the other end, are freed. 

Sophia and I (both half-elves, so not so much at risk) were, of course, happy to do the work for Vingt-et-Un. When a representative of your god commands you to jump, you say "how high". But there was the matter of the rest of the party - we needed to get them on board. 

Ugly scarred Elvis, the only elf in our group, (understandably) refused, but he was leaving us anyway; he never got much chance to play his Jewish harp on the road, so was leaving to pursue his bard career.

Balder and Ghandi were also not too keen - another popular Draser sport is Gnome Tossing - so this was understandable. 

Lucky there were no halflings in the group. Draser has two sports for halflings: "Angry Halflings" fired with catapults, plus the famous "Draser Halfling Kebab". We didn't have any dwarfs either: "Draser Ten Pin Dwarf Bowling" would not be appreciated.  

Slim wanted to go off on a wild goose chase to sell the golden compass for "millions of gold pieces". We soon out-voted this wild idea, but he had his heart set on the compass as a future nest egg, and he was worried that some gangster demon or mafia lord would steal it, so we agreed to escort him to hide it. It was buried a day's walk out of town.

Monty's Caravan

  

The caravan arrived in a couple of days. It was run by Monty the Goth, who was a grizzled no-nonsense fighter chap with one eye. He had 15 guards already which we would be joining. The slave caravan had 6 wagons. Three of the wagons held 18 human and half-elf slave girls - all attractive. One wagon had a large cage with silver bars which contained a solitary young girl. This was a "special" bespoke order, and Monty wouldn't say any more, except to "stay away from her".

Monty gave Sophia, Ghandi, Balder and me "kobold livery". This was a small embroidered kobold that was to be sewn onto the wearer's garment. In Draser city grounds, all non-humans must wear kobold livery, else they will be arrested on sight.

I asked Monty if we would travel down the main road: Puck, Trillery, Xyster, Okle, but he said no, we were to go cross country, even though it would be slower. This whole area (including Toluene) is pro-slavery, so there is no problem on the legality front.