Return to 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
• Red Feuersturm (human temple fighter of Hob) - Chris
• Donk Platebreaker (human fighter) - Jeff
• MARMALADE: Malcolm Gandhi (gnome thief) - Kevin

The party

By Walton

We moved back to the entrance tunnel and cured up a little bit. There were still three gnolls in the other cave, abusing Slim, but there was no way we could take on three at once. So, we planned an ambush and waited. 

Sure enough, Vingt et Un was with us, and a single gnoll came out. He was ambushed and the battle was short and brutal, and this gnoll was killed: Donk and Red took the brunt of his attacks while the rest of us chipped in.

The other two gnolls heard the noise of the battle and charged, but by the time they got near, it was over. We shot at them. Red had a heavy crossbow and this did significant damage. The damaged gnolls soon changed their minds, and retreated. Having lost their mate, they probably now feared us. So they ran off. We followed. But there were two kobolds left guarding down another passage. The gnolls ordered these two dears to take us on. They did and that allowed the gnolls to escape.

While this was all happening, Slim, who was hanging upside down from his tied feet in the other room, managed to wiggle his feet free and fell down. By the time we got into his chamber, he was on the ground looking none the worse for wear. I was surprised that the gnolls didn't kill him in cold blood; lucky Slim - Vingt et Un must have had her shining eyes on him too. We searched what the gnolls had left; nothing significant.

We sorely needed a long rest, so we slipped back into the verbena shaft, and went down the side tunnel where the geothermal stream emerged, and stopped next to the bear cave.

Sophia and I took holy wafers and went out cold: eleven hours. 

The bear arrived back while we were resting, but it couldn't get climb over the blockage of the collapsed tunnel - it certainly tried, but the gap was too narrow. 

The group organized to have a guard stationed on the stream tunnel entrance (towards the verbena area), but nothing was spotted.

Just Sophia and I awoke, Balder woke up from his miserable marmalade malady [ Jamie arrived, late ]. He was very magic-depleted, so he took a grape so that he could recharge.

Sophia's suspicious bracelet

Half way into Balder's rest, Sophia sneaked over the collapsed tunnel into the (currently empty) bear cave. We had spotted a source of magic here from last time, so Sophia hunted around in the bones, matted fur and generic bear rubbish. Here, she found a bracelet that glowed with Detect Magic. When she touched it, she felt a cold chill; and at that moment, one of the desiccated skeletons in the bear trash started to move. Nonplussed (or, maybe she was a wee bit plussed) she ran off, bracelet with her.

As soon as Balder was done resting, we all hurriedly left the caves and headed back towards Brian intending to head back to Toluene.

After a day or so, we reached Brian and gave the plague town a wide berth. Well, we tried, but we were deftly intercepted by a couple of young children, a boy and a girl. They pleaded for our help. Amelia (8) and Colin (12)  told us that there was no plague in Brian; it was just a ruse. The small mining town had been overrun by about 50 gnolls. Their mother, an Aquamarina mystic and of high standing in the town, was still alive and was being held captive in the Brian jail.

Corpulent Jester

The children had been fending for themselves for the last week or two since the gnolls had struck. They kids thought that the gnolls were looking for something. They had reopened some of the abandoned gold mines and were using towns folk as slaves to dig. Most of the people were being kept in a central stockade in the middle of the town.

The children knew of an old (gold) mining tunnel that lead under Brain. This tunnel came up under the inn The Magical Seagull. Brian had two taverns: The Magic Seagull and the Corpulent Jester. The Jester was next to the Brian jail - the children said that this was where their mother was being held.

Sophia, Balder and Walton went for a strategic reconnaissance. They got to the basement of The Magic Seagull. There was a false wall in the basement, and from there stairs led upstairs to the inn proper. Here we could hear gnolls talking and moving about. The place was half burned and you could see bits of sky through the roof, so the gnolls didn't use the place to stay, only to drink the ale. 

We waited and the gnolls left the place about midnight. Then Sophia - not a bad sneaker for a priestess - went for a reconnoitre. It was a short walk, 100 paces, and she found the other inn  - The Corpulent Jester. It was empty at this time too. She then returned to report. 

Having completed our mission, us three brave scouts withdrew back to the tunnel entrance where the rest of the group waited in awe and with bated breath. We discussed what to do next.

Slim, the ever-brave, wanted to take the kids to the nearest significant town and report the gnoll attack to the authorities, so that they could send some soldiers to clean out the gnolls. The problem was, we were not at all sure of whose jurisdiction Brian fell under. 

This was a gold mining area, and it was under claim from one of (see arrows, Brian centre): the Noah-Basen Confederacy, the Duchy of Draser, Mamba and Hackerton (Free Coast). If it was Noah-Basen, then Toluene would be where the troops came from. If it was Draser, that city would be the one to supply troops. Similarly for Mamba and Hackerton.  

The party had a vote and we decided (all except Slim and Elvis) to attempt to rescue the children's mother, the Aquamarina mystic.

Then we began to discussed how to achieve this without doing Plan A. Against 50 gnolls, Plan A would not be very successful!