The Stranger

Present:

• Balder Dash (gnome wizard) - Jamie
• Donk Platebreaker (human fighter) - Jeff
• Joe Manco (human fighter) - Shane
• Malcolm Gandhi (gnome thief) - Kevin
• Red Feuersturm (human temple fighter of Hob) - Chris
• Slim Jim (human rogue) - Darryl
• Sophia Beauchamp (half-elf priest 21) - Ian
• Walton Formalin (half-elf mystic of 21) - Andrew

By Donk

The group briefly debated the merits of exiting the basement of Tommo's place via the magically trapped secret door, and then we all clambered back up the ladder hidden in the fireplace. Slim lingered at the back, looking wistfully at the secret door for a minute or two, then followed everyone else back up the ladder. As the stone hearth slid quietly back into place it was decided that we needed to retrieve our equipment from the Porcelain Ferret, and head back to Draser as quickly as possible.

The timing of the events here in Disen, when combined with our previous discoveries in Draser, indicated that Simone had been snatched off the street the day before her audit of the Globe Casino books, then almost immediately rescued by Tommo and taken down to Disen to hide. They had been discovered here in Disen after a few weeks by Globe hoods and fled back to Draser to hide out there. Tommo had been seen in the Eternal Goose, talking furtively with Reggie the barman, after the Disen fire, and we knew he owned a warehouse down in the Draser Docks, and was part owner of a tavern somewhere there also. [This ownership information had been found in the various papers and documentation the party had located in the basement of The Oaks, Tommo's house in Disen, now partially burnt down]

And off we went. 

It was a two-day trip back to Draser, so we negotiated with a farmer close to nightfall and stayed in his cosy barn. There was a small incident in the night when three Orcs and six Goblins tried to rustle the farmers cow herd, but we successfully dealt to those, and delivered the heads to the farmer and reassured him that his barn and field were under excellent care for the night. He was most appreciative.

We did notice that one of the Orcs was wearing a Draser Dragoon emblem roughly stitched onto his leather jerkin, so we ripped that off him with a view to report it to the militia once we got back to Draser.

"What if they hire Orcs in the Dragoons?" wondered Slim out loud.

"Let's not bother reporting it" suggested Walton, "They may have carte-blanche to raid farms"

"But if that was the case, surely they would just take them in the day. Why bother sneaking about at night?" prompted Slim.

We eventually arrived back at Draser after nightfall and didn't bother reporting anything. We decided that our old Inn, the Obscene Gnoll, would be perfect as a base to follow Tommo's property ownership leads, and even managed to get our old rooms back. We planned to head off to the Docks district in the morning and settled in for a quiet night.

Surprisingly, it was a quiet night, and in the morning we all trooped off to the Docks district on a hunt for Tommo's warehouse, and the Bedraggled Lizard Tavern of which he was a part owner. Malcolm was pretty sure that no one was following us, and the Docks district was pretty busy, even in the morning. So, we blended in with the crowds, kind of.

We found the Lizard, which looked like a nice cozy place, and directly across the road was a large warehouse that Walton figured was Tommo's. Despite Slim's protects to the contrary, we all popped into the Lizard for a drink. Even the Gnome slaves were allowed inside, although Walton kept up his pretend abuse of Malcolm, "to maintain appearances". He had him on a leash!

"Can you pretend a bit gentler?" whispered Malcolm after one of Walton's more enthusiastic thumps.

The Lizard was a nice cozy place, friendly towards our Gnomes (and other slaves), the female barmaid was helpful and cheerful, and we decided we should relocate from the Gnoll so we "could be closer to the Docks". Wink ...

Red, Slim, and Sophia stayed at the Lizard, while the rest of the party went back to check out of the Gnoll and transfer our equipment. Sophia struck up a conversation with the barmaid (Thelma) about potential transport to Hackerton [We had also discovered that Tommo was a saffron trader, with quite a bit of commerce to Hackerton, so a Hackerton transport seemed a safe course of investigation] 

The Stranger

Red and Slim had settled in at one of the tables with a few beers, and scanning around Slim noticed a darkly clad hooded figure sitting quietly in a back corner of the barroom. He was occasionally sipping from a tankard and smoking a pipe. A flickering candle cast shadows across his face, and curls of pungent smoke from his pipe masked any potential scents. His eyes seemed to be resting steadily on them, with an occasional glance across to Sophia at the bar.

"Mmmm", noted Slim, "A suspicious stranger"
"Subtle, or direct?" asked Red.

"Direct" replied Slim, standing up and purchasing a new tankard of beer.

Slim dropped into the seat next to the stranger, pushed over the beer towards him, and launched into a long tale about going on a hunt for a missing friend. The stranger was silent for the whole tale. then rose up and walked away. He did say a quiet "thank you" as he left, but nothing else.

"Mmmm" noted Sophia, "An Elvish accent"

That evening the stranger was back in the bar, and Sophia noticed he was drinking a fine elvish wine. There were plenty of others in the bar, including a bunch of slaves, but no one else was drinking anything like the wine the stranger had. Except Sophia. She asked Thelma at the bar for the same drink as "that guy". Thelma asked a question in elvish, and Sophia replied in elvish. Sophia took two elvish wines over to the stranger and had a quiet conversation. They talked about Tommo, and the saffron trade. Sophia mentioned looking for a "special" saffron.

While this discussion was going on in the corner, Slim was checking the whole place for anyone else that might have been paying undue attention to Sophia and the stranger. Only Thelma at the bar was paying any attention, and she whispered something to her associate barman. Slim sidled up to the other barman just after that and let him know that he was trying to get in touch with Tommo, and with the person he is protecting. 

The other slaves became very angry

Balder (as Donk's personal slave) mingled with the other slaves, who appeared to be generally happy with their lot, and happy that this Tavern was so friendly to their plight. But they had noted that Walton (as Malcolm's owner) was not a nice person, and very aggressive and disrespectful to Malcolm. Balder was happy to encourage their discontent, and Walton was soon the target of some very angry glares!

Walton chose not to acknowledge the negative attention directed towards him and gave Malcolm a good cuff around the ears.

Then he decided to retire to our rooms for the night.

The next morning Walton gave Malcolm another cuff round the ears and told him that he needed to head out and reconnoitre the warehouse.

"Try and break in and see what's going on in there" Walton instructed.

"Holdy on" suggested Balder, "I can be making you invisible"

With a wave of his hands, Balder cast his Invisibility spell, Malcom disappeared from sight, and then the door to the room swung open, and clicked closed again.

Everyone made their way to the outdoor deck, ordered some breakfast from Thelma, and settled down to wait. Ten minutes of invisibility, plenty of time for a decent scout!

A minute later, a loud klaxon sounded from across the road. Heads swivelled towards the side door of the warehouse, which suddenly slammed closed with a crash. 

"Oh deary me" muttered Balder, "I hoping Malcolm not being inside dere"

We figured that we should wait out the ten minutes before taking direct action, and just before that time wound down, Malcolm's voice sounded from under the breakfast table.

The warehouse side door

"Moof over" Malcolm whispered, "Giff me some space"

"I unlocked the door in a flash" Malcom continued, "But as soon as it swung open an inch, woop woop"

"I just keep walking along the street" he concluded, appearing on the bench seat between Walton and Balder, "And there are definitely people inside dere!"

Sophia wrote out a short note stating that she was on an assignment from VINGT-ET-UN to locate and rescue Simone Fussel, that she knew Simone was likely to be with Tommo Fussel, and that our references from VINGT-ET-UN could be verified at the Lizard at any time. Sophia then slipped across the street, past the side door of the warehouse, with a slight pause to slide the note underneath the door.

Sophia then wandered up to the bar, and let Thelma know that we were on an assignment from VINGT-ET-UN and were looking to find and rescue Simone. And that we also knew about Tommo and his ownership of the warehouse, and part ownership of the Lizard.

Some hours later, we noticed that the main warehouse doors had swung open, and a team of stevedores had begun to lug out transport boxes and load them onto two barges tied up the adjacent dock. Each barge had a couple of guards, and the stevedore crew looked to be about six or seven strong.

"Ghandi, get over there and check out the inside" commanded Walton, with another cuff around the ear.

Balder cast Invisibility on Malcolm again, and he disappeared for another reconnoitre attempt.

Just shy o ten minutes later, Malcom was back with some exciting news. There was a large guy inside the warehouse giving orders, and the others had called him Tommo! This was it.

"Oh" added Malcolm, "Dey vill be lugging oot some people sized crates soon!"

"Probably smuggling slaves or elves out of the city" suggested Sophia.

"But" gasped Walton, "They might be smuggling Simone away too"

Sophia leapt up from our table and strode purposely across the road, past the stevedores, and in through the warehouse doors.

"Where's your boss" we faintly head from where we were sitting.

And then the large double doors of the warehouse pulled closed with a thump.

"Let's charge" suggested Slim.

"I'm ready" noted Donk, hand dropping to the hilt of his sword.

"Hold on, hold on" commanded Walton, "We know its Tommo in there, she'll be fine"

"It was Tommo in there, wasn't it Ghandi" asked Walton.

"Oh yes, absolutely was Tommo" stammered Malcolm.

"I bin seeing him with my own eyes" confirmed Malcolm.

"Of course, I never seem him before" clarified Malcolm, "But he be looking just like Tommo"

"Anyway, de offer guys, dey call him Tommo" 

On Walton's reasoning, we decided to wait for fifteen minutes, enough time for Sophia to talk her way out of trouble, and then we would charge in and smash through the warehouse doors in a glorious rescue attempt.

After ten minutes, while we were all staring across the road at the warehouse doors, with Balder providing a minute-by-minute countdown [Wizards all carry an accurate chronometer to assist in their magical stuff], the stranger wanders out of the main bar, hood up, and speaks to Walton.

"Your Sophia is fine" he said.

"She ees just concluding some discussions with our Monsignor Tommo, and will rejoin you shortly"

Then he slipped back inside the Tavern, before Walton could even formulate a reply.

Twenty minutes later, the warehouse side door swung open, and Sophia emerged. She bustled across the street and slumped back down at our table.

"She is there" Sophia reported, "Simone is there. She will meet with us tonight at 8pm in our rooms"

Off to Disen

  Present:

• 

  Simone Fussel,
  Vingt-et-Un auditor

  Sophia Beauchamp (half-elf priest 21) - Ian
• Joe Manco (human fighter) - 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
• Malcolm Gandhi (gnome thief) - Kevin

By Walton

So, we were in the city of Draser, largest in this area, and fourth largest city in the Known World, with 95,000 people. We were trying to find Vingt-et-Un auditer Simone Fussel. She had gone missing many weeks ago under suspicious conditions. She had been sent to Draser to audit the books of the Globe casino. Divine law insists that all casinos and gambling establishments pay specific pecuniary homage to Vingt-et-un (hence the audit).

We were in the Sprawl, outside the Barbaric Monkey tavern. We had determined that Simone had been attacked here, and dragged away by three thugs one of whom was Jasper the Mask. 

So we sent out our feelers to locate Jasper: Slim went off to the Thieves' Guild, and Sophia went after a bunch of street urchins, using her charm and wit (and cleavage).

It turned out Jasper hung out in the Pits - this was the area of Draser where the great slave houses were located. He frequented an inn called the Defeated Seagull. So, we went there.

As with most places in Draser, there were "No Gnomes, Dwarves or Hobbits" signs on the door of the Defeated Seagull, so we had to leave Gandhi and Balder (with their embroidered kobold monikers clearly visible) outside on leashes, with Donk guarding them. Sure enough, exactly as claimed by the urchins, Jasper the Mask was here in a back room, surrounded by some bully-boys and whores.

The infamous Draser
Tower prison

I approached and questioned him. After much cajoling, pleading and faux threatening (and lucky rolls), Jasper admitted to us that his group of thugs had been hired to grab Simone and take her to "the Tower". This was about four weeks ago. The Tower was a tall prison in Draser, to hold criminals, villains and non-human scum. 

Jasper continued his tale: on the way to deliver Simone, his group was set upon by another "vastly superior" group of assailants. They took Simone off Jasper's gang, and spirited her away. 

"I barely escaped with mah life!"

This happened near River Bend (where the Draser river does a very sharp ox-bow and is the site of the main river docks).

We further questioned Jasper, but didn't get any more salient information. He would not reveal who had hired him - even with more cajoling [ and good Persuade rolls ].

"More than mah life's worth," he muttered.

Jasper the Mask

While we were inside questioning Jasper the Mask, outside the Defeated Seagull, Donk was confronted by a toff called Hugh Le Bron who wanted to buy both "slaves" Gandhi and Balder (as a "pigeon pair"), for tens of thousands of gold pieces each. Donk politely declined this generous offer, so Hugh gave Donk his card for future consideration.

We headed to River Bend. There were a few inns near this spot:  the Bedraggled Monkey, Limping Sahuagin, New Onion Inn, and the Lively Turtle Bar. But we didn't find any more information about a fight that occurred four weeks ago. Understandingly - there are fights and altercations every night around here.

Gandhi had been tasked to watch the Seagull after we left - he being the best of our hiders and sneakers. Sure enough, later that evening, one of Jasper's thugs left the inn suspiciously; so, Gandhi followed.

This thug went to the Globe casino; being a gnome, Gandhi could not follow. 

He returned to us to report. So... it seems Simone's attack was was an inside job then...

SO... 

With that lead on ice, we went after our other lead from last time. Simone had a brother called Tommo Fussel. He lived in Disen, a day or so Funkenwards of Draser. Disen ho!

Two days later (en route, we helped some unfortunates fix a wagon wheel), we arrived in Disen.

Disen was a small rural town, pop 320, with two travellers' inns here: The Porcelain Ferret and the Old Boot. The proprietor of the Ferret knew Tommo. Tommo lived in a cottage in the town called "The Oaks", there being three elderly oak trees in the yard. 

Tommo AND his sister - who matched Simone's description(!) - had been seen here two weeks ago. But that night, there had been a fire in the cottage, and the two not seen again. No-one had done any investigations about the strange fire. We don't even think they called the Sheriff.

Sophia and Donk spoke to proprietor of the Old Boot, Graham Greene: A group of five horseman were seen in town around the time of The Oaks fire. Further pushed, one of their descriptions matched a chap called Doily, from the Globe in Draser.

So, we went to visit the cottage the next day. 

Slim, our tracker, checked the stables. Some old horse tracks leaving.

Gandhi explored the three trees, and tied some yellow ribbons around the old oak trees. Then put the blame on me.

There was a well - empty, nothing significant.

The fire damage to the cottage was not too severe - the fire never took hold. It was a stone building, so some of the roof was holed, but no structural damage. We broke in and started searching.

There was a hallway, one bedroom, a common room with kitchen and a locked office - Gandhi narrowly avoided a death-poison needle trap in here. After that, Sophia and I started to use multiple Detect Magic and Detect Trap spells in every room.

In the fireplace in the kitchen, a brick slid and opened up a vertical shaft going down below the fire hearth. So we all went down below - even Joe.

There were more traps down here, both mechanical and magical. Gandhi found (by himself!) a trap in the floor dropping him into a pit with spikes. Lucky for him, rather than get impaled or sodomized by the spikes, his fat gnome body got wedged between two enormous spikes.

In a bedroom down here, we found two trunks, and a wardrobe with expensive cloaks and out-door gear. So, we helped ourselves to the finery.

There was a locked desk which was trapped. Rather than attempt a dangerous trap removal (no magic helps here) Gandhi used his hole-saw to get into the drawers from the back.

Bag of Dust

There was a wealth of information here. There were lots of papers and documents. It turned out that Tommo is a saffron dealer. He owns a warehouse in Draser (in the Sprawl), and owns a share of a Draser inn the Bedraggled Monkey. 

We found some magic thieves tools - this gave a hint as to Tommo's profession (but why not carry said tools on himself?). There was also a Bag of Dust (TM), and a large magical long knife (short sword).

In another room, there were three beds. We spotted a secret door on one wall, but there was a magical trap on that wall and on the ceiling. Suspicion was that it triggered from that wall or the secret door. Dead reckoning made us suspect it lead to an escape tunnel to the outside. 

Summary:

My current theory is that the Globe doesn't want to be audited, so they tried to disappear Simone Fussel; rather than kill her, they got her sent to the Tower prison using Jasper the Mask. But her brother Tommo found out about this, and he sent some of his agents (maybe even helped himself) to Draser. They were the ones who waylaid Jasper's group in River Bend, and retrieved Simone. And then they brought her here to Disen. But then the Globe sent out some more bully-boys (the five horsemen) to here to get Simone again (presumably to kill her outright this time). But Tommo spotted them, so he and Simone took off (hence the tracks in the stables).

The Dark Horseman

Present:

• Balder Dash (gnome wizard) - Jamie
• Donk Platebreaker (human fighter) - Jeff
• Joe Manco (human fighter) - Shane
• Malcolm Gandhi (gnome thief) - Kevin
• Red Feuersturm (human temple fighter of Hob) - Chris
• Slim Jim (human rogue) - Darryl
• Sophia Beauchamp (half-elf priest 21) - Ian
• Walton Formalin (half-elf mystic of 21) - Andrew

The Dark Horseman

The Dark Horsemen checked in on the slavers towards the end of the day again. Staring out from the scrubby bush some distance behind their wagon train, he watched them set up their camp for the night. He had ranged ahead and eliminated potential troubles for the slavers throughout the day, as he had for the past few weeks. He wanted nothing to interrupt their journey to Draser. His blade had been busy and the blood of many creatures from the surrounding wilds had dripped like rain from its tip. Orcs, Goblins, Bears, and even some Human filth. 

The wagons looked to be fine, no damage, and the guards ranging about the camp looked to be in good spirits. Good. Little did they know of the difficulties they had avoided by virtue of his protection. 

The Girl was still securely confined within her barrier, although even from this distance he could feel the tingle of her power. No doubt some of the slavers would be suffering from the leakage of her power through the barrier cage. Maybe even that foolish priestess who had attempted to contact him yesterday. 

The Dark Horsemen chuckled to himself as he recalled that attempt. The foolish priestess had cast a divinely activated communication back at him from the outskirts of their camp. A communication powered by the spirit of that ridiculous Goddess VINGT-ET-UN. He could still taste the lingering sting in his mind as it had arrived at him. But he had had the last laugh. His retaliation back down the spiritual conduit opened by her spell must have been most unpleasant to the Human Priestess. 

As the Dark Horseman turned away and trotted off into the surrounding forest to patrol the slavers' perimeter again, he felt a rising of the Girl's power. They won't be having a restful night in the camp tonight he mused.

...

Donk, Malcolm, Slim, and Walton looked around at the walls of root-bound soil that confined them. They had climbed up the roots from the passage below and squeezed through the narrow hole expecting to find Sophia there. But although squeezing through the same narrow hole before them, she was nowhere to be found when they arrived in the small chamber on the other side.

And neither was Joe! He had also squeezed through the narrow hole with them and had been grumbling about having to squeeze back down again, just minutes ago. He hadn't gone back through the hole, but neither was he here in the chamber. Noone had seen his disappear, but he was gone!

Walton decided that some rest and Magic Point recovery was going to be required if the Spider Climb spells were to be used to get back down to the passage below, and he settle down on the floor of the chamber and dropped into his recovery sleep.

Donk swung his axe at the root-bound soil a few times in an attempt to cut a way out, but quickly gave up when he found the walls to be much more resilient than expected. There was definitely some magic effect holding them all in here.

"Where's Walton?" asked Malcolm a few minutes later. Just like Joe, Walton had disappeared from the chamber, and no one had noticed.

We decided that there was no way out from here, except back down through the tight little hole in the floor of the chamber, and back down the ropes to the passage below. Down we went, no problems, and then cautiously made our way back to the original shaft we had arrive down. So, just the three of us left now, Donk, Slim, and Malcolm. We had no idea where the others could be and weren't looking forward to more random wandering in circles once we were back in the forest.

Malcolm peers over the tops of the trees

Which thing we did. Malcolm climbed up a tree to see if he could see the slave wagons, which he couldn't, and then we tried to maintain a straight line through the forest using all the tricks we could think of. Checking our tracks, sighting on a particular tree and then another directly ahead. All to no avail, we still wandered in circles. We tried travelling in a circle to see if we then straightened up, but nope, that just got us back to the shaft where we had started even quicker. 

Feeling rather frustrated at all this getting nowhere, we slumped down near the top of the shaft, at the base of tree that Malcolm had climbed, and pondered on where the other might be, and how the heck we were going to get out of here. We must have dozed off, because ...

We all woke up, back in our beds under the slave wagons. Everyone was there, no damage, no missing slave girls, no magic points expended. Even Walton's collections of spiders used for his Spider Climb spells were all still tumbling about in his little jar. 

WTF?

"Bloody magic" suggested Slim, peering suspiciously at the slave girl in her silver cage.
"Get up and get out here" yelled Monty from up the front.

The wagon train was preparing to set off. We ate some cold breakfast, packed up our stuff, and set off with the rest. Only one and a half days to Draser now. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing!

The day passed uneventfully, and we again saw the Dark Horseman in the distance about a half hour before dark. Sophia kept a watchful eye on him until he disappeared back over a rise just before dark. We set watches ourselves that night, just in case anything else weird happened. 

But nothing did, unless you count the super disturbing dreams that Sophia and Red continued to have.

With only half a day left till we were expected to arrive in Draser, Monty called us together and outlined some particular "rules" that we should observe once we were in Draser. Like the Gnomes always wearing they ownership badges and knowing who their owners actually were and visa versa.

We decided that Malcolm would be Walton's "slave" and Balder would be Donk's.

Walton took his ownership to heart and once we arrived at the Draser gates, made sure to give Malcolm a series of punches and blows in front of the city guards, and then at random occasions for the rest of the day.

"In case we are being watched" he explained.

A dark robed pair collected the
slave girl in her silver cage,

Once we got past the gate inspection and into the city proper, the wagon train made its way into the "Pits", the slave area of the city, where Monty's transactions were finalised, and the slaves delivered to their new owners. 

A dark cloaked male/female pair appeared and took delivery of the slave girl in her silver cage, and Red kept an eye on them as their wagon rolled off towards the "Castle" area of the city.

"I wonder if she was a Hob follower?" mused Red wistfully. "Pity we couldn't have done more for her"

"Don't be daft Red", replied Walton, "VINGT-ET-UN is our prime employer on this trip. We can't compromise that at all"

We enquired after the location of the Casino (named The Globe), received our "pay", took our leave, and made our way to The Obscene Gnoll, a well-respected tavern some 200m from The Globe.

Joe also left Monty's employ and we reluctantly accepted him into our crew.

After booking ourselves a place some one of the Gnoll's shared bunkrooms, we decided to have a scout around The Globe and see if anything suspicious jumped out at us. The Gnomes were not allowed entry, unless they were to be registered for the Cage Fights or Dwarf Throwing games. "We" declined that, so they stayed back in our rooms at the Gnoll while the rest of the group explored The Globe.

Weapons were handed in at the doors, and the simple rules were explained.

"No weapons, so spells, and no trouble"

Sophia tests the Craps table

There were five levels.

The ground floor had the cage fighting and dwarf (non-human small races) throwing competitions. There was a lot of noise, and to be honest, it stank terribly.

The next level had tables for Craps and Roulette.

"This is more like it" exclaimed Sophia, "I could do this"

The level above contained a series of missile weapon ranges, with non-human targets lashed at the end of the ranges. Bets were being taken on survival time, as bows, crossbows, darts, throwing knives, and other missile weapons were employed by the punters.

"Ewww" squealed Sophia, averting her eyes.

The next level was decked out for card games of all types, with tables packed into every nook and cranny of the floor. 

"I'll check out some of these people here" stated Slim, slipping off to one of the tables and apparently flexing his fingers. Turned out that the guards scattered about, and a lot of the punters, were members of the local Thieves Guild (TG), one of the enforcement authorities in Draser.

The next level looked to be accessed via some guarded doors, and Walton's attempt to head on up was met with a large open palm and a request for a 1k gold entry deposit.

"Yeah right" muttered Walton, turning back to the card tables.

Slim was nowhere to be seen.

As we began to mingle and get the feel for the place, a female Casino employee and follower of VINGT-ET-UN named Miranda approached Sophia and Walton, and asked if they were also followers of VINGT-ET-UN. She led us off to a quiet and private space for a "discussion". We were able to pursue our enquiries about Simone Fussel, who had indeed been here asking questions some four weeks ago. Apparently, she had spoken to a number of the Casino "management team" about possible profit skinning and inappropriate reporting. She had been here with her "brother", but Miranda couldn't recall if she had ever caught his name. But she did fetch Shay for us, another employee who Simone had spoken to. He was able to tell us that the "brother's" name was Tommo, a local that he was familiar with from the area. He also suggested that we could try some of the local haunts that Tommo was known to frequent such as the Eternal Goose, the Ladies Leisure, and the Able Chinaman. Shay also confirmed that Simone and Tommo had not returned since they had organised with "management" to review "the books" the following day. That was four weeks ago. No one had been particularly worried apparently.

"Well, they were nice" noted Sophia after Miranda and Shay had left, back to work presumably.

Joe tries his hand at card games

Slim reappeared and reported that he had chatted to a number of "associates" who had suggested that he "report" to the Eternal Goose and pay his respects. So, he said he was off to pay his respects and would catch up up later at the Gnoll.

Joe had also wandered off, to try his hand at gambling, but when he returned, he was grumbling about losing 9gp to some shady dealer.

"Oh yes" noted Sophia winking, "the House almost always wins. You will be unlikely to walk away with more than you came in with here"

We then left also, to head back to the Gnoll for the night, where Slim eventually joined us around eleven pm. He had visited the Eternal Goose, paid his respects, asked some subtle questions, and met a woman named Ruth who knew Tommo. They had had a brief conversation and Slim was able to tell us that Tommo was a friend of hers who had dropped through the Goose briefly about two weeks ago. He had been anxious and furtive, had only spoken with Reggie at the bar, and then disappeared out again. Not to be seen since. We set watches for the night and settled down for a well-earned sleep.

The next morning, after a hearty breakfast, Slim went back to the Goose "to pay some more respects", while the rest of us took a visit to the local FUNKEN WAGNALL Temple (aka Repository of Knowledge, aka Library) to research any Fussel family in the city.

Reggie was a low-totem TG member

Around midday we meet back at the Gnoll. Slim reports that the barman at the Goose, Reggie, is a low-totem member of the TG, but is second in command at the Goose below Zac, the owner.

"But" he adds, "Arthur, one the main town council members, is also a member of the TG"

Walton reports that there is only one prominent Fussel family in Draser, and they own and run a Tannery down in "the Sprawl". 

"But" he concluded, "we went there, and they don't know any Tommo Fussel"

It looked like our leads were limited. Slim reasoned that the Reggie guy behind the bar at the Goose must know something, since this Ruth broad has mentioned a furtive conversation between Reggie and Tommo just before he had disappeared. So, we decided that a drink at the Goose would be sensible and went over there straight after lunch. Well, Donk, Slim, and Sophia went over to the Goose. The others just hung about in the Gnoll for the afternoon.

Sophia exercised her charm and whit, and engaged Reggie in conversation, with her top partially unbuttoned. [Ian made good use of Sophia's Persuasion skill] He let slip that Tommo was a local acquaintance "in his line of work", but that he actually lived in the nearby town of Disen and not in Draser at all.

Donk stood silently looking tough and aggressive, which also worked well. No one approached him or said anything in his presence.

Slim met with his new friend Ruth and encouraged her (with a small pile of cash) to ask Reggie about that last conversation between Tommo and Reggie some weeks ago. This only resulted in Reggie looking annoyed and leaving the bar to slip out the back briefly. 

We decided that it might be a good time to leave and get ourselves back to the Gnoll. After reporting to the rest of the party, Sophia and Walton wandered off to find the local VINGT-ET-UN shrine before dark, supposedly located in the "Guard" area of the city.

During their trip, they encountered a group of rough looking youth who surrounded them menacingly, but only whispered to them that they knew a Simone Fussel, who was a "nice lady" that had got into an altercation about four weeks ago outside the Barbaric Monkey tavern in the "Sprawl". 

So, we all head off the the Barbaric Monkey that evening.

"Being led by the nosebag to a bog" grumbled Slim.

"But forewarned is forearmed" replied Walton, "So, be alert Donk"

"I only got two arms" noted Donk.

At the Barbaric Monkey, a lively and crowded tavern run by a giant of a woman, with a skinny rake of a second, we learnt that Simone Fussel had indeed been involved in an altercation outside the tavern some weeks ago. Simone was a benevolent supporter of the local homeless community and was often seen handing out alms and providing help to the unfortunate locals. She had been set upon by a gang, led by Jasper the Mask, and assisted by three rough looking cronies. She had been knocked to the ground, kicked and beaten, and dragged off. Probably to Jasper's place in the "Pits" 

Which we knew was the slave quarter of the city.

"Benevolent supporter" snorted Slim, "She only arrived in town four weeks ago"

"And then disappeared almost straight after" he continued, "This has got to be some con"

The slave market in the "Pits" area

Copse Troubles

 Present:

• 

  Monty the Goth's caravan

  Sophia Beauchamp (half-elf priest 21) - Ian
• Jo Manco (human fighter) - Shane
• MARMALADE: 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
• Malcolm Gandhi (gnome thief) - Kevin

By Walton

Solitary horseman

Last time, we had just crossed the Spoon river, and had overcome some troubles there, then we had seen a distant solitary horseman at the end of each day, and had found the signs of a recent fight (presumably caused by him).  

Sophia was having troublesome and disturbing dreams, every night now, and it was affecting her rest. No longer could she get any sleep. [ No magic recharge nor a healing recharge over night. Luckily, the holy-wafer magic-recovery still worked; that worked by knocking the priest unconscious and regaining 2d4 points. ] These dreams had started happening during the day now.

We all suspected it was Monty's prize slave - the young girl (ten-year-old looking) held alone in the small cage with bars made of solid silver. We had all been told, right from the start of this trip, to never speak or even get near this girl; under pain of death! One morning, Red happened glance over and notice that the girl was playing with small flames, in her bare hands.

He thought to himself: Fire? A Hob priestess?

He looked at her surreptitiously, she looked back, and he heard, in his head "Help me! Do not let me get to Draser. They will kill me. Please!"

Rather than do something rash that would get him (or us) killed, he came and spoke to me and Sophia. We chatted and the he compared his experience with the words Sophia heard in her head, and the messaging was the same. 

We did some experimenting. I escorted Sophia back a good league [ kilometre ] behind the caravan, and the bad effect vanished. Well, that proved that! 

Monty didn't like this "slacking off", despite a "we were just scouting the rear-guard, sir!".

"Don't do that again," he barked.

A few days later we arrived in the town of Able (pop 1390) which had a major crossing of the Oxfam river [ think Waikato through Hamilton size ]. Monty said we had two day's break here. 

So we partook of the pleasures of Able. There was a Vingt-et-Un temple here - the Five Card Stud Casino, so Sophia and I stayed there. In the consecrated ground, the silver-cage girl had no affect on Sophia. We spoke to the Priestess there, Anne Simons, and she told us that she had seen Simone Fussel - the woman we were sent to Draser to find - when she passed through Able four weeks ago. She said Simone was not a 21 priestess, but was a sell sword.

The rest of the group went to the Hammer and Tongs (it being the tavern closest to the 21 temple). They basically requisitioned the common room for their very own. There were two others staying there, a gnome called Joshua and a man called Jasper, but Slim bullied and threatened them, and they fled.

Other than that, the two days passed and we were on the road again: Draser ho. However, Sophia's dreams got even worse. And now they were affecting Red too. He, too, could get no rest.

At breakfast the next morning, Slim felt sick. As the day progressed, he started to vomit. Then followed bouts of explosive diarrhoea. We were suspicious. So Sophia checked him out with a Detect Poison. He was reeking of it! And it was a slow poison but a death poison. It looked like the bullied Jasper and Joshua had got their revenge. A Neutralize Poison fixed him.

Red discovered he could communicate with the girl in the silver cage. If he was in line-of-sight with her and he talked out loud, he would voice a question and she would speak in his head.

So we got him to ask a bunch of questions. She was far older and wiser than a ten year-old. She claimed she was an avatar of Hob and was being sent to Draser to be destroyed or sacrificed. And that we were her only hope, and we had to rescue her.

Power of Hob

Needless to say, this put the group into a dilemma. We were doing a Vingt-et-Un mission, so both Sophia and I wanted nothing to do with putting the mission into any kind of danger. We did not include our newest party member Jo Manco into this discussion. He would be loyal to the caravan, so no way would he betray them. Red was all for rescue, being a Hob temple fighter. But the rest of the group (Gandhi, Donk, and Slim) logically concluded that they could not beat the entire caravan guard compliment, and they would all be killed. Balder was marmalading, so he had no coherent input. Red could see the logic in all this, so he resignedly accepted the decision.

The mysterious lone figure on a horse was still following us. Every day, an hour before dark, we would see him in the distance. Monty just said to watch him, and not to bother approaching him.

Sophia tried casting a Whisper at him; it works line-of-sight and sends a simple message. She asked the figure to raise his arm if he heard her. This turned out to be "not such a good idea". There was a crackle of magic around Sophia and she screamed and collapsed. When she came out of her fugue:

"Evil, darkness, black, death, skulls," she gibbered.

Needless to say, we didn't do anything else to the lone figure for the next few days.

One morning, two days out from Draser, a group of twenty soldiers approached on horse-back. They had brightly coloured livery and pennants. Someone recognized the colours of Draser. 

"Get those gnomes in the cages!" yelled Monty.

I helped Gandhi and the marmalading Balder into one of the slave wagons and ensured they were wearing their embroidered kobolds (the sign of legal slaves in Draser).

Draser Dragoons

The soldiers arrived and the Captain introduced the troops as Draser Dragoons. These are professional soldiers from Draser. All human, of course.

Monty had warned us all to show deference, and not to defy them in any way.

They went through all the wagons with fine tooth-combs. They demanded to know who owned Gandhi and I claimed such. Gandhi had his embroidered kobold badge and the soldiers were happy with that. A strategic punch into his fat gnome belly amused the soldiers, so I followed up with a back-hand to his mouth, drawing blood. 

Satisfied all was in order, the soldiers continued on their way back up the road behind us.

The next morning, we were rudely awoken by shouts. Monty was in a rage and punching anyone who got near him. One of the cage doors was wide open and all the slave girls - three humans and two half-elves in this case - were gone. Monty got his trackers onto the tracks around the door, and they followed the tracks out into the plains towards a copse of trees in the distance. 

Slim had a look too. His superb eagle eyes [ he got a critical ] spotted a slippered footprint in the mud which matched Sophia's shoe. Needless to say, he did not mention this to Monty. Sophia, when questioned, had no memory of this.

Monty sent us all and Jo Manco after them to get them back - "Or else..." Red had collapsed with marmalade, so we left him at the caravan (with the marmalading Balder).

Thick and tangled woodland

The copse was a league from the caravan (and probably 20 leagues from Draser). It was a circle of dense woodland, maybe a 1100 paces in diameter.

We waded on in. It was thick and tangled woodland, with a short visual range. Despite our best navigational techniques, we got lost. And we hopelessly lost the tracks of the slave girls we were following. The whole place had a magical tinge (Detect Magic).

Gandhi climbed a tree. Near the top, he could successfully see the caravan off in the distance. He cut some marks on the trunk and branches of the tree facing the caravan and descended, being extra careful to cut marks in the caravan direction all the way down. So when he got down to us, we headed in the direction of the last mark. But it was no use; we ended up going in a circle and returned to this same marked tree.

So, we tried the opposite direction. We didn't find our way out of the forest, but instead found a shaft in the ground descending, in a steep slope.

So, dutifully, we marched down the steep slope. We must have magically shrunk on the way down. The roots in the shaft walls grew and grew, and we emerged into a set of tunnels with giant roots all around. We encountered some ants, and a mole, both huge, so we fled these. In a chamber to one side was a dead man, weeks dead, dressed like an adventurer. The whole place reeked of magic (Detect Magic).

Down one dead end, the sides and roof of the tunnel had little crawl-passages, with many small roots in them. There was some attraction magic on these, because various members of the group would be possessed and ensorcelled, and would keep returning to these crawl passages, in a trance, to try to crawl up them, and climb the roots. The trance wasn't very strong and it was easy for us to break the victim out of it.

Eventually, we exhausted all of the network of tunnels, and we didn't want to go through the mole's home, nor the ants' city, so we followed possessed and deliberately chose to climb the root tunnels.

It was a very tight squeeze, and I had to make much use of the Spider Climb spell to help the non-climbers, and Feather fall to rescue those who could climb but fell. At the top of the root crawl-passages, it got very tight - we suspect we were growing back to normal size at this point. Donk and Jo had to help push the weaker of us through the last few metres of tunnel.

After much to-ing and fro-ing, we all (Donk, Slim, Gandhi, Jo, Sophia, and me) eventually managed to get into an enclosed chamber of earth. We were not sure if we were actual size at this state or still shrunken miniatures. However, one thing we were sure of was that Sophia had vanished.

Dryad and the run-aways

Sophia addendum:

The long-legged dryad, whose beauty made you cry, brought in a second platter of creamy brie, crisp crackers and dried quince paste. She was dressed in a tight green tunic and flowing skirt that clung to her shapely legs, with her long green hair cascading down her back. 

Sophia was reclining on a chaise longue sipping honey mead, and nearby were the five runaway slave-girls; the ones Monty had ordered the group to recapture. 

The last thing Sophia remembered was climbing up the root tunnels, with Jo's grubby hands on her butt pushing her through the last few tight feet of tunnel. Then, suddenly, she was in the light and airy room with the slave girls and the beautiful dryad.