The Undead Encounters

   Present:

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

By Jeff

Everyone was standing around the remaining two wagons from the slavers collection, poking through the pile of recovered goods when they noticed that the third human slave from the wagon had sidled back from the woods.

"Well done you lot, and thanks heaps for the rescue" said Grizo.

Grizo hailed from Krondyke

[Introducing Grizo, Jeff's new thief character. A scrawny looking fellow, originally from the town of Krondyke, two days travel from Mamba and on the upper headwaters of the Furness River. Grizo has been press-ganged while passing through the town of Lakeside a week or so ago. Grizo had been sent by the Thieves Guild of Krondyke on a training exercise to make contact with the Lakeside chapter of the Guild. 

Apparently regular communications between Lakeside and Krondyke had been suddenly interrupted. As an expendable new recruit, Grizo was chosen to check out the problem and sent on his way.] 

After suitable "settling in" discussions, the party got back to checking out the loot.

"This chain mail fits nicely" stated Red, dropping the vest over his head.

"And this studded leather is pretty sweet" noted Kosha, settling it over his slave robes.

"Oooh", exclaimed Kosha, "A bow as well"

"Those ten vials in that box are magical" stated Sophia, "As is that Long Sword, and that Cloak"

"As are you Balder!" she continued, frowning at Balders blue skin and twitching hand.

The loot also included piles of clothing, weapons, a slavers licence and paperwork, the wagons, one warhorse, one riding horse, four cart-horses, foodstuffs, water, ale, magical grapes, and a chest with fifteen hundred gold pieces. The loot was loaded into the covered wagon, although Sophia threw the cloak over her bare shoulders, and Grizo quietly lifted the magical Long Sword, slipped it into a sheath, and strapped it around his waist. The clothing was also divided among everyone. The Draser girls were loaded into the cage on the second wagon, and we set off back up the hill. Away from Draser! And towards Hackerton. 

"We'll need to pretend to be slavers ourselves now!" exclaimed Walton, with a grin.

As we travelled back up the switchbacks towards the Mamba saddle, Kosher explained that he had also been enslaved in Lakeside. Apparently, a few months back, the local Lakeside elections had installed a Mr Otto Turner as the new mayor. Otto had been a long-term local farmer, but since gaining his new position a large number of rough strangers had been employed by the local council, local residents had disappeared, trade had slowed to a trickle, a lot more slavers had been passing through the town, and a number of people that Otto took a dislike of had been "arrested" and sold as slaves.

"Including me" grumbled Kosher, "So we had better not pass through the town on this trip!"

"But we do need to recover Cousin Malcolm as soon as possible" stated Balder, "And by the prickling in my thumbs, and in my guts, and in my medallion, I fear he is in grave danger at the moment!"

Walton's Grapes of Power

That night we negotiated a set of three watches, accommodating Walton and Balder's need to sleep and recover their power points. So Balder and Grizo took the first watch, while Walton took a grape and slumped into his power recovery sleep. Since Sophia's Holy Symbol of VINGT-ET-UN had been taken by the Lizardmen, and she did not have access to any of the Church's Holy Wafers of Power, she could not recover power points and so took the midnight watch with Red. For the last watch, Kosha took that on his own until Walton revived, about halfway through the watch.

"Of course I trust him" ensured Walton before going to sleep, "He is absolutely one hundred percent trustworthy".

"I know we only met him a few days ago, and he is a slave, but he is a totally trustworthy slave!"

In the morning, we placed the sleeping Balder into the wagon and got moving. Down the Mamba side of the saddle today, through the upper switchbacks. When Balder eventually woke, about four hours after the dawn, he groaned and moaned, threw up over the side of the wagon, and curled into a foetal ball, whimpering in pain.

Walton cast a Cure on him, but that only aggravated his situation, and he screamed in agony as his health rapidly degraded. [His hit points dropped to two, for reasons unknown, but suspected to do with the plight of Cousin Malcolm, through some magical link provided by the magical cursed medallions, which were "gifted" by Dimble, the Gnome trader in Toluene]. 

Walton cast a Detect Poison on him too, just in case, but that was negative.

There didn't seem to be anything that could be done. Once we got moving again, the pain seemed to recede a bit, so we just monitored him closely as we bumped on down the switchbacks.

Two riders were approaching

The weather was cloudy, and a chill wind was blowing up from below. 

We spotted a couple of travellers heading up the hill towards us and Walton started singing quietly.

"Outside in the distance

A wildcat did growl

Two riders were approaching

The wind began to howl"

There was no howling, but two riders were definitely approaching. Those of the party that had Draser wanted posters pinned up in Mamba, tucked themselves into the covered wagon with the gear, and Kosha took the reins. 

Red took the reins of the slave wagon, and Griza sat beside him as shotgun. As the riders approached, they split, one to either side of the wagons, stopped, and watched us closely as we rode through. It was a nervous moment, but no one recognised them, they didn't appear to be Draser officials, they didn't start anything, and rode on after we had passed.

"Phew" exhaled Sophia from inside the covered wagon, "I hope they don't spot those wagons we tossed off the road over on the other side!"

We pulled into the waystation camp about halfway down the switchbacks and set up for the night. Walton and Balder repeated their magic grape and power point recovery exercise, and before we knew it it was morning again.

We descended the rest of the switchbacks with no issues. Balder was looking much more normal, not blue at all, and he was not feeling ill, although he was still only on two hit points. 

Kosha, driving the lead wagon, spotted a thin column of rising smoke and some circling birds ahead.

Although not anticipating any trouble, Walton cast a Cure of Balder to give him a bit more resilience.

"Oh dear" exclaimed Balder, "Dat is looking like where we be leaving Malcolm"

"Oh yes" confirmed Walton, "That is absolutely the exact spot we left him. Right by that fire"

Some five hundred meters off the road, there was a small clearing in the bush, and an old campfire was smoking. Two dead horses were lying on the grass, and two humanoid bodies could also be seen there. The circling birds were swooping down occasionally, tearing into the horses, flying off with chunks of horse flesh, and rejoining the circling plume of birds.

Halting the wagons on the road close to the clearing, Griza and Kosha jumped off the wagons, and silently disappeared into the bush to scout out the place for danger. Travelling together for most of the way, they split up and circled around in opposite directions. 

Peering out of the bush into the clearing, Grizo saw that there were actually four dead horses and four dead human males. Two of them were just on the side of the clearing, partially under the bush. The horses were large black ones, wearing the livery of the Draser militia, and the four human bodies were wearing chain mail, but looked strangely shrunken from his observation spot. Only the smoke and the birds were moving, so Griza moved in closer. Kosha was obviously doing the same, as Griza heard the occasional crack of a branch and spotted the rustle of a stealthy figure on the opposite side of the clearing.

Only skeletons were left of the four men

As Griza closed in on the first of the bodies, he saw that its face was just a skull, as though many many years had passed, although the smouldering fire indicated that all was normal just last night. Griza fortified himself to search the body, but just as he stepped forward, the hairs all along his arms and at the back of this neck lifted up with an involuntary shiver. Deciding that apart from himself, Kosha, the birds, and the dead, there was nothing else alive in the area to worry about, so he trotted back to the road to fetch the others. 

On the way back, there was a muffled exclamation from back near the bush beside the clearing, and a Gnomish squeak. "Oh my God" came the Gnomish squeak, "Who da bloody ell are you?"

Kosha refrained from killing the small Gnome that he had tripped over in the bush and returned to the wagon with Malcolm in tow. Apart from a soreness in the nasal passage, Malcolm was fine, and not at all blue either.

"I wouldn't go over there" instructed Kosha, "Something is off with those bodies"

Everyone apart from Kosha went off to check out the bodies. There were sets of chain mail that would fit Joe, and no doubt other treasures on the bodies of the men and horses. Red confirmed that these were the four men who had been in Mamba looking for the party, when they passed through a few weeks ago. As Joe went to strip one of the suits of chain mail off, his hairs all stood up too, and he jumped back with a squeal. Balder and Malcolm began to turn blue, and Balder's twitchy hand began to spasm.

Sopia used her last power point to cast Detect Undead and confirmed a positive result.

"Maybe I don't need armour just yet" Joe figured, and everyone returned to the wagons, and we carried on.

The mysterious follower passed

We decided that staying the night in Mamba itself would be too risky, with the possibility of being recognised, or outed as not actually being slavers, so we camped up before arriving at the town. Just after nightfall we spotted the unknown caped rider, well off the road, and passing on towards Mamba. We let him go! 

In the morning, Griza and Kosher took some of the cash funds and headed into Mamba to pick up some supplies and equipment.

"Are you sure you trust them?" asked Malcolm worriedly.

"Absolutely!" replied Walton emphatically, "One hundred percent; with my life"

While they were gone, Walton tested out the magical vials and concluded there were four Healing, two Neutralise Poison, one Invisibility, one Jump, and two Water Breathing Potions. Sophia cast a Detect Poison, all clear, and ten a bunch of Cure spells were also cast on various party members.

"Ahhh" sighed Joe, "That feels much better"

Griza and Kosher returned with a set of studded leather armour, two two-handed swords, and a couple of sets of small dice. [Replacement Holy Symbol of VINGT-ET-UN for Sophia]

And off we went towards Lakeside.

"We can't ride through Lakeside" argued Kosher, "They'll recognise us"

"We can't take the lake" noted Red, "Bloody swimming Lizardmen"

"We can go overland through the farms" suggested Malcolm, "Shouldn't be too tricky"

One kilometre from Lakeside, we turned off the main road onto a small farm track that looked like it was heading uphill and around the town. It was only one hour later that the covered wagon slipped off the bank of a narrow corner, and slowly toppled off the edge and down into the small stream below. Fortunately, the whole disaster happened relatively slowly and everyone on the wagon managed to jump to safety. But the wagon was unrecoverable, and badly damaged. 

"Well ..." muttered Malcolm, "Maybe a little tricky in places"

All the supplies were transferred into the caged wagon, and we carried on. Everyone was on foot now though, so it was slow going. Around the middle of the day, as we were rumbling across a grassy paddock, well up the hill from the lake, a mighty crash rang out from the wagon, and it crunched to a halt. The wagon had hit some large stone buried in the grasses and the front axle had snapped. The right front wheel and short length of axle topped out, and the wagon tipped to the ground.

We found ourselves in a graveyard

"Who put that friggen rock dere?" yelled Malcom

""It's an ancient gravestone" hissed Balder who was poking around the grass, "We're in an actual ancient graveyard"

"This is very Grave" Balder chuckled.

"Shut up you idiot" whispered Sophia, "Graveyards are not places to linger in, or be jovial"

Looking around, we could now see that the long grasses were covering a multitude of stone tombstones, weathered and broken, all around us. A small barrow reared up on our left, with a circle of standing stones planted around the top. Gathering up the supplies that we could easily carry by hand, we hurried on.

"What's this" wondered Red, spotting a skeletal hand lying in the grass, with a red ruby ring glinting on its finger.

"Flame red" he noted to himself, "Nice"

"POP"

Hearing a strange pop, Sophia looked around, and spotted something bouncing in the grass.

A skeletal hand.

"Where's Red?" asked Joe.

"Forget about him" grumbled Kosher, "Let's get out of here"

"Don't forget, Red almost single handedly rescued you from the slavers" countered Walton.

"Oh alright then" grumbled Kosher.

A Detect Magic indicated no unusual magic anywhere nearby, and definitely not on the skeletal hand.

A Detect Undead indicated no undead within range.

A Locate Object on Red's two-handed hammer got a trace, fifty meters towards the barrow, and underground.

The Barrow was topped with standing stones

"Oh wonderful" grumbled Kosher, "I'll stay topside and guard all the pretty ladies"

An investigation of the standing stones, and particularly the black unnaturally chill one in the centre of the circle, revealed a carved panel that Griza considered likely to reveal an opening.

"No traps" Griza reported, just before the panel slid aside with a grinding graunch to reveal a black shaft.

Deathly cold stale air puffed out, and Griza ducked back to clear the opening.

Walton cast a Protection from Evil on Joe, and Joe led the the way down the shaft. 

"Good luck" yelled Kosher as Sophia clambered in and down the old rusty rungs at the rear.

Jow leapt the last few feet and turned. Four torches gutted with an unnatural blue light in the corners of a small square room, about three-four meters along each side. A black obsidian altar to MALECHAI sat in the centre of the room, a shallow bowl full of glittering dust resting on its strangely carved capping. A single exit left the room on the opposite side. Joe slid carefully around the wall towards the opening. Everyone followed.

"My medallion is getting warmer" whispered Balder from the back, who was looking slightly blue now.

"Mine too" noted Malcolm.

Joe reached the exit, an opening in the wall that led to a descending stair and started down. The stairs descended for what seemed an age, although Balder figured was about a ten-metre drop, and then a flat passage turned to the left and carried on into the dark, eventually opening into another square chamber, carved roughly from the rock.

A large metal door stood at the far side of the room, surrounded by large stone statues wielding massive axes.

The air was unnaturally cold here too, and a foreboding feeling gripped the party members as they stepped in,

"I'm not stepping between those statues" quivered Griza.

"Watch this" quipped Balder, flapping his hands.

"BOOM" echoed around the room as the door slammed open.

Balder had cast a Knock spell, with spectacular results.

The sturdy metal door was open, and a chilling waft of flesh reeking air wafted towards us.

A flickering blue light from beyond the door outlined three shambling figures, staggering towards us.

Everyone retreated back into the passage, and Joe backed up slowly to the opening, his Protection from Evil still radiating out from him.  The three zombies stumbled across the room, but as soon as they approached to withing four feet of Joe they stopped and backed off.

Joe was able to herd them into a corner of the room, and everyone else scurried across behind Joe to the metal door. Griza eyed the statues warily as he passed between them, but they hadn't moved when the others had passed, so he crowded up to the door behind the others.

The door opened into a large chamber, a blue fire flickering from a small pit in the centre, with assorted torture devices and instruments scattered around. Manacles hung from the stone walls, some with skeletal arms still dangling from them. Two passages led out from the room, one off to the right and one off to the left.

Walton picked left, and advanced down a long passage, Joe staying back to make sure the zombies didn't bother us. A series of locked wooden doors marched along the left-hand wall, and Griza laid his ear to each in turn. The fourth door echoed softly with a dull banging and a deep rumbling voice, and Griza stepped back with a grin.

"In here" he confirmed, "And there are no traps!"

Malcolm took point on the Lock Picking but was almost immediately flung back with a squeal.  

A wave of crackling blue energy had erupted from the lock as Malcom had slipped in his picks.

"Ouch" Malcolm exclaimed, picking himself up from the floor.

"BOOM" went the door, slamming open with a crash.

Balder had cast a Knock spell again, and Red was lucky to have been on the other side of the small cell.

Yes, Red had been found, but not yet rescued!

"Um, guys" whispered Balder, "Something wicked this way comes!"

Something Wicked

He had sensed a chilling presence approaching from somewhere back towards the torture room. 

Sophia stepped to the fore, her Holy Symbol held up in front of her, and she led as we all returned towards the entrance. As Sophia stepped into the torture room, the most hideous creature also stepped in from the other passage. Its skin, what there was left of skin, hang in tattered strips. Two glowing red eyes stared out from a gaunt skeletal face, whisps of pale hair floating loose from its skull. With its mouth open in a silent scream, sharp teeth poised to chew, it launched itself at Sophia.

"Get thee hence you foul beast of MALECHAI" chanted Sophia, and it shrunk back and withdrew back into the other passage. While Sophia held her Holy Symbol that way, the rest of the party hastily passed across the room, through the metal door, past Joe, still holding off the Zombies, and back towards the surface. Sophia pulled out of the torture chamber, collected Joe, and followed us up to entrance chamber.

"Um, its closed" complained Griza, fumbling around for a handle on the stone wall at the top of the ladder.

"Allow me" insisted Balder.

"BOOM" went the stone wall, shattering open with a crash.

We all tumbled out into the circle of standing stones and raced off down the barrow towards Kosher and the girls.

"Go, go, go" yelled Walton and we grabbed up the gear and raced on out of the graveyard.

We kept moving quickly for a few hours when we settled down and made a camp for the evening.

Balder and Malcom were no longer blue, and their medallions were a normal temperature.

"Do you like my new ring?" asked Red.

Death Comes for Us

  Present:

• Balder Dash (gnome wizard) - Jamie
• Donk Platebreaker (human fighter) - Jeff
• Joe Manco (human fighter) - Shane
• MARMALADE: 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 Jeff

The Lizardmen had made short work of the party and things were looking dire. Balder, Donk, Red, and Slim had been cut down and were scattered across the floor of the tunnel, just before it opened up into the Lizardmen cavern.

Blood was spurting out from each of their nasty wounds, except for Balder who balanced on the cusp of consciousness. 

Sophia was ducking and dodging with a panicked expression as a Lizardman swung his long sword at her. 

Walton had squared off against another Lizardman and prepared for battle with a grimace.

Joe sported a wry grin as he swung his double handed sword at two snarling Lizardmen, one of them half again as large as all the rest.

Sophia ducked under her attacker's blade and offered a quick prayer of thanks to VINGT-ET-UN.

Walton took a blade to the shoulder and collapsed backwards to the ground, blood spurting.

Joe cracked the large Lizardman in the head with a Heavy Hit and killed it dead.

Another took its place.

[One of Joe's talents is the Heavy Hitter ability. After making a successful attack roll, he can spend two of his Luck points and roll a second damage dice. And this was a perfect opportunity to make use of that talent!]

Sophia swayed over and dodged a second attack.

Joe struck his next Lizardman target in the chest with another Heavy Hit and it flew backwards and collapsed.

Another took its place.

Donk's eyes flickered open, and he leapt to his feet. His sword was lying on the ground, clutched in the grasp of a bloodless corpse. As he bent down to retrieve it, he heard a sibilant summons. Looking about he noticed a most skeletal looking individual sporting a wicked scythe, beckoning him closer.

DEATH had come for Donk.

Sophia leapt back as a third attack swung in front of her.

One of Joe's opponents gave him a glancing blow.

Slim slowly lifted up from a lifeless corpse, only to be greeted by a sibilant whisper.

"Oh, bugger" he thought.

DEATH had come for Slim.

Sophia spun to the side and dodged a fourth attack.

Joe adjusted his grip on his two-handed sword and cracked his primary opponent in the head. It reeled backwards, but quickly recovered and charged back for more.

Sophia ducked under a fifth attack, but too slow. The sword thumped into her head, and she crumpled to the ground.

Joe's primary opponent thrust its sword into his guts, ripping open a nasty gash. As Joe collapsed to the ground in agony, he though he noticed a blue flash throughout the tunnels. And then darkness.

Time passes ....

Balder draws a breath, but something restricts his airways, and he panics, eyes flashing open.

He finds himself lying curled up in a stone cell, a ball-gag strapped around his head and filling his mouth. A pale beam of night light slides in through a barred opening high above and casts a streak across a rough stone wall.

The light provides a dim illumination within the squarish cell. 

On the wall away from the barred opening sits a heavy steel door, a small, barred opening in the upper half of the door reveals another larger room beyond. An orange flickering light through the opening suggests a candle or small lantern sits somewhere on the other side of the door. There is no handle on this side Balder notices.

Reaching up to remove the gag, Balder spots Malcolm curled up in the corner of the cell below the high opening. Scuttling over to him, Balder noticed that Malcolm was looking an odd blue colour. "Poisoned?" he wondered. 

Then he looked down, just to check. "I look fine" he mused.

Suddenly, Balder detected the sound of footsteps from outside the door, and he slumped down, pretending to be unconscious. A small metal flap at the base of the door swung open and a small plate of food slid in. The flap swished closed again, and the footsteps receded. "Probably safe" Balder figured, crawling across to the plate.

...

Sophia was dreaming about winning big at the roulette wheel, when the clicking of the wheel's spin and the rattle of the ball slowly transitioned into a gurgling snore. Sliding open a gummed-up eye, Sophia saw Joe's backside right in front of her. He was draped in a rough hessian robe, but she could still see acres of scarred skin covered in some form of mud poultice. Dried blood was smeared across a lot of the visible skin, and he was snoring with a rough gurling rumble. Sophia gave him a poke, but there was no waking him. Looking about, Sophia took a quick inventory: No gear, no holy symbol, no clothes (apart from a brown hessian robe each), no food, no power points, no hit points to speak of, but one ball-gag (strapped around Sophia's head and preventing any recognisable sounds).

Four walls and one door, with a barred opening. Staggering to her feet, Sophia peered quietly out the opening into a long rectangular room. The room was about five meters across and extended out of sight in each side. A human guard dressed in studded leather armour sat at a table directly in front of her door, roughly in the centre of the visible room. A metallic rasping echoed quietly from him as he drew his blade repeatedly across a whetstone.

"Let's not bother him just now" she figured and backed off to explore the small cell further.

...

Red was fire dancing across a blazing conflagration with gorgeous Shield Maidens when the fires faded out and the Shield Maidens transformed into Walton, unconscious on the floor of a cramped stone cell. "Bugger" he grunted.

Red stood and peered through a barred opening in a heavy metal door. Some wimpy looking human, without any decent metal armour, was playing with a puny little sword at a table off to the side. Red gave the door a shove, but his nasty Major Wound prevented any serious attempt at breaking out. "Later" he figured.

Red realised that while Walton was fitted with a gag, he didn't have one himself.
"And I have some power points available!" he thought.
"Maybe I'll just keep these in reserve" he decided.

...

A week or so passed. The guards interrogated each party member still alive and locked up in the cells, and eventually determined all their identities. Food was provided to the prisoners. The cell conditions were not at all comfortable, and a restful sleep was impossible. No spell point or hit point recovery was possible. Spells were unable to be cast due to the fitted gags, although Red could have sneaked off a few level one spells if they would have helped. But he held them back for a better escape opportunity. Balder and Malcolm were both looking decidedly blue, and Malcolm remained in his unconscious state!

One morning, everyone was dragged out of the cells, along a tunnel, to emerge into daylight. Blinking at the bright light after days in the gloom of the cells, Walton figured they were somewhere behind the town of Lakeside, with the cave complex buried into the local bluffs. There were four barred slave wagons parked in front of the tunnel, with one covered wagon, and everyone was roughly thrown into one of the wagons. The male non-humans, Balder, Malcolm, and Walton were tossed into one with a couple of other scrawny half-elves. Sophia was loaded into another wagon, with one other female half-elf, while the male humans, Joe and Red, were tossed into a third wagon with three other males, two burly looking fighter types, and a slender runt with shifty eyes. 

"Ello" said the slender fellow, "I am Griza. Velcome to ell"

The girls from Draser were loaded into a fourth wagon. 

Six burly human guards stood around, while an even bigger and tougher looking guy checked everyone out. A female spell caster type accompanied him. 

"Right you lot" he chuckled, "Off to Draser for you, and some nice loot and rich rewards for us"

Some of the guards climbed up onto the horses, and the slave train set off. Passing through Lakeside, the wagons turned right towards Mamba and settled into a slow but comfortable pace.

Eight heads are spiked nearby

"Oh golly gosh" pointed out Malcolm as we left Lakeside,"Vook at dat"

Up on the bank beside the road, a series of eight spikes had been driven into the ground.

A severed head adorned each spike.

The party stared in grief as the wagons rumbled past the heads of Donk, Slim, Jasper, Monk, Toby the traitor, the drowned Draser girl, and a couple of other female individuals.

"These slavers will pay" vowed Red silently.

The first few days travel from Lakeside towards Mamba were uneventful. The guards kept a close eye on the wagons and their new cohort of slaves, and the new slaves looked out for any opportunity of escape.

The trip to Draser would involve two days from Lakeside to Mamba, two days to the base of the switchbacks, two days up the switchbacks to the Mamba saddle, two days down the switchbacks, one day across the plains to Dlbenzo, two days to Atle, then a long day to Auntho, followed by another long day to Draser.

Towards the end of the second day, and just before arriving in Mamba, Sophia caught a glimpse of a cowled rider trailing the slave wagons, way back, and almost out of sight. Staring back, Sophia felt an uncomfortable feeling overcome her. This was the same uncomfortable feeling she had felt months ago when the party were first travelling to Draser, as slave guards, when the strange follower had appeared and had been close to the party. Back then they had figured that the follower had been related to the strange slave girl in the silver barred cage, but here he was back again. What could it mean?

A shadowy rider is spotted behind the party

Sophia alerted the guards of the sighting, but nothing else happened and an hour later the wagons arrived in Mamba. They pulled into the Mamba slavers compound for the night, the slaves were fed and watered, and everyone found the least uncomfortable spot for another night in a slave wagon.

During the night, Malcolm spat up a gob of Marmalade, and called out in his sleep restlessly. Walton was disturbed by his ruckus, and sidled over to him to see if he was OK. There didn't seem to be any problem, but while checking out Malcolm's breathing, he did find Malcolm's magical lock-picks wrapped up in a waterproof pouch and tucked inside his nostrils. 

[Gnomes generally have extremely large nostril features, and Malcolm was no exception. Gnomes often used their large nasal cavity to secrete small items that they didn't want others to find, or even search for.]

Walton briefly considered making use of Malcolm's lock-picks to break out of his gag, or escape from the locked wagon, but quickly realised that his talents lay in other directions. Tucking the lock-picks back at the rear of Malcolm's nasal passage, Walton wiped off his hands on his grubby robe, rolled over, tried unsuccessfully to get comfortable, and tried to rest.

The morning broke with dark clouds overhead, and a cold drizzle falling. The wagon train rumbled off towards the hills just after an unsatisfying cold breakfast. Sophia noticed the strange follower slip out of the bush beside the trail behind them and follow for an hour or so. Then he disappeared until just before dark, when he was again spotted in the distance behind the group, as the wagons were pulled into a small layby beside the road for the night.

A shadowy figure lurked in the darkness

During the night, the non-humans in their slave wagon were woken by a muffled crunch and a violent lurch. The wagon slumped over to one side as one of the wheels collapsed off its axle and fell to the ground. Two of the guards rushed over, and one of them opened the cage door and beckoned at Balder to exit the wagon. As Balder looked across to Walton in shock, the guard's eyes rolled up and he toppled backwards, unconscious. The second guard fell backwards in a similar state, and not needing a second invitation, Balder sprang to the cage door and leapt out. Walton, dragging Malcolm behind him, immediately followed. Then the other two Half-Elves jumped out of the cage and raced off into the darkness.

Balder had spotted a shadowy figure in the bush a way off and was wondering if this was an ally, or something more sinister. A soft chilling blue was emanating from its hands, and when the figure waved its arm towards Malcolm, Malcolm was lifted into the air from Walton grasp and floated directly towards the figure. Balder concluded, based on the fact that they were now out of the slave cage, with two guards rendered unconscious, that perhaps ally was the only decision to be made in the meantime. He followed the floating Malcolm towards the figure, Walton right behind him. The figure towered above Balder, probably around six and a half feet in height, but Balder was not perturbed at all. "Enemy of my enemy" he rationalised.

Suddenly there was a flash of blue light, and a blurring of the surrounds.

Balder found his gag was gone, and he also noticed that they were no longer anywhere near the slave wagons.

"Keep it safe" hissed the strange figure, and then it just faded away, leaving nothing but a swirl of cold air.

Wondering what the heck had just happened, the escapees located a relatively thick area of scrub and crawled underneath into a sheltered hide.

"Better keep safe then" commented Balder, "Whatever that means!"

"I expect the slavers will be hunting for us" replied Walton, "And not with kind intentions!"

...

Back at the slavers' wagon train, pandemonium had broken out. The open and empty cage had been discovered, two dead guards on the ground in front of it. The slaver captain was yelling and screaming, and the other guards were sent off in pairs to search for the escapees. Their spell casting female was using her magic to locate tracks and left with one of the squads.

Red and Joe looked on with interest from their cage, wondering if their best opportunity might be now to make their own break. But the slaver captain stayed with the wagons and kept a very close eye on everyone.

Within fifteen minutes, the two scrawny half-elves were dragged back into the camp, and immediately slung up from a tree branch and eviscerated in front of everyone else. 

"That'll be you if you misbehave" yelled the slaver angrily.

"I hope it won't be Walton" Joe quietly whispered to Red.

But fortunately, Walton, Malcolm, and Balder were not dragged back to the wagons, even though the guards and the spell caster searched for them all night. 

In the morning, the wagon wheel was repaired and the whole wagon train eventually moved off, heading on towards the hills ahead. 

...

Balder and Walton had the most comfortable night's rest they had had for weeks. Balder had vowed to recover some power points and told Walton to only disturb him in an extreme emergency. A pair of searching guards did venture close in the early hours of the morning, but not too close, and Walton managed to kept Malcolm's snoring to a minimum. Once Balder had woken, he was able to remove Walton's gag and then Transfer some of his power to Walton. [This is a spell that will transfer D6 power points from the caster to the target, and can be extremely useful in dire circumstances, like now] Walton cast some necessary Cure spells.

Wrapping Malcolm into some warm bush and tucking him securely into their overnight hide, Balder and Walton moved off to find the road and follow the slave wagon. 

Walton figured the road was "Just over there a bit. We'll catch them up on the switchbacks".

As they trudged after the slave wagons, Balder noted that his cursed magical medallion seemed to be heating up.

"Does this indicate something?" he wondered to himself.

"It's nice and warming anyway" he decided, but mentioned it to Walton just in case.

That night they were only halfway up the switchbacks and could see the slave wagons a few switchbacks ahead. 

Their discussion went something like this.

"Shall we attack tonight and free everyone?"

"There are only two of us!"

"Well, there won't be any more until we rescue them"

"We don't have any power points left!"

"Good point, lets rest up tonight and recover more points"

Balder, Malcolm, and Walton were well hidden

They found a reasonably comfortable location, protected from weather and only approachable from one side, and curled up to rest. As they were dropping off to sleep, a distant sound of wolves howling could be faintly heard.

"Don't worry about that" instructed Walton, "VINGT-ET-UN is watching over us tonight"

"I'm pretty sure" he muttered to himself as he drifted off to sleep.

VINGT-ET-UN must have been, because they both woke in the morning, still safe and sound. Some power points were recovered, Balder was nice and warm thanks to his heat radiating medallion, and the weather was fine. A crafty rescue plan was concocted. They would follow the wagons today, rest again overnight and regain more power points, follow the next day as the wagons started their decent into Draser, and attack the following night just before daybreak. They couldn't leave it any longer or the wagons would pass the Draser militia outpost at the bottom of the switchbacks. 

This strategy would give them as many power points as possible before attacking, and enable the casting of many Sleep spells, and even Knocks to get the cages open once the guards were neutralised. And just as well they did!

Walton and Balder crept into position on that second night, just in sight using their infra-vision abilities, and within range of their Sleep spells. There were two guards on shift, patrolling together around the wagons. The first set of simultaneous Sleep spells were cast, and one of the guards slumped to the ground. The other kept walking, he didn't even notice that his companion was no longer with him. [A successful roll against the Magic Resistance skill means that a spell has no effect]

The second set of simultaneous Sleep spells were cast, but the guard still didn't succumb! But he definitely noticed something amiss and called out.

"Hey Stu, did you feel that?" he called. 

"Stu, where the heck are you now? STU?"

Walton cast a third Sleep spell, while Balder moved in on the already sleeping guard. 

This time the second guard did go down, but some muttering was head from the slaver's covered wagon. 

Someone had heard the disturbance and woken. How long did they have before more enemy arrived?

Griza Muso slips away in the dark

By now all the slaves were awake and whispering madly. 

Another guard emerged from the slavers' wagon, no armour but wilding his sword and yelling. He charged at Walton.

Walton fired off a last-ditch Sleep, but no effect, and he hurriedly drew his sword before the guard engaged.

Balder had recovered a bunch of keys from the sleeping guard and rushed to open up Red and Joe's cage. 

Red, still with those few power points in reserve, cast a Command on the charging guard, who tumbled to the ground.

Walton, looking down at the unconscious guard didn't even hesitate. VINGT-ET-UN had offered a gift, so Walton killed him.

Joe leapt from the cage, Red cast a Cure on himself, Griza slipped out of the cage and disappeared into the darkness.

The other two burly males in the cage, Kosha Pickle and Mute the mute, also leapt out, recovered the dead guards' weapons, and charged towards the slavers' wagon. More of the guards had been woken by the fracas and were no doubt going to be emerging from the wagon imminently. Well, Mute was charging directly for the wagon, Kosha had cast out to the right to circle round behind the wagon.

[Introducing Kosha Pickles, Darryl's new human fighter, and Mute the Mute, Jeff's new human fighter]

Walton and Red joined forces beside the empty cage, and Red Transferred four power points across to Walton, who immediately cast a Cure Major Wound on Joe.

Balder took the keys and opened up the other cages, freeing Sophia and all the girls from Draser.

They all rushed off into the darkness. Sophia led the girls away down the switchback road, but Balder lost his way in all the excitement and ran straight off the side of the hill, dropping three meters down a bluff, through some bush, and onto a ledge. 

Mute brandished the recovered Long Sword, and bravely charged at the slaver captain who was in the lead of the group of emerging guards. His brave attack was short lived, as the slaver captain expertly spun his own two-handed weapon, and swept Mute's head clean off with a single blow [Unfortunately, Jeff's new character was hit with a critical roll, with more than twenty points of damage. Instant death. One of the shorter character adventures recorded by the Tuesday Night Mob]

The slaver captain stepped over Mute's headless body, grinned wickedly, and charged towards Balder and Sophia.

A second guard from behind the captain charged towards Joe and Red, and the female spell caster also appeared behind the guard. She began to cast a spell, unseen by most.

Kosha saw her though. He stepped out from behind the slavers' wagon and attacked her in the back. 

But not before she had cast a Sleep spell of her own. At Red. Who was not affected at all.

But Red did benefit from Walton's Cure, which provided some much-needed hit points.

Kosha actually missed his attack, but he had successfully engaged the mage in combat, and she was effectively neutralised.

Kosha Pickles attacked from behind

Red stepped into the guard's attack, leaving Joe to engage the guard as a secondary attacker.

The slaver captain, seeing Balder and Sophia disappearing into the night, turned back towards the battle.

Joe's Brawl attacks were ineffective, but Red managed to kill the small guard before the captain arrived.

Walton joined the fight as Red engaged the captain as the primary target.

Kosha managed to inflict a minor wound on the spell caster, who struggled futilely against him.

Red and Walton dealt the captain a series of serious wounds, and the captain finally collapsed.

The spell caster threw her hands up in surrender, but Red rushed over and in a bloodlust frenzy, cut her down.

[Red rolled a critical hit, doing twenty-two points of damage, instant death]

The rescue hadn't quite gone to plan, but Walton was pleased with the outcome.

All the slaves were freed, and the slavers were all killed.

The unwanted wagons were dragged up to one of the switchback corners and shoved over the edge.

The slavers' gear was assessed, sorted, and packed into the covered wagon.

"Where's Balder?" asked Walton.

Balder was recovered from the ledge below the road.

He seemed to have developed a nervous twitch in one of his hands, which he kept hidden in the pocked of his cape.

"Why are you so blue anyway?" asked Walton.