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.
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.
"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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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.
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.
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