Present
- MARMALADE: Abellinet "Able" Ugwistan, 31, Moor Arian Fighter from Septum – Jeff
- Brave "BJ" Jose, 22, Arian Visigoth Fighter from Astigi – Jamie
- Fabius Cato, 26 Roman Nicene Temple Fighter from Rome – Richard
- Luigi Abundus Bertolini, 23, Roman Nicene Priest from Ravenna – Chris
- Merkel, 24, Vandal Arian Temple-Fighter from Gades – Kevin
- Velito Rosso, 24, Roman Nicene Barbarian from Venice – Darryl
- Victor Koshenko, 24, Alan Arian Thief from Gades – Ian
- Sister Sarah, 22 Arian Visigoth Priestess from Astigi – Steven
- Lucky Logan, 27 Nicene Visigoth Temple Fighter from Malaca - Shane
By Richard
Several hours later and as we near Nescania, we come over a rise only to see some 30 kings guard fighting twelve Moors ahead. We are spotted and the Kings Guard immediately fall back, and the Moors beckon toward us.
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| Lone Moor horseman |
We remain vigilant as a lone Moor horseman comes toward us, in a non-threatening manner.
"Who is your leader?" he demands in broken Spanish.
Brother Abundus steps forward and engages the Moor in conversation. He thinks we are mercenaries coming to their aid – which we are clearly not. Brother informs him we are but travelers and not mercenaries and, with that, the Moor glares at us angrily, and gallops off toward his comrades.
We let loose a volley of arrows, javelins (from Velito) and a sling (from Brother Abundus) and variously hit the Moor and ourselves. Merkel fumbles and hits Lucky in the arm for 7 damage (also a critical – it would appear Lucky is not so Lucky)
"Why did you stand in front of me?" quizzes Merkel.
Lucky also fumbles and lets off a wayward shot that glances off BJ's armor.
(At this stage we have now tried our new Fumble and Critical tables – they add colour to the game and are not typically as brutal.)
We have hit the Moor several times, but he has not fallen and now rejoined the other 11 waiting.
They have turned toward us and making their way up the hill.
The Kings Guard have retreated, but seem wary of reengaging the Moors. Victor heads off toward them but is sneaking and ensuring he avoids the Moors.
Velito fortunately has somewhere pilfered a king's pennant and we display that on one of two of his javelins – joined together to make a cross. (Velito has the resourcefulness ability that enables him to spend 2 luck to have something useful)
We make for cover off the road and hoped we could hold them off until Victor reached the King's Guard.
As they approach we let off a volley of arrows which miss but at least push the Moors back to the road.
By now, Victor has convinced the Kings Guard that we are not mercenaries and, in fact, are the Companions of Abundus and here to vanquish the Moors. They head up the hill at double time. The Moors seeing this realize their cause is lost and make a hasty retreat, but not without us successfully dropping one with more volleys of arrows.
Centurion Maldicon (of the Kings' Guard half-centuria) speaks with Brother Abundus. They have heard of Companions of Abundus, and question us as to whether Able is with us – given he is a wanted man. We assure them he is not (even though he is marmalading in the wagon).
We travel on with the Kings Guard, and make Nescania an hour or two later. We warn the town of the impending danger, stay the night, curing Lucky, and then, the next day, carry on our journey.
The Nescanian Nicene priest, hearing about what the Moors did to other Nicenes, decides to leave town with us, so rounds up his workers joins us on our journey to Hispalis. Our companionship has now grown by 8, but none of the newcomers are warriors.
A few hours before we arrive in the next town Irni, we see around ten people ahead of us. Horrifyingly, we see they are eight peasants, with clubs, crucifying a Nicene priest, while two nuns cower, bound, in the background.
Without hesitation, Fabius and Lucky ride forward with BJ and Velito, whilst Merkel and Brother Abundus follow closely behind.
"Halt this immediately!" commands Fabius.
"Wot you say?" dribbles one of the peasants as he steps forward.
"Stop what you are doing this moment!"
"nah fuck off" the peasant says fondling his club.
It’s the last thing he ever says as Fabius steps forward and, in one blow, removes his head.
The battle is joined, and Fabius, BJ and Lucky take on the remaining seven. A round later Merkel joins also and Brother Abundus cares for the wounded priest who fortunately is alive.
Less then a minute later, eight peasants lie dead on the ground – four beheaded by an enraged Fabius, three skillfully put away by Velito (who now claims that he is a great warrior) and one by Merkel.
Lucky claims he was just used as a "human shield" by us, although Fabius kindly pointed out that it was all a part of Lucky's education. (Shane had fumbled and been critically hit again during combat)
We placed the injured priest and the two nuns on our wagon and headed to Irni, with the tiresome tales of Velito's bravery.
We forewarn the residents of Irni of the impending danger, put the nuns into the local convent (Irni happens to have one), the priest at the local church, and after a night of healing and resting head off.
There are two matters that should be noted.
- The first is Sister Sarah's remarkable run of failing priest miracles. She must have failed 9 or 10 healing spells over the night and not succeeded in one. The Arian gods had deserted her.
- The second was that Velito single handedly had decided to spread rumors that Able (the wanted) has killed twelve Moors singlehandedly and that he was a fighter for the king. Velito's logic was that this may place Able in a better light and perhaps his crimes (impersonating a centurion) would be forgiven. We shall see.
The next few days after Irni are relatively uneventful and we go through the towns of Lucurgentum and Uillo, and then onward to Hispalis.
We travel safely to Orippo, and the next day pass the track that leads to the springs that Lady Florinda insisted on visiting.
We get to Nabrissa and push on – the hard days' ahead of us as we head into the ranges.
All seems to be going quite well and there is a good mood about the party (other than Velito's incessant chatter to impress his bride Isidora).
"What's that?" comments Victor and points to a small black cloud moving parallel to us in the hills.
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| Eerie moving cloud |
"Those are crows," points out BJ "but not all of it – just around the outside."
"Let's speed up," suggests Velito, and we do.
But to no avail. The cloud moves ahead of us and then comes across to the road and stops. We also stop until it begins to move slowly toward us, but slower than a walking man.
"I'm going to climb these cliffs to our side and get above it," said a brave Victor.
"I don’t like this," comments Fabius more to himself than anyone else.
"It must be after something," Velito volunteers.
"What about that red vial that we got from the Beggar King?" suggests Fabius.
"Hmmm, maybe."
"Let's leave it on the road in front of us and back off."
"Si si ok," says Velito as he rummages through the now-marmalading Brother Abundus' belongings. "Si here." He holds up the corked vial with the red metallic-smelling liquid.
We place it on the road as the cloud moves forward enveloping it. As it passes under Victor he climbs down and approaches from the back – bravely reaching inside the cloud.
He has a sudden chilling cold creep into his soul and feels a skeletal hand grab his, and he sees flashbacks of souls in lava reminiscent of when he touched the Geryon Spear, but it is different, and it is cold.
He quickly withdraws his hand, which has white imprints from the grab, and he waits.
The cloud is now past the vial which is intact but knocked to its side, still corked.
"Nope not that," thinks Victor.
Victor rejoins us (with the vial) as we retreat down the road further.
We decide to travel back a few hours to a more open area. The cloud eventually catches up with us and we try a few experiments – sending half of us out to the side – sending one of us out to the side – then two etc – to see who it follows.
We determine after some time, and not long before nightfall, that it is after the original group who travelled with Elia, Owl and Vanker – that being Luigi, Velito, Victor and Sister Justina, potentially leaving Fabius, Lucky, BJ and Sister Sarah off Scott free – except of course for those damn vows of Fabius and Lucky to protect Luigi and Justina.
Will the party split? Has Elia and crew returned? Must we confront Geryon? Is it even Geryon's doing? How do we escape this cloud over night?...... Find out next week!
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