Present:
- Phoebe Lacrosse. Human Barbarian from Pugtown – Andrew
Griza Muso. Human Thief from Lakeside – JeffPhoebe - MARMALADING Balder Dash. Gnome Wizard from Toluene - Jamie
- Kosha Pickle. Human Rogue from Lakeside - Darryl
- Red Feuersturm. Human Temple Fighter of Hob from Toluene - Chris
- MARMALADING Malcom Gandhi. Gnome Thief from Brian – Kevin
- Napolean Twig. Elf Priest of Caribou Gorn from Pugtown - Ian
- MARMALADING Joe Manco. Human Fighter from Toluene – Shane
- Galena Alfdis. Elf Priestess of Vingt et Un from Palantir - Steven
By Phoebe Lacrosse
(Unable to read or write, this missive was dictated by Phoebe to Napolean Twig.)
Recap Summary
We were currently in Darius's pig farm, outside of the town of Arque. We were hunting two were-boars. Suspects were the owners of the Pig and Whistle inn and this farm, Darius and Abigail.
In the pigsty here, we had found an abattoir with four human bodies: three burly wood-cutters and a girl called Sofia Blade - the most recent victim.
We had thoroughly searched the pigsty and adjoining farmhouse, and had found 5 vials, a magical long dagger, and 300gp.
On with the show
Deciding that it was now time to bring in the authorities, I suggested we send Red & Kosha into Arque to go fetch the guards.
While they were away, Galena awoke from her marmalade state.
An hour or so later, Red and Kosha returned with town guards from Arque: Toby Blade, the father of Sophia, plus Bo Harper, Larry Flint and Derek the Axe. Toby was rather agitated and angry, but his rage turned to grief when we showed him the body of his daughter.
Griza sneaked in and joined the group, coughing up marmalade as he awoke from his restless slumber.
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| Bill of Lading |
With Toby inconsolable and rather distraught, the most senior guard, Bo, took over, and we showed him the bills of lading, bills of ladling, ladle bills and ladle receipts. This was enough evidence to convince them that the Darius they knew, the head guard of Arque Militia, was not all sweetness-and-light after all.
We told them we suspected Darius was indeed the rogue boar that Lague was hunting - a were-boar, in fact - and that we were after him. Also, Darius's wife Abigail was a suspected were-boar too.
With this, we left the guards to secure the farm. Bo came with us and Larry was put in charge of the crime scene. Red stayed with the guards too, to secure the evidence. We didn't want any of the four murder victims' bodies vanishing suspiciously (and blaming us!).
We then went back into Arque and straight to Darius and Abigail's inn, the Pig & Whistle, to search.
Kosha first sneaked in to see if we could catch anyone by surprise, but it was deserted; no sign of Abigail or Darius. But the ashes in the hearth were still warm.
The Tunnel
We broke in to the inn (with Bo's blessing) and searched the place. It turned out that there was a tunnel entrance under the kitchen. We headed down the walkable tunnel with Bo and me in the lead.
After 200 paces, the tunnel started to rise. We guessed our position was certainly out of the town, and well into the forest.
There was light up ahead and we could hear growls. These growls turned into two large mastiffs, and, to cut off a long story square, Bo and I ended up fighting them. One dropped Bo, and pushed us all back, but with a determined flurry of blows, I killed my dog, and headed to help Bo while the other dog was taken on by Griza and Kosha. Kosha finished it off with his double-sword.
But it was too late for Bo. He lay there in a pool of blood, dead. Oh dear.
The tunnel emerged into the forest, as we predicted, but druid Napolean did not recognize this area.
We needed some evidence that poor Bo was killed by the dogs (again, we didn't fully trust these guards), so decided to take him and one of the heavy dogs (mastiffs) back to town. Napolean buried the other dead dog in the woods. I picked up Bo's body, and Griza and Kosha lugged the other dog back down the tunnel to the inn.
Griza then fetched Larry and Toby (from the farm) to tell him about Bo's death & the dogs.
With Bo gone, Larry declared Toby as the new "mayor" of Arque. Then Toby scolded us for taking an elderly guard with us down the tunnel.
"I was fighting with Bo," I exclaimed "He didn't look old to me! He was 63."
We retrieved Red from the farm and reformed the group in the Pig and Whistle. As it was now two bells, rather than head into the forest for only two hours, we stayed the night in the inn - no room service!
It would have been a peaceful night, but it was punctuated by noises in the town as Toby and Larry rounded up a bunch wood-cutters to form a posse. We let them do their thing, and we caught a good night's sleep.
Search the Forest
The next day at first light, we headed out into the woods to search, and went off road to the spot where Sofia's body was found. From this place, we spiralled out, searching for tracks, and with Napolean's pet mastiff Tiny sniffing. Toby had given Napolean an item of his daughter's clothes.
Tiny soon caught up the track, and so we hurried after him.
An hour later, we came to across some boar tracks. Big ones and a smaller set. They headed into a stream. We followed.
Then, early afternoon, at about five bells, we came across a trail in the direction of Lague (funkenwards towards Torque and Emerald city). The trail opened into a clearing with a hut, an outhouse and four large mastiff kennels. On the verandah of the hut was another mastiff, sleeping.
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| Hut in the woods |
So, Napolean cast the priest spell Invisibility to Animals on Griza. This would at least allow him to get close to them (it hides the scent too). And so he managed to surreptitiously lock the kennel doors.
Just then, the hut's main door opened. Abigail herself walked out. Luckily, she did not notice Griza standing there, slack-jawed, next to the kennels (of course he wasn't invisible to her). She went to the outhouse.
The Fight
We made a quick plan:
- I would take on Darius - I have a magic sword (Longsword of Healing) and we are pretty sure that you need magical weapons to harm were creatures, even in non-were form.
- Red, sans magic, would take on the verandah dog.
- Kosha, sans magic, would go behind the hut to watch the back door from the forest, in case someone tried to sneak out that way.
- Griza would take on Abigail with a magic knife.
- Galena and Napolean would provide moral (and spell) support.
- Balder, Joe and Malcolm would dutifully drool marmalade back in Arque, lying in our wagon.
Then we enacted it.
Red and I rushed the verandah dog, which launched itself at us. Until Darius joined the fray, it made sense for me to help Red with the mastiff. But it wasn't a hard fight, and the dog was soon killed; Red's mighty war hammer caved in its head.
The four locked-in dogs went berserk, barking their heads off.
The outhouse then exploded, and a large boar charged out! This was, of course, Abigail in were-form.
With the dog down, and still no sign of Darius, I decided to help Griza with Abigail (Red had no magic weapon, so no point in him helping)
A mighty blow from my sword, opened the were-boar's belly [ critical ! ]. Griza nicked it.
The very next round, I followed up with another mighty belly cut [second critical !], and totally disembowelled the screaming boar. Blood everywhere. It soon died, then morphed back into a very dead, naked, disembowelled Abigail.
Tragedy
Unbeknownst to us (no-one heard a thing), while our fight was going on, Darius exited the hut from the back door, and ended up fighting the hapless Kosha. Kosha's hysterical screams were not audible over the noises of our fighting and the enraged barking dogs.
By the time we did get around the back, all that was left was a heap of blood, spattered all over the trees and ground, and bloody drag marks into the forest. We dutifully followed.
A hundred paces away, we found Kosha's body, gored, bitten, dead and cold. Oh dear. There were many boar trotter marks all around here.
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| Darius, Kosha-bane |
Then, a stone's throw away, we heard noises, so we looked up. There was a giant boar there, as big as a horse. It saw us and charged.
I moved to take the charge, and I ducked down, sword out, and dealt it a crippling belly cut [ a third Critical ! ] (obviously, enraged by Kosha's death). Griza backed me up, but missed his blow.
The boar managed to gash me the next moment, but his sucking belly wound affected his fighting prowess. Griza and I dropped it in a shower of blows.
The boar turned back into Darius's body.
We lugged Kosha and Darius's bodies back to the hut and clearing. Then searched the place with a fine-tooth comb: Items of significance: Purse of 600 gold, a pair of Spectacles, and a Compass, both Detected Magic.
The four dogs in the locked kennels were barking and slathering in a rage. Napolean made a futile druidy effort to befriend them (or even calm them), but his competence with that skill is low [3] and he failed dismally. So we killed them all in cold blood. You have heard of "shooting rats in a barrel"? Well, this was "knifing dogs in a kennel".
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| Pyre for Kosha, Darius, Abigail and five mastiffs |
Galena was the nominated priest to decide the fate of Kosha's body and, in true Vingt-et-un style, she rolled a die: "burned" it was. So we flopped his body onto the pyre too.
It was getting dark, so we stayed the night in the hut.
Were Sickness
It was a peaceful night, but in the morning, I awoke in a cold sweat. The site on my leg where Darius the boar had gashed me was all red and inflamed. This was despite that very wound being completely healed by Galena and Napolean the day before. I felt sick. Does this mean I am turning into a were-boar? Again, our knowledge of were-boar lore was scant.
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| Solanum laciniatum contraceptive & were cure poison |
They soon brewed up this foul-smelling slurry. I drank it all, and started to retch.
Galena pithily said "By the way, that's a deadly poison that often kills its drinker."
"Make sure you don't vomit any up," said Napolean helpfully.
I frowned, retching and gagging. Napolean cast Neutralize Poison on me.
But the poison did the trick [I made the necessary rolls]. And the sickness eased, and inflammation vanished.
Onwards
We left back to Arque, and sought the town guard and the new mayor Toby.
"We have fixed your problem," I said.
Red then showed him the charred skulls of Darius and Abigail (not that he could identify them).
"We were hired by Lague for this job, so we will take these there."
He wished us well, so we collected our wagon and the three marmaladers (Balder, Joe and Malcolm), and we left.
That evening we arrived in Lague, and claimed our reward for the Boar Job, giving them the skulls.
The next day funkenwards was Torque.
And the next day to Emerald City.
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