The Barge

   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
• MARMALADE: Sophia Beauchamp (half-elf priest 21) - Ian
• Walton Formalin (half-elf mystic of 21) - Andrew

By Donk

As the second gargoyle dived towards us, Joe stepped to the fore and Slim tossed his net. The net successfully entangled the gargoyle's wings, but didn't prevent it from smashing down towards Joe, who waved his sword and dodged deftly to the side. [Joe's roll against his Dodge ability was better than the gargoyle's roll against its Attack ability. The attack missed, Joe dodged, and the gargoyle crashed to the ground with its wings tangled in the net]

Despite my grievous injury from the previous gargoyle's critical hit, I took a swing at it as it flopped on the ground. Missed! Then all three of us dived onto it, pinned it down immobile, and Slim was able to kill it with a deadly slice across the throat. It crumbled to pebbles beneath us!

Looking up the hill towards the ridge, I noticed that the seven rescued girls, escorted by Balder, Malcolm, and Red had disappeared over the top and were hopefully safe from the third gargoyle. Joe threw Sophia over his shoulder, and we all ran on towards the ridge ourselves. Joe pulled ahead of the others on the climb.

"Wow" I thought to myself, "That new armour of Joe's sure looks easy to run in"

Stumbling over the ridge at the rear, I looked back into the valley. The little natural light from the stars overhead did not reveal any sign of pursuit, and no sign of the third gargoyle. All was quiet, so I turned and followed the others down the far side of the hills and towards the river, somewhere in the darkness ahead.

The others were waiting for me a little way ahead, and a brief discussion about the merits of spending our last magic points casting Hide Tracks, versus Healing, versus waiting for a later emergency ensued. Walton decided that waiting was the most prudent, and I led the party on. [Donk's Survival in the Wild skill was the highest in the group, and Donk was certain he knew exactly where the rendezvous point on the river was. He also recalled a decent copse of trees nearby the rendezvous point where everyone could rest up until dawn. Unfortunately, Donk's roll against his skill had failed, and his recollection was clouded by his recent critical hit in the head!]

With me in the lead, the party and the rescued girls, hurried through the night towards the river. After some hours, the sounds of the river could be heard ahead, but also, I heard the sounds of pursuit from behind.

"Walton" I whispered, "Now might be a good time to use that Hide Tracks spell. I'm pretty sure I heard the sound of dogs from behind us."

Veering slightly to the right for a few hundred meters, we set a false trail before Walton did his thing, and then we veered back towards the rendezvous point. We arrived at the river just as dawn was breaking. It had taken us slightly longer than planned, but it had been dark, and we had the seven rescued girls to assist. We were expecting the barge to arrive just after dawn, so we settled down for a short wait.

...

"That's a half hour" noted Balder.

No barge.

...

"That's an hour" noted Balder.

No barge.

...

"That's an hour and a half" noted Balder.

"There is only one river round here, right?" queried Slim.

"Of course" I responded, "The barge is just late. Be patient"

...

That's two hours" noted Balder.

...

"Oh look, finally, the barge" said Walton.

"That's two hours, seventeen minutes" noted Balder.

The horse slowly pulled the barge towards us, and we prepared to board.

"Why weren't you at the rendezvous" called the bargeman Jasper.

Apparently, I wasn't as good a navigator as I had assumed. But hey, we got here, and got picked up, and the chasers never found us. So that's all good, right?

The spell casters took their wafers and grapes and settled down below the barge deck for some forced recovery time. In fact, everyone hid out below decks as the barge moved peacefully up the river back towards Draser. The bargeman, Jasper, reported a very heavy guard presence at the Turk's wharf as the barge slipped quietly passed there.

After the spell casters had woken, Cures were cast, including a Cure Major Wound on the massive egg that had appeared on the back of my head after the Gargoyle had struck. The ringing headache and slightly double vision disappeared immediately, which was a great relief.

Night fell, the barge pulled into the shore, and the spell casters took another round of wafers and grapes. The river was pretty busy, with barge and other boat traffic in both directions. We had moored at a way-station wharf with a bunch of other barges, and Jasper and his crew maintained a watch overnight. Those of us not recovering spells also took a watch, but we kept ourselves hidden from any observing eyes.

We set off again in the morning, anticipating arriving in Draser that night, just after dark. Which we did. Jasper moored at a common wharf some hundreds of meters from Tomo's warehouse, and Malcolm and Jasper strolled up the street to make sure there were no watchers at the warehouse. Which there were not.

Apparently, we were being searched for throughout Draser, by name, and with some decent descriptions of some of us. Both the recovered girls and ourselves were smuggled into the warehouse and kept hidden there for a week, while the girls were thoroughly debriefed in relation to their experiences and what they knew of the Turk's operations. 

At the end of the week, we were all going to be smuggled out of Draser, by barge again, and transported to Hackerton, out on the Free Coast. This trip would take us upriver, over the Mamba Locks, across Lake Mamba, through the Mamba Forest, and down the Hackerton River to the coast, where Hackerton sprawls beside the river mouth. Expected to be two days of travel.to the Locks, one day to pass the Locks, a few days down river to Mamba, four days along the lake, then a swift run of maybe five days down the Hackerton River.

During the week of enforced waiting, we were paid our two-thousand gold piece fee for recovering Selina, some of which we spent on identifying the magical treasure collected on our recent adventures. We had:

• Magic chain mail of weightlessness [Jeff rolled and successfully obtained this]
• +1 Large Shield (requires a Strength of fourteen to wield) [Left in the party stash]
• +1 (to hit) Long Sword (classed as a one-handed sharp weapon) [Left in the party stash]
• The two remaining Potions of Diminution [Left in the party stash]
• A bag of saffron powder from Zephyr the Turk's basement lab (3 doses of Mental Fortress)
• +1 Lock Picks [Kevin rolled and successfully obtained these]

The day of departure dawned clear and sunny, we all slipped into the barge, named "Pontoon", and Jasper the bargeman got us underway. The day was uneventful, and we were towed slowly upriver by the horses. That night we pulled into the riverbank, set watches, and settled in for a sleep. Walton and I took the first watch, with one of the barge crew, Slim, Joe, and Malcolm were on the second watch, with Red and Balder on the third watch.

A quiet and peaceful night!

The next day Jasper told us that towards evening we would be passing the Draser border post, so we would all need to be particularly quiet in our below deck cubbyhole. 

The border crossing went smoothly, and we again pulled into the riverbank for the night.

The next day we reached the start of the Mamba Locks around midday. Travelling through the Locks was an interesting process of start-stop-wait-move. But we eventually arrived at the top of the Locks and were discharged onto the headwaters of the Mamba River near nightfall. We pulled the barge into the riverbank, alongside a couple of other barges, and set up for the night.

Things were quite peaceful, until right near the end of the last watch, while Red and Balder were on duty. 

Balder kicked everyone awake with a hissed "Sssshh, suspicious drunks approaching".

We all prepared for action, while Red yelled from the top of the gangplank.

"Fuck off ya mongrels" he roared, "Only death awaits ya here"

Shadowy figures hid by the river

Balder had also spotted two other figures, crouched in the bushes on the far side of the river and was keeping an eye on them during Red's confrontation.

"Wha?" questioned one of the 'drunks', "Dis my boat, need lie down time"

Then he toppled off the side of the gangplank and into the river.

Walton had cast a Sleep spell from the deck!

The second "drunk" dragged his companion from the river and they walked hurriedly on. Balder noted that one of the figures on the other side of the river had disappeared, and there was the suspicion that the drunks might have been a distraction to allow two swimmers to slip onto the barge from the river side without being spotted. Jasper the bargeman remarked that raids on the boats plying these headwaters were not uncommon. 

Whatever, we saw no one else and dawn arrived not long thereafter. 

After a hearty breakfast, we set off down the Mamba River towards the town of Mamba, situated at the head of the lake. Some hours later, Jasper called a halt, and we stopped mid-river. Peering ahead, Jasper reported that there were some unusual rapids in the river.  "Never seen anything like that here before" he commented.

"Let us off on the bank and we'll check it out" suggested Joe.

Our party disembarked on the true left and Jasper pulled the barge back into the safety of mid-stream. Walton suggested Malcolm use the ground cover and sneak ahead to investigate the bush just beside where the strange rapids were. Malcolm used his Stealth skill and slipped quietly ahead.

There arrows flew from the bushes, one embedding itself into Malcolm's chest, and throwing him to the ground.

"Charge" I yelled, and took off towards the bush, trusting my fellow fighters would be right behind me.

As I was running, a small red pellet flashed past my shoulder and disappeared into the bush ahead. Then a massive explosion erupted out of the bush, just as Balder's laugh erupted from behind me.

"Vireball" Balder yelled, "Ye-haw"

Slowing to let the erupting flames settle down a bit, I spotted two singed figures running away from the smoking bushes, one big guy in chain mail armour, and one man without armour.

Then two crossbow quarrels flashed past my other shoulder. Red and Joe probably.

The unarmoured guy dropped with two quarrels protruding from his back, leaving me only one target. With my weightless armour I was definitely closing on him, so I pushed on. 

He spun around once I had closed, and a short flurry of blows ensued. I hit more than he did, and he soon dropped. I did notice that his blade seemed to penetrate right through my armour though, which was disappointing. Damn those magic swords!

As I dragged his body and gear back to the still smouldering patch of trees, I saw the others had found three burnt corpses in the charred zone. A Gnome, a woman with Malachi bling, and a human male in steaming chain mail.

We gathered the bodies and equipment into a pile and Walton cast his Detect Magic spell. A magical knife, one-handed sword, three small vials, and a cloak from the Malachi woman. The were also three non-magical vials, likely some form of poison. Once we get an opportunity, we will identify this lot and divvy it up.

Slim pointed across at the river and yelled "Take care of that" and rushed back to the barge. He had taken quite a fancy to two of the rescued girls, and they had been showing him their appreciation for his daring rescue.
Luck to him I reckon!

Anyhow, whoever the bandits had been, they had slung a large log across the river, fastened at each end with chains. It was suspended just below the surface of the water, hence the rapids created as the rived flowed up and over the log.

"Lucky we spotted that" Jasper later remarked, "Would have sunk us for sure"

Over the rest of the day, that night, and the following day before we arrived in Mamba, we took the opportunity to rest up, regain spell points, sharpen up our swords, and Identify the recent loot.

• Armour piercing Long Sword 
• +1 (to hit) Knife
• Cloak of Hiding in Shadows 
• Two potions of Healing
• One potion of Invisibility

At the end of that second day, the barge arrived in Mamba. Jasper secured a mooring at the jetty for two nights, with a plan to restock for the rest of the trip. Walton (and Sophia) slipped into town to report to the local VINGT-ET-UN 'Temple', finding the local Priestess Brooklyn Kennedy eager for news. Apparently, there was some concerns about travel up and down the lake at the moment, with boats disappearing somewhere between Lakeside and Pugsville, the two villages along the side of the lake. Donk and Joe were looking forward to a nice meal at one of the local Inns, and Malcolm was going to join them. 

"Just let me change into a disguise" Malcom instructed as he slipped into the head.

He returned dressed in a parody of woman's clothing, with bright red lipstick smeared across his lips, a bra wrapped around the outside of his normal vest, and something that could have been a skirt draped around his hips.

"No" I stated firmly.

"You can't come with us looking that that" said Joe.

"Subtle, blend in" muttered Walton in disbelief.

Dining at the dockside tavern

Joe and I left, Malcolm stayed and sulked. We went to the Dazzling Hornet for the evening, rather than the Warm Racoon, which turned out to be another stroke of luck. Apparently, there were four riders that had arrived from Draser recently, staying in the Warm Racoon, and who were looking for a party of adventurers, with a couple of Gnomes, three burley fighters, a VINGT-ET-UN Priestess, and a VINGT-ET-UN Mystic!

We quickly ate our meal and retreated back to the barge. 

After discussions with Jasper, we decided that everyone would stay on the barge that night, and we would slip away just before light and travel on to Lakeside to restock. That would be two days travel, but there were enough supplies still to last the trip. The travel was uneventful, with very little traffic plying the lake.

We arrived in Lakeside a few hours before dark and docked at the jetty alongside two other boats. There were seven or eight wharfies milling about, and Jasper was sporting a puzzled expression.

"What is it?" asked Walton quietly.

"I don't recognise any of these men" Jasper noted, "Keep on eye on them while I check things out"

Jasper and one of his crewmen strolled into town while we checked our weapons and kept our eyes peeled. When Jasper returned, he mentioned that stores were in short supply, lake travel had been restricted due to boat disappearances, lots of armed strangers were loitering around the town, but ta few known locals were still around. 

As we were discussing the risks with staying the night here in the town, three armed men approached the barge and questioned Jasper about his purpose for being here, his cargo, and his plans. We all hid belowdecks and listened to their muffled exchange.

When they left and Jasper came belowdecks, he was very happy to depart immediately, travel on for a kilometre or so until dark, and overnight on the side of the lake.

"Be very alert" he stated, "something's up"

Flight to Freedom

  Present:

• Sophia Beauchamp (half-elf priest 21) - Ian

• 

  Zephyr the Turk

  Joe 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

We were in the tunnels beneath Zephyr the Turk's saffron farm compound (two days down the Draser river from the city Draser). Zephyr was a famous saffron farmer whose saffron had unique characteristics. We had rescued all seven of his saffron pickers, young slave girls, from a life of slavery, and death; he ritually executed the poor pickers when they turned 18, and then dried and crushed their bones to make a magical powder, some of which was added to his saffron (to give it those characteristics). One of the girls was 16-year-old Selina Porshay, who had come to the attention of Simone and Tommo Fussell, Vingt-et-un agents and our employers. They wanted us to rescue her. Simone also wanted us to retrieve the accounts' ledger of Zephyr; which would be further evidence with which to accuse the Globe Casino of fraud towards Vingt-et-Un.

It was now two hours before light. We had formally decided to give up on ever recovering the ledger - a bridge too far. We had got the girls, and so were looking for a plan to get outta this place, if it were the last thing we ever do, girl, there's a better place for me and you. 

Selina Porshay

Sophia and I were down on spells, so the preferable thing to do would be to rest to regain some power. But there was not really any safe place in the tunnels. 

There were two routes out of the complex: one was back through the tunnels, the way we came in, across the underground pool and past the leashed bear. The other route was through the abattoir and processing building, and then out through Zephyr's compound, past his guards, then across the fields. Both routes were non-trivial. Both routes were dangerous.

Just then, however, one of the girls mentioned that she remembered that there was an additional hidden room behind Butcher's cave. We had been in Butcher's cave earlier; we met and killed him. So, we went back there. Butcher's body was still there in a puddle of dried blood where we had left him. We had tried to make it look like he cut his radial artery while whittling, and then he bled to death. His body was carefully placed to mimic the accident. (This ruse may have worked one day, but we had killed many guards since then!)

radial artery

So, we explored the back walls of his chamber thoroughly. Sure enough - a secret door! It even had peep-holes allowing those in the hidden room to watch the Butcher room.

Inside was a large store room with boxes and crates. It had a tunnel off it which was radiated cold ... and evil: "undead!" was the cry. On the floor of this tunnel, one pace in, was a neat line of iron filings. On the back wall, lit up by our torches (we did NOT cross that line of iron ! ), were three naked girls, of the same age as our rescued ones. They were blue with cold and hanging by their wrists, chained to the walls.  No sign of breathing, but that was to be expected. We posted a guard to watch them, while the rest of us searched this store room.

We found a magic shield (large size [ STR of 14 needed] ), a suit of magic armour chain mail, a magic longsword, and a box of potions, four of which were magic.

Despite the alleged undead, this room made a good place to hide and rest. But, there was one problem - neither Sophia or I could recharge here. The undead influence from the cold room permeated into the room. However, we suspected we could safely rest in Butcher's room itself during nights (spell recovery was possible from there). Yes, we would both be comatose, but there was no reason the others in the group couldn't keep a good watch, and haul our limp bodies back into the store room if need be.

It was almost day now, and since we were going to stay here, I expended the last of my magic and cast Hide tracks on the Butcher room and the corridors outside. That would stop anyone tracking to the secret door.

Day Four

It was day. We stationed a roster to keep continuous surveillance of the Butcher room using the peep-holes.

Mr Quail priestess

A few hours into the day, a group of guards entered Butcher's room, followed by a big guy who we recognized as Zephyr himself, plus a gnome wizard, plus a lady dressed in a harlequin outfit - a Mr Quail priestess. There were 16 guards.

They all poked and prodded the dead butcher. We had killed him a few days ago, so the pool of blood around him (from his "whittling accident") was quite dry. As we expected, they weren't fooled by the ruse.

They all scanned around, searched for tracks, found none thanks to my spell, then left. We suspected that the secret door (we were behind) was the Butcher's special secret and even secret to them. The last one to leave was the gnome, who casts some spell on the entrance; I suspect Alarm of Glyph. We weren't leaving that route!

The Undead Girls' Chamber had another passage off it, so we cajoled Gandhi and Sophia to go explore it silently (careful not approach the undead girls nor disturb the line of iron filings) - those two were the quietest of our group, in their slippered feet. The passage finished at a dead-end with a shelf above, through which was a narrow tunnel, fifty paces long, which emerged outside, near the saffron fields. But it was extremely tight. Our big burly fighters: Joe, Donk, Slim and Red were too big to have any hope of squeezing through.

"They can be finding their own way out," mused Gandhi.

Upon relaying us all this information, it was another bridge to cross when we came to it. That did leave only the Bear path or the Abattoir path. But we would still rest a few nights to get our spells back, regardless.

Night four  

There was no more disturbing of the Butcher's room during the day. But we did see Zephyr's guards moving past the mouth of that room.

As soon as it went dark, the three chained undead girls simply pulled their hands out of the manacles, and lurched over towards us. They did not cross the iron filings line - it was if there was a force field there stopping this. Sophia managed to turn them, using the divine power of Vingt-et-Un's lucky name, so they scurried away. She could keep them at bay at will.

After that, Sophia and I went into the Butcher's room, rolled out our sleeping mats. took a holy wafer each and passed out to recharge. The rest of the group took up rostered watches. It was a peaceful night. We recovered a bit.

Day five.  

Slim's bane

As soon as it was day, the undead girls withdrew and rechained themselves, and then appeared blue corpses again. Slim decided to try to destroy one. So, he went past the iron filings, into the room and stabbed one with his magic knife. Despite being day, something invisible hit him from behind and he staggered away. He'd been damaged by the cold, and some of his strength had been drained.

We weren't going to try THAT again.

It was about now that Sophia decided to test the potions. They all turned out to be Potions of Diminution. Praise Vingt-et-Un! So, this was a way to use that tunnel after all; it made perfect sense, because Butcher was a fat bastard.

So, now we did have a viable escape route.

More planning. Today was day five. The barge would arrive back first light of Day Seven. So, we had tonight, tomorrow and tomorrow night to stay here. We budgeted on three-quarters of a night to move from here to the river rendezvous. So, three hours into tomorrow night we would need to leave. We could not go through the tunnels with the undead girls wandering around, so we would need to get into position, during the day tomorrow, an hour before dark. Gandhi and Sophia thought that the ledge before the narrow tunnel would be high enough to stop the undead girls getting up.

Night five

Vingt-et-Un holy wafers

Sophia and I took holy wafers to recharge a bit more. It was a quiet night in Butcher's room.

Day Six

One hour before dark, we headed down to the tunnel end, all climbed up onto the ledge, and then pulled up the rope. It was quite a squash: our big party of seven and the seven saffron girls. 

Night Six

Sure enough, the undead girls did wander down the passage below us, but they were not very perceptive and never looked up.

At the appointed time, we headed down the narrow tunnel. The four fatties in the group took half doses of the Diminution potions and could thus easily fit down this tunnel, which was quite a squeeze for even me. I went first, so that I could cast a Silence spell on the entrance.

We then rushed out into the night. There was a woodshed here and a rustic cottage. The cottage had lights on. When everyone had grouped-up, and the potion had worn off, I cast another Silence so that we could get a good distance away from this cottage. There were three plinths here - empty of any statuary. This turned out to be some ominous foreshadowing ... 

The path out of here was obvious. There was a road here with the saffron fields on both sides. We knew there were ogre guards about, but we hoped that the (magical) single-wire fences surrounding the saffron fields would keep them in. So, we scurried down the road, looking about for any sign of movement in the fields. 

But it was the skies. 

Gargoyle

Donk was smashed in his head by a flying stone gargoyle. It brutally knocked him down (critical), then flew around again for another strike. I shooed Gandhi away to take the seven girls to safety, plus the marmalading Red, while the rest of us stood our ground for the next strike. Donk took a cure from me, so he was up again, but still with a major wound (disadvantage). The gargoyle swooped and struck again. Joe this time, but it was only a flesh wound.

Slim happened to be carrying a net. He threw it, and entangled the creature, and then the three strong guys leapt on it, to try to hold it down. This was enough, and Joe and Slim could use their magic weapons to chop the stone body to pebbles (normal weapons had no effect).

Gandhi and the girls, carrying Red, crested the hill in the distance.

Sophia and I had just enough time to cast another cure on Donk, before the second gargoyle struck...

A Busy Night

 Present:

• Sophia Beauchamp (half-elf priest 21) - Ian

• 

  Selina Porshay

  Joe 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

We were in the tunnels beneath Zephyr the Turk's saffron farm compound (two days down the Draser river from the city Draser). Zephyr was a famous saffron farmer. It was suspected that he kidnapped young Draser women and enslaved them, then used them to pick his saffron (there was some characteristic unique to such girls that imbued his saffron with added potency). We were here to rescue 16-year-old Selina Porshay, one such girl. Secondly, Simone and Tommo Fussell, our employers, wanted us to get the accounts ledger of Zephyr. This would yield further evidence with which to accuse the Globe Casino of fraud towards Vingt-et-Un.

TEN

We had just killed the Axe Man - a fat butcher with an apron and large axe (see last time), and tried to make his death look like a whittling accident. It was now ten hours until dawn. We wanted to be away by dawn, or at least in a safe place in case this whittling ruse failed. 

Gandhi had found a secret door at the end of a passage. There were no traps and it wasn't locked, so we went through. It went to a large room with two doors and stairs going up.

Upstairs, was a cold room; unnaturally cold, but there was no taint of evil. There were shelves in here along the walls, with about 40 glass jars each filled with a fine white powder. We touched nothing, but the powder was the wrong colour to be saffron.

NINE

quern

We went back downstairs and through a door into a room with three quern grinders. We assumed that the querns ground the white powder that was stored in the cold room.

On one of the doors here Gandhi found an Alarm trap and disabled it.

In another room was shelving with coat racks, buckets with bins, and weapon racks.

Worryingly, there was a door here with lights on in the room beyond. And we could hear male voices. So, we carefully avoided that door.

EIGHT

So, back upstairs, through another door into room with a furnace. It had four metal funnels; not sure what these were for. 

Next to the furnace room was a well room with a hole in the floor and a room beneath. In the floor of the room below was a shaft down to water. We guessed this was the same shaft that we explored from below next to the underground pool (with the tunnel from the guard bear entrance - they way we got into this complex).

porcelain embalming table

In the next room there with a porcelain embalming table (to clean and drain corpses) with manacles.

And there were two drying tables, covered with with lots of bones drying. These were quite clearly human bones. Sophia identified them as the bones of human girls.

A door led off this room.

"No traps here!" exclaimed Gandhi. But when he opened it, immediately the air filled with a WHOOP  WHOOP  WHOOP noise. I cast a Silence spell, but it was too late.

From the direction of the door that had light, came running two guards. 

It was a short sharp battle. My Sleep spell took out one guard and the other guy was severely outnumbered. We waited a but, but no-one else came. So it must have been a localized alarm and didn't rouse the whole compound.

SEVEN

Next was a room with double doors to the outside - and a winch to load wagons, but there was also a large trapdoor in the floor, and that went down to a large storage room with pallets.

Off this lower room was another locked door (Gandhi opened it) to a corridor and six cells, then through a concealed door to a second cell block with four more cells. 

Frieda

In one of the cells was a blonde girl of about 18, in threadbare rags; she was awake but drugged and delirious. Sophia cast Slow Poison on her, and that made her coherent.

She was called Frieda, and was a saffron picker. Like Selina Porshay, she had been kidnapped in Draser. She worked with the other pickers and she knew Selina pretty well. 

Frieda had just turned 18, and the guards had drugged her and left her here. She did not know why. It seemed once any slave girl turned 18, they were removed from the picking squad. (Note that Selina was 16).

We questioned Frieda further and asked her to draw a map of what she knew about the compound and buildings. She was happy to help.

Frieda was strong enough to walk, so she came with us.

SIX

We kept exploring this building. Another room had boxes and jars of dried goods.

Another room had a large metal urn for heating and rendering flesh. There was a hole in the floor with a bloody slide down to a stinking pit filled with rotting flesh and offal.

So, the theory of what all this equipment was for: 

• When the saffron-picking slave girls turn 18, they would be killed and butchered. 
• Their flesh would be cut off the bone and, with their viscera, tossed into the offal pit.
• The bones would be cooked to remove any flesh, dried, and then ground into powder. 
• Maybe this powder was ensorcelled, and then added to Zephyr's saffron. We were not sure of the significance of the age of 18, but maybe that was a requirement of the dark magic. 

FIVE

In another room was a well with water barrels, and had a shaft going down to the underground river below. This was beneath the well room above (next to the furnace room). 

Frieda had mentioned that she remembered this room and the water barrels. So we thoroughly explored the wall here and, sure enough, were rewarded by finding a secret door.

"Dere is being no traps here!" exclaimed Gandhi enthusiastically. And he opened the door. 

Immediately, a trapdoor beneath Donk opened, and he slid down a shaft and splashed into a fast flowing stream and into the underground pool. The trapdoor closed.

We hurriedly tried to open the trapdoor so as to get to Donk, but couldn't pry it open.

"Open the door again," I cried. "That ought to reopen the door."

Underground pool

So Gandhi opened the secret door again. However, another new trapdoor opened, in a different part of the floor, right under Joe, and he slid down a shaft and splashed into the fast flowing stream and into the underground pool.

Donk managed to shake off his armour and swim to the surface, just as Joe (also in armour) splashed in the lake next to him. Joe could not swim, so Donk swam down and rescued Joe.

[ Swimming is one of the skills where, if you don't have it, you can not swim, full stop. Luckily, Jeff had given Donk a point of Swimming and lucked-out with his roll. That said, it takes 10 minutes to remove armour, and you can't swim in metal armour ... Lucky Donk. ]

We could shout to Donk down the well shaft, so had echoey comms with him. He and Joe managed to get to the edge of the underground lake, and then take the long walk through the tunnels (past the mushroom room, past the (now dead) butcher's room, past the cold room, and winch room, and cells) and back to us.

FOUR

The secret door led to another tunnel. We assumed this went to the central keep (in Zephyr's compound). As we walked down, Red suddenly collapsed in a marmalade fit and had to go into the marmalade sack with Balder. 

The long passage, about fifty paces, finished at another concealed door. 

"No traps here!" proclaimed Gandhi.

This time the whole corridor sloped. Gandhi and Slim were at the front, so they scrabbled into the room before it tilted too badly. But they were greeted by two guard dogs! Next was Sophia and me. We clambered up the steepening slope [ made DEX rolls, Luck spent ]. And bringing up the rear, Donk and Joe [ everyone made DEX ].

Gandhi is a crap fighter, so he just dodged. Slim is okay, but he had second-hand armour (he lost his armour in the fungus room, but now wore armour off a dead guard). They were both wounded by the dogs. But when I joined the fight, and then finally Joe and Donk, the poor dogs did not stand a chance.

I cast Heal on Slim, and Joe too.

Off the dog room was a store room with tasty cheeses and salamis. Slim and Gandhi had a good nom nom.

THREE

Another concealed door went to a short corridor with six bedrooms. Frieda knew this area quite well, so she pointed out who was sleeping in what room. We used Sophia to carefully enter each room to wake the sleeping girls. 

Calcutta say "Is better to wake nubile sleeping girl with pretty lady rather than ugly burly fighter or big-nose gnome."

The first bedroom had Selina Porshay, yay.  There were six other girls, so we collected them all. 

TWO

Now we had a dilemma. It was two hours before dawn. There was no chance that we could remain undetected (because of the two guards and the dogs).

It would be one hour to go back through the tunnels to get to the pool. And then maybe another hour to get to a copse outside. Sophia was drained of all spells and I had almost none, and we still needed to get past the bear.

Even at the copse, we wouldn't necessarily be safe. Selina said they had guard gargoyles, and plenty more dogs.

[ META: Thanks to the way this system works, we will get a Luck recharge and Jamie will be here --> Balder will wake up fresh with spells! ]

Zephyr's Farm

 Present:

• 

  Selina Porshay

  Sophia Beauchamp (half-elf priest 21) - Ian
• Joe 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
• MARMALADE: Donk Platebreaker (human fighter) - Jeff
• Malcolm Gandhi (gnome thief) - Kevin

By Walton

[ NOTE: All the pictures are bespoke using Stable Diffusion (A1111) running on my PC. ]

We were in the city of Draser. We were trying to find Selina Porshay at the behest of Simone Fussell. Selina was the daughter of wizard Jason Porshay who had got into a large gambling debt; she had been kidnapped by the evil Zephyr the Turk when Jason could not pay the debt, and, we suspect, enslaved and taken to his saffron farm downstream the Draser river. 

In was further rumoured that Zephyr had been kidnapping the daughters of wealthy Draser locals for a years. Whether this was with the blessing of the Globe Casino, the Draser rulers and, perhaps, the Draser Thieves Guild, we had no idea. But it did seem odd that people of power let him get away with this, if true.

According to Tommo Fussell, the saffron produced by Zephyr's farm and picked by his slave girls, was one of the best quality saffrons in the Known World, and it had special, almost magical, powers (one of its powers was rumoured to enhance male performance). The rumour continued in that the reason for this superb quality was because the saffron was harvested by "special" slave girls.

I tried to push Tommo on this matter. What made the slave girls special? Did they have some unusual unique characteristic that made them different from any old saffron harvester, be she slave or nay? But Tommo could not think of anything special, so didn't know. Maybe it was just a rumour.

Tommo and Simone further asked us that when we got into the mansion of Zephyr, that could we take the accounting ledger of Zephyr? It would get more evidence against the Globe that Simone could use. We, of course, enthusiastically said "Yes! Anything for Vingt-et-Un!"

Tommo arranged for a barge to take us downstream to Zephyr's farm. The trip would take two days.

We had some treasures that needed identifying, and tonight was a good opportunity to do this. So, I used the Identify spell on the Thieves Tools - they were +1. And on the magic dust: it was actually enchanted saffron, 5 doses, each one makes the breather's Mind immune to Charm and ESP spells.

Cortez barge

Next day we boarded the barge. It was captained by Hamish Cortez. He had two mates Freddy and Ben. The rest of us would pose as his "crew."

Hamish said that the Zephyr farm was one league inland from the Klib bank of the Draser river (on our left as we went downstream). Out of note, upstream of the Zephyr farm was the McKenzie farm, and further downstream was the Charles farm.

We spent a lazy day watching the banks go by as the barge drifted downstream. The area around Draser was one of the most fertile patches of land in the known world. So, we saw farm after farm, luxuriant and bucolic. More crops and horticulture tended to be on the Zephyr side (Klibwards) and livestock on the Funken side.

That night, the barge moored at a way-station on the Funken bank. They don't sail barges downstream at night - it is too dangerous to not hit bars and shoals. (Upstream travel is by horses pulling barges, so is much slower, so upstream barges do keep moving all night. The upstream speed is less than half downstream speed, so plenty of time to spot those hidden bars, plus the horse team is way out in front of the barge, so can provide plenty of warning).

The next day was uneventful until 4 be'light. We passed the Zephyr jetty. There was a small guardhouse and we could see two bored guards there. A track went off through the scrub and Hamish told us that Zephyr's actual farm was just over the ridge.

We stopped 90 minutes further downstream and all surreptitiously disembarked. 

saffron crocus

"I will be at this very spot in 6 days," Hamish said. "Make sure you are, if you want a ride back to Draser. I will not wait."

We made our way to the close hill, out of sight of the Zephyr jetty, and crossed it.

In a circular basin, a few kilometres wide, was Zephyr's saffron farm. Rows and rows of the purple flower covered the entire basin. In the centre was a fenced 50x50 paces compound with buildings and guard towers.

[ The active component of saffron is from the red stigmas of the flower - each flower has three. The three stigmas of one saffron crocus, when dried, weigh only 7 mg, so you need 150 flowers (450 stigmas) to get a gram of saffron, or 150,000 to get a kilogram. It's very labour-intensive to harvest, and takes 40 hours of fiddly work to pick 150,000 flowers (450K stigmas). That's about one flower per second. Retail 2023 price is NZ$30,000 per kg for Te Anau saffron, or $15,000 per kg for others. ]

Picking saffron

We found a copse on the edge of the farm (far side away from the river) and waited and watched. Points of interest:

• There was a low wire that surrounded the entire area of the farm about knee-height. There were no saffron crocuses outside this wire.
• Two ogres were let out at night. They stuck religiously to the paths.
• During the day, six women, four guards and four dogs were sent into the fields. The women worked picking the ripe saffron while the men guarded. We assumed that the girls were slaves, but they were clothed and not mistreated.

Along the edge of the basin, we came across a spring bubbling up in a little stone well. Next to the well was a cave. The spring water flowed down here, next to a path, into the cave.

Gandhi investigated and returned reporting a large bear on a chain. Rather than slay the guard bear, Sophia charmed it (with Charm Animal spell [ this is a level 3 spell. Sophia took 4 attempts, and 12 points to get it to work - she is not very good at this spell! ]).

After this was a long winding underground path where we followed the stream. It proceeded under the basin and under, we guessed, Zephyr's compound. 

Exploring, we used Gandhi as a sneaky vanguard with the rest of the group not moving into an area until he cleared it, and thus we explored most of the paths. There was a small cave complex here with some fungi caves, pools of water, a guard cave with a single guard, and eventually Gandhi found a suspicious dead-end.

Axe man

We were very low on spells; Sophia and I were all but drained, so we need to rest the night. We stayed in the fungi cave. That didn't turn out to be such a good idea. We all awoke with severe eczema and asthma, and poisoned.

The guardsman was strange - he was a great big guy, naked wearing an apron, with a huge axe. Not wanting to fight him, I got him with a Sleep spell. Then Joe killed him. We tried to make it look like an accident. The axe man had a whittling knife and we arranged it to look like he slipped while whittling and cut a wrist artery. Blood everywhere.

And now we stand next to a secret door. With eight hours left before dawn, suspecting this passage emerges somewhere in the central compound.

The Debt

 Present:

• 

  Simone Fussell,
  Vingt-et-Un auditor

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

By Walton

We were in the city of Draser, fourth largest city in the Known World (95,000). We were trying to find Simone Fussell. She was a Vingt-et-Un auditor and 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, Goddess of Luck. 

We were at the Bedraggled Lizard inn speaking to the staff there, and the barmaid Thelma. We had spent the last few days following leads for Simone and had ended up here. That night, an hour after dark-fall, in our room, who would arrive, but Simone Fussell herself ! Large as life, and hale and hearty.

We quickly introduced ourselves as working for Vingt-et-Un Priestess Amy Fazarkerley from Toluene, and related our tale so far.

She then regaled us with her tale:

"... I was investigating the upper storey of the Globe..."

This was the storey of the Globe that we were forbidden to enter. It was for the high-rollers and one had to pay 10,000 gp just to get access. Miranda would not let us in.

Simone continued:

"... I suspected that there was some illegal gambling going on up there, that was not being reported to Vingt-et-Un. This was both illegal and a heresy. It did not help that priestess Miranda refused to give me access too. Despite this, I probed and sneaked around.  I happened to overhear a conversation between a rotund gentleman and a velour-clad older man, a wizard.

'I can not give that up! I can not give that up! Please, no!' said the velour guy.

'Ah, but you already have!'

So, cautiously, I followed the wizard. He went into Goldenton [posh district of Draser] to a mansion on Exeter Boulevard, number 143."

Simone must have been followed. Because that very night, she was beaten up and kidnapped outside the Barbaric Monkey in The Sprawl by, we already knew, Jasper the Mask. Then she was rescued at River Bend, again we knew, by her brother Tommo, then taken to the warehouse behind the Bedraggled Lizard and then on to Disen. 

Doily, thug of the Globe

A few days later, in Disen, Tommo's house "The Oaks" was raided, lead by thug Doily of the Globe. She and Tommo fled Disen, and made their way back to Draser. Here they hid in the warehouse near the Bedraggled Lizard, laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters where the ragged people go, looking for the places only they would know. (Lie la lie. Bizzzh ...)

Why didn't Simone simply send a message to Toluene? Why not tell Amy that she was okay? And report the treachery of Miranda? Well, being in Draser, and knowing Draser's prejudice towards gnomes, she mistakenly assumed this hatred would corrupt Gnomepost's raison d'etre.

Since our primary mission was to locate Simone, we were now at a loose end. So, we offered to guard Simone and to work for her, and help her investigations. We could be her muscle. She agreed whole-heartedly. So, we negotiated new rates. Of course, Sophia and I would work for free - helping the glory of Vingt-et-Un was enough reward for us! - but the other mercenary party members needed their own rewards: 500gp per week was the final figure.

So, first things first: COMMS. Unlike Simone, WE trusted Gnomepost. After all, Gnomepost runs in far more dangerous and bigotted parts of the Known World than Draser. So, we sent a Gnomepost message immediately:

TO: PR. AMY FAZARKERLEY, 21 TEMPLE, TOLUENE.

FROM: PR. SOPHIA BEAUCHAMP, WALTON FORMALIN, ET AL, OBSCENE GNOLL INN, DRASER.

MESSAGE: TARGET FOUND HEALTHY. PARTY UNDER NEW ORDERS UNLESS OTHERWISE INSTRUCTED.

This message was vague enough so even if we Simone's Gnomepost paranoia was real, the readers could not get that much information. And if they targeted the Obscene Gnoll, we no longer frequented it. But, should the message get through unscathed, then Amy would have a place where she could contact us. Amy would know full-well who the "Target" was.

That afternoon, Slim and I headed for the Eternal Goose, the front for the Thieves Guild. 

Reggie

On the way, we encountered a  group of frightened elves on the street who were rounded up by townsfolk and soldiers, and then summarily killed in front of us. This is normal fare for Draser, so I mention it here only for context.

Slim went inside the Eternal Goose and found Reggie, his contact, and he tried to find information on the wizard who lived at 143 Exeter Boulevard. Nothing.

The next day, we sent another message to Toluene. This time with no contact address for return messages:

TO: PR. AMY FAZARKERLEY, 21 TEMPLE, TOLUENE.

FROM: S.B. & W.F.

MESSAGE: MIRANDA UNDER SUSPICION.

We then went to the council records (Funken Wagnall) and got data on 143 Exeter Boulevard. It is owned by the Porshay family: Jason and Greta. There was also a Death Notice: Wizard Jason Porshay, "natural causes". Oh dear.

So, we all went to visit the actual mansion on 143 Exeter Boulevard. An elderly woman answered the door. She was Greta. Wizard Jason was indeed the guy we were after. To make things worse, they had a 16 year old daughter, Selina, who was missing. We found out that Jason had a big gambling problem and he had gambled the mansion away, and then offered his daughter a stake in a game to win it back. And lost her too. She went missing that day.

Jason couldn't handle this, so he hanged himself.

The tragic gambling debt was to the fat guy that Simone had overheard. He was named Zephyr the Turk. (The "Turk" epithet was used ironically in this case. Turk is a gnomish derogatory term for humans, from ಟರ್ಕಿ "tarki" which is gnome for dog faeces. Originally from the famous ballad "Me and Kirk and a dog named Turk" by the gnome bard Lobo. C.F. the 1971 song)

Zephyr the Turk

To rub salt into poor Greta's wounds, only yesterday, Doily, thug of the Globe, had come to the Porshay house to take possession of the ownership papers. She had two weeks to leave.

We gave our commiserations and sympathy to Greta, and promised we would help her. Then we left to go check on any town records for Zephyr the Turk. No sign.

Donk and Slim went to the Eternal Goose to check to see what the TG has on Zephyr. Reggie suggested "Try the Pits" (The Pits is the main slave district of Draser)

So, we headed there.

After some more investigations and machinations, we established that Zephyr the Turk owned a saffron farm down the Draser River, about two days' travel. He also had an interest in "special" slaves - human, half-elf & elf.

Tommo Fussell

We knew that Tommo Fussell was into saffron too, so, we headed back to the Bedraggled Lizard, and met with Tommo Fussell.

Tommo told us that Zephyr makes very high quality saffron. It needed special slave girls to pick it for some reason. We never did get an answer what made these girls special. Long fingers? Virgins? Delicate constitutions?

Tommo and Simone had some more information for us about the Globe. The Globe itself is "a Draser city asset". Arnie the hook runs the Globe. But Arfur the Lad, Head of the TG,  also has financial interest in it too.

Upon hearing the results of our investigations, Simone ordered us to go rescue the girl Selina Porshay. Presumably she was now a slave on Zephyr's saffron plantation.

"It is the least we could do to help the poor Porshay family," she said.

We tended to agree.

Fine-tooth comb

But first we returned to the Porshay mansion, and asked Greta if we could search it thoroughly. We had some fine fine-tooth combs.

Slim and Donk went up and searched the attic with a fine-tooth comb. The rest of us, searched the study. Detect Magic and Detect Traps revealed that there were magic traps on a unopened layer of the desk. Impatient to find something, Sophia touched it and there was a loud bang. She was shrunk to the size of a mouse. But that cleared the trap and we could then get into the locked section of the desk. Little squeaky Sophia rode on my collar.

We found a record of accounts and a key, both magic. The accounts ledger showed various amounts of money dropping from some account., Presumably it was Jason's gambling. They were large amounts - like -20,000 gp, -5,000 gp, -10,000 gp etc. 

WG locker key

I recognized the key as a Wizards' Guild locker key that we used in large guilds (Draser being a big city, had a big guild). So, while the others stayed and kept searching with their combs, I (with little Sophia) went to the guild. As a mystic and arcane spell-caster myself, I was fully entitled to the benefits and privileges afforded to wizards. 

First things first: I asked the desk clerk about the shrunken Sophia. He laughed in his stony voice and said he could ID her (8 hours and 100gp gem) but then would probably need a Dispel Magic, or "maybe it will just wear off".

In the WG locker room, the key identified the locker to me (think pressing the button on a car-key remote in an underground car park) and I opened it. Inside were some more books, a magical robe and magical walking stick (Detect Magic reveal). I brought all this stuff back to the Porshay mansion.

In our sympathy-driven goody two-shoes state, we gave Greta all of Jason's stuff, rather than loot it for our own greedy selves. But we did keep the books.

It was about then, half a day later, that Sophia popped and regained full size.

Sophia and I then headed off to see Miranda in the Globe. Miranda was now in the category of "hostile witness" so we were very careful what we said to her. We told her that our investigations had located Simone's trail down in the Sprawl near the Barbaric Money and that she went missing from that spot. We also mentioned our enquiries had implicated Jasper the Mask. But we said the trail went cold from then on. 

We then left, and suspected we'd be followed. So went to the Obscene Gnoll and stayed the night there.

Sure enough, we were indeed followed. This gave more evidence to the treachery of Miranda. 

We left the Gnoll the next morning, and managed to lose our followers. We returned to the Bedraggled Lizard.

Upon checking the Porshay ledger, the accounts ledger numbers had all dropped to 0. Magically. This was the unnamed entries of -5000, -10000 etc. They were all now 0s.

I cast an Identify spell on the magical ledger. It was a remote-script device and had a duplicate somewhere else. When one such ledger is written upon, using a special tuned magical quill, the other ledger mimics the writing and the entries. So, there would be an identical ledger elsewhere, and someone - Miranda maybe? - had changed these figures to 0. This was more circumstantial evidence to tar Miranda with. Our message to Amy (in Toluene) proclaiming Miranda's guilt was well-founded.

.