Another day in the town guard elite. It has
only been a couple of weeks since basic training, but we all want
some action. After lunch at the Green Griffon, we head to the
town guard HQ. Stanley Douglas, our master, is waiting with
an assignment. There have been reports of bandit activity to
the Northeast. They have been attacking merchants and peasants
at a River Crossing on the Fitzallen River between Arundel and Chirk.
They seem to only attack lightly armoured travelers, stealing
everything possible, and only killing when resistance is offered (one
case of a missing person has been reported; Roger the shrubber). Our
assignment is to do some recon. Find the bandits. Take
care of them ourselves if possible, return for backup if needed. We
begin by questioning some of the local victims of these raids. Bob
the thatcher says that 6 men with crossbows and wearing ringmail robbed
him and his party of their sheep and other goods. Lawrence the iron
monger, says that a dozen attackers robbed them of everything. Of
the four that were with him, only Ston, the dealer in exotic metals survived,
as the others tried to fight. Ston backs up his story. We
finally leave town in the late afternoon by the Northwest gate, and then
take the Northeast road. The first couple of hours are uneventful,
as we only pass by a few peasants. After these two hours it begins
to rain heavily, so we decide to make camp, just off the road in a lightly
forested area. Only two watches are set, me and then Ferous.
Monday May 7
In the morning, we have a quick bite, break camp
and then carry on. After about two hours we meet 6 cloaked
people on the roadway. After a quick introduction, we find
that these people claim to have been robbed by bandits. They
were robbed of their horses, wagon, and gear. Six of their companions
were killed by dozens ("a small army attacked us") of bandits, when they
attempted to fight back. The attack took place yesterday from
the North at the river crossing. Of particular value, a small chest
of about 40 semi-precious stones was stolen. Uncle Stinky offers
his healing services to a couple of the wounded travelers, and we wish
them a safe journey to Framlingham. We continue on our journey.
By early afternoon the rain is letting up. When we get approximately
4 miles from the river crossing, Ferous goes to scout ahead. Searching
around the crossing area, Ferous sees many broken branches in the woods
along the road. While investigating, he hears clanking noises 30
to 40 feet away. He retreats a short distance and watches the road.
A man in black leather armour, cloak, and crossbow steps out onto
the roadway. Ferous retreats back to the rest of us and tells
us all he has seen. We decide to camp, this time setting up
more watch shifts. I'm on first watch, followed by Aaron, Ferous,
and finally Geirrod. The night is uneventful.
Tuesday May 8
In the morning Ferous quickly scouts around are
camp to make sure there is nobody around. After deeming it
safe we make a plan. Stinky will take the cart up the road
while I hide in the back under the canvas. Geirrod will ride
his horse some distance behind us, far enough to not be immediately
noticed, but close enough to get to us quickly if we get into trouble
(which we expect). Ferous and Aaron will in the meantime be hiding
out in the bushes close to the road to make a move as necessary. The
idea is that a small group of bandits should come and try to rob us
thinking that Stinky is traveling alone. I don't particularly like
this plan. I'd rather try to track the bandits to their hideout, to
see how many people we are actually dealing with. Everyone else wants
to take on a group of them at the road. So be it. Ferous and
Aaron go ahead of us (about a 45 minute head start). They sneak up
to the area that Ferous had been at the previous day, staying in the bushes.
They hear some voices, and see a man walk onto the roadway as they
had the previous day. Soon he goes back into the trees, and Aaron and
Ferous wait. Eventually (about 45 minutes after the scouting party
- maybe we didn't need such a long time - the wait must have felt long for
Ferous and Aaron), the cart arrives (with Geirrod about 50 yards behind us).
A voice shouts from the woods, "STOP!" There is a man with a
crossbow 20 feet from us. "What do you want?" asks Uncle Stinky. The
man replies, "We're here to rob you. Please step out of the cart."
Stinky drops his staff as 2 men come out of the trees and onto the
road. Seeing them, Geirrod gets his horse to charge toward them. Seeing
Geirrod, the two men shoot their crossbows at him (missing by a long shot)
and run into the woods. Uncle Stinky
commands one of the bandits to stop just as Geirrod catches up
to him and dismounts. This moment of pause is just long enough for
Stinky and Geirrod to attack as Urgon gets out of the back of the cart. Stinky
whacks the bandit with his club and stuns him. Geirrod runs past pursuing
the bandit that is still running up the hill. Urgon follows to assist
Geirrod. Ferous and Aaron, who have been slowly advancing through
the woods emerge just in time to see four crossbowmen firing bolts at them.
Ferous fires two arrows, killing one opponent and injuring another.
A bolt strikes Aaron before he is able to sleep the attackers.
In the meantime the Geirrod continues his chase until he gets ambushed
by 6 crossbowmen who immediately fire. One bolt hits him, as Geirrod
rushes toward the group of bandits, four of whom pull out their short swords
and step forward to melee. Geirrod knocks one bandit off his feet and
and attacks just as Urgon joins the fray. After a couple of critical
misses by Geirrod and Urgon (and one hit on Geirrod), the battle turns against
the bandits. One of the two remaining crossbowmen accidentally hits
one of his own men as Ferous, who ran up the hill, joins the fight, forcing
melee combat upon the crossbowmen. Having secured the men down the
hill with rope, Aaron also joins the fight. They kill 5 bandits before
the last surrenders. Geirrod knocks him down, and the bandit (injured
and weak) passes out. In the meantime, Uncle Stinky has waited for
his opponent to regain his senses, so he can try and talk to the man. The
bandit bolts. Stinky swings and hits the man with a glancing blow.
The bandit continues to run as Uncle Stinky tries to catch up to him.
Unfortunately, the bandit outruns Stinky (as a last ditch effort, Uncle
Stinky hurls his club at the man, but misses by a long shot). Uncle
Stinky goes about finding the club he has thrown. Ferous drags the
captive bandit down the hill to where the others had been tied up, only
to find that the bandits have been set free (presumably by the bandit that
got away from Uncle Stinky). The bandit is tied up to the cart and
gagged as ferous quickly tracks the runaway bandits, and finds their tracks
heading to the Northwest. Uncle Stinky cures the tied
up bandits wounds. After healing Aaron's wounds, he and Geirrod begin
building cairns for the fallen bandits. Ferous returns and then wakes
the bandit. He begins questioning by asking how many are in his group.
The bandit replies, "none now." With his dagger, Ferous threatens
the bandit, who says, "you should let me go so my powerful army doesn't stop
you?" The bandit does reveal that his name is Bob and that his master
is named Malakmar, but when Aaron threatens Bob with hanging, he refuses
to talk. When the more compassionate Uncle Stinky returns, he helps arrange
a deal with Bob to get him to speak. He promises Bob that he will be
set free if he gives all the information asked for and promises not to return
to the bandits. The rest of our group agrees as long as Bob is given
no weapons or armour. Bob agrees and starts talking. We find
that Bob is part of a group of brigands that have their base of operations
in a stone fortress built into a rock face. The fortress is protected
with ballistae and they use boiling oil when necessary. Bob claims
that their leader, Malakmar, is very powerful, with armour made by the gods.
Most of the other brigands are poorly equipped. They steal
all the goods they can and stash the carts in an area just off the main
road. All the stolen goods are brought to the fortress. We
decide to head up toward the fortress. Bob swears allegiance to the
group as Uncle Stinky takes full responsibility for him. Ferous
stays ahead of the rest of us to track the bandits that fled from us earlier.
Eventually we find a path. Bob says that it is the path to
the fortress, and offers to show us where traps are located along the path.
He goes ahead with Stinky with the rest of us following about 30 feet
behind. He finds one of the traps (only after 30 minutes of prodding
along the trail). After some time the trees begin to get less dense
and the terrain rockier. We decide to make camp in the trees off the
trail. Ferous takes first watch. During the latter part of his
watch he hears a sound and looks up to see 3 things coming toward him in
the darkness. He shouts, to wake everyone up as three bandits attack
him. One stabs Ferous with his short sword as another launches two
arrows into him at short range, before Ferous slashes one and kills him.
Aaron, who has regained his senses after waking manages to sleep
the two remaining bandits and Ferous. Aaron wakes Ferous as
the rest group gets up. We bind and gag the two bandits. Ferous
binds his wounds and goes to sleep. Bob recognizes one of the bandits
as Paulus, a Lieutenant of the Brigands. Uncle Stinky tries to talk
to Paulus, who says "Let me free and I'll let you go." Paulus sees
Bob and says to him, "you're dead." Stinky tries to offer Paulus a
similar deal to the one we gave Bob, to which Paulus agrees. the rest
of us, though, do not trust Paulus so we do not allow him to be freed. Stinky
goes off to build a cairn for the dead bandit, mumbling something to the
effect of, "I'm a queen, and allegiance should be pledged to me." (Of
course, I can't be too sure if that is exactly what Stinky said, he was mumbling
under his breath). Paulus says that if we let him go, he will show
us where we can find 500 gold pieces. We refuse this offer, and after
further questioning find that Paulus' only interest is to serve Malakmar
and continue his evil ways. Geirrod, Aaron and I decide he is too
dangerous to let go so we decide he must die. Geirrod acts as executioner
and Paulus is hung. The other captured brigand is Alan, who is given
an offer similar to Bob's which he accepts. The rest of the night is
spent at this camp with watches kept by me, followed by Geirrod.
Wednesday May 9
In the morning, Alan chooses to be set free, and leaves
us down the trail in the opposite direction that we are heading. We
proceed ahead. After some time the terrain is getting much hillier
and rockier. The path is in a draw between to ridges. We
see on the ridges, brigands heading away from us toward where we believe
the fortress to be. We wait for them to get out of sight. Ferous
and I then climb up to one of the ridges and find a path there parallel
to the one below. We travel up our respective paths parallel to
each other for about 15 minutes until we come to a pint where the trails
meet (the original trail has climbed to meet the one on the ridge)., From
here we can see the fortress. Two huge doors are set in the rock
face. On either side of the set of doors are 10 arrow slits carved
out of the rock. Directly on either side of the doors are two larger
openings. We decide we have seen enough and head back down the trail.
We get back to our cart without any trouble. We head back toward
Framlingham with gear looted from the bandits in our cart. As we
travel, Geirrod lays his hands on Ferous to heal some of his wounds. After
several hours we stop to make camp. The night is peaceful.
Thursday May 10
We travel the rest of the way to Framlingham. Arriving
in town, Geirrod, Uncle Stinky, and Bob immediately go to the temple
of Tyr. Aaron and I head to the market to sell our looted goods
while Ferous goes to get a beer at the Green Griffon. Once we
are finished tithing and trading, we go to see Stanley Douglas. We
give him a report of what we have witnessed, regarding the bandits and
their fortress. Stanley agrees that Bob may be allowed to live.
He instructs us that in the future we should return all bandits
who have surrendered to town and kill those that do not. Our next
instructions are to go back to the fortress and try to enter it to do a
more thorough reconnaissance. Stanley will do some more research
for us first as he has heard of Malakmar. This all sounds familiar
to him. The rest of the day we spend in town, resting, healing
and purchasing a few items we need.
Friday May 11
In the morning we all go to the temple. Father Ackland
has consulted with Stanley Douglas. He tells us that the fortress
the bandits use is an abandoned temple to Thor. It is a single
level complex. Items of note that may be inside include a set of
bronze platemail armour with symbols of Thor etched into it, and an amulet
called The Protecting Hand Of Thor that was lost in the place. The
front entrance is the only way inside. There are chimneys from fireplaces
that emerge in the stone above. It has been decided that we are
perfect for the task at hand. Our mission (which we really have
no choice but to accept) is to get rid of the bandits, after which religious
excavators can be sent in (whatever that means). With this information,
we leave town. 12 men are dispatched with us to guard our wagons
and supplies at the road when we go to the fortress. We make it
to the Fitzallen River crossing before nightfall and set up camp. The
men dispatched with us take watches so that we may sleep.
Saturday May 12
In the morning we head up the path taking two mules with
us. Ferous scouts about five minutes ahead of us as we proceed.
After a couple of hours, Ferous is attacked by 6 bowman and gets
hit by two arrows before he retreats back to the rest of the group.
The bowman do not seem to have followed him. Uncle Stinky
heals Ferous' wounds and we proceed. Deciding it might be wise
to stay off the main trail, we climb up the rocky slope to a bench. We
carry on up the valley following this bench, climbing to another when
the first disappears, and then up or down to others as necessary. In
this way we make progress up the valley. Eventually, we spot smoke
a few hundred yards ahead of us. We proceed carefully as the ground
gets rockier. As we get closer, we see that the smoke appears to
come out of the ground. I approach the smoke column, but when I get
to 30 feet from the smoke, the ground below me opens up. I manage
to jump away and see that a hole a couple of feet deep and just as wide
at the spot I was standing. We also notice that there is another
column of smoke 70 feet past the first, and a third 120 feet past the second.
Avoiding the unstable ground where I previously stepped, we approach
the smoke hole from a different direction. The hole is a little more
than a foot in diameter. The sides of the hole are bricked. Looking
down (from upwind) red embers can be faintly seen, and we notice the faint
smell of food. Looking over the edge of the bench we are on reveals
that we are above the front entrance of the fortress. Aaron and I
explore the ground to the west of the smoke holes (away from the fortress
entrance) but do not find anything of interest. To the north (we approached
from the south), we see that this bench descends down to a road. Aaron
decides that it might be useful to collapse the ground more at the spot
where the ground opened up beneath me. He starts loading the hole
I created with rocks until the weight cause the ground to collapse further.
Unfortunately, Aaron gets caught up in it and falls 10 feet with
the collapsing stone. Aaron notices evidence of worked stone as I
help pull him out of the hole. Uncle Stinky heals his wounds. Geirrod
jumps down into the hole and starts moving rock to try and find a way
through some of it. After the stone shifts a few times he gets out
of the hole, not trusting the stability of the stone. We decide to
cover the holes up, in an effort to smoke the bandits out of the fortress.
Geirrod uses a blanket to cover one hole, and Ferous uses his cloak
to cover the second. The third we plug with a large rock that we roll
over it. We wait as night begins to set. As it gets dark, it
begins to rain. Ferous, Geirrod, and Uncle Stinky stay between the
2 holes covered by the cloak and blanket, while Aaron and I position ourselves
to watch the front entrance of the fortress. Geirrod and Aaron take
first watches. After less than an hour, Aaron notices movement, and
wakes me up. We see something moving along the path away from us
to the south. With the darkness and rain, though, we can't make out
what it is. Aaron creates dancing lights mimicking
torchlight ahead of whoever is moving along the trail. In the light
we can see 6 brigands. They retreat to the fortress when they see
the lights. I decide to stay up as Aaron goes to sleep. An
hour later I notice more movement so I wake Aaron up. The movement
is again heading south. Aaron and I decide to go to where the other
guys are, by the smoke holes. It is apparent that the fires below
have been put out, as there is no smoke seeping from around the items covering
the holes. After telling what we have seen, Ferous and I take watch.
After a couple of hours Ferous drifts off to sleep. I give
him a push to wake him, then I awake Geirrod and go to sleep myself.
Sunday May 13
When it gets light the rain stops. We get up to see
that there are several bandits approaching along the bench from the
southwest and more descending from the hillside above. We decide
to try and take out the upper team, which consists of 9 bandits, first.
Ferous fires his bow as the rest of us charge ahead. The
bandits fire crossbows, hitting Geirrod, Ferous and Aaron. Aaron
causes them all to sleep . Ferous, Stinky and Geirrod
go to face the other group as Aaron and I go to slit the throats of the
slept bandits. As Geirrod and Uncle
Stinky run up to their opponents, Ferous fires two arrows, both of which
miss their mark. The bandits, in return, fire crossbows, hitting
Geirrod and Stinky. Stinky and Geirrod engage the bandits in melee
as Ferous runs up. Geirrod attacks the obvious leader of the group,
a large man wielding a two-handed sword. Uncle Stinky kills the
first one, beating him with his staff, as Ferous arrives to fight, but
takes a hit from the short sword of another bandit in the process. The
man Geirrod is fighting, clearly stronger than the others, hits the P
aladin a couple of times before Geirrod can injure him. Ferous
and Stinky also take a few more hits before Ferous lops the head off
of one of the bandits with a mighty swing of his blade. In the meantime,
up on the hill where the other group of bandits were slept, Aaron and I
have been slitting the throats of the sleeping bandits. We manage
to kill eight of the brigands, before the ninth awakes, jumps up, grabs
a weapon and attacks. Aaron stabs at him with his dagger and hits him.
I follow that with a grazing hit of my long sword. Aaron finally
kills him with a thrust of his dagger into the bandits heart. Aaron
and I run to help the others. Down the hill the battle has continued
with Stinky, Geirrod and Ferous all taking more hits. Ferous has killed
another 4 bandits and Stinky 2. Just as Aaron and I show up Geirrod
kills his opponent. Uncle Stinky heals Geirrod who has taken a number
of hits. We dump as many bodies as we can into the hole that Aaron
collapsed the previous day. Only 10 fit in the hole, so we pile
the other 8 bodies on top of them. Aaron and I go sit at the edge
of the flat to watch the entrance of the fortress again, while Stinky
goes to rest himself up. We spend the day above the fortress uneventfully.
When night arrives, Uncle Stinky feels refreshed so we decide to
head down the hill to the north and then double back along the path to
the fortress. Once on the path we head toward the front entrance
of the fortress, with Ferous about 50 feet ahead of the rest of us. At
a corner in the road, 150 feet from the front doors, Ferous lets the rest
of us catch up. Ferous stealthily approaches the fortress entrance.
We follow only 20 feet behind. We see arrow slits along the
wall as we approach the doors, some bigger than others. We duck as
pass them, tokeep out of the line off
site of anyone inside. Getting to the double doors, Ferous hears
the sound of metal clanking behind it. Aaron tries to see if the
door will open. A voice behind the doors is heard saying, "there's
someone at the door." The door appears to be locked so Geirrod, Ferous,
Stinky and I all take a turn at trying to force the doors open. Containers
are thrown out of holes above and beside the doors.
Geirrod and Ferous manage to jump away, but the rest of us get covered
by a gooey, sticky substance, as the containers shatter on the ground
around us. Geirrod and Ferous get together and pull on the double
doors and finally manage to get them open. Inside, 4 men with crossbows
fire flaming bolts at us, but all miss. Geirrod, Ferous and Stinky
run in to engage the bandits, while Aaron and I wipe as much goo off of ourselves
as possible. Ferous kills two of them by the time Aaron and I run in.
More bandits with crossbows are on ledges on either side of the doorway.
Uncle Stinky and ferous get hit by bolts, as does one of the bandits
fighting on the floor. Aaron sleeps two crossbowmen on one
ledge while I shoot my crossbow at a guy on the other ledge and miss. Ferous
and Geirrod kill the other two guys they are fighting. I fire another
shot at the guy on the ledge and injure him while Aaron climbs to the ledge
where he slept the two bandits. He proceeds to slit their throats.
I get hit by one of the crossbowman and return the favour by killing
him with my crossbow. Two more bandits are on another ledge directly
above the doorway, threatening to throw more oil bombs. Geirrod and
Uncle Stinky climb the ladder to the ledge to engage them in melee. I
hit another crossbowman, and Ferous finishes him off with an arrow. Ferous
and I hear a noise from behind another exit into the room, so we draw our
blades and position ourselves on either side of the doorway. Back
on the ledge above the front entrance, the bandits there have managed to
throw a couple of their gooey missiles, but do not effectively hit anyone.
Geirrod takes a hit from one of their swords, before injuring him
in return. The doors that Ferous and I are positioned at open. Beyond
are two men in a passage. 30 feet down the passage is another doorway,
open. A huge crossbow is positioned in the center of this opening.
The two men attack Ferous and I. I injure one of them and he
hits me also. Ferous ends the life of the man attacking him. Aaron,
who has finished slitting the throats of the men he slept, runs up throwing
two daggers, hitting the bandit I am fighting with one. He then stabs
the man with a third dagger. This creates enough of a distraction
for me to finish him off with a sword. On the ledge the battle goes
on. Ferous tries to help by shooting an arrow into the melee but only
succeeds in hitting Geirrod in the back. Geirrod finally kills the
bandit. He then picks up the last remaining opponent and throws him
off the ledge. The man stands up and runs out of the front door as
I fire a crossbow at him and miss. The group of enemies with the giant
crossbow have made no move to come up the passageway. Geirrod and
Uncle Stinky, who have joined us by the doorway, rush down the hall as a
huge bolt is fired from the crossbow. The bolt flies harmlessly past
everyone and lands in the entry chamber. Aaron and Ferous take off
down the passage as I sing a short song to inspire us to fight better. I
then follow. In the room are 11 men. 9 look like the bandits
we have been fighting in the rest of this complex. The other two look
like better equipped leaders. One we assume is Malakmar, as he is wearing
the bronze platemail with the symbols of Thor we had previously heard about.
Geirrod has engaged this man in combat. Ferous fights the other
'leader'. While Uncle Stinky has waded into the group of 9 bandits.
Stinky takes some hard hits and falls, barely conscious. As
best as he can, he begins to bandage his wounds while Aaron sleeps
the 9 bandits. Uncle Stinky manages to stop his own bleeding and
cowers in a corner. Aaron and I begin slitting the throats of slept
bandits (something we have become quite good at), while Ferous and Geirrod
continue fighting their opponents. Ferous appears to be having a
difficult time with the man he is fighting so Aaron sleeps both
of them, and then wakes Ferous up before slitting the 'leader's' throat.
Ferous goes to help Geirrod. Three of the men that Aaron had
originally slept wake up before we have time to kill them. Aaron and
I fight them. Stinky attempts to also, but pauses to say a prayer to
Tyr. In that moment he is again struck down by a bandit. Aaron
takes a hit before he sleeps these three yet again. Stinky
and I are slept in the process. Aaron bandages Uncle Stinky and then
wakes me up. I join the fight against Malakmar as Aaron slits the throats
of the last sleeping bandits. Geirrod has taken several hits from Malakmar
by this time, but he and Ferous have been injuring him in the process also.
I get hit and am too wounded to fight. I step away and sing
to inspire Geirrod and Ferous to fight better. Aaron cast a series
of bee cantrips to distract Malakmar and make him easier to hit. Geirrod
hits Malakmar twice, followed by a hit from Ferous. A look of concern
crosses Malakmar's face before Geirrod thrusts his blade between the evil
bandit's breast and shoulder plates, killing him. All of us are wounded
so we decide that we need to get the guards we left near the river crossing.
We take Malakmar's possessions, which include his armour, long sword,
an amulet (presumably the Protecting Hand Of Thor), and 100 gold coins (which
I hold on to until it is time to distribute). We also take the other
leader's long sword, chainmail and gold (50 coins). Ferous and I decide
to go get the guard while Geirrod, Aaron and Uncle Stinky hole up on the
ledge above the main entrance. Realizing that it is still early
in the night, Ferous and I decide to wait until morning to leave. We
take three watches during the night - Ferous, myself and then Aaron.
Monday May 14
Bright and early in the morning, Ferous and I leave to get the guardsman
waiting for us. After we leave, Aaron decides to go exploring within
the fortress, while Geirrod lays his hands on Stinky's wounds. During
his exploration he finds a large room containing a catapult, various bedrooms,
and a room with a big bathtub and bearskin rug. Within all these rooms,
the only things of value he finds are 130 gold coins. Aaron opens another
door and sees a room filled with cobwebs. He starts burning the webs,
when a huge spider jumps on him and bites him. Aaron sleeps
the spider, and then kills it. Feeling nauseous he wanders back to
Geirrod and Stinky (vomiting several times along the way). Ferous and
I get to the 12 guardsman we left at the road. We take 10 with us,
leaving the remaining two to guard the cart, and head back to the fortress.
Meanwhile at the fortress, Aaron has rested for a couple of hours and
is feeling better, so he resumes his exploration. Aaron goes back to
the spider room. Another spider attacks, but misses this time. Aaron
threatens it with his torch and it backs off. He decides to leave the
room alone and goes back to wait for Ferous and I to return. Within
a couple more hours, we arrive. Now that they know the location of the
fortress, we send two of the soldiers back to get a troop to garrison the
fortress. Aaron and I take 4 of the guards and continue to explore where
Aaron left off on his own. We start by burning out the spider room.
We find a huge room containing 10 big pillars, 8 suits of armour (posed
as knights), 2 thrones and a couple of recently used fire pits. We find
nothing else of interest here. Continuing our search we fing many more
rooms, including a number of bedrooms and a mess hall and kitchen. Eventually
we find a room that is 60 feet wide. We don't know how long it is as
the entire back portion of the room seems to be caved in. The ceiling
and walls look very unstable so we leave it for now and head beck to the
rest of the guys. Leaving 4 guards to stay at the fortress, we head
back toward town. We manage to get Stinky, whose wounds are the worst
of us, to the cart at the road, and we head to town. Just outside of
town we see a troop of militia men heading out to the fortress. It is
late evening when we get into town. We bring Uncle Stinky into the temple.
Geirrod and Stinky both receive healing at the temple. We show
Father Ackland the armour and amulet we found at the fortress. He is
pleased that the armour has been recovered. He gives us the amulet and
says that it is useful in warding evil magic. We let Uncle Stinky hold
the item. We tell Father Ackland everything about our expedition at
the fortress. He is very interested, and tells us that a religious excavation
team will be sent out in the morning. He will report to Stanley Douglas
for us. We head home and go to sleep.
Tuesday May 15
In the morning we go to see Stanley Douglas. He tells us that Father
Ackland reported to him and that the excavation team has been sent. We
are told to rest and heal. We go back to the temple where we all receive
healing from the Priests. Geirrod receives additional healing from
Uncle Stinky, Sir William, the local Paladin, and himself. Aaron finds
Bob and asks him about the collapsed areas in the fortress, but Bob knows
nothing. We spend the rest of the day resting.
Wednesday May 16
Back at the temple, Aaron gets healed up. Sir William heals the
rest of my wounds, and I make a donation to the church. Ferous also
receives healing. We spend the rest of the day hanging out in town.
Thursday May 17
This morning, Uncle Stinky gets more healing from the church. Finally,
we are all at full health. We decide to head back out to the fortress,
to see if the excavation turns anything up. We travel there to find
that it is occupied by familiar militia. Stanley Douglas is personally
overseeing the operation. The excavation is progressing, but nothing
of interest has been found yet. We sleep at the fortress.
Friday May 18
In the early hours of the morning, the excavators break into a room. We
go to the room with Stanley. It appears to be a temple. It contains
an altar, and pictures of Thor are on the wall. A silver chest, in
remarkably good shape, sits in the room. Stanley opens the chest, and
pulls out a book and some other papers. The book is written in a language
nobody can read. Aaron detects magic on the stack of loose papers.
He determines that one sheet of paper radiates magic. He realizes
that it is obviously clerical magic. Stanley gives us the book and
papers and sends us to Framlingham with them. We get to town by nightfall.
We bring the papers to Father Ackland at the temple. He thanks
us and tells us to return in the morning. We go home to sleep.
Saturday May 19
We go see Father Ackland after first light. He tells us that the
documents reveal that many artifacts had been taken from the temple long
ago. There were 7 magical relics in all. The documents include
a map showing the lands to the south of Framlingham. Places of interest
shown on the map are Stafford, a ruined city; Beaufort, a ruined village;
Fort Calais, an operational fort currently used by our troops; Leeds, the
site of a major battle; Richard's Reef; Edmund Swamp; and Henry Pass. The
items taken from the temple were apparently taken to Stafford. We
need to go to Stafford to see if we can recover these items. The Amulet
of Thor that we found may or may not be one of the items in question. We
hang out in town for the rest of the day. In the evening, we all decide
to get sleep, so we are rested in the morning, except Ferous who goes drinking.
He stumbles home and passes out late in the night.
Sunday May 20
Incredibly, Ferous is not hungover in the morning. We prepare a wagon
for our journey. In addition to our rations, we load a barrel of salt
pork, a barrel of apples, and a keg of water. Geirrod and I will be
riding horses, while the rest travel in the cart, with Uncle Stinky driving.
We head out to the southeast, to svoid the forests to the south (Ferous
has told us that there are forests to the south that do not appear on our
map, and he should know).