Ambush on the Iuvenis

Miscellaneous

A group of bounty hunters seek revenge on Badaar and the party learns a secret that could bring down Richard the Protector.

At midnight the party began their infiltration of Kari manor. After much debate on the best approach to take, Gregory used his skills in stealth to access the upper floor by jumping from a nearby tree.   Once inside he began slowly making his way through the building until he came to a room in which he could hear voices.   At the same time, Loodachris attempted to sneak into the compound, but the rustle of the tree he jumped into caught the attention of a nearby guard, who spotted him. He quickly drank an invisibility potion, vanishing from sight, but the guard immediately raised the alarm.   Gregory, seizing the element of surprise, burst into the room he was listening in on and knocked out the two guards within using the strange potion the party had found on the road to Langdale.   The rest of the party climbed over the wall and joined the fray, with Eiyo following Gregory inside, and the others assaulting the grounds.   During the course of the battle, Loodachris caused multiple guards to flee by raining fire down upon them as he levitated about the battle.   Graak and Badaar cut their way through the guards, absorbing much of the damage of the donzens of guards.   As Eiyo and Gregory cleared the upper floor they drew the attention of more guards, who came up the stairs behind them. Loodachris moved into the upper floor behind these guards and surprised them.   With most of the exterior guards dead or fleeing, Graak entered the bottom floor of the building and rushed upstairs to join the battle.   As they fought the guards upstairs, Loodachris and Graak heard movement below. Graak ignored this and Loodchris went down to investigate alone. He stumbled across Zie Kari attempting to flee with a Drow.   Loodachris sent a cone of flames at the pair, but did minimal damage. They quickly descended on him, knocking him unconscious, but not before he could scream “drow”.   Graak hurried down the stairs and threw himself over Loodachirs, using his body as a shield as he fought the pair of new enemies while the rest of the party made their way to help.   Badaar slew Zie Kari with a mighty swing as she attempted to push him away from Loodachris, and in the opening this created the Drow attempted to pick up the unconscious half Elf and make an escape.   Fortunately Eiyo was quick to react and stunned the drow, allowing him to be knocked unconscious.   After searching the bodies and the rest of the house for loot, the group decided to take their prisoner (they discussed binding the two unconscious guards upstairs but no one went to do it.) to Charlotte Elonil, as she was the one who had told them about the Drow in the first place.   When they arrived they found Charlotte unconscious, the shock of Loodachris’ pain had made her feint and she was furious that the party had brought a Drow to her shop. She was trying to hide from the Drow, not host them in her shop. She still gave Loodachris a scroll of cure moderate wounds and told him to take care of himself.   The party decided they would take their prisoner to the Lodge, and Graak and Loodachris would go and summon Gar Jordan to show him what they had found.   When they arrived at the Lodge, Captain Price asked what was going on, and upon learning their captive was a Drow, immediately tried to execute the prisoner. The party calmed him down and told him they needed information.   He led them to a cellar which contained a cage and told the three of them that he would hold the Drow here and question it.   After about half an hour Loodachris, Graak, and Gar returned and went down to the Cellar to find Captain Price torturing the prisoner. Gar seemed un-phased by this, and told the group that both men had served in the Royal Army at one time and had dealt with Drow before.   Price told the group that the Drow would never break without torture. While the party didn’t try and stop what was happening, they left the cellar in disgust.   Eiyo, Loodachris and Graak   Eiyo, Loodachris, and Graak travelled to Calistria’s Kiss.   Eiyo purchased a bottle of Twilight Nectar liqueur, drank a double, and became sickened. When she ordered water, the entire bar mocked her and brought her an entire cask filled with water.   Graak spoke to Nev and arranged a fight with Turok the Giant, a Dwarf brawler.   Before the fight Graak attempted to rouse the crowd and his left hand – the one wearing Vinder’s ring, went numb.   The fight lasted 10 seconds, with Graak delivering a total of 71 damage in 2 rounds, knocking the dwarf out before he could land a punch.   After the fight it was Eiyo’s turn. She challenged Bella the Brutal to a rematch.   The fight was very close, with both fighters only one good hit away from defeat, but Eiyo was able to scrape victory to the joy of the crowd.   She helped Bella back up, gave her a potion of cure light wounds, and bought her a drink.   The group collected their considerable winnings from their bets and headed to Vinder’s. They arrived at Vinder’s at around 3am. The sign on the door said “always open for friends” and they walked in without knocking to find Vinder sat behind the counter in his pyjamas reading from an old book which he put away as they entered.   Graak questioned Vinder about his ring and learned it has a delusional curse placed upon it that makes Graak think he is more charismatic than he is. Vinder hypothesized that because Graak has been so genuinely charismatic in the Kiss, that the ring had malfunctioned and not worked correctly. He warned Graak that while it was probably fine, it could have negative effects if it happened again. Graak kept the ring on.   Eiyo purchased a set of potions, including a potion of cure moderate wounds for only 150gp, a considerable saving on the regular price of 300gp.   Loodachris used his bet winnings to purchase a new staff of burning hands before returning to the Lodge.   Eiyo and Graak returned to the Kiss, where Eiyo went to drink with Bella. Graak asked Eiyo to watch his things, but she refused as she had other “business” to attend to.   So Graak returned to Vinder’s and the vender agreed to watch his things for him.   Naked save for a loincloth, his swords, and his gorilla helmet, Graak travelled south of Underbridge and began climbing to the upper level of the city.   Graak   The climb was slow, and it took more than two hours for Graak to make it to the summit of the cliff. He was greeted by structures far finer than any he had seen in the lower levels.   He immediately made his way to the arena, using stealth to avoid the guards, and arrived as a finely dressed man was giving instructions to labourers. Graak approached one such worker who was separated to ask him when the fighting would begin. He was told 12 noon.   Graak slept beneath the stands until the arena opened to the public and he watched a fight between Goliath, a 7.5 ft man wielding a mighty hammer, and more than a dozen wolves. The fight was short, with Goliath slaughtering the wild beasts.   Graak left the arena after the fight in search of a tavern. He found the Goblet, a bar and restaurant. The hostess tried to stop him entering by insisting there was an entrance fee of 10gp, which Graak paid.   Inside, Graak purchased a mug of Dwarf Stout and met Chief Justice Nigel Dunstan. Not long into their conversation, Graak threw his drink over the Chief Justice’s lap. Before the guards could arrest Graak the Chief Justice waved them away and laughed about the incident, telling Graak he was the most interesting individual he had met in ages.   The deputy justice, Reynald Duval, did not warm to Graak as his boss did, and stared at the Grippli throughout the exchange.   He had one of the servers fetch Graak some clothes and they returned with a fine black cotton shirt, which fit Graak as if it were a tunic.   Before leaving, Graak asked the Chief Justice for a writ of passage, which he (assumes) he received.   With his business concluded, Graak returned to Vinder’s around 2.30 in the afternoon to retrieve his gear and locate the party.   Badaar and Gregory   Following the assault on Zie Kari’s mansion, Badaar and Greg went to Calistria’s Kiss with the others, but stayed there after the others had left to fight.   Badaar faced off against the Butcher, whom he defeated after several powerful blows. Gregory bet on the Butcher to win and lost his bet of 50gp.   Gregory then faced off against the Shaman. The fight was difficult, with the Shaman using a variety of special abilities to deliver damage to the rogue, but Gregory was ultimately able to feint his opponent and knock him unconscious.   After knocking out the Shaman, Gregory unfastened his pants and urinated on his opponent, to great boos from the crowd.   Greg purchased sleeves, poisons, and darts   SESSION 12   Around 11am, the group (minus Graak) gathered together to investigate the letter that had been sent to Badaar. They exited the city and walked the north bank of the Iuvenis – with Badaar walking a few minutes ahead.   Eventually he came across a group of soldiers who had made camp on the shoreline of the river. The leader introduced himself as Kayden Neale and told Badaar that they were a group of former Royal Army soldiers who wished to rally behind Badaar and begin the rebellion to overthrow Richard the Protector.   Seeing Badaar laughing and talking with the group, Gregory threw a rock at his head to keep him on task, which raised alarm with the new group. Badaar calmed them and introduced them to the party.   After a few minutes of conversation, Kayden proposed a toast to Badaar and overthrowing Richard. On drinking their ale, Eiyo and Loodachris felt strange and realised they were being poisoned. Eiyo shouted a warning and the new group drew arms.   The battle was difficult, with multiple party members being serious injured and Badaar and Loodachris both coming close to being knocked unconscious. As the battle seemed to be turning, the party heard a mighty roar as a new dragonknight appeared and joined the battle, immediately killing two of the enemies.   The group was able to incapacitate Kayden Neale and tie him up.   They learned that he was friends with Van Quinten, the bounty hunter Badaar had cut in two on the road to Langdale. They agreed that he should be given the chance to die with honour and duel Badaar.   During the dual he knocked Badaar unconscious and as he attempted to coup de grace him, Kovax impaled him with a javelin.   The party learned that Kovax had been travelling around the realm attempting to gather support for Prince Balian. It had been thought that the Good King Marius’ son had been killed on the same night as his father, but he had escaped, and was about to come of age.   Kovax asked the party to speak to Baron Roderick and attempt to gain his support which they agreed to.   He told them to speak to Vinder if they need to get hold of him.   The party left Kovax and journeyed back to the Lodge to check in with Price. Upon their return they found the lodge in flames and a crowd of people stood around watch. Eiyo got the people moving to help put out the blaze as Gregory ran into the fire to find survivors. He was unable to locate anyone and found the basement where Price had been keeping the Drow empty.   The party summised that Price must have been taken into the Underdark by the Drow and decided that they would attempt to find an entrance.   Eiyo Graak and Loodachris returned to Kari manor and searched the building, eventually finding a hidden entrance in the kitchen. Loodachris and Graak descended and explored the first chamber, but returned to the surface before they could be attacked.   The trip then went to the upper levels, using the writ Graak had gotten from the Chief Justice, and found Gar. After informing him of the developments he departed to set his men searching for other entrances.   The trio remained at the Goblet and Graak challenged the Chief Justice to a drinking contest. If the Grippli won, the Chief Justice would organise a meeting with the Baron. If he lost, the party would have to attend a party being thrown by the Chief Justice the following month as additional security.   Graak lost the contest and was carried to the nearby inn, Sisco’s, to sleep off the alcohol.   Eiyo and Loodachris visited Arcane Wizardry, the magic shop owned by Tenjon Mervor. Tenjon offered Eiyo a belt of physical perfection for an incredible discount, but when she mentioned Vinder, Tenjon flew into a rage and kicked the pair out of his shop.   Loodachris retired for the night and went to stay with Charlotte.   Eiyo visited the temple in the noble district and asked about leads on her mother. She was directed to the Temple of the Lady of Valor on Fallspring Island. She retired to Sisco’s.