(Aug 28 2016 & Sept 1 2016)
The party begins in Dirkwood, as that city is known as a wretched hive of scum and villainy (aka, Adventure Central!). Unfortunately, all the usual excitement seems to have gone out from the city. Everyone is more concerned with the City of Timore, where Duke Lapis of Karfax County is soon to marry Duchess Lazuli of Sapphire County, a union that will end 15 years of bad blood between the two Counties since the War of Blue & Gold. Merchants from all over Solidar Minor will be there hawking their wares, including magic items, and the festivities will be legendary.
And so, the party sets out East toward Timore, not really knowing each other, but banding together for mutual protection as they camp along the Salt Road. While they may have been seeking Adventure, it isn’t long before Adventure finds them.
From the wooded area beyond their campfire, rustling is heard, and a disheveled old man lurches forth, followed closely behind by a scruffy Dog. Dave tells the party that a roving gang of bandits, The Cowboys from Hell, have taken over his village:
I took a chance escaping by hiding among the dog kennels; they probably didn’t notice when I slipped away because I was too old & weak to pose a threat. The thugs overran the town, stole our little money, are prepping to empty our food stores, and locked up all the able-bodied men in our jail. They threatened to slaughter our wives & children if they are challenged, and are ready to dump casks of poison into our town well if they think authorities from either County, or anyone else, is on their way for aid. Some of them are monsters, and I heard it won’t be long before they start having their way with our women; they may even take some with them as slaves. Please! Sneak in and help, but definitely don’t let them murder anyone or poison our well. If the well goes bad, it could seep into our soil and crops, and then the whole town will collapse. We will lose everything!
Alena & Moira don’t trust this Dave. They interrogate Dave about how he managed to escape (he squeezed out a hole under the village wall that the dog dug), and get more tactical details.
I’ve seen these thugs at work. There are a dozen and a half or so rabble, who would pose little threat to you, but the six gang leaders are tough. They decimated our guards with quickness. Each one is a dangerous foe. You definitely cannot take all six out at once, but with a little stealth and cunning, you may be able to pick them off one by one. Just remember, if they poison that well, the whole town is certainly doomed. Some of the gang has whistles to signal an assault, and if they alert whoever is guarding the well, they’ll start dumping.
So the party accepts the Quest to save the Village of Scarsburg, and sets out that very night.
The plan is to split up. Alena, with the Dog, sneak around the south wall to where the breach is, so that she can infiltrate. Shea sneaks up to the west gate, climbing up the watchtower, and prepares to take out one of the Gang’s guards. Yoshy, Talthus, & Moira lurk nearby in the overgrowth, ready to assist and slip into the village before anyone notices the guard is missing.
Using her Ring of Jumping, Shea quickly scales the watchtower, and taking him by surprise, throws the guard over the outside wall. Before he makes a sound, Moira & Yoshy take him out, with the Elf Warrior slitting the brigand’s throat. Talthus then scurries past the gate and hides between two of the shops, getting a better view of the well.
Alena makes her way inside, using Dave’s hole. There are about ten other dog kennels in the immediate area, as well as a few Cowboy’s From Hell. One is an Ork rifling through a merchant’s wagon. Another is a goblin taking immeasurable delight urinating in a barrel of drinking water. In the nearby distance, the tavern is alight and noisy with the carousing of the thieves.
Talthus notices that the device they intend to use to poison the well is currently guarded by wandering goblin thugs, a human witch, and a hobgoblin brigand. They are about to switch shifts, with two gnolls coming to replace the witch and the hobgoblin. Talthus overhears the four CFH lieutenants arguing and laughing, with the hobgoblin insisting that his name is actually quite noble, despite sounding a lot like “Yellow Farts” in the Common Tongue. He’s mostly being ridiculed and he hates it.
Alena decides to let all the dogs loose from their kennels as a distraction. It works pretty well; one of the Gnolls and Yellow Farts both go to see what’s going on, and the Gnoll gets pretty messed up by one of the tougher guard dogs. This also has the effect of luring out our gang leader, Phil Hostile the pistilero, who hops on his horse and rides out to gun down those noisy mangy mutts.
Moira, Shea, and Yoshy all sneak past the village wall while there is an opening and a distraction. Moira hides between two buildings near the marketplace, while Yoshy & Shea enter the barracks. Moira now sees the situation at the well.
Yoshy immediately bumbs into some orks and some human fighters, and while at first he looks outnumbered, Shea pops out of the shadows to sneak attack and they both take out the threats.
Alena takes this opportunity to slip into the Meeting Hall, but did not expect to come face to face with a hulking Lizadman Barbarian, Rex, amidst looting the kegs. They see each other and square off. Alena draws her bow, and Rex cocks his shotgun.
Meanwhile Talthus decides to step out into the open and approach the well, appealing to the remaining Gnoll and the Human Witch with his Bardic Charms. The Gnoll, Dime, listens intently to Talthus’s entreaties, and decides that it’s best to high tail it out of town rather than face what’s coming. The Witch, Slimenstra, on the other hand, is completely repulsed by Talthus and begins firing an array of magic missiles at his face while shrieking obscenities. Combat begins in earnest in the town square, merely ten feet away from the device that could poison a whole town, when a shotgun shot rings out from the nearby meeting Hall and alerts pretty much everyone that shit has hit the fan.
Yoshy, Moira, and Shea bump into and make short work of some goons, but most of the CFH Lieutenants are elsewhere, so they are able to get into the barracks and start releasing the able-bodied men of Scarsburg. Some take up weapons and join the fight.
Back in town square, Dime finds his brother Gnoll Vinny, and convinces him that they should probably leave, as the spoils are gotten and the dump ain’t worth the trouble. As the two are leaving, Phil comes back (preceded by gunshots and dog whimpering sounds), and declares he has no place in his gang for traitors, so as Dime is leaving Phil shoots him in the back. Vinny goes hysteric but then runs away. While all this is happening, a random goblin decides to pull the lever on the poison machine.
After getting tore up by a loose guard dog, and seeing his gang leaders fall to pieces, Yellow Farts has had enough, imbibes an Invisibility Potion, and takes off as well, declaring, “I never liked you guys that much anyway.”
Alena closes quarters with Rex the Lizardman Barbarian. He drops his shotgun, draws his axe, and enters RAGE!!! This is when she regrets being in such a small area, and also gets hacked to near death. After a brief melee, she survives, barely.
Shea scurries past the combatants and jams her thief tools into the machine, stopping it at the last second. Talthus takes on Slimenstra, while Alena takes shots from the cover of the meeting hall, and Phil rides into town square brandishing his pistols. Moira and Yoshy join the fray.
Before Phil has a chance to loose a barrage of bullets, Moira unleashes a wave of flames at him, igniting the paper cartridges in his bandolier. The menacing leader of the Cowboys from Hell explodes spectacularly, sending demoralizing waves of panic throughout the rest of the gang. With their lieutenants gone, beaten, or dead, the lesser members begin to flee.
The party has saved the day!
Later, the grateful villagers reward the party, and loot is taken from the fallen gang members. The resident medic is able to patch up the crew, wounded villagers, and saves about half the maimed dogs. The town alchemist also offers to brew special elixirs for the party to increase their attributes, which should be ready in about a week. After resting the night and getting well fed, with the town secured and newfound fame as local heroes, the party heads back on the road to Timore.
MiniBar Menu
