Session Notes for 2005-04-17

Morningglory leads us to the docks to seek Marius. We speak to several people, eventually ending in Lucius. Lucius is a rat-faced fellow and Marius's parter. Lucius gives us directions to Marius's office.

Marius is happy to receive the papers, but preemptively refuses to pay a reward. Odd fellow. He seems like he might be in hard times at the moment.

Lyle has the small greatsword identified. It's a magical sword +1 with the additional ability to absorb spells. We decide to sell it, making 3,000 gold pieces as a group. By most standards we are quite wealthy. I still have no idea what to do with the money.

I've heard about banks, a place to keep your money. I'll try that. I visit a bank. I learn that for 1 gold piece per 100 I wish to store, they will hold my money and return it to me when I wish. I deposit 100 platinum pieces and pay 1 platinum piece in fees. They give me a silver token. The front has the bank's symbol. The back has the number 87. I suppose my pouches are at least lighter.

July 27th

The next morning we meet at Lord Nuntio's. We're escorted in to the waiting room.

Dorian examines the tapestry. The top left corner has a little girl with golden curls in a golden gown. In the top right corner are musical notes in cupped hand. Bottom right is a sheep. Bottom left is a woman in a crown holding a bloody sword.

Lord Nuntio arrives a few minutes later. He mentions that the woods outside of Adrigal are full of ruins. He wishes to examine the ruins and wishes us to act as protection. The ruins in question are two and half days away. We'll take horses. The ruins are a ruined castle.

A servant arrives. He reports that a group of servants were attacked and "the Lady" kidnapped. One of the servants survived and is being treated at a doctor's. Nuntio apologizes that he must look into this. He asks us to wait here.

Morn and Dorian are interested in a book they pull off a shelf. It looks like a book that was open on a desk several days ago. At their request I take a look. Each person in the group can only read one or two words per page. The language is unfamiliar.

Given the few words we can make out, the first page reads, "...one of many ... power ... men's hands ... have found....." The second reads, "...Queen ... removed from ... four stories ... will rule....."

Lyle opens the secret door and looks in. It's a well appointed hallway with many doors.

Lord Nuntio returns and shares what he learned. Lady Ancilla and her entourage were attacked. The servant was the only surviver beyond Ancilla, who was kidnapped. Nuntio asks us to track the kidnappers down and rescue her. We'll reconsider the trip to the ruins later. He has an idea of where the kidnappers headed.

The attackers were human bandits, perhaps 10. The servant overheard something about ruins.

Lord Nuntio loans us light warhorses. We ride off.

An hour along the trail we come to a carriage and many bodies. There are opened luggage boxes scattered about.

Dorian notices a trail of something being dragged into the woods.

Looking at the luggage, I just find clothing and personal things. Money and jewelry are conspicuously absent. It looks like they quickly looked the luggage for easy money.

We head into the woods several minutes. There are a great deal of broken branches and crushed underbrush. Apparently someone has frequently patrolled this area.

Lyle scouts ahead. The trees thin to reveal a ruined house. The house has a tower on its right side. There is a man by the front door watching the woods. Lyle fires on the man with his longbow. The man draws his sword and advances toward the woods. He spots Lyle and moves toward him. Lyle backs up.

We hear the commotion and head up. Morn and Dorian will head around to the back. I go to aid Lyle.

The man is wearing half plate; most of my blows glance off the steel. Lyle and I tangle with him; neither one of us is particularly effective. Fortunately the guard is almost as ineffective at hitting me as I am at hitting him. Unfortunately his sword is sharp. Eventually one of Lyle's arrows sinks into the man's back, slaying him. I'm badly wounded from the the fight.

Morn and Dorian head in the back. The back room has three men gambling with dice. The men haven't noticed Morn and Dorian. The two sneak past into hallway. Behind one door is the sound of people talking. Behind another are people loudly eating. The final door leads to an empty, partially collapsed room.

The pair decides to enter the eating room. They open the door, but one of the two men inside notices. They both shoot the man but fail to slay him. Dorian's wolf charges in. The two men give a cry and counter attack. Morn and Dorian charge in and close the door behind them to block reinforcements. Dorian charges the injured man and slays him. The Dorian and her wolf advance on the last man. The man shoots Dorian with an arrow from his short bow. Morn wedges a chair in front of the door, sits in it, and fires on the man. Outside there is pounding on the hallway. Morn orders the man to call his friends off. The seriously injured man whimpers. Dorian and Morn finish him off. Outside there is pounding pounding on the door.

Lyle and I head in. The passage ahead is collapsed, so we head right down a hall. We come to a large room at the bottom of the tower. The staircase is crumbling and unusable. We find two men arguing. One is wearing robes, something about him suggests that he is a sorcerer. We hear Morn call for help. Lyle and I move into the shadows. The sorcerer glances up into the tower, then the two head toward a door in the back. I charge and Lyle opens fire. I strike the sorcerer, knocking him around badly. The sorcerer hits me with a ray of cold; it's minor damage, but I'm in such bad shape it's serious. The second man pulls a short sword and attacks me. I barely avoid him. The swordsman is wearing studded leather. I kick the sorcerer, who collapses. The swordsman heads after Lyle. I come up behind the swordsman. With a blow to the head, I knock him out. Lyle and I charge forward to try and find the women.

Meanwhile, Morn swings open the door to their room and they face their attackers. They hold them off and do some minor damage. Lyle and I arrive at the bandit's rear. Lyle opens fire and I charge. Dorian slays one of the men. The man I attacked strikes back. The blow is too much and I collapse. Lyle slays my opponent. Morn shoots another bandit with a crossbow bolt, killing him. After a few quick rounds, Dorian and Lyle slay the last two.

Morn summons some healing, reviving me. I'm still in bad shape, so Dorian summons some healing herself.

Morn heals a woman calling from the tower. We head over. We see an elven woman's head looking out a window from the floor above. It's the woman we saw before, presumably Lady Ancilla. We throw up some rope. She ties it to something inside and climbs down. She has a sprained ankle.

Lyle climbs up and liberates his rope. He jumps down, injuring himself slightly. Morn heals him.

We loot the bandits. We find six masterwork longswords, a rapier, 2 potions of light healing, two short bows, four masterwork short bows, a masterwork crossbow, four sets of masterwork studded leather, two suits of splint mail, four sets of half-plate armor, and six steel shields. There are also 11 bags holding 100, 100, 100, 100, 350, 350, 750, 750, 750, 750, and 1,650 gold pieces respectively.

Morn fetches the horses. We ride back. En route Morn asks about what was stolen. She thinks she lost 2,000 gold pieces. Her jewelry is sewn into her clothes and the bandits had not found it.

We arrive back at the city. Lord Nuntio rushes out to greet us. He takes the Lady in to see his doctor.

We wait in the waiting room. After a bit the Lord and Lady return. We're given the horses and 4,000 gold pieces in reward. He asks us to escort him and her to the Lady's home. The journey is two days and they would leave the next morning.

We offer the ladies money back; she asks for only 1,000, leaving us the rest.

(Dorian notices that the lady is comparing the tapestry to us.)

Only the potions prove to be magical. We sell the rest of the items and divide the loot. I receive 3,300 gold pieces. What a nuisance to carry. I pay the nice fellow at the bank to hold it for me.

Morn has her armor and weapon enchanted. I look into magical items and learn that one can acquire magical bracers that ward off attacks. They are very expensive, but they seem useful. I empty my bank account and acquire a powerful pair.

Morn looks at the book we acquired from the kobold lair. One page has an eight by eight grid. Some of the squares have symbols written in them. The page is repeated twice later. The last time one of the squares is marked in red. There are also pictures of doorways surrounded by similar symbols.

1000 10 bandits, 1 sorcerer, saving Lady Ancilla