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(Cydra) The Year 271 Campaign (Low Magic experiment)
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<blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2461125" data-attributes="member: 1210"><p>Fwaigo Smith goes down on one knee and bows respectfully to his lord, Sir Martin Whitewater. Goer (as Fwaigo is called) is nervous; the topic he is about to broach could be... sensitive. Nonetheless...</p><p></p><p>“Well, Fwaigo, what is it?” Sir Martin asks. “You wished an audience with me?”</p><p></p><p>“Yes, my lord, thank you,” Goer responds. “I... I am aware that Lady Raven is very ill.”</p><p></p><p>Sir Martin’s face blanches a little.</p><p></p><p>“I... I do not wish to bring up a painful subject, my lord, but I wanted to tell you- Cedric and I, and our friends- well, we’ve already made the trip to Cotton Hill and back successfully. We’re willing- that is, if you know of anything that could help, we would be willing to make a journey. Perhaps there is a physician or herbalist in Kamenda City we could hire to look at her, or-“</p><p></p><p>“Fwaigo... Goer.” Sir Martin sighs heavily. “Believe me, we have searched far afield. We have checked Kamenda City. We have checked with the priests and the herb-mongers. We have even,” he adds dryly, “checked with your friend Dahlia. My wife’s ailment has no known cure.” He sighs again. “I appreciate your offer, and if I hear any word of anything that could help her, I will not hesitate to employ you and your friends, or whatever other method I feel is warranted, to gain that help. But for now...” Trailing off, he shakes his head.</p><p></p><p>Goer bites his lip.</p><p></p><p>“Thank you for the offer,” Sir Martin says tonelessly. His face is a stoic mask, but there is pain in his eyes.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>Lazarus and Brandon Mallard emerge from the office of the Fat Mallard, talking in excited tones. They shake hands, Brandon passing over a purse to the book-keeper, and then Lazarus spies Otis sitting with Cur, Cara, Dahlia, Kyle and Jorgen. He heads to their table; Otis is one of the only friends he has in this little town. <em>Ah, for the city,</em> he thinks regretfully. He has made mistakes in the past; it seems to be town for the near future for him. <em>Well, that’s what I get for forgetting my place,</em> he chastises himself.</p><p></p><p>Burgeoning with pride, Lazarus tells the others what he has discovered. “There’s one merchant in particular that has been shorting Brandon,” he announces. “His name is Drougal Traveler, and he usually comes through town three or four times a year. In fact, he was just in here about a week or so ago.”</p><p></p><p>“How thorough is your evidence?” Jorgen- Sheriff Jorgen, that is- asks. </p><p></p><p>Lazarus nods firmly. “Oh, it’s pretty good. Brandon has been buying a certain amount of goods, but not all of it is selling. He may be too generous for his own good, but not on this kind of level.” </p><p></p><p>“How much has this merchant stolen from him?” inquires Jorgen.</p><p></p><p>Lazarus fixes him with his eyes and pronounces, “Almost <em>eighty gold.”</em></p><p></p><p>A shocked silence settles over the table. No wonder Brandon can’t afford to keep the nice wine on the menu! <em>Eighty gold pieces</em>- that’s as much money as any of them have ever seen at one time (with the exception of Lazarus, but hey, <em>mistakes were made</em>, all right?). </p><p></p><p>“Well, it seems to me,” Jorgen says slowly, “that if this merchant is victimizing people in my town, it is fitting that I bring him to justice.”</p><p></p><p>“Do you think he’s done it to anyone else?” wonders Cara.</p><p></p><p>“Who else in town does he serve?” asks Jorgen.</p><p></p><p>“Well,” Brandon puts in, meandering over, “I know the Honest Man buys some of the same things that I do from him.”</p><p></p><p>“Let’s check their books,” says the sheriff. </p><p></p><p>As the party leaves the Mallard, they spot Goer headed their way. Jorgen and he clasp hands in greeting, and the sheriff fills the squire in as they walk. When they reach the Honest Man, the proprietor (one Jimmy Goodman) has no complaints about the merchant in question, one Drougal Traveler. He shrugs and lets Lazarus examine the books when questioned, and there is no sign of his being defrauded like Brandon. </p><p></p><p>Several minutes later, the party has taken a table in the corner. They are talking over the best way to proceed with their investigation of the situation. “Could it be related to the feud between the Cookers and the Gardens?” Jorgen muses aloud.</p><p></p><p>“Why would a traveling merchant be interested in their feud?” objects Dahlia. “Wouldn’t he get more money by serving them both?”</p><p></p><p>“Then why just steal from one of them?” points out Goer.</p><p></p><p>“Opportunity,” Cur Sed Seed answers flatly. “He’s probably got more of a chance to do it to Brandon, plain and simple. And if he only steals from one of them, he still has business in town even if he gets caught.”</p><p></p><p>“The only way to really know is to ask him,” Dahlia says. She rummages in her backpack and pulls out a map of the Barony. After some discussion and a hurried trip back to the Fat Mallard, the party ascertains the rogue merchant’s most probably route. “He probably went up to Cotton Hill first,” Dahlia murmurs, tracing the route with her finger. “Then almost due northeast to Lumber, on the woods here. Then he will follow the road to Kamenda City.”</p><p></p><p>“Cotton Hill?” exclaims Goer. “We were just there!” </p><p></p><p>“I wonder if he had anything to do with the fire,” Cur speculates. That shuts everyone up for a few minutes.</p><p></p><p>“Well,” Jorgen finally picks up the conversation, “I think I’ll have to go up there, probably to Lumber, and see if I can pick up his trail.” He looks the others over. “Is anyone willing to come with me?”</p><p></p><p>“When are you going? I’m going to be moving,” Dahlia declares.</p><p></p><p>“You’re moving? Where, into town?” Cara asks.</p><p></p><p>“No!” Dahlia looks almost offended at the idea. “I’m going to move in to Castle Laagos. It’s pretty nice there, except for the ants. And hey, maybe sometime we can get them to leave somehow. Maybe we can come up with some way to lure them away, or something...” </p><p></p><p>“Well, not for a day or two,” Jorgen answers Dahlia’s original question. “I have to see Sir Martin first- I have an audience with him this afternoon.”</p><p></p><p>“Really? I just had an audience with him too!” Goer beams. “What are you talking to him about?”</p><p></p><p>“Defending the town,” the sheriff pronounces. “I want to see what he thinks about trying to train up the peasantry.”</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>When Jorgen’s audience comes, Sir Martin nods at his concern. “I’ll think over the training issue,” he says. “And I want you to start surveying the town for possibly building a wall. That would be a major project- but it might be one worth doing.”</p><p></p><p>Thus it is, the next day, that Goer and Jorgen go to visit the sorceress, Xastys, for she is the only person in town that they can think of who might know more about architecture than how to build a simple sod hut. Indeed, she takes their commission, agreeing to do some planning with Jorgen’s surveying information.</p><p></p><p>The next day, Dahlia moves. Cur, Goer, Cara, Kyle, Jorgen and Otis all help her haul the strange collection of things she has from her tiny hut along the river two miles downstream from Whitewater to the ruins of Castle Laagos. Along the way they are suddenly assailed by a giant praying mantis taller than any of them that leaps out from behind a screen of brush and almost kills Cur in an instant, then tries to flee with him in order to feast on his unconscious form! But Jorgen is having none of that, and in a pair of mighty blows he single-handedly slays the terrifying thing.* Afterwards, the others look at him with respect-filled eyes. “Good job!” Kyle enthuses. “Crikey, that was a hell of a bug!”</p><p></p><p>When they reach Castle Laagos, the party helps Dahlia move stuff in. Kyle sidles up to her and tries to sweet-talk her into bed, but in the end the most he can manage is for Dahlia to allow him to sleep in a separate room on abandoned bandit bedding. The others return to town in a group, dragging the unconscious Cur on a litter, and no more dangerous predators attack them.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>The next day, when Kyle is heading back to town, he runs into Otis, who is headed back to town himself. Kyle chatters incessantly while Otis remains more aloof; but then the scream of a hawk above them gets their attention.</p><p></p><p>Not a hawk; <em>hawks.</em> Three of them, circling Kyle and Otis as if they were prey. And then-</p><p></p><p>Blood-red, they dive in. Otis and Kyle cry out as the vicious beasts rip at them with their razor-sharp talons, inflicting terrible, bleeding wounds. Desperately, Otis casts <em>mage armor,</em> then blasts one of the scarlet terrors with a <em>magic missile.</em> But then one of the hawks slashes Kyle across the face and he stumbles into a heap on the ground, blood pouring out of him.</p><p></p><p>Ashen-faced, Otis struggles to retain his calm. Deep breath. His head is going light. He’s bleeding badly- the talons of these hawks inflict <em>terrible</em> wounds. With a groan, he blasts the hawk with another <em>magic missile</em> and it falls in an explosion of feathers.</p><p></p><p>As the others swoop past him he casts himself aside. His head is pounding. His vision is getting blurry. “I can’t take much more,” he croaks. His leaden fingers pluck his sling from his belt. He drops a stone in the cup and starts twirling it. The birds are curving back towards him. </p><p></p><p>He lets fly. </p><p></p><p>The stone pegs one of the hawks in its shoulder, and the bird lets out a scream of anger, and then Otis feels a terrible wound open as the hawk’s talons rip into him.</p><p></p><p>Then he feels like he’s floating, and then he feels nothing.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>Late that afternoon, Dahlia is finally satisfied with her current arrangement of oddments. She smiles happily and gathers her things for a trip to town. She is going to meet her friends and they are going to go to Lumber. She likes that idea- the idea of being around so many trees. Maybe there are surviving elf-ruins in there, or maybe even an elf hidden deep in the woods!</p><p></p><p>She daydreams about elves as she sets out, but her daydreams crash to a halt when she sees the bloody fields before her.</p><p></p><p>“Kyle! Otis!” she exclaims. “What happened here?”</p><p></p><p>Neither one of them can answer her. There is blood everywhere; she can’t even tell if they’re still alive. Quickly, she casts a <em>cure minor wounds</em> on each of them, then starts examining their wounds. </p><p></p><p>Talons, as of a bird. And then- it looks like the bird, or perhaps birds, must have taken the time to <em>feed on them.</em></p><p></p><p>Feeling ill, she checks to see if her friends yet live. Otis is clearly in better shape- Dahlia detects his breathing after only a moment. Kyle, on the other hand, teeters on the very edge of death. Only some strange intervention of fate has kept him alive so far.** And he will show the scars of this experience for life. Yes, the birds fed on him: they ate out his left eye and took one of his fingers.</p><p></p><p><em><strong>Next Time:</strong></em> Our heroes head to Lumber while some knights visit Sir Martin and bring terrible news!</p><p></p><p></p><p>*Which is to say, he hit- everyone else missed- he hit and killed it.</p><p></p><p>**I believe I have mentioned Wyrd before.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="the Jester, post: 2461125, member: 1210"] Fwaigo Smith goes down on one knee and bows respectfully to his lord, Sir Martin Whitewater. Goer (as Fwaigo is called) is nervous; the topic he is about to broach could be... sensitive. Nonetheless... “Well, Fwaigo, what is it?” Sir Martin asks. “You wished an audience with me?” “Yes, my lord, thank you,” Goer responds. “I... I am aware that Lady Raven is very ill.” Sir Martin’s face blanches a little. “I... I do not wish to bring up a painful subject, my lord, but I wanted to tell you- Cedric and I, and our friends- well, we’ve already made the trip to Cotton Hill and back successfully. We’re willing- that is, if you know of anything that could help, we would be willing to make a journey. Perhaps there is a physician or herbalist in Kamenda City we could hire to look at her, or-“ “Fwaigo... Goer.” Sir Martin sighs heavily. “Believe me, we have searched far afield. We have checked Kamenda City. We have checked with the priests and the herb-mongers. We have even,” he adds dryly, “checked with your friend Dahlia. My wife’s ailment has no known cure.” He sighs again. “I appreciate your offer, and if I hear any word of anything that could help her, I will not hesitate to employ you and your friends, or whatever other method I feel is warranted, to gain that help. But for now...” Trailing off, he shakes his head. Goer bites his lip. “Thank you for the offer,” Sir Martin says tonelessly. His face is a stoic mask, but there is pain in his eyes. *** Lazarus and Brandon Mallard emerge from the office of the Fat Mallard, talking in excited tones. They shake hands, Brandon passing over a purse to the book-keeper, and then Lazarus spies Otis sitting with Cur, Cara, Dahlia, Kyle and Jorgen. He heads to their table; Otis is one of the only friends he has in this little town. [i]Ah, for the city,[/i] he thinks regretfully. He has made mistakes in the past; it seems to be town for the near future for him. [i]Well, that’s what I get for forgetting my place,[/i] he chastises himself. Burgeoning with pride, Lazarus tells the others what he has discovered. “There’s one merchant in particular that has been shorting Brandon,” he announces. “His name is Drougal Traveler, and he usually comes through town three or four times a year. In fact, he was just in here about a week or so ago.” “How thorough is your evidence?” Jorgen- Sheriff Jorgen, that is- asks. Lazarus nods firmly. “Oh, it’s pretty good. Brandon has been buying a certain amount of goods, but not all of it is selling. He may be too generous for his own good, but not on this kind of level.” “How much has this merchant stolen from him?” inquires Jorgen. Lazarus fixes him with his eyes and pronounces, “Almost [i]eighty gold.”[/i] A shocked silence settles over the table. No wonder Brandon can’t afford to keep the nice wine on the menu! [i]Eighty gold pieces[/i]- that’s as much money as any of them have ever seen at one time (with the exception of Lazarus, but hey, [i]mistakes were made[/i], all right?). “Well, it seems to me,” Jorgen says slowly, “that if this merchant is victimizing people in my town, it is fitting that I bring him to justice.” “Do you think he’s done it to anyone else?” wonders Cara. “Who else in town does he serve?” asks Jorgen. “Well,” Brandon puts in, meandering over, “I know the Honest Man buys some of the same things that I do from him.” “Let’s check their books,” says the sheriff. As the party leaves the Mallard, they spot Goer headed their way. Jorgen and he clasp hands in greeting, and the sheriff fills the squire in as they walk. When they reach the Honest Man, the proprietor (one Jimmy Goodman) has no complaints about the merchant in question, one Drougal Traveler. He shrugs and lets Lazarus examine the books when questioned, and there is no sign of his being defrauded like Brandon. Several minutes later, the party has taken a table in the corner. They are talking over the best way to proceed with their investigation of the situation. “Could it be related to the feud between the Cookers and the Gardens?” Jorgen muses aloud. “Why would a traveling merchant be interested in their feud?” objects Dahlia. “Wouldn’t he get more money by serving them both?” “Then why just steal from one of them?” points out Goer. “Opportunity,” Cur Sed Seed answers flatly. “He’s probably got more of a chance to do it to Brandon, plain and simple. And if he only steals from one of them, he still has business in town even if he gets caught.” “The only way to really know is to ask him,” Dahlia says. She rummages in her backpack and pulls out a map of the Barony. After some discussion and a hurried trip back to the Fat Mallard, the party ascertains the rogue merchant’s most probably route. “He probably went up to Cotton Hill first,” Dahlia murmurs, tracing the route with her finger. “Then almost due northeast to Lumber, on the woods here. Then he will follow the road to Kamenda City.” “Cotton Hill?” exclaims Goer. “We were just there!” “I wonder if he had anything to do with the fire,” Cur speculates. That shuts everyone up for a few minutes. “Well,” Jorgen finally picks up the conversation, “I think I’ll have to go up there, probably to Lumber, and see if I can pick up his trail.” He looks the others over. “Is anyone willing to come with me?” “When are you going? I’m going to be moving,” Dahlia declares. “You’re moving? Where, into town?” Cara asks. “No!” Dahlia looks almost offended at the idea. “I’m going to move in to Castle Laagos. It’s pretty nice there, except for the ants. And hey, maybe sometime we can get them to leave somehow. Maybe we can come up with some way to lure them away, or something...” “Well, not for a day or two,” Jorgen answers Dahlia’s original question. “I have to see Sir Martin first- I have an audience with him this afternoon.” “Really? I just had an audience with him too!” Goer beams. “What are you talking to him about?” “Defending the town,” the sheriff pronounces. “I want to see what he thinks about trying to train up the peasantry.” *** When Jorgen’s audience comes, Sir Martin nods at his concern. “I’ll think over the training issue,” he says. “And I want you to start surveying the town for possibly building a wall. That would be a major project- but it might be one worth doing.” Thus it is, the next day, that Goer and Jorgen go to visit the sorceress, Xastys, for she is the only person in town that they can think of who might know more about architecture than how to build a simple sod hut. Indeed, she takes their commission, agreeing to do some planning with Jorgen’s surveying information. The next day, Dahlia moves. Cur, Goer, Cara, Kyle, Jorgen and Otis all help her haul the strange collection of things she has from her tiny hut along the river two miles downstream from Whitewater to the ruins of Castle Laagos. Along the way they are suddenly assailed by a giant praying mantis taller than any of them that leaps out from behind a screen of brush and almost kills Cur in an instant, then tries to flee with him in order to feast on his unconscious form! But Jorgen is having none of that, and in a pair of mighty blows he single-handedly slays the terrifying thing.* Afterwards, the others look at him with respect-filled eyes. “Good job!” Kyle enthuses. “Crikey, that was a hell of a bug!” When they reach Castle Laagos, the party helps Dahlia move stuff in. Kyle sidles up to her and tries to sweet-talk her into bed, but in the end the most he can manage is for Dahlia to allow him to sleep in a separate room on abandoned bandit bedding. The others return to town in a group, dragging the unconscious Cur on a litter, and no more dangerous predators attack them. *** The next day, when Kyle is heading back to town, he runs into Otis, who is headed back to town himself. Kyle chatters incessantly while Otis remains more aloof; but then the scream of a hawk above them gets their attention. Not a hawk; [i]hawks.[/i] Three of them, circling Kyle and Otis as if they were prey. And then- Blood-red, they dive in. Otis and Kyle cry out as the vicious beasts rip at them with their razor-sharp talons, inflicting terrible, bleeding wounds. Desperately, Otis casts [i]mage armor,[/i] then blasts one of the scarlet terrors with a [i]magic missile.[/i] But then one of the hawks slashes Kyle across the face and he stumbles into a heap on the ground, blood pouring out of him. Ashen-faced, Otis struggles to retain his calm. Deep breath. His head is going light. He’s bleeding badly- the talons of these hawks inflict [i]terrible[/i] wounds. With a groan, he blasts the hawk with another [i]magic missile[/i] and it falls in an explosion of feathers. As the others swoop past him he casts himself aside. His head is pounding. His vision is getting blurry. “I can’t take much more,” he croaks. His leaden fingers pluck his sling from his belt. He drops a stone in the cup and starts twirling it. The birds are curving back towards him. He lets fly. The stone pegs one of the hawks in its shoulder, and the bird lets out a scream of anger, and then Otis feels a terrible wound open as the hawk’s talons rip into him. Then he feels like he’s floating, and then he feels nothing. *** Late that afternoon, Dahlia is finally satisfied with her current arrangement of oddments. She smiles happily and gathers her things for a trip to town. She is going to meet her friends and they are going to go to Lumber. She likes that idea- the idea of being around so many trees. Maybe there are surviving elf-ruins in there, or maybe even an elf hidden deep in the woods! She daydreams about elves as she sets out, but her daydreams crash to a halt when she sees the bloody fields before her. “Kyle! Otis!” she exclaims. “What happened here?” Neither one of them can answer her. There is blood everywhere; she can’t even tell if they’re still alive. Quickly, she casts a [i]cure minor wounds[/i] on each of them, then starts examining their wounds. Talons, as of a bird. And then- it looks like the bird, or perhaps birds, must have taken the time to [i]feed on them.[/i] Feeling ill, she checks to see if her friends yet live. Otis is clearly in better shape- Dahlia detects his breathing after only a moment. Kyle, on the other hand, teeters on the very edge of death. Only some strange intervention of fate has kept him alive so far.** And he will show the scars of this experience for life. Yes, the birds fed on him: they ate out his left eye and took one of his fingers. [i][b]Next Time:[/b][/i][b][/b] Our heroes head to Lumber while some knights visit Sir Martin and bring terrible news! *Which is to say, he hit- everyone else missed- he hit and killed it. **I believe I have mentioned Wyrd before. [/QUOTE]
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