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The Durnhill Conscripts
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7330610" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 08: PLAYING THE FIELDS</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Galen Thorne, human paladin 3</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Kaspar Hardstrike, elf monk 3</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Orion Nightsky, halfling rogue 2</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Syngaard, human fighter 3</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 24 January 2018</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>"I wonder what's up this time," grumbled Syngaard as he approached the Enchanted Flagon. It was too early in the day for secret missions, as far as the scarred human fighter was concerned - he was still nursing his morning hangover.</p><p></p><p>"We shall find out soon enough," reasoned Galen as he tied Seneca's reins to the hitching post just outside the tavern. Carl was already in place at the post, panting happily in the sunlight. "I see Orion is already here."</p><p></p><p>"There's a big cause for celebration," muttered Syngaard to himself as the two warriors entered the tavern that was their de facto headquarters. Not only Orion but also Kaspar had beaten them in; they were seated at the table they'd jointly decided was their official conference table. (It was no different than the other two round tables that each sat four - but it was the one they had sat at when they had first been conscripted into service to King Leornic and thus had the dual advantages of history and familiarity.)</p><p></p><p>"Ah, you're all here," Skevros said, looking up at Galen and Syngaard's approach.</p><p></p><p>"What about Daleth?" asked Orion. "Won't he be accompanying us?"</p><p></p><p>"I have already assigned him to other duties," explained the king's adviser without going into any detail. "You four will suffice for the mission at hand."</p><p></p><p>"What's the mission?" asked Galen.</p><p></p><p>"And what's it pay?" added Syngaard without missing a beat.</p><p></p><p>"Four thousand gold pieces, to be split equally among you," Skevros answered the bald fighter first, realizing that until Syngaard got his answer he'd keep interrupting. Then, returning his gaze to Galen, he added, "There have been bandit raids in the kingdom of Ashfall. You have been selected to take care of the problem, with extreme prejudice."</p><p></p><p>"Extreme prejudice?" repeated Syngaard. "We ain't prejudiced!"</p><p></p><p>"<em>Not prejudiced?</em>" sputtered Orion, "How can you say that with a straight face? You've got nothing but dislike if not downright hatred for halflings, and make snide comments about me and my race at every opportunity!"</p><p></p><p>"That ain't prejudice," scoffed Syngaard. "That's just plain common sense." Then, turning to Skevros and ignoring Orion's red, angry face - and the fact that Kaspar was holding her arm, silently entreating her to refrain from pulling her short sword out and inflicting bodily harm on the crass fighter - he asked, "So why are we doing Ashfall's work for them - they oughta be able to handle their own bandit raids."</p><p></p><p>"Several reasons," admitted Skevros. "First of all, this was a direct request from King Renaldos and it will do well for us to maintain a strong alliance with Ashfall. Secondly, I am always willing to take money from their coffers. And finally, all of their able-bodied men - and women," he hastily added, for the benefit of the easily-offended halfling rogue, "are fighting off incursions from the Lower Realms up in the Baator's Breath Mountains. It is to our advantage to allow them to maintain a strict focus on that problem, as keeping the demons at bay advances our own interests as well. Thus, they handle the demon incursion; we'll gladly handle their bandit problem - and even get paid to do so."</p><p></p><p>"That's more like it," Syngaard agreed. "And four thousand gold - that's a thousand apiece! Hell, more, if not all of us make it out alive!" And without saying a further word, he slowly turned his head to stare suggestively, straight at Orion.</p><p></p><p>"You'd better hope I do make it," advised Orion. "If I don't, you'd likely break your brain trying to divide four thousand gold pieces into three even shares!" Syngaard opened his mouth to rebut her accusation but then got caught up in the mental dilemma of trying to actually divide 4,000 evenly by 3. It was more than 1,000, that was for sure. Couldn't be 1,500, though, that was too high....</p><p></p><p>While the fighter was busy with his mental calculations, Skevros had turned his concentration to the <em>crystal ball</em> before him. "I am scrying upon several Ashfall farming villages," he explained. "Thus far, the bandits have targeted the smaller villages on the outskirts of the kingdom, avoiding the bigger cities."</p><p></p><p>"And thus avoiding Serenity," observed Galen. "Good call on their part."</p><p></p><p>"Ah," said Skevros, a hint of satisfaction in his voice. "Here we go. It seems our bandits are in the midst of an attack as we speak. Quickly! Outside, to your mounts! You must depart at once!" He scrambled out from behind the table and ran to the tavern's door, the others following behind them. Galen leaped atop his warhorse; Orion did likewise on her riding dog. "How do we get there?" asked Kaspar, expecting the adviser to give them directions.</p><p></p><p>He did something that got them there even faster: with the words to a spell, the four heroes and their two mounts were instantly teleported across the miles to the site of the current bandit attack.</p><p></p><p>They arrived in the middle of a marketplace, with overturned carts and bodies already sprawling in the dirt of the street. Scanning quickly around them, the conscripts saw no less than five archers on the outskirts of the marketplace, shooting at the villagers and the few older guardsmen who dared give an attempt at defense. Other bandits attacked with swords. Screams echoed across the village, evidence of frightened townsfolk falling under the attacks of the raiders.</p><p></p><p>Orion spotted an archer shooting at a guardsman on the other side of a table of various hand-held weapons for sale. She leapt off of Carl's saddle and scampered across the table, while her dog scooted underneath it. Orion let fly with a thrown dagger, sending it into the surprised archer's shoulder and destroying his aim, allowing the guardsman to get in a strike with his sword. Then Carl bounded up and clamped down on the archer's leg. He let out a scream of pain as Carl brought him down to the ground, his leg still in between the dog's teeth - but he was quickly silenced as the halfling rogue ran up and slit his throat with her <em>flaming short sword</em>.</p><p></p><p>Galen, in the meantime, spurred Seneca forward towards another bandit, a female rogue standing off to the left of a church devoted to Pelor and stabbing another guardsman with her twin short swords. As the paladin swung his <em>sword of Zehkar</em> at the surprised woman - where in the Nine Hells did a paladin of Hieroneous come from? - Syngaard spotted another bandit about to enter the church, a rapier in his right hand and a light crossbow balanced over his left shoulder. "Well, well, well, what riches have we here?" the bandit asked the terrified commoners who had taken refuge inside the church, huddled in the pews.</p><p></p><p>"Hey!" called Syngaard, charging forward. He threw his <em>returning javelin</em> at the bandit, yelling "You can't go stealing from a church of Pelor!" as he closed in on his target. The throw went wild, but the javelin popped back into Syngaard's hand as he ran in through the open doors of the church, trailing his prey.</p><p></p><p>The bandit spun around, a smirk on his lips. "Oh, can't I?" he asked, bringing the crossbow off his shoulder and sending a bolt flying at Syngaard. It struck the scarred fighter in the side of the arm but Syngaard barely seemed to notice.</p><p></p><p>Kaspar saw a female bandit stabbing down at a cowering peasant, killing him with a single forward stab with her bastard sword, piercing his chest and sticking the end of her blade into the dirt as he lay on the ground begging to be spared. The monk frowned in anger, pulling a pair of shuriken from inside his robe. He sent these flying at the female bandit; the first missed but the other cut off a chunk of her left ear and zapped her with electricity from his "sky dragon's claw," causing her to cry out in pain and surprise. The two combatants locked eyes and closed to melee range.</p><p></p><p>All around the marketplace, the militia began noticing these unannounced reserve troops coming to their aid. They seemed to be doing well against the bandits, so the guardsmen began shifting to a more defensive focus, pulling the remaining villagers to safety. Not all of the villagers were interested in safety, though - more than a few were willing to put themselves on the front lines against their attackers. A burly dwarf rushed up to another archer and tried punching him in the jaw; the archer backed away just in time, but then Orion and Carl came bounding up to give the dwarf some much-needed assistance. Having seen the brave, unarmed dwarf facing off against the bandit archer, the halfling raced Carl around behind the bandit and attacked him before he was even aware of her existence. Between Orion, Carl, and the enraged dwarven commoner, the archer was put down quickly. However, another female rogue raced up to attack the dwarf, stabbing him in the back with a sharp blade.</p><p></p><p>Galen, likewise, had cut down his initial opponent and had ridden Seneca forward to strike at another bandit, this one another archer shooting at him with a longbow. The paladin caught the arrow against his shield and Seneca raced forward, striking out with his hooves at the frightened bandit, who was fine with shooting defenseless villagers but wasn't quite ready to face off a full-fledged knight on horseback. Galen swung Seneca around, allowing his sword arm the range it needed to cut the archer down with his magic longsword.</p><p></p><p>Inside the church of Pelor, Syngaard roared at the huddled villagers to flee to safety; they responded by cowering along the walls, none of them eager to leave the imagined safety of the church to re-enter the madness outside its walls. <strong>Nevin</strong> stabbed at Syngaard with his rapier; he pierced through the bald fighter's chain armor with his first strike but Syngaard managed to deflect the follow-on attacks with his own morningstar. "You're gonna pay for this!" Syngaard promised his foe.</p><p></p><p>"For what?" asked Nevin innocently. "For this? Or this?" With each question he stabbed out at Syngaard with his weapon, the point of his rapier puncturing the fighter's chest again and again in rapid succession. But then Syngaard responded with a mighty swing of his magic morningstar, catching the bandit leader a solid blow to the side of the head, which caused him to drop to a knee. Syngaard overcame Nevin's best attempt to block a follow-on blow, and another full-power swing of the morningstar crushed the side of the bandit's head in.</p><p></p><p>"For messin' with Pelor's church," replied Syngaard to the dead body. He absently tucked the wooden amulet he habitually wore around his neck back beneath his chain shirt, out of view. One of the townsfolk saw what looked to her to be a carved holy symbol of Pelor being tucked into the ugly fighter's armor and approached him with thoughts of thanking her rescuer. But she shrunk back when Syngaard felt her gaze upon his amulet and snarled, "What are <em>you</em> lookin' at?"</p><p></p><p>Outside, Kaspar had dropped his bastard-sword-wielding opponent with a well-placed flurry of blows - the electrical damage caused by the <em>tenryutsume</em> likely having finished her off - and moved on to see who else nearby needed his help. Galen was doing the same, spotting the female rogue who had just downed the dwarven commoner. He raced Seneca forward, while Orion did likewise with Carl, catching the rogue in a pincher maneuver. At the far end of the marketplace, the last remaining archer decided he'd had enough and turned to flee. He was chased for a bit by the guardsman he'd been fighting before these reinforcements showed up, but the elderly militiaman's best days were well behind him and he couldn't catch up.</p><p></p><p>A barbarian suddenly stepped out of a building he'd just looted and looked around in puzzlement - where was the rest of his band? He saw several of his former raiding partners lying dead in the street and found it difficult to believe the elderly guardsmen had managed to take them out. Then he spotted an elf monk running up to him. "Are you part of the assault force harming the people of this village?" Kaspar demanded.</p><p></p><p>"Who wants to know?" spat <strong>Hogarth</strong>, bringing up his greataxe - but too slow to prevent Kaspar from striking him in the face with a well-placed, powerful flying kick. The barbarian was propelled back a few steps by the force of the monk's blow; then he responded with a rage-fueled retaliation that sent Kaspar into the welcoming arms of unconsciousness.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, the bandit forces were getting to be few in number by this time and as Kaspar was dropping to the ground, Orion was bounding up on Carl. The halfling leapt off Carl's back with a command for her dog to drag Kaspar out of harm's way; Carl obediently bit down on the collar of Kaspar's robes and dragged him back to safety. That left Orion facing off with a burly barbarian in hide armor well over twice her size. She gripped her <em>flaming short sword</em> tightly and readied herself for the barbarian's impending attack, which she imagined would be an overhead chop as he tried to cut her in twain like a piece of cordwood. She was absolutely correct about the attack and nimbly dodged the blow, but she knew very well that a single such hit would likely kill her. "I could use some help here!" she cried out, not afraid to ask for assistance from her friends.</p><p></p><p>Assistance came in the form of Galen and Seneca, riding up behind the barbarian. They arrived just in time, for the hulking brute managed to catch the halfling in a mighty swing of his greataxe; even rolling with the blow wasn't enough for Orion to avoid a deep gash in her side. But then Hogarth was forced to turn his back on the halfling to fend off Galen's attacks; the paladin had dismounted from Seneca and was coming in swinging with the <em>sword of Zehkar</em>. Hogarth snarled in wordless fury and faced this new attacker - and was cut down from behind with Orion's <em>flaming short sword</em>. He dropped like a stone, but the paladin detected a pulse in his neck and saw he wasn't yet dead, merely unconscious and bleeding out. He applied just enough healing power to prevent the barbarian from losing any more blood, then set about tying him up for questioning later. Orion, in the meantime, healed both herself and then Kaspar with the judicious application of healing potions.</p><p></p><p>Syngaard stepped outside the church of Pelor and looked around - he saw a bunch of dead bodies, but no active combatants and none of his fellow conscripts. "Where you guys at?" he called, and Galen hailed him from across the marketplace. When the scarred fighter approached, he saw the rest of his combat crew interrogating a bound barbarian. "They're mostly dissenters and deserters," Galen explained to Syngaard, "dodging the military draft and plundering their fellow Ashfall citizens instead of helping in the fight in the mountains."</p><p></p><p>"Don't deserters get the death penalty?" asked Syngaard.</p><p></p><p>"Indeed they do," replied Galen. Then, nodding his assent to Orion, he watched dispassionately as the halfling slit the bound barbarian's throat with her flaming blade.</p><p></p><p>"Was there any treasure among the bandits?" asked Kaspar. He wasn't particularly greedy but hoped they might have had a healing potion or two on their persons; the thoughtful monk felt bad he'd been saved by Orion by consuming a potion she'd purchased for her own use.</p><p></p><p>"Guy I killed in the church had a rapier and a light crossbow," Syngaard offered. "Both had pretty fine craftsmanship." Indeed, as the bandit leader, Nevin had hoarded the best weapons for himself, and both were of masterwork craftsmanship.</p><p></p><p>"Would you like either for yourself?" Galen asked.</p><p></p><p>"Nah," scoffed Syngaard. "I got a sling and a javelin for ranged attacks, and my javelin don't never run out of ammo. And that rapier's a pretty sissy-looking weapon. It just pokes - it don't cut none."</p><p></p><p>"We should bring the crossbow back for Daleth," suggested Orion. It was easy for the greedy rogue to think of others in this situation - none of the bandits' weapons were sized for her own use.</p><p></p><p>"Well, we're done here, then," observed Syngaard after they had fetched the masterwork light crossbow from Nevin's corpse for their elven wizard's use. He brought the nondescript iron ring on his hand up to his mouth. "Skevros?" he said to his ring. "We're ready - teleport us back."</p><p></p><p>Nothing happened.</p><p></p><p>"Skevros? You there?" Syngaard repeated.</p><p></p><p>"It would seem," Kaspar noted, "Skevros is either preoccupied with other matters or has deigned to allow us to return to Durnhill on our own."</p><p></p><p>"What?" cried Syngaard. "That's crap! It's like, two hours or more back on foot!"</p><p></p><p>"Language," quietly admonished Kaspar.</p><p></p><p>"You should have bought a riding mount when you had the chance," commiserated Orion, the smug expression on her face showing just how little concern she actually had for the grumpy fighter's situation.</p><p></p><p>Kaspar sighted the mountains in the distance to the north and turned his back to them. "Durnhill should be this way," he stated and started walking in that direction. Galen followed on Seneca, with Orion and Carl just behind and Syngaard bringing up the rear. The bald fighter fired daggers at Orion with his glaring eyes the whole way back home.</p><p></p><p>Despite not being able to see Syngaard's expression as he trudged behind her, Orion could feel those daggers of hate aimed at the back of her head. The smile never once left her face the whole trip back home.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Logan used the "Slums" Map Pack from Paizo to lay out the small farming village in Ashfall. He said he'd opted to build the foes in this adventure with "quantity over quality" in mind, having sent us up against a smaller number of more powerful enemies in the previous adventure. These bandits weren't as powerful as our PCs, but there were more of them than there were of us. And there would have been even more - including a wizard with a <em>lesser metamagic rod</em> - had Joey joined the group for this adventure, but he had opted to stay home. Logan says he's using Daleth's frequent absences as a future plot hook; he's off doing research on the paladin Zehkar, which may well pay off in the near future. (Skevros is intrigued with the <em>sword of Zehkar</em> and is interested in its background and history.)</p><p></p><p>As a result of this adventure, Orion leveled up to 3rd level. Since we finished the session rather early, we helped her upgrade her character there at the gaming table immediately after the game concluded. (And, as usual, Harry scooted away from the table as soon as the adventure was over to go play videogames before his bedtime struck.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7330610, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 08: PLAYING THE FIELDS[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Galen Thorne, human paladin 3 Kaspar Hardstrike, elf monk 3 Orion Nightsky, halfling rogue 2 Syngaard, human fighter 3[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 24 January 2018 - - - "I wonder what's up this time," grumbled Syngaard as he approached the Enchanted Flagon. It was too early in the day for secret missions, as far as the scarred human fighter was concerned - he was still nursing his morning hangover. "We shall find out soon enough," reasoned Galen as he tied Seneca's reins to the hitching post just outside the tavern. Carl was already in place at the post, panting happily in the sunlight. "I see Orion is already here." "There's a big cause for celebration," muttered Syngaard to himself as the two warriors entered the tavern that was their de facto headquarters. Not only Orion but also Kaspar had beaten them in; they were seated at the table they'd jointly decided was their official conference table. (It was no different than the other two round tables that each sat four - but it was the one they had sat at when they had first been conscripted into service to King Leornic and thus had the dual advantages of history and familiarity.) "Ah, you're all here," Skevros said, looking up at Galen and Syngaard's approach. "What about Daleth?" asked Orion. "Won't he be accompanying us?" "I have already assigned him to other duties," explained the king's adviser without going into any detail. "You four will suffice for the mission at hand." "What's the mission?" asked Galen. "And what's it pay?" added Syngaard without missing a beat. "Four thousand gold pieces, to be split equally among you," Skevros answered the bald fighter first, realizing that until Syngaard got his answer he'd keep interrupting. Then, returning his gaze to Galen, he added, "There have been bandit raids in the kingdom of Ashfall. You have been selected to take care of the problem, with extreme prejudice." "Extreme prejudice?" repeated Syngaard. "We ain't prejudiced!" "[i]Not prejudiced?[/i]" sputtered Orion, "How can you say that with a straight face? You've got nothing but dislike if not downright hatred for halflings, and make snide comments about me and my race at every opportunity!" "That ain't prejudice," scoffed Syngaard. "That's just plain common sense." Then, turning to Skevros and ignoring Orion's red, angry face - and the fact that Kaspar was holding her arm, silently entreating her to refrain from pulling her short sword out and inflicting bodily harm on the crass fighter - he asked, "So why are we doing Ashfall's work for them - they oughta be able to handle their own bandit raids." "Several reasons," admitted Skevros. "First of all, this was a direct request from King Renaldos and it will do well for us to maintain a strong alliance with Ashfall. Secondly, I am always willing to take money from their coffers. And finally, all of their able-bodied men - and women," he hastily added, for the benefit of the easily-offended halfling rogue, "are fighting off incursions from the Lower Realms up in the Baator's Breath Mountains. It is to our advantage to allow them to maintain a strict focus on that problem, as keeping the demons at bay advances our own interests as well. Thus, they handle the demon incursion; we'll gladly handle their bandit problem - and even get paid to do so." "That's more like it," Syngaard agreed. "And four thousand gold - that's a thousand apiece! Hell, more, if not all of us make it out alive!" And without saying a further word, he slowly turned his head to stare suggestively, straight at Orion. "You'd better hope I do make it," advised Orion. "If I don't, you'd likely break your brain trying to divide four thousand gold pieces into three even shares!" Syngaard opened his mouth to rebut her accusation but then got caught up in the mental dilemma of trying to actually divide 4,000 evenly by 3. It was more than 1,000, that was for sure. Couldn't be 1,500, though, that was too high.... While the fighter was busy with his mental calculations, Skevros had turned his concentration to the [i]crystal ball[/i] before him. "I am scrying upon several Ashfall farming villages," he explained. "Thus far, the bandits have targeted the smaller villages on the outskirts of the kingdom, avoiding the bigger cities." "And thus avoiding Serenity," observed Galen. "Good call on their part." "Ah," said Skevros, a hint of satisfaction in his voice. "Here we go. It seems our bandits are in the midst of an attack as we speak. Quickly! Outside, to your mounts! You must depart at once!" He scrambled out from behind the table and ran to the tavern's door, the others following behind them. Galen leaped atop his warhorse; Orion did likewise on her riding dog. "How do we get there?" asked Kaspar, expecting the adviser to give them directions. He did something that got them there even faster: with the words to a spell, the four heroes and their two mounts were instantly teleported across the miles to the site of the current bandit attack. They arrived in the middle of a marketplace, with overturned carts and bodies already sprawling in the dirt of the street. Scanning quickly around them, the conscripts saw no less than five archers on the outskirts of the marketplace, shooting at the villagers and the few older guardsmen who dared give an attempt at defense. Other bandits attacked with swords. Screams echoed across the village, evidence of frightened townsfolk falling under the attacks of the raiders. Orion spotted an archer shooting at a guardsman on the other side of a table of various hand-held weapons for sale. She leapt off of Carl's saddle and scampered across the table, while her dog scooted underneath it. Orion let fly with a thrown dagger, sending it into the surprised archer's shoulder and destroying his aim, allowing the guardsman to get in a strike with his sword. Then Carl bounded up and clamped down on the archer's leg. He let out a scream of pain as Carl brought him down to the ground, his leg still in between the dog's teeth - but he was quickly silenced as the halfling rogue ran up and slit his throat with her [i]flaming short sword[/i]. Galen, in the meantime, spurred Seneca forward towards another bandit, a female rogue standing off to the left of a church devoted to Pelor and stabbing another guardsman with her twin short swords. As the paladin swung his [i]sword of Zehkar[/i] at the surprised woman - where in the Nine Hells did a paladin of Hieroneous come from? - Syngaard spotted another bandit about to enter the church, a rapier in his right hand and a light crossbow balanced over his left shoulder. "Well, well, well, what riches have we here?" the bandit asked the terrified commoners who had taken refuge inside the church, huddled in the pews. "Hey!" called Syngaard, charging forward. He threw his [i]returning javelin[/i] at the bandit, yelling "You can't go stealing from a church of Pelor!" as he closed in on his target. The throw went wild, but the javelin popped back into Syngaard's hand as he ran in through the open doors of the church, trailing his prey. The bandit spun around, a smirk on his lips. "Oh, can't I?" he asked, bringing the crossbow off his shoulder and sending a bolt flying at Syngaard. It struck the scarred fighter in the side of the arm but Syngaard barely seemed to notice. Kaspar saw a female bandit stabbing down at a cowering peasant, killing him with a single forward stab with her bastard sword, piercing his chest and sticking the end of her blade into the dirt as he lay on the ground begging to be spared. The monk frowned in anger, pulling a pair of shuriken from inside his robe. He sent these flying at the female bandit; the first missed but the other cut off a chunk of her left ear and zapped her with electricity from his "sky dragon's claw," causing her to cry out in pain and surprise. The two combatants locked eyes and closed to melee range. All around the marketplace, the militia began noticing these unannounced reserve troops coming to their aid. They seemed to be doing well against the bandits, so the guardsmen began shifting to a more defensive focus, pulling the remaining villagers to safety. Not all of the villagers were interested in safety, though - more than a few were willing to put themselves on the front lines against their attackers. A burly dwarf rushed up to another archer and tried punching him in the jaw; the archer backed away just in time, but then Orion and Carl came bounding up to give the dwarf some much-needed assistance. Having seen the brave, unarmed dwarf facing off against the bandit archer, the halfling raced Carl around behind the bandit and attacked him before he was even aware of her existence. Between Orion, Carl, and the enraged dwarven commoner, the archer was put down quickly. However, another female rogue raced up to attack the dwarf, stabbing him in the back with a sharp blade. Galen, likewise, had cut down his initial opponent and had ridden Seneca forward to strike at another bandit, this one another archer shooting at him with a longbow. The paladin caught the arrow against his shield and Seneca raced forward, striking out with his hooves at the frightened bandit, who was fine with shooting defenseless villagers but wasn't quite ready to face off a full-fledged knight on horseback. Galen swung Seneca around, allowing his sword arm the range it needed to cut the archer down with his magic longsword. Inside the church of Pelor, Syngaard roared at the huddled villagers to flee to safety; they responded by cowering along the walls, none of them eager to leave the imagined safety of the church to re-enter the madness outside its walls. [b]Nevin[/b] stabbed at Syngaard with his rapier; he pierced through the bald fighter's chain armor with his first strike but Syngaard managed to deflect the follow-on attacks with his own morningstar. "You're gonna pay for this!" Syngaard promised his foe. "For what?" asked Nevin innocently. "For this? Or this?" With each question he stabbed out at Syngaard with his weapon, the point of his rapier puncturing the fighter's chest again and again in rapid succession. But then Syngaard responded with a mighty swing of his magic morningstar, catching the bandit leader a solid blow to the side of the head, which caused him to drop to a knee. Syngaard overcame Nevin's best attempt to block a follow-on blow, and another full-power swing of the morningstar crushed the side of the bandit's head in. "For messin' with Pelor's church," replied Syngaard to the dead body. He absently tucked the wooden amulet he habitually wore around his neck back beneath his chain shirt, out of view. One of the townsfolk saw what looked to her to be a carved holy symbol of Pelor being tucked into the ugly fighter's armor and approached him with thoughts of thanking her rescuer. But she shrunk back when Syngaard felt her gaze upon his amulet and snarled, "What are [i]you[/i] lookin' at?" Outside, Kaspar had dropped his bastard-sword-wielding opponent with a well-placed flurry of blows - the electrical damage caused by the [i]tenryutsume[/i] likely having finished her off - and moved on to see who else nearby needed his help. Galen was doing the same, spotting the female rogue who had just downed the dwarven commoner. He raced Seneca forward, while Orion did likewise with Carl, catching the rogue in a pincher maneuver. At the far end of the marketplace, the last remaining archer decided he'd had enough and turned to flee. He was chased for a bit by the guardsman he'd been fighting before these reinforcements showed up, but the elderly militiaman's best days were well behind him and he couldn't catch up. A barbarian suddenly stepped out of a building he'd just looted and looked around in puzzlement - where was the rest of his band? He saw several of his former raiding partners lying dead in the street and found it difficult to believe the elderly guardsmen had managed to take them out. Then he spotted an elf monk running up to him. "Are you part of the assault force harming the people of this village?" Kaspar demanded. "Who wants to know?" spat [b]Hogarth[/b], bringing up his greataxe - but too slow to prevent Kaspar from striking him in the face with a well-placed, powerful flying kick. The barbarian was propelled back a few steps by the force of the monk's blow; then he responded with a rage-fueled retaliation that sent Kaspar into the welcoming arms of unconsciousness. Fortunately, the bandit forces were getting to be few in number by this time and as Kaspar was dropping to the ground, Orion was bounding up on Carl. The halfling leapt off Carl's back with a command for her dog to drag Kaspar out of harm's way; Carl obediently bit down on the collar of Kaspar's robes and dragged him back to safety. That left Orion facing off with a burly barbarian in hide armor well over twice her size. She gripped her [i]flaming short sword[/i] tightly and readied herself for the barbarian's impending attack, which she imagined would be an overhead chop as he tried to cut her in twain like a piece of cordwood. She was absolutely correct about the attack and nimbly dodged the blow, but she knew very well that a single such hit would likely kill her. "I could use some help here!" she cried out, not afraid to ask for assistance from her friends. Assistance came in the form of Galen and Seneca, riding up behind the barbarian. They arrived just in time, for the hulking brute managed to catch the halfling in a mighty swing of his greataxe; even rolling with the blow wasn't enough for Orion to avoid a deep gash in her side. But then Hogarth was forced to turn his back on the halfling to fend off Galen's attacks; the paladin had dismounted from Seneca and was coming in swinging with the [i]sword of Zehkar[/i]. Hogarth snarled in wordless fury and faced this new attacker - and was cut down from behind with Orion's [i]flaming short sword[/i]. He dropped like a stone, but the paladin detected a pulse in his neck and saw he wasn't yet dead, merely unconscious and bleeding out. He applied just enough healing power to prevent the barbarian from losing any more blood, then set about tying him up for questioning later. Orion, in the meantime, healed both herself and then Kaspar with the judicious application of healing potions. Syngaard stepped outside the church of Pelor and looked around - he saw a bunch of dead bodies, but no active combatants and none of his fellow conscripts. "Where you guys at?" he called, and Galen hailed him from across the marketplace. When the scarred fighter approached, he saw the rest of his combat crew interrogating a bound barbarian. "They're mostly dissenters and deserters," Galen explained to Syngaard, "dodging the military draft and plundering their fellow Ashfall citizens instead of helping in the fight in the mountains." "Don't deserters get the death penalty?" asked Syngaard. "Indeed they do," replied Galen. Then, nodding his assent to Orion, he watched dispassionately as the halfling slit the bound barbarian's throat with her flaming blade. "Was there any treasure among the bandits?" asked Kaspar. He wasn't particularly greedy but hoped they might have had a healing potion or two on their persons; the thoughtful monk felt bad he'd been saved by Orion by consuming a potion she'd purchased for her own use. "Guy I killed in the church had a rapier and a light crossbow," Syngaard offered. "Both had pretty fine craftsmanship." Indeed, as the bandit leader, Nevin had hoarded the best weapons for himself, and both were of masterwork craftsmanship. "Would you like either for yourself?" Galen asked. "Nah," scoffed Syngaard. "I got a sling and a javelin for ranged attacks, and my javelin don't never run out of ammo. And that rapier's a pretty sissy-looking weapon. It just pokes - it don't cut none." "We should bring the crossbow back for Daleth," suggested Orion. It was easy for the greedy rogue to think of others in this situation - none of the bandits' weapons were sized for her own use. "Well, we're done here, then," observed Syngaard after they had fetched the masterwork light crossbow from Nevin's corpse for their elven wizard's use. He brought the nondescript iron ring on his hand up to his mouth. "Skevros?" he said to his ring. "We're ready - teleport us back." Nothing happened. "Skevros? You there?" Syngaard repeated. "It would seem," Kaspar noted, "Skevros is either preoccupied with other matters or has deigned to allow us to return to Durnhill on our own." "What?" cried Syngaard. "That's crap! It's like, two hours or more back on foot!" "Language," quietly admonished Kaspar. "You should have bought a riding mount when you had the chance," commiserated Orion, the smug expression on her face showing just how little concern she actually had for the grumpy fighter's situation. Kaspar sighted the mountains in the distance to the north and turned his back to them. "Durnhill should be this way," he stated and started walking in that direction. Galen followed on Seneca, with Orion and Carl just behind and Syngaard bringing up the rear. The bald fighter fired daggers at Orion with his glaring eyes the whole way back home. Despite not being able to see Syngaard's expression as he trudged behind her, Orion could feel those daggers of hate aimed at the back of her head. The smile never once left her face the whole trip back home. - - - Logan used the "Slums" Map Pack from Paizo to lay out the small farming village in Ashfall. He said he'd opted to build the foes in this adventure with "quantity over quality" in mind, having sent us up against a smaller number of more powerful enemies in the previous adventure. These bandits weren't as powerful as our PCs, but there were more of them than there were of us. And there would have been even more - including a wizard with a [i]lesser metamagic rod[/i] - had Joey joined the group for this adventure, but he had opted to stay home. Logan says he's using Daleth's frequent absences as a future plot hook; he's off doing research on the paladin Zehkar, which may well pay off in the near future. (Skevros is intrigued with the [i]sword of Zehkar[/i] and is interested in its background and history.) As a result of this adventure, Orion leveled up to 3rd level. Since we finished the session rather early, we helped her upgrade her character there at the gaming table immediately after the game concluded. (And, as usual, Harry scooted away from the table as soon as the adventure was over to go play videogames before his bedtime struck.) [/QUOTE]
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