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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CPaladin" data-source="post: 8519520" data-attributes="member: 7030144">Session 37 (October 9, 2021)9 Ta-Ghast (cont’d, late afternoon)The group heads directly back to the inn outside the walls to look for Nandor. By this time, dinner is clearly getting finished, and there are a substantial number of people in the inn drinking.Ulgorio approaches the innkeep and asks if she has seen the tall, thin man with an ill-favored eye.She asks if he knows the man’s name, and Ulgorio says it’s Nandor.She says she does know him—every two to three days he comes in, buys a meal, and then gambles. She thinks he may cheat—he always seems to win, but then ends up friends with the people who he gambles with, which she thinks is odd. She also doesn’t know how he cheats—she figured weighted dice, but even after she made sure that the dice that were in use were fair, he kept winning.Runor says a blessing before the meal is served, at Marissa’s suggestion. One of the patrons then approaches him, and he counsels her.Aleep tosses around some money gambling, deliberately making sure to lose by doubling his bet each time he wins until he has lost. He makes some friends with some people who dice, who mention Nandor to him. They mention that Nandor is a farmer, but has more money than you would expect from a farmer. One of them also says that Nandor doesn’t actually drink—he pretends to, but doesn’t actually.On the way back to their inn, Ulgorio notes someone shadowing them. He seems to be reasonably, but not enormously, skilled. They take no action, and after they reach the inn, the shadow disappears.They set watches carefully because of the tail: Merreep and Bartix first watch, Ashaltir and Ulgorio middle, and Aleep and Runor last watch.In the third watch, Runor hears horses suddenly—clearly several, going from a gallop to a dead stop. He then hears a crash downstairs, probably the riders crashing through the door.Runor and Aleep wake everyone, and after casting Mage Armor and Invisibility, Aleep slips forward to the top of the stairs. He sees that there are 4 armored figures and that they have stabbed the innkeep, who confronted them after they barged in.They head up the stairs and Aleep catches them in a fireball, badly burning three and lightly burning one (33 hp damage), but they all stay up. One of them says, “Forward! Don’t let them escape!”Ulgorio casts cloud of daggers on the first one of them. They all plunge through the cloud of daggers, taking 11 damage each.As they reach Bartix, he stabs the lead one with his magic dagger, doing another 8 points of damage.That one misses Bartix. The rest spread out, engaging Merreep and hitting Merreep for 8. Another rushes pass both Merreep and Bartix to try to reach Runor, and their opportunity attacks cut him down. The last one slips pass them in the confusion and attacks Runor, clanging off his armor.Merreep stabs the one she’s fighting for another 7 damage. Ulgorio stabs another for 4. Bartix misses with his magic dagger, but hits with his off-hand short sword for 2. Runor vaults down over the balcony (taking 6 damage from the fall) and heals the innkeeper (with a 3rd level spell slot, healing 14 damage), saving his life. Aleep casts a lightning bolt; he thinks he can hit the leader and another without hitting any of his friends, but he accidentally catches Bartix as well. The leader takes 31, the other and Bartix each take 15.The one in front of Bartix smacks Bartix for 14 damage. The one fighting Merreep misses. The leader, who was fighting Runor before Runor apparently fled, flings a steel bolt at Aleep doing 5 damage and forcing a poison save, which Aleep makes.Ashaltir hits the leader, smiting evil for 19 damage, and dropping him. At that point, one of the last two surrenders, at which point the other one does as well—they’re both badly wounded. Ashaltir heals the leader a little, to make sure he doesn’t die.“Didn’t tell us you were a clownish group. Just said, ‘go to this inn, take this money, kill the group you find.’”“Who sent you?”“Normally we’re mercs. We usually work the line. But a man appeared in our camp, and moved us and our horses to outside this village after hiring us. Told us to kill you. Didn’t tell us anything else—should have known better than to accept a mission from someone like that.”“You want us to describe the man?” says one of the other ones. “We can!”“That would be helpful.”“Helpful is our middle name! Tall, thin man. Clothes out of style. Clearly had a lot of money, with that ring on his finger.”“Were the clothes drab, with a raven on them?”“Yes! How did you know?”They ignore the question. “And the money you were paid—show it please.”It’s local coinage, but it’s all old—from several doges ago, coins that they haven’t seen before.The leader comments that it wasn’t the sort of job that they would normally take, and Aleep confirms that they were ensorcelled. They suddenly realize that they abandoned the caravan that they were accompanying to Easthaven. They’re shocked by that when they realize it.The group discusses recruiting them as soldiers for their new dominion. Two of them are Glor’diadelian, with the third Paranswarmian.[End session 37]</blockquote>

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