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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eccles" data-source="post: 5471863" data-attributes="member: 5675">* The session begins with us on the streets, being escorted through the streets by a patrol of Gatepass cavalry our disguises still safely tucked in saddlebags. As we head through one of the districts there is the sound of a commotion up ahead and our escort leaves us to deal with that.* There is a sound of a commotion from inside a near by shop (that from its hanging side that it sells magical paraphernalia, and all its windows are boarded up, no doubt a reaction to “anti spell caster protests” from the populace and the threat of the Ragesian scourge).* There is a sudden flash of light from inside the shop, its power enough to send beams of light through the cracks and seems of the boards and Ashelyn’s horse is spooked throwing her off and into the watching crowd behind. In addition to the light burning bright butterflies seem to emerge from the shop floating above the crowd and then suddenly explode, the building on the other side of the street begins to sag and then crumples forward on top of the crowd and the Hexblade.o Perhaps the events in the warehouse were just an omen as the little girl (and many passers-by) is crushed underneath a huge amount of stone and wood from the ruined building.* From inside the shop there is a pained scream and the sounds of much scuffling about.* Kain and Brick dig at the rubble (with one looking more for shiny trinkets to pocket than victims, the other not really helping at all) in the hope of saving their comrade but confirm her death and are alerted to the presence of at least one survivor who is busy trying to dig himself out (and maintain the contents of his pockets!).o Durzon perhaps having a change of heart or a better offer uses the distraction to slink away…* Only the brave and noble paladin Urien, heads to the shop to investigate the disturbance within. He kicks open the door to find a bunch of shifty looking mages (and a few thug looking types) busy robbing the place (books into bags, scooping newts eyes and lizards tails from the pick n’ mix into a bucket that kind of thing).* Near the back stands their leader who is instantly recognisable as Ferris, the Halfling storm sorcerer (briefly hired by torrent as back up against Shiallis) screaming at his underlings to steal faster, they have to be out of here in “45 seconds” presumably before the watch show up (in true Heist Leader Style) and slithering on the ground near him is a bright multicoloured snake (that we soon found was called a Scintillating Snake named so because it can vomit rainbows of light, pleasant).o At the back of the room currently locked in a trunk is the daughter of the shop owner, a feisty half elf lady called Elisha busy trying to extricate herself from imprisonment.* The fight starts off a bit one sided with Urien and Lembit battling alone inside / near the shop (matters made worse by the mages flinging lightning about that bounced around hitting the pair of them). But the scales are shifted with the arrival of the others and the assistance of an angry Half-Orc covered in dust and splinters, and the emergence of the Half-Elf from her box.o Ferris and his two students manage to flee with their booty, the Halfling in particular being pretty vocal about his reasons for robbing the place (to garner supplies to fight the Ragesians, as everyone else seems to just be running away!)o Elisha however swears vengeance for what the Halfling and his brood did to her father.o Cricket introduces himself.o Kain does a bit of stealing and finds himself some new armour from the ruined shop.* With the criminals seen off and the girl “slightly” calmed down, our attentions return to the collapsed building and Brick uses his diplomatic skills to get everyone to all pull together and clear the rubble, finding a few more survivors and many more broken and mangled bodies.* In time our escort returns, plans are slightly adjusted and we’re lead to near the gates where everyone can change into the cavalry uniforms and then mingled in with the patrol we head to the gate. The captain shows his papers and the gates are unlocked without a hitch and the patrols moves out of the city and heads away, a single toll of the city bells mourns our passing. The captain points out that was the signal to announce that the inquisition has been allowed into the city.* In a secluded copse we return our disguises to the cavalry leader and as well as wishing us well in our endevours he has a final gift from Erdan Menash and passes it to the Goliath.o A small box wrapped in lavender and pink striped paper and tied with little ribbon a note sits atop it.o “My Dearest Brick, I couldn’t bear the thought of sending you out into the world unprepared, so allow me to do my part, so you may do yours. Inside you’ll find ten inches of hard stony wood, perhaps you could bring me likewise upon your return to Gatepass. Erdan”o Opening the box he finds a “Master’s Wand of Vicious Mockery” shaped in usual garish and suggestive style.* The captain also suggests we head to a campsite near an old guard tower, and we head off finding the place with no trouble and settle in for the night.* In the morning Torrent outlines our route, we’re to go through a narrow mountain pass called “the gauntlet” and there is a river we must cross via a huge stone bridge, and on through The Indomitable Fire Forest of Innenotdar, she pats her pack in reassurance (with a potiony clink of glass bottles) at the mention of the ever burning forest.* As we approach The Gauntlet a few of the more observant (and perhaps nervous) of us raise the subject that the road ahead is a good spot for an ambush (we were all thinking it anyway) and as we turn one of its twisting corners a very narrow view between the crags and overhangs reveals a clear enough view ahead to see a group of nefarious bandits busy trying to lever a big boulder over the pass to block it.* Naturally we decide to pick up the pace to get ahead of them before they seal us in, and so we run the gauntlet. A few haphazard horsemanship accidents later we do manage to get through the treacherous gullies, icy paths and twisting tunnels, hidden snipers and a few bandits on horseback to reach the open stretch of ground between us, the path of the landslide and the bandits camp located just beyond.o The bandit’s leader sits astride his Blackhorse and his appearance is immediately recognisable to a select few, this is the horseman that was sat outside of the poison apple pub on New Years Eve (that hit Ashlyn with a bizarre true strike type spell).o However in this case he has a hard time as everyone splits up and rides around him managing to avoid his wrath, only Kain manages to get caught by the rider and is chased around the path (again using the weird glowy green true strike power in a nasty charge attack) for a little while before escaping.* Due to some people being delayed in the gauntlet Brick and Elisha break out first, riding through the bandit’s un-sprung trap and into their camp, here they notice that the bandits have set up their camp at the Wish Grotto’s.o An old new year’s tradition of gate pass, every one writes down their truest wish on a scrap of paper and they are stored in large clay jars and take up here, locked away behind rusted old gates. One wish is pulled for each year and the people of Gatepass try to make it happen, the rest are stored here.o They notice that one of these holding sections appears to have been replaced with new (ish) iron door and lock, most likely a prison cell.o They then promptly ignore this and begin rooting through the bandit’s possessions (finding quite a lot of coin tucked away in sacks and backpacks) much to the annoyance of the bandits above who quickly abandon their attempts at shifting the huge boulder and intent on climbing down the rock face shouting “You thieving bastards, that’s ours!”o With Lembit and Crickets’ arrival to the camp the source of easy riches runs out and attention is turned to the prison cell, using one of the horses and some chain to wrench the door from its hinges, inside is a dead man wrapped in rags, clutching a clay jar tight. Cricket gently wrestles the jar away enough to open the jar and inside is a long piece of paper. “Please don’t let my death be in vain”, he passes this to Lembit who upon reading it out triggers something and the rags wrapped around the corpses shoulders unfurl and weave together sprouting feathers and golden script until finally they form a rather snazzy cloak.* With powers for discerning lies and the like, so we give it to Urien, who says last rites over the man before we make ready to depart.* Meanwhile Elisha has been amusing herself by dousing the bandits remaining clothes and supplies with lantern oil and starts a few fires and we ride away to the sounds of their discontent.o Eventually (when they give up chasing us) we stop for a rest, and swap to a more sedate speed of travel.* Some time along the path we see a few buildings come into view and the more eagle eyed among us spy a work team of dwarves hard at work building a tower near the side of the road, as we approach a pair of armed and armoured dwarfs come out from the half built tower and take a stand on the road, we come to a gentle and friendly stop and a “hail and well met” (or possibly a “top o’ tha morning to yer” in the case of cricket). They tell us that we have entered the domain of Dwarf King Marben Diamondheart and must surrender ourselves to his care while we are in his realm. Once we have accepted this rather curious offer we’re handed over to another dwarf who leads us further along the path to a settlement built around an old stone bridge, a stout looking gate sealing the way across.o We’re lead inside to what presumably is the king throne room where he and several other dwarves are fretting over an impressive model of the surrounding area, much finger pointing and beard stroking occurs until we’re announced.o We explain our situation, getting lots of gasps of astonishment, the kind clearly is displeased with the lack of current information his advisors have over the state of Gatepass and the Ragesian Army. He then goes on to give a round-a-bout “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” speech.o His “kingdom” is having some difficulties. Firstly food appears to be missing from the storeroom, and the thief has routinely gotten in and out withoutalerting any of his guards posted upon the stores. Secondly the complex (and highly ingenious) engineering system they had build to use the power of the river to operate bits of the settlement and more importantly control the big door is frankly buggered, so if we can help out and get the door working he’ll let us pass and maybe throw in a bit to help us as well if we can solve the thief problem.* So we split into two teams, Lembit, Brick and Cricket tackle the broken machinery, leaving Urien, Elisha and Kain to tackle the storeroom thief problem.o However things do not go to plan, the investigation of the storeroom leads to a few leads but possibly a crucial piece of evidence escapes their notice and all leads point towards one of the many inept guards to be on the take, the most shifty looking of them is frog marched to the king and ends up in the stocks.* The evidence of one guard claiming to have been “scratched” by an unknown creature trying to get through the door is forgotten against the “overwhelming evidence” pointing towards the guard that routinely abandoned his post to play cards.o The other team get off to a flying start with the broken engineering project, spying some clogged gears from overgrown ivy, Brick takes it upon himself to clear some of these blockages, he slips and his bulky weight pulls one of the gears out of alignment there is a scream of protesting metal that echoes throughout the settlement as the teeth of several key gears are sheared off and the machinery is well and truly buggered.o While we aren’t harmed by the dwarves we are quickly banished and frogmarched out of the settlement without our horses, our route still lies across the river and it takes us most of the night of silent trudging to find a shallow enough section to cross safely.* To add further insult to injury from our quiet camp we see the dwarf settlement be the victim of an attack (by a tribe of kobolds that had been secretly tunnelling into the storeroom and took them unawares), the flames are still visible come the dawn.* In the morning we continue our journey noting that while still deep winter the temperature is changing, getting warmer and there is less snow about. Torrent informs us we’re getting closer to the forest; it will get a lot warmer still. Our stroll through the forest is interrupted by an “ambush” from some wild emaciated looking hyenas and an equally unfortunate looking gnoll. While they take a few chunks out of us, they are quickly put out of their misery, and a search of the gnolls ruined hut reveals a few choice pieces of treasure (proving you can be very rich but you can’t eat gold).* By the end of the days march flecks of ash and cinders can be found wafting in the air, there is no snow at all and it’s as warm as a summers day “a day or so more and we’ll reach the Ash Fields” says Torrent. Soon enough the forest comes to an end leaving a wide patch of barren ground before the clogged black earth that is the Ash Fields, a lone farm house sits on the border, empty un-worked fields are marked out with broken fences, two scarecrows hang limply near the house.o However as we get closer we realise they aren’t scarecrows but corpse, an elderly male “mage” has been impaled upon a stake, a younger woman crucified with slit wrists hangs limp nearby, the blood staining her simply peasant garb a grisly scarlet.o The door creaks open and a figure in a bear skull mask, steeped in bulky furs steps out of the farmhouse, sharp clawed gloves covering its hands, and an equally fierce looking entourage piles out behind him onto the buildings porch.</blockquote>

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