Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Morrow" data-source="post: 688516" data-attributes="member: 301">3rd of CharderIn the morning the companions moved on, leaving Doon to work on his newest sculpture, “One Cat, Two Cat, Dead Cat, Chewed Cat.”Foleful lead the party through the maze of tunnels to the center of Freetown.  They made their way through the huge central cavern past several goblin caves to Freetown’s only tavern, the Hole.  It took Atarax a few minutes to convince Kriggle that he should leave Mighty Steed outside.  When the party entered all the bar patrons turned, saw a kobold in full plate armor and carrying a lance entering the establishment, and broke out laughing.  The party breathed a sigh of relief when Kriggle mastered his anger, somehow convincing himself that everyone was laughing at someone else.  The party elbowed their way to the bar, looking over the orc bartender, the orc and ogre bouncers, and clientele made up primarily of orcs and goblins, but including at least one bugbear.  The party ordered beer and mushroom sandwiches, the house specialty.  No one noticed that Krikara had disappeared somewhere.Foleful approached one of the waitresses, “Zargentia.  How’re tricks?  Zargentia looked Foleful up and down, “You’re still alive.  I won the pool.”Foleful began quizzing Zargentia about local happenings since he had last been in Freetown.  She explained that the former owner of the bar, Belko, had been killed some time ago in the orcish part of Freetown and the Hole was now run by the bartender, Pankwig.At the same time Pankwig was striking up a conversation with Atarax, “You know how to play that thing?”  He indicated Atarax’s lute.  “Nobody to play around here, with all the death and destruction."  Pankwig described strange happenings in Freetown; people being eaten by strange creatures, people going mad and killing each other, and people turning into rat creatures.  Many goblins had taken refuge in Sanctuary, a closed section of Freetown controlled by a strange orcish monk named Zorn.  During the recent civil wars in Freetown, Zorn had taken more than a hundred goblin and orcs and founded Sanctuary.  He controlled who could enter or leave the community.  He claims he has a way to test for the disease that turns people into rat-creatures and turns away those who are infected.Satisfied, Atarax headed for a corner of the room and began singing, telling the story of the party’s raid on a surface elf caravan.  Goblins, orcs, and bugbears have surprisingly little in common, but they all love to hear about dead elves.  None of them had ever heard a bard of Atarax’s talent.While Atarax sang, Foleful attempted to ask Zargentia about Gargonne, a nasty bugbear spellcaster of his acquaintance who would not be happy to hear that Foleful was back in town. Zargentia stiffened and quickly walked to the other end of the bar.Foleful shrugged and began quietly casting a divination.  The moment he began casting every humanoid in the bar began moving.  They rushed about, hiding under tables, behind the bar, anywhere to get out of his sight.  “What do you think you’re doing?” shrieked Zargentia, dragging Foleful into the back room.  “You moron!” she hissed, “Do you know how many people have died around here, killed by spellcasters?”  She explained that Gargonne had gathered a group of spellcasters who had survived the recent civil war, including a couple clerics of Nerull.  The group had taken to killing at random, causing panic throughout Freetown.  A couple months before Freetown had been peaceful.  The civil wars were over and Freetown was as calm as it ever got.  Then people starting going crazy and killing each other.  The rat disease had begun to spread.  Gargonne’s group began their reign of terror.While Foleful spoke with Zargentia, Thar attempted to calm the crowd by buying a round of drinks for the entire bar and apologizing profusely.  Atarax refused to play again after his performance had been disrupted, but the crowd began accepting the beer.Foleful and Zargentia returned from the back room.  “You all have to leave now,” she said.  Foleful lead the party outside.</blockquote>

Verification