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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sir Kendrik" data-source="post: 1188" data-attributes="member: 123">Well here is the next instalment.When we last visited our brave heroes, Sir Kendrik and the suspicious Merchant Mendel McLynn were discussing the fact that good always triumphs over evil. After a few drinks the party retired for the evening. The next morning Sir Kendrik woke up early to repent at the local church for his uncharacteristic behaviour by threatening to murder the halfling’s family. The ranger, Jon, also got up early and noticed to the north of Igham a huge pall of black smoke. Sir Kendrik was now at morning service (he is a very pious young knight) and Jon interrupts him and beckons him outside. Once outside Jon informs Sir Kendrik of what he saw, Sir Kendrik got Jon to head up to investigate as he collected Cain from the Inn then returning for the rest of the church service.Jon heads to the fire and finds a small thorp in ruins and bodies littering the area. The bodies appeared to have been mauled by a wild animal of some discription. Jon investigates further until he is greeted by the presence of a Penlysh Lion, a big cat that looks like a mountain lion, has noticed him and is growling. He notices that a body is trapped under the rubble of one of the farmhouses. He can’t check this body out as the lion won’t let him get close. Jon decided to back away and return to Igham to inform the others of what he had seen.Sir Kendrik and Br Arton both come to the conclusion that this may be a diversion to allow Mendel to escape and meet the brigands. We decided to have Cain break from the posse to check out if Mendel was up to something. The rest of the group, along with the Constable and 2 militia rode to the destroyed thorp. Jon and Arton headed into the thorp as Sir Kendrik and the others waited till they had scouted out the area.The Lion was still near the body in the farmhouse as Br Arton approached. He was sure he saw a hand move so he moved in to try and save this person. It didn’t take Br Arton long to work out that the Lion was protecting the trapped person. Br Arton moved forwards and the Lion growled more, then pounced. The Lion tackled Br Arton to the ground and raked his body with it’s back legs. Seeing this Sir Kendrik galloped in on his warhorse, Valiant, brandishing his lance. He attacks the Lion to protect Br Arton, stabbing it with his lance. Jon runs in and attacks the Lion with his handaxe and misses and hits Br Arton. Suddenly a raven starts fluttering it’s wings in front of Jon’s face. In the meantime Cain has galloped in with news that Mendel was preparing to leave. The Lion broke his hold of Arton and returned to protect its “master”. Then the raven jumped on a rock and started to talk to us. It informed us that the cat was protecting it’s master. We asked it to tell the Lion to move away so Arton could help him. The wise talking Raven told us to do it ourselves, as the Lion would listen.Jon came up with the brilliant idea of using rope to lasso the lion and lead it away from the body. Jon had one rope, Sir Kendrik had another, which he tied to the pommel of the saddle on Valiant, and Cain had the other rope. We all threw our ropes, Sir Kendrik and Cains lassoing the lion and Jon’s missing. Quickly we started to lead the Lion away and Jon finally lassoed the Lion. Br Arton ran over to the body and found a pulse. Once the Lion was lead away Sir Kendrik hopped off Valiant telling it to stay and ran to help Br Arton remove the rubble.Once the rubble was cleared it revealed that the person trapped was a young wizard. Once he came to, he informed us that his name was Winter and that the lion, Zodi, and the Raven, Ash, were his companions. Br Arton nervously healed Zodi. Winter told us what he could about the attack claiming that large dog like creatures had attacked, both Sir Kendrik and Br Arton had come to the conclusion that the attackers were Gnolls, as they had fought them before. Sir Kendrik, then realised that Cain was here when he should have been watching Mendel. Cain relayed the fact that Mendel was leaving and Sir Kendrik ordered him to follow Mendel out of town at a discrete distance. Jon informed us that in his investigations of the thorp that bodies, possibly live, had been taken into the woods. Then The party with the wizard, left the Constable and the militia to look after the thorp and headed off in the direction that the gnolls had gone.We walked through the woods for quite a while, till we reached the edge of the Bleaks, a moor that has a fearful reputation. Sir Kendrik, fearing that the horses would become hopelessly bogged finds a spot for the horses to be left. We proceed to enter the bleaks as the sun starts to get low in the sky. Along the way we found a half eaten corpse or two. We finally make camp in the moor and set up watches for the night.Cain carefully followed Mendel and his caravan along the road to Pillerton. At the stream that we had followed the night earlier he turned off the road and meets the head brigand, Heslewhite and a nasty looking dwarf, bald with tattoos all over its body. They exchange goods and Mendel leaves. Cain fearing they would notice him, hides and waits for Mendel to ride back to Igham, he does not.After wating a while, Cain heads back to the thorp but on his way he is nearly killed as Jon’s riding horse runs down the track cain is travelling. Cain continues and finds blood everywhere. Cain then noticed what has caused this, it was a huge bear that was feasting on Br Arton’s warhorse. The bear spots Cain, who freezes and waits for the bear to finish and leave. When the bear finished its meal, it marked it’s territory on the carcass and leaves. Cain goes over to the carcass to identify it and finds Br Arton’s saddlebags, unfortunately dripping in the scent of the bear. Valiant is nowhere to be seen. Cain reluctantly makes camp.The tracking of the Gnolls continues all the next day and most of that night. Sir Kendrik notices some lights in the moor ahead of us and alerts the rest of the party. Jon informs everyone that they may be Marsh Lights and that we should ignore them. Sir Kendrik agrees and says that we have more important things to do that chat to people. The two locals in the party realise that they are heading in the direction of Axbridge. We come across a stream, the White river that flows through Axbridge. After crossing the stream we notice a ruined manor house. As we got closer to it Sir Kendrik recognised it as the manor house he and Serena the wizard had come across on their very first adventure over 2 years ago. Sir Kendrik relayed to them that a cave complex lay to the north and if the tracks continue in that direction that would make a perfect camp for the Gnolls.The party make camp in the ruin and Sir Kendrik, sits next to Jon and asks him what is troubling him. Jon had been anxious and insistent on following the tracks since the massacre had been discovered. He wouldn’t talk to Sir Kendrik but Kendrik told him that he was a good listener and if he wanted to talk to see him.Cain had by this point found the thorp and it was been cleaned up by the militia and the Constable. Cain couldn’t find any trace of his party or any word of where they were.The next morning the trackers headed for the caves. The entrance was different to when Sir Kendrik was here last. A fence of sharpened wooden poles surrounded to hillock above the entrance and a shack had been built over the cave entrance.While we were looking at this the Gnolls pets, huge hyenalike dogs, had spied us, there position given away by the maniacal laughter of one of them…………………….End SessionAny comments, advice people?</blockquote>

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