nerdytenor's The Missing Warlock

[covaithe]

"Mardrick?" Karis says slowly as she reads the note. "Did you know that archer? Was he one of your old drinking buddies too, or was he another stranger?" She hands him the note. "Either way, I think we'd better... do whatever it is we're going to do here quickly. There are likely to be more where these came from, and they know we're here now." She starts tugging at the corpse. "Someone help me get this armor off him. I think it's magical."

 

[Arbanax]

[Argh Stole my last post to...stupid crashes]

Rellek, having secured the men, jumped down and spoke up having reviewed the contents of the letter.

Friends I think we must needs make haste, if this elf Lethani gets back to his employer, then there can be only two logical courses, either they will speed Mardrick’s wife away or make haste to bolster her defences ahead of this ceremony whilst perhaps laying an ambush for us.

Turning to Mardrick Rellek says, The letter seems to exonerate you Mardick.

Come friends we must make haste. Could Karis and I not use these horses to get to the village and spy out the way? What do you say?

 

[nerdytenor]

"No," Mardrick says, addressing Karis, "I do not know the elf, either."

After hearing Rellek speak, Mardrick's voice rises in panic. "Take her away!?!? Give me that letter!"

Mardrick speeds his way through the letter, mumbling words to himself. "Ceremony?!?!? What in the gods' name are they planning for her? And they have looted my home and Dardus's smithy, have they? We may have caught a bit of luck then."

Mardrick rushes over to the cart that is not burning. The cart is filled with weapons. "No, no, not that, no," he says, clearly searching for something. Mardrick rushes over to the burning cart. It is still hot, but a few glints of steel can be seen. He picks a stick up off the ground and rummages around inside. "Aha!" He reaches in and gingerly lifts out a longsword, passing it from hand to hand to avoid getting burned. He lays it on the gound. He continues to search, but finds nothing.

"This is one of my finer pieces of work. Well, mine and Dardus's. He made the sword. I gave it magic. One of you take it, we may have need of it on the road ahead. It pulls the very life out of your vanquished enemies." Mardrick continues to search for other weapons, but finds nothing special.

"I agree Rellek, we must move quickly. But what of the men here?" he adds, indicating the captives.

[sblock=The sword]+1 lifedrinker longsword. +1d6 necrotic on critical.
When you drop an enemy to 0 hp or below with it, you gain 5 tmp hp.
[/sblock]

 

[covaithe]

"I agree Rellek, we must move quickly. But what of the men here?" he adds, indicating the captives.

"You know these men, Mardrick. If we leave them here tied up, do you think they'll have the sense to flee this place when they squirm free, or are we going to have to kill them to keep them from stabbing us in the back?" Karis asks, drawing her shortsword. She clearly doesn't much care one way or the other.

 

[Arbanax]

[OOC who gets the sword, it doesn't 'fit' with me so I'm happy for it to go to whoever.

as regards the armour need to find out whose AC can do with the boast-what does everyone else think? Don't know if this sort of stuff is best left to the other thread or not?]

 

[nerdytenor]

The grunt quakes visibly, having overheard Karis.

"Please, we did not know we would be forced to fight Mardrick! We were told we would be paid for moving these carts, and that we might be called on to defend them. One of our number questioned the man hiring us as to why we were moving weapons out of Dardus's smithy, and for that he earned a knife to the throat! We didn't know..." He falls to his knees, weeping pitifully ."Please just let us go! We have no fight with you."

 

[PennStud77]

Hmmmm, I agree that haste does seem prudent, but I do not believe I like the idea of splitting up, especially so far outside of town. If we get to the outskirts of town and we want a couple of individuals to scout a little inside, not straying TOO far from the rest of us, in case they need support, that is a different story, but I think we should stay relatively together.

 

[The Digger]

Joshua stares down at the grunt "Personally I think we should kill them all. After all they did attack us." He sighs. "But I suppose you're going to say 'it wasn't their fault' or 'they're only poor farmers'."

"I don't like the idea of just letting them go. If only one of them is really working for the enemy then we have a dagger at our backs. So we need to decide. Kill them, or tie them securely and leave them here until we are finished."

He walks away as though the matter is no longer of interest to him.

"As to pushing on I agree we need to do that with some urgency, but equally I do not think we should split up just yet. In this I agree fully with Todarr - stay together till the outskirts of the town, and then perhaps scout."

"And for pity's sake will whoever wants that armour put... it... on; we're wasting time!"

 

[Arbanax]

I have tied them, Rellek indicated the last remaining grunt who he'd hitched up with the others still sleeping soundly. I would suggest we let them live. Perhaps leaving one of the blades to hand so that they can cut themselves free. Besides it would reflect poor on us if we left these men with no means of escape from these woods as night draws in.

With that Rellek ties up the last grunt allowing him so movement so he might make his way slowly to the blade he places in a tree some distance from him. That should give you something to think about and us time to get back to town.

Friends lets then make haste since we are agreed to head back together.

And with that Rellek took the horses [OOC = assuming there is enough for us to all mount on or share...and if not I'll use them to pack up the remaining weapons and walk besides] and began to move out.

[Please feel free anyone to jump in if they feel I'm off here...]

 

[covaithe]

"Hmph," Karis grunts indifferently. "Whatever. I'm pretty sure these wretches know better than to place themselves at the other end of our blades again. Not a pair of stones between the lot of 'em. At least, there won't be if I ever see them again. Farewell, then, wretches. I do recommend leaving before nightfall; the spider-crabs are hungry at this time of year."

She sheathes her blade, helps herself to a brace of the dead leader's daggers, and tosses the slightly bloody magical armor to Rellek. "Here. Use it better than he did."

ooc: Dunno how many horses there are. Karis will happily do without or, less happily, ride double, if there's a shortage.