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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 164820" data-attributes="member: 11">Session #28 (part IV)Martin spent the afternoon going over his notes and maps, and then he visited the alderman again to make sure he had received the message.  He learned that the hearing would be held in the common room of the Golden Plough the next morning.Meanwhile, back in their cells, Kazrack, Beorth, Jeremy and Jana were trying to figure out the best way to approach any questioning they might receive at the hearing.“They did not take my runestones from me,” Kazrack said to his imprisoned companions.  “They were hidden beneath my shirt.  I can use them to seek council from my gods as to what the best course of action may be.”“Why bother asking your gods when I can tell you that only the truth will set us free?” Beorth said.Jeremy rolled his eyes, “He is going to tell the truth, but he wants to know how it might be received.”“Unless you have a better idea of what to ask my gods’ guidance for?” Kazrack said, looking directly across at the paladin.“Perhaps a better question to as would be what will happen to people if…,” Beorth paused.  “I don’t know, Kazrack.  I don’t know.”“Okay. Then throw your stones, Kazrack,” Jeremy said.The dwarf nodded and sat on the floor, cleared the flagstones of as much dirt and dust as possible.  He took the bag of stones from around his neck and hefted their weight in his right hand.  It was reassuring.   He took a deep breath and cleared his mind of everything, but his question.  He could see the dwarven runes that spelled out what he wanted to know glowing in the darkness of his mind’s eye, and then switching the bag to his left hand he let out a low chant, and scattered the stones on the floor.The question was: With the exception of Jana, will our captors free us upon hearing the truth? He moved the stones around with a hand and grouped them some, making connections and letting his intuition guide him.This was his interpretation: “The truth is a weight like a stone, that in this case will be passed on for someone else to bear.Kazrack was relaying his interpretation of the stones when the door to the area the cells were in burst open, and in marched the guard on duty.“Are you gonna yammer all day?” he roared.“Is that against the law now, too?” Jeremy asked, his smarminess reaching new levels to match his level of discomfort and annoyance.The guard stepped right before his bars, and slammed then with a club, “Around here what I say goes!”“We are going to be quiet, sir,” Kazrack said, trying to make peace.“You’d better be or one of ya is gonna be visiting the hole,” the guard sneered, and marched off.The group was silent for a few minutes.“Now, what was that supposed to mean?” Jeremy asked of the runestone reading.“I think it means that Jana and/or Richard will have to bear the brunt of the consequences for our telling the truth,” Kazrack.“Probably, just Jana,” Jeremy said.“Sounds like my luck,” Jana mumbled.-------------That evening Ratchis emerged from his hiding spot, and brushed the snow from his furs, shaking off like a bear waking up from a brief hibernation.  The moon hung in the night sky like a wafer with a smooth bite taken from it.  Ratchis jogged towards town.  He took a broad course southward, and then slipped between the trees on the edge of town, watching and wait in the shadow of a clump of trees.  In time he saw the coming and going of the night watch.  He could see how one lantern bearing guard came up the central group of streets and then turned southward to complete his circuit, while another came from the north and turned east through the center of town.  They came by about every 45 minutes, and about ten minutes part, meeting about every fourth rotation.  When the first guard had passed and the next was 10 minutes away, a cloud passed over the moon and Ratchis took his chance.  He hustled between the buildings, slipping from shadow to shadow and crawling beneath window until he reach the back of the inn.He squatted down again, and looked at the windows of the inn.  The fact that a light still shone in one on the upper floor helped him decide which one was Martin’s.  He waited until he saw the easterly moving guard go by at the end of his vision and then he climbed up the side of the inn.  He tapped on the shutters, and pulled one open just as Martin had stood to stretch his legs after doing so more studying.  (He thought he might be close to breaking open the secrets of the Change Self spell. (*)  He was startled as the shutter opened itself and a hand reached in.  He stepped back looking over to where his staff leaned on the desk, but then saw Ratchis’ face come into the light, and he hurried to ineffectually help the hulking half-orc through the window.“Where have you been?” Martin asked.“Hiding out and wandering around,” Ratchis said, slipping his quiver of javelins from his side.  “Waiting for things to cool down before coming back to see what’s going to happen to them.”“There is going to be a hearing tomorrow to see what will happen and if Jana will be sent off with Rindalith,” Martin explained.“Okay, so depending on what happens at the hearing we’ll decide if we’ll have to take the extreme option of breaking them out,” Ratchis said.“Beorth would never go, and Jana said she would not flee Rindalith,” Martin said.“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, but first we need a sign from you that tells me if they were freed or if the yare being imprisoned,” Ratchis said. “We’ll make it a pillowcase in the shutters, and if that is the case it means they are freed and I will meet you all at, um… those ruins where we fought the manticore.  You think you could find that place?”“Yes, but let’s make it candles in the window instead of the pillowcase.  One candle means they were freed and two means they are going to remain in prison,” Martin suggested.“Sounds good to me,” Ratchis said.  “How would we break them out if it came to that?” Martin asked.“I have some ideas, but no plan is foolproof and we have several of those to deal with,” Ratchis said wryly. “I have to sneak back out of town, but it would be easier to get around unseen if I were not so big,” Ratchis said, as Martin squinched up his face in confusion.  “Can you make me into a raccoon?”Martin chuckled.  “I am afraid that is beyond my powers, Ratchis.”“Why does he want to be a raccoon?” Thomas chittered in Martin’s mind.  “He should be a squirrel!   Maybe he’d be a really strong squirrel.”“I thought you can create illusions?” Ratchis asked, skeptically.“Yes, but only ones that can stand alone,” Martin explained.  “ Creating illusions that are bound to a person or object is different sort of magic.”“Anyway, I should get out of here before the guards come back around,” Ratchis said, walking towards the window.  “If you see anything untoward happening to me as I leave here I hope I can count on you for a distraction.  And remember, one if they’re freed, two if they’re not.”“Yes, okay.”Ratchis poked his head out the window for a quick look around and then sprung out catching the lip and lowering himself down.  He crept back among the buildings and out to the edge of town, just missing one guard as he dove into the underbrush and snow.   He lay still for twenty minutes and then slipped back to his little shelter and went back to sleep until morning.Martin, having no need for more than two hours of sleep (and actually having not even having the ability to), studied the rest of the night, laying down an hour before dawn, with Thomas curled up on his chest.--------------------------------------------------------Notes:(115) DM’s Note: Wizards in Aquerra are not guaranteed spells each level.  Instead, players announce spells they are working on (based on notes and theorems) and then may roll a spellcraft check two levels later to gain the spell (modified by the spell’s level and rarity).</blockquote>

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