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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 4658210" data-attributes="member: 11">Session #30 – “The Vineyard Vales” (part 3 of 3)Meanwhile, at the other side of the longhouse, Telémahkos had dismounted and was fighting the remaining archer, who having drawn a long sword, displayed more battle prowess than his companions.    “I’ll kill you, you noble snot!” the man said, his sword ringing against Telie’s.“Calling him a snot is my job, cur!” Markos yelled, riding up to the swordsman and urging his horse to kick at him.  The man easily avoided the huge beast, and slid over to his left.  He turned to flee, and Telémahkos got in a good blow to the man’s backside.  He yelped and kept going, but Markos moved his horse to cut him off and threw a dagger that slammed pommel first into the side of the man’s head.The man took off towards the longhouse, in the direction of one of its side doors.  Markos grabbed his crossbow off the side of his horse and fired, clipping the man in the calf.  He urged his horse in that direction.“You’re not getting away scum!” Telémahkos cursed, coming around one of the shacks to approach the fleeing man from the other side of Markos.  He felt the satisfying puncture of his rapier through the man’s studded leather armor, and smiled.  The man opened the door, managing to use it to block the kick of Markos’ horse as he ducked the follow-up blow from Telémahkos.Markos leapt off his horse and followed the man into a room full of tools, boots and leather aprons, shooting him in the back.  The bandit groaned and reached for the knob to another door leading further into the longhouse, but Telémahkos rushed in as well and drove the point of his blade into the man’s lower back as he tried to flee into a narrow hallway beyond.  Markos hesitated for a moment, but then got down on his knees and began to bind the man’s wounds before he died.Suddenly Timotheus was there, having heard the yelling after Victoria had defeated the remaining dog, and before he could really join that fight. He ran as fast as he could to support his cousin.On the other side of the longhouse, Bleys was still urging his horse after the fleeing archer amid the barren apple trees.  The bandit was able to deftly run around and past the trees to keep Bleys and his mount at bay.  He risked a shot with an arrow, but his own strategy was working against him.“You should have surrendered,” Bleys said calmly, predicting which way the man would flee and succeeding at cutting him off. The watch-mage’s saber cut the foe deep in the shoulder, knocking him down with the pain.  “I surrender!” the bowman said again, as he crawled away from the horse, pushing his bow away.  Bleys was barely able to keep his horse trying to trample the man, and managed to get it to land on the bow, crushing it.  The man put his head in the grass and his hands behind his head while he remained on his knees.[sup]1[/sup]“Tymon! Get over here! Fetch my horse!” Telémahkos ordered his manservant, as the young noble’s horse was wandering away.“I can’t!” Tymon yelled back, still covering the living archer at the entrance.In the resulting chaos of the scattered battle, the Signers soon realized that the clumsy archer crawled away in the confusion.  A trail of blood led around the area of the shacks and pens, and into the entrance on the far side of the longhouse, which was similar to the end where most of the fight had taken place.  They gathered their prisoners, and bound the wounds of those were unconscious but alive.  Laarus of Ra called to his god and doled out some curing spells to his companions.  Timotheus, however, was unhurt, as the regenerate light wounds spell had closed whatever little damage he had taken, though with all the blood covering him, he did not look so great.Timotheus, Telémahkos, Laarus and Victoria went around and entered the longhouse from the other end to seek out the escaped bandit.They entered carefully, finding another smaller stable entrance on the other side and then a series of cramped rooms, bunkrooms, a dining hall with a huge hearth, dry storage and the like.  There was no sign of anyone, despite their turning over furniture and looking behind crates and curtains.  Finally, amid a series of small bedrooms and offices, they came across a locked door.  After Laarus tried to knock it down with his shoulder, Telémahkos shooed him aside and got down on his knees to work on the lock, checking for traps in the process. However, despite getting the fairly cheap lock opened, the door was still barred from the inside.  It took several hard kicks from Timotheus’s muscular legs to finally smash it open.  Beyond was a small bedroom that was (compared to the rest of the longhouse) finally appointed.  There was a ledger noting what appeared to be actual work in the fields and vineyards and amounts of harvested grapes and other goods that were sold over the years.  There was also a crate holding a portion of a bushel of a frosty blue-green leafed herb.  <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Sparkleweed" target="_blank">Sparkleweed</a>.  In another small wooden box were several ounces of the yellow powder they recognized as <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Shannis" target="_blank">shannis</a>.Under a throw rug in the floor they found a trapdoor, and quickly pushed the desk over atop it, to keep whomever escaped through there from coming back out.Meanwhile, Markos and Bleys interrogated the woman prisoner at the entrance stable at the end of the longhouse where the melee had taken place.  “Why are you here?”“We’re watching this land for the bosses,” she replied. “Who are the bosses?””Well, MacHaven…”“Where is MacHaven now?” Bleys asked.“He escaped through the trapdoor to the catacombs soon after Gerloch brought the news that you had arrived and would not be convinced to leave,” she explained.“Which trapdoor?” Markos asked.“The one in the bedroom we broke open,” Telémahkos answered for her, as he and the others returned.After some more questioning, the woman revealed that the catacombs below were used for cold storage and hiding booty, but that also led out to the deep mire of the Glitcheegummee Swamp.  Somewhere beyond it was a shrine to the Mantis God.  MacHaven was working with <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Beast+Gods" target="_blank">Beast God</a> cultists and some lizardfolk said to worship <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Apep" target="_blank">Apep</a>. “Are these cultists who MacHaven works for?” Markos asked. The woman shook her head.“Then who are his bosses?” Bleys asked.“The Vanderborens,” she replied.“Which ones?” “The brother and sister…” She said. “I never spoke to them directly, or anything…”They did their best to see if she might contradict the story Gerloch had told, but except for the part about being MacHaven’s men, it seems the story the foreman had told had been woven mostly from truth.After moving into the dining room with the hearth, the party made to set up camp and sleep off their wounds, reasoning that the darkness outside was too deep for anyone to be safe standing guard in, and that by locking down the stone building, they would quickly be alerted by the noise of anyone trying to break in.  It also allowed them to keep their horses inside over night.“Tavius! Get over here!” Bleys called for their guide to join them from out in the gloom where he had hidden as soon as the fight began.“My name’s not Tavius, it’s William!” the lanky man said with a nervous grin, when he saw the prisoners.“Your name is Tavius,” Telémahkos said to him with a flicker of cruel satisfaction.  Tavius scowled at the blond man.Bleys quizzed the guide about the Glitcheegummee Swamp to see how well he knew it. “I know it some, but the old mushroom man is the one you want to talk to. . .” Tavius replied.  “I should be able to bring you to him.“You mean the old hermit that sings to mushrooms?” Bleys asked.[sup]2[/sup]“That’s him…” Tavius nodded. “Crazy, but mostly harmless, and he knows that swamp better than anyone… If anyone knows about a hidden shrine to an insect god in the deep mires, it’d be him…”As this conversation went on, Telémahkos convinced Timotheus to join him in checking the caretaker’s house on the other side of the longhouse beyond the kennels.  And Markos, quietly asked the female archer about the value of the sparkleweed they had found in the bedroom.The caretaker’s home was filled with quality furniture and except for its size seemed more like an owner’s home than a caretaker’s.  Telémahkos tore the place apart searching for clues while Timotheus stood guard. Frustrated at being able to find nothing that gave a clue about Vanthus or Lavinia’s alleged visit, he finally thought to check the ashes in the fireplace.  There is found the scrap of a letter.He brought the scrap back to the others and gave it to Markos to read. There was not much left to interpret.  It referred to contacting the Apep-worshipping lizardfolk of the Goldstraw tribe and was signed by someone called ‘Martika of the Lizardfolk.’“Bet you a silver she’s not a lizardfolk,” Timotheus said.“Make it ten,” Markos snapped back.“Done!” Timotheus grinned.The interrogation of the captured woman continued again after a fresh bout of speculation.“What did you do for MacHaven’s Brood?” Bleys asked.“I’m a sniper…” She replied.  “When caravans were attacked or there were other kinds of ambushes, the prey would be driven below a position where I and the other archers were ready.”“And these ambushes are how MacHaven’s Brood make their living?”“That, and sparkleweed… and they had a shannis trade out of Kraken’s Cove, but I heard some noble adventurers killed everyone there,” she explained. “MacHaven was mad!”“You did?” Bleys raised an eyebrow.  “Noble adventurers…?”The woman’s eyes widened with a dawning realization. The watch-mage continued to interrogate her, trying to find out the number of bandits in MacHaven’s Brood and where MacHaven’s hideout might be.  He did not believe her when she said that the Vanderboren Stead was the hideout and smacked her a few times when he found her answers or comprehension to be purposefully obtuse.“We need to get rid of these prisoners if we are going to be searching the swamp,” Markos said, walking over to Bleys.  Seeing the woman’s eyes grow wide again, he turned to her. “And I don’t mean kill you all…” He gave an unpleasant grin.“That has yet to be decided,” Bleys said, grimly.After Laarus dispensed some more healing to the wounded, the Signers of the Charter of Schiereiland decided to check out the catacombs to make sure there was no immediate danger down that might break its way out overnight.  Also, the woman’s reports of the storing of goods down there, made them think that someone might come back for them, so better as much of it as possible be moved up stairs and confiscated.The trapdoor had a metal ladder that led to cold natural caverns that spilled away to darkness.  The place was damp and smelled of dog feces and lime.  The main chamber that the ladder led down to held a wooden pallet upon which were several crates of stolen good like dishware, bolts of cloth, and furs.  Several large slabs of salted meat hung from the ceiling and there were a half dozen barrels of cheap wine and another half dozen of water.  There was also a much larger bushel of sparkleweed wrapped in a tarp, and a large box of refined shannis.After moving as much as they could back up into the longhouse and placing the heavy desk over the trapdoor again, the young nobles fell to discussing what to with the prisoners, with the choices coming down to bringing them all the way back to Gullmoor, or bringing them to the Tarchon Steads.  Tavius was in the middle of explaining that it might be best to leave their horses behind because there are areas so deep they will have to swim. “Either that or procure a boat,” he said, when Laarus suddenly sat bolt upright and went pale.  He shivered and spat up a stream of clear bile that made the others turn away in disgust.  “Brother Laarus! Was it another vision?” Victoria asked, moving over to hold him up as Telémahkos handed him a towel.“I can create a boat using magic…” Markos said to Tavius, ignoring the fuss being made over his cousin.  Bleys as well did not react, merely turning away when the young priest spat up. “You can make a boat? Really?” Tavius was skeptical.  Discussion turned to the sparkleweed and the shannis.  Laarus felt that it should be brought to the viceroy as evidence.“You have seen it and your word is bond as a priest of Ra, that should be enough,” Bleys said. “I say we destroy it.”“Don’t destroy it! That’s good stuff! Plus, everyone knows the viceroy smokes a bit of the weed every now and then… Who doesn’t?” Tavius said.“The shannis at least…” Bleys said.“That’s soldier’s boon! You know how much you can make off of that?” Tavius said.“That stuff messes you up,” Tim replied.“I thought you said you were a veteran?” Tavius complained.“That’s why I know,” Timotheus smiled.After deciding that they’d bring the prisoners, contraband and their horses to the Tarchon Estates, Telémahkos urged caution regarding mentioned Lavinia and her brother.  “We don’t want to her looking suspicious…”“She is suspicious,” said Markos.“I agree with my cousin,” Laarus said. “I find it hard to believe that Lavinia could have been here and not known what was going on.  She is involved somehow… Perhaps through coercion, but that remains to be seen.”“Was there something in your vision that has to do with this?” Telémahkos asked.  Bleys frowned.“Perhaps…” Laarus was cautious.“Just tell us what you saw in the damn vision,” Markos said.“’This is what I would like you to deliver,’ I heard a voice say.   It was familiar and then it became clear. It was Lavinia’s.  But despite being dressed much as we saw her back in Quillton[sup]3[/sup], instead of her fine visage, she had the head of a tigress…”“Are you saying she is some kind of were-cat?” Timotheus asked with a puzzled expression.Laarus ignored him and continued. “In her hands she held a wooden box about six inches to a side, and as the sides of the box began to burn away some kind of orange sphere was revealed …”“A sphere? Like a pearl?” Telémahkos asked.“Very much like a pearl, despite its color, of course…”“Who was she talking to?” Telémahkos wanted to know.“I only saw her… Perhaps I was the one being addressed…” Laarus replied.End of Session #30-------------------------------------------------------Notes:[sup]1[/sup]  A handle animal check is required both to get an animal to do its trick and to get it to cease doing so if the object of it is still present, in the case of attacking someone, for example.[sup]2[/sup] Tavius made an off-hand remark regarding the hermit that sings to mushrooms in Session #3. See also InterSession #4.2[sup]3[/sup] See Session #8 and several of the InterSessions following.</blockquote>

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