Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Old_Man_Fish" data-source="post: 2263103" data-attributes="member: 26697">Session 1 (05/15/2005) Char Creation, Road to Milbourne and Fight with Bandits:Day 1:I will remember this day as the first, although I had been traveling for perhaps the last 2 months, having left (my village) to go on my finding.  Today, while I had stopped to eat in a small meadow outside of Brindensford, I met a man named Bragi.  Bragi appears to be a noble woodsman, not too much unlike myself.  As he came to my fire I shared what food I had and we talked of the past and of the future.  It appears that he is at somewhat of a loss as to what to do with his life.  He too is in need of a finding.  As I explained the somewhat mired details of my plans for my finding he stated his desire to accompany me upon my journeys.  I seemed to me that having a companion would surely hasten the journey to understanding.    As we traveled through Bragi’s small hamlet we stopped into the inn to let what few acquaintances he had in town know that he was leaving and not to worry.  He had said that there would not be many here who would even notice if he left.  However, as we were sitting discussing our plans with Ajneir, the innkeeper, a strange fellow in a shinning suit of chain and mail stood and introduced himself.  His name was Lucien and he too was looking for some traveling companions with whom to wile away the days and perhaps come to some internal understanding of his place in the world.  However, he said the last with a strange glint in his eyes.  I do not know how much I trust him, although I do believe that he is, for the most part, honest and willing to help me and Bragi out through most any situations.  And, as I was in no danger at the moment and carry nothing of real value, I decided that we could always part our ways in the future if I were to determine that he is an undesirable traveling companion.  As we were seated around the small table discussing our plans a somewhat shifty looking man entered the tavern and looked around as if expecting to see an acquaintance.   When he did not see this person, be he real or fictitious, and instead turned his attention in our direction.    “Well hello Bragi.  How are you doing?” The man asked.  “I am doing quite well.  Just this day I have decided to set off on a trip of some importance.” Bragi replied. “Is that so.  That is too bad as I had hoped to acquire your assistance in a matter of some importance.”  “Really, what might that be?  We haven’t decided on a destination and having some goal in mind might give us some direction upon which to focus.”  “Oh I would not need you to go to far.  Just down to Thurmaster to drop off this package to Talester.   You know of Talester of course?”  “Yes, he is the man who lives in the lone tower correct?”  “The very same.  I would do this task myself, but I have very pressing business to the south.  Would you be willing to take this to him?”  At this point, Lucien spoke up. “Well, that depends on how much you are offering.”  “I am actually not able to offer you anything myself.  However, Talester has agreed to pay whomever drops the package off a fee of 50 gp.”  This of course caught my interest.  “Each?”  “So I have been told.  I believe that he has been searching for the contents of this chest for somewhat over a year now.  He is quite wealthy and is willing to pay very generously if I do say so myself.”  After some discussion among ourselves, we agreed to carry out the assigned task of taking the package to Thurmaster.  The man then described the path that we would need to take.“Well, first you would take the north road up to Milbourne.  This in itself should only take a single day.  From Milbourne you have two options.  You can either take the ferry from Milbourne to Thurmaster.  This ought to take a day to a day and a half.  Or, you can take the northern road.  You would follow the road to the third intersection.  Turn to the east and follow it until you reach Thurmaster.  This method should take about a day on the first trail and another 2 days on the second.”  So, it was settled.  We had our first destination in mind and a job to do.  We had decided to stay at the inn and meet again at first light to start our journey.Day 2:  So it was that we started out on our first journey together.  We walked and talked, expressing some of our deepest beliefs and getting to know one another.  I found that Bragi and I both worshipped our god Earth Mother, whom many know as Meilikki.  Although I had learned a fair amount about Bragi, I learned very little from Lucien.  He appears to have some problems expressing any semblance of his personal life.  He instead passes most things off as a joke or a quick jibe.  Sometime around dinnertime, as we were quick approaching Milbourne, we saw a group of farmers approaching.  I didn’t really think anything of it.  However, Bragi saw one of the members of this group do something odd and quickly screamed, “Arm yourselves!”  After hearing this, the larger farmer in the back shouted, “They’re onto us.  Get that one.  He looks like a spell caster.  Take him alive!”  All the while, he was pointing at me. In a rush of action, the farmers all drew hidden weapons and started charging forward.  This quick battle was a bit of a disgrace.  We held our own for the first thirty seconds or so, battling back and forth knocking out two of the five so-called farmers.    Try as we might, however, we could not last long.  First Bragi fell, then Lucien.  Finally even Igby, my wolf and most trusted traveling companion, fell.  Then it was only I.  And although I had called out to Meilikki to aid me, and she had responded by granting my quarterstaff an enchantment, I could not hold off the vile forces.  As I was passing into unconsciousness, I spotted what might have been a fey, or some beautiful woman of the woods.  Day 3:   My companions and I awoke about the same time.  I noticed, first off, the poultices and webbing holding my wounds.  The lady I had previously spotted was gone.  We were perhaps 30 yards from the site of the previous days battle.  Upon closer inspection, we could find nothing of our assailants.  Furthermore, it was revealed that neither our possessions, nor the package which we had agreed to transport, had been damaged or stolen.  After perhaps a thirty-minute wait we decided that our benefactor would not be rejoining us and continued on into Milbourne.  Milbourne is not much of a town.  Barely thirty structures line it’s somewhat dilapidated streets.  However, as we bended the final curve on the road into town, it struck me as one of the most comforting sites to see.  We crossed the narrow ford into town and made our way to a strange building that hoisted a sign naming it The baron of mutton.  Bragi assured us that this was one of the two taverns in town, and that it was, in fact, the only inn.  We made our way into the building and were greeted at once by both a friendly waitress and the comforting smell of the hard cherry-wood and sawdust.  The young woman introduced herself as Trisha, and showed us to a table near enough the bar that we could attract the attention of either herself or her father if we needed anything.  The man whom she had pointed out as being her father was in the process of comforting a grieving man who looked very similar to both himself and Trisha.    After we had settled in and ordered both food and drink we inquired about the reason for the man’s grief.  And, although we were trying to be respectful and ask in a somewhat soft manner the man himself heard our inquiry.    “I’ll tell you what it is I grieve for.  It’s my Jehenna.  She’s been kidnapped.  She is surely being tortured.  Or worse!  Why take her? Oh why?”  “You don’t know for certain that she has been taken.” His brother, the innkeeper spoke up.  “What makes you so sure that she did not just up and decide to visit one of her relatives.  Or Talester for that matter?  You have no real reasons to come to such a pessimistic conclusion.”  “If’n that’s the case, why’d she leave her belt pouch?  It has all of the components she needs for her incantations.  She never leaves to go anywhere without it. She never goes anywhere without telling me.  She’s been taken I tell you.”  At this, the man started to cry once more.  I felt that it might be best to let the man grieve alone.  Bragi, however, did not have the same feeling.  He quietly spoke up, “We were attacked on the road, not three miles from here.  A group of men came after us and were specifically after my friend August here.  Said something about grab the spell caster.  Maybe it’s the same group?”  Both Trisha and her father gave us a concerned look and began to question us about the attack.  From this discussion it came to light that the leader of that group’s name was Carmine.  He lived perhaps three miles down the road that we had come from.  He had been living out on his own for perhaps the past year or so.  Furthermore, he had apparently tried to recruit one of the other patrons into some scheme of his, in order to make some quick money.  The scheme was something that Carmine would not reveal unless if the recruit would take a vow of secrecy.    We talked a bit longer and the innkeeper urged us to see Gerald, the constable of the town, about the attack.  As we were preparing to go out and find him, a very nervous and excited young man burst into the room with news that five bodies had just been found on the edge of town.  Everyone in the bar started to get excited by this and most all of us made our way down to the edge of town to see what had happened.   We found almost thirty people clustered around the group of bodies.  When we got close enough to see them straight, it was obvious that these were the same men who had attacked us.  It appeared that they had been killed by a combination of bludgeoning and slashing weapons, as well as by the bite marks of various animals.    Bragi looked around and found the constable as he was examining the bodies.  He told Gerald of the events of the past day and asked if there was anything we could do to help.  We also asked if he had any clue who it was that had saved us, since whomever had saved us was more than likely responsible for the bandits death as well.  One of the other young men heard this and spoke up.  “There’s a woman in those woods.  She’s crazy.  She just sits out there and does her thing.  Never comes into town here.  Never really says anything at all.  Some wonder if she even really exists.  They say that she’s dangerous.  I never met her myself, but if I were to meet her, I’d be cautious.”  Gerald shot the young man a dark look and told us that he would look into it.  He also looked at Trisha and her uncle with a bit more sympathy.  We returned to the baron of mutton to wait for the morning and catch the ferry.  Day 4:  The next morning dawned with no sign of the ferry.  When we asked Trisha she informed us that sometimes the ferry did not run every day.  Bragi decided that we should go and take a look at Carmine’s house to see if there were any clues as to why they would want to attack us or what the scheme may have been.  Although we could have just gotten directions, I was feeling in a bit of a talkative mood and convinced Trisha to go with us.  She managed to get the afternoon off and cooked up a nice pick-nick for us.    We took our time, knowing full well that all we had to do was go, check out the house and make it back later in the evening.  I would have to say that I enjoyed this afternoon.  It was a nice, peaceful walk through the forest, once again giving us a chance to walk, talk and discover a bit more about each other.   After perhaps three miles, we came upon the fork in the road that we had passed the day before.  We turned down the low road and continued on brushing against the high grass and enjoying the cool breeze.  It was, however, becoming evident that a storm was brewing.    We came upon the small, dilapidated shack after a few hundred yards.  It was a low lying wooden structure whose front portion bulged with the weight of the top and the years of ignored weather damage.  We approached slowly, waiting to see if there was any activity.  There was none.    We calmly entered the home and discovered a single cot with 4 other bedrolls strewn across the floor.  Nobody was home.    Trisha asked if I wanted to eat now and went outside to begin unpacking the basket of food.  She had prepared a vast assortment of goodies including pheasant and sweet bread.  I sat out with her, talking quietly and eating as both Lucien and Bragi searched the dwelling.  As we were perhaps five minutes into the meal I heard a large hurrah as Bragi scrambled out with a large sack of gold.  We waited anxiously as he counted out ninty-nine gold into neat piles for us to distribute evenly.  We also found a small note, which stated:    Spell Casters = 100 g.p. Young Woman = 10 g.p. Young Man = NOTHING.   It was apparent that even if Carmine and his group had not been responsible for Jehenna, they had surely meant to take me in for this reward.  Bragi and Lucien continued to root through the house for another 10 minutes or so, before deciding that it was time to leave if we wanted to make it back to the inn in time to get plenty of rest for the next day.  So, we started off down the road back towards Milbourne.    As we approached the fork in the road it started to drizzle, and then to poor.  I tried to help Trisha keep dry as much as possible as we rushed back to town.  We arrived back in town, soaked, cold and in quite poorer spirits than we had been directly after finding the note at Carmine’s house.  Trisha went to change and go back to work as the rest of us took rest.  Lucien and Bragi went to tell Gerald of their findings.  I went off to meditate in the small copse of woods to the north of town.   That night I had somewhat fitful sleep.{End Session 1:  350 xp.}</blockquote>

Verification