The New Orphanage

or ....Ox sent us where?

Jeri made arrangements through the adventurers guild in the Intercities to have some travelling company to support the trip. The guild hired Jorella, Jack Daniels, Alydra, Willie Makit and Meercon Grapplor. The group stayed to main roads and caravan routes on their way and bounced from town to town as they travelled west. The trip took 3 weeks time and the arrived at the gates of Sudalon without incident. But that didn't last long.

Upon entering the town, the party was asked to 'register' at the gate by entering their name, race and place of origin in the gate entry ledger. Once the names had been placed in the book, by Jorella, three dwarven guards rushed from the guardhouse and surrounded Jeri and proceeded to search him. In his pack was found the tools of his trade, thieves tools, and in his belt pouch was several thousand gold pieces worth of coins. Jeri was immediately arrested and was about to be roughed up when another guard, a human by the name of Sgt. Eddie Mallory, interrupted. He directed the dwarves to just take the halfling and go. After some discussion with the group, he relayed that the town has a halfling thief problem and that he had broken the law by having those tools in his possession.

Without any money, the group needed a place to stay. Eddie was kind enough to pull 10 mithril out and give it to Jorella to cover their expenses. He also gave them directions to a local Inn and the church that the group though they were supposed to go to. The group moved along. They noticed that the town was primarily composed of dwarves with a mix of most other races comprising the remainder of the population. There were very few halflings out and those that were about seemed to be harrassed by the dwarven guards.

They made their way through the town, all the while being eyed and watched by many in the town. They arrived at the destination church, which was across the street from the town hall and entered. Jorella made a deposit in the donation box for good measure. The church was a Moradin Dwarven church. A dwarven cleric named Garan met them in the entryway and heard their story. Unfortunately for the group, they were unaware that it was the Christian church that had sent them and Garan was completely confused. There already was an orphanage in town and their story was a wild one. Why would there be a need for another orphanage here. But their story about Jeri caught his attention. The fact that Sgt. Mallory had essentially rescued them was a major point in their favor since Eddie was known to be the most honest and trustworthy member of the police force. Garan informed them that he would have to speak with his superiors about the situation and agreed to meet them later to discuss it further.

The group left and Garan went to talk to his superior, Jocelyn Angstrom with his associate in training Oscar. Jocelyn shed light on the fact that there are questions about the local government and that some corruption may be a reality. It was clear that the halfling was likely innocent of any charges other than the possession of thieving tools. She instructed the two to meet with the group and gather more information. Garan took it upon himself to go visit with Sgt. Mallory first and find out first hand what had happened. Eddie confirmed their entire story. Garan was becoming wary of the situation.

The group walked out of the church and turned up the street heading for the Inn that Sgt. Mallory had recommended. As they advanced a street thug bumped in to Jack and attempted to rob him. When the lift failed, he tried again and was joined by other thieves. Only these were not halfling, but 3 human teenagers and a dwarf. A fight broke out on the street and weapons were drawn. Attacks were exchanged and the original thief finally managed to snare Jack's beltpouch and took off running. Alydra sunk an arrow deep in to the dwarven thief and dropped him.

The group did not notice that the human thief that took off was then followed by a halfling that came from out of the shadows. The halfling moved quickly and closed in on the fleeing assailant. With one swift blow to the back of his head, Cade dropped the thief unconscious. He retrieved the stolen beltpouch and returned to the group that was under attack. The thieves were now calling for help. By calling for the police. Jorella had started the call for the police and the thieves had continued it, much to the groups surprise. Cade approached the group and urged them to follow him if they did not want to get arrested. With a quick thought and noticing the police moving up quickly, the group decided to follow him.

They darted around a corner and through an open doorway that was quickly shut and left no sign of its presence. Once in the hallway, the guards ran quickly by and Cade led the group up a flight of stairs to a safe room. In the room was another halfling, Sasha Rein. They watched out the window to see what would happen and they found the police return, question the thieves who appeared to assist the police and then the police moved on. It seemed as though the police and the thieves were working together.

The halflings explained why they had helped. They were halflings and had word of the situation that occurred at the gates when then entered. They did not want to leave a fellow halfling to rot in the jail system here and decided to help the group. But the story they had was a bit wierd, so Cade was dispatched to verify the tale with Jeri. Even though he was in jail, the Halfling local thieves guild had tunnels they could use to access the holding areas. Cade was sent though to talk with Jeri. And while Cade was not impressed by the intellect of the prisoner, his story was confirmed. The halflings were now committed to assisting these folks save Jeri and get them out of town.

The Cleric Garan also decided to have a visit with Jeri to hear his story. This would add credence to the tale told by the group when they met. The story was confirmed and more doubts began to run through Garan's mind regarding the way the town was operated. Jeri was also arraigned and charged with possession of the tools and stolen property, a charge he denied. They accused him of having stolen all his gear and money and this charge raised more concern for Garan and Oscar. Garan stood up to defend Jeri who was obviously being railroaded with more charges than were proper. With Garan's help, Jeri's pleas were entered in to the record and his trial set for the next day.

Garan and Oscar went to the Inn to meet the group. They set up in a back room that was secured and had their meal. The group discussed the goings on and Garan detailed the way this town was run. It was clear that the only way to get him out was to break him out while transported from the jail to the court. The group explained the corruption they had seen and added in details provided by the halflings that pointed an ugly finger at the town government. A government that was in league with their own thieves guild which was operated from the orphanage in town. The orphanage was assited by the Moradin church, which provided help in gathering children and motivating the locals to help finance the town by way of the mines in the local hills. The church officials, town govenrment and police force were all dirty. The hills were providing Gold and Mithril and financing everything. But what was worse, they were using slave labor. The dwarves in town were getting rich off the profits. The dwarves were only required to pay a 5% tax on their income and all other races paid 40%. It was a sweet scam for the ruling government and the two clerics were completely unaware.

The dwarves agreed to help knowing that there needed to be some help here. They went back to their leader, Jocelyn, who directed them to take a personal note to the nearest higher ranking Moradin clerics hoping that something would be done to right this wrong. That town was Al-Alin, a two plus week trip.

Meanwhile, the group needed some extra help to overwhelm and escape the guards. The Halflings had some to offer. There were three prisoners in the jail that were thrown in and left to rot on charges of using magic, another outlawed activity in this town. The halflings once again used their tunnels to free these folks, but the police had planted a couple other prisoners in their cell to watch them. They were also undercover police. When the halflings broke open the secret door, the guards tried to intervene. Jade, Furion and Tyrade attacked these spies and after some hand to hand wrestling and a few swipes with a sword from Cade, they managed to get free and make it out the door as more guards were rushing to the rescue of their undercover agents. One was stuck in the doorway preventing it from being closed, but Jade helped and the portal was shut and locked. The three were offered a deal, help the halfling prisoner escape and they would be helped out of the town. They jumped at the deal.

A fourth member was recruited. This was a Half-Drow named Selith. He had been accosted the same way Jeri was when he entered the town, but the Halflings had been able to move quickly and disrupted the guards, taking Selith away from them and hiding him in a safe house. They offered the same deal to Selith and he accepted. The group accepted his help as well, but not without some trepidation regarding the man due to his race. Once all were secured, they slipped in to the property holding room, paid off the guard on duty and recalimed all the possessions of the prisoners except their money and Jeri's thieving tools.

They group set up the next day around the town hall. They were dressed in cloaks that many others in the area were also wearing. There was a cloak salesman on the main corner selling them. They blended in without any issue. When the prisoners were moved from the holding cells, the group jumped. The first move were arrows at the guards, some of which hit and others that completely missed. Cade had a perfect backstab and dropped one of the guards. The group moved to engage and they outnumbered the guards handily, but the guards put up a good fight. The dwarves moved in to attack and cut down one guard, but Garan was sliced deeply and fell.

The group began to gain the upper hand when Willie Makit was hit hard, a leg severed and he dropped. Oscar moved to help and healed the man. The group had now gotten most of the guards out of the way and some of the guards were trying to move prisoners back in to the holding cells. Selith and Jack moved in and scooped up Jeri, chains and all and put him in the waiting buckboard getaway wagon. The group was jumping on to the wagon now with their objective accomplished but some folks were still engaged unable to escape from the dwarven guards. Then help came from an unlikely souce, the cloak salesman put one of the guards to sleep with a spell and the dam was broken. The one small move gave the group the opeing they needed, cleaning up the remaining way to esacpe an Tyrade, Furion and Jorella pumped arrows in to the few remaining enemies.

The group swept up and in to the wagon and Sasha, diving the cart, spurred the horses on. The wagon sped though the town around a corner and out of the town through another secret exit. The group had gotten out. But one thought raced through all of their minds...

Ox sent us to the wrong town!

Next time ...

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