The Hunters Become the Hunted....

Game Date (Y/M/D) : 944 / 3 / 17 thru 944 / 3 / 26

The party left town and headed north with the caravan and made good and uneventful time all the way to the Intercities, a welcome and needed piece of luck. Their first order of business, hunt down Ox Baker and give him grief for sending them to the wrong place. But when they arrived at the orphanage to vent their rage, the typical Ox Baker reactions and lack of accurate details led them to believe that it was a waste of time to try to argue with him and just gave up the arguement.

But during this rather surreal conversation that was more like an Abbot & Costello routine, Alydra noticed one orphan amongst the bunch that was out of place. He also looked like he was trying to pick the pockets of the people there. After a few attempts and what was obviously too much attention to the group, he ran out of the building and took off. Alydra signaled to Furion who made for the door and followed the child through the backstreets of the city. The child was obviously familiar with his route and several times almost lost his follower, but Furion managed to stay with him staying in the shadows and remaining undetected. The child finally entered a house on the edge of town through a secret door in the back of a house. Furion noted several figures moving abouts in the house through one of the windows and after about an hour the child, now considerably cleaner and in better clothes, left the house out the front door. Furion decided to wait, stake out the location longer and wait for the next move.

Meanwhile, the party hoofed it over to the church, at least maybe there they could vent some of their anger. But when they met Father Joseph, pastor of the church, he was terribly sorry for the misunderstanding and informed tham that the instructions he gave to OX were to send the group to Exalon to the east, not Sudalon to the west. Cade asked if it would be possible to compensate him for the cash outlay he had fronted the group to enable their return and Fr. Joseph offered to take up a collection for them during the coming services. With that completed, the group went back to the orphanage, some decided to make for a local bar and inn to settle in for the night.

When Jerri returned to the orphanage he was greeted warmly by all the children of the house, save one. The same child that Furion had followed earlier. It was obvious that this child did not fit in with the rest of the group very well at all. It was told to him that this kid, Max, was new to the orphanage and had come in only a couple days ago. Max was also not a very pleasant child and confronted Jerri as he mingled amongst the children. Max challenged him and Jerri attempted to discipline the boy only to be rebuffed and finally pushed too far, Max hauled off and punched Jerri in the face, hard. Ox was called to the room and after another small interchange of fists, Max wriggled loose and ran out the door. Alydra and Tyrade were waiting for him and tried to run him down only to find that the child ran much faster than either of them and he was quickly out of sight.

The remainder of the group had meandered over to a local bar, there to eat, drink and....well, Warrex has needs. They all partook of their desires at the establishment. Furion now returned with news of what he had seen at the house and news of another figure leaving the house that he took to be a dwarf, but could not be certain due to the darkness. When the rest of the team arrived to fill in the details of the orphanage events they decided that something needed to be done and quickly. Jade attempted to retrieve Jerri from the orphanage, but her nature led her away before seeing sights she didn't want to see and Cade was summoned to get Jerri.

The party headed over to the house with the intention of taking the place and whatever they could from inside. The situation now changed from them being hunted by the Red Guard to hunting those after them and hoping to catch them off guard. Warrex was to enter through the front as a decoy, since the Red Guard had not seen him, followed by several other of the stronger folks. The thieves would scout out the secret entrance and stealthily enter through that door if possible, hopefully catching them fron two sides at once.

Cade and Jerri scouted the door and found both the door entrance and the trap trigger switch that guarded the entrance, which they disabled. Warrex deciding to play a drunk, stumbled to the front porch of the house and urinated on the front door, which was slightly open. His actions gathered all the attention they wanted and the door was quickly opened by a dwarf. Another came running out of another room and the group in the front of the house made a charge in the front door.

Cade, Jerri and Sasha entered quietly though the secret door, finding a situation room with a tactical map of the town they were in laid out on a large table. This was the room the second figure was in just a moment ago. And then the melee broke out as the fight in the outer room and cade moved in from behind in an attempt to get a backstab on the second dwarf. But Cade fumbled his sword and it clanged against the wall, breaking in several pieces. The dwarf he attacked spun and flung several darts in his direction, hitting Cade once, who could feel a poison acting on his body as the weapon struck him, but he was able to continue on. Warrex, now engaged, began swinging his fists, since his weapon was slung in his 'drunken sailor' act, and missed wildly several times.

The dwarves, now realizing they were outnumbered, attempted to cut and run. One makes it through a second door in the main room where the fight had started and leapt through what appeared to be a window in the back wall of the house, but was just an illusion covering a doorway. The second moved to protect the runners escape and blocked the alley way. Jerri engaged the first dwarf and was hit by another of his darts, but he too was able to withstand the poison on the weapon. Warrex was not as lucky as another dart struck him and he fell to the ground motionless. The dwarf that had gotten away ran quickly and was putting distance between himself and the group. But the group was not done yet, they fired several arrows at him and many hit, but he did not fall and eventually made good his escape. But he second dwarf had sacrificed himself to help the others get away and the group moved in to surround him. After one unsuccessful attempt at a Sleep spell, Jade tried again, this time casting from her book and the dwarf fell to the ground as Jade spell book page burst in to flames. The battle was over, but one had gotten away and Jade lost a very valuable spell from her repertoire.

The group then searched the house and found little but 2 suits of leather armour that bore a read marking on the shoulders and the tactical map. But the tactical map had another secret. On its underside was another map that gave a rough outline of a second safe location for the dwarves that was in the mountains south of the Intercities. This information they took with them back to the orphanage and the bound and gagged prisoner.

They put the prisoner in the basement of the building and began to question him. But no information was to be gleaned from this dwarf and eventually Warrex was a bit too enthusiastic with his pursuasions and the dwarf died. they stripped the body looking for more info that he might have on him and found naught but the Bracers of Defense on his arms and a Ring on his finger, both of which would not come off by normal means and which no one was sure what magic they might hold. This prompted Jerri to send for Ox with instructions to "Go get a goldfish and bring some butter."

The bracers were removed when the arms of the victim were cut off, but they instantly turned to dust. The ring, Warrex claimed as his, and an Identify was cast by Jade, but her results were fuzzy and indeterminate. Warrex kept the ring as Sasha had appraised it at a value of at least 2000 gp regardless of the magic on it. The dead body was turned over to Ox who brought down several of the orphans to clean up the mess. the kids moved quickly and skillfully. Obviously Ox had been teaching them something....

Having now turned to the offensive, the group decided to go on and try to attack the second location in the mountains. Cade had found that there was a SUGAR guild site in Town 6 in the souther area of the Intercities and they made for that. He met with the leaders there and found that they were surprised to see the group still alive and well. Word had made it around that they were being hunted. But the situation had also become fluid with the fortunes of the Sudalon assassins changed due to politcal changes now that the Dwarven alliances had been broken, caused by the information of Sudalon's actions making its way to Al-Alin and other Dwarven kingdoms. These assassins were now on their own and not likely to get any support. They also brough the armour and the guild was able to identify the marks on them as being those of apprentices.

Garan and Oscar took the opportunity to visit the local Moradin temple in Town 7 and put in a little prayer time. A few long hours of prayer resulted in special direction for both of the Dwarven clerics and enlightenment on the current plight that Oscar was going through where healing was not working for him. The communications were kept private by both. They then were led to the Dwarven high priest at the temple, Zergman, who was able to tell them that the temple in Sudalon has been desecrated and destroyed to prevent any assistance by the gods from reaching this now cursed city. the act performed by Lady Jocelyn herself, who was now in the keeping of an odd Christian priest in Zumbrota. He also informed them that a war was now brewing between Sudalon and the other Dwarven kingdoms of Al-Alin and Oolm because of these events. The priest offered assistance tot he party and instructed the two to return in 3 days to receive what they had to share.

The group took the time to use the SUGAR guilds apothecary lab and produced several poisons to use on their weapons. They healed themsleves and made plans to go in to the mountains. After 3 days they returned to the Moradin temple and were presented with 5 Healing potions and 4 Neutralize Poison scrolls. With these supplies and those they had purchased, they set off for the mountain location.

They approached the mountains and made their way to the base area where the rocky area left only a few paths to travel and they made for them. As they approached the pass Furion spotted several tracks that were from a larger bare footed, humanoid creature. And at that moment, 4 Ogres charged at them from behind the large rock outcroppings ion the ground. They moved quickly and came in swinging their heavy fists, connecting on several opportunities.

The first victim knocked down was Oscar, but he was not dead. Jade moved in to fire her bow, only to have the wood split on her, rendering the bow useless. Others moved in to attack. Sasha with her sling, Tyrade and Alydra with their bows. And as Tyrade was engaged by one of the Ogres, he flipped his bow back to Jade for her to use while he quick drew his sword. One attempted to engage Alydra, but she quickly executed an acrobatic retreat, evading the creatures attack. But Tyrade was the next one to fall. The Ogre hit him with a crushing blow and Tyrade fell and didn't move.

Warrex was next to sustain a massive blow, but he was able to keep his feet and then the battle turned as the group made good thier lines and moved to outnumber the Ogres. Jerri was able to hit with a backstab and Furion slashed one through the heart dropping it, quickly followed by a big hit by Garan that knocked down a second one. The battle moved quickly now and a deadly accurate shot by Jade with her borrowed bow ended the life of a second Ogre and Warrex was able to finish off the third. But they were not able to catch and kill the fourth, which decided to cut and run away.

They party gathered and Garan performed a Heal on Tyrade to revive him. He attempted to then heal Oscar, but the prayer would not operate on the dwarf. Fortunately, the potions did work on him. The group healed themselves as best they could and then made to move up in to the mountains and hopefully to eliminate the assassin threat.

Next time ...

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