Don't Get Fooled Again

Game Date (Y/M/D) : 944 / 3 / 28 thru 944 / 4 / 4

The party took a deep breath after having dealt with the Dwarven Assassins, Ogre guards and kamikaze goblin bombers. Several party members were badly wounded, including Meercon who took a direct hit from one of the bombers. Healing was dispensed and the team brough back to a reasonable health level. While this progressed, Oscar went around and performed a morbid and disturbing act, collecting the hearts from the defeated dwarves. These he needed preserved, which he asked Tyrade to perform as he had earlier in their travels to Willie's leg, and he did so. Potions were used and Oscar attempted to use his spells, which now were beginning to have effect. They worked to full efficiency on Garan, but only half on others.

The group now needed to bed down and rest, but also set up watches and scout around a little for any other suspicious activity. Furion and Tyrade scanned outside the cave and set watch down the mountain. They did not have to wait long as just as dusk thery spotted a torch approaching up the path they had come. It moved along at a walking pace and steadily climbed the path. Furion went back to gather additional team members Alydra and Jade to set an ambush for the oncomers. But as the torch bearer approached around the bend they guarded, they were taken by surprise by what they saw. It was a middle aged human woman and a small 10 year old boy child. Tyrade stopped them and asked them questions as to their purpose and identity. The woman identified herself as Cara and the child was Eddie, and they were from the orphanage. Eddie was one of the troubled kids and Cara was one of the assistants in the orphanage that helped tend to the kids and often times helped Jeri clean up in the kitchen. They had come to find Jeri and pass along bad news. The group escorted these newcomers back to the cave.

Cara and Eddie explained that the orphanage had been raided by more of the Dwarves and two of the children taken with epithets were scrawled on the walls in blood towards Ox. Ox had decided to go get Paulie and go hunting after them but someone needed to get to Jeri and inform him. Jeri immediately turned to the dwarf prisoner and began interrogating him. He used his empty frying skillet as his encouraging device, needing to crack the prisoners skull several times, getting very little useful information from him other than there were several teams that set out from the caves before one bang too many on his head knocked him out.

At this point Garan stepped in to protect the prisoner from any further abuse and used his healing ability to revive the dwarf. Jeri continued to press the captive for information and what he said seemed to incense Cara. She brough over Jeri's cooking fork and wanted him to use it on the dwarf to get more information, but Jeri did not want to do that and Garan moved to prevent any such action. Cara however was adamant and grabbed the fork and lunged towards the dwarf, skewering him in the belly and he fell over. An argument ensued with Garan. The dwarf was barely alive and Garan would not permit any further injustice towards the prisoner. He and Cara stood eye to eye and argued over the treatment of the captive. She threatening, he warning her not to. When she finally did lunge again, Garan attempted to hit her with his drawn mace, but he missed and Cara forced the fork in to the chest of the dwarf down to the handle, breaking the metal shaft and causing a massive amount of blood to flow from his chest. Oscar had seen the events coming and attempted to stop her by tackilng her, but he was too late. The prisoner was dead.

Frustrated and infuriated at the mistreatment, Garan gathered his belongings and slowly walked away towards the cave mouth. Jeri, not happy with the way Garan had attempted to stop Cara, turned his attention to him and slowly walked after him, skillet in hand. Garan heard the approach and turned to face him as Jeri raised his cooking implement and swung at Garan's head, striking it with a bong. This sent the remainder of the group in to action to split up the feud. Cade and Oscar quickly moved between the two, pushing Jeri away. Garan stepped back, furious now with the actions and called out in dwarvish to Moradin to place a curse on Jeri. And then he walked out of the cave, Oscar moving quickly after him to stop him from walking away. Meanwhile, Cade pulled Jeri aside and attempted to calm him down.

Fortunately, both people were successful and the team stayed in one place, but the dwarves remained outside the cave for the night. This caused the team to need to set up watches outside the cave on the path. During the night, several watch fires were seen below at the base of the mountain which were assumed to be from Ogres or Goblins associated with the assassins, but none came up the path.

In the morning, Furion awoke with a stabbing pain in his leg and feeling very weak. An examination revealed a dart wound that would seem to have been poisoned. A Neutralize Poison potion was used on him, but he still felt a little weak. A private conversation took place between Jade, Cade and the brothers Furion and Tyrade. Suspicions fell to the newcomers. The dwarves had used illusions before to imitate one of the children in the orphanage, were they doing it again? Or did they miss something in the walls of the cave where something came out in the middle fo the night and attacked them? Jade decided to use a Detect Magic to see if there was any magic on the newcomers. Cara showed some small aura, but Eddie was covered in a magical glow.

Jeri called on Eddie and they now decided to question him. His reaction was not good. Eddie became defensive and acted oddly when Jeri spotted a dart point protruding from his pants pocket. Jeri removed the dart, which appeared to have poison on the metal. Eddie then became very agitated and defensive, backing away from everyone and moving towards the cave opening. Cara stood and ran towards him and was caught and stopped by Tyrade, who was now also suspicious of her. He caught and prevented her from continuing and she eventually stopped resisting and stood next to Tyrade, cursing under her breath at Eddie. Others in the party now prepared their weapons, bows at the ready and the group primed for someone to show themselves as an enemy.

Garan used a Detect Evil to see who was the guilty party, but his spell showed that both the child and the woman were evil. He then made a play to get Jeri involved. He moved in and confronted Jeri, who was unaware that Garan was only play acting in order to get close enough to him to explain the new information and situation because he knew that Jeri had to be behind any actions against either of the two newcomers. The attention turned to the child, Eddie, while the face-off between Garan and Jeri became almost an angered whisper. Jeri finally was convinced of Garan's motives when he offered free shots at himslef if he was wrong, and they then turned towards the child.

At that moment, with most of the attention turned on the child, Cara wheeled and flung 3 darts at Alydra, who had been readying her bow towards Cara during most of the events, but had now split her attention towards the child as well. Two of the darts hit and the poison tips did their work as Alydra fell wounded badly, but not dead. Tyrade, only party surprised by the action, tackled the woman, who seemed almost glad to grapple with the elf. Eddie, sensing a moment of confusion, attempted to run for daylight between Oscar and Warrex, who were guarding the opening. But Warrex, who had been a threatening menace keeping the child in during most of the events, backhanded the child with his tall shield. Unfortunately, he really was just a child and he fell with a thud, his skull cracked open and died there. Warrex could only musted the comment, 'I warned him...'.

In the melee, two secret doors opened from behind the group and the other two dwarven assassins stepped out with crossbows at the ready and began firing. The woman in combat with Tyrade ejected a punch dagger from her sleeve and stabbed him, poison dripping from the blade. Tyrade lost his bearings and she took control of the scrum. But he gathered himself quickly and tried to roll off the pile, but the woman would not let him, and in desperation grabbed for her arm that had the weapon to prevent any further attacks. He held fast and tried to hold out until help arrived.

The two other dwarves fired away with their crossbows. Furion was hit and also fired back, scoring multiple critical hits to one of the dwarves who Jade also hit with a magical Enlarging Arrow. Garan used a Bless spell to aid the group and Jade then used a Shield spell to protect herself. They fired away at the dwarves and Furion struck his target again and was also hit again himself and he fell, wounded badly with poison coursing in to his body. Alydra and Cade continued their missile fire and with one well placed shot, Cade was able to drop and finish off the first crossbowman. Alydra, meanwhile, fired on the second, striking his weapon arm in a critical spot causing him to drop the bow. With that, the dwarf turned and ran back in to the secret passageway. Cade, Jade and Jorella moved to follow the fleeing dwarf, but were unable to catch or stop him and he disappeared in to the darkness of the cave passage.

Tyrade continued to struggle with the woman, her trying to free her hand, him trying to hold his grip. But time was on Tyrade's side as his fellows came to his aide. Jack and Meecon carefully angled their attacks and swung down on her. Jack hit first, and Meercon's blade pierced clean through her body killing her and pinning her to the ground.

The others came back in from the secret passage and it was decided, after much discussion, to have a small group chase the escaped dwarf down his hole. Cade, Jeri, Jack, Warrex, Meercon, Jade and Jorella went after him. Bringing torches and following the path down in to the depths of the mountain they went. Eventually coming to a dead end, but Jeri found a secret door touch plate similar to those that were used on the entrances to the cave above. When Cade moved to trip the plate, a voice spoke to them from all around saying " I wouldn't do that". But do it he did and it tripped a slide trap, similar tot he one they fell down when on the path leading up the mountain. The floor shifted, a chute appeared beneath them and the cave end opened up like a sliding wall. Cade, Jeri, Jack and Jorella fell and slid through the opening. Warrex held his ground and was able to stop Meercon and Jade from falling too. They slowly worked their way back up the cave tunnel to solid ground.

The four fell through the opening and found themselves in the same hole as before. Cade hit and tumbled forward. Jeri and Jack lost their balance, hit hard and fell unconscious. Jorella was able to control herself and fell to their side and stopped. In front of them, sitting in a chair was the wounded dwarf wielding a hand crossbow, ready to fire. But his aim was poor due to the wounds and all his shots fired missed. Cade moved in and attacked with his short sword. Jorella righted herself and charged with her spear, puncturing the foe and knocking him backwards off his chair. They traded shots, Jorella having problems evading the overturned chair, Cade and the dwarf exchanging whiffs until Jorella was able to finally put her spear in to his chest one last time and end the conflict.

With the assistance of those in the cave, they were able to revive the unconscious members and then escape the hole they were in. They returned to the cave and all healing was performed. Oscar again gathering the hearts of his foes. They stayed there for the night and rested. In the morning they packed up and moved quickly to escape the area, heading for the Intercities and Town 7. There they bedded in to a hotel. Cade went off to Town 6 to contact his guild and trade in their take. Garan and Oscar went to the church to complete their missions. Oscar bringing his penance and Garan looking for guidance. Both seemed satisfied by their results, but both were assigned caretaking of the temple for a week.

Cade returned with the cash from the sale of the items they found and the group moved on, returning to the orphanage. There they found that none of the events relayed by the dwarf or child had taken place, but the real Cara had disappeared and was found dead. The group returned to Town 7 to gather up Oscar and Garan. They decided to stay in that town to acquire training and would move on afterwards.

Next time ...

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