T w e n t y S i d e d

They are north of Crossway, standing on the wooded hills looking down on the city. They can see the city is guarded by a massive wall to the south, but on this side they can easily slip in.

They watch the movement below as they discuss how to enter unseen. They know this city is controlled by the Alidians. They want to avoid the attention of the soldiers. Last time they met Alidian soldiers was in the wild. The soldiers demanded to see the party’s travel papers (which they didn’t have) and then assumed they were mercenaries. A battle ensued. Although they won that battle, the odds would surely be against them here in town with hundreds of soldiers about.

They know they must not attract attention. With their backpacks, they will stick out quite a bit in the crowd. Their armor and weapons will make them even more conspicuous.

Eomer plans to go into town to test things out. He wants to wait until dark and hide in the shadows, but the others think they have a better chance if they just hide in the crowd during the day. They debate for a while on the merits of each plan. Finally they decide to separate and slip in among the crowd, since traveling in a group would certainly attract attention. Eomer points out a large tower on the south side of the city. They agree to meet in front of the tower if all goes well.

Enoch and Thordek enter together. They develop a cover story where Enoch is a traveling healer and Thordek is his bodyguard. Eomer and Beck will also enter together. The other two will follow seperately.

This city is a hub of activity. The north side of the city is the housing district. Narrow, winding streets snake between the rows of small homes. On the southern side of the city is the shopping bazaar. It is a large circle of shops situated near the tavern. There is a large stone keep overlooking the shopping district. The south side of the city is guarded by a massive wall with a single wide gate, which stands open during the day. A score of Alidian soldiers stands watch at the southern gate.

They melt into the crowd easily as they slip into town one at a time. Nobody gives them any trouble.

Eomer and Beck work their way through the masses, which, as they get closer to the square, seem to be pushing away from the market toward the outlying houses . The market is beginning to empty as the people start heading towards home. Eomer finds that the keep where they are all heading to is covered with Ailidian soldiers. This is their base of power in the city, and the party has agreed to make it their meeting point! He waits for the rest outside the market rather than head to the keep.

Thordek and Enoch walk into town together. It is late afternoon, and by now many businesses are closing. The crowd is moving against them as it is moving towards the houses to the north and away from the businesses to the south. They see the keep as they walk through the square. The people here are mostly closing up shop. They make their way to the keep which is crawling with soldiers. They decide to head over to the church nearby. Enoch does his cleric thing, praying to Pelor.

Eomer spots them as they enter the church and decides this is the new meeting point. As the other members of the party approach, he silently indicates they should head there.

Eomer and Beck watch the soldiers at the gate as they wait for the rest. One group of soldiers marches out from the gate and relieves the group there. They note six scattered soldiers different from the rest, not being relieved from duty, wearing plain heavy armor. These soldiers do not move. Their helmets are solid metal, with no holes for eyes. The fronts of the helmets are stamped with the now-familiar symbol of the Alidian army:

The other soldiers seem very well organized as well. They travel in groups of 7. They do not spend time chatting or sitting around. They walk the streets alert and ready for action. People seem to give the soldiers a lot of room.

Once the rest of the party has assembled in the church, Eomer and Beck join them. They share their observations about the city and discuss their next move. Skeeve notes that one of the guards in any group always has a magical aura around him.

Thordek and Enoch will continue traveling together, sticking with the cover story they developed. Beck suddenly announces that he also has a cover story:

“I’m the new drunk in town. And I’m going to get started on my cover story right now.” He then marches over to the tavern and does exactly that.

Skeeve takes a room. The rest of them secure rooms at the inn. As evening draws in, they get meals and Thu’fir goes to the tavern to keep an eye on Beck. He seems to be a quiet drunk and doesn’t cause any trouble.

They all have the first nice bed they have had in a long time. Thu’fir wanders to the tavern and listens carefully, hearing nothing of interest.

Enoch spends the evening working on translating his book. He manages to translate the next section.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

The night passes, Thu’fir doesn’t notice anything. Skeeve wakes and Thu’fir goes to sleep. In the late morning Skeeve hears some noise around them, to the northeast. The sound comes closer then stops. He suggests to Eomer when he wakes that they might be being followed.

Morning comes, they eat quickly and set out early. They head southwest and come upon a pond. It is directly in their line of travel but is small enough that they can go around it without losing much time. They note a stink in the air. The musky smell doesn’t seem to be coming from the water, which seems wholesome enough. Skeeve skips a rock across the pond.

They hear a crashing in the woods about 50 yards behind them. They can see treetops swaying in the wake of something large headed their way. They decide to walk across the water. Enoch casts water walking again, and five of the party members begin running over the still surface of the pond.

Skeeve wants to stay and see what this thing is. He considers climbing a tree, thinks better of it, and instead jumps into a good covering bush.

An Ettin emerges from the woods. The massive creature stands at nearly fourteen feet tall. In one hand he holds a massive club, which is itself longer than any of the party members. He screams at them in some incomprehensible speech. Once it realizes it cannot catch them, it turns away in disgust. Pouting, it smacks a nearby tree with its club, nearly uprooting it.

The Ettin starts sniffing. It smells something nearby. Skeeve casts fly and soars out of the bushes, heading for the other side of the pond.

The Ettin is enraged by this. He is on the opposite side of the water from them now, and making all kinds of angry noises at them and standing in the mud. Skeeve drops a fireball on his head and angers him more. They have a laugh at him and move on.

Thu’fir explains to them that the Ettin was not likely following them, but that they had stumbled into his territory.

They can now either go south west where it is more open or go south which is a little more tangled. They choose the way that is more open. They head south from here. The land here is more open and they are making excellent time. They eventually come to an open, treeless field. A stream divides the field in two. Across the stream they see another Ettin. They decide to go around, rather than getting into a fight with the beast.

They travel a bit more south. As they move into late afternoon they come across a major city, obviously Crossway.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

I’ve noticed this week that it is taking a long time to get the notes from the previous session translated. I predict this is be a regular thing. We have our D&D sessions on Sunday nights. By the time the session is over, it’s too late to get started on the notes. During the week I spend my evenings on the next session. Heather is busy as well, so in many cases we may not have the notes up until the following Saturday.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

Thordek looks around. He searches some of the rooms they haven’t checked. One room is piled high with old rotting furniture. Many old pews have been shoved in here, along with other broken furniture.

The other room (where the wizard died) is a makeshift workshop. There are many bits of cut wood lying around, along with a layer of sawdust. A crude workbench is built here, which holds some very basic tools: Hammer, nails, vice, and a few different saws. An incomplete chair is on the bench.

On the floor near the overturned table they find a chalice of purification. This strange cup will purify any water placed into it after 10 minutes. Thu’fir claims this prize.

Out in the main hall, they rest. As soon as he has the power, Enoch heals Skeeve.

Once rested, they take an inventory of the items recovered. Several Alidian rank insignia are on the table in the main hall, stripped of their silver and gold trim. The silver & gold are in a separate pile, along with bits removed from jewelery and teeth. Thordek takes these items to sell and divide the proceeds later.

Skeeve finds a mage’s guild certificate of membership made out to “Conjurer Vormoth”, good until 1505dy. Skeeve takes this. Being a self-taught wizard, he has never heard of the guild, but figures that being able to pass himslelf off as a member may come in handy.

Thu’fir finds the wizards staff and gives it to Skeeve. Amongst the other things until Skeeve can take a look at everything. Everyone regroups in the main room, bringing the kids in as well, except Thordek who has been checking all the rooms they had missed, gathering up all the things they find.

Thordek searches the workshop and finds a secret room that grants access to the second (northern) crossbow bolt device / trap.

Also in this room is a small wooden box with 800g worth of small gems, 500g, 2 potions of End Dreamless Sleep, and 1 cloak of absorb fire damage.

They decide when they leave they will burn the wizard in his lair. They fight about how to go about it. They eventually just leave him to rot in his workshop.

Everyone rests and wake up around 5 am. Enoch sets about healing everyone, and they decide to return to town.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

They return to the door inside. The door frame and the lock are still there but the wood inside the frame is burnt away. Thordek is chosen to go in because he is smallest. He peaks in. He sees no one but sees another set of doors. This is a small vestibule. This area looks well-traveled. There is a series of switches on the north wall. Skeeve and Thordek flip a few switches out of curiosity. Eomer is irritated, but says nothing.

They enter the next room. This well-lit room was once the lower meeting hall and has now been converted into a sacrificial chamber. There are three stone slabs on the floor, tilted towards the middle of the room, two with children lying upon them. Grooves have been carved in the stone floor, leading into a drain in the center of the room, in which a large bronze cup has been placed. As they move towards the children they hear a voice from the front of the room, “Leave the children be! You can’t help them now. Go back to the town.”

At the front of the room is a table with jars and evil books and other nasty stuff. There is also a large spell-book.

The children seem to be under a spell of dreamless sleep. Eomer moves closer to the children.

“Leave them be, none of you have the power to help them now,” the voice says as Eomer leans closer to see if they yet live. He can feel no pulse. He places his mirror in front of the mouth of the boy, and confirms that he is breathing very slightly. The children look deathly pale.

“I am prepared to do what none of you would against the Alidians. It is time that we return to our former glory”, states the voice.

“Murdering children will do that?”, asks Thu’fir. The others continue to look for the source of the voice.

“It’s time that we go back to our roots. We’ve abandoned the ways of magic and that’s how we lost the war,” the voice persists, moving around the front of the room accompanied by footsteps.

“Go back! You want to take these children back to their parents? Take them back, so they can become slaves or killed by the Alidians? Their death here will be quick, painless, and nothing like the horrors they would suffer at the hands of the Alidians. If you want to help win this war, go and bring me one last child. “

Eomer figures out pretty much where the wizard is. He nonchalantly chats to the wizard, wanders over to the workbench, and starts tossing and knocking over the stuff on the table. Eomer pulls the leg out from the table and knocks it all over. The wizard appears near Eomer and Enoch suddenly can’t move. Enoch held, Thordek trying to figure out what is wrong with him, starts shaking him trying to get him to wake up.

The battle with the wizard begins. The wizard casts magic missile at the them. Eomer and Skeeve fight him. Thu’fir picks up one of the kids and runs from the room with him. Skeeve has been seriously wounded by the magic missles, but summons his strength and casts lightning on the wizard. The wizard is thrown back, badly injured. He responds by hitting Skeeve with an acid attack. The acid splashes all over him, and he passes out.

While this is going on, Thordek dashes into a side room, looking for something he might throw at the wizard.

A quick glance around the room reveals this to be a workshop of some sort. He grabs a hammer, and heads out of the room. Eomer attempts to grab the mage but slides right off. Thordek sees that Skeeve is down, drops the hammer, and tries to pick up both the kid and Skeeve. He can’t, so he just takes Skeeve. He realizes that Skeeve has acid burning him and throws off the acid-soaked cloak. Thu’fir continues to try to save the children. The wizard yells as they take the kids. He looks and sees that the battle is against him. He casts another spell and vanishes. Thordek screams for Beck to come help. Eomer uses Endo’s staff to swing in the area that he heard the wizard’s footsteps (who is now invisible) and hits, bringing forth many yells of pain and frustration from the location of the wizard. Thu’fir blows his horn and affects both Eomer and the wizard. They are stunned.

Thordek takes Skeeve out of the room and sets him carefully in the rubbish room. Skeeve stabilizes. Thu’fir drops the kid gently outside of the room and pulls the doors shut, hopefully trapping with wizard inside with the party, and away from the kids. Thordek stays with Skeeve, trying to heal him. The others listen for the invisible wizard, trying to keep track of him. The wizard kicks at Eomer when he tries to grapple him and loses his invisibility. He slips away and shuts himself in the little workshop.

Eomer begins chatting at him through the door. Beck comes in yelling, “What the heck is going on in here?”

Finally Thu’fir kicks the door in and slays the Wizard with his massive blade.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.