((From last time, there's no temples in town, if I recall correctly.))
-snip-
((Covered quite a bit here, but given I'm not around for the day, hopefully that's forgivable.
- Released Aki with the 50 gold Thyra set aside for him. Hopefully he doesn't go around and backstab us - maybe we'll even get an informant for this area out of it. Attempted to arrange it so that as far as his buddies knew, I killed him, letting him get a fresh start without the guards getting on his case.
- Turned in the living bandits and the heads for the bounty. The payment should be evenly split across the party. When Karl meets with the Commander, try to use Diplomacy to negotiate a reward for the information that the bandits harrassing the town are all one group and are being coordinated from the distant encampment.
- Knowledge: Religion check on Cromwell to see if Karl can figure out what's going on with him.
- If it turns into morning, meet with the Commander, then go ahead and start selling all the loot we picked up. Diplomacy on all transactions to sell the nonmagical gear, excluding light sources, anything that would make sense exploring caves/mountains and potions, vials, etc. Keep the unclaimed magical gear for now, in case anyone wants to pick through it. Split the proceeds evenly across everyone.
- Since people are already going to bed, in the morning, ask Weston and Nadarr to inspect his family's sword. Karl won't say anything about the voice he heard, but the sudden enchantment might mean there's more to his sword then he knew.
...and there's more I'd want to do, but I'm guessing Karl sort of needs to have his evening prayers, sleep and morning prayers in there somewhere. ))
Aki nods his head and says he may do some construction work. He thanks you for your mercy and says that he will repay you someday if he ever sees you again. He screams when you signal him to and then runs off. You take the prisoners to the barracks and the night guard on duty inside commends you for capturing several alive. He counts the 9 heads and the 7 live ones and recognizes the head of the leader. You hand him the bounty papers that Thoradin gave you and he takes the one with Jorg's face out. The papers state 10 accomplices and he tilts his head at the bag and the prisoners. You explain how the bandit groups are together and he swears under his breath.
"If you take out that main camp, and the others, I'll be sure your reward is much larger."
When asked, you tell him that there was 6 of you that took on the bandits and then a seventh joined who was a prisoner of theirs. You leave out some details, but explain what was found at the camp, how many bandits there were, and the cart that was setting off. Just as you say that, another man, whom you didn't see walk in, walks up to you.
"That cart... Its mine. I want it back. I don't care about what else you put on it, but I'm prepared to give you 2500 gold for the cart and the weapons and armor that you found on it when they were taking it away."
(5 vs 9+4 and ?) You almost instantly tell he's lying. The way how he's talking and how he's guessing what's on the cart give him away, you can tell he just wants the cart and to probably make a profit off of your hard work.
The guard speaks before you do. "Take your gold and shove it where the sun doesn't shine, you street rat. This is the third time you've done this and its been me for the second time, the captain himself the first. I won't tell you again!" The man scurries off.
"Ignoring that scoundrel, here's your payment. And a little extra for keeping a few of the bastards alive. I also appologize for the smell. After that werewolf incident, we've taken the liberty of rubbing wolfsbane in several places. And the door to the barracks is one, another is on a post in the cells. I also took the liberty of splitting up the wealth for you lads."
He hands you several large bags of gold, divided into 7. Each bag contains 190gp 25 silver and 50 copper. You head out and run into Nadarr, scratching his nose and wandering about, looking for a place that doesn't reek of wolfsbane.
((Nadarr fixed the enchantment on one sword-effectively,he'll want the payment for that sword in addition. We'll see if he gets away with asking later ))
Assuming Karl approaches him at some time, he inspects the blade. Arcana check. Also, inspect the sigil and see if I can tell what it is. History check, maybe?
You tell him about the rune and the blade's magic. He examines it. (19+9) You find out that there is a well of almost limitless power trapped in the blade. You also discover that there are dark energies trapped as well as powerful holy powers. You tell him that, and you can assume there are roughly 8 more "locks" to open before its full power is acheived. You also discover that blood fuels it, as well as certain good deeds. You cannot read the rune, however ((nobody knows dwarven)). You check up on your bottle of dark liquid while you're at it (18+9) You find it to be bottled twilight.
You turn all light sources around you into dim light (In this campaign, due to houseruling on light, it goes bright, low, dim (think of it as dumbldore's lighter in Harry Potter))
Karl starts off with Nadarr to sell stuff as you take a look at the book and (12+11) mithril key. Its a journal about raids and trades amongst the bandit camps. It speaks also of dealing with Shadow creatures and taking one alive as the mages drained its essence into a bottle (the bottled twilight). It also tells of another hoard of buried stuff back at the camp under the firepit ~10ft under inside a coffin. It talks about gold, gems and a very special sword, but it says nothing about what it does; just that it's special. The key is used to open the lock on the coffin... And the key itself is valuable as well. You then history check Karl's blade as you try to find a place still open. (
CRIT) You learn as much as you can possibly learn about Karl's family and that the blade has seen battle recently after several generations of hanging up on a wall. Before that, you cannot recall anything else about it. ((I'll let hanzoku deal with sending you information about his family. (send me what you send first so I can tell you if it will reveal too much or if I need to add anytihng. Try to keep it centered on the blade and those who used it)))
Weston breaks in his new deck of cards with some locals.
Meanwhile, Weston begins to try out his new deck of cards with a few of the drunk locals. One of them accuses you of cheating, and says to let him deal the cards so you're not doing any funny business. You comply as he pulls the dagger away from your throat and you still maintain a good profit as you loose a little bit to get him to shut up. He apologizes and hands back the deck and walks out without taking his winnings or bet, face red as a raddish. After a couple hours ((the time it takes for Karl and Nadarr to find out all the stores are closed)) you walk away with a profit of 92 gold.
Go down and get some ale. Sing along with Thyra merrily!
You get some ale for 2gp and chug it. (19 vs 15, 18+2 vs 19) You're drunk but still up and singing... (?) Horribly... Some patrons throw stuff but you're too drunk to care! By the time Nadarr and Karl walk in, you pass out. Thyra shakes her head halfway through her story she is reciting that Alexander was singing gibberish to.
Symon checks how late in the day it is, and if he has time to make a trip to the local temple.
There is no temple here. Its past midnight now and you guess its time to go to bed soon. You can't help but laugh at Alexander's pass out moment, even if it did interrupt Thyra's story. She looks at you every now and then with a smile as she tells the story about the party's problems in the mountains, including what was told before she arrived (in regards to Archuther's arrival, the dire bear, the shadows, her arrival, the horrors found in the mountain maze, the dead dwarf and then the kruthiks).
Alexander, however, starts to talk in his sleep, and a dark aura forms slightly over him. His eyes bolt open and they are black as night, with a dark fog concentrating around them. He speaks in a language no one can understand and then his eyes close and he goes silent, but still radiating that dark aura.