AAR: [2M] Domestic Disturbance

*ARCHIVED* Sub-forum for the original West Marches Discord campaign

Moderator:etherial

Locked
Reyntrannin
Posts:270
Joined:Mon Apr 23, 2018 3:59 pm
AAR: [2M] Domestic Disturbance

Post by Reyntrannin » Sun Nov 18, 2018 3:33 am

AAR: Domestic Disturbance
Time: 2018-11-16 6:59 PM ET (11:59 GMT)
GM: ReynTrannin
Circle: 3
Difficulty: Medium


Player Rewards:
Django: 3Tips, 1400LP, 370 sp
Jael: 3Tips, 1400LP, 370 sp
Fliver: 3Tips, 1400LP, 370 sp
Cordwaine: 3Tips, 1400LP, 370 sp
Grulchuk: 3 TIP's, 1400 Legend, 370 sp

GM Reward:
Dainwennan: 800 Legend, 185 sp, 1 TIP

Downtime Actions:
N/A

Additional notes: The Windling village of Wilowalley has been freed from it's bandit scourge. A letter found indicates the involvement of someone with the title Baron.
Last edited by Reyntrannin on Sun Nov 18, 2018 9:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.

ChrisDDickey
Posts:1011
Joined:Sun Nov 27, 2016 10:02 pm

Re: AAR: [2M] Domestic Disturbance

Post by ChrisDDickey » Sun Nov 18, 2018 4:56 pm

From the journal of Fliver of Middle Jothan.

We heard that the Windlings of the newly formed village of Wilowailey sent out a call for assistance. Brigands are reported to be waylaying their citizens and interfering with trade shipments. Count Therynyn, their leader, is asking that a party of adventurers explore the surrounding area and root out the threat. In addition to myself, Django, Jael, Cordwaine, and Grulchuk set out to answer the call for help.

Wilowailey is quite far away (5314). We walked to Borgins Rest and negotiated riverboat passage via Lake Ban. The Riverboats are becoming quite frequent and river travel is slowly becoming almost routine. We were dropped off on the bank nearest the village with no problems and quickly found our way to the village. We had some small problem finding the person in charge. Nobody answered our hails at the Counts residence. When we went back to the center of town to find out where he might be, Cordwaine started a kerfuffle. I had thought it might be nice to be traveling with another windling. But Cordwaine is not a pleasant traveling companion. It is more than just that "off" feeling that some nethermancers give. It is that he is an unpleasant person. He seemed to take it as a personal affront that the villagers went about their business instead of making a huge deal about his arrival. His attempt to bully a villager almost lead to a fight with the town guard. Eventually the guards sent us back to the Counts residence and told us to just go in. I found him on the 2nd level reading. He seemed senile and very unfocused. Eventually his assistant Analia arrived and gave us the briefing we needed.

The attacks had been happening for quite some time. At first they were sneaky, but are growing steadily bolder. They are always in outlying areas and hit almost every trade caravan. Most of the raids have been to the south, but that might be because that is where almost all of the trade caravans travel. They suspect the bandits base is to the East. The raiding parties are almost always 4 to 6 persons, mostly mixed dwarves and humans, but reports are that at least two are adepts, a spellcaster, and a troll with a 2 handed sword. None of the raiders have been captured, though some half dozen have been killed.

There had been a fight between some bandits and a hunting party 2 days earlier, and we were able to talk to a wounded survivor of that, and he gave us detailed directions on how to reach the site of the skirmish. We arrived to find two dwarvish bodies (unburned and unburied). Nether bodies nor clothing had any distinguishing marks. Cordwaine cast experience death upon one of the, but did not learn anything we did not already know (he died from a poison arrow in the fight with the hunting party). We were however able to backtrack the raiders, which we did for a goodly number of miles before making camp at nightfall.

During the night, the watch heard "something" pass nearby (we were camped near the trail we had been following). We waited until morning to investigate and found fresh dwarvish tracks, which we followed. Several hours later we caught up with 5 dwarves, who immediately and silently attacked us, seeming to go for us windlings by preference, though they did not disdain to swing their swords at our melee fighters where they mixed in. We soon slew all the dwarves, which seemed strange that none of them were merely unconscious. I examined the bodies specifically looking for why they went straight from fighting to dead, but found no explanation. I also did not find anything distinguishing about their bodies, clothing, nor equipment.

The only one seriously wounded was Cordwaine. However he is so sickly and frail that he was two whole days recovering. I can't help think that maybe the adventuring life is not for someone so unhealthy.

After waiting two days for Cordwaine to heal, we continued following the path the 5 had been taking. We eventually spotted a figure mounted upon a Trojin. He identified himself as Ranik Goldspire. He wore a fine red tabard over chain-mail and a fine brocade shirt, and bore a masterwork lance. He challenged us with boastful and disdainful words (we were the annoyances that the "insects" (windlings) sent) and after he and Cordwaine exchanged a few choice insults, he charged us and was quickly slain. Jaol bonded with his mount.

We saw some movement on a ridge, but investigating, found nothing. It took us a day to find what might have been the bandits camp, but by then nothing was to be found. We never saw a spellcaster, we never saw a troll with a two handed sword. I am fairly sure that the two days we spent waiting for our frail and unhealthy nethermancer to finally heal his wound caused their leadership to grow concerned about their recent loses. They established a watch upon the trail, and had another watcher watching the first watch. They made contingency plans to decamp and withdraw. When they saw us, they sacrificed that Goldspire idiot to assess our power, and having decided they did not wish to face us, sneaked away. I suppose the mission is technically a success, but our slow caution let the majority of the villeins escape.

As I mentioned earlier, Ranik Goldspire's body was dressed much more richly than the other's I had examined. In a pouch I found an unfinished report, written in Throlic that mentioned that several patrols had been "taken out". It was addressed to "my lord Baron", but there was no clue as to which Baron he meant. However I was reminded of some research I did in the library before we set out. Among other things I had read some adventuring journals from last year, and among them were some battle logs of one "Bobitanthalnasatrythomoloso" (I had to return to the library to recall how to spell that) in which it was mentioned that a certain "Baron Cranshaw" of Throal ether had a grudge against windlings, or at least for some reason wanted to kill or enslave us. So it is quite possible that the Baron that Goldspire was writing to might be this same Baron Cranshaw,

After I returned to Throal, I had quite a bit of time on my hands and sadly, absolutely nothing worthwhile to do other than follow up on this. As I write this I have just spent over two weeks of downtime on research and conversation, trying to learn everything I can about "Baron Cranshaw", probably a Baron of Throal, and "Ranik Goldspire" (deceased), also probably of Throal. Who they are and what relationship they might have had to each other. I also researched any other Barons that Goldspire might possibly have been writing to. I have taken the time to apprise windling leaders of my findings.

Any adventuring groups looking into problems that windlings or windling settlements might have, might do well to peruse these findings, a copy of which I am attaching to this journal entry being submitted tot he great library.

User avatar
BattleChad
Posts:422
Joined:Sat Sep 23, 2017 7:43 pm

Re: AAR: [2M] Domestic Disturbance

Post by BattleChad » Sun Nov 18, 2018 6:18 pm

The Great Library of Throal thanks Fliver for his contribution.

Journal Rewards: 70 Legend Points and 92 Silver

Waijhou
Posts:245
Joined:Sat Oct 27, 2018 2:27 am

Re: AAR: [2M] Domestic Disturbance

Post by Waijhou » Mon Nov 19, 2018 3:50 am

From the journal of Django

November 17, 2018

Domestic Disturbance (3M)

Rumor: The Windlings of the newly formed village of Wilowailey have sent out a call for assistance. Brigands have begun waylaying their citizens and interfering with trade shipments. While there have been no direct attacks on the settlement itself, Count Therynyn is asking that a party of adventurers explore the surrounding area and root out the threat,.

Training in Throal when I get the word of a group of adventurers needed. Myself, Jael, Fliver, Cordwaine, and Grulchuk head off to the village (53.14). It is a long journey, we decide to take the road to Borgens Rest(44.13), then take ship to the village. Cordwaine haggles a cheap fair of 10 sp per person for passage on a river boat. As we are looking for Count Therynyn, Cordwaine picks a fight with a village. Villager calls the guards and there is a scuffle with the guards.

As it turns out the Counts assistant is the one who called for us, not the Count himself. The attacks have been going on for quite awhile. They began being very sneaky, now they are becoming bolder. We fear they will attack the town soon. It is a mixed group of dwarfs and humans. It is believed there is a camp of them to the east. Thier group has at least 2 adepts. One is a spell caster. There is a troll that uses a 2 handed word. The town guads have killed perhaps 6 - 8 so far. They bandits always fight to the death, or escape. They come in groups of 4 - 6. The closest attack to the village has been about 2 miles away. The farthest has been about 4 days south of the village. The most recent attack was a small hunting party that was hit 4 days ago. At present, all trade movement in the area has been halted. My group asks for directions to the most recent attack site. We will go there, investigate, then try to track the bandits towards the East.

We find the site of the last battle, 2 dead Dwarfs on the ground. We search around for clues. We examine the bodies, finding no distinguishing makes. They each have a sword and chain mail. It is all plain equipment. Cordwaine casts a spell on one of the dead guys, after the spell he has additional info from the dead guy. He had low morale, he wanted to defect, he was unable to. He died to winding poisoned arrows.

Jael thinks he and his animal companions can possibly track the survivors back to their camp. We find the bandit camp. We back track a mile or so to rest for the night. Will try to hit the camp tomorrow. During the night, Jael says he heard movement through the brush to the north of us. After our Karma rituals in the morning, we head over to check the area mentioned by Jael. We find tracks of several humanoids. We follow the tracks that lead to a group of 5 dwarfs, upon seeing my group of adepts, the dwarfs immediately attack us. After the fight, Cordwaine is in need a a couple days rest to recover from wounds.
As we follow the tracks we come across a man on a horse named Manic Goldspire. He says we have one chance, we can leave now or face his wrath. After a brief fight we dispatch him. He is wearing a fine brocaded cotton undershirt. He has very fine chain mail. He has a master work lance. He has a fine red tabourd. In his belt pouch we find an unfinished letter. It talks about several missions have come under attack recently. And the last patrol has not….abrupt end. The letter is addressed to Baron Cranshaw? From Throal.

We take our finding back to Count Therynyn and his assistant. They ask us to stay for a couple days to make sure the danger has passed. 1,400LP, 370 sp, 3 tips.

User avatar
BattleChad
Posts:422
Joined:Sat Sep 23, 2017 7:43 pm

Re: AAR: [2M] Domestic Disturbance

Post by BattleChad » Thu Dec 06, 2018 2:30 am

The Great Library of Throal thanks Django for his contribution.

Journal Rewards: 70 Legend Points and 92 Silver

Locked