Tuesday 18th November Asi van Dit - Male Halfling Thief 2 - Adrian McKinnon Finn Finnegan - Male Halfling Thug 2 - NPC Flung Chow Wong - Male Human Monk 2 (FW TF) - Ian Luxton Gavin Scone - Male Human Fighter 1 - Darryl Sherwood Mel Licious - Dwarf Psionicist 1 - Steven Krijnen Polly Ester - Female Human Bard 4 - Andrew Earl DM - Jeff Clendon
The group I have been following have finally stopped just off in the distance. I can hear them discussing something. When they emerged into the forest three hours ago, not far from where I was, the strange man in plain brown robes pointed off in one direction. He seemed to know exactly which way to go.
I have been a druid in these parts for more years than I care to remember now, and I could not see the track that this strange man seemed to see. It was obvious to me that the tracks they were wanting to follow led off in another direction, more toward the city, but his companions seemed satisfied at the time, so they struck out. As I said, that was about three hours ago now.
The group are standing around while the small one climbs one of my trees. Has just noticed the road a hundred paces off to one side. They have been running parallel with it for about two hours now ...
Now they head off to the road. Again the group seem in two minds, half the group want to go in the Tarquet direction and the other half want to return to Emerald city.
At last they have made up their minds, Emerald it is. I think I will follow them until they get to the city walls.
Polly wanted to continue checking on the properties that had been "acquired". Seems that there were some good ones.
The group checked in with their tenants and informed them that Polly and Co. were the new landlords and keep up the good work.
Eventually, the party got the name of the previous agent that William Hurst using to manage a block of flats, Sleazy Sam. The group informed Sam that William was no longer the owner of said flats, and does he want to keep making his 10% to manage the place? With vigorous nods and sweaty hand-shaking the deal was struck, and the party had an agent.
Meanwhile, Emerald had another strange death occur. This time a young boy. He was victim number seven and all died at night with no external injury. The party were keen to help out. There was a 500gp reward posted, so for some this was enough reason to pursue. For others, this was a great chance to rid the world of some wrong-doing.
The first question was: "Who is running this gig?" The group visited the leading contenders:
The group made contact with the only church that had the ability to do a Commune with their god - Aquamarina. They had a priest of high enough level and the will to help out.
After casting the Commune and having a chat with Her, it was discovered that the means of death was indeed from foul play.
After a while the party were contacted by the famous mage - the great Bulgero, (from the land of codpiece where the fish live in eternal happiness). It turns out that the ever-growing list of young corpses has Wizard Guild connections. Polly was the person originally contacted, peculiar when the WG think bards are abominations..?
The link to the Wizards' Guild is that the victims are usually next on the WG list of intakes. The next on the list was a 14 year old girl called Cynthia Siiti.
Now the party leapt to some mighty conclusions, made some wild accusations and assumed it was the "head poppers". The perpetrators were known, time to spring a trap on the filthy psi!
The group hired a room very close to Cynthia's residence. The plan was to have two party members in the house of the Siiti's and the rest of the group on stand-by at the rented flat. If anything bad were to happen, the two in the house would use the Ring of Whispering Wind to alert the others waiting.
All went well and on the second night there was trouble. A group massed outside the Siiti household and the occupants of the house lost all most all their health. Gavin collapsed in the middle of the floor with out even uttering a whingy moan (perhaps he took a big sniff of his Eckythumper?).
Mel had enough constitution to survive the yellow-bellied attack and raised the alarm. (He recognized this as the evil psionic Death Field* ability.)
The party scrambled — Flung was off like a dart. The others close behind.
Flung raced around the corner to see a departing group of likely candidates (for trouble).
Flung sent Asi into the house to check things there while he and Polly took on the rest.
After the issuing of the obligatory "halt, cease and desist, give up now before we make you!" Three offenders formed a line and were obviously prepared to fight. The other two took flight from behind them - one of them bald.
A loud "look at my tits, boys!" stopped those offenders in their tracks.
Flung and Polly ran on. One of the remaining two turned and fought.
This was a tough fight. The person was well-equipped for a fight and Flung and Polly found out that he had trained enough times to be affected far less by the Colour Spray — it made him blind.
Even so, after to-ing and fro-ing Flung eventually succumbed to the superior fighting ability and armor of the blind criminal.
Polly had run out of power points, nevertheless took up arms and fought the blind guy as well.
Meanwhile, back in the room a serious tactical error had been made: with the choice of two unconscious people in front of Mel (Gavin and Cynthia) and the group really needing some fighting power out in the street, Mel decided to pour a healing potion down the mouth of Cynthia. This not only used the important healing ability but also used up time.
Eventually, Asi provided the knock-out blow (with an arrow) and the criminal fell over. That left a couple of bodies and a prisoner to interrogate. Jobs for the light of day ...