Save or Die: Outcasts: Episode 04

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==Synopsis==
The party travels to Swampside to buy magical reagents from a price gouging wizard for Autumn. Upon arriving in town they find the magic shop burned to the ground, and the wizard missing. While in town Grau spots an old friend working as a guard, who doesn't recognize him but signals him to meet up later. Garp starts a fight with the guards, gets away, only to return and immediately get spotted at a bar. He begrudgingly fights the guards and the party is forced to flee the town. Finally, the party meets up with Grau's friend and learn a lot about him and his potential connection to Autumn.
==Recap==
=== Down With the Sickness ===
October 3, 1521. The party awakes in Serenity Tower, however Renatus Fur is severely ill and will be missing out on today’s adventure.
=== Grocery Shopping ===
Autumn reminds the party that she is after magical reagents from the only magic shop nearby, located in Swampside. However, being the only shop has allowed the owner to price gouge, so Autumn wants them to steal the reagent and leave an appropriate payment behind. 
Arachis gets some more information on the politics of the land; the Horn family used to rule this whole area under the Hornstead Kingdom until they were utterly defeated by the Voraci army. The old capital city of Elmstead was crushed and promptly renamed to Valebrook. The Voraci empire installed its own administration which is generally autonomous, but people like Magistrate Zerrah exist to keep an eye on things. Swampside, Valebrook, and Keygate are all part of the same kingdom and thus likely to share important information. 
Autumn gives Arachis the list of magical reagents she needs which includes crushed fireflies, dead newts, eye of bullywug, among various other creature parts. Arachis estimates these reagents are worth somewhere between 50 and 100 gold, and they are likely being used for magical research rather than for individual spells. Autumn confirms the shop owner is a wizard, and they are the only magic shop owner nearby so they cannot be killed. It’s about a 4 day journey to Swampside. Garp thinks the party should try and avoid stealing if at all possible, suggesting they buy all the reasonable price items and track the rest down themselves. He worries about pissing off the sole supplier of magic components and potentially drawing the ire of Zerrah.
=== Swampside ===
October 10, 1521. The party makes their way to Swampside without issue, Garp buys Grau plenty of meat pies along the way. Grau assumes gnomish form to blend in before they reach the gates. When they arrive in town they quickly notice a large crowd gathered and go to investigate. The crowd is standing around the ruins of a burned down building, which turns out to be the former magic shop Mystique’s Mystiques. A local tells Arachis the “damn fireflies” must have started the fire, but he gets gets ruffled the wrong way by Arachis before he can explain more. Garp then pays him off to ignore the strange interaction. 
While looking around Grau suddenly notices one of the town guardsmen is unusually familiar to him, he can even remember the man's name: Forest. Grau remembers that Forest was once his friend, although he cannot remember when or where he knew him from. Wanting to reconnect with his old friend Grau approaches the guard and introduces himself. The guard gets frustrated quickly, saying his name is Brutus and that he has never met the gnome. When out of earshot he quickly whispers to the gnome to stop blowing his cover, and that he’ll meet him outside town to the south after sunset. Grau is very confused by all of this, and some other guards come to check on what’s happening. Brutus makes an insulting comment to Garp, for which he gets shoved by the bullywug. This starts a long chase around the city with the frog-man leaping from rooftop to rooftop, putting on a show with his glaive, before eventually hiding in a cornfield. In the mayhem one guard fell off a roof and was knocked unconscious but no one else was injured. 
=== Investigation ===
While Garp is distracting the guards Arachis casts over the cinders of the store hoping some magic survived, but there are no magics left. Garp signals to Arachis where he is hiding by reflecting the sunlight with “something” from his bag. After asking a few more questions to some local guards Arachis settles in at a tavern, close enough so he can keep stepping out and checking on Garp. 
=== Big Frog, Small Pond ===
Past nightfall when the coast is clear the party reconvenes and decides to go for a drink, as Garp assures them his scuffle wasn’t a big deal. Not long after they start drinking they are confronted by 3 town guards, who goad the bullywug to give them a reason to strike him down. As things get tense Grau flees out a window, convinces a guard he isn’t a threat, and turns into a bear while waiting out front. 
Garp doesn’t want to start conflict and tries to talk things out initially, until the guards say he’ll be jailed without water for days. This would literally kill the bullywug so he panics and attacks the guard, breaking the standoff. Garp critically strikes the guard with his glaive, piercing him through and dropping him to the ground. Arachis dodges a blow, and attempts to a guard but fails to grab him. One of the guards outside tries to stab Garp through the window but can’t connect. The guard near Arachis is more successful, stabbing deep into the frail wizard with his short sword. Garp lashes out at the guard fighting Arachis, once again critically striking him through in a single glaive thrust. Outside Grau scares off the nearby guards and townsfolk with his mighty bear form. Arachis runs away and flees the town. The last guard tries to climb in the window but he drops his sword and loses his turn. Inside, Garp pities the guards and tries to save them since they remind him of himself. He bandages one and scares the last guard into running off for a cleric. Garp leaves, hops on Grau’s back, and flees the city.
=== Outside the Walls ===
Outside of town Arachis confronts Garp but it quickly becomes clear that without Renatus, Arachis must give direct orders to Garp if he wants to keep him in line. While talking they make their way to the meeting spot Brutus arranged and wait for him there. Realizing Brutus/Forest has no way of finding them they start loudly calling out for help “finding the forest.” Eventually Brutus finds them and starts asking questions about who Grau is and why he knows his real name. Grau assumes half-orc form so he can speak to Brutus. Grau doesn’t anything about the man other than his name and friendly disposition toward him in the past, and Brutus doesn’t recall ever seeing a bear like him. Throughout the questioning we lean the guards true name is in fact Forest and that he is a member of a group of anti-Voraci arsonists called “The Fireflies” and he was implied to be the culprit behind the fire at Mystique’s Mystiques. 
=== War-Witch ===
Forest also is very interested in Autumn, as a witch of the same name was responsible for burning his home of I’Yarra Oryn to the ground. By description the Autumn the party knows is physically similar but polar opposite behavior. Forest describes Autumn as a warrior witch, who caused mass devastation under the flag of the Voraci empire. If they are speaking of the same Autumn, Forest says she is the person he wants to kill most in this world even if he wasn’t actually strong enough to kill her. Not yet fully trusting the party, this is as much as Forest is willing to tell them. He believes fate connected them for some reason, but he isn’t ready to put his life in the hands of a bear, frog, and wizard he just met. He warns the party to stay far away from Swampside, reinforcements will soon come after all the commotion.
=== Bear-ly Remembering ===
Before parting Forest once again tries to unravel the mystery of Grau, but the bear’s memory is heavily clouded. He’s not sure how long he’s been a druid, or even how long he’s been in the local woods. Arachis asks if he might’ve gotten his powers a year or so prior around when the snow vanished but Grau isn’t sure. Finally Forest departs, shaking the bullywug’s hand on the way out.
==Experience==
No experience given this episode.
Category:Save Or Die: Outcasts Episodes
Category:Save Or Die Episodes
Category:Save Or Die: Outcasts