Week 20: Paid in Blood

Week 20: Paid in Blood

Pelora 7/2 - 7/21

*AS 990 - 1009*

When we left off...

Your group departed from Holzdorf and journeyed southeast along the Ring Road, toward Avarus.  Along the way, you passed some interesting forts and terrain, and eventually found yourselves at the edge of the desert.  Another day of travel brought you to a sandstone city populated by enormous, blue people.

You glossed over the palace of the Trade Princes, and instead paid a visit to the Grand Bazaar.  Ulfar tried to get an inside line on the local criminal activity, but when he wasn't willing to pay any bribes negotiation fell apart.  Fortunately, Ulfar's habit of knocking boots with Linene led you to the Lionshiled Coster stalls in the marketplace, where you found the aspiring **Trade Princess Twosret**.  Twosret and the wonderful ogres at Fantasy Walmart were able to set you up with a wagon for prisoner transport, and after greasing her palms with a couple of dragon spines, she mentioned that you might try looking in Frostholm for a smith named **Eorlund**.  Word is, he's got the chops to do some serious crafting and is headed to the Ironender workshop to establish himself.

Another day or two outside of Avarus, the road turned noticeably more dangerous, and your plan to "walk around until you hit the bandits" took shape.  After donning some simple disguises, Quintus and Clyde managed to land the group right in the middle of an ambush.  Of course, you wanted to be ambushed, so that was actually a pretty good move on their part.  Almost immediately, the bandits indicated that they knew Ulfar, and the battle got more than a little chaotic as both sides tried to see where the other stood.  Nars had to restrain himself, since you needed to capture the bandits alive, and it was a real clusterfuck for a while in there.

The confrontation ultimately ended with Nars chasing down the last bandits on foot, with Clyde and Ulfar following on Ulfar's [Good] Camel, **Fabio**.  Quintus oversaw the stabilization and restraint of your prisoners.  A group of patrol officers from Cuthbertinople found him, and they took 2 of the prisoners into custody as well.  That didn't bother Quintus, who only needed 4 prisoners for Croom, but when Ulfar got back he began to worry when he realized that the bandit leader, **Griselda**, had been traded away. He followed after the Cuthbertines and convinced them to do a prisoner trade.

As chief jailer, Ulfar instituted a strict no-nonsense policy, and you spent about 10 days on the road with tightly bound and gagged captives.  They did manage to exchange a few words with Quintus, and he learned that their names were **Felcher**, **Orfeo**, and **Zek**.  Nars drove the wagon deftly around Holzdorf and set off into the marshes, at which point the prisoners knew that something was terribly, terribly wrong. Griselda staged a failed protest, and her subordinates had a good beg, but in the end they either marched or were carried the final distance to the Fey Barrow.

There, The Crooked Lord **Croom**bled them out in a perfunctory and transactional manner.  Clyde picked a fight when he realized how much pain and fear the sacrifices must have experienced, and pushed his way past the objections of Nars and Quintus to incapacitate the last two.  It didn't make a difference to Croom, who stayed true to his reputation and observed the very letter of the law in regard to what the barrow was owed.  In the end, all 4 died horribly and the bog mummies returned to the earth.

The Crooked Lord didn't have much faith that the peace would last -- but it didn't matter to him.  He would just come back and demand his price again.  As you left, he retreated back into the Deep Wood, where Nars also spotted a huge, ethereal wolf observing from the shadows.  All in all, a fortnight of thankless, necessary work.

**Around Town...**

Pressure is building at Wyvern Tor, but not the volcanic type. Volcano-loving Heat Hill gnomes, working with Lana the Geologist, started to setup delicate instruments to measure and understand the volcano and attempt to harness it. Their efforts were interrupted when a group of seven Redforts Dwarfs pulled up in a wagon, and **struck the earth**. Neither side is laying any special, exclusive claim to the area... but their expanding efforts will inevitably conflict.

The traveling artist finished their mural in Phandalin, and have moved towards Conyberry.

Cuthbertinople is getting bothered that Avarus isn't doing enough to keep the Ring Road safe. Avarus insists that a new elven threat to the south is keeping their military tied up, but that excuse is wearing thin.