Scaly Nuisance: A Pain in the Wagon

The Adventurers Guild are hired by a group of merchants to look into who has been who has been attacking people along the south side of the Caravan Road towards the Black Swamp section.

*Part of the Scaly Nuisance story arc*

## Adventurers Attending

* Horatio Hammerfell
* Renestrae 'Rain' Larenthanil
* Grrder

## Mission Notes

The Guild are hired to go and deal with whatever it is that has been attacking travelers along the Caravan Road. Rain hearing this finds Horatio who decide to go to the Street of Steel to get Grrder from his forge.

The group decide that the best way to find what ever has been attacking the travelers of the Caravan Road is to make sure they look like traders. Buying a wagon and a selection of barrels and crates. Making sure not to fill the newly acquired crates and barrels with anything they grab some rations and hastily take off on their travels with Horatio's trusty friend, Jimmy the draft horse.

Heading out the first day, heading south seemed rather quiet, finding a clearing just off the road with a tree line near by. Trying to make it as obvious to any onlookers there is a wagon here and a camp set up with a large fire. It becomes obvious very quickly that Rain and Horatio aren't use to such mundane means of travelling as they both lacking in sleeping arrangements, luckily for them Grrder being a resourceful individual that he is had a spare equipment. Oddly enough Grrder doesn't need to sleep so it is strange he even had them. Horatio made do with taking out a few goblin size leather jackets he is planning to bring to goblins living deep within the Mages Tower in Leodis.

During the night as Grrder is remaining sentinel for the group next the the embers of the once roaring fire, cries of what to sounds to be a woman in distress are heard deep in the woods. Rain and Horatio leap to their feet and get ready to race into the woods, in the moments of the preparation Grrder let out the words of wisdom "You shouldn't run towards screaming".

Being left at the campsite by the other two Grrder trudges after them with his glowing mace. Rain closely followed by Horatio follow the screaming to the mouth of a cave, deciding if they should go in or not. Stepping in the source of the screaming is quickly found to be a very aggressive mountain lion, Rain using Speak with animals finds out to her surprise the animal is in heat and wants them to leave or deal with it, turning around to consult with Horatio the lion pounces and tries to attack.

Horatio starts to investigate the cave to see if this lion could be the culprit they were looking for and tries to workout the origin of the bones in the cave. Rain wrestles with the lion getting it in a headlock and tries to reason with it. Grrder walks into the cave to see the sight unfold, Horatio turns around holding a wooden stick and asks Grrder "Do you known what this bone is from?". The two talk and look around the cave as Rain decides the lion is beyond reason and starts punching it to death.

Grrder and Horatio keep looking through the detritus of the cave, Grrder finds a small golden fox headed amulet, inlaid with emerald eyes. It has subtle fey like designs along the back that could easily go unnoticed.

Rain finally finishes off the lion and deciding to be done with the thing, skinning and dresses the remains before turning back to the camp to try and sleep.

The group apart from Grrder are stirred awake from their sleep by an on coming caravan, stopping a fair distance away from the camp, possibly trying to get a read of the group. The lead of the caravan gingerly raises his fist, pointing a ring at the group and demands to know who they are.Horatio greet the caravan lead letting them know in no uncertain terms that he and non of his group are bandits and definitely merchants travelling down the road. The leader of the group doesn't move an inch as Horatio gets the feeling he didn't buy the merchant act. Relenting, Horatio lets them known they are from the Guild before flashing his guild badge.

They join the caravan as protection and accompany south.

As the caravan nears the Black Swamp they come across a fallen tree blocking the path between two ridges, which is odd the there no clear spot it seems it could have fallen from. Rain and Horatio walk up from their wagon at the back of the caravan to move the felled tree. Passing Grrder sat up front, the pair head up to the tree where Rain is certain she heard some movement on the ridge above them, as they start moving the blockade three bulking forms surround them. Leaping from the ridge above, three large mottled brown lizardfolk land around Horatio and Rain and start swinging at the pair with clubs and claws.

Grrder hears the patter of clawed feet coming from behind as several skinny lizardfolk tried to get into the wagons and drag off the merchants. Grrder starts laying down the fire with sacred flame, as he defends the merchants of the caravan. One of them cuts through the material of the second wagon and scuttles onboard.

As the other two are punching and shooting at the hulking lizardfolk, five more warriors appear upon the ridge further down the road and start raining down javelins.

skip ahead and flesh out later

The lizardfolk on the ridge seeing the ambush wasn't going as easy as normal taking off for the treeline. Rain gives chase but the scaly prey had a head start, while Horatio climbs up the ridge to get a clear shot on them. Slowly being picked off the lizardfolk decide to split up to try and survive, Rain catches one and wrestles it down to the ground before knocking it out for questioning later. As this is going on Grrder starts checking on any signs of affiliation on the bodies scattered on the road, he finds mostly bones on their bodies but he does find a golden skull that looks to be either halfling size in the pouch of one of the big ones. One manages to get away as the rest are finished by Horatio.

Rain ties up the Lizard she knocked out and gracefully jumps from the ledge with the aid of her Guild Assistant badge, getting it back to the party's wagon. Horatio suggest putting it in one of his crates, he sits on top of it just to make sure it doesn't get away as they escort the merchants to pretty much Cheyenne.

Heading back Horatio drops the other

## Loot

* Standard Level Xp & Gold
* A amulet of a fox head with emerald eyes, subtle fey decorations cover the back - Amulet of Health - Grrder

## Rumours

* What does this boxed lizardfolk know?
* Where did this golden skull come from? - Grrder
* Where did the Fox amulet come from? - Grrder

## Player Diaries

### Rain's Diary

> The Guild sent myself, Grrder and Horatio to investigate a speight of caravan attacks. We decide to pose as merchants to lure out any attackers on the black swamp route. We purchased barrels and crates stuffed them into a cart and with the shire horse Jim at the helm we set off The first night we were woken by a piercing scream, bleary and sleepy we set off running in the direction of the screams. As we got closer we found a cave the screams coming from within…
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> As we proceeded inside we encountered the source of the Screaming Horny Lesbian Mountain Lion. I cast speak with animals and the lustful lioness, roared "Fuck Me or Fuck Off". Not wanting to cheat on Hollie I evaded her agreasive advances and grappled the beast trying to calm her down, if anything that may have made it worse. It continued to try and ravage me and unfortunately it had to be put down. I returned to the camp a little perturbed but managed to rest.
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> The next day we continued on and found a group of caravans heading south and talked our way into escorting then southwards. Eventually the carts begin to slow and stop as they reach a barricade in the road. As we tried to move the log that blocked the way we were suddenly attacked! Lizard men attempted to ransack the convoy but were rebuffed by Bullets Beats and Bells.
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> A few stragglers tried to flee but I tackled one to the ground for questioning. We tied him up and guarded the wagons to their destination. The lizard boy has been locked up in the guild dungeons for now until he wants to talk.
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### Grrder's Diary

> Rain, Horatio and myself were given a mission to see what was attacking caravans to the south. We dressed up a wagon as a merchant's caravan and set off. The first day was mostly uneventful but the night wasn't. We heard some screams coming from the nearby woods. I would never run towards a scream but the others did. I tracked them to a cave.
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> There Rain appeared to be involved in some form of mating ritual with a mountain lion. I left them to it and after confirming to Horatio that a rock isn't a bone I did some investigation of the cave. I found an Amulet here. I decided that without investigating it further I wasn't going to try and attune to it at this point.
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> A caravan of traders and merchants came along and after they decided we were friendly enough (being with the guild), we set off together. I rode in the front and described the guild honestly to the driver. They didn't seem to believe me but that is the problem with being honest.
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> A tree trunk blocked our way. Horatio and Rain tried to move it. I stayed with the wagons. We were attacked by lizardy dragony type things. Horatio and Rain shot a lot dead and I helped using magic. We captured one. Investigating the body of a huge one I found a gold skull. My knowledge of metalwork means I knew it was once a skull of something living and the gold added afterwards. I felt this could be cursed so I pocketed it to see what happens next (and also to make Io jealous). We escorted the caravans almost to Cheyenne and set back home.
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> I think it was a successful mission. Hopefully the caravans will be safe on the route in the future. Attuning to the Amulet told me what it was. Something that I will find useful in the future when I return to guild life. First of all I am off on my own quest of discovery.
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