4 Arodus<\/b><\/p>\n
Today we’re going to go Voz hunting.<\/p>\n
Oh I know we’re just going to go to Guardian’s Way to learn more about Alseta’s Ring, but I also know that’s the same reason Voz went there and this seems like an unlikely group to say, “Darn it Voz, I guess you got here first so you go ahead.”\u00a0 Especially Aemi, who seems to have strong convictions about this. And frankly I think the reverse is true as well -Voz is unlikely to graciously concede\u00a0anything<\/i>\u00a0to us. The only way Voz concedes anything is if she’s on her last drop of blood, and given her reputation for necromancy, I’m not even sure she’d concede then.<\/p>\n
I’m wearing a breastplate today, and leaving the scale mail at home.\u00a0 It’s the same weight, but also a bit more sturdy. I’m in favor of that.<\/p>\n
As we expected, it took us a bit over two and a half hours to get close, at which point Aemi sent Iskaryn ahead to scout.\u00a0 \u00a0Or rather requested that the royal bird deign to, if it were no trouble, please fly a bit ahead and see if death awaits us, to which the bird replied “If I die, I’ll haunt you.”\u00a0 I realize that Aemi is a performer, but it seems every question to the bird (and reply) is a one act tragedy, these days.\u00a0 It’s mildly amusing but I’m afraid one day it will flare up when we least need it.<\/p>\n
In any case, she reported back that there were platforms ten and twenty feet above the ground and a number of guards stationed on those platforms that were armed with shortbows.\u00a0 The exact number couldn’t be determined because the trees somewhat blocked the view from overhead.\u00a0 We were armed with longbows, which gave us a slight advantage in range.<\/p>\n
We decided a party of three (Gath, Aemi, and Qantrip) would quietly attempt to get a single guard on one of the platforms.\u00a0 If that indeed went quietly and without notice, then we had a prisoner to interrogate.\u00a0 If the effort was detected, then we archers from the south would loose our bows and redirect the guards’ attentions yet again.\u00a0 It might turn into a swordfight at some point, but if we were lucky, arrows would introduce enough wounds and confusion to make any melee short and easily won.\u00a0 Moving stealthily closer, we learned there were eight guards or mercenaries on these platforms, but although watchful, they did not seem to be on high alert.<\/p>\n
Libert\u00e9 and Marcus went stealthily to the north edge of the wooded area, and Kyira and I went to the southern edge.\u00a0 We were to hold our fire until signalled, the signal being, uh, well, being that our party is detected.<\/p>\n
And that actually happened fairly quickly.\u00a0 Gath was trying to quietly ascend the platform but was discovered early.\u00a0 Trip did some more sleeps, plus a glitterdust to blind some of them.\u00a0 We started shooting, and as we’d hoped that introduced a bit of confusion.\u00a0 Aemi did a sleep but then also created dancing lights in a vaguely humanish form at the edge of the woods, and several of their arrows tried to kill the light.\u00a0 Our arrows from the field started to take their toll.<\/p>\n
A couple mercenaries tried running off and we pursued.\u00a0 The ones we captured, we disarmed but released after determining none of them were magic users and were no longer a danger to us.\u00a0 Back at the cabin, Gath noticed a figure trying to stealthily leave the cabin and Trip quickly dropped it in sleep.\u00a0 Only briefly, but it was long enough to manacle the hobgoblin and separate it from its possessions.<\/p>\n
In the end, we had a hobgoblin who was apparently their leader Dmiri, and several half-orcs:\u00a0 one live prisoner, and 5 dead bodies. Two others had been released by Libert\u00e9, who was literally looming large for some reason. (He returned to normal size sometime after battle ended.)<\/p>\n
Iskaryn commented there may be a bounty on this group that called themselves the Bloody Blades, which meant, if true, letting two go was a financial mistake.\u00a0 Live and learn I guess.\u00a0 Technically, they\u00a0did<\/b>\u00a0attack us first, and Kyira reported Dmiri at least, radiated evil, so I’m not feeling especially merciful.<\/p>\n
We started inspecting the hobgoblin’s belongings because a few of them radiated magic.\u00a0 As I identified a cloak of resistance and Kyira identified some magic armor, Dmiri started mouthing off about taking her stuff, saying we were worse mercenaries than her band was, not even waiting until she was dead.\u00a0 And I was just miffed enough to get mouthy back.\u00a0 Maybe she could be provoked into revealing more info.<\/p>\n
“Your band<\/i>. I see. I suppose you already know why we’re here then.”<\/p>\n
“So you think this is\u00a0your<\/i>\u00a0territory now?” she said disapprovingly.<\/p>\n
Territory?\u00a0 I didn’t realize this was a territorial thing.\u00a0 Interesting.\u00a0 “I suppose so.\u00a0 Tell me, what’s the best way to reach your boss, now that there’s apparently an opening?”<\/p>\n
Now\u00a0that<\/b>\u00a0got a response.\u00a0 “The Bloody Blades are mine, human. Say whatever you want to me but spare me your insults.\u00a0My boss<\/i>. As if.”<\/p>\n
Aha.\u00a0 So yes they\u00a0were<\/b>\u00a0the Bloody Blades, which means there was likely a price for their capture.\u00a0 And she was proud enough about that that maybe with another jab or two … I was hoping she’d mention Voz and maybe her intentions.\u00a0 “Oh, my apologies,” I said. “No boss? Sad. Usually a trainee has a master, or at least\u00a0some<\/i>\u00a0way to learn a skill.” I held up the bow. “A compound\u00a0shortbow<\/i>? An unfortunate choice against\u00a0longbows<\/i>.”<\/p>\n
Libert\u00e9 gave her a glowering look, but instead of breaking her, it apparently made her shut up.\u00a0 This taunting stuff is not as easy as it looks I guess.<\/p>\n
A quick glance into the cabin had revealed some magic (by both Kyira and myself) so Gath was preparing to retrieve it.\u00a0 He did not find any traps but retrieved a fair amount of gold, some caving equipment, and some potions Libert\u00e9 later determined were healing potions.<\/p>\n
Dmiri’s rapier appeared magical, but resisted our efforts to identify it.\u00a0 We’d have to puzzle over that some more later.<\/p>\n
Off to one side, a contentious discussion started over what to do with the prisoners.\u00a0 On the one hand, they did represent cash.\u00a0 Libert\u00e9 felt that doing anything other than disarming them and releasing them took too much of our time.\u00a0 Aemi felt that taking their things meant we were no better than they were (basically robbers) and they might spread stories saying\u00a0we<\/i>\u00a0were the brigands.\u00a0 And Qantrip went off on a history lesson about how we accepted the Hellknight but now we wanted to kill these mercenaries just for being evil?<\/p>\n
My position was They. Attacked. Us.\u00a0 Much as I’m revising my opinions on goblins, it is still the case there were many in my town who were attacked by invaders and died in the Goblinblood Wars, despite being innocent of any offense against the goblins.\u00a0 If I (or we) are attacked, then if we win, we have authority over any survivors and their belongings.\u00a0 Practicality wins over any moral outrage. To the victor goes the spoils.\u00a0 In my mind, the only question would be do we kill them or turn them in for money?<\/p>\n
The money option is definitely Nethys’ way of making this an easy decision.\u00a0 I’m not sure I could sign up for killing helpless captives, but since they have cash value the decision is obvious – take the money.\u00a0 It’s something all of us can use and it’s Nethys’ way of balancing out the damage these individuals have caused.\u00a0 An exchange, if you will.\u00a0 If any object, they can always give their share to the rest of us.<\/p>\n
In the end, the party did decide to take the captives back for the reward money.\u00a0 From the bodies of the dead ones, we took the tattoo they had all conveniently used to identify themselves as members of the Bloody Blade.<\/p>\n
Aemi was quite strident during the discussion.\u00a0 She’s becoming quite the little spark.<\/p>\n
We interviewed Dmiri a bit more and learned yes, Voz was here, had been for a couple of days, and apparently had an entourage of skeletons as an honor guard.\u00a0 (So everyone knows to get blunt arrows or bludgeoning weapons when we get back to town.)\u00a0 Under Libert\u00e9’s gentle prodding, she drew a crude map of the little bit of the cave she knew about, and mentioned there were other creatures, some poisonous, living in the caves.<\/p>\n
Before we left, both Gath and I erased the tracks around the cave entrance.\u00a0 We wanted to see if Voz or anything came out of the cave, and if they did, by erasing our own tracks, we’d leave them guessing as to how many people defeated her guard.<\/p>\n
We arrived back at town close to dinnertime, but a guard at the gate directed us to the leader of the town guard Wilford Lavensomething.\u00a0 We explained the situation to him, and he pulled out some paperwork, looked it over, and announced that Dmiri was worth 500gp, the other live prisoner was worth 100gp, and the five tattoos were 50gp each.\u00a0 If you added in the 600gp that Voz had given Dmiri, we already had earned 1450gp before we even considered the items we confiscated (all of which was mind-blowing to Aemi).<\/p>\n
Then Aemi revealed Voz’s part in all of this and Wilford just about exploded.\u00a0 We said we were going back and did he know if the Council would pay for us to retrieve Voz?\u00a0 He was pretty sure they would since Voz was out of his jurisdiction right now and he couldn’t do it personally, but of course the final say on that would have to come from the Council.\u00a0 But he was going to reach out to them this very evening if possible, and we should proceed on his authority for now.<\/p>\n
Since we were busy tromping back and forth between locations outside the city, we decided to ask Warbal if she might spend some time selling the things we’d been collecting.\u00a0 She was more than happy to, but I didn’t hear how much that would cost us.\u00a0 I hope it’s not much.<\/p>\n
Nobody was particularly keen on going back to Guardian’s Way and encountering skeletons in the dark, so we decided to park in or near the city for the night.\u00a0 Some took rooms, and some just set up “camp” outside the city walls.\u00a0 I was happy to take a comfortable room.\u00a0 Nethys never said we couldn’t be comfortable.<\/p>\n
5 Arodus<\/b><\/p>\n
The sun was rising and the skies were clear when I rose for my morning devotions.\u00a0 By 7am I was ready to meet the others.\u00a0 I swung by Wilford’s post and he said that while the Council had not yet drawn up a formal contract, they did agree that Voz needed to be taken into custody and confirmed we were authorized to do so.\u00a0 I relayed this to the group when we met.<\/p>\n
Dmiri’s rapier had resisted our efforts to identify it yesterday, but when we all put our heads together instead of trying separately, we were able to determine it was a particularly enchanted and keen weapon, making it capable of more damage than your ordinary rapier.\u00a0 I was tempted to trade my scimitar for it, but I’ve grown a bit fond of grandpa’s weapon and I feel a bit of him is with me with every swing.\u00a0 Besides, it’s what I trained the most with at the abbey, and I feel like Nethys has blessed it.<\/p>\n
As it was, we added the rapier to the things we’d entrusted to Warbal.<\/p>\n
It was about 9:30 when we arrived at the Way, and we approached stealthily in case of ambush.\u00a0 There was no ambush, but an inspection at the cave entrance did indicate boots had passed since yesterday.\u00a0 Made me wonder – do skeletons wear boots?\u00a0 Have to check.<\/p>\n
Gath is set to stealthily check out the area around the entrance of the cave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
4 Arodus Today we’re going to go Voz hunting. Oh I know we’re just going to go to Guardian’s Way to learn more about Alseta’s Ring, but I also know that’s the same reason Voz went there and this seems like an unlikely group to say, “Darn it Voz, I guess you got here first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_import_markdown_pro_load_document_selector":0,"_import_markdown_pro_submit_text_textarea":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[94],"class_list":["post-5553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aoa-journal","tag-tarsius"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5554,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5553\/revisions\/5554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}