Risan Journal


 

Episode 2: "Old Grudges, New Enemies"

 

After leaving the capitol city Two Rivers in haste with remounts our group of adventurous souls head towards, and find, the spot of the missing caravan. The cause of the disappearance is deducted quickly, sabotage. The company then pick up the trail and head northwest into the great northern forests. A would-be captive that escaped is found along the way, Sir Bryan, and he confirms the sabotage theory, the caravan was attacked from without and from within. The discovery of a dead scout reaffirms that they are on the right track and that the caravan can't be far off, though the cause of the death of the scout is a puzzle best solved later. After a brave (foolish) Archos acting as scout manages to suck up no less than four crossbow bolts and continue a charge into the purfidious foe the lines of battle are drawn, close, and a quick and relatively bloodless melee ensues. Sir Terrence, during this battle manages to meet vis-a-vis with the enemy knight and fells him in single combat. Sir Bryan charged a flank with a speed normally confined to creatures possessing more than two legs, kills one and frustrates the efforts of three other men at arms. The Countess displayed a bit of archery skill with a long distance shot to the eye of someone who should have been paying attention. The crossbowmen of the enemy have seriously considered a career change and have melted in the frozen wood. The remaining soldiery have surrendered, and after finding out that the Countess never really had a catapult but in fact a full fledged magician in her company are even more glad they gave up the fight. The appearance of Brother Arnulf is like the nail in the coffin to the captives, how could they have fought a foe that throws magic and can heal their wounded to continue the fight. Taking stock of their gaolers has really depressed them, they will say they were woefully misled as to the ease of their enterprise and the amount of Royal reprisal. The prize of the expedition though has fled further northwest and you can decide on what to do next session.

Note 1: the magic using characters (Hilary and Bob) are waived their magical component availability die rolls until April because of the supply by the King for this expedition.

Note 2: the enemy men at arms really did think you guys had a catapult (which they know how to deal with), the battle ended faster then they could figure out that it was magician throwing those boulders (which they don't know how to deal with).

 

Episode 3: "Cliffhanger"

 

Leotulf von Grevin has taken flight, as much as three wagons can in February snows and thick forest. The prisoners from last episode are sent back down the track with a detail of 10 men at arms, led by a sergeant, to await their fate (where?). The main body contiues the pursuit.

One by one the wagons are abandoned in favour of speed to somehow gain distance on the PC's, damn them and their remounts. Either bad luck on the PC's part or genius on the Leotulf's the raiders have split up and the PCs opt for following the wagoneers. Eventually the PCs catch up with the wagon drivers and they surrender in a near bloodless confrontation. They find that Leotulf has indeed gone off on horseback and the location of the Amir's nephew is unknown to the drivers, Leotulf told the drivers he was keeping that information under his hat. [Sir Terence says, "Let us remember to check him for a magical hat."]

The PCs have lost valuable time Leotulf has gained a painful lead. Through the tracking skills of Lady Utta and Brother Archos the track is not hard to find. A stroke of luck on the PCs part, Leotulf wastes time travelling up and down the wrong draws and ravines, letting them catch up almost a days worth of distance. A brief stop at an abandoned farm shows they are very close but later Leotulf gets wind that the PCs are on his heels. The party smelling blood and seeking to bring their quarry to bay spur on into a nest of foul undead, zombies!!! The holy might of Rham carries the day, those lapsed Rhamian men-at-arms make personal vows to tithe more often if they survive. The assembled chivalry and holymen (Arnulf and the glares of Archos) will no doubt hold them to that vow. The zombies are scattered like chaff before the whirlwind and Sir Terrence seems to have found a new chivalric sport, zombie stomping.

The company presses on, their quarry can't be far off and Archos spies him darting in and out of draws and ravines steadily climbing in altitude, what is he up to? He can't make it over the mountains, more so in winter. The answer comes rather abruptly. Sir Terrence falls prey to sorcery most foul, his mind is not his own and he attacks Sir Bryan accusing him of traitorous deeds. The quick mind of Thadeous informs the host that this is magic, the men-at-arms seem less sure (Knights are always challenging each other over frivolous slights of honour). The company, at Lady Utta's orders, presses on because her sharp eyes spotted the source of this magic. With a cry of, "Twenty Ryl to the man who brings me that woman's head" they spur their mounts. The match between Sir Terrence and Sir Bryan ends with Terrence unconscious and Bryan severely wounded. The main body exchange a few harrasment arrow/bolt shots at each other and now Brother Archos is riding down back the track claiming Sir Terrence needs his assistance and that "Sir Terrence was right!" The men-at-arms are starting to show some reluctance at this chase, but continue. This is where this episode ended. Will Sir Terrence ever be the same? Is Sir Bryan done for? Will Brother Archos force feed horse apples to Sir Bryan? The bad guys have their backs to the mountains but the company is down almost all of its heavy hitters.

 

Episode #4: "Quarry At Bay"

 

After a few more crossbow exchanges between Lady Utta’s vanguard and the fleeing villains the battle comes to a violent conclusion. At the same time our pious and powerful priest of Rham brings Sir Terrence to the world of the conscious and he has been freed of the mind control, or at least it after interogation that is the professional opinions of priestly and magical specialists (Arnulf and Thadeous are in agreement). Brother Archos shakes off the effects of the dastardly mind spell that entrapped the small elusive target known as his brain and makes haste to catch up the vanguard. Sir Bryan also charges forward wishing to do violence to a certain ethically-challenged sorceress. Throwing caution to the wind, along with common sense, Sir Bryan takes the lead and manages to watch his chest armour turn into useless scrap, take some nasty scarring and ungracefully dismount his horse. Our #1 villainess tosses a few nasty spells at the men-at-arms who don’t know just how lucky they are that she both missed and the visual effects were not of an immediately recognizable sort. Although watching one of their bolts hit a visibly 'unarmoured' female square on and do no more than produce a mild squeak out of her made them take pause. Finally our villainess takes flight by the use of cowardly magics, she turns into a puff of smoke and wafts through the very cracks in the stone, how does one fight such sorcery? Leotulf attempts to claw his way after her and after turning around views the host as if viewing them for the first time. After a perceived slight by Sir Bryan Lord Leotulf calls Sir Bryan a liar, a fight ensues where Sir Bryan is injured and Leotulf is put down for the count. Investigating the 'hat' of Leotulf (at the insistance of Sir Terrence) reveals that said headgear is magic and further experimentation by Lady Utta disgorges the missing Amir's nephew. There is a slight language barrier and name of said diplomat seems to be “Ibn” or something like that. He speaks better Risanian then the host does Osterling (the Risanian name for the language spoken east of the mountains). 'Ibn' fills in the gaps of information missing about he exact events during the ambush and following flight, though his timetable is rather skewed being popped into and out of the hat. He is rather shocked to find that what he thought was only a few hours was several days.

It is agreed amongst the company that a route 'around' the Grevin Duchy would be wise for the journey back to Greenhearth Abbey, the designated rendezvous with the other 10 soldiery escorting the caravan wagons and assorted prisoners. On the way it is surmised that Leotulf was under the same mind control as Sir Terrence but he (Leotulf) doesn't fully know which acts were his own and which were at the behest of magic (no doubt some of the story is being rewritten in his mind to pamper his own ego). The knight 'Hardanger' is determined to be a low security risk though still under guard, he has followed the rules of a noble prisoner and has made no attempt at escape and is very cooperative. A few of the low born prisoners were killed attempting escape, they know they have little chance at ransom. On the night before setting out for Two Rivers terror returns to the party. Our villainess penetrates the abbey and kills Leotulf in his sleep and makes her escape with the same cowardly 'puff of smoke' trick. She is not beyond fear though as it is seen by Arnulf that her ethereal form visibly attempted to dodge the righteous smiting magic of Rham. Well, at least the main thrust of the quest has been accomplished and the Amir's nephew is safe and all goods were recovered. The only down side is that Leotulf cannot be brought to the King and questioned by a very competent cadre of magic-users in the King's service. A mixture of joy at rescuing the diplomat and dread over what kind of hornets' nest they've disturbed with this sorceress imbues the party on their trip back to Two Rivers.