Beneath Two Suns...The LONG Road to Freedom

Hey, hey, hey - our party of brave adventurers are back and ready to combat evil…or some semblance of it in any case...

Reminders all around!  Everyone has names!

- Kriskain, a human cleric (Heather)
- Lileth Whisperwind, a half-elf hexblade (Emily)
- Shinta, a human sorcerer (Daniel)
- Dante, an elven ranger (Elliot)
- Abuther, a half-elf barbarian (Spencer)

At the last, the group was on the cusp of an important moment: do they stay or do they go?  In the end, the answer was Yes – we go! And thus, their fates were sealed.  Essentially, they had just agreed to join the slave revolt, the first action of which was to take the Princess Nadima prisoner.  Ballsy, really, taking your new owner captive.

Here, DM asks each player for his/her backstory, or How They Got Into This Mess In The First Place.  Each character is encouraged to share as much or as little as they would like…whatever they feel the rest of the party would likely know.

Kriskain the human cleric begins.  She has only been a slave a few months, and was a victim of “wrong place, wrong time” syndrome.  She got caught up in what the present government refers to as a “slave sweep”.  The party knows not much about her, except that she has decent healing skills.

Lileth, the elven Hexblade, divulges that she’s a traveler, a gypsy with an exceptional ability to make friends.  She’s in the clink due to being caught by officials in a scheme to get money out of her new ‘friends’.

Shinta, the sorcerer, is a reclusive, moody sort.  Rumors abound that he was responsible for the utter annihilation of an entire village, although, it’s rather hard to believe. He’s so young.  He just doesn’t seem the type.

Dante, the elf Ranger, claims to be from a faraway Elven kingdom, where he made the mistake years ago of ridiculing a rich and snobby elf…who then promptly sold him into slavery.  He’s been around the longest – five years.  He’s also the Grandpa of the group at 136 years.

Abuther is the aberration of the party.  He’s probably the only half-elf barbarian within a million mile radius of this place, and he’s quite angry.  Captured by the rulers of the House of Demodo (?), he was sold to Estercari to work off his anger in the quarries.  It hasn’t worked.  He’s still pissed about something.

With that out of the way, the DM then informs the group that they are in the princess’s private chambers, and hey, what do they wish to do next?  The other slaves, the ones who did the killing just seconds ago, are already shuttling the princess off in the direction of the exit.  Kriskain takes a few hurried seconds to search Nadima’s vanity, and finds 200 gp.  She snatches that up, along with a small leather pouch for carrying.  Lileth searches the dresser area and finds a necklace.  Shinta searches under the bed and sees nada save a few rogue dust bunnies. Dante is watching the door and instructs the party on the direction the other slaves are headed.  The group now travel down the hallway, hell-bent on rejoining the revolt parade.  Shinta finds a door to investigate while the others continue on.  The sorcerer opens onto a bedroom-type room, and thusly, he helps himself to fancy new clothes, a dagger with a jeweled hilt, some gold rings, and a small vial that contains a brown liquid.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party emerges into the kitchen area (Kriskain and Abuther take note of the fact that the group of slaves they’ve joined are comprised of not only worker slaves like themselves, but house slaves as well).  Two cook-looking women cower in a corner as the party moves through.  The cleric seizes a still-hot fireplace poker on her way through and is saddened to see there is no tilt-skillet or meat slicer in the place. 

OOG: The players fill their plates with vegetables, chips, hummus, guacamole, and lentil chili.  The cleric apologizes the slight bite of the lentils…it appears another hour more would be better to cook them completely through.

Back in the Estercari kitchen, though, Abuther and Dante conduct their own search for food.  The DM informs the elf Ranger that, “Grapes.  You see some nice grapes.” Abuther is a carnivore and goes for the ham.  This prompts the excellent question: What do slaves eat? To which “Bread, water, and undercooked lentils” is the response.  After the chuckling subsides, some other amusing things happen.

Lileth asks the frightened women if they’re part of the revolt, to which they answer no, and Lileth responds with “Fine, then I won’t kill you.”

Dante approaches the worktable area, where he sees knives.  He wishes to grab a handful, but the problem is: How to carry a bunch of knives whilst carrying a bunch of grapes?  Answer: the little elf shoves the entire bunch into his mouth. Done.

An excellent Spot check by the hexblade allows her to pick up the most kickass-looking knife in the bunch.  She stuffs it into her sock.   Her. Sock.

In the mean time, the sorcerer has finished his Searching and looks to return to the group.

The DM has the group do a Listen check and that’s when they hear (and then SEE) the crazed, angry chef making his way towards them.  This does not faze the sorcerer, hexblade, nor cleric…after all, they understand better than anybody it’s not cool to muck about in someone else’s kitchen.  But still, he’s coming at them with knives…with intention to hurt or maim or fabricate or something.  Dante gets the hell out of there, Abuther charges (and pushes the two girl players out of the way), Lileth attempts to hold up her longsword blade to the chef’s throat in an effort to stop him in his tracks.  He Dodges it (she is 4’11” after all) and continues on the warpath…that is, until the Chaotic Neutral and mentally unstable Abuther steps in, slashes, and completely destroys the hapless chef.  There is a brief, very brief, discussion that ensues immediately afterwards:

Kriskain: Why kill him? Why?

Abuther: I’m angry.

K: Why not just incapacitate the guy?  Now, there’s a dead body.  We’ve just committed murder!

A: They were after us anyway.

Kriskain the cleric looks to put the body somewhere, for Gods’ sake.  Lileth suggests the oven.  Shinta the sorceres bursts in at the moment, only to see shrieking cooks.

“Ladies,” he croons, “Quench thy loins and cease the orgasms.” They stop, but do not appear to understand what exactly he wants from them.  But, at least they’ve stopped screaming, so that’s good.

In the end, Kriskain pulls the dead corpse back through the kitchen and down a flight of stairs.  Then, she casts Create Water to wash the blood away.  Although she may be chaotic, she still harbors a decent respect for life, death, and the last rites.

The party then moves out of the Kitchen of Death into more hallways, with more doors.  You know what that means for Shinta: more door-jiggling and more Searching.  Dante turns out to be the wild card here as he deviates, and takes a quick right to open up the first door he comes to…where he enters a room full of guards.  He’s able to discern quickly that he’s way outnumbered…so, what does the Ranger do?  Chuck a knife into the room (due to a low attack roll by the Ranger, nothing happens) and depart it quickly.  He scampers back down the hallway and runs into the cleric.  He warns her of the danger and continues running.  The cleric casts Obscuring Mist in the guard corridor and follows Dante. 

Lileth and Abuther, however, have remained with the other slaves.  They round the corner into a room of sorts where two slaves are in the midst of a swordfight with a manor guard.  Lileth leaps atop a nearby desk and shouts, “Stand down, you’re outnumbered.”  There’s no response from the guard, and the DM explains that the guard is distracted…what with being engaged in battle with two freedom-loving slaves and all.  Abuther is a man of few words, and simply charges into the fray.

It is suddenly noticed that a pink dice has appeared in the middle of all the other dice markers, along with the exclamation of, “Oh, hey, it’s the princess!”  Also noteworthy here: the body count in the House of Estercari is rising, and so the DM begins to draw red colored pencils splotches on the paper map to indicate corpses.

OOG: Abuther’s player has disappeared to the bathroom and there is discussion about whether that ham was contaminated and the strength of Abuther’s “iron gut”.

Just then, a slave falls at the hands of the Estercari guard.  Lileth strikes back for four points of damage and Abuther scores the actual kill.   The Hexblade searches the body and takes the belt/scabbard from the dead body while the barbarian strips the guard of his breastplate armor.  As Dante and Kriskain are making their way to where this sweet action is going on…a guard steps out and begins running ahead of them.  It seems like a very lucky thing he doesn’t see the rogue slaves just behind him – but then, the elf ranger chucks a knife into the guard’s back just as they all arrive near Dead Guard Body #1.  And funny funny funny, Dante the Ranger rolls a natural 20.  The knife lodges firmly in his back, allowing Abuther to get in a quick hit before Lileth finishes the doomed guard off. She Searches this new dead body and comes up with 50 gp.  Abuther finishes zipping up his breastplate armor outfit and picks up the last piece of ham.

Kriskain, still wary from the barbarian’s earlier shenanigans, continues running on past the fresh dead body. Shinta finds some more doors, which open into a library-type space as well as a workspace of sorts, and a dagger, 50 gp, and official-looking papers all find their way into the sorcerer’s manpurse.  AND WITH THAT….

The escaped slaves are NOW outside…FINALLY!

Kriskain expresses her desire to locate an associate of hers – by the name of Avery.  Also, she has business dealings at the Peanut Pub.  The DM informs her she will find both to the north of where she is now, but that it is some ways off.  It would appear Kriskain’s trip to either of those people/places will be delayed for now, because it is noted that the group of princess-toting slaves are crossing a bridge as if they know where the next stop is.  So…the group follows.

And soon, an official-looking, blue-tuniced man accosts them.  He introduces himself as Botok (here on out known as Botox) and he asks the players to serve as a rearguard.  He says if they do this, he can get them to a place where their slave brands can be removed.  The group deliberates for all of a nanosecond before, yes, please.  They are herded in travel gondolas and the trip is a few minutes in before the interrogation begins:

Who do you work for? The House of Campbell.  How’s your soup? Yes, we have good soup.  Are you for freedom or tyranny? Freedom, of course. What are your intentions with the princess? No answer.  Kriskain is rather dissatisfied with the course of questioning, and discussion between the party members ensues: Should we be arguing with people who are helping us escape? Nothing wrong with a little info gathering.

Eventually, Kriskain gives up the Inquisition.  Shinta however has a free moment and he opts to riffle through his satchel and examine the official documents he lifted earlier.  He sees official Estercari seals, and a name – Sidones (The current Codifex of Zenicce).  The potion also turns out to be a Cure Moderate Wounds potion, thanks to a decent Spellcheck on the sorcerer’s part.

A Knowledge: Local check on the part of the cleric tells her they are moving east, towards the seat of the Zenicce government, a collection of nobles referred to as the Great Assembly.  Island after island pass by uneventfully when all of a sudden, the second gondola in the convoy overturns without warning.  Several of the powder-blue garbed guards leap into the water to rescue the princess.  Our adventurers, back in the fourth and last gondola, watch.  Within seconds, bodies begin to float back to the surface and the water around them becomes stained crimson.  And if our characters were alive today, they’d all be wondering the same thing: Dafuq is that?  An excellent Spot check by Dante provides the only real answer = black humanoid figures, with daggers, under the water.

Kriskain casts Waterwalk on herself and begins to do the Jesus thing to where she last saw Princess Nadima.  Lileth suggests pulling the gondola over to the shore to avoid being overturned as well.  Kriskain then casts Sanctuary to protect herself from any attack from below and rolls decent Concentration checks to maintain both spells in the process.  She sees no sign of Nadima and clambers up the nearest shorebank.

Botox has no idea what the underwater assassins are, and rather emotionlessly he suggests they continue on to the House of Campbell.  (He’s not named after the wrinkle-resistant bacteria for nothing, folks).  Lileth wonders if it’s absolutely necessary to see this Campbell guy, to which Botox responds with ‘Yes, only he can authorize your brands be removed.”  Also, one random slave on the gondola pipes up that he knows Campbell and can vouch for our safety.  And so we continue along on our course.  Abuther is experiencing a little tummy bubble-action, and it’s surmised in several minds that the ham was probably rancid.

An imperial-looking guy wearing some BA burgundy-colored chain mail appears to be supervising a field of guards in the midst of training drills or similar.

“I am Baron Campbell,” he says, noticing their approach. “My men tell me you have had many adventurers today.”  And then…some big news. He intends to hire the party for a job.  To retrieve a woman who is “of some importance to me”.  She has “disappeared recently.”  Campbell needs us to track down this missing woman in a swamp-type location.  He offers 1,000 gold pieces each, removal of slave brands, and use of any available equipment.  It sounds too good to be true.  Upon further questioning about details regarding the woman, the thieves who seized her, or the location of the swamp, Campbell either doesn’t know or doesn’t wish to divulge what he knows.  This reluctance prompts Shinta to ask for 7,500 gp.  Baron reiterates his original offer of 5,000 and reminds them that he is also providing them with equipment, shelter, food, weapons, etc.  Touché.

Freedom has made Kriskain rather inquisitive, and she asks Campbell what ideals he stands for.  And he responds that he does not like the House of Estercari…he feels he should be the Codifex, that he would be fair and equitable.  In regards to what he will do with the princess, he responds with She will be my prisoner.  She’s been abducted.  If she’s important to others, then she’s important to me.

And from there, the conversation dwindles down to a close.  The party knows they’ve got a job offer on the table.  Decent pay, free equipment, a safe night of rest.  However, Campbell did not seem exactly forthcoming about certain details, and he might not be trustworthy.  But, options seem scarce and in the end, the party decides to take Campbell up on his job offer.  And now, one question remains:

WHERE THE HELL IS THE SWAMP?!

Okay, well, two questions:

IS THE MISSING WOMAN PRINCESS NADIMA?