Chapter 12 - On the Road Again
Days 23-27
After being given their task by the Governor, the party spent the rest of the day in preparation for their morning departure. Trykaar took a leadership role in seeking out a merchant who was leaving the next day via the east road, in case no horses could be procured. His search brought him to a dwarven merchant named Ththur, who had made the acquaintance of Jrak before the party's departure on their journey to the tower. Ththur invited them to accompany him, but was unable to pay them as guards. Trykaar also spoke with his mentor, Blademaster Tivadar, and requested that the party be provisioned with horses and healing kits.
Their provisioning brought the party to the Temple of Isten, where Neela made a small donation and sought healing, but was rebuffed by the priests who were reserving their healing arts for those in worse shape. Neela also encountered a hostile reaction at the Tower of Mages, where the gnome Snirvneblin remembered their previous encounter and would only sell a potion of healing at a much-inflated price. Fortunately, Trykaar was more diplomatic, and managed to procure the potion for his companion at a more reasonable price.
At the smithy, the Blixhaven and Trykaar were disappointed to discover that their masterwork armour and composite longbow had not yet been crafted, though a small number of enchanted arrows were available for Blixhaven. Trykaar decided to accept the smith's offer of a suit of a refurbished chain shirt, and changed his order to a masterwork chain shirt, with the price difference to be paid when the party returned to Wasteward.
As the party went about their errands, they began to see goblinoid Legion soldiers appearing on the streets. After a short time, it became obvious that the Legion was retreating across the river, razing their camp behind them.
When the party returned to the warehouse at the end of the day, Arpad Zrinsk was there with the promised gold and a message from Blixhaven's father, who had returned to Wasteward and heard that Blixhaven was seeking him. When Blixhaven paid a visit to his parents, his proud father gifted him a brace of arrows with tips of cold iron, with the hope that he would find them useful in the lands bordering the Feywild.
The next morning, the party awoke to the sound of horns, and soon discovered that reinforcements had arrived from the south in the form of armoured cavalry. A unit was forming up in the main square, resplendant inburnished mail, atop mighty warhorses. The party made their way past the cavalry to the keep, ready to set off on their new mission. When they arrived, Blademaster Tivadar briefed them, introducing a young militiaman who had agreed to serve as a guide to the village where the abductions had allegedly occurred. The incident happened three days before, with word being received via a report from a watchtower mirror. The party was urged to make haste, and notified that horses and a cart were being provided for them, along with a healing kit.
As the briefing drew to a conclusion, High Priest Nikola Lantos entered the room, followed by a younger, bookish looking priest in traveling attire. He praised the party for their worthy mission and conferred upon them the blessing of Isten in their attempt to rescue the kidnapped women and chidlren from the savage heathen elves. After a lengthy prayer, he healed the party of their wounds and introduced his companion as Leandrie Mar, telling the party that the young priest had offered to accompany them on their adventure.
Neela also paid a visit to her master, who reminded her of the need to maintain order in the face of chaos, to eschew material possessions, to dampen her wild orc blood, and to practice the way of peace.
At the gates of the town, the party endured the glares of guards who resented anyone leaving the beleaguered community. Ththur the dwarf was preparing his caravan, but the party turned down his offer to journey together, citing their need to make haste. As they began their journey northwestward, it was through a fertile countryside barren of humans. All the nearby population had either retreated to Wasteward or fled southward away from the invasion.
The first day of the journey passed uneventfully, and the party rested the night in one of the fortified villages that were spaced regularly, every few miles along the road. The second day was also a peaceful journey, but in the late afternoon the party spotted plumes of smoke on the horizon. The smoke came from a village that had suffered a raid the previous evening, and the villagers were busy tending to their wounded and repairing the walls. Choosing to end their journey for the day, Leandrie lent his assistance to those tending to the wounded while Jrak and Trykaar assisted with the repairs and Blixhaven sought out signs of where the raiders had gone. Thier assistance was much appreciated by the exhausted villagers.
On the third day of their travels, the party met a scout who warned them of increasing banditry in the region in the recent weeks, with rogues seizing the opportunity created by the local militias being sent to Wasteward. But there was no sign of bandits or any other threat for the remainder of the day and that night they rested at a comfortable village inn. As Neela was taking a walk through the village before retiring for the night, she spotted a spectacular display of lights in the southeastern sky. Flashes of various colours lit up the clouds.
On the fourth day, the party gained firsthand knowledge of the bandits that they had been warned about. As they traveled down the road under the afternoon sun, with Blixhave scouting ahead, he came across a number of figures apparently engaged in repairing a broken wagon wheel in the middle of the road. Choosing a cautious approach, Blixhaven and Neela took to the woods on either side of the road while the others approached to find a beautiful woman dressed in fine clothing and armour and her two brutish-looking guards looking on while a number of other humans toiled about the cart. As Jrak and Leandrie approached to render assistance, they heard a crashing in the woods to their left: Neela had seen a bowman hidden away in a tree, and shot him with her crossbow. The ambush ruined, the woman ordered the attack. She and her companions swarmed around Jrak, who stood before them, but had little luck penetrating his mighty armour. At the same time, Blix and Neela attacked the bowmen in the trees while Trykaar and Leandrie tried their best to drive the flankers off of Jrak, Leandrie summoning a celestial giant fire beetle to their aid. In moments, half of the ambushers had been killed and the rest lay unconscious on the ground. Taking the cart, which was easily repaired, and their captives, the party made for the next village and turned it over to the local sheriff. There was some surprise when the sheriff claimed all of the bandits' loot to belong to the Empire for redistribution back to the bandits' victims, but the party decided to acquiesce to the laws of the land.
That night, the party again rested in a fortified village on the road. This one had a temple, which redeived donations from Leandrie and Neela, and Leandrie was able to procure free lodging in return for a lengthy discussion with a local group of elderly women. As the party retired for a night at the inn, they found themselves sharing the inn with a trio of shadowy figures who kept to their side of the common room.
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