Editing WS:Chapter Two (section)

===Session Eight===

Sunday, 27th November, 12.30<br>
Game date - 10-24th of April

Having buried our dead guard, but having no idea what evil lurked in the hearts of the men who obviously intent on doing something nasty to us, we continued Irolo’s capital. We heard that there were lots of immigrants down south, but had no idea why. Coming upon a walled town, we decided to stay overnight. Some of us took rooms, while the guards and Rizo (Argh! Sp?) slept in the common room downstairs—and Red decided to sleep out of town.

During the night our brave priest awoke to see an assassin—one of the watchers from Kremaburg—standing over the bodies of two guards, including (alas!) Vitals Albrecht, so, of course, he screamed long and loud. Instantly those upstairs awoke and rushed to his aid—except Cadmus, who, despite being a light sleeper and having a high perception, blissfully slept on. Meanwhile, a third guard died, his head rolling free to join those of the other guards.

The party piled onto the stairs, Thodric wearing nought but a loincloth and a helmet—fortunately, really, given the assassin advanced up the stairs (while yelling something in a strange language none us of understood) and proved himself to be a flashing master of the blade, yet his one true hit bounced off—you guessed it—Thodric’s helm. Unfortunately, Thodric, being unprepared, had trouble keeping his fully armoured opponent off and was stunned. However, much to his good fortune—and chagrin—he was healed by the priest, while the Naked Bard finally joined them and threw a dagger straight over Thodric’s shoulder and into the assassin’s stomach! The Baron then did not join the fray and definitely did not cast a dispel magic spell on the assassin’s sword. However, this non-action led to the assassin teleporting away—and everyone else going: ‘Cool! I want his magic cloak!’

There being much wailing and gnashing of teeth for Vitals Albrecht, and a muttered ‘Dammit! Now I need to hire more guards!’ for the other two red shirts, we wasted the next day burying them and talking to the Sheriff. Thus, we stayed another night, this time all in the common room, with Cadmus-prepared alarms of string, bells and one crossbow. We slept, though Red, now with us, stayed awake.

Bells rang.

Red leapt.

The assassin was grappled!

He dropped a letter!

He vanished!

Aargh!!

We read the note. “Kill Thodric and you may go free!” While daggers were for a while fingered thoughtfully, the note really did not give us enough reason to kill our own punchy—not to mention that unsigned notes really irritate PCs, who will often automatically do the exact opposite out of sheer bloody mindedness. So we ignored it, but pressed forward to the capital at speed. Our pursuers seemed to leave us alone.

However, having noted that there are now 4 red stars in the sky (joy) and still wondering what our friendly visitor yelled, we headed to the nearest big town—the capital of Badenmark—for information. Cadmus and the Baron went to Margrave’s palace, but found nothing in the library—though the Margrave himself noted that the Duchess was now raising her own army to counter Constantia. Rizo and Thodric found at the church library that the assassin yelled, “You shall not disrupt the evil sorcery!” in Elvish and mentioned “Morghul”. Umm…huh? Sigh…assassins…go figure…

We pressed on and, after a few weeks, reached Irolo. Now one red star had dimmed. Oh…ok. The amazing celestial lightshow—and us without astronomy knowledge skills!

Cadmus immediately went to his Grandfather Conrad’s place, with Red and Rizo, and took him out for a meal—and not a moment too soon. Coming up the stairs as we descended were two sailor types. Could these be the prophesised kidnappers? One way to find out. We let them pass. Having ‘forgotten something’, Cadmus snuck back up after them while Red and Rizo continued on to lunch. Cadmus soon joined them, nothing untoward having happened. Well…that’s what he told his grandfather.

Really, this happened (i.e. player, not PC knowledge): The bastards kicked in Conrad’s door! For that, they must pay! Cadmus stepped into the doorway. Two daggers flashed from his hands, knocking one sailor down, into permanent darkness. “Surrender—or you’ll get the same as your friend!” ordered Cadmus, and the sailor instantly put up his hands, dropping his weapons. As Rizo questioned Conrad about Cadmus, Cadmus questioned the sailor about, well, everything. Then Cadmus killed the kidnapper—not wanting the aggravation of explaining things to officials—messed up the house as though it had been robbed (being careful not to break anything of sentimental value to Conrad, but placing it as though it had been roughly thrown aside), and set up the corpses as though they had been killed by an ally while arguing over the ‘valuable jewellery Cadmus had left only a short while before in the apartment for safekeeping—dammit!’

Meanwhile, Baron Alden and Thodric were at the university library. Alden got a marginally magically book about Morghul, but could not read the language. He offered a reward for information. Back at the hotel, he received a letter from the ‘Eternal Guardians of the Torch of Flame’ (well, better than the Torch of Water). Intrigued, he followed the instructions and went to the noted warehouse, where there was no door—well none Thodric could see. So Thodric was sent off and the Baron dispelled the door. Inside he found the remains of a demon summoning ritual, a book on the subject (with the standard missing pages) and other good stuff. Treasure at last! Now all we need to worry about is: where are the Guardians? What happened to the demon? And did the Baron clearly say the three magic words before picking up the book? Find out – next time!

=====GM Synopsis=====
[[WS:GM's Session 8 Notes|GM's Session 8 Notes]]