Tairn

Play date: June 16th, 2009 

1533.2.5 – What to do with the miscreants

While none of you would have access to this information, I don’t have any other way to convey this: Caertan is a small hilltop town that grew up around a small keep built on the hilltop. The small keep is still in the central part of Caertan and is now occupied by the Priests and Hands of Andreja. The keep hosts maybe a dozen Hands, a few Priests, and a few dozen Initiates of Andreja who are capable of Orisons but no better. The total population of Caertan is around 1500 though swelled a bit by trappers a few locals who are sleeping in any empty space in The Welcome Guest. The city is divided into three parts with the middle part, about 60% of the city including the keep, ringed by a stout stone wall about twenty feet high and eight feet thick. Eastgate and Westgate are two of the three original entrances to the city, but they now open into the areas of the town known as Eastgate and Westgate. Westgate is where you found Dorian and Eastgate is where Magistrate Orin’s home is. Eastgate and Westgate are surrounded by a timber wall only approximately fifteen feet high. The entire town is surrounded by a ten foot deep ditch that is currently heaped with snow. A stone bridge crosses it at Southgate (where you have all entered and exited the city). Southgate is guarded by two men at all time who log the comings and goings of travelers in and out of the city.

Keddick begins ordering the unwounded guard about:

Guards wake these scumbags and find out what you can about that escaped criminal - I want to know where he was staying, who he is, where he was from, and what the hell he had to do with this weather - I suspect he is heavily involved. We are still at risk so long as he is free.
Tell that one that if he answers then he is on the hook only for the kidnapping - I won’t press his attempted murder of me if he helps me find Elder. It may be enough to save his neck.

Guard:

<Slappity slap slap slap>
“They are out cold m’lord. Out cold.”

Keddick:

What is the punishment if these people are found guilty? How long will it take the Magistrate to have them tried, sentenced and executed?

Guard:Well, I don’t rightly know. Accused of kidnapping you say? Roughed up the boy? They did resist arrest, but not too well. I reckon they’ll get a hefty fine m’lord. Pay damages to the boy I expect. If they can’t pay, it will be the workhouse for them. Always hard labor no one wants to do. That’s what I reckon. No doubt the Magistrate will figure them out quite quickly with young Jason’s testimony.Keddick:

Not good enough - do you want this city to be walked over by every cheap vagabond who walks in here! You’ve got to stamp this rubbish out when it turns up.  There’s more to this than kidnapping - this other one tried to kill me - shot me twice with poisoned bolts earlier today. This one killed two people we know of around Lake Catherine. I want them questioned properly under a truth spell. And be bloody careful - even unarmed, these people are not to be underestimated. That might have looked easy, but my friends here are some of the most
dangerous fighters in the kingdom - don’t try that alone. That one can turn herself invisible, for a start…keep a hold on her.We need to search this house carefully for evidence then get these prisoners to their cells. Don’t let them talk to one another either.

Guard:Poison? Well if you have some evidence of that, it certainly might go bad for him. You should give your evidence to Magistrate Orin. He’ll want written statements m’lord. As for truth spells, I can’t rightly say I’ve heard of such. You can do such my lord? You’ve done mighty magics this day. Or maybe the dwarf. Can he do such? I suppose you could appeal at the Temple lord, but I don’t know if any of the Hands or Priests can do what you say. Gregor is the chief priest of the town. Monwyn is the Right Hand hereabouts. 

Varende asks the guards if there is somewhere they should take the prisoners or anything that can be done. They says they can take them to the Temple and turn them over to Monwyn. There is a dungeon there. Keddick casts Detect Magic as the dwarves heft Dorian and lug her into the snow. He says she has auras and wants them to wait. They stolidly slog through the snow with their burden. Jack and Varende help the guards carry Kel and Pelin. They turn the prisoners over to the guards at the Keep turned Temple and head towards Magistrate Orin’s home to swear out statements. Varende suggests the Southgate be notified of Elder’s escape, and one of the guards heads south to do so. Everyone swears out statements at the Magistrate’s house and Keddick stays to talk with him as the others leave for The Welcome Guest. After a bit of talk, Varende and Banic decide to go back to search the house in Broad Street. When they arrive, there are four watchmen there. They let Banic search for auras with Varende following behind looking passively for secret doors. They find nothing. The guards reveal the owners of the house have been discovered dead and covered with snow in the back of the house by the wood pile. They could not have been there more than a day or two based on the snow on them. It was by chance they were found. The snow looked “lumped” and a guard checked. The two grown sons of the couple had been killed by wounds consistent with sword and flail while the couple had both been run through with a single sword thrust to the heart consistent with a rapier. The guards say this probably seals the fate of the three prisoners.

All but Keddick sit down to eat at The Welcome Guest a bit before noon. In bursts Serk and eight men. He sees the group and approaches. He tells a tale of following a giant with some other men lead by a former companion of the group, Traver. They followed the tracks into the mountains pushing hard and discovered an encampment of giants about 20 miles from Caertan. The encampment boasted around half a thousand orcs, a couple of hundred ogres, at least a hundred hill giants, perhaps fifty of the “little giants” and a few of giants that were even larger. In the center of the the camp was a large tent (not sure Serk mentioned this last night, but I don’t think he was trying to conceal it either). Serk councils abandoning the town against the overwhelming force. He says Traver sent six men running for Lysoria to warn King William. After some discussion, they talk to Monwyn again who says he will muster the town, evacuate Eastgate and Southgate of residents and man the walls. There are 10 Hands, 40 Clergy, and 4 priests plus 14 guardsmen and many able-bodied men in the town who can fight for their homes. He describes the outer wall as twenty feet tall and with a ten foot ditch around it. He feels it can be held if all are brave. He thinks sending out the women and children is foolhardy. Men would have to go with them to protect them thus weakening the towns defenses. He plans to hold the giants at bay until help arrives from the King.

Back at The Welcome Guest, a loud bell can be heard from the front gate. Everyone moves the two hundred yards south and hears a gravely, booming voice shout “Abandon the town! We claim it. You have until tomorrow night or all will be slain!” Then a guard on the wall shouts “They disappeared!” Varnede speaks with the guard and is told that there were four orcs, four ogres, four hill giants, and the speaker, another hill giant with a huge hammer. After speaking, they clustered to him and disappeared. They were about forty feet from the gate. Varende convinces the guard to let them outside to look around. He raises the portcullis a small amount and everyone slips under. Footprints in the snow confirm the presence of the giants. They were not simply illusion. Varende says he wanted to rule out a trick of some kind by Elder. Keddick leaves his watch over the unconscious prisoners and heads towards the gate after the bell. He sees the others and all are reunited. Serk fills him in.

Keddick and Jack decide to go to speak to Monwyn. Keddick asks Monwyn several times who he wants on his side and Monwyn is stolid in saying “Andreja!” Keddick thought he could bring someone more physical, like the Right Hand of Andreja from Lysoria or the High Priest of Lysoria or a Wizard. Monwyn believes in Andreja (unlike Keddick the proven non-devout drinker of the Font of Andreja). Jack steps in and smooths things over after Monwyn tells Keddick to get out, calling him a coward as he leaves. Jack gets permission to look at the things stripped from the prisoners with a clergy in attendance. The clergy leads them to Storeroom B on Level 12. In one chest, they find a chainshirt, a greatsword, a crossbow and a pouch of coins. In another, they find a chainshirt, a flail, and a pouch of coins. In the final one, they find a chainshirt, a rapier and dagger with Barnim’s mark, a small silver ring, 13 vials of liquid, 11 of which are etched with the letters “M.P. Shuns” a larger quantity of coin, and a small pouch with a smaller version of the holy symbol  seen on the woman’s chest in The Long Road (the symbol of Talinoman, half-dragon demi-goddess necromancer) as well as a small piece of parchment that might be a map.  It depicts two colors and a small X. There is great discussion of what it means. Keddick signs the ring out as well as the holy symbol and the parchment. They show the holy symbol to Monwyn and Gregor, the chief priest, but neither of them recognize it. It has been centuries since followers of Talinoman were last heard of.

Keddick, dissatisfied with Monwyn’s response, goes to speak with Orin again. Orin is packing. He says his household of fifteen will leave now that Monwyn has ordered the abandonment of Eastgate and Westgate. Keddick threatens him if he doesn’t comply with demands of estimates of how many people will leave because of the giants. Monwyn said two to five hundred men could stand the walls of the town. Orin placates Keddick telling him to return in the evening for his estimate (both Jack and Keddick fail to Sense any guile in the man, but Larry and Jacob were skeptical). They leave and meet back up with the others. Keddick was unable to make the ring do anything. He ask Varende to try to activate its power. Varende tries but nothing happens. He returns the ring to Keddick. Banic confirms it is magical and has a moderate aura, but he knows nothing of spellcraft. [Varende may have forgotten he carries a wand of detect magic and could perhaps easily discern the aura – I just remembered it] Varende looks at the little map and recognize the shape of the coastline as that of Lake Catherine by Malverin. No one knows that area well though, so they aren’t sure what the green and X could be. Serk argues more for running. Keddick considers teleporting in the morning with hopes of bringing back help from the Wizard’s Isles. It would use both of his teleports to do this though leaving the group stuck if things go badly. There is much concern over the fact that some of the giants could “teleport.” What if they teleport inside the walls? Monwyn is sure “some of the most dangerous fighters in the kingdom” could handle a few giants on the inside of the wall. The day has wasted away. It is cold. Many have left The Welcome Guest. Varnede and Banic look in the rooms occupied there by Dorian and her gang. They find empty rooms, unmade beds, and nothing of significance, however the rooms are not thoroughly searched other than perhaps a quick detect magic.

<finished at dark on the 5^th. 24 hours until Caertan must be evacuated!>