Six Blind Dice

We join the group in the middle of the town of Vermician. The group has met back up in the middle of the town after doing their various tasks. Vara & Deadrick have just been trained by an experienced ranger. Itsa searched for a better weapon. Natalie hid in dark corner and appraised her gems. Velian has just discovered her helmet from the halfling caravan is magical, though its exact properties aren't known. Nex has been questioning the guards about any rumors about dragons and about the goblins, and has received an invitation to the mayor's tower.

Having rejoined, Nex tells the group about the letter and they all agree to go meet with the mayor. Vara tells Frank to watch the penguins while they're gone, if he does, he'll get a reward. The group heads directly to the mayor's tower. There is a young boy about 13 or 14 years old with a pot on his head, guarding the tower. He welcomes us and says we're expected. Nex says he looks familiar & asks him if he was the one that delivered the letter. Boy says no that it was probably the Mayor's son who often runs errands for his father. Nex asks him why a boy so young is in soldier gear. Boy tells him that most of the adult men have been killed in skirmishes with the goblins. The group asks him why doesn't the town just flee if there are so many goblin attacks. Boy says that this is his family home, that his father died here and he needs to avenge his father's death. And the town's population is over a thousand and it would be difficult and unsafe to move that many people. Nex in a uncharacteristic show of sympathy, gives the boy one of his flail to protect himself with. We then head inside.

We are greeted by 6 well armored adult males around a table along with the Mayor. They ask instead of assuming that Nex is our leader (which is quite refreshing.) He replies yes. Mayor says he has heard great tales of our group including Vara who vanquished the great beast that terrorized Blackberry Falls. He gets straight to the point and says he wants needs our help fighting the goblins who have been raiding his town. Nat asks what do we get in return for helping, our services aren't free. The mayor brings out a legendary bow that rumors say it can shoot farther than any other bow. Mayor also offers 2,000 gold. Nex asks to verify the bow and does so while Vara admires (read as drools over) the bow. The Mayor tells us that the bow is from a town hero and it hurts them to part with it but they are in dire straights. One of the guards asks Nex's name and asks about him being a Lord. When questioned about his country's origin, Nex says he's from the kingdom of Krypton far beyond the sea. That the country's banner is “Justice for All” and is part of a League of Justice.

Being tempted, the group asks for a moment to discuss it amongst themselves, which the mayor grants and points us to an empty room. We debate in hushed tones over whether we should just kill the guards and mayors since they aren't very many of them or if we should do what they ask and just fight the goblins. The group seems to be leaning towards just helping them, thinking “how hard can it be to outsmart some goblins?” Just then, Vara hears some shuffling from the closed door, she pulls Nex aside and whispers that someone may be listening in on them. The group comes to the conclusion to help the town and worse comes to worse, steal the bow & gold and flee when things get bad. Nex then opens the door suddenly and the guard with the pot on his head stumbles into the room. Nex interrogates him about why he was listening in on us. We quickly learn that the boy wasn't ordered to listen in on us and he was just curious about us. Nex presses him for more information about the town. Kid says that things have been fishy around the town. That the ruling lord of this area is Lord Jorgan, cousin to Lord Fellstar, and he was recently given the ultimatum to submit to Lord Norahkee's rule or the town would be slaughtered. Nat asks him if he was loyal to Norahkee, he refuses to talk. Vara offers him a gold coin, kid still refuses says that its not worth his head. Itsa takes a different route and flashes the young kid, awestricken, he admits that he doesn't approve of him. Nat asks about Fellstar's dragons but the kid doesn't know anything new about them. Except that their existence is apparently common knowledge in this part of the world. Satisfied that the boy isn't going to rat on us, we head back to the mayor. A new cloaked figure who gives off an eery is in the room with the mayor. Nex announces that the group will indeed help the town fight the goblin hoards. Vara interjects that only if the mayor can provide protection for our pets. Mayor is confused but agrees, says we should talk to Ted the farmer. We learn that there has been a solitary scout spotted outside the town. We learn that the guy behind the Mayor is a wizard. The Mayor asks us to stay in town a few days.

Nex asks for more details on the goblins. We are told that the most recent enemy troops have been spotted consisted of scouts, war hogs, a shaman, and usually about 30 warriors coming from the north and the west. Velian asks after the injured and is told that the captain would have more information. Nex asks for the young boy that we caught spying and was guarding the front door as a page boy/helper. The Mayor agrees but only if Nex pays his wages which totals to be 100 gold/month. Group is outraged that the mayor would just sell the boy like that. Mayor insists that Leeroy Jerkins (the boy) is free to go whenever he pleases but he chooses to stay to avenge his father. Nex pays the Mayor for the Leeroy's services. The Mayor then writes out a letter for us to give the Leeroy. We head out and hand him the letter. He freaks out afraid he is going to be put in the front lines or be dragged away from his home. The group tries to reassure him that he will be protected and we will not ask him to leave the town. But he still is lost in his anguish. He rushes into the tower and falls at the mayor's feet, crying. Nat follows him and soothes him. Reassuring him that he won't be on the front lines. Leeroy calms down some but is still visible upset. Nat asks about the scout and learns that the attack happened the same night or the day after the scout was spotted. She also learns that they have been closing in on the city. At first they just attacked the out laying houses and farms but they've been steadily coming closer to the city. They seem to be coming from the north or North-west area. They think that the shaman may be an important figure, they know he's a shaman because they have seen him cast magic. She asks what could they be after, mayor says gems and money. They use to be a rich town but have spent a lot of money on supplies and on a group of mercenaries. The mercenaries before us fails but they weren't as tough looking.

Since the mayor asked us to stay in town, Leeroy points us to the nearest Inn. We meet up with Frank and the penguins. Frank doesn't want bacon, deer meat, or rations. He wants sweets. We send Leeroy with Frank and the penguins to meet Ted to house our pets, to prepare our rooms, & to pick up some sweets for Frank. Before he leaves we ask about shopping. Vara heads to the weapon & armor shop. She sells her longsword and buys an oversized chain shirt. Deadrick and Natalie head to the general store. Natalie sells her gems and doesn't buy anything. Deadrick asks about meatless rations. Shop keep offers him grain rations and tempts him with some wine. Itsa walks the perimeter of the wall. She tries to urge them to prepare their defenses by patching the holes in the wall or digging pits or a moat filled with sharp sticks. Just then Itsa sees 2 goblin scouts on war hogs eying the town at the west gate. She alerts the guards who rings the town bell in alarm. Vara runs to the west gate. Natalie heads to the west gate. Nex fires Magic Missiles in the air to further alert the town and runs to the north gate. At the North gate Nex sees 10 goblins building a structure like they're going to siege the town. Nex magically whispers to Nat: “we need people to the North!” Natalie changes direction and heads North. Velian tries to find the wizard, at the mayor's tower. She does but they don't seem alarmed like the rest of the town. So she heads to the North gate. Nex magically whispers “We need your help!” to the wizard. A few archers head to the north gate.

Itsa runs to the church and tries to inspire the citizens to fight but they are too cowardly afterwards she heads to the northern gate. About 20-30 goblins arranged in lines appear on the edge of the woods. Among them include a war chief and a shaman. They are carrying ladders and a large battering ram. Vara begins to cast Entangled on the spot right in front of the gate. Leeroy appears at the North Gate obviously shaken up and terrified. Nex tosses his crossbow at him and says “can you use this?” Leeroy says that he can try. He turns green.

Vara yells to the other archer to go get help. He leaves her and the captain at the west gate. After hearing the other archer at the northern gate, Velian & Natalie rushes down the wall to the western gate. The goblin hoard moves closer and stops just outside the gate.

Deadrick is still at the general store. The owner has fled with the sound of the bell, leaving him alone. He begins to grabs bottles and pour oil into them as much as possible. He also grabs some flint and some rags. Then runs to the western gate.

At the Western gate, the majority of the goblin's forces were gathered. Out of the 20 or so goblins, two groups of goblins with ladders separate from the group and go to either side of the gate. They begin to try to climb the wall. Two lines of goblins holding the battering ram attack the gate. The Shaman and the Warlord stand back watching over the events. Vara's Entangled spell traps half of the goblins holding the battering ram and the South-West ladder group. The goblins rearrange themselves and begin to ram into the west gate. She remembers Natalie saying that maybe if they take out the leaders the rest will fall back & forms a plan to try to take out the leaders (the Warlord and the Shaman). She then fires off two shots towards the Warlord. One shot crits and hits the warlord in the knee, dropping him to the ground. The other shot misses and snaps Vara's bow string. Cursing, Vara kneels down and spends her next turn restringing it. Meanwhile the handful of human archers, rain arrows down the goblin masses, thinning their ranks only slightly. Natalie and Velian take to attacking the goblins climbing up the ladders. Natalie employs her throwing daggers and her Dagger of returning and kills a few of the goblins. Velian casts Calming Emotions which affects 3 of the goblins on the side of the battering ram, who are quickly replaced. Deadrick uses the bottles filled with oil, rags, and flint & steel to make make-shift Molotov cocktails at them. He continuously throws cocktail after cocktail at them, making flaming goblins and damaging their moral.

At the Northern gate, the 10 goblins have formed a barricade, blocking exit route. Nex, Itsa, and Leeroy after Velian and Natalie left to help the western gate, form a plan to clear this direction in case they need to leave town quickly. Itsa jumps off the wall and charges at the goblins slamming into their barrier. Nex shoots magic missiles at the group, wounding a few, then jumps off to join Itsa in the charge. They hack, slash, and bash their way through the barricade but they move slowly. The goblins manage to hold their position well. Leeroy is stuck petrified at the top of the wall, clutching Nex's crossbow. Too frozen in fear and unskilled to shoot. Nex roars to Leeroy “SHOOT OR DIE!” “I don't have a shot!” replies a shaky Leeroy. “I'll make an opening.” Nex holds up one of the goblins. Which Leeroy misses and Nex bashes the goblin's head in. Itsa slashes one goblin in twain exactly, scaring the other goblins whose ranks are quickly thinning. But they manage to keep formation.

The tides of luck turn on the defenders of the Western gate. Velian aims her crossbow at the goblins climbing the ladder and just barely misses Deadrick's family jewels. Suddenly one of the human archers collapses, peppered with arrows. The goblins ram the gate and manage to open a small opening. They start pushing through. They attack the captain, wounding him. Velian, standing right beside Vara gets hit. Vara doesn't notice and continues her attack on the leaders but her arrows for a time do nothing but miss. Natalie manages notice and attack one of the goblins trying to make its way through the opening, killing it. Its body successfully blocks the opening making it more difficult for them to come out. Velian drops to her knees and prays to her God. Her god answers her prayers and blesses her allies and curses her enemies. Deadrick begins to aim at the battering ram with combination of unlit and lit cocktails, with human archers dying all around them. He manages to set it on fire and a few goblins along with it, making some goblins turn tail and run. Just then the shaman goblin heals one of the other goblins, Vara takes a deep breath, concentrates & carefully aims, and fires a single deadly shot at the Shaman. Her shot lands true and the shaman falls over dead, instantly.

Natalie, Velian, Nexcris, and Deadrick are heading North to meet up with Vara and Tom. While traveling on the road, they come across about a dozen penguins wandering on the road. Natalie stops to pet one of the penguins, it squawks happily at her and begins to follow her. Deadrick wants to stay with the penguins but they decide Tom and Vara had been waiting a long time and that they'd double back to find the penguins again. They continue to walk and eventually stumble upon stone!Tom and Vara. They see Vara sitting in one of the wagons, moping and feeding fish to a mini herd of penguins surrounding her. They ask: “What's going on? Where's Tom?” Vara chokes out some nonsense and point to the statue. The group comment on how life-like it looks and how if you squint just right it looks a lot like Tom. After many attempts to tell them the statue was Tom, it finally dawns on them. They all are stunned. Nexcris goes over to stone!Tom and says “but I brought you an axe...” as he drops it on the statue, cutting it into two pieces. Vara goes on to tell them what happened.

At this point, Natalie a notice a pigeon that has been flying above them and circling for little over 15 minutes. She hits and kills the pigeon. Noticing Nat killing the bird, Nex quickly asks Vara if there was a wizard in the group that attacked them. She says yes. Nex insists that they go, thinking that the bird was a wizard familiar. No sooner than the words were out of his mouth, everyone but Nex and Deadrick quickly slump to the ground in a deep sleep. The cast gnome from the zoo's caravan, the same one that attacked and knocked out Vara, comes out. Nex tells him they're on there way and that they're not trying to cause trouble. Gnome says very well but insists on stealing from Vara to make up his losses. Nex quickly positions himself in between Vara's sleeping body saying that there is no way he's just gonna let someone rob her. The words “Over my dead body” were even spoken.

The caster gnome casts a spell that causes fire to shoot from his finger tips and attacks Nex. Nex swings the great obsidian axe at the gnome, missing and smashing the platform behind him. Deadrick leaps into the fray and shoots the gnome in the hand while he's casting another spell. The gnome begins to scream as his spell is interrupted and his hand begins bleeding profusely. Deadrick repeats “I'm sorry!” over and over again. Nexcris summoning strength from his dragon lineage, grows massive dragon claws that replace his hands and slashes the caster gnome across the face and chest. The wounds are severe and the gnome drops to the ground, dead. Nex then searches the body and finds 95 gold, a book, spell components, and a staff. He promptly pockets the gold and the book just as everyone wakes up.

Vara, still blurry eyed from the sleep spell, looks at the dead gnome and quickly recognizes the dead gnome as the caster that knocked her out. She rushes over to the body, stumbling over the other party member shaking off the sleep spell. She frantically searches the body. Not finding what she was looking for, she asks Nex, who is standing next to the body, if there was any money on him. Nexcris insists there wasn't but Vara, no matter what her senses or what he says, doesn't believe him. She spins on her heel and faces Deadrick, pointedly asks him if there was any money on the gnome. Deadrick pussyfoots around the answer. Vara offers him a penguin. Deadrick promptly gives up Nexcris. Nexcris sighs and tosses 50 of the gold pieces he found on the gnome at Vara. It was about this time that Frank the talking ape started throwing an excited fit about the locked chest in the 2nd wagon. Vara says she found it but is unable to open it. Natalie pushes her hands out, popping her knuckles and says “Now's my time to shiiiiiine.” The chest's lock is no matter for a skilled rogue such as Nat and hastily gives way. Natalie digs around in the chest and finds a lot of clothes including a red vest and matching hat. Upon seeing the red vest and matching hat, Frank nearly works himself into a frenzy until they are handed to him.

As Frank is calming down, a stranger walks up, a tall brown haired, muscular female barbarian with a great axe strapped to her back. (Imagine Xena Warrior Princess.) She asks about Tom to which Nex points to stone!Tom as a response. She walks over to him and begins to try and chisel gold out of his stone pockets. Unfortunately his gold has also turned to stone. We pointedly ask her what she's doing to our friend. She says that he was her slave and he owes her money. We point out that he's stone now and she can't get any money out of him now. That and there was no way we were paying for his debt. She introduces herself as Itsa. (Pronounced Eet-sah) Sensing that the group is getting hostile with Itsa, Frank the talking Ape begins to throw trash at Itsa while yelling “leave friends alone!” Itsa lunges at Frank to strangle him. Vara points her bow at the new barbarian while Nex swings his axe but loses his gripe. The axe sails through the air and lands a fair bit away from the group. Itsa takes off running for the axe. Velian tries to Command her to stop but Itsa resists and she continues to run. Natalie Hides in Plain Sight and melds into the area around them. Itsa reaches the axes and picks it up. Deadrick lets an arrow fly and it hits its mark: Itsa's hand. Successfully disarming her, forcing her to drop the axe. Vara attempts to make use of Frank's protectiveness and tosses a piece of bacon at Itsa and yells for Frank to go get it. He bounds towards it and picks it up, completely ignoring Itsa. Velian drops her to knees and prays, her allies feel stronger and blessed, her enemies feel weaker and cursed. Natalie epically back stabs Itsa, making her drop to her knees. Nex take the axe and presses it against Itsa's neck, demanding that she owes him for trying to steal his axe. He gives her the choice: her hand or her becoming his servant. Vara intervenes and suggests that maybe Itsa can travel with us and take Tom's portion until his debt is paid. Itsa being prideful, says “just kill me! I will never be a slave.” Nex gets irritated and says “her life or become servant.” Itsa agrees to fight for us and to take a smaller cut but she won't be a servant. Everyone, even Nex, agrees. Velian heals the group, even our new ally for a little bit, seeing as the group is pretty battle worn. With the scuffle solved, the group heads towards the cave we learned the dragons may be at.

Along the journey, Nexcris offers to read the scrolls Vara has been lugging around for ages. Vara agrees but only if she gets them back. Along the long way, Velian casts Speak to Dead on the minotaur's head and began to question him after informing him of his dead. First question: What do you know about the dragons at the Vermincian Cave? Minotaur answers that they had only heard rumors about the dragons and had no idea they were at the cave though it makes sense that they would be in that area seeing as its pretty secluded. Second question: What happened to the area near the cave? Minotaur has no idea. Third and final question: What suspects did they have in the king's murder? He answers what they already know: just Velian and Nexcris.

They continue traveling along the main road for 6 days, the entire area thoroughly pillaged, until they approach a small town with a wall surrounding it. It looks mostly deserted but Vara looks closely and sees figures hiding behind the wall. She lets the group know, Nex is the only one brave enough to walk straight up to the keep. We heard the sound of a flying arrow then “Stupid! That's not a goblin!” Arrows fly past Nex, luckily missing him. The head guard come out from hiding and apologizes. Explains that travelers are rare in this area lately. Goblins have been raiding the area and the few guards they have left are at their wit's end and quite twitchy. Nex says they just want a place to rest for the night. Vara backtracks from where she was sneaking closer and walks out of the woods & heads towards the town. The rest of the group falling in tow. One of the townsfolk recognizes Frank from the traveling zoo. He asks what we're doing with him. Vara “explains” that she was traveling from Blackberry Falls and came across an attacked caravan with Frank and penguins wandering around lost. So she took him under her wing and is taking care of him. He explains that he knows the owner and that he can take him until he travels back through the town. Vara asks what the owner looked like and nods as he describes the caster gnome. Vara explains that she hates to be the bearer of bad news but one of the dead bodies she found at the caravan sight sounds a lot like that owner and she thinks it'd be best if Frank stayed with her seeing as he's grown attached to them. Vara asks him if there was an experienced ranger in town. He directs her towards Orgone the skinner. Vara, Itsa, & Deadrick head off to the skinner.

Velian waddles around with the 3 remaining penguins that followed them as Deadrick and Natalie watch. Nex questions the guard that approached them when they first entered the town. He asks about any legends of creatures like dragons. They laugh at him and tell him dragons don't exist. Nex cryptically says “I donno man.. I've seen some sh!t.” They shrug and say that the mayor would have more information if there were any mythical creatures near the town. They point him to a large mayor in the middle of town.

Vara, Deadrick and Itsa head to the Skinner's hut. Vara asks if he has any wisdom to share with a young ranger. That she has heard rumors of skilled rangers that can make spikes appear, can create walls of wind, and have a special way of healing unknown to clerics or druids. He says he doesn't just give away information like that. Vara tempts him with a red ruby from her pack. He quickly agrees and they spent the rest of the night training, Itsa, being bored and seeing Vara and Deadrick need no guard, heads back to the rest of the group.

While Vara and Tom wait in the woods for the rest of their group to meet up with them, Vara sees a bunch of birds acting oddly. The birds are flying towards them as well as other wildlife, as if they were running away from something large. Vara climbs a tree and Tom hides in a bush and they wait. 15 minutes pass and nothing happens. They come out from their hiding spots only for Vara to hear giant footsteps, possibly more than one. Vara strains to look. She just barely sees two giant figures pulling cages in a caravan formation. V and T decide to scout the source of the sound out first and sneak closer.

Being injured and slightly clumsy, Tom snaps a twig under his boot and one of the Hill Giants hears him. Being closer, they see that the penguins not the Hill Giants were drawing the cages and that gnomes were in the wagons. The Hill Giant demands Tom come out of hiding and face him. Tom strolls out, brandishes his sword, says “hey!” and pokes the creature with the hilt. Needless to say the Hill Giant #1 did not appreciate being poked. The next thing anyone knows is that, Tom is sailing through the air, having been punted like a football. Tom hits a tree and slides down it, dazed. Vara seeing the Hill Giant head over to Tom to presumably punt him again, quickly reveals herself and tries to defuse the situation. She says that they are just travelers and were alarmed by the sound of the giants and hid in the bushes; that the two of them did not mean any harm nor do they harbor any malicious intent. Tom while shaking off his daze, insults the Hill Giant. One of the gnomes stalks over and gets very irritated at Tom for insulting his friend. Hill Giant, being enraged and by its very nature very bad tempered, throws a rock at Tom. The large rock luckily misses and just hits the tree he hit. Vara still tries to smooth things over with the Gnomes. They say that they are a traveling zoo on the way to Blackberry Falls for the royal wedding, that they were even hoping to sell their rare talking gorilla. The gnomes, having been calmed down, ask us for any news since we were headed from Blackberry Falls. Vara sadly tells them what happened to the king and that there apparently was an attack on the keep. The gnome becomes very distraught at the thought of the money they lost traveling here for nothing and that they can't sell their gorilla.

Vara and Tom while the gnome seems lost in himself, peer at the animals in the cages. They see a large blue reptile that neither of them recognizes in one. A talking gorilla in another. A cage stuffed full of penguins. A few other cages but what they contain the pair can't tell. We implore the head gnome guy to let us look around at their animals seeing as we've never seen most of them before. He agrees but sensing a chance to make some money back, charges us 10 gold each to view the animals. As soon as we pay the Gnome in charge walks us around on a tour of the animals. The first of which is the blue reptile. Turns out, it is a rare beast indeed. It is a basilisk. Head Gnome warns us not to get too close or make loud sudden noises as basilisks are very dangerous and have the ability to turn people into stone. In the next cage there is a large gorilla that keeps saying “hungry.” & “want banana...”. Vara, feeling sorry for the animal, asks the owner if she can give it a treat. They say no that its on a very strict diet. Next they are shown a cage stuffed full of penguins. Like... 50 penguins in one cage. Vara begins to feel overwhelmingly bad for these animals. The head gnome offers to sell some of the penguins for 25 gold each. Vara agrees and buys a solid black female penguin. After having softened up the Head Gnome, Vara asks to pet the Basilisk. While she is talking the gnome into it, Tom eyes the gnome body guard that is standing next to him. He then, against all common sense, tries to punt the gnome body guard into the basilisk cage. He misses and loses his balance. He falls flat on his back and knocks the wind out of himself.

The adventure begins with the group split into three separate groups. Velian and Deadrick in the Blackberry Falls town waiting for the rest of the group. Natalie and Nexcris in the woods to the south, having just killed two people in fancy clothing and carrying a lot of gold on them for peasants. And lastly, Vara and Tom to the north of town, having just killed the guard that stuck his nose where it didn't belong.

After having killed the brother and sister & searched their bodies, Natalie asks Nex if he can tell if her dagger is enchanted at all. He says he can but first he relieves the dead man of his noble clothes and puts them on. They fit but only just, they are a tad too short on the legs. Nex positions himself so his spell range covers the dagger and the two bodies then casts identify. He identifies the dagger as being enchanted so that it gains power after every killing blow in which it is used. (+1 for every killing blow for 24 hours.) They come up with an excuse for why they're coming back early to throw off suspicion and then head back towards town. The excuse is that they met a caravan and the peasants went off with them.

Tom having come out of his full tiger form, begins to feel the pain of his wounds inflicted by the guards. Vara does a little first aid on him. Vara searches the body and finds the typical guard gear: plate mail, long sword, a long bow, arrows, trail rations & a pouch full of 19g. While Vara searches the body, Tom searches the backpack & finds a journal inside. She and Tom flip through the journal but can't read the language. Vara and Tom argue about to burn the body or save it. Vara wins the argument & tucks it away, figuring someone else in the group can read it. They pull the dead guard's body off the road into a bush and kick dirt over the blood from Tom and the dead guard to hide it. After hiding the body, Vara sits and waits by the road for the rest of the group to join them. Tom works himself into a rage at his wounds and heals himself. After healing himself, he joined Vara in waiting.

After having healed some of the injured from the attack on the keep, Velian wanders into the Grinning Goblin thinking it a logical spot for a rendezvous spot. Inside she finds a relatively full bar, one of which is Deadrick at the bar drinking, the first that he's been spotted since they lost sight of him in the crowd when they first arrived. Deadrick is just sipping his ale and mourning Fluffy, all the people he's injured, and the guard he killed. She sits next to him and he realizes he has been sitting here at the bar all day. Velian catches him up the excitement of the earlier and as they are talking the Bartender approaches them and asks Velian for her order. She orders an ale and when he comes back, hesits beside them and strikes up a conversation about what had happened earlier in the day. The bartender is eager for info as no one has made an announcement and there are all these rumors flying about. Velian tells all she knows about the possible death of the king and is vague on the details about the attack on the keep & just tells them about a wild tiger attacking the front of the keep. He gives her the ale on the house for the information she gave him and says if she learns any more information that he'll be happy to make it worth her while by giving her some ale. He leaves them to their conversation and goes to help the other patrons. Velian finishes catching up DR on what he missed this morning.

While Vel is talking to DR, Nat and Nex arrive at the town and head to the Grinning Goblin, the same tavern DR and Vel are in. Nat and Nex walk up to them & they discuss if they should leave right away or wait, before anything decision could be made a Minotaur and two goons walk into the bar. They make a beeline for the barkeep who then point to the group. The group kind freaks half from seeing a fricken Minotaur, half from recognizing the Minotaur from the keep. Velian, recognizes the monster, runs into the backroom to change into her cleric robes and not the silk dress she had been wearing during the king's speech. Nat melds into the crowd and just disappears from sight. Deadrick continues to drink his ale. Nex casts Mage Armor and draws their attention from his magic use.

Nex casually dashes into the kitchen. Nat, still hidden in the crowd, dips her dagger in poison she had stashed as the Minotaur and goons head towards the group. The Minotaur moved past Nat. She then jumps the Minotaur and stabs him repeatedly. He drops to the ground dead. Velian still is in the process of changing into her robes. Nex searches the kitchen and finds another door and nothing more than normal kitchen gear. He returns to the main room in time to see the dead Minotaur (cue “WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!”) and Natalie throw her Dagger of Returning at one of the Goons. Goons (hereby named Goon #1 and #2) swing at Nat. Nex charges & attacks Goon #2, bashing the guard in the shoulder. Nex screams “THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR ATTACKING MY FRIENDS.” DR attacks Goon #2 but misses so completely that they don't even notice him. Nat attacks Goon #2, hitting his hand. Goon #2 drops his weapon and backs up. Nex attacks with his flails and bashes the goon's head in. The remaining goon attacks Nat's torso. Nex attacks and the goon fumbles over the dead body of Goon #2 and falls on his back. DR slashes at him while he's on his back and snuffs the goon life out. The previously crowded tavern is now understandable empty and once again the group has cause trouble and mayhem where ever they went. Nex freaks out and says “what the frick Natalie?!”. Natalie: “You're welcome!” Natalie searches the Minotaur's and finds an 5ft long ornate jet black obsidian axe enchanted with Swiftness. Nex asks for the axe say he may know what it is and Natalie gives it. She also finds 3 platinum and 27 gold which Natalie pockets and the loincloth the monster was wearing. Velian finally comes out the back room with her robes on, ready for a fight, only to see all the enemies had already been defeated. Velian asks Nex to cut off the monster's head, which he does and he wraps the monster's loincloth around it and hands it to her.

The session begins with the group camped out in a meadow just outside of the town of Ardur. We take shifts keeping watch as usual. During the Vara's shift (the 2nd shift) she spots two figures with torches headed the camp's way. She quickly nudges the nearest person, Tom, awake as the figures come closer and she realizes they are soldiers wearing plate mail armor. They tersely question Vara about why they are there and tell us to move on, that they won't have vagrants camping near their city and farms. The group initially begins to agree to move when the fact that Velian is the halfling healer than greatly helped their sick the previous day. The soldiers quickly change their tune and one even goes so far as to give Velian a gold coin so the group can get a room at a tavern. We of course decide it'd be better to sleep with a roof over our heads and not have to guard all night, so we head to the nicest tavern after asking for directions from the soldiers. However the soldier brought up the issue that most taverns would have issue with housing a bare chested barbarian. The owner seems happy to accommodate us but initially tries to sell us rooms at 3g a pop. Being the thrifty adventurers we are, we haggle him down to a 1g a night though less nice room for the group and a warm spot in the stable for Tom our “servant”. Velian pays and the owner calls her a munchkin and the group quickly defends her, saying that's racist. That they prefer to be called halflings. We all crowd into the room with Velian and Nat sleeping on the bed, Nex on the floor, and Vara on the floor as well. During the night Tom sense another person in the stable with him and sneaks up on them and sees a woman and two children. He for some reason wiggles in between them and falls asleep there.

The next morning Tom is woken up by screaming and a guy standing over him with a sword at his throat, ranting about how Tom violated his wife. Tom makes an excuse that he sleepwalked and that he didn't harm the guy's wife at all. The guy of course doesn't believe him. Meanwhile the group is woken up to screaming. Most of the group just roll over and go back to sleep, Nex is the only one that gets up and investigates. He is informed that his servant was causing trouble. Nex says “what servant. We dont have a servant.” Guy doesn't buy it, having seen Tom come in with the group. Nex bribes the guy with 5g to smooth things over and placate the guy whose wife's honor is in question. As they go back and wake up the rest of the group, Nex tells Tom to behave.

The group having been woken up heads down for the tavern's complimentary breakfast. They take full advantage of all the fresh eggs, perfectly cooked bacon, fresh bread, etc. While we finish eating, Nex begins to ask a barmaid questions about the wedding. Turns out the wedding will happen in 3 days and 4 days after that Lord Fellstar is to be executed. She is very excited about the wedding and expresses a wish to go and visit but she can't. Nex offers to escort her for a price but she is put off, not entirely trusting him. While Nex was talking to the barmaid, Nat and Vara think of the bland rations they've been having and decide to pocket some of the free bacon to season future flavorless rations. They manage to pocket 10 pounds (!!!) of bacon between them. The other patrons begin to get suspicious at the rapidly dwindling supply of bacon and begin to give us dirt looks. We are quickly confronted about the lack of bacon for the other patrons. Vara bluffs and says that we aren't stealing it, we honestly ate it. That we have been living off dried out tough deer jerky and tasteless rations and we haven't had food so good in a good while. They believe us and we quickly leave before the smell from our packs or something else gives us.

We make our way to the horses and leave town and travel to Backberry Falls. On the journey, Vara reminds Nat about the money from the cloth sale and the group splits up the money. As we approach the city we're offered wine and bread by drunk people. We talk to the drunk wine&bread guy for a little and learn that they rushed the execution of “tyrant” Fellstar and that we are too late; his head is currently on a pike in the middle of town. The whole town seems to be celebrating just like at Ardur. As we make our way deeper into town we hear a commotion about how Lord Norahkee was making a speech to the crowd. We rush to get closer but the crowd is too thick for anyone but Velian to get close enough to hear. She slips in between the people and gets a spot close to the balcony where Norahkee is speaking from. Lord Norahkee says that this is a great day that the tyrant Lord Fellstar who released the plague on the country side. He also announces his excitement over his son Price Victorious's engagement to Princess Ellena. Then all of a sudden, he grabs his chest and falls off the balcony. The crowd begins to scream and panic ensues. Velian rushes to the fallen lord, yelling that she's a cleric. She discovers that there is a knife in his back as the guards rush up and accuse her of killing the lord. She insists that she was on the ground level the entire time so she could not have killed him and that she's a cleric and she's trying to help him. She casts a healing spells and he awakens only to cough up blood and pass out again. She casts another healing spell and She and the Lord are escorted inside. Nex slipping through the crowd amidst the panic yells that she didn't do it, she's a cleric! They gather him too and escorts him inside as well.

Meanwhile, Nat, Vara, and Tom weren't able to slip through the crowd to get to Velian. They see guards and soldiers picking seemingly random people from the crowd and taking them into the keep. Vara suggests they get out of dodge so they aren't gathered up too and form a plan at a tavern. They head to a tavern and talk amongst themselves, forming a plan to break their missing two group members out of the keep.

While in the keep, Nex & Vel are waiting around in a large room with random people from the crowd. No one knows what's going on but Velian and to a lesser degree Nex. Velian tells Nex what happened. After the next hour or so the crowd dwindles down in numbers. When suddenly, an armed minotaur approaches them and says he needs to speak with Velian. She tells him that she was a cleric, she saw the Lord fall over the balcony clutching his chest and attempted to heal him but didn't know anything else. Nex tells them his side of the story and they learn that the entire royal family has been assassinated. The Minotaur escorts them to a private room with a guard and refuses to let them leave.

Nat, Vara, and Tom come up with a plan to wing it. Sneak into the keep, get close enough to send a tiny animal messenger, and assess out to break them out once we find them. Natalie drinks her blue potion which gives her an increase in Dex and armor class. Tom switches to tiger form and walks through the town with us, freaking people out. Completely blowing any chance at going unnoticed. He begins to jump across the tops of buildings and catches the attention of a guard that was positioned in the front of the keep with 2 other guards. He leaps into a tree and the guard pokes him with a spear trying to get Tom to gtfo. Tom leaps onto the guard, attempts to wrestle him and then rips out his throat. All this fighting caught the attention of 2 other guards from the front of the keep. The 2nd guard attacks Tom and slashes at him with his long sword. Tom then attacks the 2nd guard as even more guards appear.

Taking advantage of the distraction and assuming Tom can handle himself, Vara and Nat creep along the building in front of the keep and around the back end of the keep. They look into the windows but all have tight crossbars over them too small for either of them to sneak through. However they do find the group with a whole bunch of people in it and one guard by the door. They continue sneaking until we spot a 2nd story window that looks like they can fix through. It looks like a tight fit but Vara says if they have trouble they can always use the bacon grease to slip in easier. Natalie uses her grappling hook to climb up to the window and looks in. The room turns out to be a kitchen a person in it is a baker and is kneading dough. She silently climbs through the window and sneaks towards the baker. She then back stabs him, killing him in one hit, she covers his mouth and slowly eases him to the ground so he doesn't make too much noise and alert any other guard. She gives Vara the all clear sign and Vara climbs up.

Nex pacing the room, hears the kerfuffle outside and alerts Vel. He says they need to get out as soon as possible, it sounds like the keep is under attack!”

After Vara climbs up the rope and eases into the room, they open the door cautiously and glance around. They see a long seemingly empty hallway with at least 10 doors on either side of them. They listen intently and hear a guard at the end of the hallway, he walks around and comes into their view partly hidden by the corner. Vara signs to Nat to be silent, and creeps towards the guard as silently as possible. Nat follows behind her but steps on a creaky floorboard and it sounds off in protest, alerting the guard to their presence. Vara quickly draws her bow and shoots him swiftly in the leg. However being the closest to him, he slashes at her and lands a decent blow. Natalie rushes behind him and stabs his neck before he can make too much more noise. They slump the guard in the darkest, out of the way corner in the hallway and they listen down the hallway to hear any sign that more guards heard them and are on their way.

Tom roars really loudly at the gathering guards and charges at the last 2 guards. He tries to jump straight over them but they shove their spears over their heads and into his side belly. The spear heads break off and stay embedded inside him as he lands.

Nex and Vel notice a lot of guards are missing but the guard stationed outside their door has refused to budge. Vel asks the guard what is going on. The guard is terse and beats on the door with his spear telling them to shut up and be quiet, that it doesn't concern them. Nex angrily slams both of his flails into the door so hard they get stuck. The guard then pokes his spear through the door and only the tip reaches the inside. Nex grabs the tip and pulls it the rest of the way through the door, relieving the guard of his spear. Nex then yells “Let. Me. Out.” Velian prepares and readies a healing spell to heal Nex of his hand wound seeing as he's already low on health. Nex kicks the door as hard as he can against his flail and breaks off one of the hinges. This surprises the guard who backs up a little. Velian casts Moderate Wounds on Nex and heals his hand.

Vara and Natalie after killing the guard and while listening for other guards, hear Nex yelling and the sound of the door hinge breaking. They run down the stairs and see the guard. Vel casts hold person on the guard while they run towards them. All the commotion draws the attention of the crowd of commoners that remain in the large room. Nex breaks the other hinge off the door and they walk out the room. Nex approaches the commoners and tell them that everyone needs to leave that the keep is under attack. Vara, out of sight of the crowd, shoots an arrow right up the nose of the guard and implants her arrow in his brain stem, instantly killing him. The crowd, seeing the arrow and the guard drop dead, freak out. Vara rushes in and yells “I JUST SAW THEM SHOOT THE GUARD, WE HAVE TO LEAVE NOW!” While everyone is panicking, Vara alerts Nex to their missing party member and with a meaningful look tries to communicate that its Tom causing the commotion outside not an enemy army. Nex picks up on it and he directs everyone to the front of the keep where Tom and the two guards are fighting. Nex rushes to attack Tom (who is still in full tiger form). Vara yells at Nex to stop that she is a ranger and skill in controlling animals, mostly for the benefit of the crowd. They spot the two guards attack him and she rushes to tell them that he is not from this area and that is why he's attacking and convinces them to let her calm him down and take him back to his natural environment where he won't hurt anyone. They back away and let her do her thing while saying if she fails, they're slaughtering the beast. She walks up slowly to Tom, pulling two pieces of bacon out of her bag. She puts on an act similar to what she'd do to sooth wild beasts and tosses him a piece of bacon, he slowly walks towards her and she feeds him the 2nd piece of bacon while scratching his head. The crowd and the guards cheer and are amazed. She slips a noose of rope around his neck loosely to “control” him. The guards urge Vara to leave town with him immediately. 6 of the commoners that the group“rescued” come up to us and thank us for saving them and beg us to let them come with us. The group insist they can't that its too dangerous. Velian directs them to the nearest church that they are prepared to help the homeless. Most of the group thanks them and goes off. 2 of them remain saying they're homeless and they aren't from around here and need to get out of the city. We tell them we just came from Ardur and its pretty safe though it is a good 3 day journey on foot. They ask for an escort, they say they can pay us. We struggle between the prospect of gold and the fact that we're going the opposite way. The guards come up and question Vara about why she hasn't left town with Tom yet. This forces our hand and we decide, Nat and Nex will escort the two commoners to Ardur and rush back. Velian will stay in town with our horses. And Vara will take Tom and hide out in the forest north of the town and everyone will meet up with them. The guard changes the plan slightly and insists on going with Vara and Tom.

Vara, Tiger!Tom and the guard walk about 10-20 minutes outside of town into the forest away from people and Vara gives Tom a look. Tom pounces on the guard while Vara positions herself behind the guard. Vara shoots, luckily missing Tom as his head was in the way while they were grappling, and shoots the guard in the throat. He passes out and quickly bleeds to death. Vara and Tom drag the body into the bushes and kick dirt over the blood to hide it.

Nex and Natalie go for their horses and escort the 2 commoners down the road about 20 minutes until they can't see anyone else. They talk about being interrogated, the minotaur, and the commoners said they cause an older gentleman being dragged in fully restrained yelling that he'll never talk. Nat and Nex learn that the commoners are brother and sister. They separate the two, the brother with Nat, and the sister with Nex. They talk for a bit and the brother pays Nex with a gem. After receiving payment Nex and Nat stab the brother and sister at the same time. (RIP Random Travelers #1 and 2.) They search the bodies and find that they are wearing fine clothes under their peasant clothes. From the brother's body, Nex grabs 63g and an ornate dagger with a gold hilt with a silver dragon inlay which he gives to Natalie since he can't use daggers. Natalie finds 97g, a gold necklace, 2 rings, and a diamond ring on the sister. They sit and rest and while until an appropriate time to return so it doesn't obviously look like they just robbed & killed them.