Campaign 1 session 3

It's May 3rd, and the party has bought their supplies for their journey to the swamp. As they are getting ready to leave the town, they see a noble lady at the gates ready to leave as well. She is with 2 guards, a carriage, and a horse. The noblewoman approaches the party and asks them if they are heading south and if they want to help in escorting her to Elridge the capital city for 50 gp. Since Elridge is on the way to the swamp, the party agree and they set off from Cleyden.

On the road the noblewoman rides alone in the carriage, and her guards and the party walk alongside. The noblewoman introduces herself as Winona Beistor, and the party recognize her by her surname, since they have encountered her husband John Beistor before. She tells the party that she has been invited to join the council of Danos by request of the queen to aid her in political matters. Theodor tells her that they heard her husband talking to the sheriff, and she briefly reiterates the ordeal she and her husband had with the mercenary they hired.

During their travel, Ossie ponders over her decision to leave on this journey with the party, and thinks it might have been a bad idea and might get them all killed. Theodor as well thinks about the situation he's in, and is very worried if Cleyden will remain a safe place for him in the future. The party travels all day, and set up camp for the night some time away from the town along the way, Cliffburgh. Ossie and Mundo take watches. In the morning they pack up their things, and head off to Cliffburgh which is close by now.

In the morning on May 4th before they reach town, the party hears a buzzing noise from their right. Soon, 4 giant wasps appear from the woods and attack the party. Aided by the two guards, the party is able to defeat the wasps, although one of the guards called Viljami gets killed, and Theodor is knocked unconscious by the sting of a wasp. They are able to stabilize Theodor, and they lift him and the dead guard into Winona's carriage and continue on their way.

The party arrives in Cliffburgh two hours later. Cliffburgh is a woodcutter's town with old musical traditions. There are many famous bards and musicians who come from Cliffburgh, and they often return here to play their music. Theodor wakes up in the carriage as they arrive in town. Winona leads the party to an inn in town. The young halfling boy working there bows to her and gives her three rooms. She tells the party she bought them two rooms, and heads off upstairs to her own room and says she does not want to be disturbed. Mundo asks the local bartender if there's any music being played tonight. He tell's Mundo that Elijah, the most famous bard in all of Danos is playing tonight at the local tavern, so the party head out to listen in the evening.

At the tavern the party sits down at a table and buy some drinks waiting for the performance. A cloaked figure with long gray hair walks up to their table and asks them if he might sit down since the place is full of people. The party agrees to let him sit with them. The cloaked man tells them he's a kind of jack of all trades swordsman, who works many different types of jobs. He also says he's recently had a job which didn't end well, and is now headed south. As he leaves the table for a moment to get a beer, the party suspect among themselves that this is the man John Beistor had an issue with. As the man returns to the table, Mundo attempts to persuade the man to talk about his bad job he did, but the man is not eager to reveal anything. Theodor invites the man to play dice with him, and attempts to cheat. The man notices this and takes his and Theodor's money, and leaves in silence. After the performance ends the party heads back to their inn and goes to sleep.

The next morning on May 5th they knock on Winona's door and she opens it clearly very hungover. She tells them to meet her at the gate ready to leave in 30 minutes. The party gather at the gate and meet Joni, Winona's other guard already there. Winona arrives with her horse and carriage after a while, and from another direction the cloaked man from the night before also walks up to the gate. As Winona sees this man, her eyes widen and she points to him yelling at him that she recognizes her and she asks him what he's doing here. Theodor instantly attempts to incapacitate the man with his hypnotic gaze. He is unsuccessful. The party and Winona's guard Joni surround the man. Mundo spreads his bag of ball bearings on the ground. The group is able to keep the man from escaping, and Mundo begins to tie his rope around the man. The man attempts to slow this down by casting a Command spell on Mundo, which for a round causes him to undo the rope. In the end they are able to incapacitate him. On Winona's orders, Joni runs off to fetch the town sheriff. Some moments later the sheriff arrives with Joni. Winona comes and talks to the man, who has been revealed to be a Slayer, a trained mercenary from the ancient Guild of Slayers. Theodor takes his 4 gp from the man, and Mundo takes the slayers remaining 3 gp. They find Winona's necklace in the man's backpack. Before the man is taken away, he tells the party to be careful of this woman since she might not reward them for a fair job. The sheriff then takes the man to jail. The party ask Winona if they will be rewarded for recovering her necklace, but she says that it was not part of their deal. They then head out of Cliffburgh towarsds Elridge.

On their way to Elridge, Joni the guard is suddenly attacked by a tree along the road. The tree's branch strikes Joni in the chest, killing him instantly. The party then fends off the tree, and after some struggle, they are able to bring it down. Winona, clearly saddened by the loss of both of her household guards, asks the party to lift the corpse of the other guard onto the carriage and they continue on their way. During the the travel, Brae thinks to himself about how he was uncertain about leaving on this trip, and is not sure about how it will turn out. But he wants to stay positive, and thinks about the money they will hopefully make. Mundo on the other hand as a young man is excited for adventure, and hopes to find some interesting things at this hideout at the swamp.

The party arrive in Elridge in the evening that day. Elridge is a huge densely populated capital city. The party agree to spend a week in town to rest before moving on. During the week of downtime, Ossie helps out at a local blacksmith's smithy earning a wage. Mundo plans to rob a poor merchant, and succeeds, netting him 20 gp. Brae spends his time fishing, with little success, and catches 14 fish during the week. Theodor spends three days learning his Continual Flame spell from his scroll, and the rest of the week in the grand library of Elridge reading on Murkdor swamp, the Cult of Velthara, and any famous broken swords.