Shadowsilver salutes the Horn Hill army and the group departs to the south along the same path they followed from Blackmont.
As they pass through the fallen soldiers, Shadowsilver and Burton begin to search the corpses for loot, but it is soon discovered that these men were just “poor soldiers” and had no valuables. It was already known that their weapons were not worth the iron from which they were forged, and so The Unlikely Assembly, Busters of Ghosts, and Gang of Solutionists marches on.
It is noted at this point that Qhortho does indeed have a warhorse. It is known. It is also known that giving his horse an order to attack is done with a simple spoken word due to the Path of the Horse he began recently.
The path, this time through, is much easier to travel. After a few days, the group encounters 5 Giant Boars and relieves them of their miniscule lives with ease, earning each member 360XP.
They continue to head south until reaching the river, bear left along the river and travel another 5 days before crossing the second fork of the river you had been following. They bear south and, 5 days later, as Blackmont gets out of sight, Qarzdaq awakens.
After some bantering about eating a bad batch of mushrooms, they continue their journey south towards High Hermitage.
One night, while Qhortho is on watch, he hears rustling in the bushes – a troll rushes out to attack! His claws deal significant damage, followed by a strong bite. Qhortho slashes into its flesh and yells out, “TROOOOLLLLL!!!”
The rest of the group, startled from their slumber, jumps to their feet. Tholannan, seeing the threat, briefly looks down at the ground and mumbles, “shit…” as he realizes he forgot to mention the troll he encountered on his way to meet up with the group.
Qarzdaq casts Hold Person, the same spell that paralyzed the hump-not-hunch-back maester in High Hermitage.
One after another they proceed to stab and slash the beast until Shadowsilver delivers the final blow.
Burton extracts some of the troll’s teeth; Qarzdaq carefully removes its liver. Each member receives 360XP.
After resting, they continue on their way to High Hermitage. Before reaching the gates, Tholannan recounts the conversation he had with Ser Payret Dayne about the issues experienced around town and the so-called “bill” they racked up of 2,125gp.
Qarzdaq asks if Qhortho could deal with the horses while the rest of the group treats with Ser Payret. Qhortho agrees and decides to go to tavern next.
After some squabbling over the events the night of the maester’s demise, Ser Payret attempted to catch the group in a net of their own mistruths, but it seemed clear that he wanted to find a dead end to his investigation to retain you as his Gang. Burton, gives Ser Payret the troll teeth in tribute.
Accepting this, he asks, “If we are to decide these matters settled, how do ‘we’ deal with ‘our’ people. For, if you are with me, you are with us: my town, Starfall, and each inhabitant of both.”
Qarzdaq asks how they can assist non-monetarily.
“The alchemist’s daughter was killed. I can’t just let this go entirely. Do you have any ideas for how this may be mended?”
Tholannan asks about gathering witnesses and holding a trial. Burton asks about helping to find the real thief.
Ser Payret looks down and shakes his head slowly. “Ok, ok… I’ll take care of this around town, but I ask that you keep in mind this debt, of sorts, and ask that you continue to think about how you might help make this right.”
Qarzdaq, Burton, and Tholannan make their way to the alchemist; Shadowsilver decides to wait at the tavern, knowing that her presence would not be productive.
Upon arriving, they walk in the shop and see the alchemist with his back to the door in the middle of alchemming.
Qarzdaq gets his attention and offers his condolences for his daughter on behalf of The Assembly. He then proceeds to ask if the troll liver might be worth something.
Noting that it is fresh, the alchemist says it can be used in some regeneration potions and as materials for sorcery. From this one, he gauges that he can make 5 moderate regeneration potions (+10 HP at the start of each turn for 5 turns = 30 seconds @ 10HP/6 sec; taking acid or fire damage negates this effect on the next turn). He would normally do this for 100gp each and that’s a really good price. He offers to do it for 50gp each since Qarzdaq has brought the liver for him. Qarzdaq agrees to this price.
Burton asks to identify the “pink cloud potion” – it turns out to be a Potion of Mind Reading. He then asks about his other potions, 2 green and 3 red. The green ones are poisons meant for spiking beverages. The red ones can be dubious; they can be healing potions or crafty poisons. The alchemist tests the red potions on some centipedes and finds that 1 is a poison and 2 are healing potions.
Before they leave, Tholannan wants to take a few moments to speak with the father of the woman he grew to love and lose is such a short time. He says that he truly wants to get to the bottom of who stole the potions and asks if the alchemist had any information at all. The alchemist says that he does not have any evidence and had not seen anything suspicious that night.
They then discuss the dead maester, and the alchemist provides some more information about the man before he turned monster. The maester, Maester Allen, apparently was an eccentric man who concocted his own formulas and tested the potions on himself.
The alchemist asks if they could keep him in mind if they find materials that may help him.
The whole group reconvenes at the tavern… except Tholannan who visits the grave of his recently departed, and merges with the gravestone for 8 hours.
The remainder of the group buys accommodations for the night and rests until morning, when they meet in the tavern and Bancey Roman, the barkeep, asks if they’ll have breakfast, which they do.
It turned out that Qhortho had been sleeping at one of the tables the whole night. Shadowsilver mentions that he may have eaten a bad mushroom.
Soon after the group sits down to eat, Tholannan enters the tavern and asks what happened to him, motioning to Qhortho. Bancey interrupts and asks if he’ll have breakfast. He says, “Nah.” She says, “Are you sure? You look like you’ve been up all night!” He says “Ok. Give me a plate of meat and some hard cider.”
Before they leave, Qarzdaq runs by the alchemist’s shop to pick up the regeneration potions and hands one to each of his comrades, except Qhortho, who is in no shape to be using his limbs at the moment.
As Qarzdaq tucks one of the regeneration potions into Qhortho’s bag, he suggests they get out of town towards Skyreach and just tie Qhortho to his warhorse “because [the horse] likes him.”
On their way to Skyreach:
SHADOWSILVER: What should we do about this kidnapped kid – the Selmy kid was it?
BURTON: A kidnapped kid deserves kidnapping!
QARZDAQ: Thol and I should probably go with the diplomatic approach whilst you two sneak around as a backup plan. Thol can message you if we need to put that plan in action.
SHADOWSILVER: If we do as you suggest, we need to split up and pretend we don’t know each other. Or, we can go in together and just be sure to lie low.
THOLANNAN: The first thing we need to do is find out where this child is being held so we can determine whether a diplomatic approach can be applied.
After some discussion…
SHADOW: I think we should go in as a group and assess the situation.
THOLANNAN: I agree.
BURTON AND QARZDAQ: Same here.
One random day in their travels, they catch a sabretooth tiger by surprise enjoying a raccoon meal.
Shadowsilver launches an arrow – it hits true. Burton launches another, killing it where it stands, earning each member 90XP.
A couple of nights later, while Shadowsilver is on watch, she hears a rattling in the bushes. She wakes up the group and aims her bow towards the sound. Before the creatures make themselves visible, the rest of the group arms themselves, except Qhortho, who is still tied to his horse sleeping.
Emerging from the bushes, four scorpions rush the group.
One of them attacks Shadowsilver, and it was then learned that her uncanny ability to dodge is a REACTION to a single attack per round and that it applies to an attack’s damage ONLY, excluding any additional after-effects of the attack. Such after-effects include grapples and poison. It’s too bad that one of our protagonists had to undergo such a brutal experiment to discover this.
As the fight progresses, Shadowsilver uses a regeneration potion taken from her belt that, like everyone else’s belts, allows for 4 potions to be holstered. Burton soon uses his as well.
Everyone except Tholannan becomes grappled, and it soon discovered that escaping a grapple takes an action, though there is no penalty to attacking a grappler while in a grapple; a grapple only forces one’s movement to zero.
Qarzdaq launches a fireball that is just far enough to scorch two of the scorpions but not his allies, and it manages to take one of the scorpions and brings the other close to death. Tholannan then raises his mace and crushes that scorpion with its silver spikes of death.
With two scorpions left to fight, the group has little time for celebration. Burton yells out, “Don’t worry guys! I have this claw out of commission!”
Qarzdaq launches another fireball, resulting in some significantly scorched scorpions.
Tholannan launches some magic goodness, destroying the scorpion still grasping Burton. Now freed, and with a surge of resilience, Burton destroys the last scorpion.
It was then discovered that critical hits do not impact results of poison, only the physical attack itself.
Each member gains another 560XP.
The scorpions are then harvested for 4 oz. of venom each, yielding 16 oz. total. It was also realized at this point that toads have 2 oz. of poison to be harvested each, though to be fair, no toads were present at the time of these happenings to verify this fact.
The group rests after some more back and forth banter about the poison.
Arriving at Skyreach
The stream running parallel along the south side of the road graduates to a river as they continue east towards Yronwood.
The mountains ahead give way to a wide road that is clearly the easiest way north. This road looks to be smoother and less steep than most encountered over their travels, though the steep rocky slopes to either side of the road may be aiding this appearance.
To the east, farther along the road being traveled, a castle carved into the stone of the mountains is sighted far above the group. The towers soar above the closest peaks with a lofty perch up front, clearly designed for guarding the wide roadway to the north. The flag of House Fowler whips in the wind attached to the tallest of those towers. Finally, after 35 days of travel since leaving Horn Hill, they have arrived at Skyreach.
As they approach, they can see that the town is larger than it appeared to be from the outside, resembling Starfall in many respects; it has tall towers, a picturesque profile, and is well-guarded on all sides, albeit by mountain rather than water. However, it is only about half the size of Starfall.
There is a single entrance gate is wide open not far along the road. Five guards are at the gate, but none of them are keeping very good watch.
Burton disguises himself as a dog and walks up to a guard. They pay him no notice, so Burton uses a cantrip to make a loud fart sound come from one of the guards. This spurs some joking back and forth, but nothing of any consequence.
They decide to go in through the gate and head to the tavern.
Before joining them, Burton takes a lap around the block and hears some commoners talking about how “Dorne would be nothing without us guarding the Wide Way.” He then waits until no one is looking and turns back into his natural form. He then goes back to the group in the tavern and tells them about what he’d just heard.
They have some drinks and Burton, with all the confidence in the world, saunters over to a table nearby with a group of hardened individuals, wanting to tell them a story of recent exploits felling scorpions. He says, “Have I got a story for you. Blegh gra bluh…” He looks up at their confused faces, “No no no no no… seriously. Blegh gra bluh blubbiy gluh drub…” As quick as the decision was to visit his neighbors, the decision to head back to his table was equally swift.
Qarzdaq attempt to convert a local and succeeds. He tells the man about recently taking the word of R’hllor to Harvest Hall and asks about whether anyone from Harvest Hall is around the area. The man emphatically says that they do not come down this way because they are part of the Reach and continue to hurt our people. Qarzdaq reminds him that we are all one in the name of R’hllor, but the man seems reluctant to agree with that entirely, even with his newfound faith.
The man then proceeds to give a history lesson of the region:
The Reach has been invading Dorne for as long as the Andals have been here. They continue to try to take our lands; we continue to fight them back. And sure we invade them too, but that’s the Marches — they have been contested for hundreds of years. They constantly come through the mountain ranges where they have watch towers. The best way is through the Wide Way, the large road headed north just outside the main gates. Skyreach is charged with keeping watch of the Wide Way.
Qarzdaq asks about what he thinks of The Sandship and says that some believers are in that region.
He says that he’s never been out that way, but nothing against them. Nothing worth going out there though.
They tidy up the conversation and the group discusses plans for entering the keep.
Burton morphs into a dog again and enters the keep’s outer wall into a courtyard, where a robed maester is staring up at the clouds in the sky intently. Handfuls of non-noteworthy people are entering and exiting the gateway to the keep. Some kids are running around playing in the courtyard.
Burton uses a minor illusion to make a smiley face form out of the clouds right in front of his face. The maester shakes his head and the image is gone. He then writes some notes on a vellum sheet.
Burton changes back to his natural form and rejoins the group. He relays the information about the lax security and the maester.
Qarzdaq mentions that a diplomatic approach may be the best way to win over this town and that they should just go to Lord Fowler as the Gang of Solutionists. Everyone agrees.
They make their way into the courtyard of the keep and see a maester donning a chain of Yellow Gold, Iron, and Tin.
Burton makes one of the clouds look like a middle finger in front of the maester’s face and he runs inside the castle.
The main castle doors are open, so the group enters and as they pass through the entryway, they quickly notice that everything is very ornate and impeccably decorated.
There is a continuous buzz of action all around. Burton whips his cape around himself and transforms into a dog, which then runs out from under the falling cape. Burton Dog then runs in the direction of the fleeing maester.
Burton finds himself in an ornate sitting room with the maester, which is otherwise empty. The room has ornate bookshelves, a table with four chairs and a very ornate rug under the table.
The maester is standing in the middle of the room in a state of confusion and talking to himself “…this cannot be true … what did I just see??? did someone poison me???”
The maester sits in one of the chairs and starts scribbling on the vellum.
Burton disguises himself as part of a chair and the maester does not take any notice.
The maester composes himself, looks around the room, then calmly gets up and leaves the way he entered.
Upon making his way to the entrance, he sees the group (minus Burton) standing in the foyer. He asks, “What can I do for you?”
Qarzdaq says, “We are the Gang of Solutionists from High Hermitage.”
Burton comes around the corner from behind the maester, who is a little jumpy at this point and barks, “Whoa. What are you doing back there?”
Burton says that he was just trying to meet back up with his group.
The maester, a bit flustered, tells him to get in front and with his group. Burton tells him to “calm down friend.”
MAESTER: Calm down?!
Burton shows his Gang of Solutionists credentials and apologizes for startling him.
MAESTER: Normally I’m not like this… there was the courtyard… then… well… doesn’t matter. Ok, all is well. What can I do for you?
QARZDAQ: We are the Solutionists and we bring solutions.
The maester lightheartedly quips, “Well, I am a maester, I bring knowledge. What can I do for you?”
QARZDAQ: Is there anything going on that might use our talent?
SHADOW: What are the regional politics like these days?
MAESTER: Well, that’s a broad question – stable?
THOLANNAN: What makes things so stable?
He then tells them about how all of Dorne is united to hold the Marches from the invaders from the Reach and that we’ve held it stable for hundreds of years. He talks about the Wide Way being a major trade route to the north.
Knowing this group of people are not from around the area, he asks to see everyone’s credentials. He takes his time to inspect each one. After deciding he is comfortable, he offers to take the group to Lord Fowler and says, “My name is Maester Fransys, by the way. Please wait here and I will return once I know Lord Fowler is ready to see you.”
Five minutes pass and Maester Fransys returns “Lord Fowler will see you now”. He motions for you to follow him.
Off of the main entryway, they follow the maester into a room with a long finely crafted dark oak table. There is a balcony around the entire room, filled bookshelves lining every wall on the lower and upper levels. This is clearly a learned House. There are doorways at the balcony level that lead to other rooms on a second floor.
An old man with disheveled gray hair crowing his wrinkled brow, stares off with half-closed gray cloudy eyes. Sitting at the table, slightly hunched in his chair, drinking wine. The door to the room closes behind you and the maester is gone.
LORD FOWLER: What can I do for you? It’s not often I get unknown visitors asking for me by name.
BURTON: I don’t think we asked for you by name, we just asked to speak with the Lord and we are honored to be in your presence.
LORD FOWLER: And that is my name.
BURTON: Very funny, very funny.
LORD FOWLER: And what can I do for you?
QARZDAQ: We are the Solutionists of High Hermitage and we were wondering what we might do for you.
LORD FOWLER: Nope, we’re pretty well off here.
BURTON: Well actually, more than that, we were wondering if there are any personal relationship rifts that need mending.
The old man continues to stare off into the distance.
THOLANNAN: Excuse me sir, what are you researching?
LORD FOWLER: I’m not researching anything specific.
BURTON: What are you doing here right now?
LORD FOWLER: Drinking wine!
He maintains his stare into the distance with a slight grin.
LORD FOWLER: Please sit. Have some bread, drink some wine.
Burton takes a seat and takes a mini loaf of bread.
The group uses Qarzdaq’s message spell as an inefficient method of communication for a solid minute
LORD FOWLER: You’ve been awfully quiet, was there something you needed?
Tholannan casts Zone of Truth but it fails.
The group again resorts to Qarzdaq’s message spell and another 30 seconds pass.
LORD FOWLER: Friends, you’ve requested my presence, and now are silent. Was there something else I could do for you?
SHADOW: Well, we’ve come to see if there was a way we could help your town, but you’ve said there’s nothing that you need, so we’re trying to determine what we can do to be of service.
BURTON: Let’s move to other things that maybe don’t concern us as much. I know kidnapping is very much accepted in this realm. I do admit that I am one for gossip. Have you heard any interesting things about that?
LORD FOWLER: How would I know what you would find interesting? What I would say is that kidnapping is not the norm of the South. Perhaps you are mistaken and you mean to say “ransoms”. Ransoms are a way to maintain… shall we say… stability.
BURTON: Yes, yes. How much of that has been going on recently?
LORD FOWLER: Recently? Well, it’s not something of an activity… it’s more… a way of solving a sticky situation.
QARZDAQ: Do you have any children being held ransom?
LORD FOWLER: Yes, I do, but it’s not recent.
As the Solutionists continue to ask questions about how and why ransoms work, and he assures them that he keeps his ransoms as if they are his own children, and are not mistreated.
SHADOW: Well, we’re going to get out of here. It’s been a pleasure. If you decide you need anything, we’ll be staying at the Furlow Inn for a few days before leaving town.
QARZDAQ: Yes, please let us know!
LORD FOWLER: Alright, well my maester says that you are from High Hermitage so if you want to come back, you are welcome.
As Shadowsilver reaches for the door’s handle, it does not move. She pushes and pulls lightly, but it does not budge. It is locked.
LORD FOWLER: So… My turn for some questions… How did you get into being Solutionists. I can tell by your accents that you are not natives.
Shadowsilver tells of the story of their encounter with the previous Solutionists and how they rose to accept the title.
BURTON: Is this door always locked, my lord?
LORD FOWLER: It is when I do not know with whom I might be treating.
QARZDAQ: You know us by our credentials…
SHADOW: And we were escorted here by your maester…
LORD FOWLER: Yes, yes… Why the interest in the Selmy kid?
The Solutionists now understand that this old man’s aloof nature was not indicative of his faculties and that he was merely feeling them out to determine their true goals. It is now understood that this man is clever and strategic.
QARZDAQ: We did not say Selmy.
LORD FOWLER: No, but I have but one ransom.
QARZDAQ: Interesting, we did not know that.
THOLANNAN: We have no problem with your ransom or your ways of conducting your business.
LORD FOWLER: And I have no problem with you.
BURTON: We are the Solutionists and as such we bridge gaps; we help to bring about understandings that may not have otherwise been achieved.
LORD FOWLER: “Solutions” from which region do you bring?
QARZDAQ: We bring solutions from Dorne, for Dorne.
LORD FOWLER: We are part of Dorne.
QARZDAQ: That’s why we’re here!
The situation ratchets up a level of awkwardness as the line of conversation hits yet another dead end.
BURTON: We are ordained by Ser Payret Dayne, there is no ulterior motive.
LORD FOWLER: This interest in ransoms is not a Solutionists charge. This is an odd circumstance.
On their 145th day since leaving their homes and 11,235XP wiser, after battling all sorts of strange beasts from this world and beyond, has the Assembly met their most dire confrontation yet? Tune in next time for The Unlikely Assembly!