03.01 - "The New Fall Fashion Lineup"

After the previous harrowing adventure at the Cultist Camp; Leo, Sir Hector and Brynne decided to take a much needed rest at the keep, while Bismark helped the local children deal with their grief and pain through prayer and meditation.

Blak and A'pos went on a small shopping foray in town at Trina the Tailor's shop. They entered the quaint, if disheveled, clothing merchant and immediately A'pos began ham fisting all the clothing items.

"Uh....excuse me," said the reserved and country chic Trina. But before she could get a word in edgewise Blak intervened.

"Oh, darling, your store is absolutely marvelous! We're here to get this young lady set up with some fanciful dress!"

"I see," said Trina, legitimately surprised that the lump of dirty rags pawing at her wares was a woman. "Well we do offer the best clothing in town. The only clothing in town now that the dragon came."

"Excellent, I vould like a dress with pockets," said A'pos as she rummaged the neatly folded parcels on each shelf.

"Pockets? Yes, pockets of course.  They are in this time of year," said Trina. "Let me take your measurements," she said in an attempt to distract this raggedy traveller who was mussing her neatly manicured stock. A'pos obliged as Blak nodded to her in reassurance.

"You are the adventurers that saved the town, I recognized you the moment the door opened," exclaimed Trina. "Discounts for our most honored adventurers!"

"Well yes," said Blak. "We are the same. We have had some time to rest but my friend here needs some new clothes.  It is important to her profession that she have some clothing with pockets.  Nothing over the top, but something fashionable would be nice."

Trina looked over A'pos and took some measurements.

"Something that vill fit this," said A'pos while holding up the bottle of liquor she had purchased from Theo earlier. "A coat that vill fit this bottle of liquid."

"Yes," said Trina eyeing the bottle. "I suppose as adventurers such a bottle is needed regularly."

"It is very important to me. It makes me forget," said A'pos as she took a healthy swig from the container.

Trina finished the measurements and assured A'pos that the coat could be completed by the next day.

"What about fleece," asked Blak. "Do you have wares in fleece?"

"Oh certainly. What items were you looking for?  Undergarments," asked Trina.

"Oh, I don't wear those," said Blak with a wink and a coy grin.

Trina blushed. "Oh, my."

"No I was thinking of something quite fancy," said Blak.

After some discussion it was decided that Blak wished to have some clothing worthy of the highest court in the land, and that he wanted silks and chiffon to be the primary cloth. Trina agreed to work hard to get these accomplished for the mighty heroes immediately.

"Could you come back tomorrow morning for more measurements," Trina asked Blak.

"How about I come back later tonight?"

"Oh, I have much work to do making some clothing for the townsfolk after the attack...but...perhaps you could come by later tonight and I could squeeze you in..." Trina said with a knowing look.

Meanwhile Gamble had spent most of the morning lurking around the keep seeking gossip on the local nobles in an attempt to gather information that he felt would "help the group financially". But alas it appeared that Lord Nighthill was generally well liked and respected and perhaps was even a good person. Defeated in this endeavor he decided to see what the guards were up to in the barracks. He was familiar that soldiers liked to gamble away their wages and he saw a prime opportunity to earn some quick money or at least keep himself from getting bored in this one horse town.

He came upon Theo, a guard captain that had helped them in the previous raid, and another guard playing dice while off duty.

"Hello, friends," said Gamble.

"Ah! If it isn't Tamble," said Theo.

Gamble was quick to correct his error and asked if he could sit in on their game of chance.

Theo was skeptical. "Not sure if I wish to play with a person the sport is named after."

"Oh, well they call it gambling for a reason. If you just made money every time they'd call it work," said Gamble.

This seemed to make sense to Theo and the other guard but they weren't sure why and they shared a laugh despite themselves.

Gamble and the guards played the dice game 7's. A simple dice game where each player rolls dice under a cup and bets to see if the cumulative amount is a division of 7. Gamble had no idea how the game worked or even how much was allowed to be bet, but he bet and raised each time with extreme confidence and ended up winning both rounds despite using the rather shoddy wooden dice provided to him by the guards. Again the guards grew skeptical and decided that sitting around chewing the fat was more preferable to losing money to an interloper.

As they sat they discussed the recent disturbing goings on and the prisoner that was waiting to be handed over to the Lords Alliance.

Gamble grew quite somber, "I would leave this place if I was you. I, myself have been wanting to leave this town since I got here, but it's dangerous on the road by yourself.  I have been hoping my rather dumb companions would come to this conclusion too, but they seem drawn to the danger that surrounds this place and so I have no other choice."

"It's hard to leave a place you have known your whole life and with your family in tow," said Theo.

"True enough. But this place is in much danger.  I had a dream about this town several nights ago.  Before I had ever been here.  It was engulfed in flames and torn asunder.  I only realized that this was the place in my dreams when the caravan I rode with arrived to see the dragon.  I wish to leave this place as soon as possible.  The only thing here is death," said Gamble while staring at the shoddy pair of wooden dice in his hand.

Many of the guards in the barracks who overheard were disturbed by this sudden omen and began discussing the possibility of leaving. Gamble, sensing the change in mood excused himself to get some fresh air.

Able was in the library reading more of his grandfathers mysterious book. He had been practising some of the arcane and confusing text in his head and felt that the more he let his eyes run over the text the more he seemed to understand it's incomprehensible logic.

While he was engrossed in a particular passage Escobert came walking in.

"I've got news of the camp, the scouts have come back," he said.

Able jumped up from the table and stuck his head out of the library door. It just so happened that he saw Gamble walking out of the barracks and Blak and A'pos strolling back in from their shopping trip.

"Oy, over here," exclaimed Able. "News on the camp!"

The group made its way into the library and met with Escobert.

He informed them that the scouts reported that the camp was empty. As if the entire army had simply disappeared. His scouts had been able to scope most of the place out from afar but had not looked into the cave as all men were needed now to defend the town. He asked the adventurers if they'd be willing to investigate the area further and attempt to assure the safety of the town. The scouts reported tracks of many kobolds and men headed north. He had to be assured that the danger had passed.

Able immediately agreed to the proposition. He had grown fond of the town and it's ditch liquor and felt that he owed them that much. Gamble was more measured and agreed to do as the group felt was right. A'pos was eager to find out more regarding the scum that had killed her people. Blak was dreaming of the fine tune he could create regarding their adventure.

So it was decided that the four companions would investigate the camp along with the help of guard Theo, and report back what they found.

The five set out for the camp by the usual route with A’postrofae on point. Nothing was sighted and soon the party found themselves at the mouth of a seemingly empty camp. At this point Able began to make gagging sounds, opened his mouth far too much for a normal person and disgorged a bat. Most of the party, especially Theo freaked out a bit. A'postrofae just said, "neat!". After much shouting, arguing and demands that he give them a bit of warning when he is going to puke up bats the party began exploring the camp. Able sent his bat to do a fly through while Theo, Able and Blak began exploring the tents around the mouth of the camp. A’postrofae and Gamble headed immediately to the command tent. Both areas were found to be empty so the party began grabbing useful supplies. In the command tent a few scraps of paper were found showing nothing but numbers that seemed to related to the size of the hoard that they were gathering for the dragons they were trying to hatch.

Gamble and A’postrofae then headed to the cave where the cultists were previously holding prisoners. Upon entering the cave they heard two guards talking to each other in Draconic. A’postrofae translated their bored grumbling for Gamble.

As this was happening Theo sighted a pair of hunters on foot with an elk that they had slain and brought to the camp as part of the contract to feed the cultists. The pair were quickly captured and tied up with rope from the many tents.

They then noticed that they were missing two members of the party and went to the cave in hopes of locating them. As they approached the mouth of the cave A’postrofae quietly came out to the mouth of the cave and motioned for them to be quiet and told them about the two guards via rough sign language. The entire party entered the cave as quietly as possible so as not to alert the guards to their presense. Blak, using skills honed in the underdark, quickly moved into the cave where he saw that they were alone. A’postrofae attempted to move into the cave to get as close as possible made a noise and alerted the guards to the presence.

Blak immediately through a dagger at one of the guards killing him instantly. Someone elsethen attacked the second guard seriously wounding him. A’postrofae then flashed around the edge of the cave and ripped his throat out. Theo, having no idea what to think just stood in shocked silence As the guards were decimated.

The party then began to discuss what to do next. A'postrofae being the impulsive one handed her bottle of Theo's Shine to Theo suggested he take a quick pull and told him that no matter what happened next not to drop the bottle. She then collapsed into a swarm of rats in front of Theo causing further damage to his fragile sanity. A'postrofae then scouted south finding a group of bad guys in a room there while Gamble did what Gamble does and went off to examine the north route.

A'postrofae returned to the group and turned back to her usual form, grabbed her bottle back from Theo and passed on the information. They quietly moved south to the room and the decision was made to have A'postrofae cast Spike Growth into the room much to the dismay of the bad guys minding their own business in the room. Several died immediately before they realized that movement equaled death.

Able then coughed up another bat and had it do some recon in the southern room. At this point a discussion with the bad guys was had and Blak reached a deal with them through intimidation. A'postrofae would drop the deadly spell and they would come out with their hands up. A'postrofae did not drop the spell and when they moved to surrender several more died. A'postrofae yelled, "My bad!" into the room. Doubting that any further agreement could be reached Blak conjured up the image of a mind flayer chewing on their dead friends to try to panic them into further movement. They were however too smart and realized that they weren't deep enough for a mind flayer to be in the area.

At this point, A'postrofae dropped the spell and decided to go feral on the rest of the bad guys and her and Able were able to kill it. The last remaining one was saved from A'postofae's wrath by Blak who sucessfully intimidated her into leaving it alive for interrogation. Shortly after this another bad guy was found in a nearby room and A'postrofae was able to satisfy her remaining blood lust.

While this was happening Gamble was doing Gamble stuff in his adjacent campaign.