I’ll Fix Anything
Outside Northgate
80 – 83rd Day of Autumn
Year 217
Vanja, Roux, Ethan, Astarael, and Lumotu met in secret to discuss rumors and potential opportunities for the coming days ahead. Ethan revealed that he had gathered information about a number of shipments being sent from the Great Houses to reinforce and resupply the Painted Swans, and also noted that he believed this information had been passed to the Conspiracy by one of his noble contacts.
Vanja revealed that she had overheard a rumor about a broken drainage grate on the eastern side of town that was under reconstruction and could provide a way to come and go from the city while avoiding the main gates for a few weeks.
The group decided to attack the shipments headed south from the city with the possibility of attacking both shipments if all went according to plan.
The party split into two groups with Astarael, Vanja, and Roux scouting ahead, while the Ethan and Lumotu obtained a wagon, wheels, and items to disguise the cart as a traveling merchant specialized in wagon-repair.
The scouting left town through the damaged grate and camped in the forest for the evening, and come dawn met an unexpected visitor — a strange fey-touched warhorse that seemed drawn to Roux, whom he introduced to the others as Somersault.
The parties converged and set out onto the road with the plan to travel ahead of the supply wagons and travel slowly so that they would be passed by the quicker of the two and then follow them from a distance until they camped for the night.
The plan seemed to be succeeding, with the lead Silverun wagon passing the party as dusk approached. However, not only did the party notice the other group beginning to catch up behind them, but the lead wagon came to a stop, enfaltered by a broken wagon wheel.
The party pulled their cart to the side of the road to aid the stranded Silverun wagon, with most of the party hidden under blankets, while Ethan and Vanja pretended to be a pair of married merchants offering a wagon wheel at an outrageously high (and yet reasonably) price.
They succeeded in gathering some more detailed information about the wagon and its guards, but at the cost of raising a small degree of suspicion (and selling them a wagon wheel).
The party moved ahead, deciding it would best to let the second wagon catch up to them and to spring their trap while the first was still under repair. However, as the second wagon approached in the night under the light of torches, the party discovered to their horror that it was not the Petriar wagon they were expecting, but a patrol of seven Painted Swan soldiers on horseback.
The Painted Swans had been informed of the peculiar behavior of the merchants and decided their wagon had been selected for a random search. A soldier dismounted and began to climb onto the side of the wagon, soon to discover the hiding party, when Ethan gambled at implying he would be willing to bribe the soldiers — the gambit succeeded and for a mere ten nine gold coins the soldiers passed them by.
Relieved, the party gathered themselves and then noticed a campfire back in the direction the first wagon had stopped for repairs, and moved off into the forest to investigate and execute their plan of forcing the guards to surrender and taking the wagon without killing any of the house guards.
Unexpectedly, however, as the party maneuvered closer Vanja came face to face with one of the patrolling house guards and in a moment of alarm set into him with her axe to keep him from warning the others. The guardsman survived and cried out a warning of “bandits!”
The guards were roused and immediately began to engage in combat with the party, believing them to be bandits set on stealing the shipment. During the battle, Lumotu used his magical staff to summon forth a creature named Ssasheth, an enormous eel manifesting from vapors and melting snow.
The party managed to take three of the Silverun House Guards alive, but three were killed — one devoured screaming by Ssasheth, whose hunger seemed more ravenous than his desire to follow Lumotu’s wishes, while another was dissolved by necrosis in a horrific release of Vanja’s Jorungun magic. The shocked rune-maker tried her best to save the man’s life, but his wounds were too severe, and the party was forced to put him out of his misery.
The party extinguished the campfire and fell into intense debate about what to do with the survivors and the unintended consequences of the battle, during which Astarael revealed a number of details about her life before coming to Northgate — notably that she had been a prisoner of the Painted Swans in the capital city of Isendel, where she was forced to develop the lethal aspects of her strange powers and met a half-elf named Eirlys Thorne, Danica’s father, who helped her escape.
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Whatever Keeps Them Alive | 83 Autumn
The capturing team discuss what to do with the captive guards. (Astarael, Ethan, Lumotu, Roux, Vanja)