Stop the Poaching - Group 2, Session 8
General Summary
We pickup up with the party of Aliya, the Halfling rogue, Aryk the Dwarven fighter, Tanalith, the Elven ranger, Thornas, the half-elven monk, and Zatqualmie, the Gnomish cleric arriving at the resort's docks in their rowboat. A cargo of a few empty pixie crates, a backpack full of loot, and the body of poacher Gadwyn Staunton is scattered at their feet. They realize they must hurry to the poacher rendezvous point at Gimna's Palace if they want to have any chance of dealing with the leaders of the poaching ring once and for all. As Aryk directs the others to leave the body in the boat for the time being, but secured with a tarp, Aliya rushes into the resort to stow the extra backpack of potential loot that had been amassed. She rejoins the group as they get ready to head for the casino.
The Battle in the Basement
At the back of the casino, they find a pair of bulkhead doors - chained and padlocked - that clearly lead to the cellar beneath the casino. The key they had obtained from Gadwyn's body fits the lock and the doors are quickly opened. Lantern light shines up from a room above, and as the group decides who should enter first, Aliya sneaks down the stairs quietly. Thornas, shrugging his shoulders at the sight of the halfling simply taking the initiative, follows.The room is a lit storeroom, with beer kegs lining the north wall. Aliya, remembering the poachers mention "the room behind the kegs", checks out the plank walls and soon finds the latch that releases the secret door. Aryk and Tanalith have, by this time joined the two in the cellar, leaving Zatqualmie outside to keep watch lest any more poachers arrive.
After muscling a few kegs out of the way, Aliya opens the door to find another tiny room with a few empty pixie cages in it. Looking around carefully, though, she uncovers a second secret door that opens into a dark, narrow passage that seems to have been cut out of the earth and stone. After quickly quaffing a Darkvision elixir, she carefully slinks down the passage while Aryk tries to organize the rest of the group.
Aliya turns a corner to see a "T" passage ahead and turns back to announce this to the group. As soon as she does, though, a voice comes from the right-side branch ahead of her, "Oy, Gadwyn, is that you? Yer late, y'know!" Not knowing quite what to do, and to the horror of Aryk and Thornas, who heard the stranger's challenge, Aliya answers, "Uh... Gadwyn sent me ahead to say he'd be a little late."
A second later, a human figure appears at the cross-point of the "T" striding in Aliya's direction. Clearly not expecting to hear the high-pitched female voice of a halfling, "Oh yeah? And just who are you?" he challenges. He also reaches out to grab the halfling, who manages to evade the first grab, but not the second. As the human begins to drag Aliya back to wherever he came from, he adds, "Just come with me and tell me all about it." Aliya's squeals and struggles are clearly heard by Aryk and Thornas.
As Aliya does what she can to make it difficult, Thornas pushes past Aryk and charges down the tunnel, reaching the "T" just as Aliya is being pulled around the corner. He tries to rain a flurry of blows down on the attacker, but fails to connect significantly. Perhaps it was his attempt to avoid hitting Aliya, or perhaps it was because Aryk, having regained his composure suddenly arrives and muscles past him, knocking him slightly off balance. Aryk, in the meantime, ends up facing the stranger, but with Aliya in the way of any attempted attack. Aliya, however, takes advantage of all this confusion to finally slip free of her assailant's grasp; she then skitters behind the dwarf for protection.
The stranger, suddenly faced with two formidable opponents rather than a halfling girl, backs into the lit room behind him, and another stranger takes up a position next to him. Both have now drawn shortswords. Thornas, and then Aryk leap into the room to attack and battle ensues. Tanalith, in the meantime, has also come down the passage and taken up a position at the "T". Between the fists of Thornas, the axe of Aryk, and a well-placed arrow from the bow of Tanalith, the party makes very short work of the two sword-wielders.
A quick survey of this room, and particularly of the large ledger with still-drying entries regarding the sale of "wings" and "intacts" to some unnamed merchant tells the party that they have apparently just missed an important transaction. The room itself is bare except for the table holding the ledger and ink, and a lit lantern, a second empty table, and several empty, open pixie cages tossed in a corner. But there is another door in the north wall.
While Aliya and Thornas go to explore where the other branch of the "T" leads, Aryk and Tanalith open the north door. They find another room - empty except for a table and another lit lantern. But in the ceiling of this room is an open trapdoor. Aryk hoists the elf up through the trapdoor, and Tanalith discovers they are currently beneath Amaric's General Store. This must have been the trapdoor spied by Zat when they first came to the shop two days before. In the meantime, Aliya and Thornas discover the other passage leads to a ladder, and a trapdoor opening into a wagon storage bay in the livery stable across the street. They return to the poacher's lair room to report their findings.
The party realize they may be too late - but perhaps not. The four adventurers run down the stable passage, climb the ladder, and come out in the stables - Aliya snatching up the ledger book on the way. Tanalith throws the doors open, hoping to catch a glimpse of a departing wagon. Seeing none, he dashes off, not telling the others his intention. Aryk grumbles, gathers the others, and after ensuring there was nobody about in the stable, leads the others off in the general direction that Tanalith had taken.
The Pursuit
Tanalith, in the meantime, has taken the shortest route he could envision to get to the northeast edge of town, hoping to spy the wagon. Arriving breathless and bent over, he looks first one way and then the other, seeing nothing. But a voice - an inn patron from the Coach Stop Inn sitting aside the tavern door smoking a pipe - calls out, "Everyone seems to be in a hurry to get somewhere tonight!" Tanalith quickly asks if a wagon had passed recently. The reply from the inn patron is, "Wagon? Can't say, but old Amaric from the general store just passed by not two minutes ago. Astride a horse and heading up the road hell-for-leather! Ridin' like that in the dark is dangerous, but I guess he was in a hurry!"Tanalith turned to head back to the stables, meeting the party halfway. They quickly decide to return to the stables and acquire horses of their own to give chase. Thornas gathers up Zatqualmie, who has been dutifully standing guard behind the casino all this time. Tanalith doesn't bother with a saddle, he chooses a horse, mounts it, and heads out, with nothing more said than "Follow! The Northeast road!" It takes the rest a few minutes to get two more horses saddled - and to get Aryk up onto the saddle of a full-sized beast with Aliya seated behind him. Thornas then mounts his own horse after getting Zatqualmie up behind the saddle. The two horses gallop through the town to catch up to the elf.
The horses were distance riding horses, and could not maintain a gallop for long, but their pace was reasonable. Tanalith ahead, and Aryk and Thornas behind, encouraged their mounts to make as much speed as possible. Nevertheless, it took a few hours before Tanalith finally spied - at the edge of his moon-light-assisted sight - a wagon pulled by two draft horses ahead. It was not moving at a hurried pace. Two outriders on horses had positions near the back, and one more led the wagon. A fourth riding horse was tied to the side of the wagon, and there were two figures on the wagon's bench seat. Tanalith holds back, keeping the wagon at the very edge of his sight, and staying as near the edge of the road as possible to hide in the shadows of the trees until, after some time, the other two party horses arrive.
Again, Tanalith doesn't wait. He urges his horse forward at a gallop. But the sounds of horses and clinking dwarven armor have alerted the wagon and riders ahead. The three outriders quickly take up positions blocking the road, and begin to load crossbows. The wagon, in the meantime, begins to barrel away down the road, the sound of a driver's whip cracking is clearly heard. Tanalith ignores the riders ahead, and the crossbow bolts that fly harmlessly past him - he is intent on catching the wagon. He rides right past the left-most sellsword blocking the road, still ignoring the errant bolts, and heads after the wagon. The horse of the sellsword he nearly crashed into rears in panic; the rider holds his seat, but loses his crossbow. The opponent in the middle - a half-orc - grunts to the one on his right, who peels off to give chase to Tanalith.
Aryk closes to within perhaps 30 or 40 feet before stopping his mount. Aliya jumps off and disappears into the brush north of the road. Thornas decides to follow Tanalith's lead and attempts to ride past the blocking opponents to chase the wagon. Zatqualmie squeals with glee at all the excitement. The half-orc dismounts and approaches Aryk, who has also dismounted. The startled human dismounts and draws his sword. Having heard the sounds of Aliya in the brush, he begins to peer into the darkness to look for the source of the sound. Aryk and the half-orc trade blows before Aryk finally lays the sellsword low.
The remaining human sellsword has moved into the brush, still looking for Aliya. She, meanwhile, has been peppering him with sling bullets. He finally spies her, and lands a few crippling blows, but before he can finish off the halfling, he realizes his leader is dead. Rather than fight further, he stands up and tosses his sword aside, saying simply, "They ain't payin' me enough fer all this!". Aryk and Aliya secure their prisoner and begin the process of gathering horses, who have all headed off in various directions during the confusion.
In the meantime, Tanalith has been slowly catching up to the wagon. The passenger on the right side of the bench has been firing crossbow bolt after bolt at the pursuing elf, but the jostling wagon has kept his aim poor. Finally, when Tanalith reaches the side of the wagon, he leaps from the horse and onto the tarp covering whatever was loaded at the wagon's back. He lands well, and carefully moves forward a bit. Grabbing a heavy sack of something, from the cart, he hurls it at the crossbow-wielding passenger, striking him and causing the crossbow to fly from his hands.
As Tanalith crawls closer to the two on the wagon bench, a second horse pulls alongside the wagon. This time, it is a sellsword leaping from the saddle onto the wagon behind Tanalith. Tanalith fights with dagger; the sellsword with his shortsword, and Tanalith quickly succumbs to the disadvantage. But as the elf falls into the bottom of the wagon amid boxes and sacks, bleeding and unconscious, a third horse arrives.
Thornas, in one move, flips the reins into Zat's surprised hands and leaps into the wagon. Another fight ensues, and Thornas slays the sellsword with his deadly fists. Zat, not sure what else to do... seeing the fallen elf... and seeing everybody else jumping onto the wagon... tries this himself. He succeeds, much to his own surprise. He begins to take stock of the Elf, who at least seems to be stable and not in immediate danger of dying. Thornas, in the meantime, makes his way to the back of the wagon's bench as the driver - realizing defeat - commands the horses to stop.
The Session Ended Here, but will continue in Role-Play Forum.
Rewards Granted
None yet! Adventure aftermath yet to be played out.
Missions/Quests Completed
The Party has discovered the secret basement lair of the poaching ring's leaders. They slew two of the poacher lieutenants who were doing some bookkeeping after having just sold a shipment to a merchant. One of the dead lieutenants bears a striking resemblance to the owner of the General Store - a son, perhaps? The other is a young (twenty-something) human whose clothing smells of horses.
The party then gave chase after learning the General Store owner bolted out of town moments ago. They caught the merchant's wagon, and ultimately dealt with the three mercenaries hired to protect the merchant. These were the same ones they had met in the roadside camp before arriving at Spirit Lake. One was taken prisoner, two were killed. The wagon was stopped, and the merchant, as well as Amaric Duncanson, the General Store owner (and village elder) are now prisoners as well.
