Episode 19: Between a Lock and a Hard Place Report

General Summary

The Enemy Within: Enemy in Shadows Episode 19 - “Between a Lock and a Hard Place” 8/9/2020 Post-Game Notes   Day 72 - Bezahltag, 24 Erntezeit, 2512 IC   Picks up as Berebeli clears the lock at Lethov and continues towards Weissbruck

• Morning, Travelers. In the early afternoon, the Berebeli is hailed by a quartet of road wardens, led by Sergeant Glucker. They’re traveling the towpath from Altdorf to Hartsklein to investigate word of banditry in the area. They tell the PC’s to be cautious; a young noble and an artisan were killed in the City last night down by the river…

  Unfriendly Territory. Arrive at Hartsklein in the early evening, and Josef is excited to introduce the PC’s to Henrietta Garland, the elderly halfling woman who runs the lock house by herself.

• As they pull past the weir, a strong young man greets them at the gears: a new hire helping out Henrietta.
• Josef and Wolmar grab bottles of wine and happily lead the way to the lock house. But something seems off…
• A nervous Henrietta leads the party upstairs to her parlour where she’s prepared a lovely meal of sauteed faggots and homegrown asparagus.
• God suspects something and tries nosing around, but is reproached by Henrietta. Beau sets himself obligingly at the table, along with Karl. Kris paces the room a bit, lingering by the fireplace.
• God relays his suspicions (Henrietta didn’t know the name of the new lock-hand), and Josef sends Wolmar to check on the boat.
• As Karl makes a move to investigate the watchtower, three bandits pop out from behind two doors and from down the stairs, weapons drawn. Kris and Beau are taken unawares; God and Karl have time to ready weapons.
• There’s a tense standoff for a moment until God breaks the stalemate by firing an arrow at the leader, a gorgeous leather-clad redhead with a blackpowder pistol. She counters by unloading her pistol at God, who goes down immediately. Note to selves: guns are dangerous.
• A halfling bandit plugs Beau with a crossbow pistol and Karl takes a nasty bolt from the dwarf that had been in the watchtower (lucky that his pants disintegrated and absorbed that blow).
• Kris charges the dwarf and Beau charges the redhead.
• Beau beats the woman into submission before she can draw her dagger, all the while professing his love for her;
• Kris staggers the dwarf and Karl, crazed rage in his eyes, prepares to finish him off;
• God, broken, terrified, and bleeding profusely, crawls under the table while Gilda tries to tend to his wound;
• The halfling bandit runs from the room, down the stairs where he’s heard shouting to the other bandit that they need to retreat.
• Beau and Kris give chase, leading them through a back storeroom where the four road wardens encountered earlier are found tied up. One is dead.
• Beau starts untying the wardens while Kris runs out the back door to see the halfling and human bandits running up the hill towards a distant figure, presumably an ogre named Joos. He shakes his sword symbolically at the bastards.
• Upstairs, Gilda moves from tending to God, to tending to her husband Wolmar, who had been knocked out by the human bandit on the stairs.
• Karl calmly slices the dwarf bandit’s throat and prepares to heave his body out the window.

  Assembled in the ground floor sitting room, Henrietta and Sergeant Glucker fill in the gaps:

• The bandits arrived in the early afternoon, planning to rob the lock house
• When the wardens arrived, a fight ensued resulting in the death of one of the wardens
• Joos, the ogre, was sent to hide or release the wardens’ horses in the hills
• From the watchtower, the bandits saw the Berebeli approaching and hatched a plan: force Henrietta to drug the crew, and they would make off with whatever cash or cargo they could find
• In the middle of this narrative, the dwarf bandit’s body drops past the window and splats on the cobblestones outside. Karl comes down, clapping his hands, moments later.
• Henrietta admits she laced the faggots with an excess of schlaf that she had on hand to make the group fall asleep; she was told that she and the wardens would be executed if she didn’t comply.
• Henrietta prepares a new feast, while the wardens make arrangements to transport the two dead bodies, and the captured bandit leader, to Lethov.
• Sergeant Glucker is grateful and impressed with the Crew.
• Crew spends the night at the lock house, and a grateful Josef promises the best meal of their lives at Dyrath’s Blessings in Schlafbild tomorrow night.
• Turns out, the shot God took to his leg cracked his hip. Gilda estimates that it’ll be oh… about 37 days before it’s all healed.

  Day 73 - Konistag, 25 Erntezeit, 2512 IC  

Good Company. Crew ties up at Dyrath’s Blessings in Schlafbild, an upscale destination restaurant in the heart of the agricultural oasis at the foot of the Skaag Hills.

• On the menu: roasted eel in an herb sauce flavored with a hint of marigold; sauteed bone marrow cooked with trumpet leaf; a sweet quince pie flavored with a touch of white sage.
• Beau recognizes Binroy, the Morr initiate that the Crew met at the Seven Spokes, dining at the bar with a wealthy-looking traveler.
• After a lavish meal, Beau goes to chat up Binroy and his companion; Kris makes friends with a table full of pilgrims headed for Dyrath’s Promise
• Binroy and his companion, Gustav, met while traveling to a mutual destination: Gramdorf. Binroy has been assigned to a new sect, and Gustav is vague about his reasons for traveling there.
• Gustav is very interested in Beau’s brushes with the ruinous powers and hints that he, too, has been looking for a “cleansing.” Also inquires, oddly, about the undead and drops strange mentions of things happening at Stromdorf.
• Among other rumors gleaned at the bar, Kris hears from one of the young ladies that her cousin’s hair went from blond to black after a trip to Altdorf.

  Day 74 - Angestag, 26 Erntezeit, 2512 IC   Berebeli ties up at river-side inn at Jeggel after a relatively peaceful day on the canal.

• Because, sometimes, there are normal days.
• Crew chats up the locals at the bar and gleans some new information.
• They should be in Weissbruck by tomorrow evening...

  Interlude:   With the sun setting behind the Skaag Hills, the sounds of life and activity carry down the canal to the deck of the Berebeli as laborers, stevedores, and merchants from the bustling town of Weissbruck take full advantage of the dying rays of light. Chisel against rock, hammer against nail, and barking commands of foremen ring out across newly graded terrain on both sides of the canal.   Even before Josef’s mighty barge enters the final lock, granting entrance to the River Bogen and the town’s wharves, the assembled crew marvels at the bustle of construction that overflows the former perimeter of Weissbruck, and dots the outskirts with new warehouses and docks.   “Impressive sight, isn’t it lads? That’s House Gruber, of course. The new nobility of the Reikwald! Their mining concerns helped build the canal and, in turn, this city. I’ll bet more than half of these warehouses are full of their coal and iron ore.”   “And the other half?” Kris guides the barge past the weir.   “Likely a good deal of wool and wine from Bogenhafen. All manner of goods from Altdorf, no doubt. From all over, really! Carroburg, the towns in the southern Vorbergland. If I was a businessman of a more sedentary bent, I’d consider buying land in Weissbruck. This is the next great Imperial city, mark my words!”   Gilda comes out onto the deck. She had been playing nursemaid to Godabert, Wolmar, and Karl for the last few days and seems happy to tend to other matters, such as the imminent business of tying up the vessel and negotiating the passage onto the river. “And being the next great Imperial city, I trust we can locate a good herbalist? I’ve used up my last bit of faxtoryll and valerian tending to our wounded. They’re doing much better, of course, but I’d like to re-supply.” “Not just a good herbalist, my dear Gilda, but maybe the best herbalist in three duchies! Elvyra Kleinestun hails from Weissbruck, and she’s sought out far and wide for her advice, remedies, and an extensive selection of some of the finest -- ” Josef winks at Beau -- “and most exotic herbs to be found along the Bogen!”   “You don’t say..?” Beau turns to Gilda. “I’d be happy to accompany you to the apothecary’s Gilda. I have a certain… way… with pharmacists, you see.”   “I’d like to have my way with a warm fire, personally.” Karl, already familiar with the routine, starts uncoiling rope along the deck with Wolmar. “And maybe some pork sausage. Ever since those faggots were slapped out of our hands in Hartsklein, I’ve been itching for a mouthful.”   “Wow. They weren’t kidding about the mist.” Godabert, the last of the crew to assemble at the bow, marvels at the thick fog and tendrils of mist that envelop the river beyond the lock house. “Can’t be easy navigating the Bogen up-river, can it?”   Josef chortles and pulls a small, wilted parsnip from his pocket. “Old Bogenauer will watch over us. Don’t you fear, young Godabert. Just remember to chuck a few vegetables into the river once we clear the canal. He likes that.”   Kris frowns at the fog. “We’re going to need a bigger turnip.” * * *

Rewards Granted

XP:

• 35 points for turning back the bandit raid and saving Henrietta and (most of) the wardens
• 5 points to God for volunteering to showcase how dangerous blackpowder weapons can be
• 5 points to Karl for upholding a disturbingly merciless m.o. of mutilating enemies
• 5 points to Beau for finding a way to hit on an adversary in the middle of a battle
• 5 points to Kris for a dramatic “You’d better run!” moment at the battle’s conclusion
• 25 pts for a swell session

• Godabert: 65
• Beau: 65
• Karl: 65
• Kris: 65

  Loot:

• A crossbow and 13 bolts from the dead dwarf
• A small barrel of greenleaf, grown and dried by Henrietta

Character(s) interacted with

Locations scouted and new NPC’s engaged:   Along the towpath between Lethov and Hartsklein

• Friedrich Glucker, Road Warden Sergeant

Hartsklein Lock, Hartsklein

• Henrietta Marigold, halfling lock-keeper
• Miranda, beautiful bandit captain (in custody)
• Josiah, human bandit (escaped)
• Toss, halfling bandit (escaped)
• Joos, ogre bandit (escaped; only seen at a distance)
• Cleave, dwarf bandt (deceased)

Dyrath’s Blessings, Schlafbild

• Gustav Weil, learned traveler