Session notes 16-2-2020

27th of Aestrun
 
After a final breakfast at De Gouden Soeplepel we make our way towards Higbee, to help the next convoy, and during that try and find out as much as we can about the horde of the one-eyed half-orc. During our breakfast, Ferrum runs off to buy the second alchemy book from the bookshop we went yesterday. I am curious to see the potions inside.
 
Sisadi has been very kind to us, and we do not have to pay a thing. After breakfast, we wish him well, get Kastanjesok and Derk and hit the road. Before leaving Baferton we, however, buy a pony for Liya, who she calls 'Karel' and two horses for Thalmiir and I. Thalmiir calls his horse 'Dalmus' and I call mine 'Anwyn'.
 
 
27th of Aestrun till 5th of Iasluin
 
The weather is okay, it's clear that autumn and winter are or their way. The wind is chilly and salty. The sea must be near, a welcome change from the many hills and meadows.
Travelling goes fast by horse, and Ferrum jogs to keep up with us. This is a well-traversed road, the ground is firm from all the carts, horses and feet that walk atop it. Thallmiir and I are keenly watching for places that might be prone to an ambush. Together we spot 3 places on the road that we want to keep an eye on. They are all when the road passes through a patch of forest, with the road being a bit lower than the hills with the trees, giving a possible ambusher great advantage. We mark these places so that the marks are only readable by us, and continue our way.
 
Ferrum and I take a look at the Alchemy book that we bought, it has certainly some interesting potions in it! Even health potions, which would be very valuable, and useful. But there are also things such as a potion of growth, which Ferrum seemed to like a lot.
 
Some time during these days, after learning to ride with our horses (or pony) a bit, Liya decides to stand atop Karel, while practising her aim at Ferrum. I have no idea how she does it, but her aim is quite amazing. The sight, however, must have been alarming to others, as we were quickly stopped by two guards on patrol.
Sevil and Mark stop us in our tracks, they enquire about the curious sight and ask if this is 'voluntary' for Ferrum. After some reassurance, and some questions from us ['what are YOU doing here?'] they are on their way. Before they leave I ride after them to ask if we may contact them in case of need, so that they may contact other guards. This is okay. They did look a bit spooked by us.
 
On the 5th of Iasluin, we arrive in Higbee. Higbee looks like a well-guarded city: high walls and a check when people enter. We state our names, and our business [aiding the convoy] and we are allowed entrance. Curiously, Erky calls himself yet another name: Dimbledum Broombrusher? I am so confused what is his real name, or are all these names part of his full name? I will stick with calling him Erky, for now. Names are starting to become strange in this party.
 
As we make our way to the place the lady who took our names pointed us, we talk about the idea of hiring some henchman to aid us during the possible ambush. But this conversation is cut short as we arrive at the guardpost. Here we meet Damien, the leader of the convoy. Overall, the convoy consists of 3 carts, of which one is filled with arms such as swords and bows, the next one is used to carry a large metal box filled with explosives (!) and the final one has a large ballista mounted on top of it. We are strongly advised, to keep ANY FIRE far far away from the metal box. To add our cart to the convoy, Thalmiir, Ferrum and Erky decide to go and modify the car a bit, while William, Liya and I go and find some ruffians to join us.
 
We make our way to the Dippy Slumber after some advice from one of the guards. Here we meet Pete, the innkeeper. His clientele is, interesting. We see a pair of guys nearly sleeping on their table, one actually not even nearly he was just knock out. On another table, there is a group that looks like it could have been us when we first met for the rat extermination task. They have some swords and a bow and look a bit more organized than the other two. We sit down at the table of adventurers with their gear and introduce ourselves. They are James, Sandra and Selissa, a human, an elf and a half-elf. They are more than willing to help us aid this convoy, they will get paid 1gp per day per person and 5sp per day per person extra if we arrive safely. (and also food) Overall a good deal. On the other table, we wake the two men: Russel and Fred. They look a bit... worn out... but a touch of William healing hands helps them feel better instantly. They lie about being able to use bows, but we take them along anyway. Perhaps because we are in a hurry, perhaps to get them out of this tavern to catch some fresh air.
 
As we return to the guardpost, we are met with the sight of the cart reiterated, with higher wooden sides with arrow slits and the tent on top of it all. With our new hired forces and a cart to add to the convoy, we leave as the sun is starting to set.
 
The evening is calm, I had the second watch. I was just watching the guards change their shift - they change every hour apparently- when I see a figure shift and run off, not far of in the forest. I quickly wake Liya and wake Thalmiir so that he can continue to keep watch. Liya and I track the person (?) and find a path parallel to the road we have been traversing on. We see the two (!) figures run away through the fields. Liya fires an arrow but to no avail. With this in new knowledge, we return to the convoy. Thalmiir wants to continue his sleep, so I finish my watch and wake him anyways.
 
 
6th of Iasluin
 
Today we pass the first ambush point, and everything is fine. However, everyone is a bit tense from last night. The guards saw us run off and all. However, our hired forces are completely calm, playing games in our upgraded tent-cart. Erky joins them to do an afternoon nap, or siesta as I have been told they call it in Ikadosh. Not sure how he sleeps, because Thalmiir is playing his flute, and he has not been practising a lot.
 
As the night falls, Liya and Ferrum take the first watch.
 
After some time, I am awakened for the second shift. Again, the night is calm, until I spot a slight movement in the grass close to the edge of the trees. I was not sure what to do, perhaps the person causing the movement was running away again, and my running would be in vain once again, or perhaps they expected me to go there so they could try something as we ran towards them. Excuse my rambling. I decided just to keep a close eye the little part of the forest and grass and continue my watch. As the moon continued its way through the sky, I woke up Thalmiir for the next watch. I pointed out the spot where I had seen movement and went to sleep, somewhat uneasily.
 
 
7th of Iasluin
 
I wish I had stayed awake when I heard Thalmiir tell about his watch this morning! He had apparently also seen the movement, and had cast a spell to dispel magic on it. This had caused him to see a figure with a mask on, just for a very brief moment until it disappeared once again. He told us that he had not recognised it, but out of curiosity had created a small space in which he placed two owl feathers and some rations to maybe attract the spirit once again. When he did this, he got some strange looks from the guard and the ruffian he had waked up to keep watch with him. Later he swapped out the rations for his flute - because why would a spirit need rations?-. When he went to retrieve his flute, he heard three tones being played and then there was silence once more.
After telling this story, we ate our breakfast and Thalmiir suddenly played a very nice piece on his flute, seemingly in a very very good mood.
 
The day progresses slowly as we once again take our positions on either the main road or the parallel road to keep watch on our convoy.
 
Until halfway through the day, when suddenly we hear Ferrum scream and run towards the convoy. He and Liya have spotted something and everyone is suddenly on their toes. We rush towards the end of the convoy, where we quickly spotted a group of people with dire wolves. They do attack, mostly with bows. Given the opportunity, they run for it, towards the northwest, in the direction of the sea.
I quickly charmed a group of them, making sure they were not harmed but could also not harm us. They were taken as captives, as well as some others who were, intimidated into giving up. Overall they were very scared, and Thalmiir and Ferrum looking scary did also not help a lot in relieving that, but we did get a lot of info from them. I argued to let them go, as many of them had not attacked us, or only did after we hit them first, and I guess that these people have family and friends as well to who they wish to return. However, they were criminals, and Thalmiir convinced me to turn them over to the guards and let them decide their fate.
 
During all this, we took a rest a little bit away from the ambush ground, where we set up camp for the night. We had to discuss what to do with the information gained from the captives. We now knew where the camp was, that it has eight patrolling groups of two men each and most importantly, that there is no back door. Kulragh, the leader of the group, is the one Thalmiir is after, but he rarely leaves the camp according to our source. It will be an interesting endeavour to get to him I think.
 
After my watch with Ferrum -in which he shows his fancy axe-throwing skills-, I decide to copy what Thalmiir told me helped him contact that spirit. I felt somehow puzzled about this and was curious to find out more.
I must have fallen asleep after sitting with the setup for a while, as I woke up the next morning in the slightly damp grass next to my flute.
As I woke up, I first noticed Erky, sound asleep next to me. Next to that, I see that Thalmiir had repeated his ritual, barely an armlength away from mine. I like the fact that he is interested in this, I had not expected it from him to have a soft spot for music and what he believes to be a forest spirit.
 
 
8th of Iasluin
 
Thanks to this interest of Thalmiir, and a slight feeling that something was up, I have now actually had contact with the Bard. Well it was not that he talked back or anything, but I knew he was there and listening, and that is more than ever before. Very interesting, I am curious to see if there is anything he wants, or if he just wants to hear my stories every now and then. Overall, I just am very content and I had a good nights sleep.
 
Apparently our captives have been quite spooked by those keeping watch during the night. A ballista has been pointed at them, then was removed again and such endeavours. To show them some compassion, I decided to give them part of my rations, so that they wouldn't be starving for the following four days.
 
9th - 11th of Iasluin
The last few days of our journey are calm, Thalmiir plays some flute- he seems to have picked it up well the past few weeks (!)-, Erky works on Schroefbout, Liya continues her mounted bow and arrow training and the rest of us have some talks about what happened and what our plans will be after returning to Baferton.
We pass the last ambush-spot without any issue and make our way back towards Baferton.
 
In Baferton, the captives are turned in.
Damien is very content with what we did and offers us to buy us a round when returning to Baferton. We kindly decline as to support our friend Liya, but will probably return one day to come back to this offer (when Iasluin is done).
 
After a brief stay in Baferton, we will probably go back and go towards the whole goal of this convoy-escort mission, Kulragh.