First Session - The Honorable Arsenal is Formed

Yesterday morning, in response to the grueling battle with the Allucian Army that left our forces utterly decimated, our former employer decided to disband the Bull Moose mercenary company. While it did not come as a shock to the senior officers and even some of the more junior officers in the company, it was still frustrating to know that we had failed in our mission. While the news was being spread to the rest of the camp and the troops, our commander informed us of the actual plan for our company; we were to form a new adventuring group to continue furthering our mission.

With this new direction, our group of junior and senior officers banded together under a new name, the Honorable Arsenal, which I am proud to share was my idea. Coach had suggested the Vampiric Moose's which was immediately shut down by everyone else on account of it being terrible. Our self proclaimed scribe Gimble signed the document and sent it by carrier to the registrars office. This all happened rather fast and without even a celebratory drink to mark the occasion, we were hailed by the Mayor of Ashenport, the town outside of which we had been posted prior to disbanding. He requested our troops be removed as they were making the local populace nervous. We agreed (on account of the troops being disbanded and sent home anyway) and he invited us to come into Ashenport proper to sup with him in his home. He said he had a job that he was looking to hire out for and that, "Six people should do!." With no other direction from our commander (he'd left immediately after directing us to form a new adventuring group) six of us (Venoch, Gimble, Rayta, Jebeddo, Uriymar and myself) volunteered for the job and we made our miserable way into town.

If the unceasing rain in our camp had seemed terrible it was, if possible, WORSE in Ashenport itself. The dirt roads were thick with mud, and the entire slog through the streets was spent with Jebeddo on my shoulders and Gimble on Venoch's back. I thank the gods that I keep my head shaved or I fear Jebeddo would use my hair as reins in an attempt to steer me.

In addition to having to carry two of our members, we also had trouble getting information from any of the townsfolk. One of the men we asked for directions shouted at us to leave him and his son alone before fleeing in the opposite direction. The confusion continued as we made our way farther into town and found what should have been a thriving marketplace. Instead it was a dismal, quiet collection of merchants all of which reminded me of frightened mice.

There was one man that stood out from the crowd. While every other person in the crowd seemed to cave in on themselves, this man stood proudly and talked passionately as he gestured to the small bushel of carrots he was holding in his hand as he bartered with one of the mice.

"You charged me the same last week for much larger carrots, why would I pay the same for these puny things!?"

They haggled and seemed to come to a conclusion, after which the man noticed us standing on the edge of the clearing. He introduced himself as Chef and quickly invited us to his inn (the Rat's Feast) for a warm meal and bed for the night.
 
"You go on ahead, it's that building on the corner. I've got some more ingredients to buy and then I'll be right behind you. Martha, the barmaid will fetch you drinks while you wait."

We didn't have anything else to buy so we trudged our way over to the inn. It was small and smelled faintly of sour ale, but it was dry. It was the nicest place I'd been in weeks. We all quickly ordered drinks of mulled wine and mead as we took seats around the fire to dry our clothes and warm our extremities. Rayta began to play faintly and the few other patrons in the bar who were noticeably unnerved by us (either the fact that we were strangers or the fact that we had two tieflings in our group) seemed to relax a bit. Through some small talk, Rayta and I were able to get some information out of the barmaid. She warned us to watch our backs because townsfolk and adventurers alike had been going missing. Venoch took this time to talk with the two other patrons in the inn, neither of whom provided any other information on the matter.
 
After a short while, Chef returned with his ingredients and the barmaid, Martha, helped him carry everything back into the kitchen. We all ordered the special of the evening which proved to be a delicious pork flank and glazed carrots. For some reason, Rayta did not partake and spent the rest of the evening trying to convince us that we were eating people and singing malicious songs about our gracious host.

We spent the evening drinking and eating before all heading up to bed. I think it was due to Rayta's paranoia, but it was decided that we needed to have someone keep watch. Uri and I (both of us only needing 4 hours of rest) each took a watch and, big surprise, the night passed quietly with no one attacking us.
 
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The next morning we all came downstairs to a nice quiet breakfast after which we left to explore the town. We were supposed to meet the mayor for dinner at 6 after noon so we had a decent amount of time to kill. I would rather have stayed in the inn for the day in order to not to trek through the mud as much as possible but Chef asked that we vacate for the day so that he and Martha could clean and prepare for the next night.

I don't recall who suggested it but we decided to investigate the building across the alley from the inn. As we made our way into the alley, three large men(?) stepped out of the shadows in front of us and one came up behind in an attempt to corner us. All of us immediately were on alert as they menacingly told us that they had found us right where they expected to. How had they known we would be in that alley? We hadn't even known until we stepped outside of the inn this morning?

However they had managed to find us, they had, but we weren't going down without a fight. Unfortunately the muddy alley slowed us down and the attackers were able to make the first moves. Despite this they were no match for us. Uri took some bad hits but his wild magic and Gimble's turtle cannon managed to keep him standing.
 
I killed the first one who came up behind us, Venoch killed the second, Jebeddo got the third one in the back as he made to run away and I was able to take down the fourth as he attempted to climb a ladder and escape. I took the time to look for any information on their persons but unfortunately found nothing useful. There were a few small coins which Jebeddo happily pocketed but nothing more. Venoch used 10 minutes to ritual cast Detect Magic and seemed to find a sort of biological transfiguration on the attackers. What were they? They did not bleed like normal men but oozed a purple ichor where they were wounded. Perhaps the Mayor will know of them and tell us what is going on in this strange, sad town.