#3 Between Grease and Sleep

The Principal Performers:
Arrai Sahazar, Varis, Davric, Sir Martin, Aidoneus Luc
 
Supporting Cast:

Gonethin Laranonel - Kardan Guard Escort

Eris Dlaralthor - Kardan Guard Escort

Dulbin Rarnohu - Dead Guard Associated with Rhosyn

Katrine - The Unfortunate

Random Mostly Dead Traveler

Shalareal - The Healer Natural

We traveled for half a day towards the area known as the Stumps. It is a rocky cliffstrewn area where the soil is barely covering rock. Many of the trees there cannot find purchase and fall over, leaving stumps behind for a namesake.
 
We came across the corpse of a man in platemail attached to a tree. There were burn marks around his mouth and his skin was withered like Quarion's. Another victim of the Glaistig most likely. Investigating the area netted us a backpack of supplies, longsword, black chain mail, a pouch of valuables, a signet ring, and a letter. The pouch I pocketed until we were no longer under the watchful eye of the town guard. I cast Detect Magic to see if any of these items were magical, rings always warrant inspection after all, and you don't see black chain mail very often either. Only the sword was magical, so I cast Identify on it, which revealed that it was the Sword of the White Rose.
 
I gave the ring and signet letter over to Luc as they might have more luck identifying it, or reading it if it happened to be in Elvish. The signet ring was determined to have come from the Rhosyn family, a well to do family in Dolonde itself. The letter was a letter of leave for a "Dulbin Rarnohu" which I suppose we can assume is the name of the dead guard. What was curious about it is that it had been altered, a forgery attempt to make it seem as if the man had more time on leave than he truly did.
 
The Sword of the White Rose went to Sir Martin as he is the only member of the party who uses such a weapon at the moment, and the rest I placed near where we were hobbling our horses until we'd leave. Davric returned from scouting ahead and he and Varis led us deeper in to the Stumps.
 
We navigated a cliff by tying rope to a tree after Ezrah scouted out the depth for us. 60 ft down so we tied a couple of ropes together and made it to the bottom easily enough. Further on we came across a clearing with a large stone in the middle. At the stone was a woman kissing a man, the woman matched the description of Katrine we had been given.
 
Sir Martin charged in to the clearing, and the others moved quickly as well. With a sigh as I could see where this was going, I dashed to the side to try to cut off her escape. Sure enough, the arrival of so many people scared her and she tried to run away. Using a bit of magic, I managed to catch up and lay a pool of Grease in front of her and tried to convince her to stop and speak with us. Her response? She charmed me! Me! I am the one that does the trickery, I am not the tricked!
 
In any case, I turned my attentions to the guard who was close behind us, I believe it was Eris? And shortly after I heard a great splash and groan as 'Katrine' fell face first in to the Grease. The other members of the party caught up shortly thereafter and between them and a spell of Sleep from Luc, we managed to restrain her. Someone kicked me back to my senses and Davric had the brilliant idea of placing a sack over her head, which rendered her charming eyes useless. Varis interrogated the girl and Luc uses some magic to make it more difficult for her to be possessed if that were the case.
 
The girl seemed like she was no longer possessed but I counseled caution. Better we get them back to town than be attacked on our way by someone we thought a friend. Katrine tells us that she and Gathan had met up at the Stumps when a giant worm attacked, left her for dead, and ran off with Gathan. While she lay there, the Glaistig took advantage and over her as well.
 
The man that she had been attacking over by the stone was still alive. Checking his possessions, it seemed like he was some sort of traveling herbalist perhaps? I do not steal from someone already so down on their luck, so I left his coin pouch intact. We gathered him and Katrine up, ensured that both were bound and blindfolded, and then headed back to the horses. We managed to climb back up the cliff with them, though one of the guards had an absolute horrendous time trying to climb up the rope. The guard captain really should invest in some sort of obstacle course if this is what the best of the town has to offer. On top of the cliff, we gathered up the items we found, the dead guard's body, and our horses. As this was the area that Katrine said she had met Gathan, we checked for signs of the worm and found none, so we headed back to town. Rather than camping out in the dark where we might be attacked while we had prisoners, we opted to force march back in. Better to be exhausted than dead.
 
We arrived back in town and headed straight to the guard station, garnering quite a few strange looks from the townsfolk. Not every day you see an exhausted party of adventurers with two people in bindings and a dead body in platemail I suppose, but the presence of our two guard escorts was enough to dissuade anything more than looks. When we went into the guard station, of course the man was in yet another meeting. When asked about non-temple healing, the woman at the front directed us to a natural healer on the other side of town that goes by the name of Shalareal. On our way across town, I discovered that the pearl I use for identifying objects had gone missing! I must have dropped it in the woods. And that is where we shall end this part of the story.
 

Items Gained: Black Chain Mail, Coin Pouch (30 Gold, a Ruby and Peridot both worth 5 Gold each), Backpack, Bedroll, Mess Kit, Tinderbox, 10 Torches, 10 Rations, Waterskin, and 50 feet of Hempen Rope.

Items Lost: Sword of the White Rose, Rhosyn Signet Ring, Dulbin's Letter of Leave, My Pearl!

More Item Details:
Sword of the White Rose:
Weapon (Longsword), Rare (Requires Attunement)
This magical sword has a pommel of ivory carved with a design of roses. Further work down the center of both sides of the sword depict thorns and roses intertwined. The roses on the pommel have been painted black, though the paint is beginning to wear away in places revealing that underneath they are white roses.
The sword provides a +1 bonus to attacks and damage. In addition, on a critical strike, the sword sprouts wicked thorns, doing additional piercing damage equal to twice the wielder's Charisma modifier.