In the aftermath of the goblin family slaughter, the party sheepishly assesses their situation and decide to take a long rest in the camp before heading back to Rueside the following morning. Harding is able to identify some of the items they found.
- Corrosive Battleaxe (+1 acid damage) : Arcon takes
- Arcane Shaft (stores 1st lvl spell scroll) : Harding takes
- Critical Sceptre (nullifies critical hits and misses): agree to sell
- Assassins Ring (proficiency bonus on surprise attacks and lets wearer know where the nearest liqour is) : Arcon takes
The next morning head head back to Rueside. Deciding we've done enough damage for one trip, we tie the horses back up where we found them (although not before
Arcon takes a big bite out of one's ass), and travel back to Rueside on foot. Along the way,
Borin tries to reconcile his slave past as Szarden with his portal-loving present as Borin. He belongs to the
Order of Sea and Stone which is a group of knights that worship the portals.
Tiammen tells the group that he's a soldier or muscle for the
House of Silk. We reason that we have somehow traveled back in time from 1248 CR to 310 CR.
Just before getting to Rueside, we pass by a farmhouse where we hear trouble brewing. We can hear shouting and fighting and against the better judgement of some of the party, stop to investigate. Borin rushes in to ask the farmer what's going on and the farmer tells us to either help fight the "bandits" or leave.
Uncertain of what the conflict is, much less who we should help, the group fans out and chaotically interferes.
Igan tries to defuse the action with disarming moves and illusory dogs. Tiammen starts firing shots at who he perceives are invaders, while Borin fireballs a scared slave. Arcon wants no part of the action and goes inside the house to ransack the farmer's food and beer.
Harding sits out at first but after watching awhile comes blasting in at the same targets Tiammen hits.
Grimgar and
Rooster head around back with the farmer and begin subduing the "bandits".
After getting nowhere trying to talk to the slaves, Igan yells to one of the bandits named
Lan and asks what they want. They yell back "you're either with the Unchained or against us!". Man, people in this time period are so black and white. Igan understands that the "bandits" are actually members of
The Unchained who are here to free the farmer's slaves. Yelling as much to the others, the party adjusts their enemies and techniques, and knocks out the farmer and his guards, killing the tiefling guard Hooly Appleton in the process.
Once the fighting is over, Tiemann revives the reviveable members of the Unchained and we wake the farmer to get his side of the story. He confirms that the Unchained showed up to "take his property." After a brief discussion about not wanting our involvement in this situation to make its way back to the House of Silk, Harding slits the farmers throat, and we decide to drag the bodies of the guards inside and set the farm ablaze to remove evidence that we were there.
We loot the farm to find 40G, a speak with animals spell scroll, and 10 night-vision goggles. Lan takes the slaves away with her but not before giving Grimgar a sending stone so that we can contact her if needed.
Continuing on to Rueside, Tiammen's SIlk guard uniform lets us easily pass the gates of Rueside where security has been tightened due to some recent thefts of horses. We shamefully keep our eyes on the road and head to the Pit Inn, only to find that Rollo has left and is staying with a blacksmith Mundy Smithy. We follow there and Mundy tells us that Rollo is in the back room. Harding and Tienmann go back to talk with him and collect our payment. He's drunk and overjoyed to see them. He happily gives them the 200G per person plus a 50G tip each. He informs them that he has more work for them in Sluta which is where he's headed with the crystal. They agree to take the job and meet up with him the following morning.
