Upon waking, the group shared stories of the day and night before with Qarzdaq and went into greater detail about what they did. They all have some food and drink.
Qhortho heads out to get his horsey icon.
The rest of the group learns where Wendell lives fromt he tavern owner so they could check in on him and find out he has been killed at some point overnight.
Burton, Qarzdaq, and Tholannan head that way.
Shadowsilver stays behind in the tavern, then once everyone was sure to be gone, she goes to her room at the inn and sneaks out from her window. She heads over to the alchemist and learns some important facts about poisons, their effects, and most importantly, their cost.
Burton, Qarzdaq, and Tholannan arrive at Wendell’s estate and speak to someone who seemed to have taken charge during this distressing time. While being escorted, they investigate Wendell’s room and the room that appeared to be the entry way for the killer.
They go outside and investigate some messy ground where the killer had obviously scaled the side of the house to reach the window.
They follow the disturbed ground over to the wall of the grounds and find no other trace of where the killer may have gone.
Shadowsilver arrives back at the tavern and sits back down at the table where they sat earlier.
Qhortho walks back in moments later.
After just a few more minutes, the rest of the gang arrives and discusses what they learned.
Soon after, 2 noble couples enter the tavern and sit down at separate tables.
Just after they are seated, a group of bandits enter the tavern and get loud and obnoxious almost immediately. The owner was obviously distressed but not as nervous as he had seemed a day earlier. Perhaps the presence of The Assembly has put him at some ease.
The bandits make a home in the back of the tavern and the nobles get up from their tables to leave. The Assembly tells them that they have the authority given to them by Lord Martell to protect this establishment and that no patrons should leave on account of the riffraff.
Over the next 30 minutes, the tension ratchets with each passing insult and act of douchebaggery. Finally, Burton decides to make a move and disguises himself as a bar maid that is 1 foot taller than he really is. Burton makes her way over to their table and is immediately grabbed around the waist by what was probably the most grotesque of the bunch. In an attempt to cover the wench’s mouth, the man passes his hand through the illusion that was her head, and Burton’s cover is blown.
Startled and enraged, the man stands up and places a sharp dagger’s edge at real Burton’s real throat. Seeing this, Shadowsilver throws a dagger at the burliest bandit’s face — it misses.
The Assembly gets up immediately and is ready to draw weapons. The rest of the tavern clears out.
The grotesque, knife-wielding man yells out “if any of you makes another move, the little guy here gets it!”
The Assembly not only makes that move, but launches into the biggest bar brawl this small town had ever seen. In the end, they manage to utterly destroy the 8 men that had been terrorizing the town.
Each of the party earned 175XP.
As they were gathering the bodies with a plan to burn them in the street, they all walk out of the tavern’s front door.
A man in a dark brown hooded cloak is standing in the middle of the road outside the tavern, facing the entryway, looking as if we was just waiting for the group to walk outside.
He says, “You have something of mine.” His voice is not menacing in and of itself, but there is something in his tone that is strikingly serious.
“It appears my payment was not where it should have been, and I’m not as stupid as the rest of your group here. Give me what’s mine and I’ll let you all live.”
The group protests and some back and forth ensues. Qarzdaq mentions that this is the assassin he fought the previous day.
After not hearing what he wants, the man insists that it is Shadowsilver that owes him 700 gold because she stole it from his employer.
The Assembly, just having annihilated a large group of bandits, is ready for another chance to prove their strength.
Over the flurry of the next few minutes, it was well-determined that this guy was not backing down and it was very likely that he was able to kill all of them. At some point in this
The man agreed to stop fighting if he were just paid what he was owed. Shadowsilver refuses to acknowledge that she had anywhere near that amount of gold.
The group decides that the fight is not worth having, but Qhortho is unable to be stopped. As Qhortho continues his flurry of attacks, the group is simultaneously trying to stop Qhortho and is discussing how they can afford to pay off the assassin.
Burton decides to flee towards the keep.
Qhortho falls.
Knowing that he must be headed to The Sandship, the assassin readies his crossbow to shoot Burton just as Burton rounds the corner of the inn, on the road directly entering the gates of the keep. Frustrated, the expert assassin runs from the rest of the melee to get a bead on Burton from a wider angle. Just as he readies his weapon, trigger in the midst of being pulled, it bursts into flames!
Qarzdaq, with an amazing bout of wisdom, sends an impeccably placed fire bolt directly at the crossbow, igniting it on contact.
The assassin, startled, fumingly throws the crossbow at the ground. He regains his wits, and after replaying the odds of winning this fight, takes off between the weapons shop and the blacksmith, directly into the desert.
The group feels a little more enlightened from the skills applied and knowledge gained, earning 200XP each.
Burton makes it inside the keep, screaming about the assassin in the street.
Mors Martell and Tirius Granes are talking in the main hall when Burton gets within earshot. They immediately jump to their feet and run out, not seeing any assassin but hearing a quarrel in the distance.
The rest of the group has decided to use this time to heatedly “discuss” Shadowsilver’s involvement with the killer, their voices raising with every moment. Qhortho, stabilized by Tholannan, still lies on the hard dirt road.
As their discussion degrades into absolute cacophony, Tholannan is quieted as he notices a figure with a large quarterstaff walking up the road towards them. After a moment, he realizes it is Tyrone, his gait clearly sending the message that the last few days have taken its toll.
He walks up and the entire group silences themselves. Tyrone says that he has completed his goal of locating Andrea Redmess and that they should visit with Lord Martell at once. He waves the head his staff in a circle and Qhortho comes to, coughing as he struggles to his feet.
Burton, Mors, and Tirius are on edge when the group arrives. Mors lets down his guard when he sees Tyrone followed by the others, all approaching with a calmness.
Tyrone states, “Andrea is at the joining of the Vaith and the Scourge, where they combine to form the Greenblood, at or near Godsgrace. It appears to me even more likely that these two issues are comingled. I believe now that Andrea must be the one behind the drying of the Greenblood.”
He pulls a small, blue-hued crystal out from his robes and hands it to the group. Tholannan reaches his hand out to take it. It feels cold in is hand — unfinished with sharp edges.
Tyrone continues, “This will point you in the direction you need to go. More specifically, this will guide you to the Amulet of Lightbringer. It should begin to glow more red as you get closer to the Amulet and bluer as you get farther. However, it will only glow while I am channeling, so I will try to channel at least a few times a day, but I can only do so for about an hour at a time. I will be able to sense your general distance from it and will try to channel more frequently and hold my focus longer as you close in. I wish I could join you on this journey, but I need to channel my focus from the position where the Amulet was kept in the Temple for so many years – there is a residual presence from it there and is my strongest link to the Amulet.”
“I must insist that you not engage Andrea in battle, she is much too powerful. Finding the Amulet and bringing it back is the goal if you can manage to separate her from it. That will be enough to stop her. If you cannot get the Amulet, you should break away and meet back here. I must warn you that she is very cunning and charismatic – you cannot trust anything she says. Please be careful.”
“I urge you to be on your way at once.”
Mors speaks up, “as I said upon your arrival here, I will supply you with horses and some guards with provisions. Tirius Granes will accompany you as well. He is my right hand man and a highly experienced swordsman. The journey is about 230 miles to Godsgrace, which will take approximate 10 days.”
Burton speaks up about payment for this quest and reminds Mors that they just took care of the bandit problem and scared off the assassin that murdered Wendell.
Mors, visibly irritated with the perceived lack of appreciation for his hospitality to these strangers, takes a sterner tone of voice as he acknowledges the lessened threat outside the keep’s walls and says that he can afford to send the group off with 10 of his guards, which is more than he was expecting to afford without the threat of losing all law and order in the streets.
Burton and Shadowsilver, almost simultaneously, ask about the ship owned by the men they killed. Cans they has it??
Mors agrees to this. “You can keep and do what you will with the ship and its contents as long as the items onboard are not owned by anyone else. In fact, I will even have the goods transported to the keep for safekeeping. I must insist that you be on your way, time is of the essence. Please go gather your belongings from the inn and meet back here expediently.”
Mors mentions that the ship will not be a good way to travel up the Greenblood because of how low the waterline is right now.
The Assembly decides to check out the ship rather than going straight back to the inn. Upon arriving, they are able to decipher which of the ships most likely belongs to the bandits they killed and they board. They find several containers of trade goods – maybe worth some good coin, but not useful for their upcoming journey.
They now see for the first time, where the Greenblood levels once flowed, the banks of the stream visible as dry and cracked dirt.
The group heads to the inn, then to The Sandship.
Upon arriving, Mors is obviously fuming a bit but chooses not to speak about it. The group gathers their provisions and horses and with Tirius Granes at the head, of the group, they are led out of the keep and continue to follow the road left. They pass the shops, the inn and tavern, the estates, the fortune teller, and make their turn out of the town towards a low-sun sky, the road slowly dissolving into desert sand.
Their journey into the unknown continues.
As they continue to follow the Greenblood to the west, they are reminded of the river’s decimation with each glimpses of the dry banks.
As the sun sinks in the sky, the horses begin to get nervous for no reason anyone can tell. Moments later, 5 holes in the sand open up around them, each of them no larger than two feet in diameter. Out of each hole appears a snake-like creature. These snakes move like the typical reptililian sorts, but their differences are immediately apparent as these creatures resemble fire serpents of some kind.
After a harrowing battle, the Assembly, Tirius, and all 10 guards survive — a few of the guards only barely.
Each member fo the Assembly gets 200XP during this course and they all decide it is time to rest as the sun finally sets and a fire started to warm their meals.