The Aftermath
They gather their strength a bit and proceed to investigate the voices yelling for help through the dense fog. A few steps and they hear some gruff voices: “shut up or you’ll get another beatin’!”
It sounds as if they’re all coming from the same direction along the coast. They sneak along for a few seconds north before they hear shuffling to their right, followed by the same gruff voices: “we’re going to find you in this mess! You ain’t getting out alive!”
How could they possibly hear them? Did they know where they were this whole time?
The distressed voices call out for help again. Those are coming form the same place along the coast.
Qarzdaq makes an executive decision. A bolt of fire leaves his fingertip, blazing through the saturated air, piercing a clear channel about 6 inches in diameter. The bolt barely misses a cultist’s head, but only by chance; Qarzdaq’s aim was spot on. The cultist closest to conflagration peers through the channel. His and Qarzdaq’s eyes meet just as two other hooded heads come into view through their side of the tunnel. They can’t be more than 20 feet from each other.
Qarzdaq’s Amulet of Lightbringer brings light.
Roland takes advantage of the clear view to the cultists and shoots one directly in the head twice in rapid succession. The cultist falls out of view without a sound. Another cultist’s head appears in the viewport, but only for a moment as he realizes what a mistake it would be to daftly stare directly down the foggy barrel at such a precise shooter.
Qhortho is just about to start towards the enemy when he is almost run over… well, run into… by a cultist in ratty robes. Qhortho takes a little stabby damage, but returns with a heavy strike of his own, obliterating him on the spot.
Qhortho pants with rage.
They hear several footsteps without visual cues. Qarzdaq gets lucky with a well-placed firebolt, burning the life out of one of the lesser cultists.
The mob of cultists run directly into Qhortho, getting close enough to see his grinning face, splattered with their colleague’s blood. They all attack Qhortho as quickly as possible, providing enough sound for Aran to zero in on them.
With a series of strikes, he takes down two of the cultists. The last of the enemies realizes this is a lost cause and tries to escape. Rolan and Qarzdaq, almost in unison, yell out, “take him hostage!”
Qhortho and Aran, almost in unison, attack the cultist just before he’s out of reach. The bottom half of his body, cleaved from the upper half, continues forward, as if his legs were still trying to carry him away. They crumble to the ground a split second later.
Once the sounds of battle die down, the voices nearby resume yelling for help. Rolan investigates cautiously and is almost run over by Qhortho, who is running with his shoulder down, ready to smash into anything in his way. He gets his wish as he strikes a large wooden cage and is knocked back. The force of his strike damaged the cave but not catastrophically.
The prisoner inside is knocked down. “What is Seven Hells was that? Who are you people?”
Rolan hears this and knows he has not yet been seen. He takes a wide berth around the area to approach from the other side.
Qarzdaq and Aran search the dead cultists and find nothing of value.
Qhortho, panting, raging, raises his fists. He holds them above his head for a moment, then brings them down with as much force as he can muster. He slams his fists into a small reinforced area and does more damage to his fists than to the cell.
The well-armored man inside the cell gets to his feet. “Who are you? What are you doing here? What are your plans with us?”
Titles, Titles, Titles…
Qhortho snaps out of his rage and introduces himself with several titles that he hopes are friendly to the Reach. He’s never been great at remembering which of these Westerosi names mean what to which people.
The man in armor looks at Qhortho with some confusion.
Aran rushes up as quickly as he can, then nonchalantly asks what’s going on.
The man looks to Aran. “It is good to see some of OUR kind here.” He glances at Qhortho then focuses back to Aran.
Aran looks over the cage and quickly determines the weak point here is going to be the locking mechanism. He retrieves his smith’s tools from his bag and aligns a chisel at a particular point on the lock near the shackle. One quick strike with a hammer and the lock shatters, opening the door.
Rolan hears all the commotion and continues to circle around. As he gets closer, he comes across a number of prison cells. Some empty, others completely destroyed. Finally, he reaches a few more captive people that have not yet noticed him. He takes a few steps backward into the fog to maintain his cover.
ARAN: My name is Aran. Who are you? Why were they holding you?
The armored man walks from the cage and straightens his back.
KNIGHT: I am Ser Fredryk. Thank you for releasing me. My fellows and I have been sent from Castamere to investigate the reports of strange and persistent weather in the region.
He peers around squinting his eyes in some hope to see through the fog.
FREDRYK: The specifics appear to have changed, though the strangeness clearly persists.
They open the other cages and Fredryk introduces the others in his party: Maester Aynton, Selwyn, and Moxtol.
ARAN: What about her?
FREDRYK: She’s been here for as long as we have. Nothing more than a street urchin. Butters, I think she said her name was… It doesn’t really matter… I…
BUTTERS: Hey! I coulda’ gotten outta’ here easily if it weren’t for you arguing with them all the damn time! These are just simple spring locks! You’re the reason I’m still here at all!
Ser Fredryk waves his hand at her as if shooing an annoying fly from his food.
ARAN: Yeah, it sounds like you can handle yourself. What’s your next move?
BUTTERS: Sure I can — I’m just going to get outta’ this place!
QARZ: Why were you out here in the first place?
BUTTERS: Just lookin’ around.
QARZ: Just lookin’ around? For what?
BUTTERS: I heard some stories and figured there might be some treasure or somethin’ here.
ARAN: Not much, unfortunately.
QARZ: Just a lot of pain and suffering.
BUTTERS: Yep… yep… so… I’ll just be on my way then.
QHOR: Hold it! How do we know you’re not one of them in disguise?
BUTTERS: I guess you don’t, now do you?
QHOR: I guess we’ll have to kill you.
BUTTERS: I guess I’m just going to get outta’ here.
She backs away out of clear view and her sloshing footsteps are heard for just a few seconds longer. She almost runs into Rolan.
ROLAN: Hey where are you going? Don’t you want our help?
She’s caught off-guard but doesn’t break her stride.
BUTTERS: Uh… No, I’m good!
He starts after her, but decides it’s not worth it. He turns towards his allies’ voices and reconvenes with them seconds later. They discuss the priests with tentacles and the Kraken. The maester doesn’t provide much more information beyond the religious stories. When Qarzdaq talks of the Kraken they just witnessed, the master adds that those who report seeing these things, can’t ever offer evidence for those reports.
Qarzdaq scoffs at this but realizes this is about to turn into a stupid discussion. He knows what he saw; he knows what they experienced; he knows what they overcame.
QARZ: Well, all I can say is that you’ll see a lot of robes on the ground.
AYNTON: A lot of robes?
A twinkle is in his eye.
AYNTON: What about your robe?
QARZ: What about my robe?
AYNTON: Would you like to share a robe?
QARZ: Uh, no. I’m good.
A brief silence falls over the group, broken by Fredryk.
FREDRYK: I see that your group is well-equipped for the conditions and against these foes. Could we bother you for getting us out of these conditions? We would not ask anything beyond getting out of this weather.
The Assembly discusses and agrees. They share that Aran is from Crakehall and that Ser Fredryk should let Lord Lorys know that he was there to help. It is at that point that Ser Fredryk notices Aran’s armor shows that he is First Smith of the Crakehall guard. Ser Fredryk’s body language shows that he finds this highly respectable.
Before leaving the area, they search the cages and find nothing of notable value.
QARZ: Any idea why they put you in cages?
FREDRYK: Well… not exactly, but I have some thoughts. There were others here before we arrived. They were taking them out of the cages and we heard screams. We never saw them again. I believe they may have been using them as sacrifices.
They lead the group south along the coast. Aran takes a quick detour to the symbol to retrieve the teardrop pendants and heavily-rusted Ironborn Kraken badge. The symbol traced in the sand is no longer crisp; it looks like any other traces in the sand when water washes over – only the general shape remains. Aran kicks up the sand to destroy any trace of it. It acts like sand should.
Now late afternoon, they finally emerge from the dense fog. The hills of the Reach are visible once again. Fredryk and his crew thank them for their help and continue south towards Castamere.
QARZ: Oh, Ser Fredryk, before you go! Be sure to let Lord Lorys know that Goldentooth is open for business. We passed through there on our way out here and rid the town of their bear problem.
ARAN: We believe the bears only went there because they were driven from these surrounding areas.
Fredryk agrees to pass on the message.
The Assembly finds their horses and leave toward the east to report back to Faryn. About an hour along their way, they decide it would be a good idea to make camp and have a good rest after the day they’ve had.
Stoney Sept
Now very low on healing potions, they decide they need to stop in a decent-sized town on their way to restock. They reach Stoney Sept after 12 days of uneventful travel.
They briefly pause before riding into town, knowing they are likely to face more questions about Lando.
They ride directly to the stables and ask about Lando. No new news and people are fearing the worst.
The party enters the shop with the bulbous flask on the sign and purchases several bright red potions.
Rolan asks about poisons, hoping to be able to use his Grail of Julian to give them a bit of a discount. After some discussion the merchant lets on that he has a single vial of Purple Worm poison. You may recall that Rolan currently has 2 vials of this exact poison and that he needs 4 vials to perform this trick. The merchant locks the door of the shop to have a more in-depth conversation on the topic.
Rolan considers purchasing the poison outright, for it would help fulfill a promise he made to a potion maker in Blackwater Crossing. After some discussion, the potion merchant tells them that Purple Worms tend to burrow in the swamp areas a little farther north and that they are extremely dangerous. They decide not to purchase the poison, but they do purchase many bright red health potions.
Among the red potions, Aran finds an interesting vial of clear liquid containing a red droplet of liquid suspended in a clear liquid. It doesn’t last in that form long though. The red droplet is continuously expanding and contracting from a tiny droplet to coloring the vial’s clear liquid fully red. Shaking the bottle fails to interrupt the process. Aran purchases this vial immediately.
This reminds Qhortho that he may have an interesting liquid of his own worth selling! He’s been carrying it for some time, so it must be worth something. He askes the merchant for an empty vial then pours a small amount of a canteen’s contents into it.
QHOR: You ever seen anything like that before? How much will you buy this for? You know you want it.
The merchant looks at the vial excitedly at first, then looks at Qhortho quizzically.
MERCH: What exactly do you think you have here?
QHOR: Something extremely valuable.
MERCH: I’m sorry to say, but this is just quicksilver. Unless I’m missing something?
QHOR: Quicksilver?
MERCH: Well… I mean, I’d pay you 5 silver.
QHOR: But look at it. It’s crazy! It’s silver, but it rolls around like water! I’ve never seen anything like it – it must be worth more than that!
MERCH: I’m sorry, but…
Qhortho looks mildly annoyed.
QHOR: You’ve been fair so far, I have no reason to think you’d deceive me now… I’ll take it.
They ask about their jar containing a brain floating in a murky liquid. It doesn’t seem like a deal is going to made on this item, but before that is finalized, a growing ruckus is heard outside the shop. Someone raps hardly on the door.
The merchant searches the adventurers’ faces for an indication of what that could be about. He cautiously approaches the door and unlocks it. He opens it a crack.
MERCH: Yes?
VOICE: You have those guys in here, don’t you?
MERCH: Yes, I do.
The head guard they met their last time through town pushes the door open, revealing a crowd of people outside. He closes the door behind him.
The guard asks about Lando. They tell him they’ve been far to the west and that they’d already been east before their last visit. They let the guard know that they have not given up on finding him and they were returning to see if there is any new information.
The guard tells them that there have been reports to the east-northeast of some people that have gone missing, but they’d not sent anyone out there yet. The party tells him they will investigate that area immediately and the guard agrees to help them out of town through the unruly crowd.
Although they are interested in purchasing some gems, they decide it best for them to leave immediately. When they get to the stables, they purchase a small wagon, just in case they find Lando in less-than-alive condition.
Lando’s Fate
They leave town to the east-northeast. On their second day, they approach a roadblock just after crossing a river. A group of bandits block the road. Aran’s grin could be seen for leagues. This catches the bandits somewhat off guard, but they are well-trained enough to not lose stride. One leader type approaches wearing studded leather while 3 grizzled men swordsmen stand back about 20 feet and 3 archers stand upon hills about 50 feet back.
ROLAN: Please… Don’t hurt us…
His voice is flat and calm.
QARZ: Not in the face…
His allies turn to give him approval, then turn back to face the dipshit who thinks he’s going to stand in their way.
BANDIT: Hold there. This way’s got a toll. Give us everything you got, and you will leave with your lives.
The group bursts out in simultaneous laughter.
The bandit turns to see his group’s reaction. They remain unwavering.
One of their archers fires two arrows as a warning, landing in the ground at Qhortho’s feet. Rolan fires two arrows directly into that archer’s chest. He is badly hurt but looks ready to retaliate.
Qhortho charges in with his horse, slashing at this enemies as he passes. The rest of the party dismounts and enters battle mode.
One of the swordsmen attacks Rolan, but Rolan is able to sidestep the only one that might have struck.
Over the course of the next frenzied moments, Rolan takes out an archer, which causes retaliation from the other 2 remaining archers. Their focused fire knocks Rolan out.
Qhortho and Aran plow through the melee forces, competing with one another on who is taking out more people. At one point, Aran mounts his horse to show Qhortho what a Westerosi-trained fighter can do in battle. He performs well, but it would be tough to call it conclusive.
Qarzdaq’s selectively-placed fire takes out a few of their enemies at critical points and allows him to give Rolan the ol’ butt-chug o’ life, which is a little easier these days.
As Rolan jumps to life, the last remaining enemy steps backwards and glances away up the river. Rolan sees the sure signs of a fleeing enemy. He fires an arrow into the coward’s back, taking him down. They look over all the bodies, finding only 40 gold. Probably only the day’s take. But that means they were likely camped somewhere.
Rolan spends a few extra moments around the last bandit he took down and determines there is a trail leading up the river. His eyes follow the trail a few feet where he notices a second trail branching off into the woods.
Rolan conveys this information to the group and they strategize over a short rest, ultimately deciding to check out he trail into the woods first but fully expecting to investigate both.
Mounting up, they follow the trail into the woods for 20 minutes before they reach a shallow pit containing what might be a dozen bodies in various states of decay, to the point where it’s unknown which parts belong to which bodies.
They dismount and search the pile, specifically looking for any signs of Lando. It’s not more than a minute before they find a teenager tied up and motionless, a rag is stuffed in his mouth and a rope is in his mouth and tied around his head. It looks as if he were beaten and his throat slashed, no more than a week earlier.
They realize that if they had gone searching for Lando at the time they learned of his disappearance, they might have found him alive. Instead, they focused on the greater good and defeated a looming threat over the entire region, perhaps the world. Their act of courage and triumph almost entirely unknown; their failure to save Lando, much more public.
QARZ: Ok, now we have to find this camp.
QHOR: We owe it to Lando. He did right by us, we should do right by him.
They remove the gag and carry Lando to the cart and lie him carefully on his back.
ROLAN: Think we should return him to town first?
QARZ: I think we should clear the threat first, otherwise it’s 5 days back to Stoney Sept and another 5 back here.
They agree that the threat needs to be vanquished before going to Stoney Sept.
Stealth Time!
The party retraces their steps back to the river, following it upstream about 45 minutes before reaching the source of the river: a rock face with a short, wide opening. Upon closer inspection, a large cavern is on the other side. The cavern and this opening must have been carved through this hillside from the stream’s persistence over many thousands of years.
The Assembly secures the horses and begin to investigate further. They find that the cavern appears to be lit by daylight inside. Rolan casts Pass Without Trace, cloaking them in oily shadows from the river nearby.
They climb the hillside and find a huge hole looking into the cavern from above, allowing them a full view of an established bandit base, equipped with boardwalks, docks, and 5 boats; 4 of them are near each other and 1 is nearby a tented area on the far side of the cavern. The sound of a waterfall echoes through the cavern. Looking across the terrain above the cave, it’s clear that the river continues farther north; it flows down into this cavern and out the wide opening at the base.
There must be at least 15 bandits inside across the entire cavern, including 5 unarmed martial artists congregated near the tented area. A few of the bandits near the docks are unloading items from one of the boats, which they are stacking in various areas across the boardwalk.
Taking note of the few torches along the walls, they decide it would be much easier to infiltrate the base under the cover of darkness. They rest until the middle of the night just as many of the bandits are falling asleep.
The plan is to climb down to the docks from above and silently take out one after another, until they are all gone, or until they are caught. If all hell breaks loose, so be it. Qarzdaq and Qhortho tie together two 50′ segments of hemp rope while Rolan calls forward the shadows once again.
The torches along the walls do a decent job of lighting the boardwalk areas, but not the ends of the docks by the boats. The barrels at the end of the dock directly below them should help with their cover. They climb down the rope in almost complete darkness and hide behind the barrels where they can clearly see 2 grizzled veterans talking with each other at the entryway to the dock.
Looking across the scene from this perspective, they identify numerous places to hide as they decide on how to progress around the area: stacks of boxes, barrels, and tables are scatter around. A few of the bandits are playing cards at one of those tables about 100 feet away. Continuing to scan the area counterclockwise, a bridge connects the section of boardwalk closest to them and the section with the tented area with the martial artists. The bridge is directly in front of a waterfall entering the cavern and crosses over the path of the river through the cavern. A few of the 5 archers are nearly falling asleep by the bridge.
Investigating the barrels, they find them full of lamp oil.
Fuck Stealth!
They quickly formulate a plan that is completely opposite of their original stealthy plan: after splitting up to check out the 2 boats tied to their dock, Qarzdaq will move the 2 barrels of oil into the largest boat, ignite one of the barrels, and wait.
Investigating the boats, they find some gold, but not much. Qarzdaq takes a piece of cloth and lights it with a small flame from his fingertip. He pushes the cloth into the barrel and uses his mind to move both barrels slowly into the largest boat. One of the barrels hits with a slight thud.
VETERAN: What?? Who’s there??
The bandits walk slowly towards the largest boat. The boat explodes in a huge blast that singes Rolan and Qhortho and lights a second boat aflame. This obviously gets the attention of everyone in the cavern. The bandits playing cards jump to their feet, but their momentary inaction provides Qhortho the opportunity to scurry up a stack of boxes unseen, waiting to jump on the first of them to approach.
Given all their trouble with archers lately, Qarzdaq quickly puts up a wall of fire to block the archers near the waterfall from seeing them, let alone getting anywhere near them. He can tell it’s a bit hotter than his normal wall of fire. He realizes a glow out the corner of his eye and knows R’hllor has blessed them with Lightbringer’s power.
They make quick work of the card players and jump onto one of the boats still intact. They undock it and push off. Qhortho takes a running leap into the boat, providing some extra momentum. They are bypassing the archers and the wall of fire and heading straight for the martial artists.
Before they reach the other boardwalk, a few of the archers emerge from behind the wall of fire, and a few well-placed arrows strike the crew. Aran and Qhortho jump off the boat a few feet early and land firmly on the wooden walkway just as the unarmed monks block their way to the leader of the camp: a tall brute who looks quite capable in his full plate.
The monks swarm the Westerosi and Dothraki, delivering an incredible amount of pain. However, Aran and Qhortho dish it back in a similar vein. As the boat glides against the dock, Qarzdaq and Rolan jump out, doing what they can to stay out of melee range. One of the monks is able to strike Qarzdaq, who is able to block the first strike with a force shield. The second and third ones push through, causing him to keel over in pain.
Rolan takes out the archer that fired on them while Aran and Qhortho take out 2 of the monks.
Qarzdaq quickly recovers and drops the wall of fire. He sends a Fireball at the cowering archers still alive, taking them all out with one strike. The ball of fire is so great that it catches everyone’s gaze momentarily before the combatants can continue their melee. When they look back to take some retribution on Qarzdaq, he is gone, blinked out of the material plane.
They eventually take down the remaining monks, leaving only their injured leader.
QARZ: We should take him for questioning!
ARAN: Yeah, fuck that.
Aran delivers a series of swift strikes with such ferocity that the leader is brought to his knees.
Qhortho rushes past Aran and pushes the leader over, kneeling on his back.
QHOR: Give me rope.
Aran scoffs but acquiesces to the group’s will.
We end here, early in the morning of Day 477.
After their next long rest, the Assembly will realize some new strength found as a direct result of their most recent eXPeriences (67,035 total XP)