Session Forty (Graveyard of Empires Summary)
Late as usual, but at least it’ll be fresh in our minds for next session 😛
We return to the party sitting down to dinner at the Twelfth Knight, the room filled with it’s usual patrons, and Jaharis bustling around to serve us our complimentary meal.
After some time, one patron stood out to the party, an angry-looking, heavily muscled dwarf. He soon approaches, recognising us as having dealings with the Bargemen. We talk, and learn that the dwarf, Angry Jack, was once a prisoner and slave of the Bargemen, forced to work at a mining camp. Now escaped, he looked now to work against them.
He had looked for us, the Starchie Boyz, as we were known to have put a thorn in the Bargemen’s side and broken up thier slavery ring. We invite him to sit with us and dinner is brought.
Talk turns to what to do next, as we feel we are no longer needed in Vargen with the recent developments between the two guilds. As a whole, the party leans towards Newton and the undead threat there, since the river passage is currently blocked. Axel and Thorfus wish to make sure to keep abreast of news from the city at least however, so they know if the city remains safe to at least pass through.
We retire to our rooms, setting watch both within the rooms and without, as Chuq chooses to watch from a tree in the nearby garden. The night remains quiet up until Chuq hears a commotion down Wall Street, along with what looks to be flickering light. He climbs up to a higher vantage point, the nearby Brewery’s roof, seeing that the fire is over near the city wall, near the Watchmen’s barracks. A number of guards are rushing down the street in that direction.
Chuq quickly descends from the roof and heads in that direction. The source of the fire turns out to be the barracks themselves, and teams of guardsmen and citizens are working to fight the inferno, either by water or pulling the building down before it can spread. He spots Elisandro amongst the crowd, and learns from the injured guard that it was the Quicklings who had caused the fire.
They had infiltrated the building in the night, coated the second floor in oil and lit a blaze. Captain Beamsley was still inside, having also been doused in oil and presumed dead.
As the fire begins to spread to nearby buildings, Chuq tells Elisandro to evacuate the buildings and rushes back to the Twelfth Knight to gather help, shouting warnings of fire as he ran. At the Inn, Jaharis is already awake, preparing the morning’s breakfast, and the innkeeper instantly heads out. Chuq opens the nearest room, awakening Finklemur, Brice and Ashton, before waking the others. The whole party, barring Finklemur, who was nursing his wounded arm, heads out at once.
Back at the watch house, the fire has further spread, and now five buildings have caught ablaze despite the fire-fighting efforts. Ashton and the three dwarves take over the hooked poles, and with their superior, battle-hardened strength, pull down the outer buildings, safely containing the fire. Once this is done, it is but a matter of carrying water to the flames and seeing to the wounded.
The sun is beginning to rise once the job is complete, and as the final flames are put out, we are left only with smoking ruins and the charred corpse of Adalun Beamsley. The gathered guardsmen are gathered in the street, seemingly now at a loss with what to do.
Chuq speaks up, voicing the opinion that the Quicklings need to pay for what has happened here, revenge for the Captain’s death. The guardsmen are quick to agree, as are the Starchie Boyz, and we rush off to gear up for a fight and fetch Finklemur, discussing battleplans en route.
When we return, Odard Brevomen has arrived and is talking to Elisandro and the other guards. He initially believes our actions to be rash, but Chuq is quick to convince him of the seriousness of the situation, that the Quicklings are nuisance that needed to be dealt with before any more damage or injuries were caused. Odard steps forward and calls for any guardsmen that wish to assist, and fifteen, led by Elisandro step forward, armed with a mixture of longswords and bows.
We head out almost immediately, coaching the guardsmen on what to expect. At the Copse, we halt at the treeline, deciding to smoke out the Quicklings with fire and surround the stump to stop any escaping. We throw down kindling and oil, and Axel tops it off with one of his improvised firebombs. Finally, Chuq covers the opening with his shirt, and improvised net to prevent escape.
Nothing happens for some time, until we are alerted by Starchie barking at something within the trees. Whilst Ashton and a pair of guards keep watch at the first stump, we investigate and discover a second stump and tunnel, and repeat the process. Figuring their maybe more, we split up into groups to search or guard. Jack and two more guards watch the second stump, whilst Chuq, Brice, Elisandro and three more, hold between the two as backup. Finklemur and Axel, and Thorfus head more guards and set off in a circular search pattern around the copse.
Starchie alerts us to movement, which Axel instantly firebombs, catching a small creature in burning oil and drawing out a loud scream. The rest of the group charge, but it evades them and attacks Axel angrily, though is unable to get passed is armour.
Seemingly on signal, more Quicklings burst out of the trees, one attacking Ashton’s group and two more attacking Jack’s, injuring a guardsman at both points. Once more, the Quicklings prove near impossible to hit, despite our numerical advantage. Eventually however, Tys, one of the guardsmen fells one, and as reinforcements from Thorfus’ group arrive to support Jack, Guardsman Yves kills another.
Not having any luck with his sword, Axel kills the one he is fighting by bombing it, at the cost of injuring himself. As everyone runs towards Jack’s position, the dwarf lands a blow, prompting it to try and escape, only to catch another guardsman’s sword. Believing it to be over, we collect the bodies, noting a viscous coating on the dagger of Axel’s opponent, who appeared to be the leader.
In an odd act of barbarity, Chuq strips and grills the bodies of the Quicklings whilst we wait for the fires to go out. Elisandro sends guards back to the gates in this time to take up watch.
Finklemur decides to climb down the Quickling warren, being one of the few that will actually fit, and Chuq joins him. It seems to be quite sprawling, with many tunnels leading to further exits, but they find a room littered with animal corpses, particular those of cats. Another room contains makeshift beds with animal skin blankets. Eventually they find a strongbox and what looks to be the stolen treasures from Vargen. The box contains an orange-yellow potion and a large cube, each face inscribed with the ancient dwarven sigil for the letter ‘k’.
They count up the money, finding 973 unknown coins, and 2506 silver coins, which they dump into the box and carry back to the entrance, transferring the coins to sacks to lift out. The dwarves take the time to investigate the cube, only noting that is made of an unknown metal, that is neither silver or platinum, and very heavy. After a final bit of fruitless searching, we pull the two out of the tunnels, injuring Chuq in the process when he got stuck.
We return to town in good cheer, the guardsmen carrying the bodies of the Quicklings to display at the gates.