Session Twenty (Graveyard of Empires Summary)

And session summary. Little rushed, but everything important is in their I think. Also realised we completely forgot about the fact that Apidius is likely involved with the traitors…

Getting the damned assassin’s head is perhaps the easiest thing we’ve since we arrived in this damned city, and Drays was happy enough with it. Happy enough to even reward that old mage Finklemur with a book of spells and a promise to personally feed his bloated corpse to Lysander one day. Bloody devilfish. All I got was an eyeful of something that’ll haunt me the rest of my days, us dwarves are too close to crotch level.

We got escorted back out of that foul-smelling warehouse. That far too happy female cultist hoped she’d see us again, I think I hurt her feelings. Crazy woman.

The rest of the party was far less hostile, but we leave, heading straight for New Gate so we can report back to Thornton and hopefully save his hide. I don’t like how quiet it is out on the streets, little more than a few groups of gathered men around has me worried, and my hand doesn’t leave Face-Cleaver’s handle the whole time.

Naturally, we run across a snag. Someone has dropped the gate’s portcullis and there’s a puddle spread across the approach. Faldspar confirms it’s oil. Looks like the guardsmen are preparing for a siege. Not in the mood to be hanging out in the open, I shout for Apidius.

The mob on the other side seems to be drowning me out though.

Of course, this is where yet another ambush hits. Three people are walking towards us, spreading out to surround. They’re confident, and with good reason. It isn’t hard to recognise the mage and cleric from the previous night, which means the swordsman in the middle is none other than Nigel.

“Last time it seems I underestimated you. Not 24 hours and you’re up and meddling,” he says in a poncy accent.

The bastard seems genuinely surprised to see us, but his confidence is more than a little scary. We outnumber them almost two-to-one, but he spouts promises of enacting righteous vengeance upon us traitors. What a loon. We answer in kind, me and Thorfus preparing to fight, though Tarion wants to talk and Finklemur seems to be wanting to just flee. Of course, before I can even move, the cleric locks me down with her foul magic, as if in revenge for my numerous attempts on her life last time we met.

There is nothing worse than being unable to act as your friends battle around you, but all I can do is rage internally. At least the guards in the gatehouse seems to have noticed our plight, but I can hear thier confusion. The portcullis is locked down and Apidius is missing. Seems the pear-shaped fool was rotten. I watch as the others meet our would-be assasins. Old Finklemur, out of spells goes right for the mage and starts beating on him, interrupting the mage’s spell. He well and truly fights like an old man, and somewhere down the line they actually end up knife-fighting, but the old man is unable to do more than nick his foe, and takes a spell that somehow makes him look even older in reponse. Somewhere along line the crazy mage actually started lecturing his opponent on proper use of his charm spell!

Nigel goes right for Thorfus, and falls upon him like a whirlwind with a pair of scimitars. My brother dwarf fights well, even getting in a few good strikes, but is forced to hide behind his shield until a lucky strike finally cracks it.

I couldn’t see Faldspar for a while, but I feel the heat of the flames on my back. He appears moments later to help Thorfus, looking like a barbarion warrior and wielding a flaming scythe, though he’s unable to land a blow on Nigel. Tarion tries to help too, throwing up clouds of sand in an effort to blind the Imperial, but takes a blow from the cleric’s mace before Faldspar can intervene.

Feeling it to be well worth the use, Thorfus tosses aside his ruined shield and activates sword of his, moving faster than should be possible. I saw him strike Nigel four or five times, and the Imperial’s face becomes one of shock. He had those weird red tattoos on his head like our old friend the goblin, and they glow brighter with each wound until his bloody head catches fire! I could swear I saw a dragon in the flames before his head exploded, throwing me and Thorfus back.

This where I’m working on secondhand information as Faldspar and Finklemur filled me in one what happened whilst the rest of us slept. With the death of their leader, the mage and cleric fled. The guards finally got through to us, and they convinced Gosprend to let us get out of New Town. He sent us down the canal with an escort. They had to avoid a few mobs near the paper bazaar, but found Perette and got us all back to Thorntons, along with Nigel’s corpse.

At Thornton’s, the two magic-users explain what they can whilst clerics are fetched to wake us up. As the two remaining members of our group, myself and Thorfus are able to clear up the story. Talessin had been playing us all along it seemed, though I wanted to believe he’d been under duress from the Imperials wanting to use his research to kill the mayor. Thornton seemed tired and defeated at the news, but gathers together a troupe of greycloaks to pay a visit it to Talessin.

We get no answer, and the Lucky Gam’s barkeep hasn’t seen Talessin for weeks, so Finklemur (yes, the old man is more than you’d think) smashes the door open and we enter. I lead the way with the wizard at my side, up through tower. It smells foul in here, like rotting meat and death and we discover why when we reach the workshop. It looked more like a morgue now, machine parts replaced by six cadavers, each and every one of them with thier skulls open to the air.

We are attacked then by the very same ape Galron slew in the sewers, but with the Greycloaks help, we cut it down, only one poor soul getting battered in the process. The also sported an open skull, an ancient dwarven cube within. The room alone is pretty damning evidence, and it seems we found Nigel’s kidnapping victims. We conduct a short but frantic search for Em, who is luckily not a victim, and climb up to Talessin’s quarters.

The tinkerer’s room is a mess, books strewn around, and Talessin himself is lay on the bed, blue with clothing wrapped around his neck. The only movement in the room is a naked woman, systematically ripping pages from books and burning them, oblivious to everything. Finklemur puts her to rest, removing them cube from her skull. The books turn out to be a collection of journals, spellbooks and automaton research, she’d been trying to destroy evidence. A note in the margin of one of the surviving journals implicates Talessin and Jardin irrevocably. Our knowledge of Automatons makes us a threat to his plans, and he is responsible for the ambushes.

We search the room, finding Imperial Platinum and an odd crown. After some discussion, Finklemur puts it on. He engages in conversation with someone mentally, learning little other than that they want to kill Faldspar for some reason, before they leave. Any further attempts to converse simply causes our two robed friends to faint.

Thornton is somewhat pleased with the outcome of the day’s endeavours, planning on calling a council meeting in the morning. We gather evidence, raiding the potion store in the process, which makes Finklemur happily reckless.

It feels good to be through with it all, even if there are still a few untied ends, it’ll be nice to spend a few days not having to look over our shoulders and uncovering plots. Might even be able to get some training in, which I feel we’ll need down the road if Nigel is any indication of the strength of our enemies.