(G341 13/01/2018 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ) WA20

(G341 13/01/2018 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ) WA20

[Rollo here! Continuing the record of the Westgate Adventure. You may remember our erstwhile heroes had not long arrived back at Spectre Island.]

DAY 308 (13th Hammer)(January) cont ...

Random had a few things to say to them after he had got their full report,

''
OK. A lot to take in here. This... this need that you have to give your name to everyone, your need to
confess your crimes, even as you carry them out... it has to stop Fenrir! Why on earth did you give your "real" name to the Grand Manor guards you met on the road? Why on earth did you carry out a shouted conversation between yourselves across the entire Manor before leaving? Half the county would have been out looking for you! What part of "stealth mission" do you two not understand? Fenrir, had you been drinking?
OK, lets break it down then. Let's see what lessons can be learned from this.
First mistake then, a minor one, was pooping at the bottom of the cellar stairs. Hopefully it will just get cleaned up by a maid, but a clever person could use it to skrye you with.
Second. You let the Vampire Spawn loose. If your tactic was to cause chaos, then that's fine. But you then tracked them down and killed them in front of witnesses. Two guards saw you do it.
Thirdly. You killed the target, that was good, but you did it in front of a witness. Flying on your black wings  of death, and zapping him with your blasts of eldritch fire you left his fucking wife as a witness! Sorry, I'm trying to stay calm...
Fourth mistake, and I can't quite understand this one, but you then turn up at the gate and try to claim you are passing Vampire Hunters and offer to help them out. You realise that the Lady of the house and several of the guards had already seen you going about killing people on the premises?
Fifth mistake, and this beggars belief, but you then have a shouted conversation, for all love, up to the manor, revealing Arahel as your third accomplice.
The Sixth mistake was to give your "real" name to the guards on the road. OK, so you charmed them into leaving you alone, but Arahel overheard them telling Fayder (more on him later) all about you and telling him the name you had given them!
What was it they said, Arahel? Oh yes:
    "We went along the road to the city, saw an old woman gathering wood,  4 merchants going to market and 2 weirdos that matched the rough description of the two guys at the gate but it definitely wasn't them.
    Old Raziel Lightningrod is a really nice guy so it definitely couldn't have been him!"
Arahel, you made the last mistake. To be honest you made less mistakes because you did less overall, but anyway you killed the last Vampire Spawn and saved the young girl. I would have done the same thing, but she was still a witness. So, all of you were seen. A Raziel Lightningrod, a cleric and a wisp. That's what they will be looking  for now.
''

At this point Random took a deep breath, as if trying not to weep, the shuffled through his notes.

''
Well anyway, thankfully this was a test mission and we can fix it... hopefully.
Arahel, the man you saw at the window berating the three guards that saw Fenrir and Veddic, well his name is Fayder and he is Lord R's personal assassin/fixer. Fenrir and Veddic have left a trail a child could follow, so he is going to turn up in Westgate in the next few days. Since, FENRIR, you gave him the name that you use in the city watch (I still can't believe it) he's going to get to you quickly. So, you need to take him out. Then bring his body here and we'll dump it in the Plane of Shadows, to hopefully make a resurrection so costly they won't bother.
When he arrives in Westgate, be assured I will hear of it. I will then tell you where to go to sort him out and for god's sake this time do it properly!
''

He then went on to inform them about what he had planned for them next;

''
I've managed to persuade (read: bribe) you two seats at the Silversmith's Banquet tonight. Act like you are there to set up trade deals. You can if you like, but that's not the reason you are there.
Trepplemar the Magnificent, with her husband. Take it gently, but see if you can talk to her and if you can, turn on the charm and persuade her to take you back into the watch.
Oh and Arahel, go as a human female. Get your stories straight first. There will be a lot of nosey people there.
''

The banquet was that night, at the Spitting Cockatrice. Random handed them the invitations.

Arahel decided to go as a half-elf lady and they 'invisy-flied' to near the Cockatrice, landed and entered. It was a private function of about fifty guests, mostly rich merchants and other notables.

After the first few courses people started to mingle and Fenrir tracked down Trepplemar and talked to her.
He barely needed his smooth tongue as the situation was far from unsalvageable.
She said:

''
Well, it was Lord C's bastard son that attacked your cottage. Lord C would have never have done something so unsubtle. In a way though it prevented further silliness. They were all set to kidnap a bunch of Watchmen apparently and demand we hand you and your cleric friend over in an exchange. That all got cancelled when the bastard took matters into his own hands. The cottage was owned by a lady who pays all her dues to the Night Masks so you can understand that this has caused tension with them and the Fire Knives. Suffice to say, the whole business is fairly well considered closed by all parties. I would watch your backs if you plan to return to the city though.
If you want the protection of the watch again I'll ask you to do me a favour. Go meet Dressdelle at the DAW watch tower and she'll give you the details. Now excuse me, I can see my husband wants me...
''

Two other things happened at the banquet.
Firstly a young nobleman called Bard Eantwing took a fancy to Arahel, but she shunned him.
Secondly the brother of Lady Dreggleblot challenged Fenrir to a duel the next day! He demanded satisfaction for the time Fenrir blew his sister's leg off at the knee.

DAY 309 (14th Hammer)(January)

They left the banquet not long after midnight and returned to Spectre Island. Random was happy to hear the good news but pointed out whatever they were required to do for the watch, they still needed to kill this guy Fayder when he arrived in Westgate.

Everyone went to bed, settling down on the comfy bunkbeds in the magic cottage.

Fenrir had initially decided to have a lie in and miss the duel but Random pointed out to him that while it was the sensible choice if he thought it wouldn't go his way it would mean he would loose face in Westgate and that Dreggleblot would always be after him and the situation would never be resolved.

So he borrowed a sword from Random (Fenrir used a morning star) and flew to the Gardens of Termadar where the duel was to take place. Arahel dropped Veddic off, but wanted no part of it and went on her way to the Day Air Watch watchtower to seek out Dressdelle.

Three men awaited them, Chester Dreggleblot himself, his second and a cleric. Through their seconds (Veddic acting as Fenrir's second) they agreed that since Fenrir was rubbish with a sword he could use his morning-star instead.

The faced each other, in the cold air of the dawn, and when the word was given combat was joined. Dreggleblot was deadly with the sword and managed to hit Fenrir with almost every strike. Fenrir hit less, but when he did, he did more damage with his morning-star.

The combat went all the way, much blood flowing from wounds on both men. A final sword blow from Dreggleblot made Fenrir stagger with only his warlock healing abilities saving him from collapse. With the last of his strength Fenrir landed one last blow on Dreggleblot and sent him sprawling, unconscious, onto the ground.
Fenrir could have slain him there, legally he would have not been charged with murder since it was a duel, however he knew it was frowned upon in Westgate to kill a helpless opponent and besides Veddic had told him that old Chester was a decent enough sort who had felt duty bound to defend his sister's honour.

Fenrir healed himself with a wand and then went to meet Arahel and Dressdelle at the DAW watch tower. Arahel had been there a while already and had given evasive answers to Dressdelle when she asked,
'Where have you been?'

They had a big breakfast and when Fenrir arrived, he turned on the charm and managed to get Veddic
a seat at the table.
'Who are you?' Dressdelle asked.
'I am Raziel's physician.'
When she asked, he said he wasn't there to join the watch, merely to help out. She shrugged, it was no
skin off her nose, and helped herself to more bacon.

'Well,' she said, 'The watch has had word from a friend to the south that there is dragon trouble brewing. It's about eighty miles south, I'll give you detailed directions later, but anyway, his name is Haggam the Hermit, he lives in a cave on the mountain where the dragon dwells. We like to keep an eye on this sort of thing so if you could head down there and see what it is that's bothering him. If you can, sort it out, then report back. More tea?'

To get there as quickly as possible, Arahel turned into a giant eagle and carried both Fenrir and Veddic on her back. They had their lunch in the mountains overlooking the Giant Run Gulf, then flew on and arrived in the general area at five o'clock. They followed a goat trail through a wooded gully and arrived at the Hermit's cave just as it was getting dark.

He was an old man, with a limp, gaunt and unkempt, but quick-witted enough. The cave was reasonably tidy, but there was litter scattered about at the back, they saw food wrappers and fruit rinds. Presumably someone came up with food from time to time.

He was very glad to eat from their magic provision's box and as he tucked in he said;

''
Listen, Ol' Murder is getting mighty fed up with humans from the valley coming up the mountain to steal his treasure. I think any day now he's going to go crazy and torch every village down there. Well, I mean, he's going to torch a village for sure, someone is going to get it, but at least it would be good he took his revenge on only the fools that were doing it.
I'd go myself, but I really need to keep an eye on the old bugger, what I really need is someone to go down there and work out which village is doing it and then make sure the dragon takes his revenge on them only.
I know next to nothing about the valley, but whoever is doing it has a campsite down on "Rockspitter Ledge". Perhaps that would give some clues. From there go down to the villages and work out which one is doing it.
''

He then went on to answer their questions and they learned that he never went do to the valley, but that a 'nice girl' came with food every so often, that he knew the dragon was upset from observing its habits and that it was very old and white in colour. It's name was Kredzutah.

They spent the night in the cave.


DAY 310 (15th Hammer)(January)

In the morning they walked up to "Rockspitter Ledge". It was a steep climb of about two hours through the snow.
They were all using the 'Endure Elements' spell to keep warm so it was not too arduous.

They found the campsite tucked in between a cliff face and some rocks. There was a cold fire and some scattered bones. On closer examination it appeared the bones were human and that they had been cooked.

Across a plateau they could see the spire of the main mountain and right at the top a cave entrance. Arahel (as an invisible wisp) and Fenrir (on his black cloak wings but also invisible) flew up to the cave and cautiously entered it. The entrance tunnel lead down to a cavern littered with bones. Above them they could see a dragon sized hole in an upper part of the cavern wall.
From the hole they followed another tunnel which looped around to another cavern where they discovered the dragon himself. He was huge, his head alone was the size of a man and from nose to tail he was 80 feet long at least.
He appeared to be going through his belongings, sorting through treasure chests and expensive looking items of furniture. From this cave they could see two more exits, but they decided at that point to leave and so they
returned to the hermit's cave and met Veddic for lunch.

Around noon Arahel and Fenrir went for another flap about, heading north this time, along the valley where the three villages were. The valley was lightly dusted in snow, meaning that they could follow the foot prints that lead from Rockspitter Ledge, but once they mingled with the traffic in the valley they lost the trail. It did appear that they lead to the first village though.

The first village, the one nearest to the hermit's cave was situated on the side of the valley and surrounded by trees. It also had many trees growing within it's walls.
The next village had a set of giant antlers hung over the main gate and the final village looked richer than the others. The houses were better build and more civilised in appearance.

Once they had seen enough they returned to the hermit's cave and spent the rest of the night there.