Another Job from McVoy
Brand McVoy bursts in looking for us. After an exchange with
Polonius, McVoy tells Polonius to keep out of trouble. He offers the
group a job taking three wagons of cut stone to Riverton, with his
youngest son, young Brand, driving one of the wagons and the two
others to be driven by the us. He offers 20 silver pieces, we suggest
40 silver, and he counters with 30, which we accept.
We set out for Riverton the next morning at dawn, with Bartha in the
lead, young Brand in the middle, and Eirnin bringing up the rear. Not
far out on the first day, the wagon Eirnin's driving breaks a wheel,
but it doesn't take long to fix and we're back on the road.
Local Gossip Proves True
Now, local gossip has it young Brand was caught behind the woodsheed
with Gelsie (sp?) Hillfield, but normally he's a quiet 14 year old.
However, anytime any of us got near his wagon he gets belligerent.
Eventually we call him on it, and it turns out Gelsie's hiding in the
wagon under a tarp. He and Gelsie plan to run for distant parts where
there families won't try to keep them apart, or worse. After we are
unable to convince them to do otherwise, we continue our journey, with
Gelsie hiding. Eirnin, soft touch that he is, gives young Brand 2
silver for their journey. Droston's thinking that we'd better get
these two lovebirds to the Sheriff in Riverton before the
McVoy/Hillfield feud heats up to killing again.
Heading for a Hill(field) of Trouble
On the second day of the journey Gelsie's two older brothers Hal (36)
and Heirnen (32) show up convinced young Brand has kidnapped their
sister and hidden her in his wagon. We refuse to let them search the
wagon, worried Brand and the brothers will come to blows, but
eventually convince them we'll got straight to the Sheriff in
Riverton. Droston starts ranging out in front, wanting to have a big
enough lead when we reach Riverton to get to the Sheriff's office and
explain the situation before the Hillfields arrive.
Unfortunately, Droston runs into a couple of wolves while way out in
front and out of sight. He yells for backup, and wagons stop while
Eirnin and Polonius start running towards Droston. The Hillfields
take that opportunity to attack. Hal grabs Bartha, who screams rape,
while Heinen knocks young Brand out out, rips back the tarp, grabs
Gelsie, and with Gelsie kicking and screaming rides hard back toward
Masonberg.
Polonius turns back to the wagons while Eirnin continues towards
Droston. Polonius tries to shoot Hal's horse without hitting Hal or
Gelsie, but misses.
Heinen, on the other hand, isn't having it easy with Bartha, who is
giving better than she's getting. When she finally drives him off the
wagon he grabs his horses reins and runs back towards Masonburg, but
Bartha actually leaps on the back of his horse and continues the
struggle. Finally Heinen gets away.
Droston, meanwhile, kills one of the two wolves and the other runs
away, wounded. After skinning the wolf, he and Eirnin start back
towards the wagons. Once everybody gets back to the wagons we discuss
what to do next, comfort poor Brand, and decide to deliver the wagons
and go straight to the Sherrif in Riverton.
We really ought to stay out of Riverton
As soon as we'd gotten the wagons to the warehouse, Droston went off
to explain the situation McVoy/Hillfield situation to the sherrif
(including the fact he'd been planning to bring the two youngsters
straight to the sherrif as soon as Gelsie was found). The
sherrif was understandably perturbed about the possibility of the feud
starting up again.
They also talked about the the strange creatures being found around
Masonburg. The sherrif had a lot of trouble around Riverton with
wolves, since they're even less used to dealing with them than the
Masonburgers, and have had one toddler and lots of livestock killed.
They've instituted a 3 c.p. bounty on the wolf-skins, so
Droston turned his wolf-skin in for the bounty, since it's a c.p. more
than Masonburg is paying.
There has been a lot less vandalism and petty theft since Polonius
left town. Roy, the murder that we brought back to Masonburg after
finding him unconscious on the path, was found guilty and was to hang
in three days. There is a travelling circus coming to town next
month.
Brand spends the night in a jail cell with the door open. Droston
spends the night with him, and Bartha stays too, after she gets back
from an evening spent gathering information about the “witch” who
lives in the swamp.
Eirnin joins Polonius for a night out with Polonius's friends Chet and
Biff, and they plan a pie-theft, but as Polonius his approach he
notices that the pies literal have strings attached, and everybody
flees.
Back to Masonburg
In the morning the sherrif and young Brand set off at before dawn on
horseback for Masonburg, and we set off ourselves at dawn. We arrive
back in Masonburg on the afternoon of the second day, June 18th.
We drop the wagons and horses off at McVoy's. Big Brand isn't there,
and we talk to Mrs. McVoy, who tells them they'll have to talk to her
husband about their pay, and goes on about young Brand's inappropriate
behavior with that Hillfield girl. Droston is rude to her about the
delay in getting paid, and she tells him off, tells him she'll be
telling his mother about this, and orders him to leave and not come
back. Knowing he's let his anger get the best of him again, he stops
briefly to warn his mother of his misstep, and then rejoins the group
as the go to talk to McVoy.
Big Brand is completely distracted by young Brand's situation, and
pays them without most of his usual bad natured comments. Droston
tells McVoy that he was rude McVoy's wife, and that he was wrong to do
it, and that he'll apologize to her anytime she wants. McVoy absently
says he'll tell his wife, and that's the end of the conversation.
Droston stops back home to tell his mom what he told McVoy.
You want us to do what? We're always in trouble anyway…
We get word that Mayor Gladston wants to meet with us (and Onchu, too,
of course, but he's still at work). He's sitting on his porch in the
cool shade, and cordially offers us ale. After chatting a bit, he
tells us that the town elders have decided to form a fourth militia
company, consisting of the four of us and Onchu, and are levying a new
tax to pay for it. We can pick a name and colors. (The other
companies are the Block & Hammer, sponsored by the mason's
guild, the Axe & Bow, sponsored by the foresters and
hunters, and the Serpents.) Bartha wanted the Fairy
Tricksters, but was quickly overruled. We ended up with the name
Wolf-banes, with colors of grey and black. (Droston thinks
we should add red, and get a flag with a bloody wolf's head as a
symbol.) Our first shift will start the next day, patrolling between
the new and old mines, and we'll be on duty for two weeks and off for
six weeks.
Droston asked if there is somebody who might know more about the old
history of the region, and the mayor says old hermit Kessleman might;
he used to live up the river to the south. [Is Kessleman the same as
Golsmith from Session #5, or are there two hermits south of
Masonburg?]
Bartha started work on a shield [equivalent to a small wooden shield]
and Droston starts working on a composite bow.
Back to the new mines and … a fairy?
The miners at the new gem mine have been hearing strange sounds south
of the mine. [Didn't they all come back from the mines?]
It's two days walk to the new gem mine, where we set up in the miner's
quarters, a building made of heavy logs with no windows. We are doing
an initial scan of the area when someone [who was it?] hears a
high-pitched voice say, “go get the other big uglies — my friend needs
help!” And a 2 and one-half foot tall man with gossamer wings, a
Robin Hood hat, curly-toed shoes, and a bow and arrows appears. He is
Whaler Appleby, who has played tricks on them and helped them before,
warning them about the murderer Roy and shooting him with one of his
sleep arrows for us to find. Now his friend, the brownie Nigel
Redbark, has been captured by “little uglies and a big little ugly”
and taken to their camp across the river.
Rescue the … brownie?
We all get together, get the situation out of Whaler (with difficulty,
since he's not very good at concentrating on one thing, and both he
and Bartha find each other very “distracting”), and head toward the
“little uglies'” camp. It turns out that it's across the river in a
steep-sided hollow on the hillside, and is reached by a tree trunk
across the river. It's dark by the time we get there. Whaler told us
that there are three “little uglies”, one “big little ugly”, and an
evil-looking over-sized wolf. We decide that Droston and Bartha will
sneak up, and Whaler will light up the hollow with his magic so we can
see to fight, and to distract our opponents, and Eirnin and Polonius
will hurry up when the commotion starts.
Bartha heads across the tree trunk while Droston targets the wolf.
The “little uglies” retaliate with javelins and a crossbow. When
Bartha is across she attacks the nearest “little ugly”. The wolf
joins the attack on Bartha and soon another “little ugly” does as
well. Eirnin starts across the log and falls, barely catching
himself. Polonius has his bow out and is loosing arrows as well.
Finally the “big little ugly” appears, and is huge! He immediately
runs to the tree trunk and begins straining to lift it. Droston
starts targeting him. Eirnin pulls himself up. Somebody
[Eirnin?] is attacking the “big little ugly”. Polonius is trying
to get across the tree trunk. Bartha is taking a lot of heavy damage,
and eventually decides to tackle the wolf, taking it and her over the
steep cliff to the rocks and the river below. [And she earns a Hero
point!]
Whaler Appleby appears in mid-air, carrying a tied-up brownie, and
yelling “Flee, Flee!” Unfortunately, we're too entangled in the fight
to do so, and we can't leave what is all to likely to be Bartha's
corpse behind in the river, so we struggle on. Eventually we kill the
wolf and the rest of the “little uglies”. It turns out the wolf broke
Bartha's fall, so she's still alive. We take the head of the “big
little ugly”, the head of a “little ugly”, and the head and skin of
the evil over-sized wolf. The “big little ugly” has a greatsword
(which is in good condition) and a chain shirt (which is not in good
condition), and the “little uglies” have a small morningstar, a small
shield, a small crossbow, and a rusty short sword. The “big little
ugly” also had 15 gp, 25 sp, 140 cp, and one gem. We divide this up
with Polonius taking the great sword, Eirnin the chain shirt, Polinus
talking 3 gp, everybody else 4 gp, everybody 6 sp each, everybody 35
cp each, and Droston carrying the gem.
We ended on day 6, June 20th, back at the barracks.