Lacking Natural Simplicity

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. [And we all netted +10 XP for roleplaying!]

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. [P.D.F., were any strange animals showing up around Riverton?] 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.

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.