Session 6: Brandenheim Court

General Summary

Watching his compatriots being taken into custody, Pander tried to keep a low profile as not to alert the guards to his presence again. He followed the guards back to their headquarters, where he found a window down into the dungeon cell that the party had been locked put in. Together they talked about maybe escaping, but decided to try and clear themselves. Pander was sent back to the house in order to look for clues and evidence as to what had happened. By pure luck or divine providence the halfling managed to spot a loose brick in the wall, which held a hidden compartment in which the undead had stored drafts of letters to his benefactor, the vampire Lazarus.   Within these drafts he had written about finding one of the hammer shards that the vampire seemed to be hunting. The shards exact location was never revealed but it was hinted at beeing located inside the Citadel of Smoke. The home of the countess herself. He took these with him, did some recon over the academy grounds before returning to his friends with all the information he had attained. In the meantime, the rest of the group was informed that they were to face thier trail in the following morning.   When Pander returned to the group the bard revealed that he had proclaimed himself as their defender in the upcoming trail. He then returned to the tavern to await the next morning. When morning came he joined his party as thay made their way to the council that would judge them, disguised of course and with his pony and stirrups nearby. During the trail they presented their case but was faced with sceptisism. In the end they were sentenced for manslaughter and given the circumstances where they saw him as a threat to the lives of the children, they were sentenced to pay a hefty fine of 2000 gold.    The party paid their fine and left, now discouraged to help anyone in this godforsaken, judgeful city. Durkon left them to continue his studies, as the party in the end diceded to continue their search for the shards of power before the vampire could get them. As a result they headed up to the Citadel. Acting as intrested scholars of forging and industiralism, they manaeged to get a tour down in the forge by the steward of the castle. In the forge they saw the ancient furnace that is said to never go out or lose power.    In the end they managed to talk themselves into a meeting with the countess. The steward went to inform the countess and left the group down in the forge, free to investigate amongst its workers.