Session 27: Onto Chivalry

General Summary

As they continued their way north, the party wished nothing more than to keep up a brisk pace in order to reach Helonia as soon as possible. Their first stop after leaving Amarley came when they arrived at a crossroads with a tavern surrounded by broken pieces of wood. This was the Shattered Barrel, a small tavern run by a half-orc named Skaragut. A behemoth of a man who ran his tavern almost single handedly. Inside they were treated to a nice and proper lunch, before they managed to scare a poor halfling girl to the degree that she fled the tavern. This resulted in Skaragut throwing the party out. Trinky, being mad about the situation, she chased the poor girl down and made her cry out of fear for her life before letting her go.   The party then continued onward, back and passed the Shattered Barrel before continuing north towards the town of Baranna. Along the way, they encountered a hooded figure who seemed to have shambling slaves on leashes. As they passed the man stumbled and touched Bork, much to the chagrin of Trinky. She became immediately suspicious of this figure and had Aurora use the Broken Eye to investigate her companion. She could from close experience say that this was most definitely a curse of some sort. Ravojhan quickly stepped in, and with Trinky begging at his feet, he managed to undo the curse. They then reached the outskirts of the town where they noticed some familiar wanted posters. Not wanting to repeat the happenings that went down in Zarastil, they instead disguised themselves as women fleeing from their husbands and thus managed to score some living arrangements with a farmer and his somewhat controlling wife.   The next day they thanked for their kindness and with some breakfast in hand they continued onwards. Before long they reached the crossroad where the road turned west. Following the road in this direction soon led them to the inn known as The Strong Kings Inn. Not wanting to draw any more attention to themselves, they didn't even stop. Instead, they continued west until they passed a guard stop, where Trinky managed to charm some folksguard who also bought the disguises of them as women. They then quickly passed through the large dwarven mining city of Caed Davagh, when they had managed to go around the large walls of the city, they followed the road which now turned north again. But not for long as night had now approached. The party camped out by a river on top of a hill, leaving the horses by the road.   In the middle of the night, they were awoken by Quinumo who had managed to spot movement among the hills. As they prepared to defend themselves, they soon realized that this was a band of savage hill giants who had come for their horses. The party was stunned by the sudden appearance and barely had any time to react. In the end, Quinumo managed to sneak passed the mugging giants and escape with one of the horses, as Trinky yelled to Bork to run. The next morning they found themselves with only two horses. Wanting to retake their mounts, Aurora began to easily track the giant band back to a cave. Inside they found not only their horses, but also more mounts, a goat, and a tied-up elf. Ravojhan engaged in some diplomacy and managed to trade their last horse for the elf.   When they untied the elf, they noticed that it was a member of the Silvestra Numina. But upon further investigation, they found that it was a defector, who had given up on the cause and escaped following their ambush on the order to retake Apieros. To prove her indifference she revealed that the party was being tracked by the hag of the Autumn Woods, Aunty Ingerwald. They then gave the elf her equipment and sent her on her way, before continuing on foot to the Helonian border.   When they finally reached the border at nightfall, they were met by a galloping knight. It seemed their entry had not gone unnoticed. The knight ordered them to halt, and introduced himself as Leoric de Angeleux. When he asked if there was anyone of noble birth among them. Ravohjan stepped forth and revealed himself as a noble of the Geldoth family. This pleased Sir Leoric who began to address him as an equal, and in the end, he offered to house them as guests at his personal household. The group gladly followed this knight who "Pon' his word" would grant safe and comfortable passage and stay.