Session 24: On the Road Again? Report

General Summary

Oolor 24: The group travels until night fall, passing some vineyards, orchards, and livestock farmers along the wide, well worn and rutted path out the west gate of Magera. They choose to stay 100-150 feet off the road, to avoid possible ambushes. They walk up into some light hills for most of the day, and come back down for the evening. As they set up camp they see a decent sized camp fire a mile or two down the road. Sven thinks it is their potential attackers, but most acknowledge it is likely travelers a bit further along the road than them.
Oolor 25: The party moves down into flatter grass and farmlands, moving slightly slower than they would if they stayed to the road thanks to mud, uneven ground, and having to go around fenced off property and such. When they camp that night they see another fire ahead, but several miles off this time. Jarvis comments that that would be consistent with someone on the road ahead of them, outpacing them on the more even ground. The day passes relatively unmarked and unremarkable.
Oolor 26: Another relatively boring day, and this night there is no campfire to be seen ahead of them.
Oolor 27: They pass another relatively light day, with Harviticus buying himself some apple preserve turnovers packed for travel from a farm stand.
Oolor 28: After traveling some time in the morning the party spies smoke far ahead of them in their direction of travel. That afternoon they arrive at a roadside shrine to the Traveler, finding a murdered family and burned wagons devoid of loot or pack animals. They bury the family members and camp a ways down the road that night.
Oolor 29: The party travels for a few hours when they hear a distressed whinnying, quickly followed by a horse galloping down the road with a load of burning material strapped to its rear. Rheihanna rides out to stop it, failing to get control of the beast to try to help it. Harviticus ran out a bit to stop it, and gets a small crossbow bolt to his face for his trouble, the missile lightly embedding in his cheek (counts as 2 embedded missiles). They cannot spot the source of the fire, but quickly hear another set of hooves coming up the road, a rider low in the saddle who gallops up and jumps off. The man is a slightly pig nosed ugly brute who pulls out two daggers and begins racing towards the party. Jarvis delivers a vicious dagger thrust followed up by a full powered magic projectile from Flinair, and that puts the man down for good.
But there is another assailant, and a second missile strikes Harviticus in the face, lodging almost up to the quills of the unusually short bolt (only about 5" long). They spot the assailant in a bunch of bushes under a large tree. Harviticus is in too much pain from the bolts lodged in his face to do much but stand there panting, holding the missiles so they don't move. Rheihanna rides at the halfling crossbowman, who drops his small, one-handed corssbow and draws a short sword and dagger. He dances around the tree, avoiding a charge from the lance-armed horsewoman. When she gets close he darts in, batting aside the strike from her horseman's pick with ease and delivering a vicious blow to the foreleg of her mount (called shot). She retains control but a second hit from the halfling's dagger (they now believe the halfling to be Renly Stickman, and the other to be Gagnan Fingertaker) to the same spot sends the mount nearly reeling, so she moves it off for protection. Sven bounds up under the power of a springing spell, and Flinair throws out a second, weaker projectile to do some damage. Eventually Renly is surrounded by all of the main members of the party (minus Harvy, still effectively immobilized in the middle of the field), but he is a whirling flash of blades. Despite attacking with both weapons, and frequently from behind, the heroes have a very difficult time landing any blows. He takes some minor wounds from Jarvis and Rheihanna, and a small staff whack from Flinair, but manages to deliver telling cuts to Jarvish, Rheihanna (now dismounted), and even a few wounds on the redoubtable Sven.
Either through overconfidence or sheer hatred for the people before him, Renly refused to run and fought to the end. Despite Jarvis giving him several openings, Renly only managed to badly wound but not finish off the agile gnome. Finally, beleaguered and bleeding, Renly left an opening and Jarvis, fresh into the fight after resting for a few seconds, jumped upon the diminutive dervish, planting one dagger in his chest and ramming his other dagger home under Renly's jaw and into his brain, riding him to the ground. Jarvis rolled off of him and sat quietly for a minute, contemplating the experience, the trauma, and the near death he faced there.

Rewards Granted

75sp. Arcan Scroll, Divine Scroll, 7 small gemstones (Jarvis appraised at approximately 200sp total), +1 leather armor (sized for a halfling), and a custom (and thus unique) hand crossbow with 13 remaining small (about 5" long) bolts. They also retrieved 3 daggers and a short sword, and some regular leather sized for a half-orc.

Missions/Quests Completed

The last of the Yellow Roses from Magera are dead, at least the last the group knew of and who hadn't fled.   Borsino gets escorted to the border of the next kingdom, believing himself safe now.