Aporeu chronicles Issue 92: Our Convicted Mum
Stories from the adventurers
This week
Short introduction
Our Convicted Mum by Lilith
This mission is a lot better than the last one I went on, even if it was kinda chilly and rainy in Arnheim. I head to the Guild Hall to go undertake this mission. When I get there, I see Rhodax. Big Dragonborn. Nice guy. There's also Booyagh, the tall Goblin that does magic. And Mama Wicky, a Half-Orc with a peculiar accent. We go to Lornan's office for some more information, and he doesn't give us too much useful intel. He does confirm my suspicion that Mama Wicky is on her first mission. She did well. We'll be going to a world called Ahsura. And to get there, we need to talk to a blue-skinned lady, called Myrcelle, by the Gate. She'll give us some circlets to wear while going through that will protect us. I was confused too. But, we did make our way to the Gate, and I put the circlet on. Booyagh was the only one that didn't, but I'm glad to say he didn't explode. He did say something about a bad headache. But I can't be entirely sure it was because he didn't wear the circlet, or if the Gate just doesn't like Goblins. On the far side of the Gate, we find ourselves in a large hall that's been made into a workshop of sorts. We catch a glimpse of a man with a strange accent for a bit. Then we're informed that Gina Ultrarn is here to talk to us. And she seems to be pregnant. Good for her. She isn't convinced that her mom did what they convicted her for. So she got us to take care of the investigation another time to get to the bottom of things. Turns out, her mom Gillian used to be a thief, before she got pregnant and became a mom. And the evidence that it was her were apparently.. her footprints. I gotta admit, it sounds a little shaky. Like they knew she used to steal things waaaay back, found some footprints, and just didn't bother looking any further. One theory we have is that Gillian got coerced into doing it somehow. We've been discussing this stuff on the wagon ride over to Agnat, the big town where Gina lives, and where her mom is imprisoned. I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but Booyagh does some magic after she tells him to 'try her'... And he does. It takes some effort to calm Gina down and convince her to let us keep working on this. But she doesn't join us, instead staying in a little hamlet called... Pella, I think. We learn that Booyagh has learned to do what people tell him to do. While I don't condone what he did, I... can see why he did it. I just hope my talk with him helped. When we get to Agnat, we notice that the city walls are in need of more repairs than they've been getting. And the guards could do with some better tailored uniforms as well. They're also not the brightest bunch, it seems. Oh well, as long as the townspeople are safe, I suppose. We get directions to the barracks, to meet with Cyrrus. Who's Gina's brother, and part of the Guard. He seemed to be brighter than the ones at the gates. He also doubts Gillian's innocence. But because of his personal connection, he hadn't been allowed to investigate. That's where we come in. The artifact that was stolen was apparently a bow from the Thagurn family. And an attempt to steal that same bow is what led Gina and Cyrrus' father to lose their life, it seems. The guards think it was an open and shut case with Gillian's arrest and conviction. But the footprints were the most damning evidence they had. Well, that and their mom being a pain during interrogation. Though I can understand being a pain in the neck if people are treating you unfairly. Cyrrus takes us to the cells to talk with his mother. She is just entertaining herself in her cell when we arrive. At some point, she talks about being under a spell. Which is a lie. It seems that she's still being a pain in the neck. We do learn, however, that Ogre Thagurn is an old friend of hers, and supposedly asked her to steal the bow. She made the drop-off with whom she was supposed to meet for that purpose, and... Well, we don't get too much more useful out of her before she goes back to entertaining herself. We did inform her that Gina is doing well, and we're trying to get to the bottom of this whole ordeal. What's less good is that Ogre apparently fell ill shortly after he asked Gillian to purloin the bow, and is thus unable to confirm her story that she was asked to do the deed as a favor to a friend. Cyrrus brings us to the Thagurn home and returns to his duties while we follow up on this lead. We knock on the door, and a human woman answers. When we tell her we're there to speak to Ogre, she dutifully informs us that he's ill. But agrees to let us in when we tell her that's part of why we're there. We're taken to a bedroom, and find an old Orc in bed. Mama Wicky and Rhodax independently try to ascertain the source of his illness. With Rhodax being more successful in the matter. He spots a puncture mark behind one of his ears. And I block the door, so the help can't try to weasel out if she feels caught out. Just as a precaution. One that was not needed in hindsight, but I stand by my decision to cover our bases. But, she seems genuinely distraught that the mark was unfound before now. Rhodax also told me that it doesn't appear to be poison. So, I go over and do what I did to fix us being poisoned in Pigeons. Except this time, I do it for Ogre's disease. He looks better after I do that, even if he is not quite well enough to speak yet. I missed a bit after that as I was making sure Ogre was improving, but the help returned with a puzzle box and a note. The answer was quite simple, and yielded us a map. Guiding us to a 'forbidden cave' of sorts. Apparently, Ogre's grandson Tharn was told stories about that place. But, considering he is 13 years of age, and with his mother... We decided to not bring him along. Sadly, he didn't agree with that, but we'll get to that. Since Cyrrus isn't available to guide us right now, I come up with a plan that I cannot take full credit for. It was through talking with my little friend Q that I learned the value of urchins. They tend to hide in alleys, but they can be a valuable ally if you treat them well. And treat them well I have. And that same approach worked here in Agnat. We found a young boy, and for the price of 2 silver and one of the sandwiches I brought along, he was willing to find us a guide to the cave. Jarren, as the older boy is called, was willing to take us to this 'Forbidden Cave'. He said it was fairly dangerous, so I promised him a gold piece for his help getting us there.
And he delivered marvelously. He even kept us safe from running afoul of anything dangerous the whole way there! I told him that if he was willing to wait and guide us back as well, he'd get 2 more silver, and a sandwich.
He went above and beyond, honestly. Because not only did he wait for us to make sure we'd get back to town safely, he even made sure someone we found inside got the medical help needed to ensure their survival.
But, I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let's take things as they happened.
As we walk into the cave, it becomes clear that Rhodax is the only one of us that has trouble seeing in the darkness. So I loan him one of my torches and light it for him.
Guess we're not really going in stealthily. That's fine. The working idea is to try diplomacy with the Kobolds instead of just attacking them on sight.
That plan sadly didn't work out, but we considered the idea. It wasn't our fault negotiations never even had a chance to break down.
As we walk through the dark cave, there's some murmuring that Mama Wicky tells us about. On the first branche, we found 2 guys in Bugbear costumes. One of them dead, the other missing a leg and not looking so great.
Gary was unfortunate, and Ferdinand lost his leg. Apparently, THEY had the plan to clear out the Kobolds, dress up as Bugbears, and have the grandkid "slay" them as part of a scavenger hunt to collect the bow again.
And the plan was going alright... Up until the point where they found a Troll living in the cave, anyway.
Rhodax says a prayer for Gary, and I drag him along to maybe give that Troll something that isn't us to snack on. In the end, that wasn't needed, but I'm glad for the option being there.
I'm sure Rhodax is happy that Gary's body wasn't used as a chew toy, though. Honestly, I'm glad it didn't come to that either.
Anyway. As we go deeper and deeper in, Booyagh manages to find 2 Kobolds hiding behind some rocks, while Mama Wicky talks of some crunching sounds off to the side.
Well, all hell broke loose after Booyagh stumbled across those Kobolds. They spotted him as well, one of them stabbed him while the other missed.
And then he just burnt the one that stabbed him to a crisp. I made short work of the other one, and Booyagh got excited for getting to burn things, so he went towards the probable location of the troll.
Of course, it didn't remain probable for long. He confirmed it for us. Bad news: The troll was aware of our presence as well. Booyagh burns it with magic, I spectacularly manage to not hit this large creature until it runs off after Booyagh who ran ahead into the cave.
And then manage to miss it AGAIN after it stops chasing Booyagh. Meanwhile, Mama Wicky and Rhodax are trying to bring this thing down and keep Booyagh from bleeding out.
Poor guy got hurt pretty bad by the Troll. What wasn't helping were the 3 Kobolds that were trying to hit me.
Rhodax must've been feeling a tad useless, because he MASSIVELY overcompensates with a spell that has the hurting troll fall apart, though it doesn't seem out of the fight yet.
That's not until Booyagh splashes the remains with acid, which Rhodax had just a bit before showcased works in stopping the troll from pulling itself together.
Which explains why Ferdinand was talking about it just not wanting to die.
After Rhodax takes care of the Troll, I line up the 3 remaining Kobolds, 2 of which manage to hit me regardless of how hard I try not to get hit...
But it doesn't matter, because with a quick exhalation of cold air, they all freeze up and stop moving. Permanently.
Which reminds me. Booyagh was grappled by the Troll after he'd gone down, and used some magic I am certain should've hit me as well, since I seemed to be near in the middle of it.
But for some reason, I was perfectly safe from the magic, regardless of being able to tell it was happening all around me. That's quite the neat trick he has.
Where was I... Oh right, melted troll. Well, after we made sure nothing was coming out of nowhere to try and kill us. We free poor Tharn from the cage he was in. Apparently, he got wind of the stolen bow's location.
And decided that it was a GREAT plan to go into the Kobold and Troll invested cave. And got captured. I'm just glad he didn't get eaten.
We have a breather outside of the cave after freeing Tharn. Ferdinand got picked up by some helpful people. And I share my sandwiches with everybody. Including Jarren.
Who seemed to enjoy it quite a lot. So much, in fact, that he almost forgot about the silvers I promised him when we got back to town, and I gave him the sandwich he was promised. Almost.
Not that I would've let him go without paying him his fair wage for getting us back to town safely.
Then Mama Wicky has a good idea, and has him guide us to the care center where Ferdinand was taken. Whom we manage to convince to testify that Gillian was invited to take the bow as a favor for her friend.
And was meant to be where she was, doing what she was doing, to set up this scavenger hunt thing for Tharn.
With any luck, Ogre will recover and confirm the story as well. And Gillian's name will be cleared, so she won't have to spend more time in that jail cell.
So, we tell Cyrrus and the guard about the whole situation, and hopefully that takes care of that whole thing.
In the end, the convicted mom had actually done what she was convicted of. But doing so for an old friend, with said friend's permission to do it.
Things just got a bit out of hand. All's well that ends well, I hope.
Signed, Lilith of Jurassea.
Comments