The Enemy Within - Session 108

 24/01/2025

The Last Request

 The dwarves rise at 7. Thindra still on guard, sabotages their cart wheel to have it last half the days travel. Amos watches the hanging, has a beer and hangs out, delaying leaving much to Chaplain Lader’s displeasure. He is suspicious of the mummers who are cavorting about, he watches them closely and spends luck to make a perception roll spotting that the writer is wearing a Red Crown ring - he suspects they are here to rescue Greber (Amos had been asking a lot of questions about what Greber did previous to becoming a bandit). 

 

Thindra returns to bed saying she is feeling unwell. Eventually Lader presses upon Norgrim who gets them together and they ride out after 10. Chaplain Lader is suspicious or at least nervous about their change of mood and puts the manacles on Magdalena.

Farfordda moves Gaius body and horse a mile or 2 from the road. From the corpse he takes pipe, money and a Yellow Fang Amulet (which he does a 2 SL success Identify Artifact on) then drags the body into the undergrowth. He cleans the horses wound, then does the Tarot - did whatever Gauis was carrying go into the mountains up Felangst valley? No. He slowly makes his back down the road south towards Lindenheim, the plan being to meet the party at camp tonight to spring Magdalena.

An hour or so out of Lindenheim the dwarves pass the Sigmarite Pilgrims and their cart that Farfordda saw at dawn - clear the way they shout, we were attacked by bandits a few miles back! 

Amos scouts ahead while Norgrim intentionally drives their wagon very slowly.

Late afternoon they come upon the site of a massacre, 3 pilgrim bodies and 5 rustics are scattered around at a perfect ambush spot. A woman groans for help from the undergrowth - Amos (tentatively) and Chaplain Lader respond. She has a brutal abdomen injury - 

I am dying she says, I failed in my charge to deliver Baron von Holzbek’s daughter, she has been taken by bandits dressed as pilgrims - you must do what I could not - this amulet identifies her...

She takes out a gold amulet with an inscription of a ferret holding a sword and thrusts it in Amos’ hand as she breathes her last.

The dwarves impress on the Chaplain that they must do something - Magdalena is a knight, the girl must be rescued! He agrees to drive on to Felangst Tower with Thindra while they take the 2 horses and ride hard back towards Lindenheim. He makes Magdalena promise that she will return with the girl.

Two miles before Lindenheim, at the mouth of the Two Fingers valley they find the scene of another battle - it’s about 7pm, the sun is beginning to set. 

Meanwhile Farfordda walking down the road encounters the wagon with Thindra and Chaplain Lader - she pretends not to know him but they tell him what has happened here - Farfordda gallops south and joins his companions as they inspect the battle scene. 

 

They find one pilgrim body, 5 goblins and a wolf. Farfordda can easily see the tracks leading up into the mountains - he sees that there is a heavy wolf, 2 heavy horses, 4 goblins and a child. They head on up the valley. 

 

 

At midnight, just a few miles north of the Two Fingers they stop - Farfordda casts Lie of the Land again - he can see from it that there is a good camp spot a mile on, and a shallow cave a mile or 2 east of the towers, around which he can subtle eddies of the winds of magic. They push on and make camp about 1 am, Norgrim spending all his luck to make up for the failed outdoor survival rolls, they each take a 1.5 hour guard shift, intending to push on at 7am…