Campaign Journal: Gundala Interlude

Who's here?

• Fulvus
• Rondel
• Slick
• Jax
• Orzu

The scene opens with the party standing before the town gate of Gundala, bloodied and dirty. The town guards oscillate between concerned and suspicious. When the party explains their recent encounter, the guards send for a sergeant, then the town head. 

Aldred, priest and town leader, shows up, looks at the party, confirms their story, and immediately commands a patrol to take wagons and recover the bodies (Fred missed session, so we assume he guided the recovery patrol).

Aldred brought the party into town, pointed them to the inn, and told them to rest up. She had also dealt with adiventurers before, and told them to keep any carousing to a minimum.

(Narrator – they did not keep carousing to a minimum)

Slick blew a lot of coin and got a “bit of a rash.” Rondel managed to avoid any complications. And Orzu hired a halfling bard of middling talent but great enthusiasm to sing the party's praises. He also may have gotten involved with a local cult. (I forgot that I had my own cult generator posted up, so he'll have to await his cult identity until his … memory clears... yeah...)

The following morning, Slick crept off to the temple for a bit of “penance.” He parted with a bit more coin, but at least it doesn't burn when he pees.

The party was summoned to Aldred's offices to recount their story again, and got a sense of the priest's attitude toward Acroria and its leadership. Aldred understood that Acroria's council was concerned for their domain, but seemed to be at odds with many of the settlements in giving aid. Regarding the Chaos mutants, patrols had encountered a few, but this was the most significant number encountered, for sure. Aldred did have word of a couple of towns on the West Trade Road being raided, with people killed or abducted, as well as people missing from farmsteads and the like. This was concerning, as Chaos appeared to be on the move, and making probes deeper into the piedmont than simply along the margins of the wilderness.

That said, she felt that the party had done a service, and welcomed them to rest and heal. Feel free to visit the temple for healing, no charge (Slick grimaces). She planned to write a report for Acroria to read.

Everyone took a quiet day, repairing gear and themselves. They received another call from Aldred, notifying them that a courier from Acroria had arrived with a missive from the Council to not trust the party (not unexpected). And also with bad news, that the kindly mage of Ulfi, Walchew, had been found dead, apparently stabbed with a poisoned dagger.

This struck Ronde quite hard, as they had talked, and Rondel had shared a couple of spells with Walchew to help him rebuild his lost spellbook. But more importantly, the party's “shadow” was still out there, causing disorder and death behind them. 

source

Time to take action. Suspecting that said “shadow” may be near, the party concocted an ambush. 

(Planning portion compressed due to increasingly complicated iterations)

In the end, the henches and hirelings were hidden away in a stable, Orzu and Slick invisibly departed town directing a illusion of the party, and Rondel, along with Jax, Goober, Fulvus, and Wena hid in a 10' radius invisibility within the priest's chambers.

Sure enough, in the middle of the night, the window cracked open, and a hand waved around a bit. That was odd. Rondel poked his companions. His sharp elven eyes noticed the window move a tiny bit, and he struck.

Even with invisibility penalties, he made contact with the intruder, dealing a good cut. The rest of the party ganged up on the individual, but were not able to make a mark. The assassin leapt from the window, landing in the alley below. About this time, Orzu and Slick made it back from their diversionary mission and spotted two figures in the dark outside Aldred's manor house. Taking advantage of the moment, Slick backstabbed the injured individual, but didn't quite do the deed. The two intruders fled, with the primary finally falling under a hail of arrows.

Inspecting the body, they found the assassin to have leathery, almost stony, skin that allowed her to absorb much more damage than would seem reasonable. This agreed with a prior sighting. She also had a disguise kit and several “communication beads” used to contact allies in the western mountains. 

Unfortunately, her companion escaped, but the party felt that they had eliminated one immediate threat. 

Aldred had the body “thrown in with the rest of them” and made a note to add this one to her report.

Rondel used one of the communication beads to “call” and taunt the Chaos leadership, and received a reply of “you may have cut a branch, but the tree remains.” (Sorry, the DM didn't have time to make up a better bad guy muahahaha metaphor).

Anyway, the party bid Gunala adieu and headed down the road. Still looking over their shoulders, just a little.

DM notes:

Chaos follows...

A couple of chances to remind the party that the world is moving around them, and to keep some time pressure on. 

I'd like to note that this is the first time that I really saw suspicion or paranoia within the party, as they began to suspect the new henches/horse guards, as well as the 'enemy within' of possible infiltrations elsewhere. The discovery of the disguise kit reinforced this concern. Could they have seen/interacted with the assassin elsewhere? 

Something to consider... or leverage... 

Again, more things to build the world, and more things to push me to stay on my toes and keep the wheels moving over the horizon.

The next scheduled session would fall on Easter, so we will reschedule to after that weekend to celebrate our favorite spring pagan holiday. I may sneak in a one-shot in the meantime, as I've been feeling an urge to roll dice with strangers.