Conquering the Barbarian Altanis: Session 51

May 30, 2023

Adventurers

Character	Class	Description
Harker	Fighter level 1	Top heavy hunk with skinny legs, wielding a massive great-axe with rose-motifs.
Rashomon	Elf level 1	A dangerous looking elf.
Hellmuth Mithaft	Fighter level 1	A bold mercenary with glorious red beard and pearly facial hair.
Eon	Fighter level 3	Silent and imposing tall, wiry ebony man adorned with plate mail, orange scarf, and necklace of skeletal finger.
Edimus Gorgon	Cleric level 1	An elderly looking gentleman—despite his young age—dressed in long cape caked with dirt and grime. Worshipper of Pernatam, God of Sculptures.

Thistleburn 10th, Spiritday

Two weeks of toiling everyday on bringing the Elder Temple, as well as Dontrap's small abbey, to their former glory.

Harker spent all his coin, and strained all his muscles, abiding the three voices from a giant two-handed sword he had recovered from the ruins of the Elder Temple.

Although the voices refuse to reveal their name, they did divulge that the sword's name is Oathkeeper.

Young and mighty warrior was now seen as an authority figure in the desolate thorp called Dontrap. Alas, that brought him nothing but more work in form of resolving petty squabbles between few inhabitants still living there.

But one thing became obvious to Harker: there just isn't enough manpower nor resources in Dontrap to restore either of the temples to their former glory.

“Oh mighty Paladins, may I venture into richer lands to find means to restore these amazing temples?”

“You may, as long as you keep your Oath. We will be watching.”

“My Lords, do you have an idea where should I go?”

“The Majestic City-State of Satur lies just several hundred miles south of here.”

“Uh, that's a bit far.”

Pantro, the local “merchant” reminded Harker of Hara, a trade hub just two days of brisk walking from Dontrap.

“Just follow the river Farhills downstream—you can't miss it!”

“Hara it is!”

And so did Harker recruit Rashomon, a drunk elf; Edimus, a brooding man of faith; Eon, an ebony slab of granite; and Hellmuth, an opportunistic mercenary.

The party of five set out from Dontrap with the first light of Thistleburn 10th, Spiritday.

Springing from the white peaks of the Madcat Mountain and Bludgeon Peak, river Farhills lazily rolls through the Midnight Goddess Hills, and spills into the bay south of Vigil Sound. Wide and calm, the party easily found it.

“Halt!”

It was-mid day during Thistleburn, the hottest month of the year, with very little shade in sight.

“Up ahead...”

Around hundred or so yards up ahead a group of forearm-sized naked humans were frolicking at the river bank. They were of various different colours, and were having a jolly good time.

“Let's hide and observe.”

Voyeurism paid off, for the party got to count the number of creatures: two dozens. Most looked female or feminine, and were making little crowns of flowers and lilies by the river.

“Let's avoid them. In a wide berth.”

They avoided in the really wide berth.

And then they camped for the night.

Thistleburn 11th, Airday

“Get up, footsteps in the night!”

Eon kicked Hellmuth awake.

Rashomon, Edimus, and Harker were soon awake as well.

Just in time to hear a shout from the darkness:

“You are surrounded! Who are you and what is your business here!”

Opting for non-violent resolution methods, the party discovered they were travelling through territory safeguarded by Hara's forces. This specific patrol was headed Evert, whom was happy to escort the party to Hara for 60 gold coins.

All of the guards had the same shield: polished white body with cloudberry bordure. Bull sigil dominated the center.

The party spent the day trying to learn as much as possible about the region from Evert. Apparently he doesn't reside in Hara but castle just north-east from it. Tagoler is the commander, and is in charge of securing everything between the river, Midnight Goddess Hills and the bay. Their resources are strained, and they haven't had enough people to explore recent freaky reports from the hills.

Hara is ruled by the Omniscient Red Queen, Earani Cor. Haermond II serves as both Hara's castellan and general of the forces. Tagoler reports to him. In fact, he approves all expeditions as well, including those from mercenaries and adventuring parties.

Once again the party resorted to non-violent persuasion methods with great success. For a small bribe of one tiny agate Evert agreed to introduce the quintet to the Haermond II. Little did he know how much was he risking.

The party arrived to Hara by river barges by nightfall.

They were housed in the citadel barracks.

Two corpses were hanging in front of the citadel, stinking up the market square.

“Scoundrel of the worst kind. They came into our wonderful city, insulted our people, and then slit the throats of four guards. Good boys they were! Rest assured, we know how to deal with criminals.”

Thistleburn 12th, Waterday

“Lord of The Castle will meet you now.”

All five members were summoned in a spartan war room. Large table dominated the space, whilst regional and city map dominated the west wall.

Haermond II behaved and spoke as a person who has too much to get done to bother with cordiality for too long. He was dressed in simple but functional clothes. If it were not for an amazing ring with bulls signet and sword with lavishly decorated sword pommel, he could've been easily mistaken for a commoner.

“Hara thrives on trade. We have established a center of civilisation in the very heart of Barbarian Altanis. Everyone is envious of us and is working tirelessly to bring us ruin.”

“In the past few months we have had a sharp increase of caravan raids—both on the land and the sea. I'm sure we have a spy ring operating in the city!”

“Here is why I believe so. First, the raiders are always at the right place, even when we vary the route. Second, the raiders somehow seem to know which caravans are less guarded than the others. And third, they have avoided all the traps we have set up for them.”

“The situation is getting to a boiling point. Affluent families are accusing each other, myself, the Queen... I need a group of capable outsiders to get to the bottom of this. Somebody who is unknown to local figures of power, new and old.”

“Are you the right people?”

“Of course! Can you tell us a bit more... About... Uh... Payment?”

“As much gold coin as you can carry.”

“We are your people.”

“You have two weeks to solve this. Here are the rings with my personal sigil on them—show them to any guard or local business to be granted access and service. Break the law and your necks will be broken too. You have two weeks to sort this out.”

Haermond II spent a few more minutes answering the newly hired detectives' barrage of questions, until he had enough:

“You are smart guys. I'm sure you'll figure it out.” and with those parting words he left off to deal with even more important matters.

The party learned about three most affluent merchant families: Imraell, the oldest and wealthiest; Namelin, the ruthless; and Pilter; the young upstarts focused on entertainment. In castellan's opinion none of the families haven anything to gain by sabotaging each other, but hey, everything is possible these days.

“How should we tackle this?”

“Let's split and visit different places to ask around.”

“Sounds like a plan!”

Daddy Rashomon dolled out coins to poorer party members so they have enough to grease the locals. And off they went.

Harker went to the Black Eagle tavern, Hellmuth to the notorious Partihouse tavern, Eon to the Fighter's Guild, while Rashomon and Edimus visited Forsetti's temple.

Too much has transpired on these individual adventures for one scribe to capture, but we know that the party learned the following. An increase in raids led to mercenary prices sky-rocketing; each family has been accusing each other; Namelin family is quite litigious and has been suing everyone, including the castellan and Queen; there is a “spooky house” at the edge of the northern district; and the frequency of raids has been steadily increasing.

After a full day of intelligence gathering, the party had agreed to head to different inns, to hopefully overhear some rumours there as well.

Harker went for the luxurious Circled Star inn managed by a family of four dwarves. He was promptly kicked out after attempting to bargain. So he went to The Castle inn, and spent the night with Rashomon. Helmuth and Eon went to the Dragonslayer's inn, and had good time there.

Finally, Edimus went to the Night House, just to the right after you cross the bridge into the Northern district. He woke up without his holy symbol anywhere in sight. And then he had to pay the toll to cross the bridge. But he managed to meet up with the party at the market square just in time.