Friday I did my regular grocery pickup, then five critical thinking classes, and cleaned the house in preparation for hosting Dungeons & Dragons at my place. We had six players, plus me as the DM, which is a full house. Usually one or two can’t make it, but we play anyway and their characters just sit out. But it’s good with everyone.
They’d finished the dungeon exploration where they found the wizard flowers (see recap of the last session). Now they still had to get back to the town of Thistlebrook, but it was late, so they had to stop to make camp partway there. They chose a hidden location on a hill with a good view. The next morning they continued, but Fingers the thief scouting ahead came back to warn them of an approaching party of snake people. They hid and watched, and as the snake people passed, the minotaur Korm (who they’d tricked back in the dungeon) raced up to meet them. There was an animated discussion, and then one snake person in a cloak with a serpent lower half raised a finger and zapped Korm with a spell, blasting him away completely. The snake wizard lowered his hood and the party saw that it was Xiximanter!!! The undead snake wizard they’d met back in the Tomb of the Serpent Kings, way back in session 3 of this campaign, two years ago!
They knew better than to take on this guy, and let him pass by, heading towards the wizard flower dungeon. Korm said he’d been working for the snake people, so presumably Xiximanter was upset at what the party had done.
They headed back to Thistlebrook, where they had a few things to do. Settle up with the sage Thaddeus Vindle, who had hired them to retrieve wizard flowers. They decided to sell him three of the four they recovered and keep one for themselves. Then there was the matter of dealing with the curse of Spathio, the God of Swords. The High Priestess of Orendial, God of Peace had promised to remove the curse if they destroyed Orlugg Broadstaff, the giant-mage in the wizard flower dungeon. They had done so, so the Priestess removed the curse for them. But now the party are worried that maybe Spathio will be upset that they got out of completing his curse…
They did a couple of weeks of training to go up levels. Then Vindle contacted them for a dinner meeting, and told them what he’d discovered about the wizard flowers. And that he’d found information about another old wizard research location, in an ancient abandoned abbey a couple of days ride south of the town. Here they were doing research into extra-planar travel. He suggested they could mount another expedition.
But as dinner ended, a rowdy mob formed in the streets, booing members of the town guard who were dragging six captives through the streets. It was Reynard Thorn (a Robin Hood figure beloved by the poor of the town but wanted by the Reeve) and members of his “bandit” gang. Thaddeus suggested they were unlikely to execute them tonight, but rather wait for daybreak tomorrow to make it a public spectacle.
The party quickly decided they should try to rescue Thorn and his followers, tonight. They ran ahead to the town Watch House via back streets and arrived before the guardsmen with the prisoners. They observed them being led inside the only gate.
Fingers the thief drank a potion of invisibility that they’d found in the wizard flower dungeon, and then sneaked in to scout the watch house. He returned and said the gate led to a courtyard and the cells were underground, down a set of stairs open to the courtyard. As they discussed tactics, a mob of townsfolk arrived with flaming torches and most of the guardsmen ran out to defend the gate from them. This gave the party the opportunity to sneak around the back of the watch house, where Fingers (still invisible), climbed a wall and lowered a rope for the others to follow.
They left Mezza the wizard to guard outside, and Nogge the fighter on the battlement wall as a lookout, with Notgandalf’s magic eye so he could see if there was any trouble as he accompanied the remainder of the party into the cells. They passed a guard room and found the cells, but had to smash the locks open which made noise and alerted the guards. They made a stand at the door and managed to grab three guards and toss them into a cell. The fourth guard put up more resistance, and Reynard Thorn stabbed him with a dagger that the rescuers had given him.
They left the groaning guard all ran outside and manage to get back up the wall and over to the outside without being spotted. Reynard thanked them and suggested the city wouldn’t be safe for them this night after the guard reported the breakout and the other identified them, and they should accompany him to his forest hideout. They decided to do so, but left Mezza and Nogge to go back to their inn and collect their stuff, since they were outside and no guards saw them.
And there we left the game for the night, to be picked up next time!
Today was fairly lazy, except for going for a 7.5k run. I took advantage of the fact that it’s finally stopped raining, for the first time in six days. It was actually a very nice day, warmer and much drier than the past week. I also went for a walk with my wife and Scully and did some sketching. Not much else.