Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Martyr King 8: The Guard Fight

Adventure log for the eigth session in the "Legacy of the Martyr King" campaign.

Our heroes arrive in Auger, dock, and then ask the Dockmaster and Auger Guards a few questions in addition to making their own observations. Here is what they come up with.

Over the past few months, Dorian Guards, Soldiers, and Agents have slowly been replacing the Auger Guards. This is, in theory, to help buffer the peaceful state against the militaristic struttings of the Northern Alliance. The Dorians seem to be keeping the peace better than the Auger Guards were, and there is no strong sense of oppression. There are no drug dealers to be found, and the streets seem cleaner and quieter - overall an improvement for the lawful of the group.

It also seems clear that nobody really knows what is going on. Neither the Dockmaster nor the Guards have a clear sense of who is giving these orders. They simply get their personal orders, which is usually to treat the Dorians like kin.

Also, the Dorian ships have been setting up to the west, where (we can only assume) a large Dorian camp is. Almost no Dorian ships dock at the main Auger docks.

All of this is disconcerting.

Castor and Nut decide that to get more information, they should pay their old friend Smith a visit. They go to his warehouse, only to find it deserted. However, a shady looking man in a cloak beckons them closer, and offers to take them to Smith's new residence. Aymeric thinks this is fishy, and senses the shit out of his motive. Dude be lying! When the conversation turns ugly the guy bolts, but Saffron takes him down with some nonlethal arrows.

Our heroes drag him inside the warehouse, tie him up, and then wake him. He spends the next few second screaming at the top of his lungs before Nut clocks him a good one. They gag him and discuss. Aymeric dons his inquisitor outfit, Castor uses disguise self to look like a Dorian guard, and Saffron goes to a window to lookout for approaching enemies.

The dude is woken back up, threatened, and then his gag is removed. He explains that his job is to look for shady fellows and sends them to the Dorians. He usually catches people trying to follow Smith's trail. Evidently Smith escaped from the Dorians.

Saffron hears many boots coming. They will be here in about a minute. The heroes discuss what to do, and decide to hide, clobbering the dude unconscious again. Castor stands outside, looking like a Dorian Guard.

Five crossbow men, four guards with swords and shield, and one guy in robes approach. They do not see through Castor's disguise, and Castor does a pretty good job of bluffing for a while. But, eventually, he runs out of answers (Who is your superior officer? Where are you stationed? Why are you here? Why are you in your uniform?). A fight ensues!

And what a fight! Hopelessly outgunned, our heroes refuse to give up. Highlights include: Nut spending the entire combat under the effects of Hideous Laughter. Saffron with some poor shooting, culminating in critically fumbling a Drow Poison arrow and poisoning herself. Maven standing in the thick of things, unsuccessfully shield bashing but successfully healing. Aymeric spending a few turns buffing and closing in, only to be turned by a charm person. Castor bombing the bottleneck, then burning two points of heroic favor to explode Robes. The informer dude breaking out of his bonds, going to steal nut's Wakizashi's then changing his mind and fleeing. Then finally, Aymeric intimidating everybody with a nice 27, leading to a rout.

However, the rout is really not the best option. Our heroes now have five guards all running in opposite directions, yelling for backup. Nut has finally stopped laughing but Saffron is unconscious and Aymeric is pissed at Castor for blowing up his magically induced buddy.

This session took only about two hours. It is still May 12th.

This session was played at level 5. Castor earned another point of heroic favor for taking out Robes (by using two points of heroic favor)

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