Wilderlands: Session 17

 

This is part of an ongoing campaign. You can find the other sessions over on the sidebar.

This session was run on September 12, 2022.

16 Sweetrain

The session began with Sylvianna casting speak with the dead on the dead body of Lord Anders. The characters were able to establish some facts about his death through their questions:

1)     He woke up on fire right before he died.

2)     He fell asleep after drinking wine provided by his steward.

3)     He did not like Custalcon and often spoke against him.

4)     He does not like many of the “new blood” nobles in the area.

5)     Uggmar learned the location of the safe in his manor.

6)     He was a member of a demon cult when he was young but it dissolved after a tragedy.

7)     Lady Montu, Lord Blan, Lord Boyter, Lord Skel, and Lord Trout were also part of the cult.

The spell duration ended before they could ask any more questions.

After they left Lord Anders’ body, Stranger went to discuss the fire with Tulip.  She didn’t know of any particular enemies that Lord Anders had but mentioned that he had a falling out with Skel and Trout before she was born.

The first match of the day was Duycken vs. Lord Daven. He had originally been scheduled to face Lord Anders and Daven was the highest scoring member of the High List that did not make the Qualifying Round. Before the match began, Vargr cast bless and shield of faith on the duck knight. Unknown to Duycken, Stranger slipped over to the other side of the field and cast calm animal on Lord Daven’s horse.

In the first pass, Duycken’s lance slipped and hit Lord Daven in the chest, knocking him from his horse. Lord Daven also scored a hit on Duycken’s shield and the duck was knocked from his turkey. The judges called for another pass since both riders were knocked from their mounts. On the second pass, Lord Daven missed and Duycken unhorsed him again.

Governor Hetalan stood to congratulate Duycken and to publicly thank him for the efforts the party had made against the goblins. He told everyone that he had hired Duycken’s company to take on the goblins and that they had broken the siege around Filmoth village and pursued the White Worm tribe back to their lair where many goblins were killed. The crowd cheered.

Custalcon(Dar) v Roset
First Pass: Dar breaks his lance on Loafkeaper Roset’s shield. Roset scores a hit.
Second Pass: Roset breaks their lance on Dar’s shield but is unseated.

Uggmar faced Sorr in the first wrestling match of the day. As the half-orc was making his way to the ring to face the barbarian, Tulip whispered that she needed him to beat Sorr quickly. “You need to squash him so you come off looking like a tough guy. I intend for you to go all the way to the finals if I can keep The Woodcutter happy.”

The match went south for Uggmar almost immediately. As he moved in to lock up with Sorr, he smacked his face into the barbarian’s nose. Someone in the crowd called out that they were kissing, drawing a round of laughter. He followed this by missing several key moves and accidently sticking his thumb in Sorr’s eye. The match went on longer than expected ang when Uggmar finally won, the crowed booed him and threw rotten fruit.

As the Black Knight approached the lists for the next match, Sylvianna covertly cast detect evil on him. She indicated to Duycken that the knight was evil.

Black Knight v Somer:
First Pass: Black Knight and Somer both score a hit
Second Pass: Black Knight misses and Somer breaks his lance
Third Pass: Black Knight unseats Somer

Following this match, Gwythian tried to start a rumor that the Black Knight was Lady Montu in disguise by talking to some drunks. While he was spinning this tale, he turned around to see Ingrid Skel and Lady Elizabeth behind him. The two noblewomen did not seem impressed.

Townry(Pelnor) v Hops(Mar):
First Pass: Sir Pelnor unseats Sir Mar

During the second round of the archery tournament, Stranger managed to score an impressive eleven points, maintaining his fifth place out of the ten participants.

Batten v Sten(Grant):
First Pass: Lady Batten and Grant both score hits
Second Pass: Lady Batten breaks her lance and Grant misses
Third Pass: Grant unseats Lady Batten

After his victory, Grant held up a bag full of gold and announced a reward of 5,000 gp to anyone who recovered the magical spear, The Light of Piety. It was wielded by Sir Gralx, a Lion of Mitra who disappeared in the forests west of Byrny two hundred years ago after being tricked and betrayed by fey. Only Robert and Englebart volunteered to take the oath and accept the quest. Grant pressed a medallion to their foreheads causing them to glow blue briefly.

Skel(Arne) v Blan(Tanya):
Before the match, the Lady Elizabeth offered Arne a rose saying that he is as dashing as his siter is charming.
First Pass: Arne and Tanya both score hits
Second Pass: Arne scores a hit and Tanya breaks her lance
Third Pass: Arne and Tanya both score hits. Points victory to Tanya.

Next, Vargr faced Magnum Vapor, the hoop wrestler. Before the match, Tulip informed him that he was originally supposed to lose but because Uggmar’s match had not gone well, she needed him to have an underdog victory. She instructed him to let Magnum beat him up before turning the tables to win.

The match started well. But when Kogaglo distracted Tulip so that Klaxor could hit him with a bench, Duycken did not understand and put everyone to sleep. Tulip called the match for Vargr due to the cheating, but they did not get the match they needed and the crowd left unsatisfied.

Krutz(Athelnar) v Berk(Axtris):
First Pass: Axtris unseats Athelnar

Baily v Rixia(Wolverine)
First Pass: The Wolverine breaks her lance and Baily misses
Second Pass: The Wolverine and Baily both hit
Third Pass: The Wolverine breaks her lance and Baily scores a hit. Points victory to The Wolverine.

That evening, Stranger paid a visit to Lord Morely and his daughter Maxine in their tent and told them the story of Cozsari while he plied them with wine. They seemed to be warming to him as the evening went on.

Uggmar wandered into the wrestling tent and was surprised to be greeted with a plume of pungent smoke when he opened the flap. They invited him in and offered him a smoke. He accepted and offered funnel cake in return, then sat and talked with them about the day’s matches. After a while, he began to marvel at how relaxed he was feeling. The others laughed and told him that it was probably the opium he was smoking. He excused himself and walked over to the Skel tent to stake it out. Gwythian had expressed concern that Lady Elizabeth gave Lord Anders a flower the previous day before he met with tragedy, and she gave Aren Skel a flower before his match today.

Ser Duycken sought out Lady Rixia and asked her about Lady Elizabeth’s whereabouts last night. She explained that Elizabeth was staying in the manor house and that she assumed that she stayed in her room during the incident with the fire. Duycken mentioned that he suspected that the fire might be connected to the fired Lady Montu was injured in forty years ago. Lady Rixia explained that she was a little girl living in Karak when that happened and thus did not know anything about it.

Gwythian walked through the camp with Sylvianna telling her about his suspicions that Lady Elizabeth, and possibly her flowers, might be connected to the fire that killed Lord Anders. As they were talking, they heard a commotion coming from the lists. They rushed to the scene and saw Robert and Englebart engaged in a fistfight while Athelnar attempted to pull them apart. The Wolverine and Ingrid Skel were kneeling over a form on the ground while Lady Elizabeth and Celine Krutz yelled at the two men to stop fighting.

As they got closer, they could see that the form on the ground was Arne Skel and that he was bleeding from his throat. Ser Duycken arrived as Sylvianna rushed to use her healing magic on Arne. Elizabeth and Celine turned to see what Sylvianna was doing and started screaming. Duycken and Athelnar succeeded in pulling the two young men apart and they began trying to figure out what had happened.

Gwythian pulled Elizabeth aside and she told him that the group had been hanging out when Robert and Englebart had started fighting over who would walk Celine back to her tent. She and Celine had yelled at the boys to stop and had not noticed Arne on the ground until Sylvianna ran past to help him. Gwythian asked if she knew where Celine was the whole time and she explained that she was right next to her throughout the incident. Gwythian suspected that Lady Elizabeth was at least holding something back.

Duycken talked to Celine and heard a similar story. He asked if she had been able to see Elizabeth the whole time, and she indicated that Elizabeth was standing slightly behind her when they turned to see Englebart and Robert fighting. She did not notice Arne on the ground until Sylvianna ran up either because he, The Wolverine, and Ingrid were behind them when they turned towards the fight. Duycken sensed no reason to not believe her.

Sylvianna informed them that she had managed to stop the bleeding and that Arne would live. It was her opinion that his throat had been cut from behind with a knife.