Wilderlands: Session 16

 

 

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

This session was run on September 5, 2022.

 

15 Sweetrain 4433

 

With the joust over for the day and Duycken solidly in the next day’s qualifying round, he and Gwythian decided to seek out Sylvianna. They found her eating with Athelnar and she motioned them to sit down. After a brief description of the last two weeks, they drew her attention to the giant white worm they faced and Sir Mar’s story about seeing the Black Knight involved in a demon summoning beneath the barrows.

 

She was concerned by both tales. While the white worm was not like the creatures she encountered when closing the gate beneath Shewolf, she felt that the authorities should focus their attention on it as it could prove dangerous to the whole area. She also explained that the gate she sensed had either opened, or would soon be opened, in the area would not involve a summoning circle. But, people unaware of the power they were tampering with often stupidly used the increased demonic energy around a gate to make demon summoning easier. People like this were often unaware that a gate even existed. Sylvianna said that she would talk to Sir Mar and try to cast detect alignment on the Black Knight.

 

Later that night, around ten, Stranger gathered up Uggmar with the plan of stealing something from Lady Batten’s tent with her coat of arms on it. While he was vague as to his actual plans, he intended to use the coat of arms in connection with disrupting her mining activities. He planned to distract Lady Batten to give Uggnmar a chance to sneak into her tent.

 

Stranger found the lady at the lists talking with a group of other young nobles including, Elizabeth, Ingrid, Celine, Athelnar, Robert, and Englebart. To Stranger, it seemed like she was trying to monopolize Robert’s attention. She was irritated when he first approached her but perked up as he steered the conversation towards mining and industry. Soon they were knocking back glasses of wine at an astonishing rate.

 

***

 

Meanwhile, Uggmar found a female half-orc guarding Lady Batten’s tent. He decided to approach her with the intent of convincing her to leave her post. She smiled as he approached, happy to see another half-orc. She introduced herself as Rasaz and they made small talk about the party for a few minutes. When she expressed her regret that she was stuck guarding the tent, Uggmar told her that he would be happy to spell her so she could grab some funnel cake and beer. She declined the offer but asked Uggmar to go get some for her. He told her that he would be right back and headed north up the path.

 

***

 

“To industry!” Stranger cheered, raising his wine glass while choking back his disgust. He had pivoted to asking Lady Batten for help in setting up his own mine. While her speech was getting slurred, but she indicated that she would be willing to show him the ropes if he would use his druid powers to increase the output of her fields. He agreed.

 

***

 

As soon as Rasaz turned her head away from the departing Uggmar, he slipped around to the north side of Lady Batten’s tent and cut a slit in the canvas. Slipping inside, he began searching for anything with the Batten coat of arms on it. This proved more difficult than he expected since his darkvision made it difficult to make out the designs. After some rummaging around, he found a piece of soft cloth that had the coat of arms on it. Just as he was about to leave, he noticed Lady Batten’s chest in the corner. He quickly made his way over and started picking the lock. His hand slipped and a dart poked out hit his hand. Uggmar felt numbness creeping through his body and collapsed on the floor.

 

***

 

Stranger decided that he had given Uggmar enough time, and that Lady Batten was getting noticeably unsteady, so he offered to walk her home. She agreed and leaned on him heavily for support as they made their way back to the tent. When they reached the door, Rasaz shook her head at her employer’s drunken state and grabbed her other arm to help her into the tent.

 

As they entered the tent, they could see the unconscious form of a half-orc on the floor, a large, silken, undergarment clasped in his hand. “Funnel cake my ass!” cried Rasaz, “The bastard swiped my slip!” Stranger offered to remove the drunken pervert from the premises while Rasaz put the lady to bed. He carried Uggmar back to the Montu tent and treated him with first aid.

 

With his friend squared away, Stranger went back and purchased some funnel cake and beer and brought it to Rasaz, who thanked him. He then headed to the Morely tent, where he slipped into the bushes. He could hear a man snoring and what sounded like a woman sobbing. He quietly called out to the woman asking if she was OK. While she was nervous at first, she eventually believed that this unknown voice meant her no harm and agreed to meet him at the lists the next day. Stranger returned to his tent and turned in for the night.

 

16 Sweetrain 4433

 

Around two o’clock in the morning, Duycken, who was on guard, heard a sudden, large fire from the southeast. He immediately charged in that direction. Stranger’s acute hearing woke him and he began waking the others.

 

Duycken turned the corner at a full run and saw Lord Anders’ tent engulfed in flames at the end of the row. As Duycken reached the tent, three men stumbled out. Two were staggering and coughing but the third was pinwheeling his arms, engulfed in flames. Duycken managed to break through the burning man’s panic and convince him to stop, drop, and roll. He then dashed into the tent.

 

He found a man laying on the floor right inside the entrance, another screaming, on fire on a bed, and a third immolated in the center of the room. He ran over and threw a blanket on the man on the bed as the whole tent collapsed. Duycken managed to push the center pole so that the tent fell away from him. As the tent collapsed, Stranger arrived and used create water to douse Duycken and the area around him. The other people arriving quickly jumped into action and beat out the remaining flames with blankets and banners.

 

A brief interrogation of the survivors revealed that the dead man under the tent was Lord Anders, that the group had gone to bed around midnight, and that the steward had served Lord Anders his wine before they turned in. Everyone in the tent drank from the same cask of wine. Stranger detected the strong scent of lamp oil around Lord Anders’ bed along with some other, strange, chemical.

 

As they were investigating, Lady Rixia arrived with the bard, Gwenifer Wren, and Sophia, Lord Anders’ daughter. The young lady immediately fell to the ground, wailing when she saw the charred remains of her father. Governor Hetalan and Sylvianna appeared a few minutes later. The governor and Lady Rixia declared that the tournament would continue, and Sylvianna told the party that she would prepare speak with the dead to cast on Lord Anders.

 

As they were returning to their tent, Rasaz pulled Stranger aside. The guard’s breath smelled strongly of beer, but she mentioned she thought she saw a woman walking away from the tent a few minutes before the fire started.