Report-91 - Fight at Grimble's Tannery

Everlund, Tanner's Row — August 1367. Combat rounds 1–3 (round 4 just begun). The fight is not over.

Where we left off

The group had tracked someone to Grimble's Tannery in Everlund. A patrol marched in, words were exchanged, and the party decided to go in after Harl Grimble. A sparrow was sent inside to scout; it saw the room just as one of the guards levelled a crossbow at it. The party burst through the door and shut it behind them.

The room: an upper floor of the tannery, thick with a sharp, stinging tanning stench. Three or four large vats, about five feet tall, are sunk partway into the floor — enough to hide behind, especially for a gnome.

The opposition:

• Four patrolmen in shield-and-longsword kit, fighting in pairs. They are trained, but this is clearly not the kind of fight they are used to.
• The masked man — tall, fit, clearly a city person rather than someone who spends time outdoors. Long, high-quality black clothing of lustrous cloth, and a finely carved and decorated mask with a lion motif. A spellcaster, and resistant to magic.
• Harl Grimble, caught in the middle.

Round 1

The crossbowman fired as he had been ordered to. The bolt took the sparrow, and it vanished in a puff of smoke. He was still gaping at that when the party piled in through the door.

Myrbec answered first: a Starry Wisp struck the crossbowman, leaving him glowing with starlight so that he couldn't hide anywhere. "You face death like a sparrow vanished into thin air… and then glow in hell." Even so, Myrbec was clearly upset that a living creature had been destroyed.

Rudi took a defensive dancing stance, cast Blink, and murmured to the room that everyone should take it easy — the sparrow had been an important member of the company. He then tucked himself behind Lambert's broad shoulders and Myrbec's vat. In different clothes and with his hood up, he may not be recognised as long as he keeps quiet.

One patrolman seized Harl Grimble with both hands and held him fast. His partner stepped up beside him, raised his shield and waited for orders.

Lambert, masked and saying nothing, wove a silent, invisible Bane over all five opponents. Nobody saw him cast. The four patrolmen felt it take hold; the masked man shrugged it off.

The masked man then turned his attention on Lambert. Lambert sensed an attempt to reach into his mind, tried to counter it, and failed — the spell went through (Detect Thoughts). What it found on the surface was calm: Lambert relaxed and in control, even faintly confident, thinking "Let's see what he does next — nothing here is scripted yet. If my name comes out, so be it." Beneath that, a vast emptiness. The feeling was new to Lambert, but it did not rattle him.

The last patrolman tried twice to smash Lambert down with his shield. Both blows clanged off his armour. Lambert didn't budge, standing with his arms almost relaxed at his sides.

Round 2

The glowing crossbowman tried to get a proper look at the intruders, but the starlight was right in his eyes. He squinted, gears visibly turning, trying to place their faces — slowly — then settled into a ready stance.

Myrbec swung at him with the Staff of the Woodlands and missed.

Rudi played a tune and a thick Fog Cloud rolled out from among the vats, filling the room. Now nobody could see anything — except Lambert, whose newly developed blindsight lets him perceive everything within ten feet. Over the telepathic bond Rudi called a short pause to think: the masked man was using some unfamiliar spell Rudi half-recognised from old history, and he clearly didn't want to look like a mage; if they could restrict his freedom of action, that would help. He also reminded the others that the fog cuts both ways.

The second patrolman bashed at Lambert with his shield, then swung his sword. The blade would have landed, but a shimmering Shield spell turned it aside.

Lambert changed plans. He let Bane go, called a Shadow Blade into his hand, and went after the second patrolman. Both swings missed. Behind his mask, Lambert gave a little snort of amusement at himself and moved along the wall.

The masked man pressed harder into Lambert's mind. Lambert could feel someone digging deeper, and it was not pleasant.

One of the patrolmen called out through the fog: "Hey — aren't these the ones from the posters?" He didn't sound sure.

The same patrolman lurched forward, swinging blind at whatever was next to him. He missed Lambert, swung at Myrbec, then stumbled in the fog, twisted his ankle and swore about it loudly. He will be moving at half speed for a few rounds.

Round 3

The crossbowman, now fighting with shield and sword, found Myrbec in the murk. His shield bash was meant to knock the gnome down, but Myrbec stayed on her feet; his sword then cut her.

Myrbec's staff crackled with an electric-blue light, and a flare of fire followed — like someone striking a lighter in the fog. "You're getting a thrashing with a willow switch. That'll teach you." The crossbowman was badly hurt.

Telepathically, Rudi suggested that knocking these people out would be enough; making a bloodbath in their own home town wasn't a good idea. Myrbec agreed but pointed out the talk about posters — they might have to take a swim in one of the vats after all. The group agreed to let things develop before anyone was killed.

Rudi's Sunblade flared in the fog, like a ship's lamp in a harbour mist. He found the second patrolman and hit him with a radiant blow that left a booming charge on him. When the patrolman moved, it went off with a proper thunderclap. Then Rudi blinked out to the Ethereal Plane.

The first patrolman still has Harl Grimble — by now tied up. He is feeling his way blindly along the vats, listening for sounds and glints in the fog.

The second patrolman, roaring from the thunder, shield-bashed Lambert hard but could not topple him, and his follow-up sword swing missed.

Lambert then finished him. He dropped the patrolman with the Shadow Blade, stabbed him with the Whispering Dagger, and knocked him prone with a Trip Attack. The last cut left the man unconscious. Lambert kept the dagger's damage psychic: force and psychic wounds leave far less blood than steel, so there will be fewer trails to follow. In the middle of the flurry he stepped across to the crossbowman and landed a critical blow on him too.

From further back came muttered spellwork and the sound of a small crystal shattering. A blast of freezing air — like opening a chest freezer — swept over everyone: the party and the masked man's own men alike (Cone of Cold). Lambert steeled himself against the worst of it; Myrbec took the full blast. Rudi, out on the Ethereal Plane, was untouched. The unconscious second patrolman froze solid into an ice statue. The cold did not clear the fog. The masked man then withdrew into a corner.

The masked man clearly does not care much about his allies.

Round 4 had just begun when we stopped.

State at the end of the session

The whole room is still heavily obscured by the fog.

Open questions

• Report numbering: Report-90 ends outside the All Faiths Hall. If the session that led to the tannery (tracking, the patrol, sending in the sparrow) was a separate session, this should be Report-92, and that session still needs a write-up.
• The sparrow: whose was it? It vanished in smoke, so presumably a familiar. It's worth checking whether it can be resummoned.
• Patrolman 3: the log marks him as dying after the Cone of Cold, yet his Shield Bash recharge still rolled on his round-4 turn. Is he down or still standing?
• Patrolman 4's round-2 attacks: one attack on Myrbec is logged as a hit (24) with no damage roll. Was damage applied?
• "The posters": which posters? Wanted posters of the party, or of someone else (e.g. Pip)?
• Who is the masked man? The lion motif matches the stranger who asked Trovion about Rudi and Myrbec.
• Next session: tentatively Saturday 3.10 at 20:00.