Meetings

August 14, 2014

The group is in Whistledown after the battle.  They aren't sure they can do anything else and since Ola is leaving, they head back to Ilsurian with her.  The trip is uneventful back to Ilsurian.  They pick up a few things they need, such as healing potions and poison supplies.  They talk about it but decide the thing to do is walk, instead of charter a boat, so they head out overland to go to Biston.  

The trip is wet.  The spring rains have come early and they can't get too close to the lake or the ground is too marshy.  They camp and once again are visited by a fey in the night.  Fain talks to her but isn't interested in hearing what she has to say or dealing with her.  The fey finds him quite untrustworthy because after doing as he asks, he refuses to keep his part in it.  Fain does find out that the fey trying to invade is called the Laughing Silence, but later talking to Shar reveals nothing about this fey to the group.  The next morning, they feel a portal open and hear corpses hitting the ground.  Going to investigate, it would seem that the meat from seven dead cows has been tossed near their camp.  They don't have to wonder for long as the wyverns descend.  

The wyverns might have been interested in the meat and not gone after them but one landed close enough to the group that the group felt threatened and attacked them.  The wyverns are dispatched and skinned for some parts, with Fain taking the heart to eat later.  At the mid day meal, he feeds them all a portion of the heart.  Volgash doesn't feel well after that.  That evening in camp, Volgash has stomach cramps and isn't feeling well.  He says he will take first watch because of the pain.  Fain wakes up to see someone going through Volgash's stuff!  Volgash is no where to be seen and his clothes and items are all spread out over the area.  He confronts the human, who then tries to leave.  Fain is not having any of it and he wakes the others.  Fain doesn't see the axe anymore and Shar and him are quite unhappy about this.  They confront her.  She says she's a bounty hunter and is retrieving the axe.  She has papers on the owner.  Fain writes up something and presents it as their ownership papers.  

"You just wrote that with charcoal," the woman says, incredulously.  "I handed you sealed papers from Absalom, describing the axe you had in detail, with the writ and seal of the duke and council of the city!  You can't compare the two at all."  

"Sure we can and ours is better."  

Realizing that she can't reason with these madmen, the women turns to leave.  She is chased by the party, all of whom are up.  She's not getting away when another wyvern descends and pins her!  The group is about to attack the wyvern when Adrasteia announces that the wyvern is actually Volgash.  If a wyvern could nod, it does that vigorously.  The woman accepts her fate, albeit reluctantly, and tries to be comfortable while nearly being crushed by the wyvern's bulk.  (I'm saying Volgash is fat.)  They take her stuff and Fain is looking at her with murder in his eyes the entire time.  

It turns out that the woman had a magical bag that allowed her to transport the axe directly back to Absalom.  She no longer has it.  The group eventually accepts this.  Fain still thinks some punishment is in order for the woman, from being sent away naked to perhaps being killed.  And then he has the great idea to invoke Mab.

"Mab.  Mab.  Mab."  

The group finds they are transported to a courtyard in winter.  Several figures are frozen like icicles and there is a tree covered in ice that Mab is tending.  

"Greetings, O great Mab," begins Fain.  The woman starts shaking and not from the cold.  Who they heck are these people that they can call out to a Fey Lord and be answered, so quickly and directly?  She averts her eyes and steps closer between Trogdor and Volgash, no longer a wyvern, eyes darting to see exits.  "Thank you for seeing us."  

Groans from Shar and Adrasteia.  

"Do you really thank me?" replies Mab.

"Yes," replies Fain.  "I am grateful you are seeing us."  

"Say that one more time, as I like the sound of it," purrs Mab.  

"Th-" starts Fain.  

"Enough.  Don't say more like that," says Shar, over Fain.  "You have thanked her enough.  That conveys debt."  

"I don't agree to debt," protests Fain.

"Our host won't see it that way," says Shar.  

"What caused you to use my name?" inquires Mab.  

"I want my axe back."  

"What are you willing to bargain for it?  Ten years service?  Speaking of which, you friend may be returning to you."  

"Jack is done serving you?"

Mab laughs, the sound like icicles crashing to the ground.  "Oh, no, silly mortal.  Not even close.  But I require him to be back . . . with you."  Shar lets the hesitation go.  

"One year service," blurts out Volgash.  

"Hmm.  No, I don't think I could do it for less than five.  As i said, I can't undo the effects of Chaos that the deck has.  I can at least give you a fighting chance to have the axe back."  

"Then make this one tell me how to get it and where it is," Volgash says, prodding the woman.  The woman doesn't want to speak in front of Mab but can't help herself.  "You don't want to protect me more?  I did notice you didn't let the threats of your friend go unanswered in response to me."  

"Are you betrothed?"  Mab asks, a slight smile on her lips.  

"N-"

"Oh, yes, that would be interesting," coos the woman.    

"Only for this talk, I would protect her," nods Volgahs, reluctantly, but certainly reacting to the way the woman is squirming against him.  

Saying that, Volgash and the woman feel the bonds of something settle on them, as if this plane recognized their words to each other.  Volgash was not happy.  Trogdor was trying his best not to laugh but his shoulders shook quite a bit.  

"Well, that settles that," says Mab, looking disappointed.  "I cannot force a betrothed to act against another, so there is little I can do."  

"Then we should go back."  

The woman is again surprised as perhaps more happened but she couldn't hear it all.  It was as if she had had five tankards of ale, and the voices were coming from a long way away.  Soon, though, it was spring, instead of winter.  

"I definitely want to go my own way," she declares.  The group argues a bit more about how that should be done but in the end only keep the transport bag and send her on her way with everything else.  

They continue to Biston to find out what they can.  They go to the Inn, the XXXX XXXX, and get some food and drink.  While they ate pretty well on the road, the food is good.  After they have finished and are relaxing, they notice that people start to leave.  Sure, they are getting some strange looks from some of the locals, but they don't think it's because of them.  It turns out that they are about to meet the noble that came to this town.  

Count Thomas Varkas is not a pleasant man.  Most of the group leaves, not even wanting to talk to him, but Fain stays behind, being curious.  Count Thomas walks up to Fain's table, Fain being the only other person besides the bartender in the room, and wants to hire him to help the "dumb yocals realize who should be in charge, if they knew what was good for them."  Fain isn't having any of it and Count Thomas goes back to his table.  

Fain joins up with the group as they are explaining to the mayor and his wife about the portals and the orcs.  The mayor's mind catches onto the politics and realizes that they will need the Count and his men to hold off if four portal groups are opening around the town, as Adrasteia has seen it.  Further, while he and some of the militia might be able to cover one, they can't cover two.  He's not sure of the Count as well.  The group declares they will take care of the other two as one of the group has a pet wyvern.  This impresses the mayor and the group then begins to plan out the defense.  

GM Notes

• I was really unhappy with my own performance tonight.  I had just read a book on GM prepping and some good inventory ideas for a GM but failed on several points.  Always something to improve, which is good.  Basically, I focused too much on side quests and stories, such as with the woman and Mab, and not enough on the quest.  
• The rightful owner got their axe back, although some weren't happy about that.  
• It's fun when players get nervous.  They weren't happy about Mab!
• I can't remember the name of the place in Biston and will have to look it up when I get to my written notes.   
• I didn't intend the axe to remain, which is why I set this up in a previous wiki entry a month ago.  My timing was certainly not as discreet as it could have been, nor did the full explanation of how the woman came to be there come out.  I will have to explain that eventually.  
• Volgash was being played as if he didn't know at all about how he can turn into other animals.  Having this explanation happen in the game is probably going to become a big deal, as now the character will be able to turn into many more animals, for a cheaper cost, now that it has been figured out.  
• Unfortunately, there are several things not working out in favor for Patrick.  My own style, and what this group has figured out in the past four years, is not the same background that Patrick has.  I think that's going to cause some questions to happen about how I resolve things.  Do I inflict the penalty?  Do I go lenient for him not knowing?  Is ignorance of the laws a reason to be lenient?  I have some thinking to do.  
• I need to prepare more!  I have to work on that as it will help me stay focused on the main goals.  My thought is to "hand off" secondary goals to the players and let them drive those.  I have tried this before but I think I have a better idea of it, based on how this session went.  It also means, though, that, imo, the players need to have their own goals for their characters.  Again, something to work on and improve.  It's what makes the game fun!
• Not the best write up.  I tried to write this from the fey and then the woman's point of view but I don't think I am consistent enough.  It doesn't help when those two aren't around for the whole session.  It's a good idea but needs clean up to be better.   
• As a player pointed out, we again end before a big battle.  I did intend it at least this time as I'm hoping to have a new setup, with a projector, for next week.  It's part of the reason I need to be more prepared, as now I can have bigger maps than the small ones I draw out on the Plexiglas.   

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