After a few days spent in the town of Rockhollow I, Baerig Scarborn Tanglenite-mage, bought the first round of ale at the village tavern and guzzled a tankard of ale forced to nudge aside my bronze mask exposing a portion of my deformed and scarred visage. Dismiising it as “some minor scarring” I went over to the game tables to play at dice with the lone gambler. A fat man in fine clothes and a body guard on either side. His name was Keenor and when he asked me what had brought me so far west as he recognized me for a denizen of the Poisonwood I told him the truth “regime change”. I bought a dose of yellow lotus from him while Tweena the dungeoneer talked with the Westlander bard and Drogo chatted up the prostitutes. I talked to the bartender named Cornor and his barmaid Trixie (Cris is the GM btw) and procured a private room for myself. After purchasing a big meal Cornor told me about a troll called Blackgut in the Blackwood so I commit to conquering the scum for the benefit of the land and its people then proceeded to gorge myself while the other two collected some more info. While I ate the bard came over and served himself up a plate for a song. I dropped a silver piece on his plate as a bonus. A stranger appeared at the tavern door and a ratling and human that were sitting at a table suddenly stood up and chased the man into the back through the tavern into a back alley which served as the latrine for the place both had the symbol of a red dagger on their cloaks. The bard fled the taproom drawing my attention to Tweena who was chasing after red-daggers. So I followed.
As soon as I and Tweena appeared in the blind alley followed shortly by Drogo the two red-daggers turned on us shouting that were the guy’s (the one they had chased and cornered) friends. Things were tense, we demanded to know what was going on and they were determined to brutalize the poor guy whom was cowering. So I blasted them both in turn with my acid bolt killing them and that’s when another unseen rogue took a shot at me with his crossbow. I dodged teleporting back to my table and took the food and ale back up confident that my companions would deal the last thug. A few minutes later the guy that the red-daggers were chasing walked up and introduced himself as Ranknor. I tried to question him but he kept changing the subject. He paid for the drinks the rest of the night and Tweena kept at him but got nowhere. The bard rejoined us, his name was Rant while Ranknor told us about tombs found outside of town and warned us that the Red Daggers Thieves Guild would probably be after us now since we killed three of them, the guys that were chasing him. The tombs were cleared we were told by a passerby (Illcor and company had already done that) and then were told of an old ruined fort at the creek in the south. Later that night in my room I dosed myself with the lotus and reap the visions it may have provide.
The next morning we collectively decided to pursue the troll of the Blackwood named Blackgut and left town traveling along the East Road. We had to engage some of the local wildlife when 3 raptors attacked us me scoring tow kills. Later at mid-day a group of 5 red-dagger thugs led by another guy wearing a red hood leapt from the bushes in front of us. The leader, the red-hood, demanded the whereabouts of Ranknor as he knew we were his friends. We engaged them in combat and I was able to intimidate the red-hood by lifting my mask and frightened he ran away with his tail between his legs whistling the retreat as he fled. Tweena had been knocked out by a sleep-arrow while pursuing a target into the bushes and was robbed of her money and gear. My final tally was 3 red-daggers using my trusty acid bolt. We looted what was left of the corpses and were each a little richer after the split. After the sleep toxin wore off of Tweena we traveled into the woods to camp for the night.
In the morning we made our way to the village in the Blackwood and spoke with the village marshal a gruff half-giant. He told us the place was rife with red-daggers which the local lord Black Eagle, wasn’t overly fond of and warned us they were abouts in the tavern. We went into the village beer hall a banner bearing the black eagle hung by the door. Drogo went to talk with the bartender and I sat by myself and drank as the town was a Forvyln town, a Westlander ethnicity that can be particularly bigoted against my kind, Tweena sat next to me. She spotted a group of red-daggers at a nearby table in disguise. I shot the closest with my acid bolt. We got into it with them with me killing two of the three fairly quickly while Drogo yelled for the marshal and the last red-dagger bolted for the door. Tweena tackled him to the ground. The marshal later took him away. I purchased my room as did the others.
The next morning Drogo told me that he had been awakened by something fumbling at his room door and opened it to find a ratling skulking away. We decided to continue to hunt for Blackgut and on our way from town we passed the red-dagger we had turned over to the authorities hanging in a cage. I made a wide berth around the cage but the other two didn’t. The rogue spat at them and spat in Tweena’s face when she tried to question him while offering him water. We continued on the Old Road leaving the ranting scumbag behind us.
To Be Continued…