IN OUR LAST SESSION…
… Our heroes “fell” into the brigands’ trap, striding forthrightly into the old farmhouse to confront these highwaymen. Only to discover that they were waiting for the heroes, yes, but with the intention of making an arrangement. They met with Seamus Finney and his merry band. Seamus invited them to drinks and to discuss their proposal.
Finney suggested that he and his men would leave Rankford completely alone (his men would not enter the Warden’s jurisdiction) if they would likewise leave the north-south road (Calantar’s Way) to the brigands. Finney said that they required that rich merchants who travel on that road to pay a “tax” which he claimed that they then shared with the underrepresented people of his community.
Finney also said that he had information of interest to the heroes: the current whereabouts of Dementia Lancaster, the notorious Midwife. In return, he wanted help from the militia in that the new sage, Kazuo, was sending a number of official messages via courier, but they were somehow written in a script that the brigands could not decode. Could the heroes help? They agreed to try.
The evening proceeded with good food and a good deal of wine. The heroes were put up in a room in the old farmhouse for the night. In the morning there was coffee and bread and bacon, then they met up with their guide, the elf Eskin who had “warned” them at the Flailing Chicken of the dangers of the highwaymen ahead.
After traveling some 5 hours north of the farmhouse, the group came to the predicted intersection of a logging road and the Way. Eskin told the party to continue up the road and he would travel a ways north to see if anyone was following them. As the heroes turned west onto the logging road, they quickly ran into a horse-drawn wagon bearing down on them, driven by the dwarf Midwife herself.
The heroes scattered and attempted to attack Lancaster as she rushed past. Only Norm had any real success — his Sleep spell affected one of the horses, causing the wagon to careen out of control and smash into the trees lining the road, fully overturning.
The battle then ensued between the heroes and Lancaster, who immediately emerged from the dust roiled into a cloud around the site of the crash in the form of a stone giant. With one great plow of her massive club, she killed Dain, sending him (or at least some of his parts) thudding into a tree trunk 30 feet away.
Tovlakov, Norm and Tia then went toe-to-huge-toe with Dementia. Well, Norm never got that close, actually. Dementia rained a surprising number of those devastating club attacks on the heroes, dropping Tovlakov before long. After a bit, Eskin arrived, firing at Dementia with his longbow. Eventually, the significant damage that the Midwife incurred resulting from the crash, as well as blow and blast raining down on her from the heroes terminated her life.
Next session:
What’s in the wagon? What awaits our heroes in Dementia’s Hideout?