Session 8: A Rock and a Hard Place, July 31st

The scene opened with a cart heading in the direction of the Fat Lady. On the cart was Merick, Eadwine, Torvus and his mum Fioril, Cass and Jacque. When the cart reached the Fat Lady, all but Merick entered; Merick headed for the Silver Hall. Before Torvus entered, he grabbed the attention of a nearby guard and asked him to find the priestess Adrysse and give her a message that he and his mother would be in the Fat Lady, and would like her assistance when she wasn’t busy.

Meanwhile, Adrysse and Thorgrim were having a discussion with Commander Hothgar and Sir Bellamy in the Courage tower. Thorgrim asked how Hothgar can sense his attuned weapon since it’s very old and unknown. Hothgar revealed he was Attuned, and has his own set of skills, and said he could teach Adrysse a way to mitigate dangerous spells as long as she was aware of the caster. Also mentioned that the Sinti, Desentia, travels with the Wardens and was from her own Sinti clan which had their own Exorcism ritual; she normally hung around Forza or Adoline.
Hothgar then lead the conversation in the direction of White Orchard and the Howling Bell; the ritual may have been uncompleted, but it was also likely that there was an unclaimed Howling Bell. Bellamy claimed it was a Warden’s job, but Hothgar requested Thorgrim go as well to destroy the Bell (the obvious way).
The Sinti was allowed to be approached for more information on the Howling Bell and anything else, but she was to stay in North Watch; Thorgrim had the same opinion about Adrysse. Thorgrim mentioned seeking Torvus for help, and Bellamy suggested that he won’t force the Elf to go, but if he was willing he won’t stop Torvus.
The plague victims were mentioned, and Thorgrim said, not impolitely, that if they cannot find a cure, they should think about getting rid of the poor victims. Bellamy objected to that, saying that they were innocent people, and it would be an injustice to just kill them off. Thorgrim tried to negotiate to at least consider moving them to some dungeon or other empty place where they could be tended to separately. Bellamy wasn’t pleased but agreed so far, as long as Adrysse reported only to him about the plague victims, and was given whatever she needed to help.
With the conversation ended, Adrysse headed to Hospice and Thorgrim headed to the Silver Hall, but he wanted to stop in on the Fat Lady and talk to Desentia first.

Eadwine asked the bar maid how to cure a hangover, and paid 1 copper piece for a tankard of Blood Broth. As Eadwine was downing the tankard, Torvus sat down next to him and started a conversation. Jacque entered the bar and gave Torvus a consoling tap on the shoulder and a nod in his direction before heading to the back to brood. Eadwine got grumpy and snapped at Torvus during their conversation for being a bearer of bad news.
Cass and Artur head to the corner where Jacque is already sitting.

Merick got strange looks as he took a look around the Warden’s set-up at the Silver Hall.  Spotting Adaline across the room conversing with other Wardens, Merick approached, holding the scroll. Starting a conversation very disrespectfully, Merick gets himself into trouble after tripping the Captain, and ended up hanging from the wall by his wrists.

Thorgrim entered the Fat Lady and had a conversation with Torvus about the mission to White Orchard, and offered for Torvus to come along too. Thorgrim also told Eadwine to find Forza while he was there.
Thorgrim then headed to the Silver Hall. As he approached he heard familiar yelling and found Merick hanging from the wall; Thorgrim decided to find out what happened to Merick while he was there, and he entered the Silver Hall. Speaking to Adaline, she tells him that Merick wanted cluster orbs, said it was from Sir Bellamy, and she told him no; he was rude and disrespected her so she hung him from the wall until she is pleased.
Thorgrim also mentions the mission to White Orchard and needs some Wardens; Adaline told him to take four of her best. He picked the four: Mei, Pyter, Albert and Henri, and, while heading to Sir Bellamy about Merick’s inquiry about cluster orbs from him, debriefed the Wardens as to what they were in for. He stopped in at the Honour Siege works to speak to Forza about the cluster orbs, and found Desentia there as well. Forza put Eadwine in charge of finding the 50 missing cluster orbs. Thorgrim mentioned the Howling Bell to the Sinti and tried to find out more information; when she discovered they were going out to destroy one she demanded to go too, and although Thorgrim protested otherwise, she wouldn’t take no for an answer. Thorgrim then headed to the Courage Tower to speak to Bellamy; while he and a Warden by the name of Mei were talking to Bellamy and Hothgar, Torvus ran Desentia through a map of the town.

Adrysse came out of the Courage Tower at that point and called out the Sinti’s name while waving. When Desentia tried to get Adrysse to come too, she declined, telling the Sinti that she had to deal with the Hospice problem instead; much to the priestess’s protests as well, Desentia was adamant that she would help out the priestess when she got back. Adrysse set off in the direction of the Hospice when she was intercepted by the guard Torvus had sent to find Adrysse with the message to find him and his mother in the Fat Lady and set her pace for the bar instead.

Up in Courage, Thorgrim notified Sir Bellamy of Merick’s situation, and said that he was sent for cluster orbs from Sir Bellamy. Furious at the thief, he renounced his Agent title, and requested that Thorgrim tell Eadwine to report straight to him and not Forza, as Forza will outright kill the thief. The Warden Mei notified Commander Hothgar that Desentia wanted to come on the mission with them, and he requested for the Sinti to be sent up. When the three returned down the stairs, it was agreed for the Sinti to go on the mission; it was decided that Torvus would stay behind.
Thorgrim sent a missive boy to find Eadwine and give him a message to report directly to Sir Bellamy and not Forza or else Merick will die, and asked Torvus to tell Eadwine if he saw him as well.

After entering the Fat Lady, Adrysse spotted Torvus’s mother sitting not far from a bunch of guards who were watching her from a distance. As she approached the elf tentatively, Adrysse didn’t really know what to say to make her feel any better; after saying all the wrong things, the priestess was also on the verge of tears after upsetting the elf, and ended up just sitting with the elf as they both cried.

Torvus and Eadwine found Merick, and Torvus headed up the wall to talk to the Wardens guarding the thief. Throwing water on Merick’s head to bring him to consciousness and to talk, Torvus asked Merick about the cluster orbs. Merick admitted it was his own idea to try and track down the cluster orbs; Torvus asked the thief a few more questions about the cluster orbs and discovered that if Merick had acquired any, he would use the barracks; easy access and easy to get to when you need them.
As Torvus finished his conversation with Merick, Eadwine noticed a kid carrying a crate with the Warden logo on it; he sent a guard named John to follow 15 metres behind the kid. When Torvus caught up with Eadwine he filled him in and Torvus ran ahead to follow the kid also. The kid approached the Wardens at the Silver Hall very nervously and he stuttered that his master found this in his store room of their fletcher store. Handing the box over the kid ran off; opening the box they discover it’s empty of all 25 cluster orbs. Eadwine tipped John 3 copper pieces and let the guard get back to his job.

Torvus and Eadwine talked to the Quartermaster, head taskmaster and the guards on patrol last night and there were reports of Merick carrying a Warden crate late last night between the Fat Lady and the Silver Hall, but he was only seen once.
Eadwine headed to the Hall of Records to find the reports; Torvus headed to the fletchers to speak to the master. The crate was found in the alley out the back, early in the morning. A guard found a very beat up crowbar, a drawing made out tar of a side profile skull with three straight bones underneath, and a barrel with a change of clothes in it. Torvus returned to the barracks to report his findings.
Eadwine found 12 reports of Merick last night; approximately 3 hours of unaccounted activity after he was last seen by the Warband at the Fat Lady. Torvus showed Eadwine the drawing he found and Eadwine recognised it as the Disciples of Dread symbol. They were an evil group of cultists that worshipped the Dark Son, are often mutilated people, and are a remnant of the Cesdradin Empire.
Eadwine and Torvus walk outside at the same time Adrysse exited the Fat Lady; after a quick discussion, the priestess tried to heal Eadwine’s kneecap but to no avail.
The priestess set off for the Hospice, which hasn’t gotten any better.

Eadwine and Torvus headed to the Courage Tower to discuss their findings with Sir Bellamy and Commander Hothgar. Hothgar was convinced that the Dark Son was a myth of the Disciples, but Eadwine was certain he has accomplices. They headed over to the Silver Hall to talk more to Merick; Adoline was convinced Merick was a Disciple and wanted to execute him. Eadwine and Torvus persuaded her to let them talk to him first. They laid it out for Merick: tell us or you die, and Merick confessed everything; Torvus and Eadwine told Adoline everything they had just learnt. Torvus sent a guard to Sir Bellamy with a message that the Disciples know where Coward’s Reach was; then they set off with a Warden to find the crate Merick hid in the stables in the trade district.
They couldn’t find the crate in the alleyway that Merick said it would be in; Torvus saw someone and ran after them. Eadwine commanded the Warden to follow, before taking some of the potion Forza gave him and gave chase too; Torvus jumped over a crafter while Eadwine and the Warden crashed into him. Torvus was able to keep chase with the guy he spotted and managed to follow him to a cache; guy vanished inside, Torvus followed. Eadwine and the Warden grab a horse and ride to the cache.

Eadwine and the Warden used a lantern and headed inside; it was eerily quiet. Torvus was still looking around. Eadwine and the Warden heard a noise to their right about 200 metres away. Eadwine called out to Torvus to let him know that wasn’t them. Someone threw a flashbang; the Warden was alright, but Eadwine was down. A cluster orb was thrown at Torvus, who caught it; he swapped out the cores and threw back a bright orb, which missed.
The Warden’s lantern got shot out, and they were engulfed in darkness. The Warden took a ricochet hit to the gauntlet; he shot a flaming arrow into the middle of the cache. Torvus could hear the Warden’s curses as he heard footsteps on wood; there was a guy on a shelf about 15 metres up. Torvus shot him in the arm, which made a cluster orb explode, bringing the whole chamber down.
Torvus was pinned under some rubble; Eadwine and the Warden were alive, but so was the other Disciple.

Outside North Watch, Thorgrim, Desentia and the Wardens were just in eye sight of White Orchard when it started snowing. They charged in and found flash-frozen cultists and the snow was hip height high; all the ice and snow were avoiding the Bell. Desentia states that if the ritual was unfinished the portal would be left open and something may have come through. Recognising that the portal was the well, Desentia started a ritual to close it; meanwhile a giant ice crystalline gorilla popped out of the snow.
One of the Wardens, Henri, threw a cluster orb and hit it. The other three Wardens braced themselves keeping a look out for any more; two more appeared one near Desentia.
Thorgrim hit the nearest one and Henri wheeled around behind it and took some chunks off it too. One stabbed Thorgrim, another shot an icicle spine at Mei and destroyed her shield, and the last missed Pyter.
Henri, Albert and May stabbed and speared one and it fractured; May became heavily wounded. Another elemental charged Pyter, who parried the attack, but missed the counter. Thorgrim parried three attacks from another, retaliated and exploded the elemental. Henri tried to cross the remains of the elemental to get to Mei, while Mei took a Lazarin elixir and attacks another elemental. Henri charged one and missed, Pyter stabbed one in the arm but it glanced off, and Thorgrim readied his axe to throw.
Henri stabbed one, Albert and Mei missed and the elemental dodged Pyter’s attack. The well started to pulse and everyone became winded. Mei was attacked and her right kneecap burst open. Pyter’s attack hit decently, and Henri killed the elemental, but it froze him for 5 rounds. Albert threw his spear at the last elemental and it lodged in it. The elemental flipped Pyter off his horse, and Thorgrim threw his axe at it, smashing into its leg.
It started raining warm blood, and the elemental charged Thorgrim; Thorgrim smashed the elemental in the head 5 times and destroyed it. Desentia finished her first ritual, and moved on to the Howling Bell, Thorgrim following after her.

Back at North Watch, Adrysse was helping to tend to the plague victims; another patient had just died. She was helping strip the bedding when she noticed a small linen bag with a rune attached to a leather tie around it, underneath the bedding. Not thinking anything of it, she picked it up; Nobody noticed so she decided to pocket it and take a look at it later.
One of the hospice nurses was looking for something on the bed, and went to the head nurse about it. Noticing, Adrysse approached to see if she could help. As the priestess was discussing things with the head nurse, Adrysse notices a tattoo of a skull with three bones beneath it on her arm; taking note of it, but not bringing it up, the priestess asked the head nurse about the quarantining of the patients, and moving them to a safer location to tend to them separately. Although the head nurse did appreciate the idea, the efforts and time that would go into it, would be of better use on the patients. Understanding, the priestess asked to be excused to report back to Sir Bellamy.
Just as she was leaving, a loud explosion was heard and felt; the guards that were assigned to the priestess ran off ahead to find out what was going on. As she emerged from the Hospice building, a big plume of smoke could be seen emanating from the Honour tower. She headed off at a quickened pace for the Courage Tower to speak to Sir Bellamy and Commander Hothgar.