Subtitle: Poetic justice

Alternate title: Battle of the bards

Tahm's recounting of the encounter in the cave has made the five of them minor celebrities in the village. Rhorja and Gormless avoid the limelight as best as they can (Rhorja by studying and Gormless by faffing about in the bushes like always). Barton is hard at work with chores and sword lessons.

After a brief meeting in the smithy Sergeant Ingmar tasks Gormless with finding Trivike as he is awaiting the ranger's scouting report on the worrying Kobold mine. Concurrently to this, Rhorja witnesses the strange dis-apparation of his mentor, Anoji. "Murkness, darkness everywhere!" He cries as he disappears. Rhorja searches the hut for a while in total confusion at this. While odd things happen to the old wizard all of the time this is something completely new. And now there is no one in the village with the knowledge to explain what might have happened. Also happening: Barton starts to cut wood for the inn. None of them can complete their respective tasks because a horn sounds in the distance. It is a summon to all of the Blackcloaks in the area. The latest supply shipment from the nearby town of Ellisport has not arrived as scheduled.

Most of the village comes outside to await the news that the horn brings. Soon they are greeted by seven soldiers limping through the gate all covered in a variety of bruises and cuts. These soldiers were not on a mere supply run but bringing in the weekly pay for the Blackcloaks and miners of the village, i.e., most of the population of the town. Barton and Rhorja move within eavesdropping distance of the group and listen in. They were ambushed along the road by a ragtag group of farmers and had the pay stolen. Two of their number perished in the defense. Sergeant Ingmar is disgusted. He glances around and catches sight of Barton. The Sergeant orders him to finding Gormless to help track down the thieves as no one has seen Trivike yet and there is no one else as skilled on hand. Barton does this and Rhorja goes to find Tahm in hopes that her *ahem* talents will prove useful. Mostly he just wants an excuse to spend time with her. She agrees when me mentions there is a good possibility that Barton might end up in the river yet again!

Gormless isn't too certain of his ability to track such a chaotic scene but agrees to help anyway. The four of them gather in the town common and prepare to depart with the Sergeant. They mount up and ride out. Barton expresses some reluctance at the thought of such a small group going after a band that defeated nine Cloaks but the Sergeant dismisses him. "If they are truly smart they wouldn't hang around the site of the ambush. It would be too easy to send a platoon after them. I suspect they are long gone." Sgt. Ingmar further expresses his opinion of the caravan's commander, Sgt. Akmoore (namely, that he is a weasel of a man and the circumstances of the raid are suspicious. Hence bringing a tracker along.)

Soon they reach the site of the downed tree. Gormless confirms that the tree was downed intentionally by a rope tied to it fairly high up. He finds a few sets of tracks leading away from the tree and stumbles across one of the horses used to pull it down. It is tame and he leads it back to the group (being a druid has some advantages!) As he returns the group hears another horse whinnying in distress from a ridge to the West. More sets of tracks lead them to an ambush that Gormless walks straight into (being a druid has some disadvantages!) A bolas smashes into his face as he examines a dying horse tied to a tree. Fortunately Rhorja was paranoid about this exact situation and had a magic missile sizzling at his fingertips and lets it fly at the massive, 7-foot-tall bugbear. Barton decides to yell like a banshee hoping to frighten it but it is far too stupid for such tricks and just ignores him. It DOES manage to draw out the remaining four goblins to join the fight.

I smash bones and drink you blood!" laughs the bugbear as it swings its club into the side of an accompanying Blackcloak. The sound breaking ribs can be heard almost back to town. The man somehow remains standing but is of little use for the rest of the battle. Barton takes advantage of the lack of attention in his direction and slashes viciously at the bugbear. Rhorja takes advantage of Barton's large frame and uses him to hide behind. Sgt Ingmar takes advantage of Barton's attack and fells the creature in one final strike. And just like that the battle is over. The goblins are disheartened by the quick dispatch of their leader and flee. Gormless decides not to attack them as the run by. Rhorja doesn't fail to notice this and won't forget about the perceived lack of conviction on the druid's part. But all in all the group acquitted themselves well and escaped without much harm. As they recover, Gormless does what he can to heal the wounded Blackcloak who fell unconscious as the adrenaline wore off. The only thing of interest they find on the bugbear is a beautiful purple gem. Barton pockets it with permission from the others (Gormless has no interest in money or trinkets, Rhorja will wait to see what it is worth before deciding what to do with it, and Tahm seems to have lost her voice).

A short time later they have managed to clear the road and get the wagon moving towards town again. They have carefully wrapped the bodies of the two young guards slain in the initial attack and are bringing those back as well to transport back to their families in nearby Merrin for proper burials. As the party travels along in somber silence Gormless manages to spot movement in a row of bushes ahead of them. A closer look tells him that it is none other than the two oldest kids from the village, Bellamin and Alistine. Which is not a surprise as they are never far apart and never far from trouble. He tells the others to stand down. "False alarm, it is those other two kids, I forget their names."

Bellamin and Alistine stepped out of the bushes with a theatrical flourish. "Guess I wasn't quiet enough," he says to her. "I told you they would hear us!" is her reply. "You never are," Gormless mumbles to himself. Rhorja just looks between the Tahm and Bellamin as they trade barbs and mourns the loss of a quiet afternoon. One bard is bad enough, but two? A short bit of banter later and Bellamin reveals their purpose. A baby squirrel, injured and near death. The duo had hoped a druid could save its life and had spotted Gormless heading this way earlier. He agrees to do what he can but feels it is best to take it straight to his mentor for the best chance of survival. The Sergeant finally has his fill of the delay and gets the group moving again. He dumps it into her confused hands and bolts out the door to the others. Her raised voice stops him dead in his tracks and he returns, sheepishly. "You just drop it off and run?" she queries. He relates what he knows and shes spends some time instructing the boy in caring for his new friend.

Meanwhile, Rhorja finds all of the uproar over a little rodent and goes back to his master's hut to see if the old man had reappeared yet. The two young lovers follow Rhorja hoping to glean more information on the wagon but end up being convinced to help the wizard figure out what happened to Anoji that morning. Alistine and Rhorja each eye the other and quietly decide that the other may just be a sociopath and need watching. Cautiously they enter the hut and find it undisturbed. Rhorja warns Alistine that there is nothing of value to steal. "I know, I've already tried," he quips. Which is enough to make Ali a little more at ease with the standoffish boy. At a loss for what to do next, they decide to ask Vernonia what she might be able to tell them. Her eyes go dim with memory. "I have not spoken to him since before the war broke him. He has been but a shadow of his former self." She gets a few more details of the events surrounding Anoji's disappearance but can make nothing of them. Her magics are different from his. "But I do know what happened in the war, just North of here in the city of Sethkar." She calls Gormless in from tending his new ward and relates the tale...

"The great city of Sethkar sits now in ruins, but once it was a proud and mighty city. It was dominated by a massive stone bridge that spanned the river at close to 600 feet long. This bridge is the only overland route from the main Norathian empire to the lands of Darkhold. The city became a hotly contested battleground as the Blackcloaks swept across the lands of Norath. In a desperate measure the bridge was partially destroyed to prevent the Blackcloak's advance, but they had powerful battlemages at their disposal. Anoji and two other mages combined their power and a great battle was fought over Sethkar. Powerful magics were unleashed that night, visible all the way to the old keep just up the road. After the battle, the two mages who joined Anoji had vanished, assumed to have been destroyed in the conflict. The entire city lay in ruins. Anoji's badly injured body was found several days later in the plains North of here. His sight was gone and his mind seemingly broken as all he could do was stutter incomplete words or thoughts. The ruins of Sethkar exhibited many strange properties in the months to follow, leaving both the Blackcloaks and the locals to avoid the place entirely.
"What sort of properties?" Bellamin asks.
"People stepping through open doorways to emerge on the other side as a puddle of blood and meat as their insides are suddenly turned outside"
Rhorja is stunned at the revelation. They resorted to transplanar magic. They were desperate enough to risk the tearing of this world...
"So it's an arcane trauma that he may be drawn back to. Pulled back, even." he muses.

With that, the group goes off to find Barton and Tahm to talk all of this through. As they depart, Vernonia has one last warning for them, "Be wary of who you speak to about Anoji. While there are others here about who know his past, many do not. Most simply think of him as an addled old man with a few dwindling bits of magic in his enfeebled body. The local Blackcloaks especially do not know of his role in the war and I trust you all to keep it that way!" On their way to the tavern they encounter Trivike, who waves Rhorja over. Rhorja is amazed that the ranger even knows he exists. "Young S'Ein, I have some items I wish for you to give to your master, Anoji. I recovered them from the cave where you rescued Chad and Annie last week." He hands the boy two pieces of parchment. Rhorja doesn't believe in the coincidence of this and examines the scrolls. On them is some form of Draconic script. Trivike slips off into the night as the group crowds around Rhorja.

Barton had returned to the inn and was immediately inundated with all of the work he missed while he was off playing detective. The tavern is packed with Blackcloaks. Even their leader Major Marcus is among them and is nearly blind with the amount of ale he has consumed. The sot even tries to underpay Barton who just rolls with it and as the night wears on starts switching out their change for useless currency he found on the bugbear. Tahm is on-stage entertaining the crowd to lots of raucous cheering. As she makes her way around the room, she is accosted by a couple of particularly drunk cloaks. Bellamin and Alistine enter at this point (Rhorja having too much on his mind and Gormless avoids crowds in general) just in time to see the crowd get rowdy and wade into the middle of it. Alistine tells the cloak grabbing Tahm to let go and gets an elbow in the gut for her efforts. Barton also attempts to get them calm and lead them outside but ends up taking a blow as well. All of the guards stand together as a unit now and are spoiling for a fight. Alistine pulls her dagger and again makes her demand. "Let. Her. Go." The tavern erupts, with the miners jumping up in defense of the ladies and the cloaks drawing steel as well. Fortunately Sgt. Akmoore arrives just in time and orders everyone to stand down. Sgt Ingmar also arrives and helps defuse the situation. Barton offers to take the punishment as it was his fault the men were so drunk. Major Marcus and Sgt Akmoore lead their men to the barracks to discuss the matter with Sgt Ingmar in private but not before promising that the two who drew weapons on them would be punished in the morning. Tahm thanks them for their assistance. Alistine waves it off, "I'm hot tempered, what can I say?" Barton shakes his head, bewildered that these two would bare weapons on a roomful of heavily armed and inebriated guards.

Tahm returns to the stage and resumes like nothing had happened. As the night winds down the various members of the town all drift towards bed. The night air is chilly. The next day did not hold the promise of peace...

End Adventure 2.