The Varisian Lord and the Drunken River Rat

The Characters:

Fik the half-orc monk and follower of Irori and reluctant master to Brother Chen

Crux a half-elf storm druid and escaped slave seeking revenge on seven Dwarven overseers, who has traveled north on druid business.

Tasilon a Human fighter/merchant on the run from trouble at home in Qadira

Salgrit a Dwarf Paladin of Torag who has come to drink ale and stomp evil, and she’s all out of ale!

Templeton Granger a silver tongued noble from Varisia who could talk you out of your last copper.

By order of the local lord, all persons leaving  and entering the Isle of Arenway must submit to inspection, this creates a problem for the caravan who is stuck waiting as the locals are checking everyone over for some unknown something.  Add into this one Templeton Granger of Varisia, who knows the caravan leader from previous business dealings. Granger has information on a somewhat lucrative job, a boat with the payroll and some supplies for an illegal logging camp operated by the Lumber Consortium of Andoran is taking advantage of the chaos on Taldor’s side of the river to make their move.

The caravan leader himself has little direct interest in such an a job, but assumes that his apparently hungry for trouble guards(the player characters) might be game for a little side work.  An alliance of convenience is formed after some creative negotiations with the local tavern owner for a resupply.and a plan is hatched, it involves slipping the quarantine on a river barge.

I went to the ale house to purchase a couple of large barrels of ale.  Templeton was there and heard my honest attempts at bartering with the owner.  He stepped in and with just a few words he’d convince the keep to not only sell me twice what I wanted but also to donate the entire thing, with a cart and horses to pull it all.  I spent several minutes trying to understand what had just happened and the best that I can figure is that he’d told the owner that I was a Lord of Varisia and that he, the keep, would be able to boast that a Lord had come all this way just for his special ale and use that to get others to come and do the same.  I do not think that the owner was soft of mind or spirit, I just think that he’d gotten caught up in the spectacle of it all and found himself agreeing with whatever it was that Templeton said.  The upshot of it is that the Inn is going to be renamed to something that mentions “The Lord of Varisia” on its sign board and I walked with enough ale to drown a dwarf.  I will have to see if I can get him to do that at one of the better wine houses pointed out by the Pathfinder guide I have for the next town.  “Ale is fine, if you cannot find wine.”

-Tasilon in a letter home to family in Qadira.

On their way up the river  Lord Granger hatched and implemented a plan to gain ownership of the barge, involving, a wager, the Dwarf and her iron constitution and a copious amount of the ale mentioned above. In the end the  former master of the barge learned to never try and out drink a dwarf especially after a bottle of Qadiran wine.

Tasilon negotiated the use of a river barge, which we used to transport his caravan upriver to a convenient ambush point. We off-loaded the caravan and blocked the river to northbound traffic.On the barge the caravan propelled by sails made their way up the river to find a suitable ambush point for the payroll.

When the payroll barge arrived, we negotiated like civilized men. In exchange for the payroll and goods the captain of the barge was carrying, I offered him falsified papers ending the illegal logging, and a letter of marque from a certain Varisian lord, giving them free reign to plunder their weasely black guts out. Then, we traveled to the logging camp and sold the loggers their own supplies at a significant markup… failing to mention, of course, that their logging days were numbered. All in all, I accomplished my goal of ending the illegal logging operation, and turned a tidy profit all in the name of Varisia.

—From the Journal of  Lord Templeton Granger

After some negotiations Granger joins the motley band on their journey northward, bringing his unique people skills into the mix.Combining his business acumen with Tasilon could bring the band a fair amount of coin on the road, or the river as the case may be.

Journey to the river’s fork.

The Characters:

Fik the half-orc monk and follower of Irori and reluctant master to Brother Chen

Crux a half-elf storm druid and escaped slave seeking revenge on seven Dwarven overseers

Tasilon a Human fighter/merchant on the run from trouble at home in Qadira

Salgrit a Dwarf Paladin of Torag who has come to drink ale and stomp evil, and she’s all out of ale!

The party having survived troubles in Cassomir and its hinterlands journey up to the Verdun fork along with a mummers parade of a caravan, also added into the mix Fik was given charge of Brother Chen a 12 year old acolyte of Irori that the temple pushed off int him in Cassomir.

The road is full of charlatans and fakes.  I met a man who claimed to be a wizard of some power but we suspect that he is nothing more
than a man with swift hands and other tricks.  He carries a staff which lights up, which, in some places, I could see a use
for such a thing, but if it came to defending himself, I believe his only option would be a hide behind someone else or to bonk
them over the head with the stick.  I also met a woman who speaks to a strange little animal she calls a “porkyoupyne.”  Odd little animal with daggers for skin.  She says that she is a seer of fortunes and I have more than a little passing interest in knowing what lies ahead…

–Tasilon from a letter home to family in Qadira

The road is not without dangers, the caravan is being stalked by something with an eye for children. The grandchild of a merchant screams bring the camp to alarm claiming to have seen two glowing eyes looking at him threw a rip in the tent. Although a search finds odd foot prints there is no beast to be found. a few days later the band again find evidence of being stalked as one of the goats goes missing, but is found with a message carved into its sdes the names of the two boys Chen and Sigmund traveling in the caravan, the goat tied down with some of Sigmund’s clothing.

There is also the matter of a haunted tree on the  road:

I guess there was one very strange thing we encountered.  No, two.  Maybe three.  No, definitely only two.  I think.  There was a “Hanging Tree” in the middle of the road we were traveling.  There’s some mother’s tale about great evil or men who performed some horrendous deed and their bodies and souls haunting an area.  I am a believer.  At least on the haunting part.  We approached the area cautiously and when we were close the wind reached horrific levels, knocking smaller less steady men to their knees.  There was great wind and moaning.  I am unsure what caused it all but once we cut down the “bodies” we found it safe to pass.  It was quite frightening.

–Tasilon in a letter home to family in Qadira

At last they make it to the Isle of Arenway and the merchants including Tasilon set up their tents to do business with the eager members of the river guard before they are deployed to a disturbance further up river.  In the meantime the representative of the local Druid’s council approached Crux with a problem, well two problems.  The first is the hangingtree that was apparently acting as a barrier keeping less desirable things from getting into the forest.  The second is a Dwarf Paladin who is consuming ale at great volume, and speed while she waits for Torag to give her an opportunity.

After some convincing and a bit more ale, the three, with Chen following close behind, ventured out to find the rampaging ogres. However the party soon finds there are no ogres, and it is all a ruse for bounty hunters hired by Lord Kimbote to put an end to their quest. Among the bounty hunters was one of the seven overseers, Geflan Bloodcloak that Crux had sworn vengeance on. After a pitched battle the bounty hunters were subdued, and Fik again finds him self in desperate need of healing.

Crux confronts Bloodcloak about his past actions against  the slaves owned by the mining company, but the Dwarf is with out remorse, and unable to give up the location of any of his fellow overseers save one. He expires with the final words “You aint gonna like what you find, the Doc ain’t no fun no more”

With that the band heads back to town to meet back up with the rest of the caravan, and hind another ominous warning in the road. “Chen” is scratched into the mud.