Nightwick Abbey Session 23

We were missing one player so the roster for this session consisted of...

Beauregard E. Beauregard (Beb for short) -- Wreckless paladin in the service of Paladin Lord Fitzgerald

Yim "Falcon the Killer" Yimsley* -- Pagan Ranger whose alignment is "Neutral Mysterious"

Anges the Average -- a Fighting Woman who seeks to get a more interesting title

Rory Ledouche -- brother of the deceased Roger who chafes under the weight of his vows

And their assorted hirelings

The characters began buy renewing their contract with the various hirelings they had acquired in the previous session.  Two of them, Mudd and Benjamin, became irate as they had been hired under a different contract which provided less benefits.  The characters, having acquired a goodly amount of gold in their last excursion to the dungeon, agreed to bring the two in under the new terms.  They then set about purchasing new armor from Duncan the ignorant blacksmith and other supplies from Rupert's cart.

In desperate need to get rid of some of their coinage, the Paladins set out for the small shack turned church that services the village.  Three robed figures greeted them when they arrived.  They soon fetched their master, Roderick, who seemed to be in a state of distress.  He informed them that the townsfolk largely blamed him for the cruelty of the mercenaries who have taken up residency in the village to look for Bishop Notker's ring.   He also told them that while Lord Eckhard was not himself a wicked man he was unable to keep his ill-disciplined men under control. 

The two paladins gave him large sums of money to help refurnish the church and help the poor.  Beb did this on the condition that Roderick openly denounce the bishop and join some other sect of the Church of Law.  Roderick stated that if he were to do so armed men would likely remove him of both his position and his head.  Beb understood and inquired if there might be some way to catch Lord Eckhard's men in their terrible acts.

Meanwhile, after coming off of his more or less successful bender (I'll let the Rangers roll on the carousing tables occasionally), Yim Yimsley, alias Falcon the Killer decided to donate what was left of his funds to the Woodsmen's Lodge.  While there he learned that the fogbound forest is a strange place filled with many mysteries including giant animals and people who were odd hats.

Beb and Rory enlisted the aid of lawful fighting woman Agnes.  She had come to the village in order to win fame and fortune, but was willing to stop tyranny also.  They then set out together to find the ne'er-do-wells who were harassing the villagers.  At around sundown they found a set of seven armed men, one of which had a surcoat bearing a badger (the symbol of Badder's Boys, a mercenary company based out of Lichegate), rutting through a pagan couples house and smashing their pottery.  

Beb told them to stop this injustice.  The mercenary sergeant informed him that this couple was suspected of  being in league with the PLF.  The ignorant Beb pointed out that there was nothing wrong with working for "Paladin Lord Fitzgerald."  The guards then showed him the families pagan shrine which was adorned with a deer skull.  A stag's head just so happened to be the symbol of Paladin Lord Fitzgerald, and so Beb continued to see nothing wrong with the situation.  Growing tired of all this, he began shouting various nonsensical prayers and making threats against the guardsmen.  The paladin's psychotic zeal was enough to chase them away, but not before he informed the sergeant to stop with the regular raids.  At this point Falcon -- who had just left the Woodsmen's lodge -- also appeared and told the guards that Yim Yimsley had returned and is looking for what is rightfully his.

The party then went to sleep.  Awaking at dawn, they proceeded of to Nightwick Abbey.  The once again entered the North tower and returned to the catacombs where they had faced the Wight's in the previous session.  They found another waiting for them, but he was quickly burned to a husk and the party (or rather Beb) began to investigate the sarcophagi.  One of the more interesting tombs contained a mummified gnome who had apparently converted to the Church of Law before his death.  The embalming or mummification process had turned his skin a strange bluish color.

Beyond they found a strangely shaped sequence of chambers and hallways, causing one player to note that FRP architects are universally insane.  In these they defeated a number of zombies, and later found a small group of mites in tiny chamber.  They opened with a flask of flaming oil, a favorite tactic of this party, and the mites almost immediately surrendered.  They decided to offer one the choice of becoming a scout in return for not killing him.  He agreed.  With that the party returned to the surface without incident.  

This I think was one of the better sessions we've had so far.  It's going to be interesting to see how the Mite hireling turns out, especially since he can only communicate using hand gestures.**

During the part with the guards, I had the other players go ahead and set out marching order and other such nonsense so that everyone had something to do.  This seemed to work out fine.

* Yim Yimsley is an obvious corruption of Slimey, the only PC who survived the TPK from session 20.  He did so by not being present.  This was a fake name he used when founding the PLF in order to create a mythical figure behind it all.  Falcon's name is, according to his player, purely coincidental

** The god of the mites' name is that rude hand gesture where you shove your fist up and slap your hand on your biscep.  That's the best I can describe it.  Writing articles on their culture would be very difficult since it is physically impossible to write down their language.