Are you a new reader of the Asheraven Play Report? Consider reading from the beginning with part 0.
Good morning, and thank you for coming to read the 10th Asheraven Play Report. By the end of the last one, the party had completed dealing with the urgent matter of the cyclopes’ invasion and expulsion of the hill giants. They received a large rock, perhaps a coin or token of some kind, from a stone giant that kept them from advancing farther into the mountains. The party then liberated some prisoners from a band of slavers on an island in the nearby river, but not before releasing an ice devil from an orb in an abandoned temple-shrine on the same island. The party left with Stinky being blinded by a magic-user who is with the slavers, and Figlar managed to charm one of the slavers and convinced him to join the party for the time being. While the party recovered from all this, they prepared a couple river boats with onagers to besiege the slavers’ fortress from the water.
The party had their plan well-cemented, but Stinky had not yet recovered his sight, so the party acted on a rumor regarding ne’er-do-wells that they had heard in the meantime. It was being said that the road going south of Narwell was being preyed on by a group of thugs who robbed indiscriminately, taking near everything including the cloak off your back and boots off your feet. Once they were all rested up, the party decided to take a look at the southbound road to see if they could put a stop to the bandits. They figured it would be a good way to give Stinky more time to recover from the spell cast on him as well as earn some decent coin. They followed the road out of town without having a solid plan together but hoping it would be simple to handle once they found where the bandits were located at. On the road, however, before any bandits were encountered, the party were face to face with a proud fellow dressed head to toe in plate armor wielding a poleaxe. The warrior approached the party deliberately and respectfully, following all the etiquette expected of a knight but clearly missing the title itself, evidenced by his lack of plumage, and announced his intention to patrol that road while on the lookout for the highway robbers. He said that the party should inform him of any signs of the thieves, a command countered by the party’s own insistence that he should inform them of anything out of the ordinary. He continued his patrol with a scoff, as the party continued south. They could hear, however, even as they went on their cow-drawn cart, that the steel-plated man had begun following them just out of sight. After some time traveling, the party spotted an area in a grassy meadow off the road that looked like it had a patch of grass missing, so they decided to see what would have caused that. As they approached the spot, they noticed that the missing grass was due to a tunnel dug into the gentle slope of a knoll. At the same time as they saw this, a pair of arrows seemed to materialize out of thin air as a couple of the bandits let loose on the oncoming PCs. The party reacted in line with my expectations. That is, they threw their flasks of oil both at the pair of enemies and the opening of the thieves’ den. If there were any other enemies in the hideout, they never made it to the outside. The thieves that were outside were killed pretty easily, although the party took some heavy hits during the combat. The fire that was made from the oil flasks would have spread disastrously, but it had been rather rainy recently, and the party was able to help the rest of the way to putting it out. Curiously, in all that time, their armored stalker never made an appearance, and the party did not see him as they went back into town to recover from their new wounds. They would have plundered the lair, but they were concerned that there were even more enemies inside. What they did see, the next day, was the same fellow from the road in Tipsy’s sporting a shiny new helmet and telling tales of his alleged past adventures. The bar crowd seemed to hang on every word as if he were some local hero, though the party had certainly never heard of the man. They confronted him about the helmet, assuming he must have taken it from the hideout, but they never got a clear answer out of him from their confrontation. They went to the hideout once they were patched up and recovered the treasures within. The tunnels were not extensive, so it was just a matter of loading everything onto their cart and taking it home. They returned some of it to the victims of the robbers but kept most of it. Nobody mentioned a stolen helmet, so whether “Plate Guy”, as the party started calling him, actually gained his new helmet as a result of their efforts or not was never confirmed. They did learn over more days of rest that Plate Guy’s new helmet was cursed, and he could not lift the face shield let alone remove it even if he wanted to. The bright side was that it also seemed to negate his need to eat or drink. Still, he wished to end the curse, and the party took pity on him and invited him to their upcoming attack on the slavers’ fortress. Plate Guy agreed, he would help them against the slavers and, in return, would be compensated with help removing the cursed helmet.
Stinky’s affliction, which was an extended form of the Light spell that was cast on his eyes, had passed, so the party gathered their men, being some Narwellian guards as well as some friends of Stinky, and set sail on the river toward the island. They went around it so that they were approaching the slavers’ fortress from the front and had the boats begin hurling large rocks at the structure. There were no visible forces, but the party managed to breach one of the structure’s towers, negating the need to go through the main entrance, which would almost certainly be heavily defended. The boats pulled over to the breach and allowed the party and their allies to enter the fortress, room 2 on the key. The boats, with the minimum crew required to pilot the boat and cycle the onagers, returned farther out to continue damaging the face of the fortress. The party followed the halls, fending off small parties of slavers who mostly retreated elsewhere after taking a few hits, and ended up going back where the slaves were kept last time, room 9. They saw somebody exit the room just as they entered it, so they followed after. This had them confronted by Renaldo and Valto, two human thieves who were responsible for the dirty work of slave acquisition. The thieves were formidable, causing great pain for the party, but ultimately were no match even with pulling tricks. The party continued out through room 7 and followed the halls again to room 6. Here, the party found many of the slavers that had retreated from earlier as well as some of the higher ranked men with magical +1 battleaxes. Most of the enemies were taken out immediately with a Sleep spell, and the rest were taken care of easily after that. Now the party passed through the curtain in room 6 to enter room 5, where they found a man in plate mail, similar to the other slavers but also bearing minor ornamentation, standing and leaning over a high, rectangular table. The room also had chairs and card tables as if designed for greeting and entertaining guests.
The man was facing the party as they came through the curtain. He introduced himself boldly as Morgath, and entreated the party to lay down arms and settle their quarrel “civilly”. Morgath said he knew the party did not have nearly as many men at hand as he did, and that obeying his command would be the only way to remain among the living. The party decided to bamboozle Morgath by sending Asora forward with an outward intention of treaty. Once she got close, she tried to surprise him by swinging her maul at him. Morgath was prepared for that, however, and combat began as he also threw away any chance for diplomacy by swinging the axe he was holding under the table. While combat broke out with Morgath, several slavers appeared around the room as they attacked various party members. They had been made invisible by Dumystor the magic-user, who also appeared in the room as he began fighting with spells. The combat was ugly, and the party was eventually routed. Neither Morgath nor Dumystor were killed, and Sharana joined the fray mid-combat and did not die either. The party charged out of the main entrance, taking parting shots as they did so, and Figlar used a candlebomb to light the door and nearby area on fire to prevent the enemy from pursuing them. Both of the boats had run out of boulders to throw, so they sailed back and forth about a hundred yards from shore. One of the boats pulled in while Figlar set another few fires behind them to further stall the enemy. The party and what remained of their allies boarded the river boat and returned to Narwell. Almost all of their NPC forces were depleted, and there were only a few Narwellian guards remaining. They returned to Lord Tarban to tell him of the events, and he expressed great disappointment and disfavor toward the party. He informed them that they should not expect any kindness from him except after extensive repayment to Narwell and himself in their future actions. On top of that, the party did not even recover any treasure from the incursion.
While the slavers were not permanently dealt with, they were heavily crippled - most of the regular/unnamed slavers were killed - so the party considered the job done for that time being. There would surely be a time later when they will likely be faced with the threat of Morgath, Sharana, and Dumystor, but they would not be a concern in the near future. The party took a few days to rest and recover, during which time they heard a couple rumors buzzing around town. One rumor concerned farmers, several of whom claimed that they have had some of their tools stolen. The other one was that some of the dead buried in the cemetery near Narwell’s temple were stolen. The party set out for the circus of Gandolfo that had opened up as a centerpiece site for Narwell’s Harvest Festival, but they went to the temple first and found a guard posted at the entrance to the cemetery. Between the guard and some of the clerics, the party learned that a couple nights prior, someone exhumed multiple corpses from the cemetery and returned many of them back into earth the following night. Those that were returned seemed untampered with besides being in odd positions from being moved about roughly, although it was noted that the only people who were not returned were those who died within the last month or thereabout. The temple stationed to paladins to guard the cemetery beginning the morning following the return of the coffins; one would stand at the entrance while the other would patrol within the cemetery. The cemetery is fairly expansive since it is the main burial site of Narwell, but having a paladin walking around was expected to at least deter further attempts to unearth anymore corpses. Naturally, there was also an ongoing attempt to figure out who would have done that in the first place, but nothing substantial was yet procured. The party was not interested in yet another, likely purely in their eyes, investigative inquiry, so they left it in the hands of the guards and the temple.
The party went to the festival grounds just outside town, ignored most of the actual festival, and went straight toward the big top to secure tickets for the night’s show. An enthusiastic ticket salesman took care of their admission needs and also encouraged them to check out the freak show and wax statue museum in an adjacent tent just before or after the main event. The party did check out those two sights before the show, and Figlar managed to keep the exhibitor busy while the rest of the party inspected the freaks. As mentioned in a previous report, the freaks were truly deserving of the title. They appeared in all manner of hybrid forms somewhere between man, beast, and monster. The freaks babbled in mostly incomprehensible speech, but one or two were able to say a few recognizable words, though nothing that could be construed as a coherent message. (The scenario in I13 has the freaks saying such things as “help us” and “Gandolfo made us like this”, but those seemed to merely be ways to entice players to take an interest in Gandolfo and the circus. My players were already interested in the affair going back to when they first met the hill giants Rag and Tag, who were enslaved by the circus. The party would seek the undoing of the ringleader and his clowns even if his circus had no other foul elements. Besides, they would see soon enough just how sick things could get.) The party left the freak show but were surprisingly completely uninterested in the wax displays, which were a collection of various hyperrealistic humans and demi-humans dressed in unerringly authentic costume for the supposed event, culture, or time period they were supposed to represent. Yes, the party took a brief look but not too closely, and they left the tent to “catch up” with Figlar and the exhibitor. The party also decided to explore the areas around the tents, and found the small herd of wagons that the circus travelled in nested behind the large tent and shielded from view on the other side by vendors. The most distinguished wagon, which had more resemblance to a trailer than a hauling vehicle, was in the center of the lot and had an outward appearance of luxury.
The party knew the trailer must be Gandolfo’s, but they saw candlelight within it, so they decided to knock on the door and pretend to be prospective investors for the circus. The candlelight was extinguished and a wary Gandolfo cracked the door open to see what they wanted. At the mention of money, Gandolfo slid out of the door, keeping the party from seeing within more than they needed. Well of course, if the party wished to invest in the circus, Gandolfo would have loved to reach an agreement, perhaps in his favor, to steal secure the funds. The only issue was that both Gandolfo and the party were lying through their teeth the entire time, and both saw through each other’s ruses, although the party was unaware of the latter fact with Gandolfo. During these talks, through which a completely unfulfillable agreement was reached, Logar searched Gandolfo’s trailer while the rest of the party had the ringleader give them a tour of the circus and its other attractions. Logar found a couple books, which he took, as well as some coin, which he did not. As both tasks were being completed, the party rejoined and decided to watch the circus since it was going to begin at any moment. During the next day’s show, they would have “VIP access” to the other chambers of the main tent, most of which consisted of dressing rooms and animal pens, so the party wanted to watch the show first as a normal person would. All things considered - the hype, the crowd size, the fact that Lord Tarban made the circus the focal point of the entire Harvest Festival - the circus was very bland, even bad. The clowns told jokes that even kids wouldn’t laugh at, the acrobats performed technically correct stunts but without any flair or personality, and it was a very short show being only about 30 minutes. The only part that was remotely interesting was the part with the animal handlers, who gave their animals such outrageous commands that would surely require an immensely deep trust between the handler and animal, at least under normal circumstances. Still, the handlers themselves wore sour expressions and were clearly putting in the bare minimum of effort into showmanship. Gandolfo himself was a great showman, but he did nothing of great appeal, sticking to being an announcer of events and master of ceremonies. With the unfathomably plain demonstration of mediocrity over, the party left the festival grounds to await the next day’s show to observe the unseen areas of the circus.
Some time between the previous night and the morning, heavy gray clouds moved in over Narwell, and it rained all day from before sunrise until well into the evening. It began as a drizzle, before becoming more steady until breaking out into a full thunderstorm by the time the circus was set to perform. There was no change to the circus’ plans at all. The wax museum, the freak show, and the circus show would all still go on as normal. The other festival events, on the other hand, and all the vendors, would not be present. As the party intended, they pretty much just waited for the time to come that the circus show would start, and they went to the big tent to observe from their VIP locations. Where they decided to go made no difference, they all saw the same things they saw the previous night. Even “backstage” the performers seemed unenthusiastic but uninteresting. There was no indication of malicious activity, and it really just looked as if a bunch of people were putting on a show that they had no desire to put on, as if they were only doing it for whatever money they would make. After the show, Gandolfo told the party to meet him back at the festival grounds the next morning to fully close the deal on the “investment”, and he otherwise told the party and all the audience members to shoo so that the tent and equipment could be dismantled and packed. The party recalled that Rag told them that the circus performers typically spent their nights drinking excessively in town, likely at one of the seedier spots. They wanted to go where the performers would be and learn more about Gandolfo, so they set back into town to do so. The party was accompanied by Plate Guy and Stinky, and they found the bar the circus troupe frequented and went inside to join the festivities. They intended to question Gandolfo’s employees, but they were not very receptive to any mention of their work. The beerman was similarly of no help, and had in fact grown quite tired of dealing with especially the clowns night after night, listening to the same lame jokes over and over again. As far as he was concerned, his brain turned off after sunset and tried its hardest to forget anything that happened during that time. The party did get a sudden gut feeling to check back in with Gandolfo back at the site of the circus. While there were a few performers at the bar, they knew there were many more not there. They had Stinky and Plate Guy stay at the bar to make sure nothing odd happened while the PCs went back to the festival grounds. (I told the party Plate Guy’s name, I had one when I generated him as an NPC. They insisted on calling him Plate Guy. At this point, I can’t even remember what his name was without going and looking it up. We still call him Plate Guy.)
The PCs were right to make that decision. As the storm, which had been developing all day, seemed to reach its height of severity, they went around the back of Gandolfo’s trailer. There was light coming from inside, and the silhouettes in the windows told the party that the space inside was full of people. They could hear Gandolfo’s booming voice even over the sound of pouring rain. The ringleader gave a short but well-spoken speech, giving vague instructions to those within the trailer. He said something along the lines of “The conditions could not be more in our favor right now, tonight is the night we do what we are here to do! Clowns, keep your tools handy and leave no trace! Acrobats, let nothing get in your way and most importantly do not be seen! Beastmasters, the night's success falls on your shoulders, so put on a good show! Now… GO!”. With that, everyone inside burst out of the trailer and dashed off into the stormy night to follow the commands given by Gandolfo. Gandolfo himself remained in his trailer cackling like a villain, which he was.
That brings us to the end of this issue of the Asheraven Play Report. The slavers are all but dealt with for now, and at least will not be showing their faces any time soon. This new chain of events involving Gandolfo is developing quite nicely, and once I am done writing how they unfold, that will finally bring the play report up to the present. There will be about three sessions occurring after the incidents with Gandolfo’s circus by the time that play report comes out, and then there will be a final report, #12 if I can count right, at which point I would like to resume writing non-play report stuff and keep the play reports to a once a month publication. I can finally see the light at the end of this tunnel, so I’m interested in hearing from whoever’s kept up with these, what your thoughts on the events of the campaign so far are. I know that some of the timeline of events is kind of nonsensical, and that's partially because I don’t have every detail exactly right and also because the party does things that don’t always seem logical. Games sometimes go like that. With all that being said, I am glad you read all this. Thank you and bless you.
Next: Play Report #11
ATTENTION CHRISTIAN READERS
I know there are some of you who subscribe to me, some of you I know personally. I just wanted to share some good news with you all in particular. On this past April 23rd, I was baptized in the name of Jesus, making my public statement of faith then. I grew up in church my entire life, but I have now decided to go public with my personal decision to follow Christ. That’s all I had to say about that, thank you all.