Heroes Present: Tarmon Colavere, Gaelin Lyonthorn, Jaques Provolone, Hazma, Tear Nguyen
Two days after the events of the previous adventure, we find our heroes sitting at the bar of the Eagle's Roost Inn, discussing the state of current events in the kingdom as well as their recent adventures. Chief among the topics of conversation: the fact that Some returned home from his work the day after the heroes' adventures in the caverns to discover that the cot they had taken from the Old Castle ruins was gone. Jaques, who was watching the entrance to the ruins from his hiding place as a bush, had seen no one enter or leave the ruins during the day, so the heroes were at a loss to explain how the creature or person who lived under the castle had managed to sneak out of the ruins and into Some's house without anyone being the wiser, not to mention made it out of the house with a cot without being noticed.
The other major topic of conversation was the arrival that morning of an envoy from the Alkina'ir Empire, the enemy of Rhodesia and its allies. With the envoy's arrival, the King had announced a summit of the Golden Alliance, an alliance of six kingdoms which had formed forty years earlier to fight against the Empire in what was now being called the Alliance War, to be held in three months. This topic was also popular with the Innkeeper, Thomas Nightsby, and his family, as the envoy was staying at a room in their Inn.
As the conversation died down, the heroes could hear a commotion coming from the village square outside the Inn. Stepping outside to investigate, they discovered a Tale-Teller standing on the statue in the center of the square, regaling a crowd with a dramatic story of an ancient king. Jaques and Gaelin recognized the Tale-Teller as Bryce, a childhood friend of theirs who had left the castle several years earlier to seek his fortune. Hazma and Tear, on the other hand, recognized him from a different memory: they had both seen his face and name on a wanted poster near the town constabulary. Hazma and Tear quietly disclosed this fact with their friends, and the heroes decided to split up: Jaques and Gaelin would remain and watch to ensure that Bryce didn't leave, while Hazma and Tear went to the constabulary to investigate this wanted poster.
Jaques decided to test his friend by slipping into a guard uniform and waiting behind the statue for Bryce to finish his story. Meanwhile, Tear and Hazma reached the constabulary and found the poster they remembered, an old, faded poster which had obviously been there for some time, which said that Bryce was wanted for murder by Baron Volker, with a reward of 500 gold pieces. Back at the town square, Bryce was nearing the dramatic end of his story, but when he saw what he thought was a castle guard waiting behind the statue, he panicked and emphasized the climax of his story with a smoke pellet, taking advantage of the confusion to make a run for it. As it would happen, though, he decided to run directly toward Hazma and Tear, who were returning from the constabulary. Bumping into Hazma as he ran past, Bryce was neatly tripped by Tear, while Hazma pulled out his knife to protect himself. Shouting for Gaelin and Jaques, the two held Bryce there until their friends arrived on the scene.
The four heroes questioned Bryce about the wanted poster. The tale-teller claimed he had been framed for murder by Baron Volker, who had sent his guardsmen to kill Bryce after learning that his daughter was pregnant with Bryce's child. Instead, Bryce had killed the Captain of the Baron's guard in self-defense and fled the region when the Baron offered a reward for his capture, knowing that to be brought before the Baron would surely mean his death. Though skeptical, the heroes believed Bryce's story could be true, especially Jaques, who did not believe his friend capable of murder. The heroes agreed to help Bryce prove his innocence, and began by taking him into the inn to hide him in Tear's room.
The heroes decided that the best way to prove Bryce's innocence would be to convince the King to investigate the Baron's abuse of power. In order to do this, though, they would have to have some proof, which in this case would have to be an admission by the Baron's daughter that the child she was carrying was Bryce's. In order to get the daughter away from her father's influence, the heroes decided that they would have to bring her to Rimmersmoore somehow. The heroes disagreed as to how this could be accomplished, but finally concluded that the best way to do this would be for Jaques to use his influence with the Queen Mother to convince her to invite the Baron and his daughter to the coming summit.
The heroes put their plan into motion, with Jaques and Gaelin going to visit Queen Lucilla while Hazma went to the castle library to gather research materials on the kingdom's legal system and Tear stayed with Bryce at the Inn. Jaques decided to fool the Queen Mother, as he often did, by appearing at her door in disguise, but unfortunately did not examine the disguise quite as carefully as he should have, as he wound up disguised as a lady-in-waiting with a beard and moustache. He quickly shed this disguise, however, and revealed himself to the Queen Mother, who, as usual, shrieked at this revelation. Afterward, they proceeded to business, and Queen Lucilla agreed to write to the Baron and his daughter, requesting that they visit her during the summit (to which she was not invited, to her chagrin).
As the heroes returned to the inn, they were met as they entered the common room with a terrible scream. Rushing up the stairs to see what was happening, they discovered that the Innkeeper's wife, Molly, had screamed after discovering that the room in which the recently-arrived envoy was staying had been broken into, and several important papers had been stolen, while the room had been ransacked. Hazma spoke with the envoy, who introduced himself as Ranjit, and seemed quite personable, later challenging Hazma to a game of chess. The heroes investigated this break-in, questioning the Innkeeper's family about any suspicious person who might have gone up to the rooms that day. The only suspect anyone could remember was a large, muscular man with a beard who had gone to visit Jonas Tucker, a layabout who lived in the inn, earlier that day. Jonas had been out at the time, and the man had left after discovering this, spending no more than a minute or two upstairs. Jonas claimed that he knew no one who fit the man's description, though he admitted that he owed quite a bit of money to several people and that the man might have been a debt collector. The groom at the inn, Ren, told the heroes that he had seen the man come toward the inn down Tavern Road from the west, and the heroes set out about the village to investigate.
Gaelin went from door to door asking people if they had seen the man, and though it was after ten o'clock at night by this time and he dealt with several people who were irritated at being wakened, he discovered that the man had indeed come from the west, but had left down the street to the east, turning south onto Harvest Road and apparently leaving the town from that direction. Jaques and Tear borrowed a lantern from Thomas, the innkeeper, and went to investigate a series of caves at the base of the cliff to the east to see if the man might be hiding in them, while Gaelin searched the west and south outskirts of the town for signs of a campsite in the forest. Meanwhile, Hazma took Bryce to Some's house for the night, and stayed there researching the legal documents he had brought from the castle library.
Gaelin's search of the west and south outskirts turned up nothing, as did Tear and Jaques' search of the caves. Gaelin returned to Some's house to speak with Hazma, while Jaques and Tear returned to the inn. After returning Thomas' lantern, Tear went upstairs to go to bed while Jaques proceeded to Some's house to meet with the others. The heroes decided that Hazma and Jaques would stay at Some's house that night with Bryce, while Gaelin planned to go back out and question the castle guards who had been on duty that day and were on duty that night, then search the area east of the castle on horseback, and finally ride down the cliff path to the north side of the village and check there.
His questioning of the guards turned up nothing, other than the continued impression that the man was a current or former soldier because of his build and the way he walked. He also found nothing on his search of the area east of the castle. It was about three in the morning by the time Gaelin was riding back around down the cliff path to investigate the north side of town. As he rode down, however, he noticed a figure with a lantern walking through the streets of the village and cross the bridge toward the north area of town, where the shepherd family lived and several farms were located. Gaelin watched this person until he had cleared the cliff, then rode silently toward the person until he had gotten close enough to race forward and ambush the person. The mysterious person with the lantern, who was wearing a robe and hood, turned and ran toward the treeline as Gaelin approached, but Gaelin's horse was faster, and he cut off his quarry's escape. In desperation, the person threw the lantern at Gaelin, hitting him in the shoulder but not hurting him. Gaelin told the mysterious night walker that he meant no harm, and at this point the person recognized Gaelin's voice. It was none other than Juliana, the shepherd's daughter, who had been sneaking out to see a boy she liked. After asking him not to tell her father, she returned to her home and Gaelin rode back to the castle, deciding to call it a night.
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