The Long Journey South....

Rosencrantz, Rowyn & myself (Nanoc) were in Tilverton at the horse trainers place securing our transactions for mounts for the three of us in anticipation of heading south to Anabelle in order to look for a wardog for Rowyn and her animal handling proficiency. After procuring our mounts, we ran into a gentleman we recognized around town. He had some priest with him. Once he saw us he came running up to us, introducing us to this new priest/cleric named “Aurien” (forgive me Cameron if I misspelled that one!) Apparently, south in Sembia is a town aptly named “D-Town” where these kidnappings have been taking place. Aurien was sent here by the high priestess in order to locate some adventurers, through this gentleman we saw about town, to do some investigatory work into these tragic events. We have quite the stellar reputation ’round these parts, so they came to us. We agreed to have Aurien join our party and take on the task of heading down to Aurien’s hometown (D-Town) and see what exactly the situation was. […and how much money we’d make….hey, heroes got to eat too] The group also decided that since we were heading south, we’d take the job of delivering the parts for the gentleman who had asked us to do so many moons ago. We met up with him and for 100 gold each we’d deliver the chest to a wizard in Thurmaster named “Tauster.” (Toaster)

After stocking up on supplies and striking out on getting the wizard a gauntlet to punch enemies, the party of four embarked on the 200 mile journey from Tilverton to Anabelle. This session saw a whole lot of traveling. We stopped in small towns in between stops, looking for anything worth checking out. Nothing of note comes to mind.

After about a half days ride we made it to Anabelle. This is definitely a place we need to get back to and check out. There are some wizards there as well as a mercenary for hire place. Anywwhoo, the party decides to head for the dog trainer. However, to our dismay, he has left town and headed to Sembia. (Which is another country as we’re in Cormeir right now. “D-town” is actually in Sembia). Rowyn decided to explore around the city and look for anyone who may have known where the dog trainer went. After speaking to some guards and after getting ridiculed and hit on, Rowyn found out that we needed to find some sea captain who may have known exactly where in Sembia this elusive dog trainer headed off to A woman named “Murmine” would know how to find this captain.. We needed to hole up for the night and wait until morning to look for this woman who worked as a local constable or something to that effect.

The following morning, the municipal building and asked to see Murmine as instructed. She could not see us but one of her “minions” could. We spoke to this gentleman about the dog trainer and he said he is in “Milbourne.” His name is Naftan. So no sea captain afterall. We had the information we needed so we decided to keep it moving and continue south into Sembia.

At this point, Nanoc is going through “blood lust withdrawals” due to the majority of the time spent traveling or searching for this infamous “dog trainer, Naftan.” We continued south through some hole in the wall towns and finally made it to “D-town” in Sembia without incident. Finally home after the long trip to Tilvetton, Aurien took us to his temple. He had the temples workers ready our rooms. We showered and joined back up for a home cooked meal by Aurien. Let me say, that was the absolute BEST meal any of us have had in quite some time. It sure beat tavern food. Good job Aurien. We were informed that we would not be able to see this “high priestess” until morning. Yet another night holed up waiting for information.

The next morning we were granted audience with the high priestess. We were taken into her chamber and immediately, Nanoc becomes smitten with love and adornment toward this high priestess. She informs us of the situation with the kidnappings and she asks that we “gather information only” regarding these kidnappings so that they may deal with them. Nanoc thinks that the group should do this for free for this beautiful woman, the rest of the group, not so much… After coming to an agreement that “we’d get paid for the information we bring back” [With Nanoc not wanting payment, her love would be payment enough….]. The high priestess told us that there are 2 - 3 different places where these kidnappings were happening. She wanted us to investigate where ever we saw fit, one, or all of the spots. We decided that we’d go to Milbourne for the war dog and “H-Shire” since it was in the same area as Thurmaster where we had to deliver the chest. Both were in the same direction, east, now that we’ve traveled south many miles. [Yes, we are officially in another country now!!]

The group decides to get back on the road and continue this long, drawn out journey to Thurmaster and stop in Milbourne & “H-Shire” on the way. After some travel, the horses are really tired so we dismount and continue to walk. As we’re walking, we pass four farmers, 2 of which, nod as they pass. Just as they are passing, two arrows shoot toward Rowyn and two arrows shoot toward Nanoc from the woods on the sides of us! [Now Nanoc happy!] Suddently, the farmers yell “GET HIM!” and point at Rosencrantz!

Nanoc and Aurien pull out their darts. Rosencrantz begins casting shield. Rowyn pulls out her daggers.

Nanoc blasts one of the “soon-not-to-be-archers” with a dart. He’s injured. Rosencrantz casts shield. The farmers surround us. Some surround Rowyn (2) and the rest pretty much know Nanoc is the biggest threat so the rest come at me. Rowyn keeps getting blasted by these farmers. Aurien does some damage to the “fat farmer.” Rosencrantz then shoots 2 magic missles at one of the farmers and he is hurt. Rowyn ends up getting killed and is now laying on the ground. The remaining farmers who were attacking Rowyn decide to rush Aurien, our only healer. Meanwhile, Nanoc slays one and is getting beat on pretty badly. That is until Rosencrantz takes out 2 injured farmers with his last magic missle. That leaves 3 farmers. Nanoc has 2 attacks this round and rolls a 20 on his first attack. Extra attack anyone? So with that Nanoc gets 3 attacks and MURDERS, SPLATTERS the remaining 3 farmers. Aurien heals Rowyn and we dust ourselves off and head to Milbourne.

The party arrives in Milbourne around 7PM that night. We wander around this small town for a bit and see some stables that say “Naftan.” Natually, Rowyn gets excited as this is the dog trainer. After knocking on his door, Naftan answers and we explain why we are there. Naftan is oddly enough, very very accomodating and overly nice. He lets us stable our horses at his stable and then he suggests that we head over to the “Baron of Mutton” inn and stay there. He highly recommends it. We speak to him about our sneak attack that just happened and Naftan seems very surprised that it is so close to Milbourne. He also suggests talking to “Gayrold,” who is the local constable in Milbourne, about the kidnappings. Apparently, this town hasn’t been hit with a kidnapping yet. The party stables our horses and head over to the inn.

The party sees an old man who is going blind. It seems that everyone in the place reports directly to him. We sit down and get some food. After dinner and some hanging out, the group heads up to our rooms for a bath and some much needed sleep.

The following morning, we wake up to quite the commotion. After speaking with a gentleman we ran into downstairs, it seems as though a woman named “J-Love” was kidnapped last night from the inn. Her boyfriend “A-Dog” comes up to us (Seeing as how this town doesn’t have people walking around with weapons…) asking us if we could help. We say maybe. The group heads upstairs with “A-Dog” and “J-Love’s” father, “H-Dog.” We search the room. Window is locked and can only be locked from the inside. The door was unlocked and there was no sign of forced entry. All of her things were still present as well. Strange. So as we scour the room, “A-Dog” pulls out “J-Love’s” bag of spell components from under her bed. We can tell her father “H-Dog” isn’t very pleased as he storms off, finally seeing that his daughter was a magic user. “A-Dog” tells us that she had been working with a wizard named “Tauster!” Funny, we are delivering a chest of components to Tauster! The plot thickens!

We head back downstairs and run back into the gentleman we had spoken to before. Turns out he is “Gayrold.” We ask the inn owner if anyone was on watch last night and he said “B-Dog” [A-Dogs brother] was working last night. He yells and “B-Dog” comes running. Turns out that we were the last guests to arrive and he closed everything up around midnight. The front door was still locked and again, no signs of forced entry.

…And that’s about as far as we got yesterday.