Present: Gardan, Jani, Mika and Anne
A desert outing...
In the morning the troupe was invited to a banquet hosted by Faal Balabar. The invitation was accepted. Since the banquet wasn't going to take place before evening, the group decided to participate a trip to the lands outside the city in the meanwhile.
When about to embark a man named Dalbur mistakenly seemed to take the group for desert guides. Later in the trip he apoligized for this, and explained that as a foreigner he didn't know there were two nations in the same country. He told about his home country Durenor in the north, and of its beautiful mountains and sailor boys.
The trip lead to an ice mine, where they were offered refreshing cold ice drinks. Some speculations were made of the possible methods of ice mining. They were told that it is a dangerous job.
... gone bad
The afternoon break and dinner was rudely interrupted when it was discovered that one of the travelling party's women, a lady Farithain, had been kidnapped. The group was asked to find the kidnappers and bring the lady back. The troupe agrees to do this.
After several hours of tracking, and dodging the deadly dangers of the foothill, the troupe arrives to a sandstone fort. Lamya calls forth an eagle, and asks it for information about the fort. The eagle tells her that the for has two circles, and a tower attached to the inner circle. And inside the inner circle there are about as many tents as gerbils it can eat in a night. Next Lamya summons many small desert animals, and picks a rodent to scout the fort with. Lamya finds out through the eyes and ears of the gerbil, that there there is a small society lead by an old and possibly slightly nutty man. Meanwhile Efrael uses his divination skills, and determines that there are about 15 people in the fort. After some consideration it's decided that Efrael will attempt to command the guard in the tower to bring out the lady prisoner. This, however, fails.
Bandit attack
The gates open and five armed camel riding men come out. Lamya attempts to use her magic to charm one of them, but fails to gather the needed mana. The rider start to encircle the group and shout them to stop and drop weapons. Some gerbils summoned by Lamya enter the area but then Lamya fails to communicate her instructions to them, and they quickly scatter. The group stands on its ground undecided on what to do, and the riders get tired of waiting and start shooting arrows.
Efrael takes some distance from the fight while Lamya tries to grapple one of the riders, and Mua'Dib and Al Shamir both attack the rider that appears to be their leader. These three exchange a lot of strikes and finally manage to down the assumed leader by hacking his legs to bloody pulp. Efrael downs one of the other riders by flinging a stone to the back of his head. Soon after this Al Shamir falls down while desperately trying to keep his intestines from flowing out. This is avenged immediately by Efrael with another rock to the back of the head for the perpetrator. Meanwhile Malya is stunned by the other of the remaining riders, who immediately starts fleeing toward the fort. His escape is short, however, as he is stopped by an arrow in the back shot by Mua'Dib.
Bethin Omuls is a lovely young woman that
the gang rescued from the bandit lair.
The group start tending its wounds with magic and mundane methods, and stabilize the wounds of the leader and two of the other riders. Lamya approaches the fort offering to exchange the wounded riders for the kidnapped lady. A man shouts that they don't want such lousy fighters back and shoots a few arrows to add weight to his words.
When the night comes, Lamya attempts to turn into a bear, but in the middle of the process she starts seeming exhausted and agonized, and eventually loses her consciousness. She regains rather quickly, but decides to leave at that. Instead the group approaches the fort and Mua'Dib climbs over the wall along with Mua'Dib, and they open the gate for the rest of the group. They proceed to the inner wall which Mua'Dib climbs over, with some difficulties, and opens the horribly rusty and noisy inner gate.
As they go in, they realize that the fort people are trying to ambush them. Mua'Dib and Al Shamir rush in and attack the nearest two bandits. Al Shamir falls to the bandits' blades, as does one of the bandits as both Mua'Dib Al Shamir hit him. After receiving some hits from Mua'Dib's blade and rocks slung by Efrael, the other bandit surrenders. A short interrogation reveals that the captured lady is in the bastion, after which the bandit passes out. Mua'Dib goes out scouting inside the bastion while Efrael practises advanced surgical wound binding techniques on one of the wounded bandits.
A surprising twist... and a happy ending
Mua'Dib finds a beautiful foreign woman, who agrees to tell him where the captured lady is, if he agrees to rescue them both. Mua'Dib agrees, and the captured lady comes from her hiding. The foreigner introduces her self as Bethin Omul. She thells the group that she has been with this band for the whole of her life (as far as she can remember, anyway).
The group returns safely to the city, and Faal Balabar immediately takes them to the banquet hall. Efrael prepares himself with his magical skill to appear more wizard like, and Faal announces that the heroes have returned and earned a highly esteemed recommendation. Dalbur, who is a baron in Durenor proclaims that the troup has his everlasting gratitude, and should they ever come to lovely Durenor, he will personally see to it that they are treated like his peer. There is a lot of partying during the rest of the night.
Continued Here
