Slice of Glaive

We are leaving the Captain’s office to go and look for Julienne. We decide to head for where the day laborer’s hang out. As we walk through the streets, I notice that something feels off. I stop to look around, realize that Perrol is doing the same thing, and notice that there are no city guard anywhere. This is more than their usual lackadaisical presence. Perrol pipes up that he notices it as well. Suddenly I hear the hum of his shield and am on a higher state of alert than I was. We continue on toward where the day laborers are and Jarlyn points out that the streets seem empty. People seem to be wandering away from the direction in which we are headed. We decide to tactically split and Jarlyn, Perrol and I will walk on one side of the street while Ghoral and Kross are on the other side. We continue on until Perrol pauses a moment and then hand signals all of us. He tells all of us that there is an ambush about a block ahead. Kross signals that he is going up using his special athletic abilities. Perrol joins Ghoral on the other side of the street. Then we hear, “Aren’t you going to make it easy for us” from up ahead. Then we see three sword-wielding, leather-clad roughs come out from the side streets a block ahead. They appear to be comfortable in their leathers and familiar with their weapons. Jarlyn asks for all of their friends to come out as well, and they do. We are now facing apparently six men including one who is standing behind the others.

Segment 12
Jarlyn tries to reason with them that we have no quarrel with them. They respond that they may not have a quarrel with us but we are a nice payout. Jarlyn then suggests that they move along. Perrol comments that
Half move and then Thasori
There appears to be boxes blocking the alley I’m currently walking past. Kross signals that there are boxes over on the other side of the alley as well although there are no people waiting beyond it.
Kross fires and misses. Ghoral moves forward like the walking tank that he is. Then Perrol yells to watch behind us. We see another five men a block behind us. We have the brilliant idea to make our stand in the alleys. Jarlyn walks into the alley behind me to test the boxes. They appear rather sturdy. We yell for Ghoral to get back here.

Segment 1
We hear, “All archers!” And then Perrol sniffs and yells out that there is something flammable in the boxes that block the archers. There is a change of plan and we are now going to try and break our way through the line in front of us.

Segment 3
Half move towards the line in front and Thasori
Ghoral does a half move and dodges as well.
We hear the leader yell, “Attack form Delta!”

Segment 4
The rest of the party moves up.
We hear them say that the archers are first first with the secondary target in front. One archer tries to shoot either Ghoral or Perrol, but goes very wide. The other archers shoot in the vicinity of where I assume Kross is on the roof. The line in front of us moves forward so that most of them are around Ghoral but my end of the line is getting closer to me.

Segment 6
Attack=Hwidathra with DCV 7 to attack leader and miss
Ghoral attacks the rough in front of him and fells his opponent. He is going to abort to dodge on segment 7.

Segment 8
Perrol moves around the line to get back by the leader as well, whom he attacks and misses. Jarlyn moves up to my right flank. The leader of the attackers yells out and moves out of our range. The other attackers around us move as well. They also attack Jarlyn but misses. Two of them attack me but they miss as well. One of the archers does hit me. It does some damage. The other line of attackers comes booking it toward me.

Segment 9
Half move to the new line since they are at DCV 0 because of an out-of-combat run.
Attack=Hwidathra on all five hitting the first 4 and missing(2 Hero Point to not botch) the last. I disembowel the first, sever the tendons in the left arm of the second, take a heart shot on the third, and severely cut the left arm of the fourth. Wow that took a lot of endurance.

Segment 12
Perrol attempts a presence attack on the leader who is slightly impressed.
Half move to get back to the last two in the line.
Attack=Orunatiya with DCV 11 in the chest for 8. He is down and bleeding profusely.
Attack=Orunatiya with DCV 11 in the chest for 5 body.
Perrol comes up to the leader and misses. Jarlyn fells one of his opponents. The attackers regroup and nearly fell Perrol. Several of them gang up on me and I am hit by both of them, but it all just pings off my armor.

Segment 3
Attack=Orushidaila with DCV 9 in the stomach for 3 damage
Attack=Orushidaila with DCV 8 in the stomach for 5 damage, felling him
Ghoral attacks the leader for some damage, dazing him.

Segment 4
Perrol recovers from his daze. Kross, who is finally back in the picture, takes a shot at the leader. Jarlyn approaches one of the blackguards near the leader and takes him out with a strike to the chest. The unconscious blackguard that Ghoral had felled at the very beginning gets up and takes off running. The one that was next to me takes off running. Three of the archers all hit me. I’m dazed, down to 4 body and 5 stun.

Segment 6
I recover from being dazed.
The leader says, “If it will save my men, I surrender.” Jarlyn says, “Have your men lay down their weapons now, and we’ll accept.”
He then says to his men, “A truce has been struck, leave.”

Segment 8
We hold to see what the men will do. The archers disappear. The remaining blackguard runs away. The leader drops his weapon and puts his hands on his heads in surrender.

End Combat

Jarlyn heals me until I am only down one body.

We have our weapons back, and they are now enchanted. We head out to the palace to report to the Regent Mother the results of the search into the magical spying device. Once there, the steward with the list tells us that we are on the list, but that the Regent Mother is not receiving anyone. We ask to see the Majordomo who would know more about this situation. In our meeting he explains that she is not well. The healers of Hospin have been in to see her, and they recommend rest. We agree to go and are led out by a young woman by the name of Julienne. About halfway back out our guide takes a sharp turn and starts to lead us up the servants hallways. Eventually she starts to talk, to describe the condition of the Regent Mother. Apparently, she started to feel ill two days ago and then would not wake up yesterday. They sent for the Order of Hospin and when that didn’t work the mages. All attempts at healing or magic on her seem to make her worse. We are asked to remove all magic items before entering the room with the Regent Mother as it appears to disturb her. Ghoral and Jarlyn decide to wait outside. Julienne leads the rest of us past the attendant guards. As we walk into the room, the four guards in each corner make an involuntary reach for their swords. They go back to attention but withdraw their hands from the sword hilts. We see a very frail looking Regent Mother lying in a bed with a priest of Hospin nearby although doing nothing for fear of making her worse. After asking a few questions, Perrol realizes that Jarlyn should really be here instead of him. So he goes out and Jarlyn comes back in. I’m getting more conscious of the guards’ stare. Jarlyn continues to ask questions of the Hospin priest. Eventually, I decide to head out and trade places with Perrol whose curiousity is likely killing him. Those who were in the room tell us that we’ve arranged for a private meeting over lunch at our inn with Julienne. We head back to the inn to wait.

Julienne joins us. We inspect the cellar when Perrol’s magesight shows a glow down there. One thing that she says to us is that should a page named Xavier should come to us, we should take off running with him immediately. Ghoral, in an uncharacteristic display of selflessness, decides to use his boon to save/heal the Regent Mother. Suddenly, there is a knock on the door. We open the door and it is Aldus Mannus. He is a bit surprised since he was travelling back from the ceremony to destroy the EVIL tablets and wound up here without a moment’s thought. He and Julienne are already acquainted. We start to ask him what he can do. After explaining that he has no idea, his eyes go white and he starts to glow. The Skyfather’s presence has manifested. The diety explains that he cannot interfere because outside forces are meddling in his pantheon and since by doing so they are nominally a part of the pantheon, he cannot intervene. He suggests that we seek help from those who are outside of the pantheon. When asked, he responds that we have already met those who can help us. After making one last comment about how unexpected this was, the presence of Kilbern departs and Aldus collapses in exhaustion. We bounce ideas around about ‘Bob’ and ‘Chad’ without ever saying their names. All of us except Perrol notice a familiar twitch/curiousity about Julienne. Lunch is served and we all eat. Julienne keeps trying to figure out what it going on and we, even Perrol, refuse to talk to her. Near the end of the meal Aldus wakes up and starts eating slowly and then picked up speed. Julienne leaves as the meal winds down. Jarlyn and Ghoral take Aldus back to the temple of the Skyfather. When they return, we all head on out to try and find ‘Bob’ and ‘Chad’ so that we can enlist their help. As we walk, I catch glimpses and wisps of Julienne. I tell the others that she appears to be following us. After they yell out for her to come out I see no longer see Julienne, even in glances. We go to ‘Bob’ and ‘Chad’s house and call out for ‘Bob’. He comes around from the back. We cannot seem to convince him that we require his help without mentioning Kilbern and the possession that occurred. We finally come to say that Aldus Mannus gave us the indication that we should seek him out. He replies that that explains everything and starts to swear/mumble under his breath. Reluctantly, he agrees to go, but states that we will owe him a favor. We leave ‘Bob’ as he walks, muttering back into the woods.

Perrol sings for the night. We head to the room for our night. We are on rolling double watches like we have been since the news about the price on our heads. I have the first and last half watch of the night. Mine goes by just fine, but during the next watch, I get woken up by Perrol. He heard someone trying to pick the lock on the door. We arrange ourselves to spring a trap on the person trying to get to us. Jarlyn pulls open the door with Ghoral waiting to whack the person on the other side. Fortunately, Ghoral recognizes Julienne before he hits her with the Cat Lady’s Claw. She asks us, “Who the hell did you send?” Julienne explains that she was in the sitting room, heard what sounded like a battle with four thunks of bodies falling, she and the two guards tried to get into the room, the door opened and the priest of Hospin emerged. They were unable to get into the room even when the door opened and the four unconscious guards were tossed out. We say that she should not be worried. Jarlyn talks about going back to bed. I say that perhaps we should attempt to go to the palace for Julienne’s peace of mind. That is deemed a bad idea as the palace is in lockdown because of these events. She eventually leaves and we all go back to bed or watch.

The next morning, we break our fast and then head off to the palace. As we move in the line to get into the palace, a couple of guards come to us and say that we are required to come with them. They take us to part of the yard we’ve never been to before so that we can face the Captain of the Duchess’ Guard. In the room they take us to is a man in his early 40’s with a grizzled warrior. The door shuts behind us leaving our escort on the other side and us alone on this side with the Captain. He asks why he shouldn’t lock us up and have us arrested for treason. It comes to light that Julienne hasn’t been seen since yesterday night and she was the reason why they didn’t come and search us out. There have been some searches for her, but the jurisdiction of the Captain of the Guard is only the palace and any where were the royals are.