Womford Rats - Princes of the Apocaverse - Session Twelve

The Chapters and Cast of the Ballad  

Heading out upon the morn;
From the gates of Summit Hall;
The carts with cargo bourn;
The party set out one and all.

The first day passes without event;
With conversation and grumbling skies;
The only thing of any note or hint;
Regarding what trouble within the hills lies.

That first night out on the road;
On the middle watch with monk and paladin;
A speechless figure into camp strode;
A suit of armor guided by arcane power within.

It walked to within armslength of Mystra’s cleric;
And stood there doing naught by staring;
Talindra leaned out to awaken Elivia quiet and quick;
And then the aasimar took in the armored form glaring.

It was easily found that the armor obeyed the priestess;
Orders were given to not harm the rest of the party;
Then Elivia returned to sleep to be avoid being spell-less;
And on the morrow the others had a surprise hearty.

A minor tiff between Marle and Angus;
Ended when the bard set fingers to string;
And afflicted on the assassin a laughter most heinous;
It faded quickly but left a slight prideful sting.

Nothing more did they see on the travel south;
Until a passing patrol of knights called “Hail and Well Met;”
A doughty band that sought news out of traveler’s mouth;
And in return spoke of how Womford was newly wet.

The third night’s camping passed and gone;
To Womford they came at the mid-day next;
A tiny village of docks, mill and muddy lawn;
They saw indeed how the town was vexed. 

The storms of earlier days had flooded the river;
A receding trouble that left one other;
A band of pirates with timbers to shiver;
A keelboat drawn up on shore loaded with fodder.

Inquiries were made all about town;
For lodgings and travel across the way;
To Bargewright Inn, its odor wafting down;
On the wind, noses and trees to sway.

Angus set about refilling his spares;
Buying hooks and vials and powdered ghoul;
He spent quite a bit of coin on thieves’ wares;
But still made a deal on this pirate fool.

Marle had meanwhile found an open air tavern;
And played a rousing round of song to the folks;
Gathering that books were in a boat’s stern;
It was not difficult information to coax.

Returning to the party she shared this news;
And Angus felt quite sure of whom she spoke;
He left out ahead to step into villager shoes;
Joining the commoners acting as oxen in yoke.

The others set themselves nearby;
Fennle performing feats of martial splendor;
And armored faithful laying close by;
The guildman kept his eye on the aquatic store.

Marle approached and spoke to the captain;
A shark-toothed genasi of watery birth;
Asking of books that she had heard of time and again;
Acquired by this merchant of jovial girth.

The tiefling caught sight of the assassin in guise;
And though she quickly concealed her surprise;
Something odd was noticed by genasi eyes;
Though he could not tell why he felt suspicion lies.

Some conversation led on as assassin slipped below;
Into bulging hull of many packed goods by symbol marked;
Cargo suspiciously full and much varied given recent woe;
He was certain this is where the slavers’ partners parked.

Marle above continued her speech with the river pirate;
And carefully dropped her illusion of humanity’s form;
Giving Shaolar what he thought the answer to her suspect state;
He commiserated with her on the plight of the outsider born.

Bringing her to his tiny cabin in back;
He spoke of fiery lunatics and uneducated bigots;
As the assassin returned from the lower stack;
Shaolar invited the tiefling to a place she fits.

A place to the north upon the river bend;
He spoke of one called Jolliver creating order;
And said she did not have to alone fend;
Before revealing the dwarf’s books with his larder.

But the captain could not resist a final ploy;
And with a gesture enchanted the demon girl’s mind;
To pull out of her a friend’s wonderful joy;
And get out of her excess coin for his literary find.

Full of enchanted glee and satisfaction;
Marle left the boat with her new books;
And a plan of joining a new faction;
Little noticing the crews snickering looks.

Angus lingered behind and into the cabin slipped;
He saw the map with water’s symbol in bold;
And snagged a ledger of goods they had shipped;
Back below in a small crate the ledger he stowed.

Marle gathered the others and was telling her tale;
And as Angus appeared the pirate’s spell failed;
Realizing she’d been had curled the tiefling’s tail;
And suddenly her thoughts of non-violence bailed.

The assassin added to the pot a pirate’s record;
Showing business with an infamous druid;
Known to Elivia, Angus and Lohn as a pirate lord;
And recalling the Earth cult’s allies fluid.

The plan was struck in more than one part;
Talindra went to speak to the village headman;
But found him much terrified and of weak heart;
Still she convinced him to stay away when things began.

Fennle and Marle set up at the town tavern;
A simple contest of prowess gladiatorial;
To draw from outside their wooden cavern;
Some pirates into a brawl most conspiratorial.

Unfortunately the first man to a fighting stint;
Was naught but a commoner and honest brute;
Marle quickly moved to heckle the monk’s talent;
Leaving Fennle to create a deception most astute.

The commoner went down in what seemed a tough fight;
Tempting the pirate to take the next bet;
He slapped down a bet far from three silvers light;
But was unconscious before he saw the first hit.

Nearer the river, Lohn and Angus paired off;
The arcane technician’s illusions drawing attention;
And the guards taking chances a prowler to doff;
Before slipping into the assassin’s execution.

One and two bandits dropped to the blade;
The first pulled behind a ship out of sight of the quarrel;
But then Lohn was caught and help was bade;
As pirates spoke of Frank being stuck in a barrel.

Talindra made back for the tavern to find Elivia;
And led the cleric and her metal friend away;
To the stag upon whom she took the priest of Mystra;
The paladin called down a blessing for the coming fray.

Marle worked up the remaining pirates into a fury;
A warning of multiple contestants sacrificing their purse;
Came from the monk before meeting them in calm flurry;
While a bard’s magical song give one a curse hilarious.

At the boat a crossbow bolt split the air;
Embedding in the back of dead Frank’s knee;
The pirate continued to run out of watery lair;
As behind him his partner fell to assassin’s bolt deadly.

Shaolar stepped out and quickly cast his armor;
As his Halfling friend, Pike, released his own bolt;
Striking the locksmith hard in the shoulder;
And moving to reload for another jolt.

At the tavern one bandit tried his best to run;
But found only Fennle’s hands and feet;
The last bandit shook off Marle’s song;
But the humor was lost with no time to be fleet.

As the monk removed her final foe;
The tiefling leaped to the air upon hidden wings;
Shouting “You’ve got this!” to her friend below;
She made for the ships to see how went other things.

The last of the piratical minions drew cutlass and struck;
Alas he only managed to slice off Frank’s leg;
Before Angus’s bolt struck straight into his neck;
Leaving only the genasi and halfing still to peg.

The genasi was making ready to call a tidal wave;
When out of nowhere came a stag and knight fey;
A half-elf rider struck him nearly to his grave;
Her eyes and divine smite bringing down to the quay.

Lohn drew up his bow into hand;
Sending a shaft straight into Pike’s chest;
The Halfling gasped as the attack did land;
And considered the foes with which he was pressed.

A swift gesture reduced Shaolar to a misty form;
Reappearing not far away he rethought his plan;
For a tidal wave now would catch Pike in the storm;
Sadly for him, his spell could not defeat the paladin’s ban.

Elivia flicked the necromancer’s wand with a flourish;
One missile struck the pirate sorcerer dead to the ground;
Two others battered the Halfling with brutal swish;
And bringing Pike to the gate of a trip to the waiting lands bound.

With his magical friend now floating dead in the water;
Pike sought to find the better part of valor;
But his foes would give him no quarter;
And a hail of hooves, blade and lightning finished his pallor.

The thuggish halfling had carried in his belt;
A blade most peculiar of magic nature no doubt;
It held enchantments for those who a fey touch felt;
And thus came to Talindra when failed Pike's rout.

The party then settled in for the night within the village;
The Watchful Knight slipping away in the night;
Back to the hills to wander for another age;
Having done little to nothing in either fight.

The next day the party crossed the River Dessarin;
And found themselves in Bargewright Inn and squalor;
A disgusting place of manure and mud within;
They quickly decided not to stay for much more.

Lohn quickly checked in with the local Zhentarim;
And passed the goods that they had recovered;
A bit of extra gold and renown this garnered for him;
But still they would not stay where the stench hovered.

With Bruldenthar’s tomes kept safe in Marle’s hands;
The party set themselves back on the road to march;
Heading once again to what were now familiar lands;
And to make their newest plans once back in Red Larch.

The Chapters and Cast of the Ballad