Alison Campaign Log #7

6/4/2007 3:07:03 AM

Hunter’s Moon 21

After Crossroads

We spend the night in Crossroads. Before leaving Crossroads, Cynthia spends the night on her own, eventually sleeping up on a roof. We go down for breakfast, and the innkeeper asks where our other member is, Marya says she’s upstairs and may be down later, but offers to take food up to her.

What she actually does is to go out on the roof and attempt to convince Cynthia to come downstairs, as the landlord has remarked on her absence. Cynthia says she will join us on the road, and dresses as a boy.

Ali and Bri go in search of some minor supplies (Ali is begging for a washtub of some sort so that clothing and people can be washed more easily than with a damp cloth.) They find a general store, but it is closed. Inquiring if this was typical, we are told no, and one of the other shopkeepers sends his boy to find the merchant.

Eventually, a very upset man arrives with a constable in tow, it seems he was mugged by a young lady the previous evening and left tied up. Ali asks Bri if he thinks Cynthia was responsible, thus explaining her behaviour that morning, and he says yes. Ali gets her washtub, along with lavender soap, laundry soap and some miscellaneous supplies Brenna had requested and head out of town.

Bane Moon 1 -on the road. cold, dark early. A couple of days later, we are beset upon by brigands (8 of them); part of the party advances to engage them, while Ali remains in the wagon where she has better shots with bow. Marya and Davic are wounded, as are Ass-licker and Butt-sniffer. Butt-sniffer makes it back to the wagon, whereupon Brenna begins first aid, and a very upset Ali drops her bow and rushes to help her…despite Ali’s help, the dog survives. As Ass-licker goes down due to wounds, Cynthia stops moving, and the brigand who had hurt him starts gasping for breath, and is unable to move. Marya goes over to dispatch him, whereupon Cynthia and she exchange words. Marya heads for the wagon where Davic begins first aid while trying to direct Ali in holding a compression bandage on the other dog.

3 pts

Bane Moon 17

Hillock

[continuing the wrap up on the combat from the previous session]

A few minutes later, Bri yells out that Cynthia has collapsed and Brenna goes to check her out while Bri makes certain the brigands who are still living and present are bound and not posing a current threat.

Cynthia is unresponsive, and is brought into the wagon. Marya is put to bed to rest and we move along, after moving the bandits into the clearing where they may be seen. Ali marks a rock with the message that these are brigands.

Marya takes almost two weeks to fully recover from her injuries; Cynthia seems to be ill – nausea, vomiting, and a bit delirious; she is incapacitated the entire journey, randomly making challenges to Marya and possibly others.

Ali has several recurring dreams, similar to the ones she had in Star’s Reach, only more detailed and experiential. She gains a new perspective on boys and how they view girls -she more or less has her first wet dream.

A day or so out of Hillock, we are met by a Men’r who is sitting on a rock. He says the Guildmaster has been expecting us and wants us to all meet him. He also offers to take Brenna’s horse as it is very recognizable and the party description has been sent ahead, the constables are seeking us. He spends the night with us, talking with Bri and departs in the early morning.

When we get up, Ali cuts her hair back to the shorter length and dresses as a boy. Brenna assists with the trimming so that it is not as uneven and we make our way in to Hillock. We pass through the gate without incident and head towards the Guild district, where we are scrutinized somewhat in depth; however, a Men’r inside the compound hails us and instructs the Guard to allow us in.

We are met by Marco, who seems to hold the same position in this Guild hall that Bri did in Landing; rooms are provided, one for the two ladies (Brenna and Marya) and two for the four men (Davic, Moe, Cynthia and Ali) by Polo, a young squire/apprentice. We are also given directions to bathing facilities. Bri goes to meet with the Guildmaster and Marco, and Ali attempts the bathing facilities, only to discover she has been given directions to the boys’ bath, whereupon she begins a mantra of “I am a boy, I am a boy…”.

When she enters, there are several young men there; she mutters something about shyness and leaves, only to go back later and finds it less crowded. Eventually she is alone and quickly bathes, only to find that during her absence someone has delivered a bathtub to the room she is sharing with Cynthia. (Thanks, Bri…)

Marya goes in search of someone to repair her armour, and Ali asks for one of the salvaged broadswords. We attend dinner with the Guildmaster who waxes prolific, if not coherent, about the various dishes, wines and accoutrements; Marya furiously takes notes on all of it. At one point the Guildmaster makes comment that he thought the party consisted of four women and three men; introductions are made with allusions to the bed-ridden Cynthia (whom we have deduced is possibly suffering from morning sickness, given her recent determination to provide “the damned Durn heir and be done with it.”

Once it is pointed out that both Cynthia and Ali had attempted to disguise themselves in an effort to “change” the composition of our party, he applauds our efforts and suggests that we “might be given some tutoring in those efforts”.

He eventually retries to bed, and the “real” meeting begins. There is some back and forth between Marco and Bri, which seemed much like a pissing match, or boundary setting. while the discourse was polite, at one point Ali said to Bri “he doesn’t trust us”, whereupon Bri explained a bit more about what was being established -not only how much he could trust us, but us him, and how much the Men’r would be willing to provide any support for us. Marco asked where our loyalties were; Moe replied that his were “to her”, meaning Brenna; Bri stated we were considered to be his road brothers and sisters, Ali said that Bri had been sent to keep her safe and help find the stones, etc. This seemed to resolve that problem, at least temporarily. Marco and Bri talked extensively in Men’r, which sort of pissed off Ali to the point where she suddenly smiled towards Marya, began babbling in a nonsense language, and ended her speech with a “don’t you think” and a smile. Marya agreed, which seemed to get their point across about being left out of the discussion.

The next morning, Ali took the broadsword and went in search of the lesson field, in hopes that she might be able to join in; still dressed as a boy (and unconsciously hoping someone would realise that while she could use a broadsword, she would be better off with a shortsword).

Marco found her, and had her follow him; he finessed several of the performers to assist in her disguise, retrimming her hair, providing tips on dress and swagger, er, walk and demeanour, and the subject of “packing”, which she would need to be overly concerned with due to her small size as young boys don’t have that much of a package to begin with, which led to a discussion of Marco’s package…which is “nicely sized”.

3 points earned.