D&D Chronicles: in which we are run out of town

ZILLAH

I’ve never been this far south before. The place is called Hyden’s Ford and is teeming with southerners and their priests. A southerner has set himself up as a ‘lord’, claimed land that should belong to no-one but the wind and rain, and keeps an armed force to do his bidding.

Added to this, the southern priests of several different gods are busily building temples. Worse, they have banned all use of magic and magical items (of which we have several!). They appear to be slashing first, asking questions later. I do not like it at all.

Aside from the anti-magic sentiment, which has Calwyn a bit twitchy, he and Alix seem quite at home here. We have come  because Alix’s god is angry with her again, and she hopes to gain the aid of one of these foreign priests. It sounds like madness to me; what can a southern priest know of Alix’s god?

It’s my cousin’s fault. And Calwyn’s. First Schill stole back some artifacts from the Sunless Citadel, artifacts Alix had already returned to appease her god. He reasoned that if Alix didn’t know, her god could not blame her… and so it seemed, until Calwyn told Alix we had them. Yes, all right, she would have noticed eventually; but still.

Anyway, her god took her magic away again, so we are here to see if she can regain his favour somehow.

Change of direction

The trip south to Hyden’s Ford was fairly uneventful. We ended up accepting coin to leave alone the humanoids who’ve buried themselves in the Sunless Citadel. I suppose we killed enough of them for their liking… And then we enjoyed a couple of skirmishes with wild beasts — including a pack of Ice Krenshar further south than they should be. We stopped a while in one of the villages to resupply and regroup, before the long trek south to Hyden’s Ford.

Calwyn and Alix have certainly proved interesting companions. And they have interesting friends here too. Last night Calwyn had quite a conversation with one of the southern priests — he muttered something about her being a right one, and him owing her a favour. There seems to be some confusion about the location of a certain Lake of Tears, and something to do with a dangerous goddess called Varrien. Once Alix is sorted, I think we’re going to try to find this Lake of Tears…

I think Ammonite might be a little bit taken with Calwyn. They’ve gone off together this morning to barter our goods with some trader lady called Swethin. Meanwhile, I’m here at a temple waiting for Alix to appease her god. Calwyn’s friend of last night was supposed to help her this morning, but she’s vanished, leaving Alix at the mercy of one those magic-hating Testerris priests. I hope whatever he does works.

Denounced and pursued

Finally Alix has reappeared and she’s not looking too happy. But she hasn’t volunteered any information, and I’m not game to ask her. We’re heading back towards the inn, where we left Schill minding our magic items.

We’re crossing the half-finished bridge with the aid of a rope, when we encounter the rest of our companions fleeing in our direction. They’re also yelling at the woman who runs the punt, carrying our gear as well as theirs. Beyond, a crowd has gathered, among them a unit of sword-wielding priests of Testerris — Lawbringers, I think  they called them — denouncing our friends as magic users.

Alix and I exchange a glance, grab our gear from Ammonite, and change direction to accompany our companions. The woman ushers us onto her punt and starts hauling us across the river. We lend our assistance too.

The guards start firing arrows at us! They have clambered onto the half-finished bridge, and are rather too close for comfort. The woman hauling the punt then does something inexplicable. She shoves the other passengers overboard and cuts the rope to which the punt is attached.

We are now hurtling downriver…

***

Things look like they’ll be rather interesting next time we gather. This was a transition session, during which we did things like appraise our accumulated magical items and pumped people for information. Now we are at the mercy of the river, and our Level 5 (6?) cleric still has no magic. Argh!

But at least no-one died, right?