While we were cleaning up after our fight with the Drow, a man wearing golden armor came into the room. He was Lord Thor, the King's own priest of Odin. "Great Odin!" he exclaimed. "It's like the Queen of Demons was in this room torturing people."
"My, aren't you perceptive." I said to him. I had just realized that the Drow woman had indeed been the Demon Queen herself. I was about to freak out, so I took some drugs.
Lord Thor said that he'd been sent to the inn by Odin himself, and the local police. He said he spoke for the King of Steinhall himself. He extended the King's thanks to us for banishing the Demon. He announced that the King would come to RE to give a banquet in our honor, in eight weeks. We protested that we wouldn't necessarily be _there_ in eight weeks, but he said the King was coming then, and that was that. Thor also announced that he'd had a message from Odin, that a danger was coming from the south. It would be raiders from the sea-- Sea Folk allied with lizard men and Drow.
Lord Thor helped identify some of the crap left behind by the Drow. There was a Wand of Lightning, a healing salve, and a Cloak of Manta Ray, which Erose appropriated for her own. Apparently, she's had a life-long dream of being amphibious.
We set off for RE. Because of that git Vrba, we couldn't take the road directly back to the Lubeck barony, because it went through Reinhart, where Vrba is banned on pain of death. We had to go cross-country through ???, back towards the Royal Woods, then cut north.
As we approached Lubeck the city, it looked like parts of it were burning. We asked some people fleeing the city what was going on. They said that there was civil unrest. The boy baron had vanished. The Regent was trying to maintain order, and other factions were trying to seize control of the Barony. Rumors were flying about what had happennedto the boy. Some said that Draco had stolen him, others that the Regent had done away with him, others that he'd run away.
When we reached the city gate, we were stopped by mercenaries from the Union of the Snake. The Union had been hired by the regent to keep order. One of the guards saw Hal's ranger armor, and said, "Oh, are you here to see the Regent?" Hal said we were, and some of the guards escorted us to the castle.
We spoke to the Regent. Things are not looking good for Lubeck Barony. The Regent had a poor grip on things, and his neighbors were either engulfed with their own problems, or were not inclined to help out. The Regent said that the boy had vanished from his room, late one night. It was rumored that the Thieves' Guild had stolen him and were holding him in RE. This sounded odd to us, since there IS no Theives' Guild in RE. Even so, we told the Regent that we'd check it out when we got there.
When we got back to RE, Keef, Hal, and Vrba did some training. Erose, Sanjay and I tried to get some leads on the Baron. Sanjay tried scrying for the Baron in the crystal ball, and found him. He seemed to be chained up underground, in some sort of dungeon. Sanjay had the impression that the boy was some distance away from RE. I had the idea to try to find the Shadow, thinking that he might have some idea about the TG. We discovered that he had set up shop in RE, with a new manager-- a red-headed ex-ho from the Velvet Glove. He didn't know anything, but he said he'd tell me if he learned something. Finally, we asked Lord Lara if she knew anything. She didn't know anything about the boy baron. She said she was not inclined to help out the Regent, since he'd not helped with any of the problems RE had been having lately. Rather, she'd sent troops to help out Draco's men against the forces attacking Unterberg barony. Interesting. There had been more kidnappings by lizard-men. We told her that the King was coming up here in a month.
While we were in town, Sue tried to make up with me, but I blew her off.
We were leaving the castle, when we met a rider. It was one of Draco's Black Riders. He fell off his horse when he met us-- it was Lisbon. We took him to the Temple, and BRB Sr. healed him. When he did, he told us his story:
"We chased the kidnappers south of Sandhaven, along the coast to their hideout. It was a keep. Before they got to the keep, they were ambushed. They killed Paris and Dresden, and Draco!"
"What!" said Erose. "Draco can't be dead."
Lisbon continued, "They fell off a cliff into the ocean!"
We concluded that Draco was most likely not dead.
Lisbon said that the kidnappers (of Lucy) and the Sea Folk were in league with each other, and that there were also some of the king's troops with them! (Or at least men wearing the king's uniforms.) All of this happenned about a week ago.
Sanjay scried for Lucy and saw her chained up in a boat. Lisbon, upon reconsidering, agreed that Draco was most likely not dead. If he _is_ alive, he might be held prisoner inthe keep. Two more of Draco's men survived the attack; one was recovering in Owl's Hoot, the other in Strathgard.
Erose and Hal talked to Lord Lara about this disturbing development. She was indeed concerned about Draco's situation, but she couldn't leave the area, because the king was due to visit, and she wanted to talk to him about the problems of the Barony. So, of course, Erose, Hal, et al were dispatched. I went along out of curiosity, and the usual concern for Keef. Lara asked us to go down to Sandhaven, and i. figure out what's up with the king, and ii. rescue Draco, if at all possible.
We headed off, with Udo, Schnellmaken, and BRB Jr. Just before we left, who should we meet but the long-lost Elspeth? She was in the company of four Greeks, and six BTO guys. She had news from Greece. The civil war had spread, now some of the Greek city-states had joined the rebels against the MIBs, who were allied with the Drow. They had come to hire mercenaries to join the fight. Elspeth decided to join us in our trip to the south.
Passing through Owl's Hoot again, we met up with Smolensk (Draco's man). In Strathgard, we picked up Istanbul. Istanbul said that he found out where the army recruiters have been sending all of the recruits. They were going to a small town in the swamps south of Drexmaller. Since our first mission was to find out what was up with the king, and if there was a connection with the Drow there, as well, we went towards Drexmaller.
About 50 miles north of the town, we came upon the remnants of a battle in which some royal troops had defeated a horde of lizard men. We met some soldiers who were chasing down some lizards. They said that the lizards had been coming out of the swamps, trying to overrun Drexmaller.
We came to Drexmaller. It is slightly larger than Lubeck. The town's economy is based on the army. It is peopled by all sorts of folk: humans, elves, dwarves, etc. The new recruits are being sent south for training, along with groups of woodworkers, metalworkers, and raw materials. Nobody from Drexmaller actually goes south to the training area, its location was unknown. Lisbon suggested following a supply convoy.
On other fronts, I was disinclined to carry on with Elspeth, so she got it on with Keef. He's more her type, anyway.
We followed a convoy into the swamp. We passed through several small towns. After about two days, we came to a river. The convoy had travelled down the river. We hired a local-- an old man named Throngard-- with a boat to carry us after the army barge. We met several snake-handling priests of Odin, much to BRB's delight. We went down the river towards the delta. We saw several of the Dread Southern Ice Gators, but managed to avoid being attacked by them. Right at the mouth of the river, we came upon an island. The army barge was beached, and the island was shrouded in magical mist.
Erose used her manta-ray cape to do a little recon. She discovered that the rocky island had been carved out into a secret harbor-fort. Inside, many ships had been constructed. It seems like Steinhall has been building its own Navy. (Rumors we've heard indicate that this has been going on for 10 years or so.) The next island over was a large troop encampment. We couldn't figure out how or if this meshed with the report of Draco being attacked by the king's troops. Istanbul raised the possibility that the local forces could have been corrupted by the Sea Folk.
From there, we proceeded to investigate Draco's disappearance. Throngard took us to the northern end of the river delta. From there, it was a short ride to the keep Draco's troops had been investigating. It was built into a ruined temple, which was the biggest building in a ruined village. We could see several guards in the keep, from several species. Over the time we watched, a couple groups of people came into the main gate of the keep, from the direction of Sandhaven.
We noticed an old geezer watching us. We confronted him. He said he was Harry, an old hermit who lived in the hills. He'd been brought to the ruined temple as a slave, but he'd escaped through a secret passage. The temple was a hideout for slavers. They brought captured people to the temple, then sent them off to an island out in the ocean. Sea Folk were involved, in particular the Dread Pirate Roberts. He was the leader of the slave ring. We asked Harry about Draco and his guys. Harry said that a few weeks ago, he'd seen four men wearing black armor brought into the keep, and then quickly shipped off.
Quote: "My fashion is beyond your comprehension." (Mick to Sanjay.)