October 7th, 2016

Flashback History: Playing in Reverse

The Flashback Game: Exploring the history of the current group (whether we knew it when we started or not). Line up from left to right:

Nick playing Merrick the haterage human fighter

Catherine playing Ydee the only half-elven thief

Matt playing the thoughtful human spellsword

Thomas playing the kill-happy elven battleaxe fighter

William playing the 3 charisma half-orc holy warrior

Zack playing Ahri the juvenile elven mage, and

Sarai playing the WTF? half-elven witch

The party had gathered at the downtown home of a prominent and wealthy Twinlake Vale merchant and moneylender named Connor Barskin after they saw posters around town saying that his daughter had been stolen away and that he was offering 100 g.p. each to any group who recovered her and returned her to him. Upon talking to the man they learned that he referred to his daughter as stolen since she was not kidnapped since no ransom demands had been sent. After learning that a scout Barskin had hired had sent word that the group that took his daughter was holed up in a house in the foothills to the east of town, the party decided that they would head in that direction.
Before they left, the party decided to see if they could gather any more information about Barskin. Some of the members knew that no one really liked him since he was thought to be a cold fish and a jerk. I mean, he had someone whose job it was to shake hands with others so he wouldn't be bothered. The elven fighter heard more though, including information that Barskin was the kind of ass who might sell family members if he was offered enough cash, and that he had supposedly been planning to marry his daughter to another much older businessman named Tanner in an effort to force an alliance of sorts. This made the party wonder what kind of person they were working for, so they made the decision to ask questions first when they found the people and do the killings after if the questions were not answered well.

After a day's travel they were not having any luck, so they camped for the night, on the second watch Merrick, the human fighter, was surprised as he moved around by a bite on his ankle. Yelping in surprise he sat down to try to suck the venom out of his ankle, only to discover that he had almost sat down on the snake, which bit him in the sitting area. He blew the signal whistle to awaken the rest of the party and all awoke except for the half-orc, who was a heavy sleeper, and the elven magic-user, whose comfy bedroll made the trance even more pleasant. Merrick chopped the snake in half then yanked the bitey half of the snake free, breaking off its fangs in his butt in the process. The elven fighter cooked up the best campfire rattlesnake bites anyone had ever had while the human spellsword carefully used a sliver of wood to finesse the fangs out of Merrick's backside. The witch healed the damage to Merrick and the party went back to sleep.

The next day, around late afternoon, the party found a fairly ramshackle house in a valley in the foothills. The stone-walled ground floor looked fairly sturdy while the wooden upper floor was the main source of the ramshackle appearance. After a bit of observation the half-elf thief noticed that some of the missing boards were likely missing since they were in places that gave great views of the approaches to the house. The thief and spellsword tried stealth and a circuitous route while the rest went straight ahead. When they were close to the house a man's voice ordered them to stop. A parley was entered into where the party was told that the daughter had escaped from her father's control because she did not want to marry a man old enough to be her grandfather. After some time spent talking, the party wanted to have a 'proof of life' session to see the young woman. After some hesitation, it was agreed that the elven fighter could come in and see the daughter, providing he left his armor and weapons behind. Though unenthused about this option, he agreed and was allowed inside the house where he met three men who looked like mercenaries and a man in a Twinlake Vale military uniform with an officer's patch. The officer had his arm around the daughter who on closer inspection didn't seem to be much more than a girl, though she was possibly fourteen. She told the fighter that her father was not likely as wealthy as everyone thought because he had a lot of business liabilities, which was part of the reason why he had arranged to marry her off to a 64 year old lecher who had had half a dozen or so younger wives, all of whom died of tragic 'accidents' within three years of the marriage. Though she did not want to feel responsible for her father's death, the daughter (which the party much later learned was named Vanessa because why ask questions like that?) felt like she would never be safe while her father lived. Since her mother had died soon after Vanessa was born and she had no siblings, she had had no other family to stand up for her, except for the officer, who she regarded as a surrogate older brother though he was around twice her age, and the officer's family who were also merchants and treated Vanessa like their niece. Vanessa also told the elven fighter that her father tended to stay at their lakefront estate which had a high stone wall around it, except where the property reached the lake. Armed with this information, the party decided to return to the Vale and kill the hell out of Daddy Dearest.

Returning to town, the party decided to split their forces. The fighters and the spellsword went in search of information. They learned that Officer Carrick, Vanessa's 'big brother', was highly thought of and well regarded within the military circles, which made them feel even more secure in their decision to support Vanessa's bid for freedom. They decided to approach the estate house in a pincer movement: The fighters and the thief would see if they could get through the front gate while the others would come around through the open back in a rented fishing boat. Merrick found that the gate had a lock on it, and while the elven fighter stood to the side, the thief attempted to pick the lock. She was unsuccessful, and there came a voice from inside the gate asking her what she thought she was doing. Merrick did his best to try to cover for the situation, but the guards were having none of it an an alarm bell was rung. Having failed at that cover story, Merrick threw an empty potion bottle at the ground and shouted "Scatter!" Then he ran off in one direction down the road toward an alley while the thief ran the opposite way. The elven fighter was confused by this series of events and just stood frozen against the wall until he noticed guardsmen coming down the street toward the gate. Deciding BS was the better part of valor, he tucked his axe into his belt and ran toward them saying that he had heard the alarm and wondered what was going on. At this point, Merrick decided to create a disturbance to distract everyone in the vicinity from the other half of the party who were approaching from the rear of the estate, though they were tempted to abort the mission once they heard the alarm being raised. Clapping a busted bucket on his head, Merrick also charged toward the guards blathering nonsense at the top of his lungs. The guard spellsword dropped a sleep spell on his bucket head and he dropped like a stone mid-blather. The elven fighter tried to help his friend but the guardsmen did a hog-tie shackling on Merrick and told the elf to come by and pick him up in the morning when he had sobered up. The elf agreed and watched them half-carry half-drag Merrick away to the hoosegow. Then he and the thief rejoined forces and considered their options.
The elven fighter and the thief were sneaking down the side wall of the estate until they reached a place where they thought it was safe for the fighter to boost the thief up so she could climb to the top of the wall and peek over. As she did she noticed a group of four guards (actually the rest of the party) moving along the wall toward the house. She dropped back down and waited for the "guards" to pass by.
The rest of the group opened the unlocked back door to the house. A started house servant managed to yell "Intruders!" before Ahri the elven mage's sleep spell put him to sleep. Proceeding quickly into the house, they discovered a dining room where two sleeping housemaids were found. They had been within the range of the sleep spell so they were out cold too. They appeared to have been cleaning silverware, so the spellsword scooped a handful of silverware up. The thief had clambered all the way over the wall at this point and tied a rope off to a stump before tossing the rest of the rope over the wall for the fighter to use. He was somewhat less than successful, reaching the top in good order only to go skidding down to go thud. Then the two entered the house and rejoined the rest of the group. Through the north arch from the dining room where the two maids slept, they entered a hall and decided to forgo the usual right hand rule by going left to climb the stairs.
Merrick had not been idle during this time. Awakening to find himself lying on a jail cell floor still shackled and devoid of all belongings except for his broken long/short sword and his armor, he set about trying to free himself. After severely bloodying his wrists and hands by repeated cuts on the edges of the shackles, he pretty much got his hands slick enough that they could be pulled free. Once he had both hands free he decided to try to force open the cell door and was successful against strong odds, busting hinges so he could get free. Screaming like a madman he charged through the building, past the severely startled guards, finally busting out the front door and making good his maniacal escape. That done, he began running wildly through town trying to find the rest of the group.
Remaining blissfully unaware of the new levels of insanity their fellow adventurer had reached, the party ascended to the upper floor of the house. A quick search of rooms revealed a sitting room, an austere bedroom that was apparently Vanessa's, judging by the frame with 'Vanessa' engraved on it that contained a drawing of a woman. The elven fighter took this as he thought Vanessa would want it. An even more austere room with two twin beds was judged to be the maids' room, and finally the party found a locked door that the thief tried to pick.
Meanwhile, after having run randomly through town, Merrick finally saw a familiar estate. Ignoring the front gate, he followed a side wall until he came to a rope. Quickly scrambling up the rope he did an amazing faceplant off of the wall on the inside, filling his mouth with sod and covering the smeary mark he had made on his forehead with his own blood at the jail, a mark that was meant to remind him to never volunteer to take one for the team again. Spitting out grass and dirt, he scampered into the house and followed the path of somewhat ajar doors and prone servants until he appeared at the top of the stairs, surprising the party and being attacked with an axe, which missed. The thief had been unable to pick the door lock in the darkness, so the elven fighter offered Merrick his own wooden mallet and one of the spellsword's iron spikes to use to bust the lock on the door as a way to vent his frustration at the night he had been having. Merrick successfully broke the lock, swinging the door open, and the awake and aware Barskin sat up from playing possum in bed and put a heavy crossbow bolt into Merrick's chest. This, on top of the falling damage from outside, reduced him to 1 hit point. The thief and elven fighter had the quickest reactions. The thief embedded an arrow in Barskin's torso, then the elven fighter sunk his axe deep into Barskin's chest, killing him dead. The party quickly searched the immediate area of the room, finding a gold chain necklace, a very nice dagger and shortsword, a bag of coins, some random keys, and a pair of rings that Barskin had been wearing. Then the party made a break for the back door. As they were leaving, four guards came up behind them and fired their heavy crossbows at the group, hitting a couple of times but not dropping anyone. As the party ran out the door like rats deserting s sinking ship, Ahri dropped another sleep spell and the guards became unconscious. The party made for the boat and the two fighters grabbed the oars and made great speed away from the estate, but upon drawing close to the dock where they had rented the boat they saw guardsmen there and so changed course, grounding the boat in a more secluded shore and leaving. Merrick, still attempting to play the part of a drunken fool, went to collapse in an alley to sleep as best as he could while the rest of the group high tailed it out of town to hide out in an old abandoned hut on a farm.

Guardsmen found Merrick the next day, punched him unconscious, and dragged him off to his old cell where he awoke without anything except the under armor padding. A guard was sitting outside the cell with a heavy crossbow pointed at Merrick and advised him not to move, at all. Merrick did not disobey and sat there until he was taken to court. The judge told him that everything he owned had been confiscated for court costs and if he had a good story he would not spend the next 20 years cracking rocks as a prisoner. Apparently Merrick's rambling defense worked its magic and the judge released him, telling him that if he returned with 200 g.p. to pay court costs he could have his equipment back, but nothing more. He would have to see what he owed for the damages to the jail cell though.
Merrick found his way to the hut where the rest of the party was and arranged to take 200 g.p. from the party fund so he could get his stuff back. The half-orc detected magic on the dagger and the rings. The short sword that Barskin had owned was very nicely made but non-magical. Merrick paid his fines and the party decided that they would return to the ramshackle house to tell Vanessa that she was free.

Out of game events that happened after:
The party returned and told Vanessa and Officer Carrick that her father was dead. They gave her her father's magical signet ring and the picture from her room as proof. She was sad but relieved. She asked for and received her father's chain of office from the merchants' guild and the four keys but said the adventurers could keep anything else. The spellsword did return the silver cutlery to her though.
She returned to town after her 'vacation' with her family friend, Officer Carrick to learn of her father's death at the hands of intruders, which greatly saddened her, at least in public. Her father's debts meant she had to lose his business and both houses in town to settle up. She returned the merchants' guild necklace to them and was told that her father had a sum invested with the guild that would come to her if she wanted it, or she could leave it invested and receive an income off of any profits it made, which she chose to do. She still had a goodly sum of money after all debts were settled, and she moved in with her dear family friends, the Carricks, who became her guardians until she reached her majority and could make her own decisions. The first thing her new guardians did was annul the arranged marriage between Vanessa and old man Tanner. He was displeased, but he had no recourse.
Investigations into the murder of a prominent member of the community led to a cleric being asked to cast Speak With Dead on the corpse. The corpse was able to describe his killer in some detail. Since the elven warrior with a battle axe had been seen in town recently, a manhunt was started for him, but he was long gone by the time they started looking for him. His associates were closely questioned, but they said that they had only met him when they had responded to Connor Barskin's post. Since the known associates were incapable of providing assistance, though they did suggest that the assassin may have only responded to the post to try to get close to his target, and the assassin was long gone, the investigation came to naught though the sketch of the assassin remained posted throughout town. The reputation of the assassin's unwitting associates suffered somewhat, but at her own request Vanessa Barskin met with them and after some conversations with the group she announced that she fully believed that they were unwitting pawns in the assassination attempt and she held them blameless, restoring their reputations a tiny bit.

In other news, in spite of his frustration with the rest of his new associates, the fact that he owed them a debt meant that Merrick decided to remain with the group.
Having been identified by the dead man as the murderer, the elven fighter took his leave of his new friends and went to other places far from Twinlake Vale to hide out. He expressed an interest in going to a place called Hunt's Village on the frontier and said that if they needed him they could find him there.
The loud, straight-forward and boisterous half-orc holy warrior took his in-your-face methodology of conversion on the road and what he lacked in social ability he made up for in angry volume.