Tormeron's events: the Stories

It's happy hour, the alcohol is flowing. It's time to pull up a tankard of ale, bottle of wine for the ladies and regail tales of heroism and grandeur.

Topic/Postby Gergel » 24 Sep 2014, 10:41

The first order of business in this fine evening was browsing through the latest newspaper and deciding what to do and where to go next. How convenient, having a paper that lists all the small and large jobs suitable for a small group of intrepid adventurers.

Adrenus and Chepi expressed their interest in looking into the arsons in Elwynn. Aroona, Lilandris and Thelarwen, on the other hand, pointed out that arsonists can be investigated and caught by guards, and that should the perpetrators be allowed to roam free for another day, the consequent damage would not be too great. But the children would certainly come into harm should they be left in their captors' hands.

So the group proceeded towards the border of Elwynn and Westfall. That's where Serendipity, fashionably late as usual, caught up with them. The guards standing at the bridge directed them towards nearby houses where a ransom note had been carved on the wall. Lilandris, meanwhile, wandered up to a pier where she found two sets of children's clothing. About to leave the area, a young man suddenly ran up to them, quite rudely claimed that the pier belonged to him and the group was trespassing. The adventurers mostly just ignored the rudeness and proceeded towards the house.

The mentioned ransom note stated: "Bring 50 gold coins to the well of Moonbrook". Lilandris questioned the mother of the missing children, who expressed her suspicions that "Mr. Pier" (as Serendipity had brilliantly christened him) was responsible for the kidnappings. Lacking any evidence against him, however, it was decided to follow the ransom note and head to Moonbrook.

A small group of thugs greeted them "warmly" near the entrance of the dilapidated town. Their first expression was simply, "go away, now." Lilandris, however, managed to warm the relations by bribing the thugs with a couple of gold coins. Their leader, an obviously self-appointed "sheriff" begrudgingly allowed the group to enter.

Once they had pushed through the crowd that has gathered on the streets, and distracted them with food prepared by Aroona and/or conjured by Serendipity, the adventurers ended up at the well near the inn. The well looked dry and empty at the first glance. Looks were deceiving, though. When Lilandris pulled out the bucket, she discovered that it contained not water but a severed human hand. Thelarwen was not particularly bothered, unlike the others who went "ewww" and dumped the hand on the ground. When the bucket was re-lowered and came up the second time, things got more interesting. And by "interesting" I mean "grisly". The second load contained a human heart which was still beating. Because no one else expressed any interest in coming anywhere near it, Thelarwen picked this up and examined it with interest. It clearly was not a child's heart (and Thelarwen would presumably be an expert on this), so that was at least fortunate.

The heart in the death knight's hand started beating faster, then suddenly exploded. Aside from being somewhat splattered with heart-bits, the group fortunately remained in reasonably good condition. At the same time the hand came to life and began to strangle Lilandris'... ankle. The unruly appendage was promptly put down with the combination attack of Thelarwen's sword and Lilandris' holy spells.

Once again the "sheriff" and his cronies approached. They were back to their arrogant and boisterous selves. Immediately they decided to lay all blame for the disembodied undead body parts on Thelarwen and the rest of the group. Things were about to heat up when the bucket began ascending once again from the well. This time the payload turned out to be a considerable pile of dynamite. With a lit fuse. The explosives went *boom* and tossed everyone around. Thelarwen caught the brunt of the explosion and was thrown against a wall, which made her stagger for a while but left her with no lasting damage.

From out of the hole that used to be the well climbed a figure clad in full plate armour. The man (a.k.a. the "duuuuuuuuude") did not speak, nor make any offensive moves, so the adventurers stood back for the moment to assess his intentions. The "sheriff" and whoever was left of his group (after the explosion had injured and/or killed a few who got too close) were not as forthcoming. They decided that the best way to deal with this newcomer was to attack him, which proved a costly mistake. The armoured man did not share the adventurers' desire for diplomacy and retaliated with deadly force. After he killed a few of them, the "sheriff" came up with an incredibly brilliant plan of throwing a stick of dynamite at the stranger. Of course, because the man was just about next to him, he caught quite a bit of the blast himself. Only Lilandris' quick and benevolent healing saved his life and he scampered away with his proverbial tail tucked between his proverbial legs.

The duuuuuuuuude meanwhile entered the abandoned Moonbrook inn. He stomped through the first floor and then made his way up to the second floor. There, in the guest room, he finally spoke. "Where are they? They were supposed to wait! My wife, my two kids!" It quickly became obvious that the man had been in the well for quite a long time. He claimed to be from Lordaeron but it never became entirely clear from which time he hailed. Certainly from before the third war.

Not finding her family, the armoured man turned to the adventuring party and announced his intentions to help them find the missing children. What could possibly go wrong, right?

Everyone made their way downstairs into the cellar. As luck had it, that's where the two missing children were being held. There was no opposition and no traps, just ropes tied to an alarm system. When the duuuuuuuuude slashed his way through them, bells rang but no one came to confront them. Then the children were free.

Was it really that simple? Could they now pick up the kids, walk out and take them back to their parents?

Of course not. The duuuuuuuuude promptly went off his rocker, claimed (all contrary evidence notwithstanding) that the children were his, and proceeded to drag them out of the building. That was not something that could be allowed. Thelarwen, reluctant to attack, attempted to talk the man down by pointing out that the children were not his, then ordering him to stand down and come to his senses as a soldier. Talk had no effect and Lilandris, who was considerably more hot-headed, took a shot at the man.

At this point things went quite pear-shaped. Serendipity, Chepi and Adrenus hustled the children out of the way and to safety, while Thelarwen, Lilandris and Aroona confronted the duuuuuuuuude. He did little damage with his sword, and then opted for extremely close range combat instead. With a spell his entire armour-clad body began to heat up and in turn transfer the heat to Thelarwen who was locked in hand-to-hand combat with him. The death knight managed to survive with the help of Serendipity's frost spells and her own frost-based abilities, but it was clear that the heating duuuuuuuuude would need to be put down fast. Lilandris blew half of his head off with a point-blank rifle shot through his visor. This did little to stop him, though. The entire basement began to catch fire. The group retreated upstairs, with the exception of Thelarwen who remained behind to keep the red-hot attacker down. With a kick she sent the body down the stairs where it finally burned out.

At that point Thelarwen was quite crippled, with her boots and gauntlets half-burnt with molten metal and body armour (not to mention the body in it) having also suffered from heat. The death knight dragged herself outside.

There the "sheriff" showed up again.

The group let out a collective sigh and prepared for yet another round of arguing with the insufferable thug. "I am *not* in a good mood," growled Thelarwen. "Get out of my way, or suffer."

But in an unprecedented turn of events the "sheriff" attempted to hug Lilandris instead. It turned out he was overflowingly grateful for her saving his life, and now did all he could to apologise to and help the group.

From this point the evening ended quickly. Aroona in her stag form carried the kids back to their parents. The children described a "dark person, all robed up in black, hooded, two eyes, glowing blue."

(I don't know what the group discussed exactly upon hearing the children's description, if anything: the injured Thelarwen was limping after the group in distance. I only have logs of what Adrenus said in /raid chat.)
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Gergel
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