Red Moon Over Sartar Campaign

Summaries for December 10, 1995

Adventure: Trapper Trouble

The Party: Det. Tavar (Dave), Inspector Ahmet (Joe), Inspector Prince Hezbod and Pvt. Senile (Eduardo), Det. Cpl. Tracius (Daniel), Det. Yasna (Ray), Pvt. Rockfrug (Scott), and introducing Consulting Detective Severus (Ken).

RQ veteran Ken McKinney (aka Leshoto) joined the party as Detective Severus, a Dara Happan Noble and Irrippi Ontor initiate. Severus is a Sartar expert on temporary assignment with the party while Ken is in town.

The adventure began when everyone at Runegate fort and the surrounding area started getting sick with a mysterious illness. Everyone in the party was affected, with Det. Tavar getting the worst of it and slipping into a coma. Det. Yasna was almost as bad, being reduced to 3 HP. The party immediately set out to investigate.

Suspecting a tainted water supply, Tracius, Rockfrug, and Pvt. Senile (played by Dave, since Tavar was comatose) searched the Swan river upstream from the fort. The three detectives did not see anything unusual until they came upon 2 ragged looking Sartarite barbarians fooling around with some furry object in the river. Tracius and Rockfrug sneaked up on the suspicious pair while Senile was distracted by the call of nature. Getting closer, it became obvious that the barabrians were harmless, if incompetent beaver hunters. The detectives surprised the two barbarians, who clumsliy fumbled trying to draw their swords. Seeing that the detectives were serious, the two decided not to resist being questioned. The two claimed to be simple beaver traders living in the area. The trappers had apparently killed the beavers with swords and were having a difficult time cleaning the pelts in the river. Rockfrug and Tracius dismissed the two as harmless morons and didn't find anything suspicious enough to warrant further investigation.

While the scouts searched upriver, the rest of the party travelled to Swan to see if the town was infected. Arriving in Swan, the party was met by armed Sartarite warriors who made it clear that disease-ridden Lunars were not welcome in town. Detective Yasna tried to get the Local Lankhor Mhy Sage to evaluate a sample of the tainted water, but he wanted no part of it. Several Sartarite warriors then surrounded Yasna and confiscated the sample. After a minor showdown, the party was run out of town right behind the tainted water.

Seeing that Swan was not affected, Inspector Ahmet decided the best course of action was to follow the river downstream to Runegate, looking for the source of the contamination. Prince Hezbod decided to leave the party and go north to Tarkolar Keep, to ask King Blackmor to send a Challona Arroy healer to Runegate. Detective Severius was to accompany the Prince, but at the last moment became distracted and followed the main party. Eventually the party made it back to Runegate, where a Challona Arroy healer had shown up. She gave the two sickest people, Tavar and Yasna a potion to drink and by the next morning both were fine, but it was not known if it was from drinking the potion or secretly becoming an initiate of Mallia. Prince Hezbod did not show up at Runegate, but the party assumed that he was busy pursuing his vices. Eduardo took over as Pvt. Senile, since Prince Hezbod was sent to the penalty box for a few weeks (see epilog).

The party began searching around Runegate and eventually narrowed the source of the contamination to an area near last week's ambush of the tax collector. Careful searches revealed a small cave with eight armed men, who turned out to be the beaver trappers seen earlier. Inspector Ahmet and Det. Severus ventured into the cave to question the men. Their efforts met with little success as the men would not answer any questions and tried to get us to leave. The party was at a tactical disadvantage in the small, dark cave. The suspects positioned themselves on top of a steep 2.5 meter ledge that only one man at a time could attempt to climb. Unable to get a shot at the suspects, Det. Severus climbed the ledge to confront them. Eventually a melee broke out with the suspects turning out to be much better swordsmen than one would expect from poor trappers. Severus managed to severely wound one of the men, but because the layout of the cave prevented him from being properly supported, Det. Severus was forced to retreat in the face of 3 to 1 odds. Just after Severus jumped down from the ledge, Pvt.Senile made a daring pole vault up to the ledge; but being outnumbered, he prudently withdrew with the others.

The party then ascertained that there were no other exits from the cave and set a guard on the entrance to make sure the suspects did not escape. Det. Yasna was sent to Runegate for reinforcements and Inspector Ahmet went to question the local inhabitants. At this point we were not sure that the 8 men holed up in the cave were not simple trappers, as they claimed to be. The locals said that there had been beaver trappers living in the cave for some years, but that there were only 3 of them and they didn't have swords. At this point, Ahmet was certain that we had the right suspects and returned to the cave to find that the eight outlaws had surrendered in the face of the 20 Hoplites that had arrived from Runegate.

Severus was able to tell from the men's accents that they weren't Sartarites, but were from around Wintertop. The swords they carried were virtually new and of fine quality. Ahmet located a hallmark on the sword's tang and determined that they were all made by the same smith. He then questioned the men and was eventually able to break them. In exchange for leniency, they admitted to being Tarsh exile mercenaries hired to guard the area. They were supposed to meet the man who hired them at the cave in a few days, but he never showed up. Seeking the source of the contamination, Det. Tavar bravely dismantled the beaver dam and discovered the diseased corpses of the genuine trappers. Much to the satisfaction of the locals, the Tarshite culprits were summarily hung in Runegate.

Before being hung, the mercenaries said that the man who hired them was also supposed to meet them at a shrine near Wintertop if they were unable to make contact at the cave. The party then set off for Tarsh exile land to track down the responsible party. Arriving in the area, they located the smith who made the swords and the trader who most likely sold them, but were unable to get any information on who had purchased them. The shrine was also unpromising, as it was constantly occupied by many locals. Making contact with possible Mallia types, the party was able to identify two suspects: a local Mystic and a suspicious Shaman. Further investigation was unfruitful, and it was impossible to tell if either of the suspects was the person we were looking for.

The party was almost ready to go home when we decided to try one last thing. We went to the local tavern and discreetly inquired if anyone had hired eight mercenaries recently. We quickly found out that the Shaman had been the one. Rockfrug quickly came up with a plan to infiltrate the Shaman's group. He went to the Shaman and asked to be his student, explaining that his master had recently been killed. The Shaman finally accepted him after Rockfrug implied that he would reveal Eol secrets.

Having gained the Shaman's confidence, the party plotted his demise. Rockfrug was to wait until the Shaman went off onto the spirit plane and then get the party to attack his house. A couple of nights later, the Shaman bagan a ceremony and went off to the spirit plane. Conveniently, all of the other people in the house were asleep. Rockfrug snuck around the outside of the house and peeked through the window to check out the situation. The Shaman was facing away from the door and would be an easy target. Seeing this as the only opportunity to whack the Shaman, Rockfrug went back inside and kicked down the door to the Shaman's room. With a single blow, he decapitated the discorporate Shaman. He then grabbed the head, jumped out the window and ran back to town to find the party.

The party quickly burned the diseased head, but Rockfrug was attacked and defeated by a Soul Waste Spirit, resulting in the permanent loss of 3 POW. Back at Runegate, the Challona Arroy Priestess was able to cure Rockfrug and restore his POW at a cost of 1 of her POW. In return, Rockfrug (and the party) agreed to do a favor for her later. It turns out that the Shaman was an agent of Mallia, but we were not able to find out why he chose to target Runegate. Perhaps someone put him up to it, hoping to destablize the area and forment unrest among the Colymar. In this regard, the Constabulary was a complete success. Instead of harshly surpressing local "rebels," the party located the true culprit and publicly executed the Tarsh exile mercenaries. In this way, the populace may eventually come to see the Lunar Empire as a protector rather than an opressor.

Epilogue: Hazbod Doblian, the inspector formerly known as Prince, is missing and presumed AWOL. The party assumes that he is off gambling or womanizing, and by the time it starts an investigation, the errant Prince is long gone. It turns out that travelling alone on the way to Tarkolar, he was captured by Sartarite rebels and sold into slavery. He may eventually be ransomed, but that will take some time.