Session 03

The party managed to get out of town without being detected, after Adelhyde came up with a new disguise (as a halfling male.)

On their way towards the burgomaster's keep, the party were ambushed by a small pack of wolves, led by a Dire Wolf alpha. The party prevailed, although Imsh and Adelhyde were somewhat the worse for wear.

The party decided to try to approach the keep by way of the surrounding forested cliffs. Imsh took the lead as the party's survival expert, but the dark of the forest at night was too much for his skills to handle, so the party was forced to make camp.

The following day they party set out, having much better success in navigating the forest in daylight. They did get lost a few times, and at one such point they ran into a patrol of the Burgomaster's guard! Some quick talking by Wolfwood and the use of the party's forged Mercenary license was sufficient to see the guards off without violence, although some careless talk from Imsh nearly started a fight.

Further forest exploration brought the party into an area that promised to have the best overlook of the keep. It also turned out to host a small family of bears, one of which visited the party camp that night. Imsh managed to get the bear to leave after feeding it his supply of wolf jerky, which saddened him greatly.

The next day yielded fruitful observation, and many plans were made. The Stone of Far Speech was employed to get Matteus' opinion on the plan, which he was happy to do for a mere 50GP of the party's pay for this job. The team divided into Distraction and Infiltration teams. Aurora and Imsh were to distract the keep's guard force with tales of brigands lurking in the forest, while Wolfwood and Adelhyde infiltrated the keep.

The distraction team was extremely successful, and soon half the guard force was out scouting the woods for brigands that weren't there. (Or were they?)

The infiltration team met with trouble almost immediately, detected by the guards manning the ramparts of the keep. Wolfwood and Adelhyde dispatched them with much effort. Adelhyde, mindful of the mission parameters, made sure that their wounds would not prove fatal.

The infiltrators then made their way into the keep, and found their way eventually to the court mage. The mage, however, had his own political ambitions, and left for a "breath of night air" indicating that it would be a shame if anyone found what was in his desk drawer.

Taking the hint, the infiltrators looked in the drawer and found a key. Following the mage's path, they found a locked study. The Burgomaster's study, as it happened! Therein they found documents showing that the Burgomaster had a Gnomish mistress and several bastards, whom were being supported by improperly diverted government funds; the perfect compromat.

Having got what they came for, the now re-united party booked it out of the keep and back to the relative safety of the road. Their next task: to deliver the goods and get that sweet, sweet actionable intel from the dissidents.