|
Middle History and Stories
The Foundation of Middle-of-the-Road, the Arathorne Colony of Dunador, took place
on 4 February 2172 at the former site of the so-called "Tabor Barony."
Summary: Murder Mystery, Middle:
Catching up on some Sir Faranyn, Middle chronology from 2179, we had an
interesting mini-adventure the other day. I won't elaborate much on the events.
Murder Mystery, Middle:
A man-at-arms in the keep was killed one morning. He had been ripped apart
by a furry creature. A wood-carrier and an assistant cook were questioned,
and lots of other info. was put together. A lycanthrope was suspected but
could not be proved. (Retrospect provided the answer).
A later event at a shanty-town north of town, where workers were building
confirmed the lycanthrope theory. Several folks were killed when a large
black wolf attacked. Following tracks, we found that they circled around
back to the shanty town.
Later, at the shanty town, the wood-man's wife was killed and Sir Ceydric
chased down the werewolf. He easily killed it and the incident was wrapped up.
Hobgoblin Brawl:
Outside a seedy bar in town, a brawl had broken out between a Skullbreaker
Hobgoblin and a Fleshrender half-orc half-hobgoblin. The Skullbreaker and a
human mercenary friend were trying to kill the Fleshrender. There were
others involved in a fist-fight as well. When Theo attempted to break it
up, the two hobgoblins and the human tried to attack him as well. Theo
knocked them flat with his fists and had them arrested. Later, the human
was charged with assault (he hadn't actually struck Theo) but the two
hobgoblins were charged with attempted murder of a governmental official
(acting commander Theo) (the Skullbreaker had slashed Theo with his claws
and the Fleshrender had tried to hit him with his broadsword). The
punishment is hanging. The human was sentenced to the minimum 30 days in jail.
While awaiting to be hanged, despite a letter of protest from the
Skullbreakers, they were still scheduled to be hanged. During the night 6
days before the event, the Skullbreaker strangled the Fleshrender through
the bars of his cell with his bootlaces. The Fleshrender was dead and the
Skullbreaker was immediately hanged.
Pleasant, eh?
So, that still only puts us caught up to about April 2179...
Kyle //Faranyn (top)
Summary: More mini-Middle mayhem!
More fun with Faranyn!
See the Daring Dozen make money!
And Faranyn profit on the side!
See a very special rod!
See numerous murders and disastrous expeditions!
See Nym, Faranyn, and Pap all get trashed!
See an infamous bard and his challengers!
All this on the next... Middle Update.
Joel
When last we left middle it had fended off Fire Giants, Giant Toads, a fire
in the barracks, a werewolf, a Kelburnian spy, hungry wolves, and a
Nevronian seeking asylum from the "evil" wizardry of Jonhalom...
As well as more anarchist antics than you can shake a stick at...
2180 was a different year. Kant the cooper (the snitch) was poisoned in a
freak accident. No suspects were apparent. A giant weasel nearly took down
Cassana and landed her bed-ridden for a few weeks. A cave bear attacked
town and we went out and slew it. A valuable shipment of goods and gold
bars came through town. Ax, man-at-arms, bumped his head. Once again, the
anarchists made people sick at the Founders Day celebration.
Now for some fun stuff. The Daring Dozen returned from digging up a
grave-yard in Tan-El and paid salvage tax. In addition to the 24000 gold
they brought back, Faranyn seized the philter of persuasiveness and since he
had first pick he chose the unidentified Rod, which turned out to be a Rod
of Resurrection with 7 charges!!
More boring stuff. Some illegal hunting was done by elves. The Strangled
Lizard burned down and was rebuilt. The Daring Dozen brought back more
loot. Ser, the Steward, had his mother die and he had to take a couple of
months to return to Dunthrane. A warehouse collapsed.
The Dozen paid more taxes, and Faranyn ended up trading for the +1 staff
lance that they got out of Tan-El. He also got a potion of delusion
(totally worthless...almost).
Phargus arrived in town. The three really annoying minor nobility who are
cousins of the justice Lobal who retired to Middle got upset with Phargus.
They ambushed him, tried to poison him, tried to shoot him. In the end, a
challenge with one of them killed the man but he got a lucky jab in that
poisoned Phargus and he was killed due to poison. He was later saved due to
a slow poison from the Nevronian Church, but Phargus had easily killed the
man. The others screamed for blood but Faranyn refused to hear them.
(Faranyn earlier had a private performance with Phargus which was quite
good.) Phargus moved on to End... spreading the word about Middle
which will help its growth next year.
That's all for now...
Kyle (top)
Summary: Giants and Other Fun
...Fanfare music...
And now, another... MIDDLE UPDATE
2180 left Middle a thriving town of 725 people, and included such thrilling
events as the arrival of the bard Phargus, and a cave bear beating everyone
up...
2181, the next chapter...
This Faranyn fest was brought to you by the phrase "it'll go away if you
leave it be."
The year began with an assassinated merchant, an arrow through his neck as
he strolled out of a Middle tavern. He was quite wealthy and a citizen of
Kelburn, a neighboring city-state.
It was noted that the shot was fired from the Amway Nursery roof, and the
tracks disappeared into the road. The assassination was expertly done, and
the poison was clearly overkill. In addition, there was a special notching
on the bolt, though it was unmarked. This is indicative of no known
assassins' guild, but is clearly the mark of assassins.
Disturbed but unable to do anything, Governor Faranyn could only watch as the
death toll rose.
A few days later, a house in the itinerant worker village outside of Middle
was burned down. Apparently the four residents were chained to the central
post of the structure. An obsidian skull on a metal spike was found by a
kid and returned
to Faranyn for investigation. In the house was found a number of weapons,
one with a recognizable notch on the blade, indicating the first assassin
or assassin's group (we referred to them as "Notched").
The fire had clearly burned unnaturally well, and apparently was even green
for the first minute or so. There was the wreckage of a small alchemical
setup at one end. Buried underneath the house was a chest of money, gems,
and some potions and dusts (Flying, Invisibility, Disappearance, Sneezing),
and some lovely poisons include the ever-wonderful type D, instant death in
a segment!
Alarmed, Faranyn's police were eventually able to discover that the retired
justice Lobal had hired four workers to mend the fence at his estate,
Cromwellians, who actually match the description of the residents of the
burned out house. Police Captain Barko's hunch is that these fence-workers
were in fact the folks who hooked up our friend Lobal's cousin with poison,
in his attempt to kill Phargus in 2180. "I can't prove it, though..."
The next morning, the graves of the four bodies were dug up, and a silver
sickle was left as a marker. Doing frantic research, Faranyn was able to
discover that the silver sickle was the mark of the Thieves' Guild in End.
They are known as the Silver Sickles.
It turns out that the obsidian skull guild is from Kelburn. We called them
the Obsidian Skulls. Faranyn whipped out good old
Norton's dagger (this was the assassin who had run into the invisible bell
guardian all those years ago in a attempt to assassinate the Stone Soules),
and discovered that Norton was in fact a member of the same guild, because
his dagger indeed had a small obsidian skull on the pommel!
Even worse, a few days later a serving boy at one of the taverns was found
stabbed to death (expertly done), with an obsidian skull placed nearby.
Annoyed that an apparent three-way guild war was taking place in his town,
Faranyn took action. He had Speak with Dead cast on the body of the
serving boy, who indicated that he was a member of the Silver Sickle guild
(End), but that he did not know why this war was going on. "Money, perhaps."
A week or so later, an entire group of people, 5 of them, on their way back
to End through a covert path (not taking either the North Trade Highway, or
Turkonis Way to T'Paura) were found dead with Notched arrows in them. Lovely.
As a crowning touch on the affair, a farmer was found hanged in his own
house, made to look like a suicide but clearly not. He had recently tilled
under a field himself. With Dari and Fran the Herbalist's help, Faranyn
discovered he had been growing all kinds of poisonous and nasty plants in
that field.
About that time, the authorities in End discovered a
warehouse-turned-alchemical plant had burned down, apparently where the
Silver Sickles made their poisons. This was one more link in the chain of
battle between the guilds.
Then, abruptly, there were no more murders. No information was gained.
Despite extensive research on the matter, no other leads showed up.
Time passed.
Birds chirped, and summer went on smoothly.
Then Cassana's patrol was jumped by a huge tiger, out on the ridge. One
Batt Boy was eaten, but the others got away. Faranyn, Pap, Nym, Cassana,
Dari, and some Batt Boys went out to capture or kill the tiger, but instead
found a totem with the Batt Boy's head (skull) on it. It said in three
different languages that the cloud giant Hullux had claimed this ridge, as
a defensible location from which to establish his kingdom in the "ruined
city."
Very angry, Faranyn ordered the totem cut down and burned.
Soon thereafter, an angry cloud giant flanked by TWO huge tigers appeared.
He told Faranyn to back off and go away, and called him and his party
"cattle." He claimed that the ridge was unmarked territory, "according to
all the civilized giantish conventions."
To a cavalier, this is like saying, "Please attack me."
Faranyn challenged him to a duel, and he moved to face the giant. The
giant whipped out a four-shot crossbow and blew away Faranyn's favorite
(very intelligent) horse Lith'rian, though the cavalier managed to vault
off his horse in a smooth maneuver. Enraged, Sir Faranyn drew his scimitar
Baleful and called the giant a coward to strike a knight's horse (thinking
back to Ceydric's luck with horses), but the giant simply reloaded the
crossbow and said that now it
was fair. Lith'rian was dead before the duel had begun. Hullux put away
his crossbow and drew a huge sword and a
two-handed sword. When Faranyn asked whether he needed to fight
three-on-one in order to ensure his victory, the giant gestured to either
side and his tigers vanished instantly.
Growling, Faranyn advanced. Hullux missed Faranyn first while the Knight
parried, and Faranyn clocked him back in a swift stroke, mauling the
giant's leg.
Hollux struck back powerfully and hurt Faranyn badly, wounding him. Calmly
but with fierce intensity, Faranyn continued to parry since he was held at
bay, but was struck again by the two-handed sword. Still standing but
bleeding to death, Faranyn had to yield to the giant, who smiled and told
him to leave. "Not bad for a human." He then offered to sell Governor
Faranyn Tesla Ridge for 10,000 gold, but Faranyn retorted that there would
no deals made today.
Angry, the governor stalked back to his group and got healed.
Unfortunately, the giant and his two tigers really were too much for
Faranyn and his group to take out alone, and Faranyn wonder whether even
the help of End would be enough, since men-at-arms would be useless against
the giant, so he simply let him have the
ridge for now, and broiled in his embarrassment at the loss.
A month later, the totems were found knocked down, and Faranyn attempted to
prevent a slaughter by summoning the cloud giant to ask what happened.
Instead, two rebel fire giants (from Kronower) appeared and told Faranyn
what had happened:
A group of the fire giants had met with Hollux and explained in no
uncertain terms that he would die if he remained upon their "trade route."
He was also told about the Behir at Tan-El. He promptly fled.
Annoyed that he couldn't have dealt the death blow, Faranyn has high hopes
of seeing Hullux dead sooner or later! He feels that the SS and/or other
help may be able to help him eliminate the giant at some point in the future.
And that was another MIDDLE UPDATE!
...Fanfare music fades...
Joel/ (Cassana/ Windham/ Leah)
with some notes by Kyle/ (Faranyn/Norm/Batt/Rock/etc.) (top)
|
