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Ballad of the Pigeon God #29 From Bad to Worse...

A group of adventurers were running down the main road of Eding toward the estate of a certain M. Echelon.

Talis Makolin - Bard and Lover Extraordinaire
Prince William the Scarlet - NPC - Paladin of Akana, Knight of the Spiral Hawk, and Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Aragain.  Given absolute power of the Village of Eding and environs by the King of Crosedes, and promptly failed to act after successive disasters, suffering the loss of a manor house by a currently marauding group of peasants.
Rurik Bloodblade - NPC-  Viking warrior from Wyrmnal.  Former adventuring companion of William
Fiame - NPC - Cleric of Akana and an adventuring companion of William.
MacKay - NPC - Hardened myrmidion and adventuring companion of William

22 OctDec 1070, Chateau d'Echelon, Village of Eding, Kingdom of Crosdes
The group reached their destination, the Chateau d'Echelon, where their reinforcements had start just mustered together to embark towards Eding.  Echelon had raised Count Zabty half-orc fallen paladin, Carthon d'Echelon and his wife Jenny, Heirylat, ex-gladiator Brutus, and former soldiers Aetex and Cilito for the ensuing melee.

Their increased numbers secured  victory over the revolting peasants.  They persued a retreating pack of them escorting the traitorous Rogard back to town.  Back in the village green, they finally caught up to Rogard, as he surrendured in an exhausted heap.

At this point villagers innocent in the revolt came out of their homes to warn the party of "many, many horses"  riding towards town from the north.   They took refuge in Argus the Blacksmith's shop.  Using one of the blacksmith's hammers as an interrogation tool, Talis questioned Rogard.  He admitted to killing Barrak and conspiring to overthrow Prince William. He also said that "they" were coming and that the party was as good as dead.

Black armored cavalry arrived in town, along with some large, rubbery nasty humanoids who had kept up on foot.  Echelon and company emerged to confront them.

The "Defenders of Eding," along with Argus fought the well-armed horsemen, and things quickly went poorly.  Employing the Echelon School of Battle Tactics, they scrambled back to the Chateau.

After regrouping at the Chateau, they prepared to fight them again, further aided by Mohammad, two village militiamen,  Baron Felix, and Pathfinder.  They fought valiantly, knowing that if they lost there the chateau and everything they had would be taken by this force of raiders.

The battle was looking bad, when suddenly Mohammad called down the pillars of fires of his godincinerating the monsters.  With the rubbery monsters taken out by the fire, they were able to defeat the knights.

Talis:  "Fires of the god of the sea?  I ain't a theologin, but that ain't right."

They interrogated the surviving knights and discovered their leader was the mysterious DREAD LORD!  All they knew of him was that he was somehow related to the king, and he had a long-planned campaign to usurp the throne.

A detachment of Crosedean Royal Cavalry  oddly arrived in short order.   The leader of the Cavalry happened to be Prince Cervinal, brother of King Nevin!  He refused to believe a word the Defenders of Eding said, because "Foolish peasants, I AM the Dread Lord...  The King would not believe a word you said."

Then a woman rode up to the meeting.  She shed her hood, revealing Celeste, the girl they had encountered in Alasku... and Talis had courted back in Hydincall.  Her appearance only escalated the arguments with the Dread Lord and Royal Cavalry until she apparently cast some spell and everyone was knocked out.

When the party woke up, the Dread Lord and the Royal Cavalry were gone.  It appeared that the Dread Lord and County Zabty were, in fact, unaffected by the spell.   Zabty protected all the fallen, forcing the Dread Lord and his daughter to escape.  As the royal cavalry woke up, Zabty attempted to smooth things other with them and prove their innocence.

23 OctDec 1070, Village of Eding, Kingdom of Crosdes
Aetex, Cilitio, and Brutus left after breakfast, heading for fame and fortune in Hydincall.

24 OctDec 1070, Village of Eding, Kingdom of Crosdes
The Chateau awoke to Prince William and his adventuring friends missing.  They had left sometime during the night and stole enough horses to get out of town quickly.

27 OctDec 1070, Village of Eding, Kingdom of Crosedes
Mohammad had not been himself after his giant flamestrike stymied the Dread Lord's men.  He moved less and less on his little scooter, and on this day, the others found him in a closet, in a deep meditative trance.   He would occasionally take a few moments to come slightly out of the trance to eat and drink, but otherwise, he was not responsive to anything else.

35 NonDec 1070, Village of Eding, Kingdom of Crosdes
For over a month the Chateau did what they could to reassemble the village, and partaking heavily in any wine stores that they could get their hands on.

Zabty still had some clout and respect with the remaining villagers, but there is no guidance from Hydincall.  Carthon and Baron Felix distributed the surviving grain stores among the villagers and had firewood cut for a long, cold, and bleak winter.

1 DecDec 1070, Village of Eding, Kingdom of Crosdes
The Chateau received an unexpected knock at the door.  A man calling himself Mr Tinpenny visited, escorted by four well-armed guards.

He revealed that Carthon had actually taken out a loan to purchase and improve the Chateau, using the money from Echelon's sold off possession as meager collateral.  With the general collapse of order in Eding, mixed with horrendous weather, Tinpenny was executing a little-noted clause in the loan contract recalling the entire balance of the loan.  The party had until the end of the month. to pay back the full amount of 12,800 gold pieces or he would seize the property and all the possessions inside.

Even if the missing heroes had returned, they couldn't amass enough gold to pay off the debt.

But after several days of drinking, Echelon and Talis come up with a plan...

DM Notes:  Things in the second part of the special session with Talis and Echelon's player went from bad to outright horrible.  Eding is in shambles, Prince William was proven to be a horrible leader, the rumored Dread Lord is in a position of power that they can't touch and the Chateau, which Carthon had purchased only a year ago, was going to be taken away from them.  

I half expected Talis and Echelon, not the most heroic characters in bunch, to pack up and run before the peasant uprising.  I was impressed that they toughed it out.  Salvaging most of the wine in town for personal use probably helped that decision.  

Let's see here....
*Barrak and hundreds of villagers?  Dead.
*Count Zabty and Torm Touchberry - Desperate and despondent leaders of the Eding shadow government.
*Rolf, Ashe, Kane, Kannex, and Maloran?  Missing for months.
*Velandro and the Dag Family?  Training in Ispatlia, completely unaware of the chaos.
*Carthon, Jenny, Timmy, Dew, Heirylat,  and Baron Felix?  Simply exhausted from working at the Chateau and trying to help the villagers.
*Mohammad? Stuck in a healing trance in a closet.
*Aetex, Cilito, and Brutus?  Deserted the Chateau for fame and fortune.  
*Prince William and his cohort?  Ditched town when things went bad. 
*Cervinal and Celeste Silvershield - The Dread Lord and his daughter.
*Mr Tinpenny? About the foreclose on the Chateau...
*Talis and Echelon?  All their fame and glory have afforded them failed responsibilities, and a daily mission to reach the bottom of as many wine bottles as possible each day.



... but they have a plan.

NEXT #30 - YULE!

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