Way of the Wicked (Book One) – Aldencross & Balentyne Timeline/Notes

Prior to Aldencross/Balentyne

Party meets with Sakkarot Fireaxe, the bugbear chieftain.  He tells them, as they are about to depart to Aldencross, that he will need two (2) weeks to rally his army.  Once that is done, he will be able to hold his horde together for another two (2) weeks.  “You have one month to infiltrate and destroy Balentyne.”  He provides the PCs a single carefully wrapped signal rocket.  “In two weeks, I will be poised to strike.  I will move my horde to the valley just north of Balentyne.  There we will wait for your signal.  Fire this rocket into the air.  Within the hour, we will attack.  Make sure that the way is ready.”

Day 1 (Friday):

• Party arrives in Aldencross.
• Gather at the Lord’s Dalliance Inn, posing as a retinue of a lady-in-waiting (Doome); her/his old lady attendant (Flick); and their three guards (Dilsad; Roderik; Brudin).  Aridas is not with the party that day.
• Party gathers intelligence (i.e., rumors) and stays the evening in the Inn, although Aridas is not with them.
• Brudin notes a noise outside his room.  He and some of the other party members investigate and discover the Innkeeper, Bellarm Barhold, descending to his basement, grabbing a box of wine, and then exiting from a (very) secret door leading to a tunnel that the party surmises leads to the Watchtower Balentyne.
• Bellarm soon hears the trailing Brudin, stops his passage through the tunnel, and then returns back to the Inn.  He does not discovery any of the PCs.  The party retires for the remainder of the night.

Day 2 (Saturday)

• Aridas rejoins the party, but now Brudin has gone missing.
• PCs are able to purchase magic and other items.  Unfortunately, the Mask of Stony Demeanor that Count Doome was looking for wasn’t actually available.  So, another week before one might be found in town.
• The party meets Cpt. Zacharias “Zack” Eddarly while at the Lord’s Dalliance Inn.  Roderick, with his purchase of spirits and commiseration with the soldiers of his lamentable job as a guard for the ladies, gets in good with the soldiers there.  Cpt. Eddarly then begs his leave and heads out. However, Aridas (as a young lady) and Count Doome (as the lady-in-waiting) follow Cpt. Eddarly, giggling and displaying their interest in the handsome man, who stops to speak to them.  It is at that point that Cpt. Eddarly notes the “thug” (a changed Dilsad) lurking around the corner of a building.  When he cannot free himself of the “ladies” by urging them to return to the Inn and tell the soldiers there of the sighted thug, he is then coaxed into the alleyway by a (yet again) changed Dilsad who says he noted the thug in the area.
• Dilsad lures Cpt. Eddarly down a small path between buildings and attacks him, brutally injuring him.  At that point, two townspeople are passing and note things are odd, at which point Aridas color sprays them.  Unfortunately, one displays incredible resilience and then starts screaming his head off, yelling for help.  Aridas determines the best means of addressing the situation is to shoot the remaining civilian, which she does.
• Too late.  Two soldiers run towards the alleyway, at which point Aridas has transformed into the guise of a male soldier herself.  Aridas tries to convince the soldiers to not worry about things.  Dilsad and Flick’s traveling forms they’ve been using are compromised and they escape the scene, as does Aridas.  Roderik has arrived, and after slinging Cpt. Eddarly over his soldier meets a cluster of soldiers, townsfolk, and Count Doome (now appearing as a wandering cleric of Mitra) back in the alleyway.  Count Doome then channels positive energy and heals the severely injured Cpt. Eddarly, as well as the other soldier who was gravely injured.  Both are saved by the ministrations of Count Doome.
• Roderik and Count Doome return to the Inn with the soldiers.  Roderik is told that all of his traveling companions are wanted for questioning, but he is clearly not one of the evildoers or suspects.  He and Count Doome also hear that there will likely be much stronger scrutiny/searches of newcomers to Aldencross, and that the garrison may be dispatching “truth gatherers” to the town, whatever that means.
• Aridas, Dilsad and Flick gather at another, much more common flaphouse in Aldencross.  Aridas tries to convince a visitor that dwarves were likely behind the reported attacks, saying that dwarves really can’t be trusted.  The visitor doesn’t really know what to say.
•  Although Brudin is absent, the other five members of the Nessian Knot (the party) gather together later that evening and set out to find Captain Ryan Varning and his troop of “rangers,” who the party learns tend to camp at Freeman’s Rock.  That site is about 1 day’s foot travel (and ½ a day by horse).

Day 3 (Sunday)

• Dilsad, Doome, Roderik, Aridas and Flick bumble their way through the dark wilderness for about ten hours, since none of them have a very good Survival ability.  Thank Asmodeus for decent Knowledge Local checks!  As the party is arriving through the undergrowth that rings Freeman’s Rock, they stumble into the opening and engage in battle with Cpt. Varning, a Mitran Inquisitor (Black Powder), and six soldiers.
• Many arrows are loosed in Dilsad’s direction, but because of errant winds surely sent by Asmodeus, not even his many mirror images are destroyed in the initial wave.  However, Flick, as he performs an inspiring song for his Nessian Knot comrades, is targeted and laid low by the lance-wielding Cpt. Varning.  He is nearly dead from the severe blow from the lance, and thanks Asmodeus that the “good” Cpt. Varning did not strike a second blow as he passed, instead displaying mercy to a felled foe.
• Roderik ultimately charges and joins Cpt. Eddarly in battle, while Dilsad, Aridas and Count Doome engage the inquisitor and the other soldiers.
• Cpt. Eddarly, as well as all of his rangers except two, are slain.  As two are sure to escape on horseback, Brudin appears and engages them long enough for (the DM decides) his party members to join and kill them.  None of this contingent of Talingarde troops have escaped.