Sellswords in the Desert

I forgot to post this and it's been sitting in drafts for a few weeks! Ian had a day off and came over for another installment in our on-going Sellswords campaign.

I have been a bit lax about recording their adventures so a summary to bring you up to date. After a journey into the frozen north and fighting their way through a horde of undead, our heroes "liberated" an ancient book from a mysterious tomb. Unfortunately, once they had the opportunity to study it, they realised it was written in an ancient language none of them understood. Fortunately, Sintamo the Ranger had heard of a mystical hermit who was reputed to understand all the languages ever known, so the party trotted off in search of the mystic.

They arrived just in time to save him from a band of robbers (although they "accidentally" managed to burn down his house in the process). In exchange for escorting him to a place of safety, the mystic agreed to translate the book. the journey was a fraught one, as it involved fighting off the attentions  of the Black Knight (and self-styled King of the Bandits") and his over-armoured goons. It was made more stressful by the mystic's habit of criticising Edwardo's pronunciation when his failed his spell casting!

Once translated Edwardo got very excited as the book contained the formula to construct a charm than would give the holder "untold magical power". Most of the materials required were fairly mundane, except for the egg of a feathered serpent.
"Where do we find that?" Oh course the mystic could provide the answer "They nest in the deserts of the far south, where they are worshiped as gods by a race of lizard people!"
"South we go!" cried Edwardo and led the party off, before Sintamo grabbed him and turned him through 90 degrees. "If the sun's rising in front of you it's east" he muttered. "Oh really, who knew?" said the magical genius.
As our band of adventurers disappeared into the distance the dwarf was heard to grumble "If it's been "untold" for centuries, it's probably because it's a bit crap!"

After a long and tedious journey to the South Lands the party made contact with a local merchant who is prepared to sell them a map that locates the nesting region of the Feathered Serpents. He then sent a message cancelling the meeting and telling the PCs to travel to a more remote village where his agent would meet them. The reason was that he was frightened for his life as the local Assassins Guild is also after the map. Apparently, a northern stranger who got drunk was thrown out of one of the city taverns and was heard shouting in the street.

“Don’t you know who I am? I’m the greatest fire wizard in the world! And when I come back with a feathered serpent’s egg I’ll be the most powerful wizard of all! You’re be begging me to drink in your miserable little hole then!”

The merchant feels it is too dangerous to be seen meeting with the PCs in person now. He has given the map to a trusted agent who will meet them in the village on market day, when strangers in the village will not be as obvious. The PCs have been given a password to identify the merchant’s agent.

Set up, a village of small houses with various out buildings, paddocks and gardens etc. There are a number of villagers present (2 per PC) and one of them is the disguised agent. To locate the agent a PC must more within 2” of a villager and spend one action to give the password. Roll 1d6:

1-4 – Bemused local who wanders off muttering.

5- Disguised Bandit who will charge the PC (treat as ambush)

6 – Roll another d6 1-3 = The Agent  4-6 = An assassin

If he hasn't already been found, the last villager will automatically be the agent.

The peaceful village, before the bandits are placed. The PCs will enter from the left.

One of these villages is the disguised agent, but can our heroes find him? First move, first activation, Sintamo the Ranger treads on a scorpion and loses one HP. Not a good start.

As the party rush forward, Robin is ambushed by a bandit leaping out of the well! Eddie is muttering about something interfering with his magical manna (-2 on a Manna Flux card!). Brother Christos approached a villager who turned out to be an assassin! After a fierce battle, where Christos narrowly avoided several deadly blows with some nifty shield work, the assassin was cut down. Sintamo followed Brother Christos into the courtyard to get him to take the scorpion sting out of his foot.

Eddie gathers his power to  blast the bandits that have just come around the corner with a mighty fireball....phutt! (Rolls a 1 to cast, his magical energy is depleted for the rest of this game! Oh bugger!!!).

Lots more bandits and a bandit thug turn up!

The Dwarf gets distracted by an interesting wooden box on a nearby stall, whist Brother Christos heals the Ranger's splinter sting.

This time it's Eddie who gets ambushed, "Ouch, that hurt!".

As Robin tries to find the agent, he is set upon by a horde of bandits. This was a cue for Crash, Bash and Slice n' Dice. After wiping the blood off his sword and moving a body aside with his foot, Robin politely knocks on the door, only to be told to "Sod Off!" by the grumpy householder.

Things got unpleasant for a while as Gunnar Lanlarolilison was cut down by another assassin, whilst Edwardo and Eldayondo were taken down by ambushers, Brother Christos and Sintamo killed the various bandits. then went around healing the casualties and getting them back on their feet.

Just in time for another bunch of bandits to turn up. Sintamo and Christos fight a rearguard to allow the wounded party members to escape, but both take hits themselves in doing so.

Fortunately the party managed to find the agent and get hold of the map, before anyone else got killed.