Title: Twice the Poison

Characters: Greff, Felix, Codrus

Date: Mid Vor, 1332 Avard

Synopsis: Meinke put out a bounty on Greff – 10,000gp, dead or alive – and now every knucklehead out for gold wants Greff's head.

Evening of the 24th of Vor, 1332 Avard.

Greff and Felix tried to have a lazy morning. Unfortunately, the guardswoman known as Rain knocked loudly on the door, demanding Greff. Then she attacked. Rain lunged at Greff with a longsword – the twin axes on her belt remaining sheathed. Greff yelled for help from Felix, but Felix was in the crapper.

Rain got a good swing in on Greff, and Greff felt the burn of some of the nastiest poison he'd ever experienced.

Felix managed to get out of the crapper and assist with a giant fist of frost, the arcane spell chilling the room. The fist captured Rain for a moment, and then her true nature was revealed. She was a changeling; she wasn't Rain at all.

The changeling burst free of the frost fist, and raced across the floor of the flat. She burst through the closed shutters and landed on the street with a sickening crunch.

Despite whatever injury the changeling sustained, she continued running in the form of Rain.

Greff, still pissed off from the night before, leapt down the stairs of his flat and down into the street, catching the changeling and swinging her around, back towards his flat.

One of Felix's spells put him in the street almost instantly. His spells finished the changeling off even as she ran down a side alley. She collapsed, unconscious, her changeling form reverting to its naked body. There was a sword not far from her – a nasty specimen of a weapon with a hollow hilt and a channel along the blade for the poison to flow.

The Guard arrived, and Greff got some much-needed medical attention. The changeling also had a purse with some ducats in it – and a bounty for Greff, dead or alive, 10,000 gold pieces.

Felix and Greff went with the Guard and made their reports.

Realizing that Greff would likely be wanted by every two-bit murderer on the streets, Greff decided to go underground – at a Guard station, at least until a better plan could be had.

Felix got Ryviik to organize the crew at ME, including Codrus. Codrus, however, had a problem of his own. He had sent Slate to find Greff – as William was apparently looking for him. Slate never returned. And as Codrus patrolled the streets later that evening, looking for Slate, he realized he was being watched.

A kobold that spoke the common tongue very well had approached Codrus, asking about the 'green not-orc'. Putting two and two together, Codrus found signs that coyotes had been near where Slate was taken.

Greff slept the night peacefully at the Meridian Manse, while ME kept a strong guard presence.

The next day was the Hunter's Day – a holy day dedicated to the god Elinthar. Elinthar claimed dominion over all animals, and his priests blessed animals all the day long. Many pilgrims had traveled to Chasadan from afar to receive the priests' blessings on their animals – and ME opted to do the same.

With an escort of a dozen Guard (each paid ten silver), all of ME save the orcs headed through the streets of Chasadan. Their mounts were numerous, and the blessings well worth it.

One of the Guard, however, confronted a kobold on a coyote – and it wasn't a messenger from Malleah's Mercantile. The kobold left a ransom note; Greff and Greff alone was to travel north out of the city, or Slate would be killed.

Codrus, Greff, and Felix rode north out of the city, with Ryviik trailing behind with a hidden force, ready to support the three.

North of the city, once past the farmlands, there was only prairie. The kobolds and their coyote mounts appeared out of the grassland as if by magic. There was a brief exchange that quickly broke down. The kobolds tried to withdraw again into the grasses with Slate, but ME would have none of it.

Felix attacked with walls of flame. Greff used buck to move at lightning speed. And Codrus urged the horses of his chariot forward, the great scythes of the wheels cutting down grasses and kobolds alike.

The kobolds used poisoned arrows, and though the arrows were small, their damage was considerable. Despite the pain, ME pressed.

The leader of the kobolds tried to escape, but Buck was there to assist Greff, help him into the saddle, and rush forward to catch the fleeing half wolf, half coyote the leader rode. Greff leapt off of Buck and landed on the half wolf, forcing a confrontation at fist and blade distances.

Codrus intervened before the kobolds could slit Slate's throat – mainly because Slate put up the kind of fight that only a dwarf boy could put up, even bound and gagged.

The rest was cleanup, even before Ryviik or the others could arrive.

The leader of the kobolds was a bloody pulp, and would be providing no answers.

A small, seedy tavern in Chasadan as plastered with wanted posters of Greff. Felix had found the place the night before, and ratted it out to the Guard – but there were still plenty of people willing to kill Greff. Felix had made sure most knew that Meinke was dead; there was no one to pay the bounty – but kobolds on the outskirts of town had not heard the word.

Codrus' man-servant Anree could only say, “How droll.”

Noon of the 26th of Vor, Mikindim's Day, 1332 Avard.

Date: THU10NOV2011

Dinner was pizza meatloaf, and it was good. Bo was up north for a wedding (probably not his own), Sommer was a lil under the weather, and Caileb decided not to play.

RPG System: Dungeons and Dragons, 4th Edition.
All characters were 15th level

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