One Shot Mini-Mission
Date in Real Life: Sunday, 2 October, 2022
In Game Day: Sheva, the 11th of Sawol
Player Characters:
Starflower the Lion Warrior (with Regulus the Lion) (23rd mission)
William the Bear Knight (with Bill the Bear) (25th mission).
Philip the Overlord’s Guard (24th mission), riding his horse, Johny.
Hector the Renewer, on his 12th mission.
“So I managed to attach two lances to my horse’s armour, it’s going to be amazing!” Philip was saying.
“You went all the way to Ravencrest just to buy two lances and attach it to your horse’s armour?” Starflower asked, incredulous.
“Exactly,” Philip smirked.
William shook his head, but didn’t say anything.
“But we need to get back to Hoyde!” Starflower blurted.
Philip shrugged. “This Earl of CremCremCare is either dead, or he isn’t. A few days won’t change that.”
“Yes it could! What if he was killed while we took forever to get back and look for him!?”
The team discussed Hoyde a little longerthen a guardian approached them and gave them orders to locate a team of cadets who had not returned from the Bahanen Islands.
“But where’s Edward?” Starflower asked. William shrugged.
At this point, Hector came into the mess hall. He raised his hand in greeting.
“Hector! Your hand! Is it all better?”
“Yep. Just got the cast off this morning. Good as new.”
“How’s the Renewer training going?” William asked.
“Finished! I’m now officially a Renewer.”
“Congratulations!” Starflower said.
“Yes, great. We need you to come with us to the Bahanen Islands,” Philip said.
“What? Now?” Hector said. “What about Hoyde and that elder dagger and the metamorph potion and the Earl of CremCremCare? You know, the things we’ve been talking about all week.”
William scooped up the ornate elder dagger from the table. “Maybe we can ask our hobbit friend about the dagger on the way.”
Philip nodded. “Good idea. Anyways, Hector, some cadets didn’t report back in on time. We need to do a quick rescue mission first,” Philip was already moving towards the door. The rest of the raid team followed behind him.
The team made their way to the Passage Lakes, and soon found themselves back on the Bahanen Islands. Their boat was there by the Hollow Tree where they had left it.
They made their way north to the village of Davun and found their hobbit friend at the tavern. It wasn’t busy, so they sat and chatted.
“Yep, I’m the owner now,” the hobbit told them.
“I’m afraid we don’t have much time, since we have business elsewhere,” Starflower said. “We were wondering if you could identify something.”
“Sure, I’ll try,” the hobbit said.
William drew the elder dagger out from his belt and laid it on the table.
“Any idea who made this?” The halfling carefully lifted the blade and studied it. “It’s not a hobbit blade,” he mumbled. “Wait,” he leaned in closer to examine some detail or other. “Dwarvish? Maybe.” He flipped it over and examined the other side before setting it back down on the table. “Might be dwarvish.”
“Interesting,” Starflower said. “Because it’s new. Which means there’s still dwarves.”
“Still dwarves?” the hobbit asked.
“In the Liberated Lands, we’ve thought that the Elder Folk had all been wiped out,” Hector explained. “Then suddenly we meet you, we find this new dagger that might be dwarvish, and some cadets just brought a gnome home last week.”
“Well, sure. We’re still around.”
“Do you have contact with any dwarves or gnomes?” Starflower asked.
“No. But we know they exist.”
“You say ‘we’,” Hector said. “Is there a Hobbit colony or something around here somewhere? Where did you come from?”
“Yes, there is. It is near here. It’s a hidden island.”
“How do you hide an island from flying dragons?” Hector asked.
“It’s sort of half in the mist barrier,” the hobbit explained.
“That explains it,” William said. The tavern door opened, and some patrons came in.
“This has been very informative,” Philip said, standing up. “I’m afraid we don’t have time to linger, though. There’s a team of cadets who haven’t reported in, and we need to track them down.”
“Of course, of course. You’re welcome anytime, as I’m sure you know.”
As the raid team stepped out of the tavern, Hector paused mid step.
“What?” Starflower asked.
“I want to talk to the harbour master.”
“Why?” Philip asked.
“There were pirates last time that we barely avoided. If we have to paddle to the next island, I’d like to know where the pirate ship is.”
Philip shrugged. “Fine.”
Hector led the group to the harbour master. “I don’t see the pirate ship in the harbour,” he mentioned casually to the woman.
“Yes, they usually come in for breakfast. They should be here, soon.”
“They come here every day for breakfast?”
“And lunch and supper,” the woman confirmed. “Actually, I think I see their sails on the horizon, now,”
Hector thanked her, and turned back to the team. “This is perfect. The pirates will be docking and having breakfast. That should give us time to get to our boat and paddle to the next island without them bothering us.”
The raid team left town, making their way back to the hollow tree and the boat they had on the shore. They loaded up and put out to sea. They were able to paddle to the island without incident.
“There’s another boat, here,” Starflower said as they made landfall.
“Probably belongs to the cadets,” Philip said.
“I see mud,” Hector commented.
A small clump of mud rose up and a squeaky voice said, “You’re not supposed to be here!”
Philip kicked the miniature muk with his armoured boot. The creature’s head went flying off. “Yes, the cadets were supposed to be clearing out the muks. Something must have gone wrong,” Philip said.
“Castle,” William pointed. Sure enough, a stone structure could be seen in the distance, surrounded by a wall. A gate was visible as well.
“I don’t trust front doors,” Hector said. “How about we go around on this path, here, and see if there’s another way in.” The team agreed, and followed the path around. They didn’t see any other entrance into the compound. The wall was low enough that Regulus took a running start and leaped onto the wall. The lion brought a rope with him and tossed an end down for Philip to climb up. The rest of the team circled around to the front gate and opened it.
A woman ran from them, turning to fire an arrow. Hector and Philip both sensed evil, deducing it was a shape-shifter. The creature tried to get away, but Regulus ran it down and pounced on it from behind. Philip caught up, and quickly executed it with his battle axe.
With that threat neutralized, the team turned their attention to the building. Hector pulled the door open and the others quickly saw the situation inside. A large mud creature was surrounded by several muks. Both Starflower and William decided to shoot arrows/sling stones at the large mud creature first. A couple of orcs also came into view, and had to tangle with Bill and Regulus at the door.
Hector remembered the WordRune to vaporize muks, and recited it. Three muks disappeared. The others also recited the WordRune, levelling the playing field to just the large mud creature. They attacked, and it fell. But the mud moved suspiciously, and gathered up into a larger version of the same mud creature. Both Regulus and Starflower were severally injured. Hector used his Renewer prayer to bring some healing to them. The team attacked the creature, using salt, weapons, battle prayer, until they finally destroyed it.
They quickly searched the rest of the building, finding the cadets in the basement. They also found a door to orc caverns which they barricaded. They freed the cadets from their cell and left. As they came back outside, another mud creature was forming on the roof, even larger than before. Starflower prayed for a storm of the Lord to come down and destroy the creature.
The team made it to the boats. The saw the pirate ship in the distance, but made it back to the first island before the pirates could catch them. They returned to the Liberated Lands with the cadets.
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