Category Ptolus

Leaving aside the tempting trapdoor and the stairs beyond, the group sets about spending the stipend and trying to blend into the uppermost crust. None of them are any good at it. However, their notoriety does afford them a bit of celebrity status, and the helpful hints of the house butler do head off the most egregious faux-pas.

The group goes out shopping and seeing how the top tier lives. Is very nice. Very very niiiiice. It is also quite expensive and the stipend is dwindling at an alarming rate. While the furniture is delivered and the barbarians settle into the routine of guarding the villa, the group starts to receive the first invitations to parties and the like. Now, the real tests begin. The test of patience, primarily.

A birthday party here, a luncheon there and a whole lot of...

The march is mostly uneventful save for two encounters. The first is a party of foragers, on the wings of the barbarian horde. They spot the party and head inland. The barbarians indicate that the group should follow and they do so. A bit later on they are spotted by a cavalry company – presumably outriders from the city’s defense force. There are some tense moments, but the troopers seem content to watch and do not try and make contact. Eventually, they ride in the same direction as the party of foragers.

Within a couple of hours, the group runs into signs of struggle. Dead troopers, dead horses, blood spatter and trampled foliage all indicate contact between the groups...

Ears to the ground and fingers in the wind reveals that there is some serous poop meeting rapidly whirling fan blades. Sorcerers are being kidnapped off the streets, earthquakes are ravaging the upper city, children are being tattooed with runes and sacrificed to nameless gods, the barbarian army is on the move and the city is mobilized!

Attempts to finds alternate lodging are unsuccessful given the crush of refugees flooding in city as they flee the advancing barbarian horde. Indeed, prices skyrocket on food and lodging. There are apparently a number of players who look to take advantage of the chaos and reports of a war between crime families indicate there are movements being made on the behalf of shadowy interests.

Against this backdrop of swirling intrigue, the charismatic Bayga and ...

Navigating past the terrible tower of zappiness, they return to the medusa’s lair – but first spend several minutes shooting arrows at the forest of tentacles that apparently still guards this area. Once vanquished, they go about locating the dwarven coat rack and smear the jelly onto him.

Minutes pass and nothing happens. Paranoia stars swirling. Is it a trick? Was it a ruse to lure them all here so they could be disposed of beneath the city? Errmehgerrd!
More jaded heads prevail and they decide to sit a while and see if the stuff just takes time. What if it takes so much time that they are trapped by the tentacles again? Should they shuffle the stoney one into the hallway and wait there? What if they’re attacked…and so on.
Happily, the time spent dithering allows the magical goop to fun...

A few minutes of plundering and looting is always a way to calm down after a traumatic event. There is some discussion about how to haul around 500 pounds of dwarven Digin statuary, but in the end it is decided that they’ll leave him in the medusa’s lair and toss some clothes on top of him. With plunder complete there is some talk of retreat, but in the end it is decided that perhaps a bit more exploring might be OK.

The passageway is followed by a large cavern in which sits the remains of a partially collapsed building. It looks like the doors to the ground floor are still intact and they are pried open. That gives the horned goat-demon inside an excuse to start carving the group into chunks...