DM's Note: This session is actually a combination of a several shorter sessions I ran with individual players. After they were forced to split up, it seemed easiest to determine what would happen in the meantime by running a series of mini-adventures for each of them. Some interesting developments, and they finally get what they want...

Liam’s Adventure:

Liam bursts from out of the fog bank on his horse. A group of surprised guards tries to give chase on foot but quickly loses him as he rounds a nearby corner. With a rapid turn, he heads out into the market square. He slows to a less break-neck pace and heads for the gate. His hopes are dashed when he rounds the first corner out of the market square and sees the gate is closed. Getting nervous, he takes a look around and notices that he is being followed. It isn’t one of the guards though. A man has slipped out of the market square crowd. The pursuer sticks to the shadows, keeping an eye on Liam, who looks away quickly, trying not to alert him.

Liam rides on casually toward the gate. It has double the normal guard and Liam finds himself wondering how they locked down the city so fast if this is indeed a reaction to their melee near the forge. As he approaches, the guards cross spears, blocking his path, and one steps forward. Liam tries to act nonchalant and asks to leave. The guard informs him that the gates are going to be closed for a bit and tells him he’ll have to wait.

One of the three guards still blocking the gate suddenly seems to be quite attentive to something back behind and to the right of Liam. Throwing a glance, Liam notes the man who was following him is now in plain view. Immediately, the guard moves forward and whispers something to the one who is speaking with Liam. After a sideways glance over Liam’s shoulder, the guard tells him to dismount. Liam protests but dismounts eventually and continues to act clueless. The guard then informs Liam he is under arrest. One of them takes his horse, one remains at the gate, while the remaining two begin to escort him, at spear point, to the north.

They march him through the market square amid stares and hushed conversation. Passing by the battlefield at the end of the bridge, he sees that the commotion has almost instantly died down. Little remains to show the pitched melee took place and Dierdre and Cinn Oir are gone as well. They then cross the bridge to the inner wall that surrounds the forge, the gate opening at their arrival. The guards refuse to answer any of Liam’s questions or respond to his protests. As they pass through the inner gate, Liam notes that the forge lies ahead and to his right and another wooden building back and off to the left. The forge seems to be where the guards are leading him. It is a two story building with half of the lower floor being open to the outside. A smith occupies the area, hard at work at the forge itself which dominates the center of the open space. Weapons and various metal workings line the wall to the right and a staircase is set parallel into the far wall, climbing into the second floor. As Liam and the guards enter, the smith looks up briefly from his work. He is a grizzled old man with a very scarred appearance. His arms seem to defy the age in his face however, taut like iron bands.

The guards take him up the stairs along the back wall. They end abruptly at a window and a landing. Liam eyes the window but continues around to the right of the stairs at a quick poke from a spear. The landing opens into a hallway that travels parallel to the staircase, and another that branches off to the left, away from the stairs. The hallway directly ahead ends in a sturdy wooden door, while the hallway to the left contains four doors, two on each side of the hall. The guards shuffle him down the hallway on the left and open the first door. Within lies a small closet of a room only roughly 6 feet on either side. Again, the guards give little response to Liam’s requests and they close the door, locking him in the dark.

Unsatisfied with the conditions, Liam casts a Light spell on the door. Within minutes, a guard opens the door and pokes his head in. He looks incredibly confused and scans the room. Still befuddled, he closes the door and disappears. Moments later, heavy footsteps can be heard on the stairs and another head pokes in Liam’s room. This is a familiar face however. Their chain-wielding friend from their earlier battle. She looks at the door, growls and slams it shut. From the other side, Liam can hear her berating the guards. Not long after, the door opens once again. Two guards block the doorway, one carrying a length of rope, another a heavy sap. Liam stands, looking a bit upset. The first with the rope asks if he is going to cooperate or if they have to do this the "hard way". Liam refuses to let them tie him up and responds by drawing a dagger from under his cloak. The guard with the sap steps forward as the other begins calling for more guards.

Liam handily defeats the guard though takes more than a few strikes with the sap in the progress. As his opponent hits the ground, the remaining guard drops the rope then does his best to slam the door shut and back off down the hall. Liam follows and sees that the guard has recovered a spear he left at the end of the hall and is blocking the way to the stairs. With a sigh of exasperation, Liam steps back into the tiny room. He pushes the body out and grabs the rope, closing the door behind him. Unsure what to do now, he sits down on the floor and begins slicing the rope into tiny pieces with his dagger.

It doesn’t take long before he hears the wild beating of a number of guards coming up the stairs again. His door flies open and he is greeted by the snarling face of their chain wielding adversary. She gives Liam a furious glance and bends down to pick up the sap from the fallen guard. Liam tries to convince her that they needn’t come to blows. With an angry shout, she leaps at him and the two begin a very short lived battle. Swing after swing, she fails to connect with the sap as Liam turns her blows harmlessly from the chain mail beneath his cloak. Liam however, manages to land a number of solid strikes with his dagger. His opponent, who entered the room still looking wounded from the last battle, now begins to look desperately around. With what remaining "flair" she can muster, she tumbles back out of the room and closes the door behind her. Liam, tired and very frustrated, sits down against the wall and begins carving up the rope once again.

Again, it isn’t long before there is a knock on the door. Liam chimes in with a friendly "Come in!" A voice on the other side identifies himself as Gaelyn. Liam asks him to come and talk but Gaelyn seems content to speak through the closed door. They have a short conversation which leads nowhere. Gaelyn then agrees to speak to Liam face to face. A strange shifting light floods in under the door. Liam keeps his eye on the doorway as it opens, anxious to finally meet Gaelyn. Instead of seeing Gaelyn however, he sees a fascinating, shifting pattern of beautiful lights. So beautiful in fact, that he can’t think of anything else….

The last thing Liam sees is the face of their chain wielding adversary as she puts the finishes touches on a head to toe weave of ropes around him. With a look of satisfaction, she brings first her boot, then the sap, down on his head…..

Cinn Oir and Dierdre’s Adventure

Cinn Oir, surrounded by spear wielding guards, offers no resistance as she leans Dierdre’s near lifeless body on her shoulder. As they move in, she instructs her Dire Weasel and snake to flee for the boglands. They follow her bidding and the guards, uninterested in tangling with the strange "hound" or the snake, let them go. Cinn Oir and Dierdre are also taken into the inner gate surrounding the forge. There they are led to the second story which overhangs the forge itself. Once at the top of the stairs, they are taken from a windowed landing and directed down a short hallway with a set of doors on either side. They are placed in a room at the far end. The room is nothing more than a cell and a small one at that. It is only 6 foot by 6 foot and has no windows. The sturdy, locked door lets in minimal light from underneath.

Nearly an hour goes by when they hear the sound of a large scuffle outside in the hall. The wooden floor rattles and the metallic clang of weapons and armor can be heard. The noise stops briefly after an ominous "thud" but then continues shortly thereafter. Once again the noise stops and a door can be heard to slam not far up the hall. Voices are then heard in the hall. Soon after, a multi-colored, shifting light, floods in under their door and then, everything is silent. Puzzled, Cinn Oir pulls her attention away from the door and returns to tending to Dierdre’s wounds.

That night, Cinn Oir prays for her spells, loading up on Cures to assist Dierdre. Before the night is through, Dierdre is conscious again, though completely worn out by her ordeal. Cinn Oir catches her up with the events of the day. The night is uneventful save irregular visits from the guards, each simply glancing into the darkened room to assure that they are still there. Dierdre tries to feign continued unconsciousness with each visit while at the same time getting enough rest to regain her spells.

The next morning, they are visited by two guards. One is carrying a length of rope and looking suspiciously at Dierdre. Cinn Oir is at first unwilling to be tied up, but the guard mentions that it is Gaelyn’s orders and they must be restrained before being taken to see him. She and Dierdre both agree and their hands are bound tightly behind their backs. The guard leaves saying that he will be back for them shortly. Dierdre and Cinn Oir try to get their story straight so they can try to persuade Gaelyn into some leniency. Essentially they decide on the original party plan to convince him they want to set up shop in the town.

They talk over their plans. Talk some more. Refine them. Get the details down to the letter. Go over them again….the guard never returns. Dierdre takes it as some weird "test" from Gaelyn and chooses to just wait it out. By that night, still no one has shown up so they get some sleep. When morning comes around, a guard shows up and tells Dierdre that he is taking her to see Gaelyn. Cinn Oir will have to wait. Dierdre agrees and the guard leads her out of the inner compound. There, he hands her over to a short, nervous looking man with watery eyes. He is clad in leather and wears only a dagger at his belt. Dierdre starts to question this but doesn’t press the issue when she receives no answer.

Dierdre is lead to a building at the town dock. She is pushed into a corner by her escort who keeps an eye on her and one on a nearby window. Dierdre tries to make small talk with the man but he is dead silent. She then begins asking when she will see Gaelyn and he simply responds "Soon enough". After several hours, the man begins to take interest in something he sees outside and Dierdre can hear a conversation taking place. The short man then drags her over to the window. She sees a man with white to blond hair dressed in very plain clothes. He is surrounded by six, apparently angry dock workers who all sport a variety of fishing knives, belaying pins, and saps. Standing just outside this group is someone Dierdre recognizes instantly: a brown haired female swinging an all too familiar chain. The short man at her side keeps a firm grip on her shoulder and points to the blonde man. "You ever seen him before….you know him?" Puzzled Dierdre answers "No".

Just as it looks like the angry dock workers are going to descend on the man, he says something that Dierdre can’t quite make out. The angry group backs down at a word from the chain wielder. With that, the short man covering Dierdre with the dagger, directs her outside where she joins the strange group……..

Cian’s Adventure

Still Invisible, Cian watches Liam ride off through the market square crowd. He follows at a safe distance, sticking to the outer edge to avoid any contact with the growing crowd. He sees Liam being tailed to the gate and watches as the man following him signals the guards. Liam is then led off to the inner compound, and he seems to offer little resistance. Cian watches as the inner gates close, debating whether he should chance slipping inside. Deciding against it, he turns to searching the town. He wants to find a safe place to rest before his Invisibility wears off.

His search is successful and he locates a small abandoned house in the far north east corner of the city by a damaged section of the earthen fortification. The back wall of the house has been partially caved in by a large section of earth sliding from the wall. The roof is very patchy and there is little in the way of comfort but it provides adequate cover and is in a seemingly isolated part of town. Cian settles in for the day, resting and studying his spells with his hawk on look out.

That evening, Cian has replenished his spells, choosing mostly those which will help him explore the town undetected. Invisibility and Change Self top his lists. Using his Invisibility spell, he wanders close to a nearby pub, the Red Hound, and tries to listen to snippets of conversation through open windows and patchy walls. The talk of the day is definitely about the incident out front of the forge, however he only picks up some very wild and unlikely rumors. He decides to use a Change Self and wanders into a separate tavern called "Locks" to see if he can hear much else. The talk there is the same, though pretty low key. Something about the place makes him nervous as well (DM’s note: most likely the dice rolling I was doing….) so he spends very little time there.

Not getting anything useful, Cian decides to try a different tactic. He leaves a note near the bridge leading into the inner gate that reads essentially "Gaelyn, I would like to speak to you. Leave me a note atop the dock house tomorrow morning to arrange a meeting." Being low on spells and low on time, he casts an Invisibility spell on himself and returns to the run down house to rest. Using some of the debris from the collapsed section of wall, he tries to increase his concealment to make a safer place to rest. He then decides that he and his hawk will take turns on watch. During the night he is awakened by a noise and his hawk warns him that someone is approaching.

A guard has taken up a watch on the wall just outside the dilapidated hut. The guard is taking a draw on a pipe, resting casually on his spear, unaware of anything out of the ordinary. Cian keeps as quiet as he can and keeps an Invisibility spell in mind in case the guard should get too close. After several minutes, the guard is joined by another one and they begin a conversation. Trying to overhear, Cian misses much of what they are saying, however he does manage to hear them say something about the "group who was arrested earlier that day." He hears very little except speculation by the guards as to what Gaelyn is going to do with them. Both guards seem to agree that some horrible fate awaits them. After a lull in the talking, they both walk off along the wall, patrolling back to the north. Cian goes back to sleep under the watchful eye of his hawk.

The next morning he wakes and under the guise of Invisibility, goes to check and see if his note has been discovered. It hasn’t and so he decides to try a more direct approach. Using Change Self, he transforms into a male human with blonde hair and a different build from his own. He travels south to a pub called the Smiling Bandit, and enters. The place is quite empty though a bleary eyed barkeep is at the bar. He seems to think nothing of Cian being there and promptly asks what he’ll have. Cian orders an ale and on his way out the door, leaves the note to Gaelyn on the bar. He then quickly returns to the small house under another Invisibility spell.

He reaches the house and begins to rest once again to recover his full complement of spells. At the same time, he sends his hawk out to keep an eye on the house from above and the dock house. His rest is interrupted however by movement at the door. He immediately casts an Invisibility spell on himself. A shifty looking man enters and takes quick stock of the house’s contents. His eyes stop where Cian has disturbed the fallen wall and he hurries over to a far corner of the small dwelling. Digging quickly through the rubble, he recovers a bag. From the sound of it, it is filled with coins and something else—a duller noise, possibly wooden. Taking a final look around, the man leaves with the bag in quite a hurry. Curious, but not interested in pursuing him, Cian goes back to his rest.

That evening there is still no response to his note. Cian decides to follow the same procedure but back at the other tavern called Locks. He heads there with another note and this time disguises himself with a Change Self spell to look like a decidedly unattractive female. He enters the bar and orders a mug of ale—getting that same uneasy feeling he got last time he entered here. As he finishes the ale he drops the note on the bar and turns to walk away. Just as he is halfway to the door, the barkeep calls to him, "Hey miss!". He ignores him and picks up his pace. "Hey Miss, you forgot something!" Ignoring him completely, Cian is out the door and rounding the corner to the back of the tavern. As he does, he hears the door fly open behind him and he casts Invisibility on himself. As he fades from sight, a man from the tavern comes around the corner, looking very deeply into the darkness. The man seems to see nothing and his eyes widen as if trying penetrate the darkness further. Cian begins to slip away and as he does this, the man produces a short sword from the folds of his billowing breeches. The man stares into the darkness, still scanning where Cian had once been standing. Immediately, Cian heads to the house to rest up once again.

The following morning, Cian sends his hawk to check for a note. His hawk informs him that there is one and Cian instructs it to fly outside of the city walls with it. Invisible, Cian scrambles over the earthen fortification and heads out a little further into the boglands to meet his hawk. The hawk presents him with the message. It is an unsigned note that says that "he will meet him at the docks at noon." Cian hurries back to the small abode to wait it out until then.

Using Change Self once again, Cian wanders out into the docks. There are very few guards, only two scale mail clad guards standing a bit up the street from the dock itself. They say nothing as he passes. Once at the dock, it is pretty quiet. A few cargo handlers work busily unloading a ship and a man sits at the end of the pier scaling some fish. As Cian wanders near the dock house, he hears the familiar rattling hiss of a chain and looks to see the very same weapon in the hands of the brown haired woman. She looks up at him with little interest, spinning her chain lazily.

She casually asks who he is and Cian answers in a very vague way which must have been unsatisfying to her. She raises her free hand and suddenly the dock workers begin to close in on Cian. They are wielding a variety of weapons from clubs, to belaying pins, to serrated and very painful looking fishing knives. They form a rough circle around him. She once again asks Cian what he is doing there and warns him only "one person is supposed to be here at this time." Cian , still trying not to reveal too much before he has more information, again gives a vague answer. With that, she nods toward the group surrounding him and says, "Kill him."

As the circle closes, Cian quickly mentions that he was expecting Gaelyn to respond to the note. This causes the chain slinging woman to raise her hand at which the dock workers edge backward. Looking a bit disappointed, she mentions she ought to just go a head and kill him but Gaelyn wants to meet him. She then starts walking way from the dock, motioning behind her to follow. Cian begins to follow and is shortly joined by Dierdre as she is escorted out from the dock house by a man with a dagger in her back.

The session ends with Dierdre and Cian being escorted to the inner compound and above the forge. There they are "reunited" with their fellow adventurers and a meeting with Gaelyn…….