Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Hackmaster: The Journey of Mutumbo #5: Rotten Cabbage, Flaming Gnomeling

Check out the roster of the party here.

Finally, the group arrives in Yelden, and Arbeow and Dalmar head to the Drunken Dwarf Inn as the rest of the group finds something to do. They sit at a table along with a racist (humans only) cleric, who begins berating the other races, especially vile half-breeds such as the gnomeling. This tirade goes on for sometime until the gnomeling, who for now had been quietly staring at the cleric, pulls out two daggers and plunges both of them into the cleric’s chest. An all-out bar brawl ensues, Dalmar switches personalities to a little old lady (“blacking out” as he put it). Dalmar came to just outside of the inn, which was engulfed in flames. (as were his robes, as some chap was trying to help him put out the smoldering clothing). He sees the incompetent, now blood-soaked gnomeling staggering out the front door. The flames flare up (doing the 2 points of damage to have him hit 0 and fall unconscious) and Arbeow passes out face-first into a puddle.

Dalmar decided the gnomeling must have had some redeeming qualities as he and this other fellow drag him out of this ignomious death of drowing in three inches of water and rush him to safety before the town guard shows up.

The fire-fighting chap introduces himself as Malven and offers to house as a sanctuary for the night. While all this was going on Mutumbo and Cecelia were distracted by a crowd of townsfolk throwing rotten food at some guy in the town stocks. They were accosted by a half-elf who, after a skin of wine and a few tossed bits of cabbage, managed to convince the pair to participate in the prison escape of his friend Brand, a “political prisoner”.

That night a large black man (fighter) and his blond busty friend (fighter cleric) tried to break into the prison to free Brand. How they didn’t actually end up being thrown into the dungeons amazes me. After a few close calls the pair finally manage to escape the prison first thing in the morning during a guard change, sans Brand and right into Dalmar, who was strolling down the street.

Dalmar had managed to get the low-down from Malven: They were in Yelden, the capital of the Gran Duchy of Alois. Evidently the Grand Duke Aldriv died a few days ago under suspicious circumstances and the rightful heir the throne, the Dukes' brother Prince Cardor, was missing. In the early morning hours, Dalmar transported the unconscious gnomeling from the safety of Malven’s place to the the enormous saddlebags of Mutumbo’s camel (oh yeah, he bought that in Anon-Maxis with his hourglass finder’s fee, along with a large gold chain to put it around his neck... the camel's, not Mutumbo).

Dalmar figured the last place the town guard or whoever would be searching would look was in the saddlebags…. The town guard couldn’t find him, however Mutumbo did. Mutumbo’s player was upstairs making a phone call while Dalmar was hiding the gnomeling. When he came back, he simply stated “Mutumbo is pissed off and I’m going down the stables and turning the camel’s saddlebags into a punching bag.” After a few minutes I tell him, “There’s blood stains forming on the bags… from the inside” Mutumbo quietly took off that portion of the saddlebags and drop it into the camel’s water trough “to wash it out”. Utter silence around the table. Malven was the one to break the news to the party of Arbeow’s demise, by an apparent beating and subsequent drowning. Dalmar quickly took hold of the situation and disposed of the body for the party (i.e. He took the corpse to the town guard so he could pick up the reward money.)

Next up: Duchal court intrigue and half-ogres DON'T mix

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