4/4 Session Recap

The party bedded down in the Osborne's barn for the night, and watches were posted. Dolan took the early morning watch with one of the hired guards. In the hours before dawn, he heard someone quietly approaching the barn. He peeked outside, and startled one of the Osborne daughters, Agatha. She wanted to run away with Dolan and the crew to the big city. She didn't want to stay on the farm, and her deddy wouldn't let her leave. Dolan told her that he would ask his party about taking her with them, and that if they agreed, they could be back to pick her up in the evening. This confused her. She said that she thought she heard someone say the party was leaving in the morning. A little disappointed, she left to do her morning chores and said she'd come back to sneak away with them the following night.

Roveles slipped out at some point during the night, on some errand only he could comprehend.

That morning, Deddy Osborne and his brother Milo organized the boys into two search parties. Our heroes tried to pile into one big group, but Deddy said that didn't make any sense, that they could cover more ground with two groups. Eventually, the party sent their hirelings with Milo's group, and joined Deddy's group themselves.

After a few hours of walking and searching, Deddy led the party to a small cave beneath a tumble of flat boulders. He said that the people they were looking for were in there. Dolan confronted Deddy Osborne, and asked him about a monster. "I'm not sure what you're talking about" was his response. Dolan persisted, saying that he didn't think Deddy was being honest with them. Deddy said, "I swear to you, this was the last place those kids came." Cyrus turned on his heel, readied his shield with a light spell, and walked into the cave. The other three party members followed.

The passage went through two corners, and then the cave opened into a small chamber with three exits. While the party discussed which option to choose, and June checked the architecture, they heard a noise approaching from behind. Startled, they turned to see Ray, the leader of their guards. He said that they'd been led to the cave and told that the party had already gone in. But they'd gotten a weird feeling about it when they entered.

The party explored one loop of passages, and came back to the starting chamber. They then went down a long passage that got progressively deeper. At its end, there was a half-chamber that opened into a wider cavern. As they stood at the entrance looking in, they heard the lumbering gait of a large humanoid approaching.

June threw her light into the room, and saw a troll heading for the party. She called this information out to everyone, and Dolan moved past Cyrus to read himself to attack. An odd noise emanated from Melicertes, and the troll suddenly charged him. Dolan made an attack the the troll passed, but it stopped right in front of Cyrus, who was effectively blocking the passage. Cyrus conjured a spiritual morning star to attack the troll, and then the troll started babbling incoherently. It was like something was wrong with it's brain. June took the opportunity to squeeze past Cyrus and the troll to get into the wider part of the room, and to allow people from behind to move forward more easily. Cyrus, however, stayed put, and conjured fire in his hand. Melicertes remained staring at the creature, concentrating as hard as he could.

Dolan made another attack on the troll, which broke partially through it's confusion. It whirled, hooked the claws of both hands into Dolan's chest, and then pulled them violently apart. Dolan's ribcage tore open , spilling guts everywhere, and the light went out of his eyes instantly. Everyone stared in horror, and Ray the guard exclaimed, "Fuck!"

Cyrus finally moved into the room, and Ray moved in front of Melicertes. The spiritual weapon continued to attack, and June made a stab at the monster. Enraged by something in it's brain, the troll squeezed into the passageway and made a one-armed lunge at Melicertes over Ray's shoulder. The claw raked down Melicerte's face and chest, ripping his clothes and damaging what little good looks he had. Ray began stabbing like mad at the troll jammed in the hallway. June cast a spell, and the troll started laughing uncontrollably. Melicertes stared with determination at the beast, and blood started to pour from it's nose and ears, which it seemed to find funny. Cyrus pulled at the troll's shoulder, wrenching it around to partially face him, and then punched it in the mouth with his fiery hand. It was a critical hit, and fire shot throughout the trolls sinuses, erupting from it's nose and ears.

The troll collapsed, and two seconds passed in silence. And then it started a weak, wet-sounding chuckle as it regained consciousness. June skewered it from behind, rupturing it's lung and causing it to fall unconscious again. Cyrus then administered a coup de grace by jamming a ball of fire as deep down its throat as possible with his fist.

It took a few minutes to wrap Dolan's remains in his bedroll and secure it with rope, and then the party searched the cavern. There were small bits and pieces of equipment scattered occasionally throughout the room. A buckle here, a moldy shoe there. And then they found the bloody rags of a blue plaid dress with the same pattern they had found while tracking poor little Lisa. They also found a broken bow, a discarded shortsword, and a half-ripped backpack with a magical book in it. It seemed reasonable to assume that this was all that was left of James and Kalvin. The party also recovered about a thousand silver pieces, a few gems, a small metal flask, a scroll with two divine spells on it, and a jar of ointment.

The party then picked up Dolan, and headed for the exit. As they emerged into the mid-day sun, they saw Osborne and his sons sitting around eating lunch. They looked up, surprised, and one of the younger teens picked up his bow and said, "Deddy, look!"

Cyrus put Dolan down, and strode towards Deddy Osborne. "Why did you send us in there with that monster?" Deddy stood up carefully and replied, "I thought it would eat you." And then Deddy doubled over and coughed violently, blood shooting from his nose and mouth as he clutched his head. Cyrus took the final few steps while drawing his morning star, and brought it up in a smashing blow to Deddy's face. "That was for Dolan." June drew her rapier like lightning and dashed forward, plunging it deep into Deddy's gut. He clutched at the wound for a moment, and then collapsed.

"You killed my Deddy!" The eldest Osborne sun snatched up his spear and charged Cyrus. Suddenly, he stumbled in mid stride and plowed face first into the dirt at Cyrus' feet. He did not rise again. Melicertes watched calmly.

One of the sons checked the fallen and looked up, alarmed. "Jeff! He's dead! They killed Jeff!" The boys started to pick up weapons, but Milo, their uncle, called out, "Stop your attack, boys!" and they subsided. Melicertes asked him if he sent those kids in there to die. "I swear to you, I didn't know nothing about the girl you talked about. But I knew about the boys. We thought they were Julio's men, come spying on us. So we did what we thought we needed to do. But I didn't know nothing about the girl."

"So you admit you have something to hide."

"Don't we all?"

After a tense moment, Cyrus said that they had taken their revenge for the deaths of the boys and Dolan, and that they'd make an end of this quarrel now and let Milo and the boys go. Milo said that sounded fair, and him and the boys cautiously got up and walked away, dragging their fallen.

The party returned to DeeAnn's farm and gave her and Jeni the bad news. There was much wailing and crying, and nobody seemed happy about things. June said a few words about Dolan, and sang a song. Cyrus prepared a funeral pyre, and everyone stood and watched Dolan's remains go up in a blaze of glory. They distributed Dolan's money to the grieving women and the henchmen, since they knew that's what he'd want them to do. And then they set out again, on the harsh road of adventure.