Gaming Summary, May 22, 2005

The first part of the evening was spent disucssing the set-up for Paul's upcoming Ars Magica campaign, and I think everyone is pretty excited about it (at least, I am). The rest of the evening was a NuNeng episode in which, it appears, not all that much happened, although it seemed like more at the time. Must have been all the bickering.

When we last left Our Heroes, Tobias and Josiah were escorting a couple of scholars into the Howling Hills for reasons unknown (and un-cared-about, at least on Tobias' part). As the walked along, the scholars appeared to be making a map, but resisted all Josiah's attempts at small talk, and didn't allow the guards a look at their notes. Unbeknownst to everyone, Joshohai was following the party, despite her complete lack of wilderness survival skills.

Eventually, the group made camp, with Joshohai perched uncomfortably in a nearby tree. Midway through the night, during Josiah's watch, the campsite was attacked by three trolls. Josiah and Tobias put up a staunch defense, but three-on-two is bad odds, and Josiah was seriously wounded, even as he killed one troll. Joshohai jumped from her tree and came charging in to help, but before she arrived, Tobias killed the second troll, and the third ran off into the night.

It turned out that Joshohai wasn't the only one lacking in necessary skills, as neither Josiah nor Tobias could perform first aid. Joshohai gladly pitched in, but that didn't stop Tobias from berating her for following them. He introduced her to the two scholars as “Joshohai the Uninvited,” after which she claimed to have been simply camping nearby and attracted by the noise. Josiah and Tobias made loud noises of disbelief at this point, which alarmed the scholars. Tobias and Joshohai resumed arguing at that point…

…only to awake late the next morning to find the scholars gone. The three party members were unharmed, and none of their possessions were missing, but the scholars were clearly gone. Tobias attempted to prove that he did have some useful skills, and attempted to track them, but failed. Josiah stepped in with a quick “Eyes of the Falcon” blessing (after a quick discussion of why “Eyes of the Fox” wouldn't be helpful), and Tobias succeeded on his second attempt — the scholars had doubled back toward town.

The party couldn't think of anything to do other that head back, since they had no way of determining what the scholars had been looking for, or if they had found it. Tobias was all for finding the scholars to extract the remainder of his payment, by force if necessary, but the rest of the party wanted an explanation more than anything. Upon returning to town, they obtained some healing for Josiah, then headed straight for the Legless Arms, where they found Thamon waiting for them, mulling over all the Exposition he'd picked up in the last (non-recapped) session.

The next day, Thamon managed to determine that the scholars had last been seen heading south, to a destination unknown. Josiah purchased some leather armor, and the rest of the party picked up some XP, which they clearly need.