How'reyanow, goodnyou, here's last time.
Our heroes protagonists have made their way to Ikae's Refuge, a camp set up in the northern part of the region, not far from the dwarven stronghold of Stonefell. They wait until the cover of darkness, surround the place, and strike! Unfortunately, the denizens of the Refuge, and specifically a cleric of B'eni, the God of Charity, spots them first. The cleric yells a warning and throws magic up into the air, bringing light to the whole camp!
Queequaz the Querulous can't have that, so he incants and calls upon his acolytes/backup dancers to join him, praying to Crevice to cancel the light spell. It works, but it takes a minute (Crevice is often busy). Thudd races across the camp on his brand new prototype device called a "two-wheel," towards the bakery. He crashes into the trees near it, and falls off laughing like a maniac.
Baldruf, as ever, is a little more subtle. He creeps into town and slips into the window of the inn. He notices as he does so that there's a storehouse across the way, with a wheelbarrow of goods just sitting there. That's definitely ripe for the plucking, but the inn looks interesting, too. Once he's in, though, he finds himself confronted with alert, pissed-off burghers. The bartender grabs a big ol' club off the wall and the men make for Baldruf. He holds out his crossbow and rasps two of the only words he knows in Light Tongue ("GIVE GOLD"), but they apparently don't know what this device is so they don't know to be afraid of it. They rush him, but he slips through them and into the back of the inn.
Fnort, as ever, is about as subtle as a sock full of rocks. He and his kobold minions charge into the living tents and grab a couple of smaller humans, incapacitate them, and yank them back into the trees. Fnort sends his minions to take these sorry sods back to the Sepulcher, and goes looking for more heads to bust.
And indeed, the cleric of B'eni is right there. Fnort charges across the camp...and nearly gets felled by an arrow. It misses him, but he doesn't see where it came from, and figures the cleric is as likely a source as any (does the cleric have a bow? No. Was he facing Fnort? No. It's fine, just go with it). Fnort charges in and swings his sock o' rocks at the cleric, as Queequaz and his minions defecate and desecrate the prayer circle. The cleric bellows in outrage and calls up a spell to force Queequaz and his minions into supplication.
Queequaz, of course, ain't having it and reverses the spell, sending the cleric to his knees in pain. The cleric casts another spell and sends Fnort and the minions stumbling back. Queequaz maintains his footing, however.
Thudd gets up from the heap he landed in and tries to smash through the wall of the bakery, but it proves a little too sturdy. The baker comes charging out with a peel and tries to brain the imp, but Thudd is too nimble. He jumps into the window of the bakery, knocking down shelves of ingredients and setting sparks flying off the over. The baker charges in and tries to push Thudd into the fire, but Thudd is again nimble and flees up the roof. Realizing that his tail is on fire, he pats it out and manages to set the whole roof ablaze.
Baldruf, still being pursued by the mob, runs out of the inn and tries to distract them with a caltrop throw. They aren't fool, and Baldruf turns around and charges straight through them. The bartender swings his club, but Baldruf leaps over it and takes advantage of the chaos to disappear. He sneaks around to the door of the storehouse - it's locked, but it's a simple lock and he picks it easily. Inside, he finds a real prize: A cask of dwarven ale, marked with the seal of Stonefell.
Back at the prayer circle, Fnot sees the guard with the bow advancing. He puffs himself up and tries to look scary, and then spins his sock o' rocks and flings it. He...misses, and the sock hits the ground and bursts. But hey, Fnort doesn't get an arrow to the eye, so small victories.
Baldruf hefts the cask and carries it out to the wheelbarrow, as Thudd jumps up and down on the roof and squeaks "FIRE! FIRE!" (But in Dark Tongue.) This acts as exactly the sort of distraction Baldruf needs, and he pushes the wheelbarrow with the dwarven ale right out of town. Thudd jumps down and gets on his two-wheel and pedals like crazy (but does grab a baked confection on the way). Fnort and Queequaz beat the cleric into unconsciousness and Fnort hefts him up to his shoulders, and Queequaz slashes the ankles of a couple of his acolytes to act as bait for the town guard so they can flee.
The monsters arrive back at the Sepulcher of Suffering, and they count up their loot. Baldruf finds something curious - an arrow wrapped in leathers. It looks like an ordinary arrow for a longbow, but when he takes his attention off it, it becomes a bolt for his crossbow! Clearly this is a magical item, and Baldruf holds onto it. He also fills a skin with fine dwarven ale for later use.
Speaking of ale, Thudd gets very drunk and stomps around the dungeon, and winds up breaking the bone lock leading toward the guard post. Baldruf takes some time and fixes it, but grumbles to himself that he's going to get Thudd for wasting his time.
The other monsters have their own pursuits. Queequaz and his minions sacrifice the cleric as part of their ritual to someone up a nightmare creature. Thudd finishes his two-wheel and starts mounting a ram to the front. He also has his minions keep working on the trick wall behind the altar. Fnort arranges things in the new reliquary (it's not quite done yet), and goes to visit Gral, his ghoul buddy.
Gral is a ghoul of the East Front, and is generally willing to trade things for meat. Fnort brings along some choice chunks of cleric (waste not, want not), and Gral happily trades him a flail that the ghouls took off some unfortunate but delicious traveler. Fnort heads back to the Sepulcher to practice.
The imps of the Sepulcher, seeing that Fnort is putting things in the new room, decide to help. This, of course, means that the Wicked Ones are going to be finding stuff they really need turning up in the reliquary for a while...
They start planning their next move. It's finally time, they decide, to finish off the Confraternity of the Three. They have a plan. They're going to trick Ikae's Refuge into calling for the Confraternity's help. When the Confraternity responds, they'll ambush their camp and burn their church! It's foolproof!
Well, we'll see, won't we?
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