Tuesday 9 November 2010

EPISODE 3: TORSTEN THE FIGHTER

On leaving the bloody scene of the raid on Wolfgang's house, Andreas heads to the river to clean the blood from his clothes whilst our trio of adventurers drag the semi-conscious form of Mikhail to a back alley for questioning.

Having woken Mikhail, Serion takes the lead, asking him if he remembers a raid on an Elven trade caravan some months before. Mikhail simply spits in Serion's face. At this, Torsten lands a fist against Mikhail's face to remind him who is in charge. Serion steps back and Dr. Schafer asks Mikhail about Axel Holst and his death. Mikhail says that all he knows is that he was killed in the sewers along with members of the Adewald gang and the Steinhold gang. The two groups were meeting about something but he had no idea what.

Serion moves in to question Mikhail about the raid on the Elven caravan again. Mikhail refuses to answer so Serion punches him in the stomach. Doubling over, Mikhail gives the name of El Torro in Middenheim. Serion, not satisfied with the answer punches him in the stomach again, Mikhail gives up the name of a man called Lukas Kruger in Talabheim. Believing this is all Mikhail has to offer Serion turns away, as he does so he notices an Elven dagger on Mikhails belt. Furious that Mikhail still has a stolen dagger from the raid and at the uses it had been put to since then, Serion asks Mikhail if he has anything else to say. Mikhail says no, so Serion draws his own dagger and whispers "this is payback" in his ear, before slitting Mikhail's throat. Leaving the dead man slumped on the floor, the trio head back to the Bald Badger for the night.

In the inn, Dr. Schafer starts chatting with Heinz the landlord. He buys him a drink and asks about the Steinhold gang. He discovers that the Steinhold gang and Adewald gang have worked together for some time, but has no idea how or why. As the evening draws on, the adventurers decide that they will stay at the inn for another night before heading to their rooms.

In the morning the adventurers head to the Eel inn to organise their passes into Talabheim. When they arrive there is a large crowd of peasants outside. Dr. Schafer marches straight through them and hands over his letter from the municipal office to the nearest guard. Unfortunatley the guard can not read, but Dr. Schafer manages to talk his way in to see magistrate Howenlow.

After discussion with the magistrate, the trio are offered a pass into Talabheim, if they first agree to escort a group of 100 villagers to the nearby village of Breitblatt. The adventurers are told that the journey will be a six day round trip leaving in the morning, and if they are successful they will receive passes into Talabheim. Having the rest of the day to themselves they decide to head to the docks (who knows why?). On arriving at the docks Dr. Schafer sees Pockets and the pair disappear into the crowd together. Serion and Torsten decide that as the good doctor clearly has other things to do they would go to Andreas's house to ask him to join them on their travel to Breitblatt. Andreas agrees and the pair leave him to go to Skully's to wait for Dr. Schafer. Torsten signs up for a fist fighting competition and Serion agrees to take part in a demonstration of his marksmanship.

In the evening, Dr. Schafer joins his companions at Skully's for the big event. Dr. Schafer asks Skully about the Steinhold gang and then buys an extremely expensive pack of cards from him. Dr. Schafer then proceeds to perform a series of rather unsuccessful card tricks for the regulars at the bar.

The big event opens with Serion. A young woman enters carrying three clay plates. Serion holds three throwing knives in his hand. The girl throws a plate into the air, Serion launches a throwing knife wildly past it into a wooden beam in the ceiling. The girl throws the second plate into the air, with the reflexes of a cat Serion launches his second knife into another celing beam. Things are not going well. The third and final plate sails through the air and like the previous knives, Serion's knife embeds somewhere in the gloom of the wall. Poor knife throwing from Serion indeed. Serion feels much more confident about his abilities with his bow however. A girl places a lit candle at the far end of the display area. Skully announces that Serion will shoot the flame from the candle. Torsten places a bet on Serion being successful. The crowd hushes. Serion draws back the bow string. Concentration. He steadies his aim and lets the arrow loose. The arrow flies across the display area and snuffs out the flame without so much as making the candle wobble. Expert shooting indeed. The crowd roars, Torsten smiles as he collects his winnings. Serion proves why the bow is his weapon of choice.

After a short interval Skully enters the arena to announce the main event of the evening. He announces that Torsten will be fighting the champion of the arena, Hrothgar, a rather large and imposing Kislevite.

Torsten and Hrothgar square up and Skully starts the fight. Hrothgar throws a punch at Torsten but misses badly. Torsten responds with a jab to the chest. Annoyed, Hrothgar throws a powerful punch but misses again, leaving him off balance. Taking advantage, Torsten throws a punch at Hrothgar. Hrothgar fails to dodge the blow, taking it square in the face. Torsten follows this up with right hook to the jaw. Things are looking good for Torsten. Hrothgar swings another wild punch at Torsten, missing badly again, spinning around leaving himself open. Torsten swings another punch into Hrothgars jaw. Hrothgar is getting angry. He launches a mighty blow into the side of Torsten's head. Torsten immediately counters with a punch to Hrothgars face, opening up a large gash on his cheek and breaking his cheek bone. Torsten, sensing victory squares up, unleashing a headbutt, Hrothgar raises his arms to just parry the blow. Torsten repeats the attack, Hrothgar scrambles a block at the last moment. With his opponent dazed, Torsten lashes a kick to Hrothgars groin, dropping him to his knees in agony. Torsten stands over the prone man, unleashing a fight ending blow to his face, breaking his nose. Torsten follows this with an elbow to the back of the neck, knocking Hrothgar to the ground unconscious. Torsten turns to the crowd and raises his arms roaring. The crowd cheers him as Skully takes  him to one side to hand over his winnings and offer more fights in the future.

After all of the excitement, the trio head back to the Bald Badger to rest after their entertaining evening.

The next morning, the adventurers head out to find Pockets before finding provisions for their journey to Breitblatt. Dr. Schafer asks Pockets what he knows about the Steinhold gang. Pockets doesn't know much but sets off to find out for the doctor. They spend the rest of the day wandering around until Pockets finds them again. He confirms that the Steinhold gang and Adewald gang were smuggling in and out of Talabheim. He also reveals that Axel Holst was lodging at the Crooked Shoe inn. The trio head straight for the Crooked Shoe and question the inn keeper about Axel Holst. Dr. Schafer manages to persuade the inn keeper to let him look in the room Axel rented. After a brief search of the room he finds some silver shillings under a loose floor board. Not knowing what else to do that day they head back to the Bald Badger to prepare for the trip to Breitblatt in the morning.

The next morning the adventurers head to the Eel Inn. A clerk meets them and addresses "Baron Richthoffen" (as Dr. Schafer had called himself when visiting the Municipal offices earlier in the week). The clerk hands over a letter to allow the trio to travel unhindered to Breitblatt and tells them to travel on the old dwarf road. Dr. Schafer turns to the crowd of nearly 100 villagers to be escorted to Breitblatt and details where and how they would arrive safely at their destination. Andreas arrives just before they leave, steaming drunk...

On the first day of the journey Dr. Schafer, tired of carrying his equipment, pays a peasant to carry it for him. Andreas and Torsten take guard at the rear of the travellers whilst Serion disappears up ahead to scout the area. On one of the occasions when the travellers stop for a rest, a young blacksmith gets chatting to the adventurers. Serion wonders aloud if there will be enough room for 100 new villagers when they arrive at Breitblatt. He is suspicious as to the motives of those that decided to move the villagers on.

As they survey the crowd, Dr. Schafer and Serion both notice that some of the villagers are from Hochland, known to be hated by those from Talabheim. They also notice that many of the people are coughing and starting to look ill. Dr. Schafer begins to worry that illness is taking hold of them all.

On the second day Torsten finds Andreas drunk and unconscious on the back of a cart. He begins to regret asking him to join them. Meanwhile, Serion is scouting up ahead of the travellers. He sees a small group of ogres dressed in brightly coloured clothing heading towards them. He rushes back to tell his companions his findings. On hearing the news, Dr. Schafer begins to get the whole group to move off of the road towards the river by telling them they need more fresh water. Most villagers grudgingly start to do this.. A small group take so long to move that the ogres arrive at their location before they are clear of the road...


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