On The Road: The Rightful Heir Pt1

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Author's note: I think I am four revelation-and-drama filled sessions behind as I start writing this.


Matters in Murdered Bow were quickly taken care of in preparation for a long absence then the small fleet of treasure ships set sail along the coast to the port nearest the capital. One party member travelled aboard each ship to discourage any thoughts by the crews of just sailing off with their cargo.

Over the next week Gideon was visited by a string of griffon riders and became steadily fouler of mood with each message. Sa's attempts to find out why were met with harsh rebuttal so Aiu was ferried over to the ship and managed to persuade Gideon that if he would not share his concerns with the party he should at least talk them over with his trusted lieutenants Eric and Kitahilia. (In the hope that Eric could talk some sense into him.)

After disappearing off on Windrunner for a while the three returned with Gideon's mind changed, but he refused to speak on the ship so the whole group reluctantly took a longboat and went ashore. In a clearing a short distance inland Gideon confessed the bad news - the King had been murdered, the crown prince (Os'Car, about 17) and his sister (Ma'Lynda, about 9) were both missing presumed dead in the latter case and the Queen had gone into hiding, leaving no clear successor. The capital city had been locked down to prevent this information getting out while a search was conducted and to top it off some of his griffon riders, all like himself hostages to peace from the Hill Tribes, were making suggestions that now was the time to turn on the Kingdom.

Putting into the Capitals port at this time would only result in the treasure hoard being "impounded" until the current state of emergency was resolved. Kitahilia rattled off a list of possible suspects, chief among which was the Royal Vizier for no other reason then he has been the one who has done most of the work of managing the Kingdom and taken a hard line where a hard line has had to be taken whereas the King has mostly made the best of being King to enjoy noble pursuits. Gideon maintained his superior, the Knight Commander, to be unquestionably loyal. Eric felts a personal responsibility to the young prince and pleaded for the party to help, and Aiu immediately seized on there being a young girl caught up in who-knows-how-much danger and fear.

The ships were put into a small, seedy port town with plenty of bars and whores and all the crew were given indefinite paid shore leave. Aiu and Sa met with the captains to impress upon them "that we might have killed a lot of people to get this much treasure and we don't want to have to kill more to get it back, you understand?". Gideon called his five most-trusted griffon riders together to provide transport to the Capital (currently the mounted aerial special forces being the -only- ones permitted to come and go) and wherever else the investigation might need to travel.

To cover more of a now two-week-old trail the party split up. Zenon [player away] stayed to oversee the harbouring of the ships; Markos and Sa started making enquiries in the towns around the capital (where they found only dead-ends and red-herrings until reaching the northern "Shield of War"); and Aiu and Zedzid'r travelled to the capital with Gideon who scrawled an authorisation letter which would help them bluff their way past the guards outside the princess's chambers while he went to confer with his superior.

The letter gained the grudging assistance of a castle guard who escorted the pair to a tidy and undisturbed bedchamber filled with the toys and other items one would expect of a wealthy young noblewoman. Aiu noted three things - a large bloodstain clearly visible on the rug in the centre of the room (Zedzid'r extreme skills were able to identify this as giantess blood), a full-sized riding saddle which did not fit among the other items on display and some dolls missing from a collection. Questioning the princess' nanny Aiu learnt that the young prince had been teaching his sister to joust (an unladylike pastime of which the queen strongly disapproved), that the missing dolls were her favourites, and that the other place she spent much of her time was in the castle library with her tutor, the head librarian.

Word had apparently spread because the library was full of castle guards, pretending to read or browse but failing to hide the fact that they were watching the pair closely. Introduced to the head librarian (Sir Timothy the Master of the Book, "one of the King's ideas of a title") Aiu first showed him the "cookbooks" she had been accumulating and asked what he thought of them. A little surprised the librarian was able to tell her that they resembled a cipher-within-a-cipher he and his classmates - including one Anthony - developed in their school days to pass notes. He also hinted that Anthony was involved in the murder of the King and disappearance of the other members of the royal family and told Aiu that she and Zedzid'r must get out of the city as soon as possible and he would meet them in the Shield of War to speak further.

Returning to the griffons with no further leads the two met Gideon, sporting a large welt across his face. The Knight Commander was not happy with his involvement of outsiders in the investigation and he had been ordered to stable Windrider and join the search in the city. Fortunately Aiu was able to persuade him that his oath to the King and Kingdom was stronger obligation than his duty to obey orders and they flew north.

Meanwhile Markos and Sa had also reached the Shield of War (via the Shield of Law (south) and the Shield of Lore (west)) and ascertained that two giants - an man in his 30s and a young girl - had passed through at about the right time. Although not clearly fitting the description of the missing royals they could be presumed to be travelling in disguise. This was confirmed by searching the room in which they had stayed and discovering one of the missing dolls.

Comparing notes it was decided to allow one day for Sir Timothy to reach the town before setting off in pursuit (east from here, a couple of possible destinations) and a griffon was sent to fetch Zenon.

[session ends]

~~~
The Shield of War is a military training ground first and foremost, and had been on alert since the Capital was closed and orders stopped coming. Despite this the locals were far more relaxed about the situation that in the other towns and not about to cancel the annual celebration planned for the day after the party arrived. Drink and food started flowing before the party had risen from their first night in the (sparse) comfort of an inn for some time. Sa and Zediz'r immediately began to compete in drinking the strongest brew available and were soon well in their cups. The others were more restrained and still sober when, true to his word, Sir Timothy arrived later in the day.

Sir Timothy admitted that he had encouraged the young prince, more interested in revelry and gambling than in eventually ruling, to disguise himself and go among the people in hopes that he would become a more sympathetic King than his father. This was done with the aid of a polymorph potion, which the young prince had emptied Sir Timothy's laboratory of on the night he vanished. Obviously genuinely concerned for Os'Car's well-being he offered the party six message coins to communicate among themselves with and described where and how the King was found, stabbed through the chest before a monument, but could shed no light on who was responsible.

Nothing more to be gained here and joined by Gideon the group set out east. Griffon travel being much faster than on foot it only took a few days to leapfrog from one settlement to another following a trail of petty thefts of food and other small, useful items until one evening a waystop with a thin plume of smoke was spotted. Leaving the griffins and their riders to establish a perimeter and keep watch the party pretended to be travellers coming from the west arriving to camp the night and not expecting any trouble from anyone else who might be staying there.

The welcome received from the older giant of the two present ("Shamus") was distinctly chilly but he couldn't deny fellow travellers their right to stay overnight. Aiu was quick to bond with the younger child ("Mirabelle"), offering her the doll found at the Shield of War. The older thawed a little at the offer of a game of dice. Discrete magical examinations were carried out. A brief message was sent by coin (to reach Gideon and Sir Timothy) that the pair had been located and were safe.

Next morning plans to continue winning the prince's trust were thrown into disarray as Gideon, not having heard anything further from the party overnight, landed Windrunner in front of the cabin and kicked in the door. He immediately tried to bluff that he was there to arrest Zenon, but the damage was done. Explanations were interrupted by Windrunner going to alert, triggering Gideon into a panic about some great airbourne monster of myth. He and Windrunner took to the air with Zenon while the others secured the cabin - as much to prevent the Prince bolting as to prevent anything else entering.

The true threat proved to be group of shambling, diseased, walking corpses which had crept up on the cabin. Markos fended off two of them at the door supported by bow-fire from Aiu and Sa until Zenon and Gideon reached the ground - Zenon finished off the two at the door and Gideon charged on through to take out one which had climbed in through a back window. Upon being slain (again) the bodies erupted in bursts of disease-ridden, putrescent goop. Markos held his own against the assault on his constitution but Gideon was reduced to a vomiting, shaking heap and required careful tending by Zediz'r.

Aiu rounded on Os'Car, clearly shaken by what was his first exposure to real combat and the dangers of the wider world, and gave him a verbal lashing about his irresponsibility in running away from his duty and exposing his sister to the dangers of the world. The young prince could only nod numbly.

Aiu then turned to comforting the terrified Ma'Lynda while Markos and Zediz'r[?] steered Os'Car to a fallen log some distance away and had a buddy talk with him until he was able to break down and admit that he had only been trying to do the right thing and oh what a mess he had made of it all. He was still determined to deliver his sister somewhere safe and then set about finding whoever was responsible for his father's death; but came around to the idea of returning to the castle when Markos pointed out that doing so would almost certainly make them reveal themselves to strike at him. Meanwhile his sister could be hidden among her loyal maidservants.

Os'Car: promise me you will help me kill those who killed my father.
Markos: With pleasure.

Somehow the growing party were fitted on the ever-more-heavily burdened griffons (six griffons to 3 "small" giants, one smaller giant, eight humans and the 300lb Zediz'r) and the trip back to the Capital was begun.
[session ends]