AAR: [ECR2] The Stolen Books of Throal (2020-05-03 @ 21:00 GMT GMT)

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leshrac
Posts:7
Joined:Sun Apr 26, 2020 4:34 am
Re: LFG: [ECR2] The Stolen Books of Throal (2020-05-03 @ 21:00 GMT GMT)

Post by leshrac » Mon May 04, 2020 1:55 am

Here yee the words of S'tillantre the...Swift. Yes Write Swift. Thats how this works right? Yes Good.

It was very unfortunate time when a lower ranked employee of the Library of Throal looses his books. He was very concerned about these lost books and commissioned are small band of adventures to help retrieve them for him. We were happy to help, but he should have been better at being subtle because he was suspicious from the start.

When we located where the crates had been stolen from it was not all that hard to follow the trail because a heavy laden cart is still heavily laden and easy to follow. We were ambushed on the way by some strange flying creature, that fled when exposed, but more actively ambushed by a small band of dwarves who attempted to steal our goods. With the assistance of our dangerous associates we were able to defeat these brigands and find out where their camp was further up the hills. We had to wait some time before making it to their camp, though as one of our more resolute allies had been very kind to take the worst of the abuse during the battle and was severely injured.

When we finally arrived we found an abandoned burned out village. We expected ambush so I snuck around but found nothing, except a single locked barn. Or friends generated a small distraction as we broke into the building and we found...quite the mess. The wizard that supposedly lead this band had been left to bleed out and die, and someone had rooted through the books to find just one text, something he wanted. But I suspect he didnt get what he actually wanted because it appears our associate was stealing books from the library and hiding it by putting new covers on them. But this theif was quite deadly. On top of killing the wizard he also butchered the ponys and broke the cart so it couldnt be used again. We were lucky enough to find a special shipment of herbs that turned out belonged to a high end local restraunt.

Finding this was good, because when we got back it turned out our benefactor had already been arrested by the library, but our bringing of the books supplied proof of his crimes. Really. He needed to find a better thief...and clearly a better fence. Thankfully the restaurant that owned the other crates wanted their cooking supplies, and was willing to pay us back for the return of the supplies, especially since the library apparently didn't want to. How rude.

It was a good first adventure out of Throal though. I am excited to explore more in the future.

Gunsaint
Posts:5
Joined:Thu Apr 16, 2020 10:26 pm

Re: AAR: [ECR2] The Stolen Books of Throal (2020-05-03 @ 21:00 GMT GMT)

Post by Gunsaint » Wed May 06, 2020 1:52 am

From the Journal of Garen, Ork Sky Raider of Throal

Myself, Rose, Torgun Neumani, S'Tillantre and Reyis Poriv found ourselves all at the Great Library responding to a notice looking for adepts to recover some stolen books. We were shifted over to a secondary building where we found the office of one Halvor Jurisman, a seemingly important staff member of the library who had posted the notice. He was rather abrupt with us, wanting us to find the books and keep it quiet. The list he furnished on our request included two dozen tomes being shipped from a nearby freshly opened Kaer. Strangely, some of the books were commonly available in the library already, but we failed to consider the significance of that fact until later.

We left the Kaer and I have to say, it was just as bright and beautiful as I had always hoped. Thankfully my training had included becoming accustomed to the light of the sky, so I was not unduly troubled by it. We headed north into the mountains towards the site where the wagon bringing the goods to Throal had been ambushed. It took a few hours, but eventually we found the ambush site. The wagon had been taken deeper into the mountains, and we were able to easily follow the tracks. We camped in a small clearing for the night, and about halfway throughI was woken up when one of the T'skrang saw something in the darkness. Even with my ability to see in the dark I could not locate the disturbance, but our Windling friend Reyis saw some kind of large bird flying off to the north when he flew up the ridge.

The next morning we set out again, and were soon ambushed by a small group of poorly equipped dwarves. We refused to hand over our money and gear and soon battle was joined. I joined the dwarf Swordmaster Torgun on the Front line, while the two T'Skrang, Rose and S'Tillantre joined Reyis in peppering our enemies with spells and arrows. They managed to keep the dwarves archer from targeting us, and Torgun drew all their attention to him with his magic. Unfortunately this turned out to be a risky strategy and he was soon incapacitated with his wounds. I managed to hold the three dwarves attention while the rest of the group wore them down from range. Soon enough we had downed all but the archer, who slipped away once the tide of battle turned.

Under questioning the dwarves told us where their camp was, and that their band was run by a powerful wizard. We broke their swords before leaving them, and I assume they made their escape from the hasty bindings soon afterwards. We lugged Torguns wounded body with us, and by the time we had reached the camp he was well enough to walk on his own.

S'Tillantre scouted the ruins the bandits were using as their camp but found no evidence of life, and only a single building that was padlocked seemed relevant. Torgun volunteered to create a distraction by starting a fire on the other side of the ruins while the rest of us made our way to the building. Unfortunately we found the distraction was not needed as when we got into the building all that was left of the wizard was a corpse. We did find the ponies and cart, as well as most of the books. Sadly the ponies had been butchered and the cart disabled. Even worse, the books, while having hte proper bindings and titles, all contained the same pages of poorly written erotica. A single book, Worlds of Arcana, was missing, but whether it was a legitimate copy or more smut we do not know. We also discovered two crates filled with herbs and rare plants with a trading companies mark on them.

With nothing else to learn we made a travois and hauled our booty back to Throal. Luck was both with us and not, for while the journey back was without incident we found that Mr. Jurisman had been re-leaved of his position and no money was forthcoming for nearly two dozen books of poorly written smut. We did deliver the herbs to their correct recipient however, and managed to get a reward out of that however.

All in all a good first outing, and I felt my connection with my Discipline strengthened by the experience.

MadJaymilton
Posts:33
Joined:Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:44 am

Re: AAR: [ECR2] The Stolen Books of Throal (2020-05-03 @ 21:00 GMT GMT)

Post by MadJaymilton » Thu May 07, 2020 12:24 am

From the Journals of Torgun Deepbronze Neumani, Swordmaster

A cart full of books coming to Throal from a recently-opened kaer has been stolen en route by bandits. At least, so we were told! The truth turned out to be somewhat.... not that.
We set out to investigate. Myself, Rose the nethermancer, Garen the sky raider, our thief S'Tillantre, and the shaman Reyis. We could still see traces of the battle and cart ruts on the road, which we followed into the mountains. We had to make camp for the evening, during which we were bothered by a large bird. We investigated in the morning, curious what the bird had been up to. We found nothing on that front, but I did find evidence that someone had been trying to clear up their tracks by brushing them away. We continued on the path whereupon we were beset by bandits! ....it goes a bit black for me at that point. I may have overestimated my abilities, but luckily the rest of the group were more than capable. When I awoke several of the bandits were dead, one escaped, and the others were interrogated; we were told that the bandits were in service of a wizard who wanted the books. We took a few hours to rest and then continued on to the bandit's camp.
We spent quite a bit of time reconnoitering the camp. It was another dilapidated town, much like Wolf Ridge, but this was something older and long-abandoned. We could find no trace of anyone and expected an ambush. S'Tilantre found a likely location of the cart; I went off to set a fire to cause a distraction while the others prepared to enter the barn. My distraction was unnecessary however. I rejoined the group only to find that our quarry, the wizard, had been dead for hours with a dagger in his gut. The cart had been irreparably damaged, the ponies torn apart, and the cargo torn open. We found two lockboxes filled with herbs, en route to a restaurant in Throal, and all of the books save one--a tome called Worlds of Arcana. The other books were all erotica that Librarian Jurisman had intended to sell. We hauled back what we could. The Librarian had already been fired for his moonlighting by the time we arrived, but thankfully the restaurant gave us a reward for finding their cargo.
Nasty work, though. Worlds of Arcana must be quite valuable, seeing the lengths someone was willing to go through to get it.

Brian L
Posts:93
Joined:Tue Apr 28, 2020 11:53 pm

Re: AAR: [ECR2] The Stolen Books of Throal (2020-05-03 @ 21:00 GMT GMT)

Post by Brian L » Sat May 09, 2020 2:01 am

Journal Entry (Sometime past 1420 TH) The Stolen Books of Toral (05/03/2020)

I am fresh out of the Kaer, and ready to put my talents and training to use. I found a lead to a job needing doing in the Great Library. So, maybe not the Great Library, but a librarian who was affiliated with and adjacent to the Great Library. He had a shipment of books coming in that had been waylaid. The guards were back, some wounded but none dead, and they reported a group large enough to overwhelm them had taken the goods.
Joining me were a pair of Orks (Garen and Rose), a T’Skrang (S’tillantre), and a Dwarf (Torgun). I believe all of us were new, with the exception of Garen. The librarian (Jurrisman) gave us a copy of the guards report and a list of his missing books. He also sent us off with the strict instructions to tell no one.
After a brief check with the guards which gained us no more than the report, we set out to the site of the hijacking. There were signs of a fight, and we set off following what we hoped were the tracks of our missing cart. On the way we were accosted by brigands who were actually the rear guard for the raiding party. After a brief battle we had prisoners, and one who had fled. The prisoners were willing to give up their associates, their location, and the likely movements of parts of the band with very little intimidation.
The trail led to a deserted town containing no signs of life. S’tillantre scouted the area and found a single building with a working lock on a door. We prepared a distraction and went through the locked door. The bandits were gone. One, possibly their leader, had been left to die painfully. The ponies had been cut into pieces and not all of the pieces were still there. The cart was destroyed. The books we were seeking were there except for one. The missing one was titled The Worlds of Arcana. Oddly enough the books we found were gutted and their insides filled with porn. As we returned, I could understand why Jurrisman wanted this kept secret. Though I could not understand why he would hire someone to steal it back from the bandits as they are not likely to leave a trail back to him. Of greater concern to me was who hit the bandits, and why did they leave the one to die.
When we returned to town, Jurrisman had already been removed from the Library staff due to his downtime activities. Fortunately we had also retrieved a shipment of exotic spices which a local restaurant was happy to compensate us for.
So, this Worlds of Arcana is valuable? Or was it just more porn that we did not find? Either way at least one bandit met an end much worse than any deserved for what we found. I am not sure what to do about that. On the other side, there were 23 altered books, which means a few disappointed customers. There may be more work in either.

ottdmk
Posts:462
Joined:Mon Dec 12, 2016 10:25 pm

Re: AAR: [ECR2] The Stolen Books of Throal (2020-05-03 @ 21:00 GMT GMT)

Post by ottdmk » Sun May 17, 2020 4:07 am

The Great Library of Throal thanks Garen, S'tillantre, Torgun and Reyis Poriv for their contributions. +40 Legend, +50 sp.

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