Brass Balls

The group is split on opposite sides of Vintiver with Russel and Andana in Tarl Dale’s home and Garrick, Isaak and his two Templar Captors in the Inn. The group of brigands is large and seems well trained and is led by several powerful warriors including an unfamiliar sight in Ferelden, a Qunari. The leader of the brigands, a rather modest looking man dressed in mail and leather announces that Ser Russel has until Moonrise to surrender else they will burn down Vintiver one house at a time. When Wells, the elder templar walks out to reason with the man he is shot several times enough to take him out of any decent fight. The bandits announce teh same fate for anybody out in the open except Ser Russel. Andana goes scouting and is almost discovered by a mabari and the qunari sellsword. Meanwhile Isaak starts to make firebombs and annoys the templars some more, prompting them to call him out for his ‘brass balls’. THe Innkeeper and his family moved to the basement, hoping to escape any bloodshed. With things looking grave both groups of heroes start hatching plans.

Andana and Russel along With Tarl Dale plan to draw off enough of the score of ruffians to allow the others to break out. Meanwhile, Isaak and Templar Mara plan to take out some of the ruffians out back enough for the front door to be under less guard. The group in the Inn acts first but is quickly caught in a prolonged battle in the back while the bandits set fire to the front of the Inn. The battle rages on despite Andana’s attempt to distract them and just when things looked grim, the injured Wells and his greatsword join in the melee, wearing down the bandits one by one. The bandits, however had the advantage of numbers so at long last Isaak has to unleash his carefully kept secret array of spells in front of the templars to keep them in the battle.

Meanwhile Russel and Tarl Dale were making their way towards the woods chased by a group of bandits on horseback. Splitting up the two try to separate the bandit group but the pursuers, led by the Qunari and his warhound all go for Tarl Dale. Russel manages to catch up to the bandits before the Qunari had a chance to kill Dale and challenges him to battle. The ensuing battle is gruesome with Russel dealing powerful and well calculated blows but receiving terrible ones in return. In the end a poor swing from the Qunari opens him up to a powerful finishing strike from Russel. The battle rages on with Russel and Tarl Dale Increasingly injured until Russel scares off the two remaining archers. Tarl Dale is relieved and congratulates Ser Russel, just as the two retreating archers sink a powerful arrow straight through his chest.

Rushing to join the fight Andana is waylaid by another Dalish, a mercenary working for the bandits. Tensions were high and it looked like battle was imminent but Andana lowered her weapons and persuaded the Dalish to walk away, telling him she worked for a good shem deserving of her loyalty, unlike him. The elf walked away but not before giving andana his fine crafted Dar’Misu as a reward.

The battle in the village raged on and it looked like the battle was almost lost with the inn burning down and the Bandit leader ordering his remaining troops to firebomb the inn further. Fortunately Isaak stepped out of the flames like a revenant and hurled his own makeshift oil-bomb at the bandits. The bottle seemed to miss the target but Isaak detonated it with his elemental mastery in mid air, further igniting the grenade in the Bandit Lieutenant’s hand and causing a chain explosion. The townsfolk, led by Coalan, were already breaking down the inn door to try to save the people inside. Isaak used his magic to tear down one of the stone walls and everybody escaped out alive, Isaak even coming out with a large jug of wine and a big grin on his face. He started healing the injured magically but still had enough for a massive, miraculous healing spell when Russel appeared with the stabilised but still gravely injured Dale. By morning the injured and the party had been taken to the small chantry building to rest and the fire had been extinguished.

The next day Russel gave some money to the Innkeeper and promised to send him more come spring and the heroes rested for a full day. Resupplied and ready they prepared for the gruelling trip southwards through mostly uninhabited lands.

The trip was quite taxing with the blizzard tormenting them constantly and prompting foul dreams in both Isaak and Garrick,for the latter compounded by Ser Russel’s mischievous propensity towards ghost stories. After about a week of hard travel through rough countryside the heroes reached the isolated farmstead where they had once bartered for supplies. It was now abandoned mysteriously. the group carried on southwards for another week wit hthe party mood increasingly foul. When they reached the Arling of Voychek Neruda though the horses found a path that led the heroes straight to the site of Russel and Isaak’s battle with the darkspawn to save Neruda’s children. Russel retold the story with great panache, raising morale a bit then the group took the road that would soon bring them to the seat of the South Hills Arling, Stenhold. On the road they came across a traveling merchant and stopped to peruse his wares…

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1400 xp

Andana, Garrick, Isaak – 65 SP each
Andana – Masterwork Dar’misu, 4 Fire Bombs (3d6)
Russel – Qunari Greatsword, Warhorse