Part 26

We're on our way to Longsaddle, but a trip through the countryside wouldn't be complete without a quest-related encounter.




"Well, this is awkward. But it's nice to be recognized."

"Was this some kind of trick to lure us into the camp circle and ambush us? Because that's really what it looks like."

"Rumors! That's all it is!"

"But it's true! It's there -- due east of the bridge over the Dessarin."

"Oh no, don't mind us. By all means just keep talking amongst yourselves."

"Head straight south on the river from Yartar. Go through the hills until you reach the bridge. Then go east. If you go there, remember this: seek the least likely exit, for it is only through it that you shall ever leave."

"That was oddly specific… I hope someone was taking notes."

"My note is that we should leave here before the remember their initial ambush plan and forget who we are."



Eventually we reach Longsaddle, which is actually far north of Yartar and Triboar. We actually had to walk past about three other locations to get here, which makes the whole thing even funnier.



"Ugh. I'd say that this is a one horse town, but I'm pretty sure that what I just stepped in is evidence that there's actually a number of horses here."

"I don't know enough to tell the difference between types of manure…are you sure that's not cowshit?"

"There's a livestock market over there. If it'll end this conversation more quickly, we can go over there and count."



"I'm a city girl and not familiar with these small town markets, but do they normally involve death threats and shouting?"

"Only in the most extreme cases, and usually not in closed off rooms where nobody can see the participants. We should probably look into it."



"Aww man, there's only five of them? I'm starting to feel like a bully."





"So your main objection was that they weren't paying you enough? Or did they want to lower the price all the way to 'free'?"

"Eh, either way we'll be doing the entire region a favor by removing them."



"Wait, why does a little ranch town out in the middle of nowhere have its own bell caster?"

"Perhaps the cows are hard of hearing and they need extra large bells to call them in?"



"That answered none of our questions, and only added more."



"Well, I dunno. I reckon I might. Then again, I reckon I might not. Why don't you tell me, neighbor?"

"Why are you talking like that?"

"I… I don't know."



"I'm not sure if that means that there are Krakens here, or if they're just offended by your instinctive attempt at hayseedery."



It's not just Krakens, there are also clerics of Bane, Host Tower Sorceresses, and the new and distinctly unimproved Luskan Spy. The clerics are actually the biggest threat, since they're spread out enough that it's difficult to keep them all pinned down. They love hold person spells, so it can quickly spiral out of control.



"Did my sarcasm confuse you somehow?"

"I just hope this doesn't turn out like the whole thing about the Waterdeep guards."



"How much do you have to pay a rancher so they'll let you build a new basement under their house and fill it with monsters?"

"We could get a quote if you're really that curious, but I doubt it's likely to come up for a normal person."



Despite the picture, there are in fact no griffons under the basement. Instead we get a huge pile of cockatrices and harpies, which is a RNG accident waiting to happen. Luckily cockatrices have horrible THAC0s and have about a 5% chance to even hit our characters.



"I guess feeding all of those monsters would get a bit pricey, and we've already seen that they're cheap about housing them."



"We didn't see any of those down there. Are you sure about that?"

"Well, I though they were going to eat me and then the other monsters ate them."

"Gruesome."

"But hey, I bet Legson's in trouble with them Krakens, too. His ranch sits up north o' the Harpell's Mansion."

We have no idea where any of those places are, but this town isn't big enough to get lost in."

A few minutes later...



"Excuse us, is this the Legson Ran… uh, I'll take that as a no."



"What is it with you people and monster pits in the floor? Is this just a thing you do out here in the country?"



"How many of them did they have packed in that cellar? I know they're monsters, but I actually can't blame them for being pissed off."



This fight's a bit tricky due to there being two groups of monsters. In addition to the group (two offscreen) glimpsed here, there's actually four other ones keeping our front lines. They're more than capable of wrecking your magic users if you don't realize they're there, but if you get off a couple of fireballs that's all she wrote.



"Oh sure, you're out here now… it works a lot better if you stab them before they're dead, you know."

"Them beasts is more than we can handle. Thanks for getting' back our ranch!"




"And what am I, chopped liver?"

"Oh honey, I don't mean it like that! You're uh… you're getting there!"

"Thank you. Now, let's go knock on his door and ask him why he hasn't fixed this if he's so great."

"How is it that somebody who grew up in a forest is familiar with who the greatest wizards on the Frontier are?"



"Oh, that's quite alright. We'll just make ourselves at home until he returns."

"We're on business for Amanitas of Secomber, if the name rings any bells."



"You probably should have just pretended nobody was home. We'd have left after a few minutes… now we're just going to have to kill you all. Well, except for that guard."



A very strange assortment of enemies, although Galen's sword is just as effective against the greater margoyles as the lesser. The key to this one is getting to the spell casters in the back before they start interfering. Unfortunately the quarters are a bit close for our group spells.





"They could be attempting to start a business in alternate meat sources for the discerning customer, but somehow I don't think that's the case."

"Now that you mention it, weren't we trying to find a ranch that was past this mansion? We should probably get on with that."



"I'm glad you all have decided to dispense with the shenanigans and just skip right to the point where we kill you."



"Be careful if you down in my cellar here. They got some girl-birds down there that'll tear you to shreds in no time."

"You people keep warning us about the things in the cellars, but it's not like you've got any other way of dealing with them. You're just lucky we're not charging you for this."



"Personally I'm starting to suspect that the harpies were already here and the Krakens were just taking advantage of the situation."



"Flattery will get you everywhere with us."

"You know, I seen them Krakens heading' west across town to the Big Star Ranch. Bet the boys over there are needin' your help right now!"

"And it'll send us everywhere around town, evidently."



"I don't know why, but I think we've found it."



"They're after my calves! The back door! Hurry! Oh… and thanks. Thanks a lot!"

"You mean they haven't gotten a chance to build a monster filled basement under your house? Well, this is just our lucky day."



"You guys are the worst villains I've ever seen. You're supposed to slaughter the people and steal the cattle, not slaughter the cattle and steal the people!"

"I, and the cattle, am devoutly grateful that their intentions involved only killing and theft as opposed to some other practices frequently performed by raiders."



"We might take you up on that. Sorry that they'd gotten a few of your cattle."

"I take mine medium-rare, just so you know. So, is there anywhere else they might be hiding out?"

"Didn't we pass a ranch on the way in to town? They probably didn't even get a chance to let somebody know they needed help."

Ten minutes later...



"Good job, the lot of you. If more people took care of their own problems like this we wouldn't be nearly as busy."

"We got these squidders. Maybe you adventurer types know what to do about the barn."

"Generally I either ignore them, sleep in them, or burn them to the ground. Somehow I don't think you want us to do any of those things."

"Considerin' what's in there, you might could go with the third one."



"I think this is where they kept all the extras… lucky for us that the men who were turned into statues slowed down their exit."



This isn't even the whole of it, as there are a couple more cockatrices and harpies that aren't visible in this shot as well as some griffins. It's enough to keep us from just doing an end run around the cockatrices and sending a lightning bolt down the row, but there's enough space off to the side to send a fireball and clear out a few.



"Guess these Krakens couldn't handle their own monsters! You may not be from here, but you sure handle yourselves good in a fight!"

"Well, I don't mean to toot our collective horn but we are pretty well known for it."







"If you'd been here to deal with it, we probably could have went to go deal with some of those plots in the meantime."

"Don't mind him. He swallowed something that disagreed with him."



"I guess at some point you get to just show up with treasure once all the dust has settled and the monsters are dead. Speaking of which, I found a piece of paper that looked interesting."



"Hmm… this could go a long way toward repairing our damaged reputations, and we are fairly well regarded in Neverwinter. Perhaps this would be worth a trip."

Character Snapshot





With the experience from this area Vermunt has gone up to 5th level spells, meaning we now have access to cure critical wounds and can raise our own dead, should it become necessary. The treasure from Harpell is a wand of lightning bolt and a ring of protection that is pretty redundant for our purposes. Other than that our rewards were mostly cash, which has been disposed of in the vault.

Next update: We start heading after pirates, and take quite a bit of a detour.