Nighty Knight
Summary
GM: Jacqui
Season: Winter 826 WK
Night: Tuesdays
Location: Online
Level: Low-medium
Virtual Tabletop: Roll20
The Barony of Silverstream in Southern Ranke is over-run by hundreds of Church Knights.
They're causing all sorts of problems, and the Baron wants them to leave.
Your job is to make them go away - with as few bodies as possible.
This mission will require stealth, ingenuity... and comedy.
- Party
Scribe Notes
Day 1
There are three people hiring us: Flamis, a Guild Adventurer and Fire Mage; Witch Haggity - one of the local Witches; and Sir Roland Honare, representing the Baron of Silverstream. They had a bit of a squatter problem, or as some put it, an infestation. Michaeline Knights were loitering in the area and they are making rather a nuisance of themselves, by being boisterous in the pubs, throwing their weight around, and basically being really really annoying. And it seemed they weren't leaving any time soon. They were also being very anti witch meaning that the local witches couldn't there usual thing this time of year i.e. blessing the crops and the livestock without being harassed by the Knights. Some of the Witches were getting rather anxious and distressed about this.
Flamis also told us that tells us her eldest sister, Charity, now had the job of running the Bindery, is getting fed up with the Michaeline knights who, among other things, are interfering with the printing of certain books, claiming that they are 'offensive'. This included Fanny Ogg's Cookbook, a copy of which was in my pack. Sure, some of the humour in it could be a bit bawdy but I didn't see anything wrong in it. Maybe they were objecting to the lyrics of the Hedgehog Song being included. Anyway, Flamis concluded by saying that Charity says that f we get rid of the knights we can each have a book for free as part of our reward. I'm happy with that. It's not only Flamis's sister that has a problem. Her brother Geoffrey runs the local shrine for the Powers of Light and he believes that all the Powers should be treated as equal. However, the Knights keep insisting on redecorating the shrine to raise Michael to being more prominent that the other four which is upsetting the local Raphaelites and Gabrielites.
So we are tasked with convincing these Knights to leave and go home. However we need to get rid of them without killing them to avoid political and religious issues - such as an anti-adventurer crusade. Their captain is apparently especially annoying and he's headquartered himself in Silverstream.
The joint committee of 'Michaelines Go Home' are offering us 10k of goods each including special alchemy and amulets. They also give us 2k of witch hazel which is the equivalent of myrrh. I'll have some of that for my Greater thank you very much. Which I proceed to get (a Rank 7 Greater over all four areas) before standing in line for a 3 month Lesser Enchantment.
Once packed and ready to go, late evening, Flamis used her new Fire Gate ritual to send us from the fire in the Fire College to the cooking fire in her family's manor kitchen. The trip made us feel tired so I helped myself to the simmering stew in the cooking pot over the fire. Flamis then quietly conducted us to spare guest rooms as so not to wake anyone else up. For some reason Flamis handed Mario a cuddly toy.
Day 2
Purified, washed up and dressed in my adventuring clothes. Met Mario downstairs and we headed out to find breakfast in the local pub, which was run by a halfling bartender. Breakfast was delicious, sausages, bacon and eggs washed down with a mild ale. We asked about the Michaelines and were told they had been very rowdy last night and may be nursing horrible hangovers this morning. It was just then we heard the 'clank clank clank' of approaching men in metal armour. Yep. It was the knights, accompanied by squires and man at arms. The lead knight demanded breakfast for his men - in a rather rude and demanding manner. No please or thank you either. I was getting the impression that this lot considered themselves above everyone else and were acting as if they owned the place and that everyone should treat them accordingly. So I put on my best diplomatic face and went over to talk to them. They had been here dealing with threats but hadn't received orders to return home and believed they had to wait until such orders came down the chain of command. Until then, they were staying put. I did get the name of their captain in Silverstream until the lead knight said "We shouldn't be talking to you. You're a commoner". My response was "Well I'm a halfling. We are fairly common". He didn't think that was funny and sneered down his nose at me. I decided to leave but not before offering to entertain them that evening by troubadouring. Oh well. How hard can it be.
<<Session 2>>
After breakfast our first stop was the local Basilica, a round chapel to the Powers of Light. There I discovered that Flamis had done the stained glass work on the upper walls when they changed it from a four saint roof to a five saint roof to add in Sammael. I thought it looks rather nice and said so. The priest told us that the Knights have been hassling the more susceptible. Probably trying to convert them. I then left the priest and Mario to it and waited outside while Mario discussed his 'soul' problem. He came out with some instructions and a list of Virtuous Deeds he needed to perform.
As we left the chapel, we noticed the Knights go into the village to do Knightly things. It was obvious that people were deliberately trying to avoid them
Next stop was the Bindery where we met Charity and I obtained a copy get a copy of Fanny Ogg's Book of Baking, which the Knights wanted to suppress. I wasn't sure why until I saw the rather risqué limericks scattered through it. Mario got the Book of Sammael which was another book the Michaelines want to suppress. Now that was a bit odd so I obtained a copy of the Book of Michael and some texts on Michalines to study. As I said to Charity, in order to defeat one's enemy, one must know the enemy.
As we headed back to the Manor for lunch, while passing through the centre of Dottery, I found it curious that there Doesn't seem to be many women wandering about. Didn't see any Michaelines though, presumably they were in the guest houses where they were staying or out tilting at lists or whatever else Michaelines did.
Lunch was at the Manor. Lord DeValente was there as well as Flamis, Witch Petunia Allbright, Haggity and Sir Roland Honare. Some methods of getting rid of Michaelines including sleeping the lot and shoving them through a fire gate to Mordeaux. I objected to that one on the grounds that is someone was to do that to me, I'd come right back to find out why - and maybe with reinforcements. Petunia told us that she had until the next full moon in two weeks to get started of the Blessings otherwise there wouldn't be time to do the lot, which would take her weeks. And a lot of Restoratives. Could we distract the Knights while the Witches do their thing?
Since I was scheduled to perform that evening we went to the the tavern that evening for dinner. We saw the Knights come clanking in and loudly ordering their dinner. To my dismay we saw a squire pinch a barmaid's butt. Mario remarked that he didn't think that was proper Michalline behaviour. My reply was that it wasn't proper gentleman behaviour.
Anyway, after I had my dinner I perched on the table and sang songs of being home and coming home to loved ones while using my new techniques to weave in suggestions that it was time the Michaelines went home to their families etc And, it seemed to be taking effect for, next morning, we saw them all on horseback, heading north towards Mordeaux. We still planned to go to Silverstream and work on that Knight Captain later. I was also secretly relieved that no one asked me to sing the Hedgehog Song, even though I would have done it, but it may have started a riot.
Day 3
<<Session 3>>
I was actually pleasently surprised that worked but, as I ponted out to Sir Roland while we were having breakfast, that they were already predisposed to leaving, but just needed a nudge in that direction. Besides, it would be wrong to use that to comel anyone to do something against their will. While Sir Roland orghanised a barge to take us down river to Silverstream, with a stop over in Avonhithe we went back down to the Bindery and bought some more books to read.
So we sailed along the river with the current. I was talking to the captain on the rear deck when we spotted some floating logs ahead of us. The Captain commented that there should be some 'river rats' steering and escorting those logs but there was no sign of them. Suddenly the boat slowed nearly to a stop for some reason and Sir Roland spotted the goblins on both sides of the river waiting in ambush, just as two methane grenados landed on our deck, one from each side, followed by a volley of arrows. They were mostly aiming at Sir Roland, probably because he looked to be the biggest, toughest, and shiniest of us. Sir Roland got stunned by that but I retaliated with a rather powerful Frost Ball (the Ice College equivalent of a Fireball) that wiped out all but one of the goblins on the right bank. I was bouncing up and down in excitement and glee after that and got shot in the back by one of the goblins on the other side which hurt a lot as well as stunning me for a bit. Meanwhile Mario conjured up an instant wood golem, which I nicknamed 'Woody' which laid in to the left bank goblins.
And that's how it went. Once I recovered, I let loose another Frost Ball - and got shot and stunned again in retaliation while Mario conjured up two more wood golems. Sir Roland got stunned again but we were able to prevail and the two goblin survivors ran away. The 'River Rats were found tied up on the right bank and after looting the goblins and getting healed up by Witch Haggity, we continued on.
It was late by the time we arrived at Avonhithe but, as I said, 'It is better to be late than be known as the late'.
<<Session 4>>
Cargo was offloaded being grapes, wooden planks, and school books. The crew planned to sleep on the boat but we were whisked away by the local mayor, Goodman Styles. and taken to his house, an H shaped structure at the north end of town. Conversation and dinner was had and we discovered that Avonhithe was about fifty percent larger than Dottery. The Knights were also being a nuisance here and two of them were guarding Witch Mirabella's tower in an attempt to starve her out. The rest of them were at the Tipsy Toad, being the local tavern. The dinner was nice, especially the apple pie and the small beer to wash it down with. I offered to make ice cream to go with the pie but they weren't interested, especially since it was the middle of winter.
So after dinner, we went over to the tavern where I tried that same trick that worked at Dottery but it was soon evident that this lot wasn't budging, even though the innkeeper said they were bored, - at least until they had dealt with the witch. I tried to argue that these were good witches but they weren't having non of that. So I was feeling a bit stumped for ideas, and a bit despondent, at least until I felt a cat rubbing around my legs. It was Mirabella's cat and there was a note under it's collar asking us to meet Mirabella at the East Gate a couple of hours after dusk. So, that was what we did.
Mirabella led us into the woods outside town and told us she had an idea. All we had to do was to convince the Knights that the tower hadn't been lived in for ages and they were wasting their time. She offered to give me the key but I decided not to take it, as I didn't want to raise their suspicions and besides, I was fairly decent at picking locks. Mirabella had the magic so all I had to do was to let them in.
Day 4
So that's what we did. I went for a jog around town the next morning picking a path that led me past the tower. Sure enough there were two knights standing there. So I stopped and asked them what they were doing. 'Guarding the door so the Witch can't leave' one said. 'And those windows are too small'. I had to agree with that. Those windows may be a bit tight for me to get through. But it was obvious they didn't know about the trapdoor in the roof, not that I was going to tell them about that. So I offered to help them by picking the lock and let them in so they could search the place. The pair thought about it for a bit then one of them went off to fetch their captain from the inn.
I was a bit worried when the entire squad of Knights showed up but it was a simple matter to get the door open. The first thing that assaulted us was the smell of stale air, dust, and decay. Downstairs certainly looked like it hadn't been lived in for months. However, the Knights insisted on doing a thorough search, tossing the place and nearly turning everything upside down. Maybe we're going to have to stay and help Mirabella clean up. All this time, I was telling the Knights that witches were so sickly sweet that they were made of sugar and all you had to do was throw a bucket of water over them to kill them. And some witches lived in gingerbread houses to attract naughty children. By the Spirits these guys were gullible. If they really started throwing water at every woman wearing a pointy hat, all they're going to get is one very wet and angry witch.
Wasn't really much else we could do for the rest of the day. I got found by a bunch of children at lunch time, conducted to the school house "Look at what we found miss" and ended up telling them the story of a brave little hobbit who snuck into a land controlled by an evil sorcerer and threw a magic ring into a volcano, thus saving the world. My point being, it doesn't matter how little or weak you are, you can still do good deeds.
The Knights were still in town that night, so I decided to give them another 'little nudge' with songs like 'The Wicked Witch is Dead' and 'No One Mourns for the Wicked'.
Day 5
Next morning the Knights left town, on horse back, heading for Silverstream. We were going to take the barge.
<< Session 5 >>
It was an uneventful trip down the river and we arrived at Silverstream that afternoon. Sir Roland led us to the castle gates and I discovered that the guards were a tough crowd. Didn't even crack a smile at my puns. Sir Roland had spent the trip down giving us lessons on proper etiquette so I was reviewing those in my mind as well as what I had picked up in my training (like which knife goes with which course) when we approached two large double doors. We could hear arguing on the other side. Naturally, I moved to an appropriate spot to eavesdrop and, from what I could tell, the argument was between the Baron and the Micheline Knight-Commander. The Knight-Commander was claiming he had a vision from Michael himself and they weren't leaving until they had succeeded in their mission. He was raving on about the 'evil witches' and needing to eradicate them. Unfortunately, when the Knight-Commander stormed out of the room, I wasn't fast enough reacting and got a door in my face, which meant I ended up meeting the Baron with a hastily conjured icepack on the side of my face. Not exactly the best look.
Still, the Baron was pleased to see us, even though there were only two Guild Adventurers. I was just hoping we could be effective as it seemed like that Knight-Commander was going to be a tough nut to crack. Mario was being awfully quiet which worried me a bit, but he kept assuring me he was okay with me taking the lead as he was not really a 'people person'. So I did and we got right down to business. The Baron was happy we had cleared out Dottery and Avonhithe of Knights but as a bit concerned about the Avonhithe Knights coming here. That hadn't been my intention, but my current plan was to influence the Knight-Captain to leave and he'd take all the Knights with him. But, now I wasn't sure if that was going to work so I was at a bit of a loss.
Apparently, there's a small magic college here which they had to evacuate and the Baron wondered if I'd like to stay and teach as they don't have a representative of the Ice College. After this is done, I said I'd be quite happy to do that and learn the local culture. The Baron had the impression that the Knight-Commander was looking for something, some relic or other of Michael that had been lost and he was determined to find it 'for the Glory of the Order' - or something like that. He was also ranting on about armies of Gnolls coming south that they had to stay and deal with. If they wanted to protect Silverstream, shouldn't they be going up north then? I thought but ... that might have been an excuse for the Knight-Captain to hang around here. As I said to the Baron, something wasn't adding up.
"We need to take their current tents and make them past tents" - Mario
We had afternoon tea with the Baron - and yes, I managed to remember how to hold my teacup with the pinky finger in the right place. He said that Sir Roland and him were going to be really busy preparing for the investiture of Princess Cecilia, who was going to be the new Duchess of Ranke, in a month and a half, so they wouldn't be able to help us much. I could understand that as that was big news. The last issue of the Seagate Times was full of it. I had skipped most of it as I wasn't interested at the time, but now I was wondering if the Duchess might be able to put pressure on the Archbishop of Mordeaux to order the Knights out. The Baron believed that was a plausible idea, but we should leave that as a last resort as that could lead to political repercussions between Church and State in the Western Kingdom. There were also rumours in the Times that the Church was running out of money but none of us had any proof of that or how we could spin that to our own advantage without making things worse. The Baron was certainly interested in the news as there were stories about Ranke he hadn't even heard.
After that Footman (Flunky) Karl took us to the castle library. I was very interested in the globe of Alusia they had and informed the librarian, Madam Lucinda, that some Guild Adventures had been going around it and filling in some of the blanks. I ended up offering to send someone from Seagate to get their globe updated. We were then led to the secret room holding the special collection in the hopes we could find a clue into what the Knight-Captain could be looking for. This contained the unusual and rare books that were not to be removed under any circumstance.
So we spent the rest of the day, searching and reading. We did turn up pointers to several interesting items that Guild parties might be interested in finding like: The Great Sword of Dane; the Crown of Ice; Robes of Insight; Mace of Hazards; Throne of Xarexoth; Harp of Sleep; the Malleus Magicarum; and whaat we suspected was the object of the quest, The Blessed Weapon of Michael.
By dinner time, we were shooed out by the librarian. We reported to the Baron and had dinner with him, his family and Sir Roland.
Even after that, I still wasn't sure how we should proceed in this case so I decided we should consult with Granny. Besides, I wanted her advice. So we entered the magical cottage, which took us to Woody Hollow - which didn't have any Knights, as it was in a remote location, and told Witch Granny what was going on and what we had discovered so far. All she told me was that we should go north to Windermere and visit with Waverly Watt. So, that was what I decided to do. I also got my new baking book signed by it's author, Witch Fanny Ogg, who didn't seem surprised to learn that the Knights were trying to suppress it. "Killjoys the lot of them" she said as I helped her bake. "They don't understand rustic humour"
Back to Silversteam Castle where we spent the night. I was still feeling a bit out of sorts but at least we had an objective now.
Day 6
<< Session 6 >>
After a bit of debate whether or not to take the barge back up or get horses (a pony for me) we decided we were going to ride. Sir Roland wasn't coming with us this time. Instead we were given the loan of a Man-at-Arms, one Sergeant Tanner, a very large man, full of muscle, as well as a Ranger. (a really BIG boi - Witch Haggity remarked with a grin)). He obtained horses for us. I was on a rowan pony called Harebell, Mario rode Bobby Dazzler, a grey, Haggity rode a lighter grey horse named Lilyfoot while Tanner was on a big black named Cameron. We arrived back at Avonhithe by late evening. I did some entertaining but was somewhat disappointed no one wanted to experience hobbit folk dancing with me.
Day 7
I was in a miserable mood. Not helped by the rooster that crowed really early in the morning, and also failing to purify. Again it was an uneventful trip and we arrived at Dottery late afternoon. I didn't feel like imposing on the De Valiantes so we stayed at the Woodsman's Rest Inn, that was next to the tavern that we had been too. Flamis turned up there and was surprised to see us and gently chided me for not staying with them. I told her we were on our way to Windermere and would be leaving early. She mentioned that she might head up to Castleford and check out the situation there. I told her that Sir Roland had already left for there from Silverstream at roughly the same time we did. She reckoned even with a two day head start she'd get there first. I wasn't going to take that bet. Did a bit of singing for the crowd but that was about it. They weren't interested in acrobatic displays or anything like that.
Day 8
Went for a swim in the river, just because I could, being an ice mage. Witch Haggity watched from the bank but even the offer of a Resist Cold couldn't tempt her in. I also told her I used to swim under ice where I came from cause, as I put it, "I come from the land of the ice and snow. From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow". Still, it did the trick. Swam for half an hour for exercise then had breakfast. As I said to Mario, I'm used to swimming the lagoon when I'm at Pasifika nearly every morning.
Castle Carlaw wasn't too far away, but it was uphill most of the way on windy roads as we headed up into the a range of hills. There we met up with Witch Frederika, a dwarven lady, who was the village blacksmith as well. The Knights here didn't even suspect. From Captain Pevensey we were told that the Knights here were trying to be 'helpful' in dealing with incoming threats, but they kept getting in the way of the local militia who were trained for this terrain. Already there had been a few mountaineering accidents among the Knights. The Captain also told us they had already repelled one lot of gnolls just before the Knights arrived and, if we wanted to get all the Knights in one place, we should go to the Refectory during their dinner shift. I mentioned my ability to 'influence' them with my Troubadour skills but pointed out they would be more susceptible if they were a bit tipsy. The Lord just laughed and said that he could arrange for that to happen. I decided to ask no questions but I did have suspicions.
So, during their dinner, I gave a speech to the Knights and suggested it might be in their own best interests and also to impress their Knight Captain to go north to actually go find the gnolls using their imitative. It took a few nudges but I managed to get them to raise their tankards and cheer in enthusiasm at the idea.
Day 9
It was next morning when I discovered the one big flaw in that plan. The best way north was the road to Windemere, which meant the Knights would be following us. We left, as quickly as we could, to keep as far ahead of them as we could. The road was long and windy and there was still a lot of ups and downs, but then it became mostly down before we descended into forest before arriving at Grafcombe.
Mario and Tanner dealt to the horses as they were good at that while I went looking for their witch to warn her that I had inadvertently sent a bunch more Knights in their direction. I really hoped that those Knights would inspire the local Knights to leave here and continue up to Windermere. Grafcombe looked to be a halfling/human village and I discovered that their witch, who was a female halfling named Hardy Witherwick was in hiding. I really hoped that this plan would work as I stocked up on fresh halfling baked goods and went to find the others.
It was decided that it would be prudent not to stay in town as encountering the Knights might cause complications. So we camped in the forest on the Windermere side of the village. Fortunately nothing happened during the night.
Day 10
Breakfast was porridge, courtesy of Tanner but I did contribute some berries to go with it. It was actually rather good. Rode off and arrived at Windermere. Hopefully there would be an entire crusade of Knights behind us. Now we had to figure out what to do next.
