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Amherth Diaries, Session IV: Revelations

Shady and Liam went back to Tradeport while the others traveled to the Academy (Session III).
In town, they speak to "Woman's Legs", Liam's father and patron of the house Bluebarry. They reveal what really happened during the Summer's End party (the death of Hleib, the Merchant) and that they will go on until the truth will be revealed. The man is not that surprised, but it's obviously scared.


The idea of this being part of a greater scheme frightens him a lot, since during a meeting with all the greate personalities, he "felt" something weird going on while everyone used to scream against Randall Brim the Banker, helped by Diane Garret (the young "messenger" and Liam's Cousin).
Deposit taxes are getting bigger and it seems that the winter will be long. Too long.

Philip "Women's Legs" Bluebarry decides to remain silent and not to share anything about the murder.

In the meanwhile, the rest of the party coming back home gets ambushed by a Roc, with a "particular" rider: someone wielding a curious rod capable of delivering lightnings!
Cirice, our Shaman, notices the threat and casts silence. The beast fly above Gillian's (the Witch Hunter, aiming with his crossbow) head and almost kill him, while Elowen finishes the beast (usually not so aggressive) with her bow. The man dies and the party gets the misterious rod, which actually had the time to show a bunch of "sparks" instead of dangerous lightnings.
Good for them.



In Tradeport the party reunites and go to the adventurer's guild to ask Beatrice help for the plan you might remember from Session III: remove any curse the Matroni might have applied to the party and then go together to ambush the undead witch along with a couple of well prepared magic-users.
Beatrice is not that happy of the plan: she wants to help, but since she is a faithful priest of the Church of Law and Order, she doesn't want the mages help her in any way, especially if they want to cast something upon her (the plan is to cast invisibility on everyone, leaving just the party visibile, since the Matroni is waiting for them to come back in two nights, check session II).

In the meanwhile, Shady decides to go to Shamyr's house and investigate a bit more on the merchant's child. They bring her to the adventurer's guild and make some questions.
Something new arises.
It seems that even if the good ol' Hleib was basically a perfect man, a night not so far (less than one month before his death) he came back home completely drunk, telling her child to "stay calm and nothing will happen". He showed no worries in the next few days and his humor started to get better and better,.. until his death.


Beatrice, Priestess of Law and Order (Rangeth), Tradeport's Adventurers Guild Leader

What did he see/listen to? What pushed a calm and wise merchant to get extremely drunk and frightened and then misteriously calm until the day of its poisoning?
What does the small letter "quit the plan" that the adventurer's found in the back of the Blueberry's estate means in realation to his death?

It's pretty clear that someone is hiding more than usual. At this point in time, it is difficult to state if the Celemor/Morgane research (check session II / III) is actually part of the story of if this murder is actually realted to the common conspiracies in the Tradeport's guild wars, even if it never got so "harsh".

While invesigating on the matter, Shady remembers that they found a fur cloak in the merchant's bag the night of  his death. A small shoulder mantle with grey wolf fur. Shamyr doesn't have any clue about it, outside remembering a particularly cold night in the deserts of Al Sirath when his father used the mantle to warm her... And she swears to have slept the quietest of all nights.


Most of the days are spent to receover from the fight against the Roc and making theories about the homicide.
They believe Hleib saw something, got frightened and then (for some reasons) thought the danger wasn't real... until someone decided it actually was. Then there are the "assassins", the faces Shady saw whil mind reading the dead murderer (see Session I / II).

How are they involved in the story? Who's behind the murder?
And how does it (if it does in anyway) connects to the mysterious investigation of Celemor Greystone and Morgan Harrow about the stolen "relic"?

While focusing on these matters, the party decides to do the unthinkable: try to wear the fur mantle. Why not?

They ask Beatrice to use a cell in the Adventurer's Guild dungeon, since no one trusts the Shamyr version (I slept the quietest of all nights while wearing it)...

Everyone stays  out of the cell. Shady wears the fur...
Lights go down, slowly, devoured by growing shadows. Candles flicker through the air and project weird shapes...
Darkness is almost impossible to penetrate when a soft wind blows and the fear and cold suddenly leave place to a weird sense of serenity... Lights come back a bit, candles get stronger.

And while the shadows disspate, Shady is not there anymore.
Where the beautiful and cunning sorceress sat, a pair of yellow, glowing eyes appear.
Shady is now a great grey wolf!


See ya on session V, this week!

GM's Notes: playing classic B/X throught the well organized Labyrinth Lord rules is getting funnier and funnier. Players, as imagined, tend to be inventive and not to focus too much on their "powers". They try to get the best out of what they wear and possess, trying to save spells and other feats, concentrating on the history rather than on the "slaying" part of the tale (which is not negative by itself, obviously).
I like the way Advanced Edition Companion can be used to expand the GM's options without actually using: I allowed Elowen to be a pure Elf / Fighter (I didn't even need to open the AEC to do that) and the classes I created, found and adapted play smoothly and interesting (all merits to the B/X simplicity).

And Amherth is a well defined setting with lots of intelligent bits and gaps, to use and fill as you see fit. Insanely good in its being so "old school" and so easily hackable.

I really hope you like this adventure as much as we do.

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