By His Most Obedient Servant (whenever Loki is actually watching), Varin
Cadmus, not wanting to leave his grandfather in the lurch, having disposed of two attempted kidnappers, told Red everything about himself-ie. He is Varin, a famous member of the Hand of Loki-and asked Red to come with him to visit the Captain of the ship the sailors were from so as to discuss what could be done. Red caused a distraction on deck, while Varin landed on the deck, transformed into his human form and swung in through the rear windows into the captain's cabin. He tumbled over the furniture, grabbed the captain, and suggested, in his melodious voice of DOOM, that surrender would be a very good idea. The captain agreed. Varin suggested that kidnapping people was not very nice, especially when the kidnappee had a relative who knew a guy who knew Varin, the Serpent of Loki. The captain agreed. Varin pointed out that for his time and trouble, he would be appropriate some small amount from the captain in return for leaving him alive to deliver a message for him to the pirate king. The captain agreed.
Varin wrote a letter suggesting that Pirate King not attempt to kidnap friends of friends of his. If the pirate king disagrees with this proposition, Varin is more than happy to attend him and help convince him otherwise. However, Varin is certain things would never come to that, us being reasonable fellows. Of course, Varin is more than happy to discuss other things with a reasonable fellow in the future-politely and civilised.
Varin signed and sealed the letter, the captain agreeing to not read it, leave immediately and deliver it personally. Overall, things went well.
Varin felt the captain to be an honest and accommodating fellow who readily admitted his mistakes and was happy to agree that he had made a small error and that he would not bother Conrad again. Varin later sold the loot and researched options for some magic items.
Cadmus gave Red a share of loot, which was returned so Cadmus could buy himself a new sword. Nice guy, Red.
Back to Session Nine
The Baron decided to raise funds by 'selling' the captain's ship to the harbourmaster while telling the captain that he was 'renting' it for 50 pounds. Unfortunately, he then left Cadmus to work out the details. On discussion with the harbourmaster, Varin determined that it would be easier, and more profitable, to simply sell the ship for real. He had little trouble getting the harbourmaster to pay 110 pounds for the ship-which he intended to use to take refugees a few days away, dump them, then come back and get more-a clever but morally repugnant little scheme which Varin thought amusing. So he decided to help. First, he organised the agreement of those sailors on the ship Cadmus knew would be amenable to working for a different master at higher pay, then he convinced the captain and two other, less-amenable sailors to come with him and Red to get paid. Bringing Red turned out to be Varin's first real mistake.
Having led these men to a dark warehouse 'where the harbourmaster was working', and carrying the only light source, Varin dropped the light and killed two and wounded one. Red, confused and not nearly as helpful as Varin had hoped, tried to save one, asking ridiculous questions about why we should kill these men. Surely, he exclaimed, we could let this one sailor go-as though it would not be bloody idiotic to let free a man who knew Cadmus by name and had just been wounded by him and had his companions murdered by him! Keeping calm, Varin gave Red some twaddle about it being for the greater good of the world, we must sacrifice some for the good of the many, blah blah blah, until the sailor Red was protecting bled to death. Then Cadmus apologised profusely to Red, agreeing that his idea of a non-violent solution was probably better-and indeed it might have worked, but not past the first sword stroke by Varin. Then it was too late.
Anyway, Varin then collected 110 pounds from the harbourmaster, pocketed 10 as his fee, and went back to the Baron, providing his new partner with the money and the ship's cargo, which was unloaded and sold for another 10 pounds.
The next night, after the harbourmaster's new ship had sailed, Varin dropped off a note and symbol at the harbourmaster's office-because it was funny to balance out his nasty little scheme and ensure that some of his ill-gotten gains were given back to the poor. The note read: “Today a serpent saw you profit from the fear of innocents. Normally I would be amused. Today, you disgust me. Let me share the fear with you. I shall keep my eye on you-so share the wealth with the poor. If I come past and find that you have not-you shall share your blood with the worms. Varin, the Serpent of Loki.”
Back to Session Eleven
It seemed like the next few days would be just another quick bash and slash, followed by more wandering towards an army we wanted to take over, yet it became far more fun and interesting - thank Loki.
With our guard being scythed down, most of us awoke and immediately sent retribution towards those who had broken into our dreams. With both sides being armoured, this caused less damage than could have been hoped for, yet Thodric showed his mettle with the scum he was facing, knocking him unconscious. Then, brilliantly, appropriately and humorously, he pushed Riso-who was attempting to prevent the idiot attacker's death-out of the way and coup de graced the teleporting fool.
The other attacker paused to pay attention to me, and paid for his action when Red grabbed him and I disarmed him. Thodric, amusingly, cuffed him. We tied him up, looted the bodies - much to the greedy enjoyment of us all - and then tried to interrogate him. Unfortunately, whatever the Baron did cause the elf's brain to dribble out his ears - which caused much surprise among most of us, who had little realised, or even suspected, that elven heads actually contained brains.
The next day consisted of dull trudging, but then we came across that damn Seer again. Fortunately, this time I had little reason to need him silent, so I let him blather on. Indeed, it turned out to be quite funny - though it will cause some problems, on which I will have to think.
Most of the secrets of my current friends were let loose - some surprising; others, well, interesting, but who really cares? Constantia is a dark elf sorceress and the elves are attempting to wipe out humans? Well, that should spice things up for a while. The hive queen is trying to escape, not kill everything? Huh. At least that solves one problem. The Duke of Bayern is in league with the elves? Great! Looks like I have way to stop my skills getting rusty. Riso is a elf? Yawn.
On the plus side, I saw this bout of Seer-borne truthfulness coming and managed to get Thodric - or, should I say, Theodoric, an ex-ruler - to give his word to the Baron and I that for our help he would not attempt to do any of us harm for any past actions or associations we may have had. Just in time, too, as the cry of “Baaaaaastaaaard!” echoed from the Seer's wagon. Red, it appeared, had just found out my earlier manipulations.
So I stole his device, gave it to my god, gave him back a fake and ensured the group chased figments of my imagination rather than suspecting Cadmus. You'd have thought I'd done something really bad. It's not like I killed him and ate his corpse in front of his family. He took it all better than expected I guess, but, really, what did he expect? It's not like he didn't know who I worked for. Still, he's a nice guy most of the time, if too prone to moralising over irrelevancies. I should probably work out a way to calm him down…
Anyway, the Baron, Riso and I got together to design a poison to knock off Constantia. However, we needed one item from the Wood Elves, whom our new cloaks fortunately gave us quick access to. So Riso and I took off to get it. we should be back soon.
Actually…with the poison in hand and Thodric wanting to smash rather than sneak, I may not come back for a bit. I can be more useful looking up the Duke of Bayern - and I may try to find Red's device and whoever in the Hand played me. I mean, it is fair enough to play me, but that does not mean I have to like it or put up with it. So, yeah…once Riso gets us back with the stuff, I may dump him and head to visit a Duke. My rep could do with that sort of kill…
Back to Session Twelve
Back to Session Reports