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From day 3 of meeting up, reaching Wendar was their ultimate target. A few months later, a few losses and some additions and the party reaches its destination. Wendar proves to be a truly magical place, full of promises and potential. Safety for the weary, help for the needy and adventure for the keen.
Upon arriving Ghondar makes some lame excuse and is off on his own. The prolific, helpful, generous, resourceful, friendly, cheerful and master of many a talent leader(?!) will be missed sorely. Even more so than Morlaf.
The Misfits reach the capitol and head straight for the first inn they can find that serves alcohol! Their plans to stop there for a few days is actually helped, for once, by a country-wide, devastating, rapidly spreading, deadly PLAGUE!
They get temporarily restricted in the inn by the curfew where they mingle with the locals. Lawrence’s charisma plays havoc once more with the heart of a bar maid with more questionable looks. Braylec soon makes acquaintances with a fellow fighter from the city. When the curfew is lifted, guards arrive to explain the situation. While all this is going on the more observant amongst them notice a slightly weird, bald person dressed in heavy but otherwise very drab garments. He seems to be loitering around them a little too much for comfort. With more important things on their minds they decide to have a chat with the guards. Having the full magnitude of the disaster described to them in full detail they decide to offer a hand.
Lawrence regrets being generous with the balding person as he follows them around everywhere. He seems like an old monk of sorts that appears to be blind. On the other hand the fighter they met at the inn, has fighting skills as well as local knowledge of people and places that will turn out invaluable. Titus tags along as well. The Misfits are up to mischief once more!
First stop the guard barracks were they offer help, get given some kit and advice as well as pointed in the direction of the northern most inn called "the Crippled Duck" where the plague started from and spread. The Crippled duck has been burned to the ground though, by the local people in a mad, blinded panic. As Jutiapa reminds them though, the dead do speak sometimes and they decide to investigate further. A badly deformed corpse has some papers on it. Jutiapa heads up stairs where the badly burned floor boards offer little support and she starts plummeting to the ground. Fortunately the not-so-blind monk is close by and with deftness that defies his age he grabs her softly but safely.
While Lawrence and the monk chat (or Lawrence talks and the monk listens) Titus and Thanodel have already sniffed out the alcohol and head into the cellars. There they get attacked by some starving, crazed rats. Their combat prowess however soon slices them up and leaves only the worry of copiously splattered rat’s blood as a reminder of the plague.
Eventually they all head downstairs soon where a hidden door has been found. All attempts to open it fail until Jutiapa’s rat (Quokkapox, for those interested!) brings a key it has found. With the party downstairs, the monk is still upstairs and is soon attacked from behind by 3 unknown dark figures. That proves fruitless as the monk deftly ducks and weaves in rapid, weaving, hypnotic patterns attempting the fight off his cowardly attackers. Mastering the hypnotic "Mongoose style" fighting from an early age the monk is doing well against all 3 of them. Within seconds though, the grievous wounds he is suffering send him reeling, unconscious to the black ground. Fortunately he rolls like a sack of potatoes downstairs where the rest of the party are. By now the door has been opened and the Misfits + monk make a lucky get away and into some foul smelling sewers. Just as well as the cellar to the burned out "Crippled Duck" is once more on fire! The Misfits make it out alive and head straight to the temple of Erandul to find the high cleric Amatrea to help with the almost dead monk and to convey information and what they found.
On the way there Thanodel gets his pocket’s picked and although the pick pocket is never caught, Thanodel does not forget an enemy’s face very easily. Gradually the monk recovers, while the rest of the party widens its search pattern. This time it encompasses weird artefacts found on day one, detailed maps of the sewers and the city, the half parched documents found on the body in the "Crippled Duck", more adventuring equipment, rummaging through badly messed up corpses in the morgue, and many other grim stuff. The monk picks herbs from the garden of the temple, while Lawrence pulls (again) and manages to wangle a couple of tickets to a ball full of dignitaries.
Things are rapidly getting worse though. This becomes evident when a Gigantic Golden Dragon flies overhead and lands to have a chat with the most dignified people of Wendar. This could only mean more trouble. The death toll is now approaching 3 figures and Jutiapa with Braylec are detained … in the Glantrian Embassy for reasons as of yet unclear.
Fortunately in this medley of madness, panic and blinkered stubbornness, the stoic wisdom of the unnaturally fast-healing monk, is an island of sanity that will soon, hopefully engulf the party and possibly the usually happy capitol of Wendar…
In Brief:
Having left Wretched Moldavia, the forests offer very little obstruction to the experienced adventurers and soon they reach Wendar. The loss of Morlaf and Gondar is made worse by the addition of Titus and …a monk! Together, united under the flag of "diversity" they attempt to help the country of Wendar in dire times. An almost magical plague is giving the kind people some serious grief. The healers and clerics are worked off their feet and the death toll is rising rapidly. When 4000 year old Great Wyrm Golden Dragons fail to help, who ya gonna call?
THE MISFITS!