Episode 21A: Well it seemed like a good idea at the time

OK, last we saw this bunch they were in the encampment of the humans ousted from the town of Warwick. The not friendly were-wolves are in control of the town of Warwick. The cast of this tale is:

Vohn, the Kobold Gunslinger whose attitude far exceeds his size

Malek, the Tiefling Magus, quietly lofting magic via his arrows towards our combats

Meghan, the half-Drow Druid wondering what on earth she's gotten herself into

The current Mayor of the encampment has sent for the local contingent of military and has put a plan together to blow the walls of the town when the military arrives to end the siege. He's informed the party we must take these bombs to the smithy and the armory to fill with gunpowder and where to place them. What could go wrong?

Oh wait, the Paladin! So yes, he's insisting that we escort the friendly were-wolves to a safe place (the bandit camp). These are folks who are were-wolves but not aggressive toward the humans, but the humans also will not accept.

So we split the party, in half. Meghan wrote a long note to Shinara detailing the Paladin's plans to rescue the friendly were-wolves and where he's taking them, the fact that we're planting bombs in the town, and that there's an army on the way. All to happen in 4 days time. She didn't leave anything out. And come nightfall we put the plan into motion.

The escort mission consists of Thonk, Lutor, and Fizzledorp. They formed up, and took off to grab the were-wolves who were waiting in the tree line to escort them to the bandit cave ... completely missing the fact that there are 5 bombs to carry and only 3 people left. Well, 2 1/2, Vohn is sub 3' tall and around 25 pounds.

The explosives mission is Vohn, Malek, and Meghan. We're decent on sneak, kind of bad on strength, but do have someone with us that knows their way around gun powder. We, however, do not have the capabilities to haul 5 good sized pipe-bombs to the town in any sort of efficient manor. After a bit of arguing back and forth, we decide to head to one of the farms near by and see if we can borrow a horse. Malek, the Tiefling, is like we're not exactly going to charm them into giving us a horse. Meghan, who uses her glamor to appear human in public like this, states she'd like to give it a try.

When we get to the farm, there's no people around. None. Anywhere. There's some horses though, probably basic plow horses, but horses nonetheless. So Meghan scoops up some sweet feed in one hand, grabs a halter and lead in the other, and walks into the pasture like she knows what she's doing. And succeeds in her ability to handle animal, makes friends with a horse she decides to call Joe.

Vohn and Malek, seeing her success, duck into the barn to see if there's some way of rigging up the horse to carry these contraptions. They come back with leather strapping and a saddle blanket. So Meghan leads Joe back into town, we rig up a strap with a bomb on either side and lay the strap across the saddle blanket on Joe, nice and balanced. Then we walk right out and head back to where the tunnel entrance is.

We were able to get Joe to follow us into the tunnel all the way to the steep stairs up to the Mayor's Mansion. That was not something he was going to be able to do. So we lugged them that last little chunk, tucked them into a less used room, and covered them with the blanket. The information given to us states that the not friendly were-wolves were ignoring the mayor's mansion so they should be relatively safe.

Then we took Joe home, with a brief stop near an orchard to grab an apple for him, and returned to the mayors mansion. We kept the straps though, and then proceeded to discuss how to get this task done. Vohn, being our gunpowder expert, felt that the smithy may have enough powder to fill up to 2 bombs, but that we shouldn't plan on that. There's too many variables.

The Mayor's Mansion is in the south-west corner of the town. The smithy is in a group of buildings towards the south-east area. Two of the points the new Mayor wants us to blow are along that south wall of the town, one is the actual gate, one is in a tree line kinda near to the Mayor's Mansion. The new Mayor also swears up and down that these are controlled explosions to just take out the fencing and not people.

So the three of us on the explosives mission decides to have Meghan turn into a wolf and use one of the straps to put two bombs on her back. Then they'd all sneak over to the smithy, fill them both with gunpowder, then sneak to the south gate and then over to the tree line then back to the Mayor's Mansion before daylight.

That's the plan anyway.

Execution got off to a rough start. Malek took the lead, to scout ahead, then Vohn and the wolf followed along at his signal. Malek's first stealth up to a nearby house on the southern most road however took a turn. He managed to trip on a rock and go flipping end-over-end. Made a bit of a ruckus, dumped arrows and sundries on the road. And got the attention of the two were-wolves guarding the Mayor's Mansion. After a moment of us all holding our breaths, we realize the were-wolves guarding the Mayor's Mansion were some of the subversives gathering information. While we're relieved, the were-wolves are not impressed.

So Malek then, after gathering his belongings, decides to cast a spell on Meghan to increase the wolf's stealth. It's a touch spell, so he decided it'd be a great idea to pet the wolf. The wolf expressed herself by growling, and then disappearing into the wind to sneak up on the smithy. Vohn and Malek followed and we all made it to the smithy in one piece.

To find it locked. And not a one of us are a rogue. So while Vohn was fiddling with the door, Meghan walked up to Malek, head bonked him, walked over to the window, stood up on her hind legs and head bonked the window. So Malek inspected the window, it too is locked. Vohn attempts to pick the lock on the door but fails miserably, breaking it probably permanently. So Malek goes to the window Meghan head bonked, wraps his arm in his cloak, and proceeds to bust out the window. He then could reach in and unlatch the window. It only opens about 12" wide though. Thankfully, Vohn is a smaller fellow, so he got nominated to go in.

He then walked over to the broken door, confirmed he can't get it to open from the inside, and went to the other door and opened it. As we were going in, Meghan noticed that there was a patrol heading their direction, so once we were inside she moved to the window and paced a bit. Vohn figured out we should close it and did so carefully so more glass didn't fall out.

Malek then stood guard while Vohn found the black powder barrel. Vohn is a gunslinger so he knows his way around explosives. More so than Meghan or Malek. Meghan realized that Vohn's diminutive size was going to make loading the bombs on her back difficult, so she laid down in front of the barrel. He proceeds to load up both bombs. She stands up and kinda huffs a bit and settles the strap a bit better ... this is a lot of weight.

Vohn realizes there's enough material in the barrel for a third bomb (we only have two with us) so him and Malek load up two pails with the rest of the gun powder. However they are heavy, and Meghan's the strongest of this bunch. Vohn would struggle, but Malek could carry one. So Meghan reaches down and picks one handle up in her mouth and huffs again.

So the plan has now changed a bit, since we have enough for 3 bombs. Now we are to dash to the wood line across from the smithy and stash the pails for future retrieval, then plant the bomb on the south wall near the gate, then go up to the north east corner, then come back to the pails and grab them and return to the Mayor's Mansion. If all that goes smoothly, fill a 3rd bomb and take it to the trees behind the Mayor's Mansion. Getting to the tree line across from the smithy was fairly easy and we scuffled up some leaves etc to kinda disguise the pails.

The first problem is there are not-friendly were-wolf guards at the south gate. Now, there is a pile of debris nearby, but we'd be in full view of these guards. So Malek made himself and Meghan invisible, puts a hand on her shoulders, and we trot over to the pile of debris. Which mostly worked, but all the dust made Meghan sneeze. The guards of course heard it and looked around, but didn't see anything. And really, a wolf sneezing in a town controlled by were-wolves isn't exactly a surprise.

So we continue on to the pile of debris and Malek goes to retrieve one bomb. He kinda grunts at the weight of it and almost drops it, but manages to not do so. Meghan would really rather not be wolf-pate. As he's freeing this bomb from the leather strap, Meghan puts her front leg/paw through the loop of leather that previously held the bomb so that the other one wouldn't fall and clatter. Malek puts his hand back on Meghan, and they return to Vohn.

It was then decided that invisible Meghan would run like mad to the north east corner as she's fast when not quite so encumbered. Malek and Vohn will follow along at their pace and be as stealthy as possible. Vohn is not invisible, and Malek's invisibility will run out before they catch up with Meghan.

So Meghan took off running full tilt down this lane, invisible, with a bomb on her back. Unfortunately there was also a guard patrol coming down the lane. She's so far out of her element she's not sure what to do so she slides over to the edge of the lane and just keeps running. The guard patrol realizes they're hearing running paws, and one even drew his sword, but they're baffled and fail to figure out what's going on. She keeps running, makes it to the tree line in the north east corner, goes behind a tree and lays down close to the ground to not attract attention before the invisibility spell wears off. She settles in and keeps a watchful eye out but doesn't see anything seriously weird, but there is a lot of activity around the market for being the middle of the night.

Malek is invisibly trying to stealth up the east side of the lane, kind of keeping pace with Vohn while Vohn stealths up the west side of the lane. This mostly works for the first portion of the trek, but then Vohn accidentally kicked some trash. And then a patrol comes into sight, so Vohn ducks around the corner and under some outdoor stairs.

I'm not sure if Vohn is cursed tonight or what, but as he ducks under the stairs, a cat appears and starts meowing incessantly. Then, the cat scampers off ... to be replaced with a dog. The dog starts barking at Vohn. So Vohn starts finding tidbits of food in his pack and trying to befriend the dog.

Malek, realizing Vohn is pinned down but not in harm's way at the moment, continues his stealthy trek up the east side of the lane. He only makes it 3/4 of the way to where Meghan is hiding before his invisibility wears off. He freezes for a moment to assess the situation, then continues to stealth his way to the trees.

Now that Meghan and Malek are visible, it's easier to meet up. She briefly thought about not responding, she's quite miffed at this whole situation, but she got up and followed him over to the fence line to plant this bomb. It looks like this section is a bit rotted or older, so it may come down easier, bomb or not. Malek though manages to fumble the bomb a bit getting it off of her back, and it hits the ground with a thump. After realizing she wasn't wolf-pate, there was another disgruntled huff.

Using the leather strapping with Meghan pulling and Malek pushing we were able to slide this thing into its appropriate place, and then Meghan proceeds to dig at the pine needles and dirt to conceal the bomb. Then Malek leads Meghan back down the east side of the lane, again attempting to be stealthy.

Meanwhile Vohn has made friends with the dog so it's no longer barking, so he tries to get away and back to the tree line where we hid the pails of gun powder. So Vohn gave him another tidbit and gave the dog a sit command, which worked. What didn't work is when Vohn got out of the dog's sight it started whimpering. It whimpered loud enough to get Malek's attention, and the attention of the wandering patrol.

Vohn returns to the whimpering dog as the patrol looks down that alley way, luckily he very quickly realized what was going on and ducked back around the corner before being seen. Malek decides to make a distraction, and throws a snowball (it's a spell, not a real snowball) at a random pail someone left on their porch. Makes a wonderful clanging noise that gets the attention of two of the patrol. The third patrol were-wolf though is still curious about the no longer whimpering dog.

Meanwhile Megan keeps on towards the end of the lane, where she'll have to get across in the open. While contemplating how she wants to sneak in the wide open, Vohn and the dog are hitting about the same area on the side of the lane she's going to. So she stealths across. And fails miserably, so fixated on watching for guards she plows right into a trash can, causing quite the ruckus.

Vohn, his nerves completely gone at this point, just takes off running and manages to dive into a small hiding spot. The dog, seeing a wolf coming near his friend, starts posturing at her and tries to intimidate her, though the dog was unsuccessful. Figuring her stealth is out the window entirely she decided to "be a dog" ... and went hackles up, full growl, and basically charged right at the dog, knocking him about a bit. She wouldn't actually hurt him, its not his fault he's in this situation. But he doesn't know this, and he goes nope never mind I'm out and takes off away from Vohn.

She is guessing, and hoping, that in a town full of were-wolves, a dog fight is relatively normal activity. And then she starts trotting off towards the west, head up ears up tails up, full on proud yes I meant to do that. Once out of sight she ducked back down behind a building to get an eye on the situation.

What Meghan didn't realize is where Vohn was. She hadn't seen him since we put the pails of loose gunpowder in the south tree line. She did not know he was right there with the dog or that the dog was his new friend. She did not know she just got were-wolf attention where he is. Thankfully Malek did.

So there's the one were-wolf in this general area checking out the unusual noises, two were-wolves investigating the pail falling off the porch rail, and the two were-wolves near the south gate. And Meghan's failure to stealth/attempt to recover got all of their attention, and all five converged on the area where Vohn was.

Now Vohn is small and pretty stealthy all on his own, but I guess the were-wolves were convinced something was going on. So they're poking around the alleyway trying to find the source of the ruckus. Malek, realizing Vohn was about to be found, went invisible and stealthily crossed the lane to be ready to act.

Unfortunately, one of the were-wolves did find Vohn. He snarled, reached down into Vohn's hiding spot, grabbed him by the neck and hauled him out like a naughty puppy. Vohn though, he's a pretty agile fellow so he managed to squirm out of the were-wolf's grasp and fell to the ground. Which really wasn't much better, being flat on the ground with five were-wolves looming above.

Just as Malek was about to try causing another distraction noise though, Vohn was sucked up in a sparkling rainbow light to just above the roof line of the nearby building. And then, as if that wasn't weird enough, he starts gliding ground-ward with his wings. His vestigial non-functioning wings.

Two of the were-wolves growled and started using their claws to climb up the side of the building, hoping to catch Vohn. One made a valiant leap but just missed, the other tried but just failed entirely at the action. While the were-wolves were regrouping Vohn glides over the south wall and out of sight.

After a minute or so of the were-wolves muttering amongst themselves, the two gate guards returned to the south gate. The three on patrol headed towards the center of town, presumably to make a report.

At this point Meghan starts trying to stealth her way back to the tree line where we hid the pails of gun powder. Once she gets there she lays down flat to the ground to wait. A few seconds later Malek's voice is heard "aight we should get these pails and get going". So he reaches down and grabs one while Meghan groans and gets up. She then reaches down with her mouth and grabs the other pail.

The pair starts up the stealthy journey back to the Mayor's Mansion. Well, Malek starts doing a stealthy journey. Meghan, however, failed miserably again. She knocked her metal pail into a rock, but didn't drop it. While frustrated about that she clamps down on the metal handle for the pail so hard she permanently dents the handle with wolf teeth marks and gives herself a sore jaw when she promptly smacked it into another rock.

But they make it back to the Mayor's Mansion and pause to scope the surroundings. They wanted to make sure the subversive were-wolves were still in control of the Mayor's Mansion. There were four when we left the mansion, but there were only three on our return. As we were studying them, Meghan caught their scent and recognized it from earlier, so she picked up her pail and went trotting across the lane and up the stairs to the mansion door. Malek was all "alright I guess we're going then". Usually when we stealth like this Malek leads and Meghan follows.

Inside the mansion Malek manages to get the gunpowder into a third bomb, then ponders what to do next. Do we go plant the third bomb? Meghan shakes her head no. Do we go try to find Vohn? Meghan trots over to the door to the secret tunnel and noses it. So we return to the tunnel under the fence to the farm house. While going through the prison the two non-friendly were-wolves that we had locked down there were muttering rude commentary in their language. Meghan chose to ignore them even though she understood what they were saying.

Leaving the farm house and following the south wall for a little bit we're not finding any visuals of Vohn, but he is a small guy, so Meghan trots forward a little and tries to pick up his scent. She wasn't able to find a trace of him so she returned to Malek who was rubbing his eyes. She shook her head no, realizes he wasn't looking so head-butts him and then shakes her head no again.

Malek asks if we keep looking for him or go get some much needed rest, as it was pushing 2 in the morning at this point. Meghan lays down and puts her head on her paws. He laughed and agreed, so she stood up and trotted back to the farm house, through the tunnel, to the mansion. Malek did follow and the two of them set up to rest in the mansion for the rest of the night/morning.

At this point Meghan returns to her half-drow elf form and hands Malek a goodberry* and has one herself.

And that's where this story arc ends. Don't forget to read the B side of this story!

Goodberry: druids have a spell where they can transform a fresh berry into the equivalent of a full meal and 1hp of healing.