Our search for our quarry and the documents continues.... The stench of death and rotting flesh got thicker as we kicked past the corpses and headed deeper into the underground burial site.
Guided by the muffled sounds of conversation we came upon a small room and a handful of Bandit Bowmen - we were thrice Cursed (Scenario Special Rules: Add 3 Curse cards)!
Fortunately, we managed to make short work of them and they went down quickly. Somewhat alarming Zephir seemed really eager during this fight and opened the door to the next chamber before the battle was concluded, why was she being so reckless?!
The next chamber proved to be a bigger challenge and started with a question asked of us from the darkness "Who are you to think you can interrupt the work of the Gloom?" We found our Quarry! and two of his Elite Bandit Bowmen body guards. The Bandit Commander immediately jumped to a door and quickly opened it unleashing a few Living Corpse monstrosities on us.
The fight was ferocious and the battlefield cramped due to several Sarcophagus littering the room. The Bandit Bowmen were taking their toil and making the most of their ranged attacks. It also did not help that the Bandit Commander managed to summon a couple Living Bones skeletons. Mal Drake could have ended the battle at one point, but for some reason stayed her hand and let the Bandit Commander open the second room. I suspect greed for the chest inside was the motive, we assume it was not for the two Living Corpses also in the room.
The Whiskey Bandits did prevail, but just barely. In the end, Crush and Jax both fell, Zephir was drawing her last breaths and Mal was pretty tapped out. We did find the documents and managed to revive our fellow mercenaries and depart the Barrow Lair (Map Location #2).
We did peruse the documents we discovered and found a map with the location of the Crypt of the Damned (Map Location #4) and some writing in an unknown archaic language.
Once back at the Sleeping Lion we hooked up with Jekserah, handed over the papers and she paid us our reward of 10 Gold each. (Scenario Reward: 10 Gold and +1 Prosperity) She seemed pleased by our work and suggested we might be interested in another job regarding a tribe of Inox that has apparently been ransacking her caravans headed to the capital. She unrolled a map that showed the Inox Encampment (Map Location #3). Jax and Crush wanted to pass on the extra job and seek out the Crypt of the Damned instead, Mal didn't seem to care one way or the other and Zephir seemed more drawn to the Dagger Forest. We will go to the Crypt of the Damned.
We decided to celebrate before heading off, after all we mercenaries just got paid! It was truly a marvelous night (City Event #15) with much drinking and storytelling. (Zephir Leveled Up) Heading back to our rooms we took a wrong turn into an alley and Crush tripped over a mutilated corpse making a lot of noise. A City Guard heard the noise at the end of the alley, turned, saw the body, drew his sword and asked "What did you do?" The Guard clearly thought we were responsible for the man's death.
We tried to explain that we had been drinking and were on our way home when Crush tripped over the already dead body. The situation got worse when the guard yelled and more guards showed up eyeing us with suspicion. Fortunately, Jax noticed that none of our weapons matched the man's wounds and the leader of the guards agreed with him. They eventually agreed to let us go (Lose 2 Reputation), but it looks like we will have to work to restore some trust and our reputation a little.
On our way to the Crypt of the Damn we came upon a hard-looking mercenary sitting on a patch of grass. (Road Event #28) He was looking weary and asked if we had a spare Stamina Potion we could sell him. Mal Drake had one he was willing to part with and the man (oddly) gave each of us 5 Gold for Mal's generosity.
Peace,
Brent
