Date of game: June 1st, 2002.

Nuzyael 21, 719: Louhardy, on the road to Themeson.

After recovering the child and returning her to her parents, we get night watch duty. It starts to rain and really pours. Visibility is cut down drastically. Johnson can see very little and is surprised when someone walks up to him. It's Horik Baral. He makes small talk with Johnson and offers him some 15 yr-old brandy that has been warmed up. He indicates that there might be something approaching the camp and that it should be ignored. Johnson is mystified but agrees. Horik Baral then goes to each member of the tenaci and repeats the same thing, offering each some of the brandy.

Caius notices that his night vision dims after drinking the brandy, he was using his recently acquired ring of night vision. Johnson also notices a weird reaction when his spell to keep him warm fizzles on him. He is forced to suffer the cold like everyone else in his tenaci. Fennelisa only feels blessed quiet when her empathic powers dim on her.

It is soon after that we do see the form glide over the camp like we had been warned. We try to ignore it but it becomes harder when we notice the slightly dragonish tail whip past. But we didn't see that...

Afterwards, our powers and abilites return slowly. Fennelisa gets a sudden shock when hundreds of small animals, who are sure that they are lunch, ask her for her help against the form that had arrived. She tells them not to worry because it was gone, they are convinced that she made it go away and proclaim her their hero. Fennelisa sighs the sigh of the weary.

After being relieved by the next watch, we all head for bed except for Johnson. He is intrigued by the form which arrived in the camp earlier so he decides to investigate. He asks around and finds that several people are in the know but they avoid him. The only person who seems willing to discuss it is in a state of shock and makes little sense. It seems that he was there when the dragon landed infront of Horik Baral's tent. Startled, he grabbed a javelin and let loose just as Horik Baral shouted to stand down. Too late, the javelin flew to the dragon and bounced. The dragon, angry, turned on the legionnaire and roared at him, bit him and spit him out. The dragon left quickly but not before giving Horik Baral a scroll case.

Nuzyael 22, 719: Louhardy.

We are woken up three hours later when we break camp, but we get to ride the commissary wagon to rest up. After traveling for part of the day, we make it to Themeson. The city is in very bad state. Many houses are demolished and few repairs are going on. There many townsfolk watching us, they are surly and unfriendly. It seems that there is no manpower to spare to fix up the town since none can be spared from the caer.

It will be a challenge to make these people trust us.

We arrive at the barracks which are a shambles. The cooks offer us a choice: either sleep well tonight or eat. We, wisely in the cooks' eyes, choose to set up the temporary kitchens in the gatehouse so we can get something for supper. Johnson assesses the damages to the caer for himself. He states that there many parts of the caer which will have to be rebuilt completely.

Much discussion is had about the damages to the caer and the town and what kind of repairs will have to be done. We see Neville and someone who appears to be the Master Engineer walking about the caer. It takes the master engineer only about ten minutes to totally piss off Neville, a new record! It appears that he and Neville have totally different views on how to handle the repairs, and they are completely diametrical. Only Neville knows the master architect is right. The master architect is brilliant, he is good, he is proficient and he is arrogant. Neville realizes all this which makes him even madder.

Caius needs to clear up some details about our equipment and belongings and has to ask Neville about it. He is not having much success breaking up the "discussion" between Neville and the master architect though. He can't even get either's attention. He decides to use his extensively small knowledge of the Khuzan language to attract Neville's attention. Caius does not know, exactly, what he said but it gets Neville's attention long enough for Neville to comment on the fact that they are not mates...

After threatening violence, Caius does get Neville's attention. It seems that Neville will also be stationed at Themeson but not before going on a tour with Horik Baral of the other regions that were recaptured. He will make accomodations to have the Door and our stuff transfered here along with Skitty, though he does not know what Skitty has been doing to his forge at Fobin. All Neville knows that he has to leave the putz of an engineer in charge of the reconstruction of Themeson for now. The master engineer feels that he doesn't have to take that from a dwarf, angering Neville enough that he heads for the forge to get his axe.

Caius leaves at this point, probably because he doesn't want to have to appear as witness...

Caius goes in search of Phillipus and finds him in negociation with a surly merchand who refuses to sell anything. He feels that he has already paid his dues to the "other gang". Caius and Phillipus can get very little else out of the merchant so Phillipus invites him for a beer at the locaL inn to mollify him, finalize the deal for food and get as much information about the "gang". It seems that there are three gangs operating the town, demanding payment of food for "protection".

Meanwhile, Cornelius asks Aki to reconnoiter the underground river beneath the caer. She is quickly carried along the swift current of the river. Cornelius has nightmares all night of drowning and floating. It takes Aki a long time to return because she has been carried almost to the sea!

Nuzyael 23, 719: Themeson.

When we wake up, we see a cat sleeping on Johnson's chest. He is a big tabby and certainly a ratter. Has Fennelisa rubbed off on Johnson? The cat discovered that Johnson was the only comfortable place to sleep since Johnson has taken up his traditional sleeping area.

We get up for calisthenics before breakfast. We meet Blarius, our new Mani, because Phillipus has to accompany Horik Baral on a tour of the new territories we have captured. Blarius is a Tala from Ojar's unit who was raised in rank for the role. We hear mostly good things about him.

He leads us in calisthenics. At the end he swears that Tala will from now on do calisthenics as well. The rest of the morning is spent in work clearing the caer.

After lunch, we go on patrol around the town. Since we are among the first to do so, we get to make up the routes that the patrols will travel. During our patrol, a merchant cries out and three men start running away when they see us arrive. They never escape us but rather seem to be leading us. Caius notices an archer on the rooftops.

Johnson, Fennelisa and Caius catch up to the fleeing men and try to trip them. Only Caius succeeds. Meanwhile Cornelius asks Aki to attack or distract the archer on the rooftop. She succeeds and the archer falls off the roof behind a building. Cornelius runs around to arrest the man and runs into ten of the archer's friends waiting. Cornelius tells them to surrender and when they don't comply, he turns around and runs away, the men follow him.

The combat between Caius, Johnson and the first group of bandit is quickly finished. While Fennelisa reattaches an arm on a fallen foe, Cornelius arrives with ten new bandits running after him. Caius orders the group to form up, but only three abreast can stand so Cornelius and Johnson join him. While the three fight the bandits and Fennelisa tends to the fallen foes, a group of surly toensfolk forms to watch the combat. The antipathy is not directed at the legionnaires but at the bandits.

The bandits are easily overrun and 12 of them are captured. The archer has a broken leg from his fall which Fennelisa heals with St-Belsirasin. When we approach the shopkeeper and tell him that he can press charges, he is surprised. The bandits did not steal anything, they only thrashed his shop. It seems that they only did so to lay a trap for the legionnaires on patrol. Fools! They got our attention, now!

As the bandits are led to the caer, a crown gathers to see the prisoners. We deliberately make a show of the captured bandits to show the populace that they can be arrested. Fennelisa reads the minds of several members of the gang but gets nothing out of them except that one of them is insane and another knows exactly what will happen. Our procession is interrupted by an archer shooting at the group. It seems that the archer was not aiming at the legionnaires but at the bandit who knew what would happen, sure enough, Fennelisa gets his last thoughts of "I knew this would happen". Apparently, the man knew too much and had to be silenced by his own compatriots. While we rush the prisoners towards the caer, Caius goes to capture the archer who is still shooting at the crowd. Johnson throws a javelin at him and succeeds in killing him! Caius now has to bring back a corpse.

We return to the caer without any more trouble and report to Blarius. We pen the prisoners in the court because the dungeon is not in any shape to be used; an interrogation specialist will be here soon to question the prisoners. Caius asks Blarius to discuss the charges with the shopkeeper.

We recover the following loot from the fallen foes, which Blarius declares ours:

While coming back to the caer, Johnson has been enraptured by the mace, not letting it go for even a second. When we arrive at the caer and it is time to do some work, Caius has to order Johnson to let the mace go and physically remove it from Johnson's hands. The mace is locked up in Fennelisa's footlocker, much to her dissatisfaction. She relinquishes after holding the mace. The mace does not seem to want to be put aside because it makes the footlocker jump around. We can still hear it after putting the footlocker in a storage area. Afraid that it would attract too much attention, we take it back out.

While Johnson was holding the mace, Cornelius noticed that Johnson's aura was changing to match that of the mace. Johnson was becoming more and more reticent to seperate himself from the mace.

We see the priest of Save K'Nor who is teaching Fennelisa, Johnson and Cornelius in the court and ask his help. He describes the mace as one of desire, it offers the holder their greatest pleasure to test if they are compatible with one another. It seems that the mace has decided that it and Johnson are not compatible. He asks Caius to take the mace but has to knock it out of Caius' hands because he was being overpowered by the mace. Cornelius has the same result. Only Fennelisa seems to be able to wield it safely; it seeems the mace has decided that it and Fennelisa are compatible.

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