LotFP Writeup 4.2

Part 2 of the two day session. We carry on straight after the previous entry. Consider this a reminder that players will destroy everything you love and wear the corpse.

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Whilst finalising their plans, the party decided to take the caravan and rest for the night, ensuring they were fully ready for the town. During Milk's watch, he spied a party of figures wielding heavy crossbows heading towards town - the remnants of the party they had murdered. In the morning, they discussed how best to deal with this issue - they would claim their companions were lost in combat against the hellish insect.

The plan agreed, they party felt it best to split - Milk and James would stay outside of town, hidden from sight in the tree-line. Meanwhile the other three would set about 'improving' the town and collecting their reward. Milk set about two endeavours in this time - fashioning himself a new mask from the skull of the king as well as creating a healing scroll for emergencies. The first order of business, as responsible members of society, was to report the terrible attacks occurring on the Northern road. After being directed about by the various inept guards, they finally came to the head of the town watch, whom they showed the artfully blood-stained clothes of the murdered merchant to. The walrus-like figure bristled and harrumphed, and promised to reward them with food for several weeks travel if they were to return with proof of the dead creature.

This first piece of business done, the terrible trio then moved on to the enchanters tower, and re-bribed one of the guards to skip the considerable line of visitors. They were seen quickly, their employer all-too eager to get his hands on the artefact. However, they also decided to try and pawn the ornate chain-mail the long-dead king had been wearing. Rather than money, however, Tesco attempted to barter for one of the mage's tomes. Using a degree of trickery and underhanded mercantile tactics, Tesco left with a slim black tome rather than his share of the reward money. The mage let them out of his tower, obviously worried.

With payment for previous work secured and future payment ensured, the away-team retired to the camp-site outside of the town once they recovered the chest stashed in the tavern. Milk insisted he was undisturbed, still working away with his scrolls. The carefully chosen camp-site allowed the party vision of the road whilst hiding them from the town itself, which led to them seeing a messenger atop his horse milling around on the road, calling out for them. Tesco padded closer, hiding in the foliage, before popping the horse-and-rider with a sleeping enchantment. Both of them fell, the initial fall breaking the riders leg under the weight of the horse, leading to both of them waking in immense pain. At this point, the horse went wild, began bucking and kicking, ruining the leg underneath it and smashing the other leg to pieces. To add to this, the horse then ran away, trampling the already broken and twisted rider, who was now screaming from the veritable pulping of his legs.

Containing his giggling, Tesco called Pepper and Gutch over to help him drag the unfortunate to town. En route, the barely-a-man messenger lost consciousness, leading to the group hatching another devilish scheme. The instead took him back to camp, laying him down in the centre. The party then manhandled the bug's head to stab the injured teenager to death with the mandibles. His final moments were the vision of a terrible beast's mandibles plunging into his battered form whilst the party critiqued the technique chosen to stab the young man to death. His body was horrifically mutilated by this treatment, leaving a broken and cut-apart corpse. The plan was to return this body to town as further signs of their battle with the terrible beast. Whilst formulating this plan, they finally decided to check the body - they took his final paycheck as well as a message addressed to them - the resident enchanter had further work for them. Tesco decided to descend further into deviousness, and began formulating schemes most foul regarding this information.

The tame environs surrounding Midtown led to an uneventful  night, meaning our party were fully refreshed for the trickery to come. Milk and James were left at the camp-site, but told to have everything ready incase they needed to leave in a hurry. Milk busied himself with his scrolls - apparently having real trouble transcribing a healing prayer to his liege, Death itself. And so our three bastards rolled into town, bearing the head of a great insect and the broken body of an eighteen year old, legs smashed and body slashed and stabbed by great mandibles. As they rode into town, a great weight pressed itself upon the population, leading to a bleak exchange. The populace openly mourned the loss of the messenger to the beast, and in an incredibly (calculated) rare show of generosity, the group donated the reward-rations to the family of the boy.

With this done, they moved on to their next port of call - the enchanters tower. Today there was no queue bar the visiting nobles, and so the party waited for their turn. The enchanter was at first delighted to see the party, but Tesco quickly killed this vibe by berating the mage for sending the messenger to his death. The mage was horrified and his guard disgusted. Tesco was relentless in his assault, driving the mage into the blackest of moods. Tesco suggested he accompany the mage to his room, and that they attend the promised work at a future date. Once they were alone upstairs, Tesco pinned the enchanter down, and demanded to know what the book had done to him. The mage was too terrified to speak, and attempted to call out. Tesco flexed, and snapped the poor man's neck there and then. He then moved quickly, constructing a basic noose and hanging the already-dead magic user, attempting to make the death appear self inflicted. He then pilfered some small items from the room before rejoining the rest of the group, most notably a jewellery box and a letter detailing the work they had been promised.

 After talking in a lowered tone to the guard for a while, he suggested the guard take a drink up to the deeply upset magician. Whilst the guard moved to do this, the party exploded into action. Tesco began shoving books into his back, Gutch selectively picking up small items of worth whilst Pepper swiped everything atop the desk into a task. (For his effort, he was rewarded with several open pots of ink, spoiled paper, broken quills, a blank book, some candles, an open bottle of drink, a half-eaten meal and a cutlery set.) This on-the-spot larceny done, the party began to leave the tower until they heard the yells of discovery above. They dashed up the stairs, Tesco faking surprise whilst the other two were genuinely surprised by the news of the mage's self-inflicted end.

The next thirty minutes passed in a blur whilst the town watch were brought in, the party questioned but ultimately washed of any blame. The party returned to the tower once they stashed the ill-gotten goods, several hours later. Thus began the Rude Guard Incident, which would result in the destruction of an entire town.

The gang approached the guards posted around the tower. Tesco proclaimed himself the research assistant to the late enchanter. The guard pointedly told him to fuck off. Tesco attempted to press his claim, but was stonewalled entirely. Frowning, Tesco stormed off, forming a plan to ruin the guard. Permanently. Pepper left, wanting no part in this revenge but not feeling moral enough to do anything about it. Gutch stuck around because he thought it would be kinda funny. Tesco and Gutch took cover in a nearby alley, watching the guard. A great deal of time past before the guard retired to the tower, emerging without his armour or weapon. Gutch and Tesco shadowed him back to his moderate family home. Tesco hid towards the back of the house, rolling up his sleeves for magic. Gutch ran the fuck away at this point, having clocked the plan.

The joy of the family re-united was disturbed by the sound of reality itself being rent asunder, letting a dweller from the Sea of Chaos from outside of reality punch it's way into our world. A horrific thing made of decay, rot and pestilence, carrying plagues and equipped with a blasphemous machine. It set about the family, tearing them to pieces and spreading it's diseased rot about the house. The guard died trying to defend his family unsuccessfully. No-one escaped the house, but neighbours began running towards the sounds of ripping, grinding and screams. Tesco left, his face split by a malicious grin like no other.

Gutch left late enough to hear a commotion, and figured thinning the ranks of the town guard would be a good idea. He approached the gate which separated him from the rest of the party, and called to the guards about some sort of trouble further into the town. The guards dashed off into town to investigate. Meanwhile, a similar scene played out at the enchanters tower, the skeleton crew of private guards being convinced by Tesco to help with the disturbance further into the town. Once this was done, Tesco slipped into the tower, and plundered again the books and valuable items, including the ornate chain-mail he had sold earlier that day. His looting complete, he dashed out of the town, meeting the party already saddled up to leave. They rode into the night hard.

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At this point, I rationalized an Organic Rot Demon which causes disease on touch would probably leave trails and ichor around the house, ensuring the disease would spread throughout the town, probably wiping out the majority of the population of Midton - unlike a real disease, a Demonic Disease would probably kill most hosts. This habit of destroying towns was not over, however.