Night Rescue
Previously on our weekly Zweihänder campaign on Roll20, we had tried to find some kidnapped villagers and followed the trail back to a secret passage that led into the town and to a warehouse. We decided to wait until nightfall before breaking in again to see what we could find. Eva continues to record the events.
We had spent most of the day observing the warehouse, which was busy but there didn’t seem to be anything unusual going on. By dusk, it was still busy, so Calthar and myself headed out of the town to wait by the barn whilst Djarin staid behind to continue watching, planning on joining us later once things had quieted down.
Both the barn and the house seemed empty and quiet, though we didn’t risk investigating either just in case there was anyone still inside.
Djarin turned up a couple of hours later. Apparently, the warehouse did finally quieten down sometime after dark, with probably only one or two guards inside, making it safe for us to enter.
We headed into the tunnel and up to the warehouse where everything was pretty much as we’d left it in the storeroom, but this time the plan was to get into the padded room. I managed to open the door quietly, and on the other side there was a guard sleeping on a chain. Calthar dealt with him in her usual way, and as she dragged his unconscious body back to the tunnel, I took a look inside.
The entire room was padded and sound proofed, and it was obvious why when I saw the cage with the people inside. There were three children, and two adults along with a baby. We expected to see another couple of adults there, but apparently they’d be taken away.
The captives were pleased once they realised that they were being rescued, and getting them out of the cage wasn’t difficult, and so we led them back to the tunnel and out to the barn. From there, we made it to a small camp at the edge of the woods where we will rest and wait for dawn.
The journey back to the village was quite uneventful, and apart for a stop for breakfast we took the freed captives directly home. The villagers were overjoyed to see their neighbours again, but were being a bit more proactive in defence now. We still didn’t know where the other two were – presumably they had been taken to be used as slaves somewhere, but we didn’t know where. Our plan was to find them.
After getting paid, we headed back to town as quickly as we could, camping out overnight and reaching Sielzen by midday.
The question now is what was planned for the captives, and who would most likely be making use of slaves. Slavery is illegal here, though there are various ways around it. Prostitution and manual labour are the two obvious uses for slaves, but there are plenty of people willing to do both for pittance.
The rumours from our friendly guard Captain is that there was a break in last night at a warehouse, but he hasn’t been told what was stolen. There was even talk of hiring us to find the culprits. That would be ironic.
Djarin has also picked up on some rumours and stories, which seems to link the Heavies and the Order of Redemption and hints that they’ve been taking people off the street. The main leaders of the Heavies are Grosskopf Müller and Rienne Dupres – names we were also given by the two guards in the house, which suggests that they are at least accurate.
Whilst we were gathering information of our own, our contact Victor Hoffman had received work back from our Baron. We had been passing our reports on to him on a regular basis, and now he returned the favour. Apparently people have been going missing all across the North. The occurrences seem to have died down about six months ago, which is about when they started up in Sielzen. An unusual coincidence, which suggests they are linked, but we don’t know how.
Whilst we were discussing this over beer in the evening, another one of the songs about us started up. It seems that the peasants are spreading rumours about our heroics, which means at some point the story of our involvement with the rescue of the slaves will get out. We don’t have long before we need to act then. Though I’m not sure what our plan is.
For now, Calthar and myself plan to head over to the new temple that the Order of Redemption has been renovating. From what we’ve seen of the outside, it is an expensive building with an impressive stained glass window at one end that shows the God Emperor and people kneeling at his feet and praying. I’m sure we can get inside by just walking in the front door and showing interest. Whether they will let us walk out again so easily remains to be seen.
