Session Date: 05/20/2024
The wagon of The Vim & Vigor Brothers is rather cramped if we all ride inside. We all set up camp every night rather than sleep inside of the tent.
Bosch and Vim talk to each other about being master thieves and they both traded wallets with each other in a rather impressive display. Bosch admits he’s often given the job of distraction as he’s bounced around the criminal underworld.
Mary looks more at ease than she has been in a while: she is back in her element here in the forest and out of the city. She also voluntarily walks along the wagon on the trip.
As we continue we are between forested areas and little towns that want to be near but not in the capital. We are struck by the impression that Argent of the Harbingers of Twilight seemed to have rushed to the city Shelmourn and hasn’t gotten around to putting up posters or advertising for the cult to the cities in the area quite yet. It’s very apparent he wanted to be the first in the area and to get set up.
Tabby speaks to people as we travel through and we all notice there’s an awful lot of bugbears on the road. They are not evil or even necessarily uncommon, but to see so many traveling is a little unusual. As they travel, they also have an awful lot of good-natured roughhousing. One bugbear does mention that it’s that time of year, but doesn’t explain. Faylen kind of pieces together that there is something called the Ruckus and bugbear students at the academy attempt to do the ruckus at the academy grounds, and the academy just says absolutely not.
Bosch recalls that the bugbears have the ruckus in the middle of nowhere and it’s a giant brawl. It’s a good-natured cultural thing, and it is held in a different place every year. It is the sort of thing where they go to fight to clear the air. This is a non-lethal event.
Tabby thinks it’s sounds fun but he wouldn’t want to be there, and when Bosch asks why, Tabby explains that they’re big, and strong, and know how to throw a good party. Bosch says he’s excited to go and see, and Faylen admits that it’s always an entertaining show. Mary would prefer to keep her distance from such an event.
We travel for a few days. There are some other travelers, yes, but mostly it’s groups of bugbears. It’s clear when we draw near to where the Ruckus is going to be by the chanting and whooping of the bugbears that are roughhousing and cheering the whole event. Some are very strong so we see some people on the side of the road fighting each other with stones - throwing them at each other. Bosch decides he wants to get in on that.
The group comes across where the Ruckus is actually being held and travel traffic is being held up because of the Ruckus. One does not simply go past the Ruckus, but we all must contend with the Ruckus. We all resign that we are going to be stuck.
Vigor smells barbeque and goes off to eat, Tabby and Faylen go to find the beer and drink, Mary helps Vim and Vogue deal with the ox and figure out how to camp, and Bosch goes to investigate the Ruckus and gets distracted by a very heated food fight. Bosch leaps to try to get in on the action in this food fight, and falls without grace. He’s hauled up and Bean very quickly makes her choice to get out of this entire situation and go somewhere less ridiculous.
Faylen and Tabby find the biergarten. There’s one or two types of ale that’s cheap here, but there’s people trying to get into the spirit of it. There is a man here in plate armor that we can tell is of the Adamant Guard. He’s sitting with a small plate of food, and a small drink. He is seething with annoyance at everything happening around him.
Tabby sits down next to the gentleman and comments that he has the impression the man doesn’t want to be here, and he admits he has business up north. Faylen comments that it can be pretty inconvenient how they setup like this, and Tabby says that it’ll only be a couple of days. The man says we don’t have a couple of days while slamming his fist on the table. He stares at Tabby, then apologizes for the aggressive display, and explains that there’s a small town up north that has been having some disturbances that he’s supposed to take care of.
Tabby explains that he’s heard stories of the Adamant Guard, but he’s never met one. The gentleman explains they should start recruiting, but, he shrugs. He says the armor’s hard to get. Faylen looks at him and excitedly asks if the armor is really made of adamant, and he says that most of it is good steel with leather, but pieces of it do have adamant. He says the higher ranks do get full adamant armor, and he doesn’t know if he’ll ever get there, but it’s an honor to be part of the guard.
Tabby chimes in and mentions that there’s been disturbances up north and we are headed up north, and it would be helpful to know what’s going on since we’re going that way. He asks where we are going and Tabby gives a wrong name that is vaguely related to “shel”, and the man says Shelmourn, and asks what we know. Tabby admits to nothing and he explains what he knows about Shelmourn and the cult.
His name is Carver. It is clear that he is alone and is planning on going to Shelmourn to take on the whole cult on his own. Faylen suggests that perhaps he shouldn’t go up there alone, as there is an entire town of them at this point.
Bosch is now carrying a tall stack of food and has migrated his way outside to pick a food fight with one of the rock throwers.
Mary ends up talking to the dread steed of Carver and the steed admits he wishes to trample his foes. He admits that he wishes to move through this mess and trample anyone that gets in the way. Mary suggests that may not be the best option, as there are children here that do not deserve to be hurt just because they are here, and others that are otherwise don’t deserve that.
Carver comes up and admitted to Mary that he hadn’t considered the fact that there are those here that are just stuck as much as we are, or otherwise are children and do not deserve to be hurt. He admits out loud that he would like to hurt someone but he does not wish to hurt someone that would normally not be a threat.
Bosch comes up during this exchange and asks why nobody will fight him, and Tabby says that perhaps the bugbears do not wish to harm anyone that isn’t of their kin. Bosch isn’t the happiest about this but says he wishes to try again, and asks how long we are staying. Faylen mentions we were planning to leave with Carver and then apologizes to Bosch. Bosch thinks about it and asks when the next event will be, and Faylen says it happens every year, and he seems to be disappointed by this, but then greets Carver and introduces himself. Bosch then asks Faylen if there will be things to fight in Shelmourn, and he admits there will be cultists, to which Carver cuts in and mentions “unless I get there first,” which Bosch interprets as a challenge.
Mary finds a corvid to talk to and ask for help finding a path around the Ruckus and they say they can do so for a horse, but not for a cart. She gives the bird treats and they go off to find the way around.
Carver sits with us and visibly relaxes around us. Carver admits that his steed is not the most bloodthirsty of the horses that they have - he thinks they breed them this way.
The bird comes back and has a path for the horse, but not us. We explain we will not join him but we will meet him up at Shelmourn. He removes his helmet and it’s clear that he’s of aphorite heritage, with metallic skin and an overly symmetric face that approaches uncanny valley. Bosch definitely demands Carver save us some cultists to deal with. Carver feels lucky to have met us, and he admits that he is going to go against the rules and wait for us and do recon while he waits for us to catch up. He sees that we are rather capable and it would be illogical for him to ignore it, and he would love our help once we are there.
He puts his helmet back on and his eyes glow definitely not at all like Bane, and he mounts up on the steed and they do a dramatic pose before riding off.
After he’s left, Vigor comes up with a black eye. He asks if Bosch wants in, and Bosch says yes, and Vigor says that he met some guys and there’s a girl that punches so hard and also she’s pretty but does Bosch want in? The two run off to a group of young adults to get into some trouble.
Vigor picks Bosch up and throws him into the crowd. The group scatters from the force of the impact. Bosch hypes the group up and the brawl resumes and they continue the fight, with Bosch eventually helping shove Vigor and the girl he has a crush on together. It’s not really carefully considered but just to push things along in the most direct possible way so they interact.
Vim asks if we are staying until this all blows up, and Tabby and Mary admit that they likely don’t have a choice around this. Vim grumbles about how we need to get money and some more supplies for the trip given this delay, and thinks about stealing some more.
Mary goes into the forest to get rations for the entire group to subsist off of to help offset the cost of the travel and need to steal. Vim appreciates what she brings as he can cook it.
Tabby gets in a fight from an issued challenge, and Vim takes bets on who will win, and pays Tabby out on the bets. Vim says that if Tabby could do this three or four more times then they will be good on money for the rest of the trip, which Tabby obliges.
Faylen, for his part, studies and works on tweaking some of his spells to give himself a little more style than his normal casting.
Bosch and Tabby continue to fight, tiring as they continue. There is a moment of the story of the plush seal coming up and Bosch asks if this means anything can be evil, and he breaks the item over his knee and then starts dual wielding.
Somewhere in the midst of the chaos Faylen casts light on the item that Bosch is using and with one swing it shatters and bursts into light to dazzle the person he hit. Faylen throws his arms up in triumph and exclaims that he’s finally done it.
The Ruckus ends a day and a half or so later and people begin to disperse and traffic begins moving a little bit. Vigor tends to the ox and cart, Vim is counting all of the winnings, and Vogue has stolen something from some other carts - nothing important, but just something to say she did.
We know that with essentially a two day head start, and being on a horse without a cart, we will not see Carver until we make it to Shelmourn.