Through the Mists

Session 31: No One Is Dragged Today

At a glance

Summary

The sabercat seemed calm now—even friendly. Ignatius knocked on the toymaker’s door and explained their cat problem, suggesting that the beast might be Piccolo’s friend. The monkey supplied a more convincing answer: he leaped onto its back in delight. Blinsky was terrified. When Carver asked how Piccolo had come to stay with him, the toymaker explained that the inn would not allow the monkey, so Rictavio had arranged lodging at the shop.

Rage fitted the beast with a loose collar and leash. Promising to return in a few minutes, the company hurried to the Blue Water Inn. Festival wine was flowing and Rictavio was entertaining the crowded main room. Carver whispered a request for a private word; the performer excused himself and brought them upstairs.

In his room, Rictavio dropped the disguise and became Van Richten again. Ignatius told him the sabercat was loose, successfully concealing the company’s responsibility for opening its wagon. The hunter agreed to help retrieve it. He also explained its training: the animal was being taught to hunt Vistani.

Van Richten left to meet them downstairs. Before following, Carver quietly slipped the journal Siv had stolen back between the bed and bedside table. Outside again as Rictavio, the hunter hurried with the company to Blinsky’s shop, used meat to draw the cat around the back, and instructed Carver to lead it home with the steak.

While Carver worked on a makeshift fishing rod to dangle the lure, Rage decided he did not trust the toymaker. He forced his way into the shop and activated the truth trinket. Blinsky initially resisted its magic. Rage shouted and intimidated him into submission; the frightened man dropped a small dagger and prostrated himself. Under the spell’s effect, he denied involvement in anything evil.

Ignatius was disgusted. He apologized profusely to Blinsky and dragged Rage out of the shop. With Piccolo persuaded to return to the toymaker, they could finally move the larger animal. Carver climbed onto Rage’s shoulder and dangled the meat ahead of it. Rage supplied an illusion of carnival performers, turning an awkward procession into something that might pass for festival entertainment.

Carver rides Rage's shoulder and dangles a steak from a makeshift rod while the armored sabercat follows them through festival-decorated Vallaki.

A fishing rod, a steak, and a little festival camouflage. View image record.

The disguise carried them back to the stockyards. Carver repaired the wagon with artificer craft and mending, and the company successfully returned the cat inside. Gunther, the stockyard shopkeeper, watched them. They saw his wife run off, though neither her destination nor her purpose was established.

With the beast contained, the company went to the town square. A dispirited procession carried an enormous wicker ball through the festival. Then the rain came hard. Oil splashed over the wicker, and Burgomaster Vargas Vallakovich approached with his torch. The downpour extinguished it. A lone figure watched from a rooftop.

Someone laughed.

The laugh belonged to Lars, who looked immediately terrified by his own outburst. Guards seized him and bound his ankles. The burgomaster declared that he would be dragged through the mud for everyone’s entertainment.

Rage charged the militia. Ignatius followed, running to Lars and planting himself in a defensive stance. “No one is going to be dragged today.” The guards continued binding their prisoner and fastened him to a horse. Carver called Pearl beside Lars. The grave elemental seized the tether and tore it apart.

Pearl tears apart the tether to a horse as Ignatius shields the bound Lars in Vallaki's rain-soaked square.

No one was going to be dragged today. View image record.

Guards closed in, and the burgomaster’s mastiffs charged. Ignatius answered the militia with acid breath and punches, killing two. Vargas’s personal bodyguards moved against the monk and Pearl.

Carver raised his pistol and fired a glob of metal toward the burgomaster. It was the artificer’s expression of heat metal: Vargas’s breastplate became his executioner. The heated armor burned him, and he crumpled and died.

Carver aims his pistol as an amber spell trail reaches Vargas's breastplate and the burgomaster collapses to his knees in the rain.

The festival’s fire found the burgomaster’s armor. View image record.

His death did not end the fighting. The crowd flared with anger, and the remaining militia fought on against Ignatius and Pearl. Another burst of acid and a flurry of punches killed two more bodyguards. Rage’s red Sun Blade cut down the remaining bodyguard.

In the crowd, Izek’s monstrous arm disintegrated into ash as Vargas died. He shouted in triumph: “The monster is dead.” Ignatius called on the remaining guard and militia to surrender. A guard laid down his spear.

Carver and Pearl helped Lars onto the horse as the company prepared to get clear of the crowd. Izek approached, delighted. Vargas would never tell him what to do again, he said; now he could find “her” on his own terms. He spat toward the corpse. Rage searched the dead burgomaster and took his breastplate, coin, and a dark green alexandrite.

The company withdrew cautiously, urging the crowd to disperse. At St. Andral’s Church, with Izek accompanying them, they told Father Lucian what had happened and asked him to use his standing in town to calm the mob. They rested in the church while the unrest subsided. After several hours, the militia appeared to retreat.

The Blue Water Inn was busy when they returned. Despite the fury in the square, the mood here suggested a general apathy toward the burgomaster’s death. Vargas was gone. Who would govern Vallaki afterward remained unanswered.

Key events

  1. Piccolo greeted the sabercat affectionately; Blinsky explained why the monkey was staying with him.
  2. Van Richten admitted training the cat to hunt Vistani and helped retrieve it, without learning how the party had released it.
  3. Carver returned the stolen journal; Rage intimidated Blinsky into a denial under the truth spell, prompting Ignatius’s apology.
  4. A carnival illusion and Carver’s meat lure brought the cat back to its repaired wagon.
  5. Vargas ordered Lars dragged behind a horse for laughing at the failed festival lighting. The company intervened and Pearl broke the tether.
  6. Carver killed Vargas with heat metal. Fighting continued until Ignatius called for surrender and a guard laid down his spear.
  7. Izek’s monstrous arm turned to ash. The party sought Lucian’s help, sheltered at the church, then returned to the inn.

Decisions and consequences

  • The escaped beast is contained. The immediate wagon incident is settled; its training against the Vistani remains an unresolved danger.
  • The theft is concealed. Carver returned the journal quietly, and Ignatius concealed the party’s role in releasing the cat.
  • Blinsky was coerced. His denial came under the spell, but it was not a freely offered conversation or a blanket investigation of every past act. Ignatius openly rejected Rage’s treatment of him.
  • A rescue became a lethal confrontation. Lars was spared the dragging, Vargas died, and five militia or bodyguards were killed by Ignatius and Rage. Other combatants’ final conditions were not all recorded.
  • Authority is unsettled. A guard surrendered and militia later withdrew. No new ruler, general amnesty, or townwide settlement was established.
  • Izek claims freedom. His arm’s destruction coincided with Vargas’s death; the mechanism remains unexplained, and his search for the unnamed woman continues.
  • Lucian was asked to help. The company sought his influence in calming the town, without appointing him to govern or recording that he accepted an office.

People

  • Blinsky, Piccolo, and the sabercat — reunion, coercive questioning, and the animal’s return.
  • Rictavio / Van Richten — revealed the beast’s intended targets and provided the meat lure.
  • Gunther and his unnamed wife — watched the stockyard return; she ran off for an unknown reason.
  • Lars — rescued from the burgomaster’s punishment and helped onto the horse.
  • Vargas — killed by Carver’s spell.
  • Izek — lost his monstrous arm, celebrated Vargas’s death, and accompanied the party to the church.
  • Father Lucian — approached as a respected figure who might help calm the town.
  • An unidentified rooftop observer — watched the festival; no identity or allegiance was established.

Places

Clues, lore, and notable items

  • Van Richten explicitly identified the Vistani as the sabercat’s training targets; this was newly learned here.
  • Izek’s bestial arm disintegrated with Vargas’s death. No normal replacement arm appeared.
  • The rooftop observer and Gunther’s wife’s departure remain unexplained.
  • Rage recovered Vargas’s breastplate and an alexandrite valued at roughly 500 gp, along with coin. No magical properties were established.
  • Rictavio’s journal is back in his room; it is distinct from the older journal found at Richten House.

Story threads

Rewards, losses, and character changes

  • Recovered by Rage: Vargas’s breastplate, alexandrite, and coin.
  • Returned by Carver: The journal stolen from Rictavio’s room.
  • Death: Vargas Vallakovich; five militia or bodyguards also killed in the fighting.
  • NPC change: Izek’s monstrous arm disintegrated into ash.
  • Ability expression: Carver used a pistol-fired metal glob to portray heat metal, not a separately established weapon attack or ammunition effect.

Memorable moments

  • Piccolo joyfully climbed onto the animal that terrified Blinsky.
  • Carver rode Rage’s shoulder with a fishing rod and a steak while an illusion made them carnival performers.
  • Ignatius’s refusal to allow a public dragging was answered by Pearl tearing the rope apart.
  • Izek celebrated the death of the man he had expected to serve again.
  • The inn’s ordinary bustle stood in unsettling contrast to the violence in the square.

Open questions

  • Who will govern Vallaki, and will the party face reprisals?
  • Can Lucian help calm the town, and what will the remaining guard do?
  • What connected Izek’s monstrous arm to Vargas, and whom is Izek seeking?
  • How will the company address Van Richten’s training of the sabercat against the Vistani?
  • Who watched from the rooftop, and why did Gunther’s wife run off?
  • Where did Lars go after being helped onto the horse?

Next session

  • Immediate situation: Back at the busy Blue Water Inn after the militia’s apparent withdrawal; the burgomaster’s death has not produced a recorded successor.
  • Likely goals: Assess the aftermath with Lucian and local allies, consider the Vistani threat, and choose when to resume the search for answers about Darkon.

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