Episode 13, "Conrad's Redemption? -- Part One"
Campaign Date: Year of the Serpent, Hamyr 1 - 4
GM: Joe Fryer
Characters:
Templar Grimjob, Shemite, Soldier/Scholar, level 5/1 (Andrew Smith)
Lord Hieronymous Valanus, Aquilonian, Noble/Soldier, level 4/2 (Mike Miller)
   Luxun Scholar (Cohort of Lord V.) Devon Blue, Soldier-5 (Toby)
"Bloody" Turpin, Border Kingdom, Soldier/Thief, level 3/3 (Dave Nelson)
   Slink, Follower of Turpin, Thief level 3 (NPC)
   Various and sundry followers of Turpin

Vegeta, Southern Islander, Barbarian, level 7 (Marlon Kirton)

Prologue:
Drunk off their collective asses (except for the killjoy Lord Fluffypants and his not-so-fun loving Scholar Cohort) after a multi-week binge. The heroes find themselves in the rundown tower owned by a Demonologist (who they groggily recollect was brought on to help with this Conrad/Demon problem).

Log:
Day 1—Al’s Tower in Kordova
Vowing to stop that dastardly Conrad from going out again on his nightly cannibalistic meanderings, the mostly drunk heroes stand up to Conrad and attempt to block his way out of the tower.

Conrad grabs Grimjob and is about to take his weapon away and use him as a human shield. But Luxun cast Gelid bones and Conrad (although he really doesn’t have bones anymore … or internal organs even) is stunned for a couple of rounds. During that time Turpin, Slinky & Lord V. do a coup de grace on Conrad and lay him low. Black viscous gel oozes from his wounds but slowly oozes back into the body.

Al runs in to try and stop the violence only to be punched in the face by Vegeta. Al explains the current situation and catches the party up on what has happened with Conrad. A bizarre symbol is found on Conrad’s gray pebbly skin and both Al and Luxun find a reference to a similar symbol in an old book by a Traveler who wrote about his adventures thru the Pictish region to the north of Kordova.

Day 2-5 – Preparations to leave
Several days are spent acquiring horses, wagon, supplies and such for the trip north. Luxun prepares 2 potions of Kothic Demon Fire.

Day 6 – Leaving town at last
The party heads north. Vegeta punches a toothless old crone in the face… Vegeta’s tendency to inflict facial injury on seemingly harmless individuals begins to alarm the party… but only a little.

Day 7-18 – Traveling North
The party travels North thru Pictish country occasionally seeing signs of the native inhabitants. Game and water is moderately easy to find.

Day 19 – Pickin’ on the Picts
At last the Pict spring their ambush and pop up from their well concealed hiding places to attack the party. The Wagon and the horses seem to be the object of the Pict’s attention. The Pict’s make a decent showing of themselves, Luxun lets loose with his defensive blast and injures 6 of the Picts and sets the wagons contents to smolder and burn. The Pict are eventually killed off, a few escape, one horse and one tent is lost. As the Picts run off they send up a cry to their Shaman (who is waiting on a nearby hill) and he unleashes his pet Sabertooth tigers on the party to cover their escape. The Sabertooth tigers are ruthlessly slaughtered and crafted into fashionable cloaks.

Day 20 – Rest and Tanning
The party rests and heals their wounds. Some hunt and some help tan the 8 tiger hides.

Day 21 – Traveling
More traveling.

Day 23 – Arrive in the town of Imsouth
The party arrives near the town of Imsouth and spends half the day searching for the suspected monolith towards the north. They find nothing. With dusk approaching the party goes down into the town. They find the town mostly empty and run down. But they do find this Phil character who annoys them with his constant questions. Smitty is also found and Lord V. inspires him to craft some swords (which he is hopelessly unable to do – but he tries anyway).

Eventually Phil gets a case of the Gelid bones and is tied up. Most of the party goes back out of town for the evening – not trusting the strange townfolk. Grimjob and Devon stay in town and witness the townsfolk walking towards the ocean and into it. Several hours later the townsfolk return. The rest of the night goes uneventfully. Phil does not transform into any sort of strange beast during the night… the party is somewhat disappointed.

Day 24 – Going down the hole
Phil recommends the party talk to Joshi. Joshi is old and vaguely green. His is painting some sort of frightening picture on the wall. Grimjob mentions the pentacle found on Conrad and Joshi paints the pentacle on the forehead of one of the creatures. Then he mentions that no one goes to the caves anymore. Phil knows where the caves are and tells the party. Vegeta then punches out Joshi and Lord V. reveals Joshi’s gills and Joshi gets gutted like the fish man he is. Phil also suffers a similar fate as his hysterical giggling becomes annoying.

The monolith is found and the pentacle is found on the monolith along with some fishy/octopus-ish carvings. Inside the cave the party finds that they must swim thru a tunnel. Eventually the party winds up on the other side with some equipment left behind.

Going through the tunnels they find Large fish men that they battle. Eventually leading to a chamber where the Mother of all the Fishbeasties resides. A trying battle occurs where Grimjob is permanently killed (no Fate points left). Turpin is also laid low. The Boss fish flees into a nearby pool and the party explores the rest of the tunnels.

They find the exit and a cache of books and scrolls.