Session Twenty-Six: The Squire's Tale

Sir Henri and Magnus Against the Waaagh

The ork proves to be a most formidable opponent, shrugging off Sir Henri’s blows while dealing heavy strikes of their own. Sir Henri is spared injury thanks to his knightly armor and his great prowess with shield and mace. Realizing he cannot beat the ork with strength alone, he shifts to a more tactical fighting style. He catches a blow on his shield that numbs his arm to the shoulder and weathers the crude tirades and invective hurled at him by the ork.

Magnus moves to Sir Henri’s aid, only to be feathered twice by the still concealed archer. Heedless of the arrows in his arm, Magnus goes tearing off into the forest in search of his assailant. After a merry chase, he soon finds himself face to face with a second goblin, who is holding a bow, and who looks up at Magnus with an expression of terror.

The Goblin, Moments Before Being in Melee Range of Magnus

Magnus vents his pent-up rage upon the goblin, laying them low before leaping from the forest to aid Sir Henri. Moments later, a powerful blow from Sir Henri’s mace fells the ork like a great tree. The two men recover themselves and tend to their injuries as silence once again blankets the forest.

A brief search reveals a well-worn trail that has been trod by numerous orkish and goblinish feet, as well as by one pair of human-sized footprints. Sir Henri, fearing that these last prints can belong only to Charlotte the squire, suggests continuing the search. Magnus, who has tossed the goblins’ corpses on the fire and is in the process of hewing off the ork’s head, says that thy should assemble the rest of the company first.

Sir Henri promises to wait in the camp while Magnus returns to Vierzon, ork head in hand, to rally the others.

At the Sign of the Hungry Mice

Magnus causes quite a stir in company and pilgrims alike when he kicks open the door to the common room and hurls a still bloody ork head upon one of the tables. He announces that he and Sir Henri believe that Squire Charlotte has been taken by greenskins, and that there are plans in the works to mount a rescue.

Just then, the assemblage hears terrified screams from upstairs.

The company investigates, and finds that the screamers are Guilbald and Rauchamp, a pardoner, who have come running out of Gascon’s room. Frantic, they explain that they were tending to Gascon when Dr. Jacotte just suddenly appeared in the room with them. This badly startled them, but they are glad that Dr. Jacotte is back, and they hope that he can help to make Gascon well again.

When the pardoner and the summoner bring the company into Gascon’s room to make introductions, they find that the doctor has vanished just as quickly as he had arrived.

Pierre takes the opportunity to check on Gascon and finds that the pilgrims’ leader has made no improvement. He also tends to the worst of Magnus’ arrow wounds. 

Meanwhile, Rauchamp, having recovered from his fright and hearing the company are going on a dangerous mission, tries to sell purity seals to any who would buy them. He persists, despite the lack of interest, but does finally manage to wrangle some coin out of the company in return for shutting up, which he happily does.

Doctor Jacotte, I Presume

Two miles or so away, Sir Henri waits for Magnus and the others in the greenskins’ camp. After more than an hour of patient waiting, he is startled by a bright flash near the campfire and the sudden appearance of a distinguished, if befuddled, man. Sir Henri recognizes him as the gentleman who appeared during the cultist battle earlier in the day.

The gentleman politely greets Sir Henri and asks where he is. He is pleased to discover that he is just outside of the walls of Vierzon, and says that he is part of a pilgrimage that is, he hopes, still in that town. Sir Henri replies that the pilgrimage is there, and that it has been delayed in leaving due to the grievous injuries of its leader, Gascon.

The Learned Doctor Jacotte

The gentleman introduces himself as Doctor Jacotte and says that he would be more than happy to return to the town and tend to Gascon. This prompts Sir Henri to explain that he and his companions will soon be traveling deeper into the woods in search of Charlotte who, for reasons unexplained, was the one who gave Gascon his deadly injury.

Talk soon turns to how Doctor Jacotte keeps showing up everywhere. The doctor explains that he recently acquired a lovely horse statuette from a Tilean merchant, which he holds out to Sir Henri. He says he discovered a stud on the horse’s belly that, when pressed, activated some magic that has been transporting him to various places. Doctor Jacotte says that he has been to a place that he thinks he was Cathay, a trackless jungle, a foggy moor, and numerous other places. He also admits to being the man who had briefly appeared on the battlefield earlier, and says that he was simply trying to ask the cultists for directions when they attacked him.

The sound of a great troop of people moving through the wilderness attracts both the doctor’s and the knight’s attention. Doctor Jacotte lays a hand on Sir Henri’s shoulder and points up into the woods and says, “I see people on horses. Coming this way!”

“That must be my companions,” says Sir Henri, as the two men vanish in a flash of white light.

A Very Brief Interlude Near the Eye in the North

Doctor Jacotte and Sir Henri appear on a frigid glacier beneath the burning gaze of a red and setting sun. Sir Henri gallantly loans his cloak to the chilly doctor, who apologizes profusely for the unpredictable enchantment of his horse statuette.

The two men realizes they have much greater concerns, however, for a massive host of Beastmen, perhaps a thousand strong, come into view on the far side of the glacier. The beastmen charge across the ice, kicking up clouds of frost and exhorting the Chaos God Khorne.

Before the beastmen can reach them, the magic activates again and…

"Well, that's not great!"

Back at the Camp

Sabina rolls her eyes as Doctor Jacotte and Sir Henri disappear and reappear again. She wastes no time, once both men are back, to interrogate the doctor about where he got the statue and if he made any stupid wishes with any stupid monk in stupid yellow robes. The doctor praises her for her erudition. He says that he got the statuette from a Tilean merchant and got a wish from a monk in Brionne, before the pilgrimage left. He confesses to have forgotten all about the wish until just now, but he is able to produce the slip of paper the monk gave him from a pocket on his waistcoat.

Merciful Lady, before he becomes infirm, Doctor Jacotte wishes to see the four corners of the Earth.

It takes no time at all for Doctor Jacotte to make the connection between his wish and his random teleportation abilities. When he asks how the situation can be remedied, the company says that burning the wish seems to work. Doctor Jacotte gives the smoldering corpses of the goblins a wide berth and tosses the scrap of paper into the fire pit. As the paper ignites, sparkles of magic flare up around the horse statuette before flitting off into the night sky.

With the good doctor hopefully cured of his magical wanderlust, Sir Henri turns the company’s attention to finding Charlotte. He points out the path that he found earlier, and says that he thinks that the squire will be found wherever the path ends. Sir Henri also fears that time cannot be spared to return Doctor Jacotte to Vierzon. The doctor, both pragmatically and gratefully, asks to come along to assist the company. Sir Henri allows the doctor to hold his lamp.

The Cavern

The path eventually descends into a shallow defile, where a fast-flowing stream runs along its lowest point. The stream disappears underground at the far end of the defile, and the company notes a well-traveled cavern entrance close beside it. Listening at the entrance, the company can hear the distant shouts of orks and goblins.

The company proceeds into the darkness, aided by Doctor Jacotte’s lamp and Andre’s keen night vision. They soon find themselves in the upper reaches of a cavern, which features a large wooden bridge and several crumbling stone buildings. The cavern stretches out into darkness below them, and the company can see several campfires. Around the largest, several orks eat, sing, punch one another, and occasionally taunt a screaming woman who has been locked up in some kind of cage.

The Cavern

The company splits up. Magnus, Garnier, and Sabina take a curving staircase that leads down to the cavern floor. Garnier uses one of his torches to light their way, and the trio carefully creep from rock to rock. The rest continue down the bridge, where firelight flickers in a ruin at the far end.

The two wings of the company acquit themselves very well, keeping hidden, and killing sentries as they find them. Their run of good luck comes to an end when Andre fires his bow at an ork sitting at the fire in the ruined building. The arrow goes wide and the ork comes stomping out of the ruin to investigate.

“Hey! Why you shoot at me?!”

“Uh, well. Just testing out the new bow, and I didn’t want to hit you!”

“Why not?!” shouts the ork, coming closer. “You think me not ‘ard enough to take puny arrow? Me plenty ‘ard. HEY! You not ork or gobbo. You one of them puny humans!”

Andre gulps, for it seems that the real battle is beginning…