E03

We see drowners coming out of the lake and our direction. Amelia fires another fireball behind us to get rid of the insects on our tracks. She seems really tired and Pasquier picks her up so she can catch her breath.

We run in the direction of flickering lights (with Marten hiding on the side). We hear a horn blown and footsteps.

Stop ! You're surrounded.

Pasquier and Cerridwen raise their hands. A bunch of maybe 8 persons come around them, handling bows and crossbows. They seem like seasoned warriors, men and women with lots of scars. We drop our weapons. They throw a rope at Pasquier and asks him to tie his 2 friends.

Where's the 4th one ?

Pasquier pretends Marten's dead and Cerridwen starts crying. They don't seem to believe him and knock the friends unconscious asking for Marten to show himself. They throw some other lure for the monstres behind and start moving, lifting the 3 of us who were captured.

They also leave one of them behind and Marten tries to follow him around. He gets captured by a single women and brought back to the tunnel. She mentions that they are not accointed with the witcher. We walk half an hour underground and rejoin with the rest of the group who has been woken up and got some drinking water. We start a friendly chat with their boss, Robin. He explains he has the debt towards Fazil who got him out of jail and that there's something wrong in the city. It could be related to the giant owl some of us saw. Our memories are all confused about it due to some sort of trauma.

Robin also explains they were hired to retrieve the sword, a symbol of the baronny so a legitimate heir can get back on the throne. He locked himself in a sarcophagus to hide from the monster and that got him caught by the guards. Only the witcher believed him. The sword has not been retrieved and is nowhere to be seen.

Robin want to keep us out of the way for a few days so Fazil can do what we wants. We agree to keep quiet for some time and they keep us in chains or ropes (after Marten shows off about the knots that Leslie failed to verify).

The next morning, after some decent coffee, we start a long walk with them. We meet more of the bandits and their children, their cattle and broken carts. Robin seems worried when Pasquier mentions that the youngest heir was likely killed during the attack of a caravan a few days ago.

Amelia founds a convincing way to get a fork so Marten has a small needlish tool which could be used to get our his chains.

Marten and Cerridwen get to meet Robin hoping to lift a curse or whatever spell we think that Fazil has on him. He doesn't agree and we decide to have Cerridwen dispel the spell against his will. A witcher's sign seems to be dispelled and Robin seems to be going through recent memories where he was bewitched by the witcher then blacks out. Marten magically cures him and he wakes up confused and bleeding from the eyes.

Meanwhile Pasquier follows a very similar black cat and meets again with the old crowne. She seems to be hoping to capture his soul. He wakes up in his cell, Amelia's bandit friend bringing him a blade "to shave" and our bags. We manage to get free of our bonds and escape, leaving a friendly paper note for Robin.

When we escape, we hear that a child has fallen in a pit - maybe the fault of Amelia ?

Amelia and Marten try to guide the group through tunnels near the lake. Given the choice, we take the direction towards a likely heavy monster : a boulder with arms hitting the wall. It speaks with Pasquier, it seems to be looking for a friend - we have a nice chat and lunch with him in the caves. The troll blocks the river for us to go through.

When we move forward we get ambushed by a group of drowners and a water hag.