As the party travels east, they reflect upon their recent adventures. Caso and Foreman Sy have shared some interesting news regarding the goings-on in Shadowfurst. Before leaving town the adventurers had a deadly street fight with a band of thugs. Several of the thugs were slain before the rest fled. These were members of a rival gang to Hack’s “Mange Gang,” calling themselves “The Stoneheaded Bastards.” They have been causing trouble at the Yur Inn. The Stoneheaded Bastards hold great malice toward “The Four.” Furthermore, the slaying of those thugs has resulted in a turn of public opinion against “The Four.” Many of the local citizens simply cannot abide the killing of local young men by needlessly violent outsiders. Meanwhile, the citizens of Shadowfurst are chafing under the heavy-handed policing of the Countess’ personal guards and the royal soldiers who remained in town following the summer uprising. These outside security forces have been dominating the local guards, but carry much less understanding of the local situation. On the bright side, Caso informs them, the renovation of the Yur Inn was moving ahead quite aggressively last he had seen it.
The first two days of travel are uneventful. The temperature slowly drops, as do autumn leaves, while the skies remain clear. On the third day, as evening falls, rain starts to fall, and shadows deepen. They warily pass between low bluffs, when Cycek comes to a halt. He detects a low growl. He points to the right hand bluff. Davros picks up the signal and springs into action. He quickly takes a position of cover and prepares to fire an arrow. A moment later a vicious creatures leaps from the opposite bluff and charges into Caso. It’s a gnoll! It attempts to spear the young man, and failing that tries to bite him with gnashing fangs. Caso is miraculously unharmed. An instant later, Davros unleashes an arrow, injuring the aggressor. Before another breath can be taken, more gnolls take the field, attacking with spears, teeth, and arrows. The skilled adventurers believe they have the battle in hand, but out of nowhere, a cold, shadowy presence is felt. Mishok senses the deadly evil, and seems to see a demonic form. Sartan lights his magical torch and throws it at the feet of this shadow. The creature seems to momentarily flinch. At that moment, a familiar voice shouts in excitement and frustration in Sartan’s mind. “What are you doing!? Don’t mess with hammers and gnolls! Let me kill the demon! I want to kill it! It’s been too long! Let me at him!”
The gnoll ambush turns into a fierce battle, made even more harrowing by the presence of a shadow demon. Sartan’s demon-hating sword, however, gives him an edge in the battle, causing substantial injury to a foe that itself appears insubstantial. Davros fires arrows from a concealed location, a tactic that proves lethal to his adversaries. Despite the fearsome enemies, the four adventurers prove victorious, destroying the entire ambush party. Before the demon itself could be dispatched, it utters a malevolent threat, insisting that the fight would prove hopeless to the mortals, and that more like him would be upon them soon. Be that as it may, they hack at the creature creature as it flees, undoing its wispy flesh with many cuts from arrow, sword, and crystal axe.
Combat over, they loot the bodies. The gnolls carry the usual gruesome trophies of battle: ears, teeth, fingers, scalps and such, many of these most likely once belonging to hobgoblins. One of the gnolls bore the blistered scars from either fire or some kind of caustic substance. They take what little of value they can find, and then return to the road.
Farther down the road, the group begins to encounter small groups of travelers, primarily rural folks from the south. These people are heading to Shadowfurst, seeking refuge from the purported hobgoblin incursions. Many had only heard rumors, but others had direct experience with the interlopers. One traveler from the Greenfields area tells a tale of a clash between hobgoblins and gnolls. He reports having seen an scaly black lizard-like humanoid in the company of hobgoblins… fighting for them or with them. It is unclear whether he saw a dwarf among them.
When at last they arrive at the south gate of Shadowfurst, there is a small crowd waiting to be allowed into the city. This is apparently a new procedure, as folks generally had been free to come and go as they pleased during daylight hours. But these new arrivals are being not only questioned and inspected, but are apparently being shaken down by Countess Velnarion’s “Flaming Fist” guards. The group intervenes on behalf of the travellers, paying their way through with a hefty bribe. In doing so, they also learn that there are a large number of people coming to the city, and the guards stress that is is imperative that they thoroughly screen new arrivals. It’s even worse at the north gate, where refugees are arriving from New Elturel.
The four adventurers are allowed into the city. They cross the bridge, and can see that work is being done to fortify the seawall on the inner bank of the river, crowning the stone structure with metal spikes. They drop off Caso and the Foreman at the Stoneyard and are soon at the site of the Yurr Inn. It is immediately clear that much work has been done in their absence. Piles of cut stone lay stacked in the dirt yard among other bits of construction debris. It appears that about a quarter of the building has been demolished. It now has a decidedly smaller footprint, and a temporary wall of rough-hewn boards has been erected where the building original façade and entry way have been removed.
Inside, they find Lolly at work arranging furniture (which appears to be new). Some of the flooring also appears to be new. In fact, the remaining original parts of the barroom seem to be quite clean and orderly. Lolly greets them excitedly, expressing her relief that they are safe, and gushing about her progress in renovating the bar. Her expression falls, however, when she recounts the extortion attempts by a gang called the Stoneheaded Bastards. She has run out of money to pay for masons to build the new stone façade, and this gang is demanding “protection” fees. She has already paid them for a month, and unfortunately, she only has Shaggi and Skids to protect her. They have been doing their best. They have stood up to the thugs who have come to cause trouble, but they recently took a bit of a beating, outnumbered by gang members who came to intimidate the money out of her. This gang is headed by a thug named Mortlock – one of councilwoman Vanthampur’s sons. The Stoneheaded Bastards have long been rivals of her own son Hack’s “Mange Gang.” With the Mange Gang disbanded, and Hack gone, the SB’s have become the most powerful gang in the city. They have a grudge against Lolly and and even deeper grudge against “The Shadowfurst Four” for killing a few of their own on a street corner last summer.
Despite these issues, Lolly is proud of the work that has been done. The bar is stocked with new, higher quality liquor. She has in fact been open for limited hours, simply to bring in a little income. She shows them four paintings on the wall, each a somewhat amateurish, but remarkably recognizable portrait of the four new owners of this establishment.
The four head upstairs to find rooms where they can get some rest. They find that this part of the inn has seen little improvement yet, other than clean linen on the beds. The floors are still warped and rotten in places, the paint still flaking off the walls, and the windows still grey opaque. They find some loose floorboards and stash their Durgeddin weaponry within.
They decide to get a good night’s rest and pay a visit to the Mayor the following morning.