Here is the first part of the eighth edition of the D&D Game Summary.
Please refer to the earlier editions for character backgrounds and other
exploits and to the second part to see how this story ends.


Summary of "NorCal Campaign" Part 8A
------------------------------------

This adventure was written entirely by the game master and it is titled
"Raiders of the Plains".


ADVENTURE NOTES--Day #28--06/03/94

This adventure begins partway through this game session.  The party had
just finished saving the town of Silver Rise (and potentially the entire
area) from being overrun by Shadows, but in the process a band of raiders
had taken the box which is Galen's burden.

The Southbound Road: (June 13, 697)
    After a full night's sleep, they were all feeling much better.  Spike
donated 100 gp to the townspeople to help them rebuild, and then the group
left on foot, heading south.
    The group left on foot because the cart and horses were taken by the 
raiders.  They did manage to buy two pack horses to carry the treasure from 
their adventuring beyond the gate.  The raider's tracks were difficult to 
see on the well-traveled road, so they watched the edges of the road for 
signs of the large band leaving the road.
    They had no luck finding any tracks.  They did encounter some travelers
on the road, however.  The group tried to ask if anyone had seen the raiders,
but Rhodan's method of questioning left a number of people convinced that
the party itself was part of the raiding team.  Other members of the group
quickly stopped him from bugging the people on the road.

No Help to Be Found: (June 15, 697)
    The group arrived in Talnor in the early evening.  After getting a room,
Studedly and Galen went off to a nearby pawn shop to ask after Galen's
missing box.  The shopkeeper was fairly cooperative until he heard mention
of the "raiders".  Then he shut up and would not offer any more help, even
when the offer for a reward was upped to 500 gp!  The shopkeeper said that
he simply could not help, so maybe they had better leave.
    They went back to the Inn and discussed their options for the next day.
    The first thing the group did the next day was find a money changer and 
unload all the non-mithril coinage they had acquired.  They changed most of 
it in for gemstones.  They also used Identify spells on the items they found.

Gathering Information: (June 16, 697)
    Melody and Spike went off to the town hall to see what they could find
out about the raiders.  It turns out that Talnor is run by a very
bureaucratic government.  It took quite some time to arrange to see the
town Constable.  [Don't remember his name]  After some attempt at
questioning, they found out that there are indeed raiders on the roads 
outside of Talnor to the south and east (but no reports to the north where
the party came from).  They call themselves the Wolf's Head Raiders.
The Constable said that Count Larad (Viscount of Talnor who reports in
to Duke Ahmend of Kestria, Lord of the Plains) and the town guard 
have protected the city but that the Raiders themselves strike too quickly 
on the roads to be caught and they have never been successfully tracked.  
That was all they could get him to say.  He claimed he was busy and they 
would have to make a real appointment to talk with him again.
    That was not enough information for them, so they went down to the 
records office where literally tons of documents and reports waited.  They
finally managed to get some help by bribing a clerk to dig up the past
several years of police reports.  
    Spike and Melody spent all day looking through the reports.  Apparently 
the Wolf's Head Raiders have been striking more and more often over the 
past 3 years.  Early hits were only on the east road.  Later they spread to
cover the south road as well.  The raids did not seem to have any pattern.  
The Raiders actually seemed more likely to take a caravan of food and 
other supplies than to take money (although they did take a few gold 
shipments).
    Throughout the reports various names had been edited out with ink blots.
In recent entries names are avoided completely.  Apparently they knew more
about the Raiders in the first year or two than they do now.  Another
curious thing is that in the rare cases where Raiders were captured, they
were either rescued shortly thereafter, or they died of strange diseases.
None of the Raiders were ever successfully questioned.  In all, the Raiders
seem to take care of their own and seem extremely loyal.
    More digging brought up the fact that they previous Constable [Forgot
his name too] died of a mysterious disease nine months ago and was buried 
in town.  This led Spike and Melody to believe that the old Constable may 
have gotten too close to what was going on and was replaced with someone 
who might even be working for the Raiders.

Somebody's Watching: (June 16, 697)
    Studedly did some information gathering on his own.  Apparently the
Raiders are known simply as the "Dogs" on the streets.  Everyone seems
afraid of them, and no one seems to like them.  But he got no useful
information.
    When spending time in their room discussing plans, Rhodan noticed that
the group was being scryed upon!  They quickly moved out of their room and
got a small conference room in the Hastenzi temple where they continued
their plans.

Digging Up Clues: (June 17, 697)
    Furnes became very interested in locating the body of the dead Constable.
Studedly felt that it would be pointless because the grave would probably
be empty anyway.  They had a small bet riding on it by the time they set
out looking in late morning.  
    It turned out that Talnor has four graveyards and they found the grave
in the fourth one they looked at.  Furnes then wanted to go get some shovels
and come back that evening, but then he did some research and found out that
it would take a 9th level cleric to speak with the body.  If there were
any 9th level clerics in Talnor, they'd be unlikely to do it for cheap if
they did it at all.
    This cost a good portion of the day.
    Rhodan and Galen went out to buy some horses for the group.  When
shopping at the horse trader's, Rhodan noticed that one of the horses there
was one that the party had before!  A little more looking located a second
one of their horses.  They bought these two horses to go show the group.
    This left them certain that the horse trader must have something to
do with the Raiders.


ADVENTURE NOTES--Day #29--06/17/94

Nighttime Excursion: (June 17, 697)
    That night the Melody and Studedly raided the stockaded city block 
which formed the horse trader's place of business.  Melody used Sleep
spells to disable the guards and then they went in and looked around.
    They found nothing of interest in the yards or in the stables, so 
Studedly picked the lock to the office.  There was no one inside.  It is
unclear what distracted them at this time, but they did not bother to
search the office.
    On the way out, Studedly swapped jewelry between two of the guards
and also tied them up.  He then woke one of the guards and questioned him
about his master.  The guard told them that the trader [Yet another 
forgotten name?] lived on Drake Street.
    The group decided to go pay the trader a visit.  They found Drake
Street in a well-to-do part of town where private guards patrolled the
streets.  The group was approached (because of their brutish appearances)
and asked to leave.  They did, but snuck back into the area a short while
later.

It's All About Bargaining Position: (June 17, 697)
    Furnes used some quick thinking to outwit one of the guards.  He came
running up yelling that the horse trader's business was on fire and saying
that he had to find him quickly!  The guard agreed and led them down the
street to the trader's home, whereupon he banged on the door saying there
was a fire and went inside when the door was opened by the maid.
    Galen used a sleep spell to put the guard and maid under and a second
one to get the trader as he came down the stairs from his room.  Melody
and Spike took up positions as watch outside while the three sleeping people
were tied up.  Studedly went upstairs and tied up the trader's mistress.
    Before waking the trader, they moved him into the basement (where it
would be more soundproof) and tied him to a chair.
    Furnes then tried to scare the guy into talking.  He was pretty calm,
and although he screamed when Furnes cut off his big toe with a Flame Blade,
the man did not break.  Threats and even use of force would not make him
talk.  Furnes then tried to destroy the man's favorite valuables such as
paintings, but he knew he was losing ground.
    Galen also tried to get some information but did it in a "good cop"
kind of way.  (Booga was playing Galen at this time.)  In the end the 
trader would not talk but did offer to find the box they wanted to know and 
deliver it to them if they would agree to let him go and pay him 1200 gp 
for his trouble.
    That's what you get for dealing with a horse trader.

Hiding Out: (June 17, 697)
    They left the trader and others tied up.  The figured that the trader
would keep the others quiet to protect himself from investigation.
    Knowing that they probably could not trust the trader, they immediately
moved out of the inn they were at and moved into a small place in a lower
class part of town.  They kept watch all night.
    The next day, Studedly followed the horse trader around.  The man went
to work as normal and was hard to track in there.  When business closed,
he went to a bar and spent some time talking with a thiefish brigand.
Studedly chose to follow the trader and soon found himself being followed.
After a few slick moves, he lost his tail but also lost the trader.
    He picked up the trader's trail near Drake Street and followed him home
before returning to the group by a very circuitous route.

Getting Out of Town: (June 18, 697)
    That night, a lone beggar came to their place and knocked on the door.
He said he was a "friend" and they let him in to talk.  The man claimed
that they must leave town immediately because "_they_ will find you very
soon.  _They_ have resources and you cannot hide here."  The man told them
to take the east gate at dawn.  He would take care of things for them.
He also told them how to find the Raider camp they were looking for to the
north in exchange for their promise to destroy it.
    Furnes cut a coin in half and gave half of it to the beggar.  He told
the man that it could be redeemed for one favor in the future.  He gave the
other half of the coin to Galen.
    From the hints the man gave, they think he was a member of the 
organization that ran Talnor before the Raiders got their roots here.  The
man was probably operating on the "enemy of an enemy" line of thought.
    They left town at dawn through the east gate and spent the day traveling
to the north until they found the landmark tree that the beggar told them
about.


ADVENTURE NOTES--Day #30--07/03/94

Scouting: (June 20, 697)
    They traveled east a bit off the road into the rolling hills and found 
a trail with tracks on it.  Following this trail carefully, they managed 
to get close to a line of sentries patrolling the rolling hills.  The
sentries had an effective pattern with a good view of the land.  They also
had dogs.
    Studedly and Rhodan studied the line and managed to get inside the
outer perimeter.  Once inside, they saw a second line of more permanent
look-out posts.  The moved between the lines to the south-east side of the
camp and managed to get close enough to see the entire layout.
    The Raider camp consisted of a large building which seemed to be both
the stables and the men's barracks.  A smaller building was acting as the
women's barracks and the kitchens.  The third building seemed to have three
private rooms.  In addition there was a fire pit, and some works projects
along the river's edge.  The camp itself was nestled in a bowl formed by
four hills but partially bisected by a small river.
    They managed to make it back to the group safely.

The Raid: (June 20, 697)
    The group decided that time was a problem.  The dogs might pick up the
trails that Studedly and Rhodan left, or the shifting winds might give
them away to the dogs anyway.  The decided to advance in the late afternoon
and set themselves to watching the guard patterns on the west edge of the
camp.
    Studedly and Rhodan went in first.  They got unlucky, though, and the
next patrol had dogs which picked up their scent.  The guards went running
for help, so Rhodan ran to kill the guards and the rest of the party ran
through the gap in the perimeter.
    The guard did manage to get off an alarm and the party was being shot 
at with arrows.  They made a bee-line, though for the core of the camp.
Rhodan took off to take out more of the permiter guards at their backs.
    As they crested the hill overlooking the camp and approached the 
empty guardpost (the camp was not fully built yet), they were hit with a 
Fireball!  Galen reacted by starting a Cloudkill (cast from a scroll)
through the camp.  The others moved for cover.
    The battle was pretty fierce.  They had the advantage of surprise,
however and the rounds it took for the enemy to organize allowed them
to get in close and search the private buildings for Galen's box.  During
the battle, Galen used a Wall of Fire and a Fireball from his wand, plus
a Web, two Magic Missiles and two Sleeps.  Melody used a Stinking Cloud,
a Flaming Sphere, a Sleep and four Magic Missles.  Furnes lent his aid
with a few Silence spells, Prayer, and a lot of healing as various people
got badly hurt.  Spike and Studedly acted as the fighting support for this
crowd.
    Rhodan was off on his own.  He went into a bezerker rage and was taking
out at least one Raider every round!  He probably would have done better
if he did not lose his weapon once and if he did not miss with his Javelin
of Lightning during the battle.
    The Raiders had over 30 men, a dozen women, and six dogs to fight with.
They were led by a cleric (who their searches hint was a cleric of Untamo)
and a mage.  That mage hit the main group with a second fireball when they
were searching the leader's chamber (shortly after Galen had found his box).  
This hurt them only a little, but it destroyed all the notes and maps that 
the Raider's leader had in his room.
    When the battle was cooling down, the leader showed up.  The man was
incredibly fast and strong.  He was also half wolf!  It took the combined
might of the main group to barely take this guy out.
    The Cloudkill did not kill many people in the camp as it drifted 
through, but it did provide cover for the party.  Near the end of the 
battle, Melody left the group and made for the horse stables.  She managed
to save a number of the horses before the Cloudkill wiped out the other
horses.
    At least one of the Raiders escaped.

Travel South: (June 20, 697)
    In the end very little remained on the Raider camp.  Furnes put the
buildings to the torch after a quick search for valuables.  They managed
to grab 383 gp, 1135 sp, 14 gems worth 100 gp each, a +2 Longsword, and
a Spellbook (Fireball, Clairvoyance, Invisibility, Mending, Wizard Lock,
Ultravision, Knock, Sleep, Know Alignment, Magic Missile, Message, and
Track Removal).  The "Track Removal" spell was responsible for the Raiders
being difficult to track.
    They made their way out of the area quickly and spent the night on the
west side of the main road.
    After that, they traveled south but stayed well clear of the main roads
and of Talnor.  They made their way to Strafferberg this way in just 11
days.

THE FUTURE:
    This leaves the adventurers finally at the city of Strafferberg, which
has been their goal for about a month.  Rhodan is looking for his mother
and Galen is to deliver the box which he went to so much trouble to
retrieve.

    See Summary #8B for how game session #30 continued.