Guardians of Gondor 4 - Shopping, Drinking, and Theories

[TheMonarchGamer]

Hi all, here's the fourth session of my Guardians of Gondor group. Enjoy!

The following day, Arendir decided to leave the town and meet up with the players later on - he said he had some business to take care of in the interim. Wulfred and his hound Woofred supervised the digging up of the grave, and confirmed that the body was indeed that of Findegil. The body bore a set of papers labeling him as Belegorn, and saying he was a soldier of Gondor (specifically, Stork Company, the company that got massacred by Dawn Company and was being buried when the players first rolled into the town). If you'll remember, the players knew that he was a merchant, as they had been hired by Pilgrim, his employer, to find out what happened to him. Confused by this, the players first decided to check out the scene of the massacre where he and all the real members of Stork Company were killed, and then proceed to Tironduath, the capital of the region, to check if the papers are official.

They soon set out with Nalrandir Swiftsteel (in case you didn't figure it out from last session, he's the returning player) accompanying them. Nalrandir heard hoof-beats behind them, however, and whirled around to draw his sword, only to discover that Celepharn and Iower decided to accompany them. They're friends of Pilgrim, and wanted to help him out. In addition, they reminded the players, if they try to get Findegil's military papers checked by the Marshall at Tironduath, it would be a lot easier if they were accompanied by someone like him. They cheerfully agreed, and they all continued down the road toward the field where Stork Company was ambushed. After searching the field, Odo found an old, worn skeleton key wedged between the roots of a grove of trees, and after mentioning it to the party, pocketed it. Other than the key, they found nothing of note there.

They arrived at Tironduath that evening, and Celepharn suggests that they purchase their accommodations there before anything else. They arrive at the inn and purchase their rooms - one thing they didn't expect to see was Hilde walk down the stairs of the inn, only to bolt back up the stairs when she saw Nalrandir draw his sword and dash after her. She managed to escape out the window, only to be caught by Nalrandir once again. After she reasoned with him that the town had asked specifically for them to leave and that they probably wouldn't be too keen on them returning to bring back more problems, he agreed to release her, and they went over to the bar and drank. Wulfred, Odo, Celepharn, in the meantime, asked the Marshall to check the papers and verify whether they were legitimate or not. He said he would get back to them with the answer tomorrow.

The next day, they went once again to see the Marshall, and he told them that there was no record of a Belegorn in their libraries. He said that the clerks have never made a mistake in the last several hundred years, and that the files are locked up unless they're being used, so its impossible the libraries are mistaken. With that, the players left his headquarters. Hilde decided to go shopping for more materials and equipment, Wulfred and Woofred went looking for an artisan to see how hard it would be to forge those papers (they determined that the papers were almost impossible to forge that well - they must have been made officially), and the rest retired to the inn to discuss the situation. They came up with three main theories (although they weren't sure if the key fit into the mystery, or if it did, how it fit):

1) Pilgrim lied to them about Findegil's death, for some reason, and Pilgrim was the one who actually murdered Findegil. He hired them as a cover, since he didn't expect them to do well.

2) An enemy of Pilgrim murdered Findegil and made his death look like an accident.

3) Findegil was actually a traitor, and helped Dawn Company butcher Stork Company by trying to infiltrate Stork Company to sow chaos. He was killed in the mayhem of battle.

They ended the session after deciding to head back to Pilgrim to ask him more.

That's all for now, folks! As always, thoughts, comments, and theories are welcome!
-TMG