6/24/96
                       THE COMING OF THE ZIOTH
                             TURN THREE

   The battle over, Ardith and Ziedon hurried to the burgher to see
what could be done. The man was in bad shape. His left leg was
sprained, two of his fingers broken, and he had a large gash in his
back.
   "Well," Ardith said to the mage, "It seems, Ziedy, that we are the
only two unscathed by this battle. Our brave fighting companions and
our client have suffered serious wounds. Not to mention that horses are
injured as well. It appears our client has a broken leg. I will prepare
some healing herb teas and poultices. But the broken leg is another
matter. Please fetch me a hand's breadth of sturdy wood. Borrow Sahl's
scimitar if you must to cut fresh saplings. We must splint the leg of
our client."
   While Ziedon gathered branches, Ardith built a small fire of twigs
dry enough to prevent smoking, and heated a pot of water. As it heated
to a boil, she examined the wounds of her new friends, and eased the
pain of the burgher, promising to set his leg as soon as there are
splints. She cut away the leg of his trousers to assess the extent of
the damage. When Ziedon returned, the two of them set to work splinting
the burgher's leg.
   With the furor of combat gone, Sahlman at once noticed the two
bandits lying on the ground, writhing in pain. For the moment, he
ignored the wound in his shoulder, resolutely striding over to the
nearest of them, grabbing him by the leg with his unscathed right arm,
and proceeded to drag the man over to where the other lay in the dirt.
That done, the easterner used his Kukri to cut strips from the clothing
of the wounded men, for use in both binding them and in the dressing of
wounds sustained by himself and the others. He wrapped the thieves'
wounds himself, and gave the remaining cloth to Ardith, in whose hands
it could be more useful.
   One ungrateful thief tried to attack Sahlman as his wounds were
being bandaged, so Sahlman gave him a sharp club with the pommel of his
knife. When the thief persisted, Sahl finished him off. Letting the
thief live would only slow down the healing of everyone else.
   Sahlman then took some rope and began to tie up the other thief.
Before the first knot could be completed, however, Ziedon, who had
finished with the burgher's splint, stopped him.
   "Allow me, friend." Salhman stepped back and looked to see if Brinn
needed his help. Ziedon looked at the thief. Yes, this was the one he
had attempted to charm during the battle, but had it worked? In any
case, the thief was not in good shape. If any questions were to be
asked of him, charmed or not, they would have to be asked now.
   "Why did you attack?"
   "Those were my orders."
   "Orders? So you were hired? By who?"
   "Only my befled leader knows who. I suspect it was an enemy of your
friend's." He pointed weakly to the burgher. Ziedon pushed down his
hand.
   "Where did your leader flee to?"
   "Back to the camp, I would assume."
   "Camp? Where is that?"
   "Right outside of Grenzig."
   "Where do you keep your stolen loot?"
   "The leaders are not foolish enough to tell me that. They know that
I could be captured and questioned." Ziedon realized that any line of
questioning involving thievery would have no success. He did, however,
see that this burgher might not be entirely welcome in Grenzig. Before
he could ask another question, the charmed thief shuttered and died in
the dirt.
   With Sahlman's help, Brinn made litters for the burgher and Kay. "We
must continue to Grenzig," repeated the burgher over and over in a low
moaning voice as he was helped into the litter.
   Brinn looked at the burgher and said "We should move before those
thieves come back with backup. We'll have to carry Kay and burgher." He
searched the thieves' bodies and found several longswords of poor
quality and a dagger, but no gold at all. Apparently, the leader of
this party did not even trust his companions with a small amount of
traveling money.
   Ardith looked briefly to the horses. They were far too injured to
save, so, with her companions' help, she put them out of their misery.
They would have to continue their journey without any mounts.
   When the water finished boiling, Ardith poured out some of the herbs
from several of her pouches. The smell from the potion is soothing. She
then took the cloth given her by Sahlman, soaked them in the broth, and
applied them to clean and soak the wounds of her companions. She left
the cloth with the infusion on their wounds as a poultice, renewing the
hot liquid as it cooled. Ardith finished her healing by casting a spell
on Kay. Kay could now walk on her own.

   The party continued on, the four taller party members carrying the
burgher. The next two days were uneventful. Finally, at noon on the
second day, the travelers arrived at Grenzig. To their dismay, they
were stopped at the gate. When they looked at the guards, they were
shocked. These were the remaining thieves, those who fled, but they had
boosted their numbers back up to a dozen. Furthermore, each thief was
armored and was carrying a fine longsword. They did not attack, but
rather spoke.
   "We will not allow you into Grenzig."
   The party of adventurers clearly had little hope of winning a
battle, with several members of the party injured, and fighting such a
large number of well-armed men. If they wanted to enter the town, they
would probably need to find another way in.


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   I realize this could be a hard message to respond to, so try to
explore as many possibilities as you can. In case you need more
information about the town, the wall is large and square. There are no
men currently on guard atop the walls. The town is surounded by a thick
forrest of pine, maple, and birch. The road continues both through the
town and arround it, winding around the larger maples.

   Kay now has 4/6 HP.

   The new party leader is Ardith.

   Note to Kay: I waited more than a week after the last submitted
turn, but yours didn't come. For this turn, please try to enter your
turn sooner. If it is the echo's fault and not yours, then I'm sorry,
but I can't keep the other players waiting. :(