Bandaluthia Session 09

Bandaluthia: Session 9

Shaniqua followed the four guys who had earlier 'rescued' them. They went to The Titan's Maul and appeared to enter. As Shaniqua followed them in, they caught her in the foyer. The bundled her outside, and into an alleyway. Here they started to question her. Gently at first, but this got them nowhere, and Shaniqua was far too cocky for a young girl in her position. One of the four, the one who held a dagger at her throat, pressed in his advantage. Blood started to ooze from a wound near her wind pipe. She still acted far too nonchalantly and so the dagger was pushed in deeper. So deep, that Shaniqua breath was taken until she panicked. Then the half-drow told them all. The truth too. She promised them things that she perhaps could not really keep with out the help and co-operation of the rest of The Animals.

Meanwhile, the group, less Shaniqua, looked over some guys for protection of the house. They were talking to them and deciding who they should hire when the half-drow walks in and tells them to send home all the applicants. Shaniqua then tells them that they have to meet the four guys from Buckstars with a view to hiring them for the house protection. Rätsel in particular was more than a little opposed to this, as the four, more specifically one, had tried to rob them of more than 2,000gp. The Animals did agree to meet, and invited them to The Whip Inn for breakfast. Despite Rätsel's hatred of the guy called Vandrel, the Animals did eventually agree to hire them for the protection of 22 Acacia Avenue. The group then set about the plan to have Dave followed. The Animals decided that the two Halflings would follow Dave. As Dave left his Satyr & Sickle, the Halflings followed covertly: a bit too closely and Dave asked if they were Colosseum-bound and invited them to join him in his taxi (hiding in plain sight sprang to mind). Here Dave alleviated their worries of a few of the issues Coolio and Doogle had with the Bandaluthian Grapevine.

Once at the Colosseum, Dave left and went on his way. A nifty bit of magic saw Coolio transform into a lovely elven lady. 'She' then followed Dave, but had difficulty seeing through her new elven eyes, and was lucky that Doogle kept pointing her in the right direction. Tyven decided that there was no way he was going to miss the Coliseum fights and went on his own. Shaniqua and the Hellhound went too, but not before Shaniqua had got Carly to shave the Hellhound completely bald and beardless. Ratsel had no interest at all in such barbaric sports, so he stayed in the Satyr & Sickle petting his monkey.

Dave met up with a rather attractive blonde and went to the 10gp seats. The Halflings followed and observed. They seemed to be close friends, though they could discern no more. The fight ensued and Doogle's attention was drawn to the barbaric atrocities: "Oi you, Jimmy, 'kin av it", as he explained the finer points of the battles to Coolio. Meanwhile, Tyven admire the battle elsewhere, as did Shaniqua and Hellhound. As the festivities ended the Animals' attention turned to more pressing matters. Hellhound looked for some ruffians to mug and encountered some, whom he outnumbered one to three. The battle commenced; he dispatched one, and the law arrived. Hellhound was promptly arrested. Shaniqua gazed around the crowd and found a seemingly wealthy-looking individual who needed liberating of her belt pouch. With a swift sleight-of-hand the belt-pouch was expropriated and she made-off back to the Whip Inn with her ill-gotten gains. Meanwhile, the Halflings trotted-off after Dave, following him to a local hostelry. They were duly fleeced by a local confidence trickster. Not only that, but Dave noticed them, and asked them why they were following him. Pleading ignorance the Halflings bought him a drink, but he was irked and made his displeasure known. They left; 12gp poorer.

While the rest of the Animals had gone to observe the bloody spectacle, Ratsel went for dinner, with Affe. He chose the Satyr and Sickle. Not long after he arrived D'Jarra Leon entered with Thelonius. The latter spent most of the evening scowling at the Tiefling, but Rätsel joined the pair when invited by the Guild magician. He explained to the two red-bloodied males that Pete's former business would be re-opening, under new management. D'Jarra Leon seemed pleased, as did his apprentice, when Rätsel, in an attempt to remedy any unpleasantness, promised to subside a visit or two from the other trainee wizard. A satisfactory quantity of fine Elven wine was drunk, which loosened the young apprentice's tongue. It seemed it was Thelonius who had been responsible for leaking the truth about Hellhound missing the galley to the afterlife. D'Jarra Leon instructed Ratsel the he would deal with this turn of events.

After enduring a particularly rough body-cavity search (which he actually quite liked), Hellhound was interrogated, first by the Town Guard, and then by a judge in the morning. By pure dumb-luck, he was able to convince the law that he had been attacked, was innocent, and was, even, not the infamous Hellhound. He was duly released and made his way back to the Whip Inn in time for lunch the following morning. In the meantime the rest of the Animals met with THE FOUR TOSSERS WHO ARE GOING TO GET IT AT THE FIRST OPPORTUNITY and negotiated an arrangement whereby they would provide protection for Aphelia, Chloe, Isabella, Naomi, Opal, Saffron and Wendy, in exchange for a modest fee and the use of certain areas in 22 Acacia Avenue.

So, the session ended. Hellhound had escaped, but only just. Perhaps a new pseudonym would be needed - Hell Lord perchance? How long before THE DEADMEAT irreconcilably differ from the Animals? Will the professional divorce be acrimonious? How will Rätsel's plans for the interior redesign of 22 Acacia Avenue pan-out? Will Shaniqua buy a diamond saddle for her pony? What of the Halflings? Will Doogle continue to survive in a big city, and will Coolio wet the bed thinking about Vinnie? These questions, and many more, will be answered in the next thrilling episode of Bandaluthia.