LiLF Session 4 – A Circus Show

Present: Montgomery (James), George (Gaz), Hans (Ben)

The party leave the orphanage and approach the nearby town of Theidenfeld around 09:00. On the way into the settlement they see a circus but are too exhausted to be interested in it now.

Hans helps the party find an inn, the Tipped Mule, and they hear fairly poor lute playing from within accompanied by decent singing. As the song ends there’s laughter in the inn.

George and Montgomery take the only two available rooms and immediately retire in order to rest. Hans is too poor to afford a room anyway and decides to nap and nurse drinks in the tavern.

The singer leaves the stage and introduces himself as Szölôs. He spends some time in discussion with Hans, contemplating that the two Englishmen he travels with may be spies for the Protestant army.
When discussing the Sorcerers Szölôs is very admiring, as they appear to be trying to keep Karlstadt and the other towns safe whilst the Bishop-Prince cares only for Wurzburg.

Later, after Szölôs has left, Hans notices he’s being robbed and accosts the thief, dragging him outside and intimidating him into returning his money (though refusing to take more than was stolen from him) before sending him on his way.

Hans meets Szölôs again over dinner before retiring for the evening, when  Szölôs mentions leaving Theidenfeld Hans suggests the possibility of him travelling with the party, if his companions agree.

George dreams of being inside the Incontinent Vicar as the Inn burns, choking on the smoke of the fire. As he coughs and looks at his hands they are crawling with insects. He turns to Frederiks body and his gaping wound in his throat has insects crawling out and covering his body.

Montgomery dreams of waking up with a hand over his mouth. Each limb is then grabbed in turn, then another hand covers his eyes before pulling him down and the bed crashing under him.

The party meet over breakfast and lament their empty purses. There’s disagreement over the right way to procure gold, Hans advocates they protect a merchant caravan. Montgomery thinks it sounds like tremendous hard work and wants to check out the circus.

Szölôs’ has joined them for breakfast and at his suggestion the party begin to consider a raid on the circus, stealing the elephant and selling it for food. Hans, however, wants to find honest work…

Montgomery sends Hans to figure out how much they can earn as sellswords (7sp/man/day).

George suggests they go and take out the sorcerers but Montgomery is more cautious, wants to assess the situation and
see whether it’s something they can handle, and feels that now’s not the time for that…

Montgomery convinces Szölôs to travel with them to the circus under dual purpose.

Montgomery tries to convince the ring-leader to allow the party to broker a sale of exotic animals to the Sorcerers in Karlstadt. He is unable to convince the ring-leader to trade animals but they are invited to watch the show, an invitation they willingly accept with Montgomery trying to discern headcount for the circus as the show proceeds.