This weeks adventure began with a side trip to an armorer to check on the availability of bucklers and hide armor. On the way to the armorers shop the party came upon the procession of a high official of Ashtakahr and also noticed several times they were being shadowed by some of the ruffians they had a prior run–in with while in the inn the previous night.
Upon arriving at the armorer, Forest was able to talk the proprietor of the shop into selling him a suit of hide armor at a discount, along with a trade of his leather armor. Feeling more at home dressed in skins, Forest and the party returned to see if the Merchant Guard was back in the office. Unfortunately they once again found the guard to be out and the party was unable to determine when they would return.
Heading back to the main street of Ruhndehm the party once again spotted the ruffians and Erg was unable to contain herself any longer and immediately charged at them. Forest decided to support Erg and followed on her heels with the rest of the party into the alleyway, although Dax stayed behind to watch the opening of the alley at Forest’s suggestion. When the party entered the alley to chase the retreating pair of ruffians they quickly found they had entered into a dead end trap. Five goons came out from the adjacent buildings cutting off their escape while the original 2 ruffians scaled ropes hanging at the end of the alley assisted by an additional 2 ruffians already on the roof tops. Dax was quickly becoming overwhelmed as Erg and Forest moved forward to his relief. Blocking the alley so that the goons could not get by, Dax and Helmon ran back to the end of the alley seeking escape up the ropes. The party was quickly succumbing to the enemy’s superior numbers and from the rain of crossbow bolts from above. Luckily Helmon discovered a loose sewer grate and threw the dangling rope down the sewer so they could attempt an escape. Dax went first but was knocked unconscious by the fall. The badly wounded pair of Erg and Forest fell back together while their enemy slowly advanced not realizing they were trying to escape. Forest was next down the hole and was able to slide down the rope taking minimal damage in the final drop. Helmon and Erg continued fighting an additional round before making their escape while Forest used his powers to cure Dax.
The party now moved out of the line of sight of the grate and overheard most of their enemy refuse to go down after them. Almost immediately they began to understand why when 3 dire rats(?) attacked the party. The party dispatched the dire rats in due order but their health was now brought down to a very low level and their healing abilities where nearly exhausted. Forest was able to score several good hits with his darts and a great hit with his scimitar (which should have been a 21 point critical if he had remembered his crit. range) During the battle they attempted to make noise like they were being eaten alive to fool those above but afterwards they made too much noise and those above could tell there was still a good chance the party was still alive. Right on the heels of that battle the party came up against 3 wererats that slowly advanced, apparently unsure whether to attack. The party fell back trying to bluff their strength when up from behind the wererats appeared a Giant Scorpion. Two of the Dire rats were able to climb the rope and escape but a third was forced to fight the creature. The party decided to try and help the wererat in order to get information from it but an errant dart throw from Forest hit the wererat which made it clear it would remember that. That last remaining wererat did not last long enough to do anything about it though and quickly became food for the Scorpion who scampered off with its body after also putting Erg down. After reviving Erg, the party decided after a long discussion they would try to get out of the sewers in another direction.
Reaching the main sewer branch they headed NE away from the city center when they came upon a humongous 3 headed dog creature. Forest quickly thought about the reward for a lost dog and called out “Spot” because he had forgotten the name of the dog on the flyer. Dax though quickly remembered the name and called out “Peaches”, to which the dog creature immediately seemed to take note and attach itself to Dax’s character. After nearly crushing Dax with a friendly pounce, Dax was able to leash Peaches and the party decided to return him if they could. After finding an exit from the sewers the party caused no small amount of commotion returning Peaches to his master. After returning the pup and obtaining their reward from the unhappy Father of the girl, the party was able to talk their way out of incarceration from the Guard by bluffing that they were in the employ of the wealthy proprietor and that they had caused no harm and broken no rules, as Peaches was not dangerous and under control the entire time.
From there, the party searched for moderate lodgings in the Municipal District. At the first decently priced inn they were asked by the barkeep if they were interested in healing potions. Fortunately for the party the barkeep sold them potions for a fraction of their worth and when the owner of the inn realized what was happened lost his job in a hail of curses. The party quickly left the premises with their vital stash and found another inn where they spent a couple days healing.
The group consensus now was to head to the Arena and check on the Animal Capture trade with Battle Master Glen and also possibly to try their hand in the arena again. The party was pretty much ridiculed by the Battle master about their ability to capture animals for the arena so they decided to earn some more cash by fighting again.
The first fight had no more than started when Xox appeared from the skies crushing their opponents in the process and displaying his prowess to all those in the arena who cowered under his impressive aura. During this display Forest did happen to notice that Xox appeared to have the same cooling frost expelling from his body that the portal wardens had. (Perhaps this is a weakness to be exploited or reported later) As quickly as he came Xox left, and slowly the stunned arena returned to the business of the day.
The party was unable to talk the Battle master into giving them credit for a win as Xox had killed their enemies for them, so once again they headed out onto the field of battle. This time they found themselves outnumbered 4 to 3 by a Reptilian, Amphibian, and Orcish brutes. As in the previous battle Erg bore the brunt of the enemies initial attack, the enemies first hit nearly taking her down. Forest moved to support, giving Erg a healing touch, but it was a poor attempt and not near enough to bring Erg back up to full strength. Three of the enemy then surrounded Erg and rained blows down on her while Forest moved in with his scimitar drawn and started hammered powerful blows of his own while his Eagle attacked from behind. The fourth enemy, enraged by one of Dax’s arrows focused on him at a distance of about 50 feet from the main fight. Erg was nearly brought down by another hit and when she attempted a final attack, the exertion caused her to slip into unconsciousness. Forest and his Animal Companion now began to work to take out the wounded 3 enemy combatants while Dax began a steady fighting retreat trying to stay alive. Realizing he had to go all out or die, he summoned up all his energy and laid in with vicious two handed scimitar attacks, while his companion worked to flank each enemy. In a few short turns his blade had cut the enemy to shreds and they lay dead at his feet. Seeing Dax still in combat, Forest used a potion to revive Erg who immediately reentered the fray upon gaining consciousness. The last amphibian, now outnumbered 4-1, quickly was taken down. The party went to collect their rewards and inquire more about the details of capturing creatures for the arena.
Discovering then that they need to have a cage wagon that cost 500 GP and a team of animals to pull it, they realized this option was out of their reach for now, and they headed back to the inn for another period of recuperation and to see what the future held in store for them.
[Minor editing and corrections provided by the DM.]