Session 5 & 5.5 (The Fight on Hilberts Farm & The Chase)
When the heroes decided to storm in, they had given the cultists ample time to prepare for a fight. Sigmar and Marbio were combat ready, weapons drawn. Mara was in her dark travel clothes. She and Marbio were just coming up the stairs from the cellar and had just discussed if they should try fool the heroes by making them believe that Marbio is the young Eolan and just decided even should they succeed they would eventually have to dispose of the heroes to keep their secret. So while they were a bit startled by Barukh coming in with the shattering door they had already weighted their options.
Barukh got immediately entangled with Sigmar and Hluthar stepped into the room more carefully to see Marbio and half hidden by the stairs Mara as well.
Halvar on the outside standing beside a large tree to provide covering fire with his bow realised that he didn’t have a target until the cultists would leave the farmhouse and rushed towards the door for close combat, his fingernails growing into claws.
Savertin meanwhile decided to use Barukhs crashing of the door to climb the fence to reach the backside of the farm house. This made both Halvar and Savertin miss the first few combat turns of direct action.
Barukh found a heavily armoured target like Sigmar to be not an ideal target for his boxing combat style while Hluthar discovered the limited space at the stairs hindered his long blade finding a target while Marbios Dagger was less affected.
When Hluthar tactically disengaged to switch places with Barukh so each could fight an opponent better suited to their combat style strengths, Mara emerged from the stairs surrounded by a rainbow aura of peace and a stream of purplish black fire hit Hluthars shield coming from Marbio.
Savertin sneaked into the farmhouse and could see Sigmar, already a bit beaten hitting Barukh with a heavy blow. A quick crossbow shot did not hit Sigmar but drew his attention to the new combatant.
At the front of the house Halvar had arrived and guarded the entrance to prevent Mara from escaping. Him and Hluthar could not muster the willpower to attack her. Suddenly a spherical melody rang in Halvars ears and he attacked Hluthar, letting Mara escape and preventing Hluthar from following her.
Shortly after Barukh managed to kill Marbio as Sigmar had already fallen under attacks from two sides. Though the spherical melody remained in Halvars head until Barukh was forced to knock him unconscious. By that time Mara was nowhere to be seen, slipping into the wilderness she presumably knew better than any of the heroes.
A search of the farmhouse revealed a cosy upstairs with accommodation for about half a dozen people living at the farm that seemed to be in recent use. Carefully the farm was searched but no one else found above ground. The cellar underground however revealed quite a few secrets.
It contained a cell block in recent use, an altar to a faceless god and an interrogation chair still having an unconscious Eolan Novara chained to it.
The interrogation protocol suggested a line of questioning over the last few days aimed at gathering information that an impostor would need to play the role of a rejuvenated Eolan. Apparently his servant Yirtan was in on the deal and would recognise Marbio as the real Eolan in secret and thus support the claim that Marbio is the adopted heir of Eolan.
More paperwork was found to suggest that the cultists have done this multiple times before. And at the end of each file there was a statement “investigation completed, subject sent to the mines for safeguarding”
(Session 5.5 was a solo session with the player of Halvar):
Once awake again, the vengeful witch Halvar jumped on his cart and to the surprise of everyone took off and flew widening circles around the farm. He wanted to find the excaped cultist that made him attack Hluthar mindlessly.
Together with his trusted Raven familiar Jora he soon discovered the coach not being there anymore where the heroes left it with Nitor.
First assuming Mara might have forced Nitor to return to Honeyngton, Halvar followed the road westward towards the town while Jora flew eastwards eventually discovering the coach eastbound towards Dukesford, already deep in the Northmarches province.