Though a leaden sky still threatened overhead, the snow that had dogged the companions throught their journey mercifully held off as they began their fourth day of travel to the palace of Lord Blenheim. The old man, Garath, continued to entertain the adventurers as they made their way through the foothills. They did not see a living soul as they travelled, and it was up to the old storyteller to keep spirits up. "Give us a tale, old man", demanded Lafayette. Garath, being the talkative sort, was not about to refuse and launched into a tale of tragedy and woe called, "The Princess with the face of a Gnoll", a truly sad story of unrequited love and jealous betrayal.Presently the short day turned from light to darkness and the companions sought out a suitable place to camp. It bemused the small man with the white beard that trailed them throughout the campaign that they never stopped in daylight, but that was their choice. Lafayette, ever the antagonist, attempted to goad Garath into gathering wood and starting a fire, but as the old storyteller pointed out, he was a rather unwilling companion of the group and was not about to do their work for them. Grumbling, Brad walked off into the woods and started poking around for firewood. Presently, with a compfortable fire going and tents pitched, the group were well fed and thinking about bedding down for the night. It was Brad's turn to take first watch, a duty to which the young barbarian took without complaint.
Before sleep, Lafayette again started to question Garath, sensing motives that may or may not have been nefarious in nature. When the old man's answers grew evasive, Lafayette set upon him and starting trying to rifle his pockets. Garf looked on aghast, "Stop assaulting the old man! You can't do that!", he shouted. Lafayette was indignant, "Of course I can! He's hiding something". For his part, Garath kept trying to whack Lafayette on the head with his staff. Lafayette persisted in rifling the old man's pockets when Garf came up and tried to pull him away from Garath. Lafayette shrugged Garf off easily and turned back to the task in hand. Garath reached into his pocket and concentrated for a moment. "The cleric is attacking you, you should defend yourself", was all he said. This seemed like the most perfectly reasonable suggestion in all the world, and Lafayette immediately left Garath alone, and turned to run at Garf. Swinging a punch, he connected with the cleric and was about to knock him out, when Garf tapped him on the head with his mace. Lafayette fell to the ground dazed.
The respite was only short, Lafayette was quickly on his feet and seeing Garf as a threat. The two men grappled for a short while before realisation dawned on Garf that Lafayette had fallen under some devious trickery. "Wait! I'm not attacking you!", he yelled at Lafayette. The bounty hunter blinked twice and the spell left him. Both men spun quickly towards where Garath had been standing, only to find a tree where the old man had been. A quick search for tracks revealed none, and the two adventurers surmised the old man must still be around yet invisible. He had shown himself to be a little more than just an old storyteller, and the companions were taking no chances. Garf wildly poked at the air, while Lafayette made a firmer search for tracks around the spot where they had last seen the old man. Lafayette's dog picked up the sorcerors scent and immediately went to a puch where the old man kept his things. Garf followed the dog and took out a map that the old man had been carrying. "Can you make anything of this?", he asked Lafayette. Lafayette took the map and began to read. Without warning, a brown mist began to emanate from the map, which shortly coalesced into the hideous form of a huge snake! "Gods!", cried Lafayette, as the snake reared, bared its fangs and lunged at him. The bounty hunter drew on his reflexes and threw himself aside as the snake struck. When he had finished rolling away, Lafayette quickly looked back. The snake was gone, and in its place stood Garf with a stupid look on his face.
They continued to search for a while, and when no further information was forthcoming, Garf agreed to take his watch and set off as Brad returned from the watchpost. Some hours into Garf's watch, the young Cleric's daydreaming was interrupted by the sound of quiet footfalls back at the camp. In characteristic fashion, Garf froze, and lay frightened at the watchpost straining his eyes in the dark to see who was moving about back at the camp. The dog began to bark at something. This roused Lafayette, who poked his head out of the tent just as his dog, Fluffy, charged the now materialised form of Garath. The old man was taken by surprise as he tried to sneak away from the camp, as Fluffy launched himself at him! The dogs attack was enough to set the sorceror off-balance, and he got a nice mouthful of Garath's robe. Garath recovered himself quickly, and reached out to lay a hand on Fluffy. Icy tendrils of cold spread from his five fingers into the body of the dog, which quickly went limp as the life was literally frozen out of it. Lafayette yelled in anger, and dragged himself to his feet, pulling one of his throwing axes from his belt and hurling it in Garath's direction. Garath tried to dodge, but the axe caught him a glancing blow on the shoulder, causing a yelp of pain. The sorceror then again began to wave his fingers in the now familiar way of a sorceror, and within seconds a green web appeared to shimmer its way into existence around Lafayette. Lafayette dived to the side when he saw what was happening and narrowly avoided encasement in the web. Garf had recovered himself at this point and ran back through the woods to loose a bolt in the direction of the sorceror that went high and wide.
Lafayette bullrushed the old man, and connected with his midriff with some force. Garf jumped over to the fray and also tried to charge into the fight. At the last moment, the grappling pair rolled to one side, and Garf's charge was interrupted by an upturned tree root that sent him sprawling on the floor. Garath broke free from Lafayette's grip and tried to escape, but fell headlong over the prone Cleric, who grappled him, Lafayette then got involved again and together they kept the old man down. A few punches to the side of the head later, and while Garf prevented the sorceror from gettting at the assorted objects in his pockets, Lafayette had Garath hog-tied and propped up against a tree, looking less than pleased with himself.
"Now", growled Lafayette menacingly, "We are going to have a little talk, you and I"
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