Paradise's Gates

“Paradise's Gates”
Rise of the Runelords episode
Episode no.	Episode 49
Date	2009
Game Master	Abbe
Characters	Dorothea Gloriana Honeypot Nell Velicia
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "The Barn" "Silent Lips, Talking Eyes"
Rise of the Runelords chapter list

In this chapter returning to Turtleback Ferry the heroes find the barge, Paradise's Gates, burning.

Paradise's Gates

Closing on Turtleback Ferry we could see a strange light over the village. It had an orange-red color as if there was a big fire and sure enough there was. Hurrying into the village to see how we could help, we saw that it was Paradise's Gates that was burning. It was maybe 500 feet out on the Claybottom Lake. We ran up to the closest boat, where a fisherman stood pulling it ashore. We started to put it back out to sea when he protested. We told him we would just borrow it to help out. He still didn't agree until he heard the commotion behind him. There people talked about the rangers we saved. He asked if we saved those rangers and when we nodded he helped us put the boat back to sea.

The burning barge, Paradise's Gates

Rowing out, Honeypot performed a ritual on Velicia to protect her from fire. As we closed in I looked carefully at the burning wreck. I was sure there could be no survivors still there. We got close enough for Velicia to jump over and she searched among the flames. Still in our boat I searched for traces of what could have started the fire. I could tell that the fire had spread very quickly, almost like an explosion. The walls had collapsed immediately and the roof had fallen down, trapping most people inside. Velicia told us that it had looked like the fire had been started by lighting. Honeypot and I looked around and saw something floating in the water. It were the bodies of a trapper and a waitress. With a sad mind we returned to Turtleback Ferry.

We were met by the priest who was also the mayor. He introduced himself as Maelin Shreed. He told us that there were around thirty people missing. They had recovered fifteen dead and almost thirty survivors. He led us to a cottage hospital where they were treated. He lived there. Several of the survivors were severely burnt. As it was getting late he offered us to sleep there but we declined as didn't want to be any burden. Instead we went to the inn.

When we got there we were treated with great respect. It turned out that the rangers were held in high regard, staying for free at the inn, and when the locals heard that we had saved some of them we were heroes. We still payed for our rooms though. We were asked to tell the story of how we saved the rangers. The others drank wine and we told the story of the awful half-ogres. The mood of everybody rose, but I was still shook up by the day's experiences. I took care of Kaven, making sure he was comfortable, but the rangers were in such a bad condition that they went to bed early. I went to bed quite early too, at about midnight.