Rest or Continue?
Not keen on being tortured any more we burst in to action like a well-oiled machine! Despite a dozen guards and all being behind locked cell doors, we break out and defeat our captors. Of course, our captors are the town guards with whom we were working not five hours previously, but they are now working on the belief that we are the enemy so we don't pull our punches. Lacking weapons and armour we have to improvise as best we can, which soon results in picking up dropped weapons. Tal's beserker physique has different ideas about what can be used as an improvised weapon, though. After breaking his cell door off its hinges he picks it up and manages to impale a guard with it.
We fight our way out of the gaol and in to the courtyard where we decide to flee the city after making a heroic but futile stand to try to find out why we have been falsely accused of being the enemy. Stopping by Chez Dexter only to pick up equipment and horses we ride to take the north gate out of the city, sadly without Dexter's full-plate armour, managing to bluster our way past some guards with the use of my colonel alter-ego and disguise.
The road north is followed briefly before we head cross-country, Dexter covering our trail that took us off the road, and we double-back to head west. Our aim is to reach the town the torturer mentioned when he let slip who had turned us in as being members of the Red Hand Gang. A more tenuous lead we have not followed, but it is precisely because it is our only lead that we are following it.
After riding through the trees for a couple of miles we head back out to the road for swifter progress, reasoning that anyone ahead of us on the road will not be aware of our newly-acquired 'wanted' status, and that turns out to be just the case. Two patrols stop us on our travels asking for our papers, and seeing that they are in order bid us a good day, and before the end of the day we find ourselves at one of the main river crossings. Again, after an examination of our papers we are waved on, and I even use my colonel's rank to get us fresh horses for the ride ahead.
Rather than riding through the night a farm spotted from the road is selected as being a good place to rest, away from any patrols or wandering creatures that might pose a threat. Wandering creatures don't normally pose a threat, but as we have had our bones crunched upon by Marrowbreakers, abilities drained, and many hit and reserve points drained in the past few days some of us find ourselves to be at the mercy of the mighty squirrel and its overpowering bite. We need to rest.
Settling down for the evening we discuss our options for recovery. We could try to regain as much health as possible, for we still need to defeat the Red Hand Gang and disrupt their Blood Angel summoning ritual, which may have a few dozen acolytes present. On the other hand, we don't know when the summoning ritual will be started and once it has we have limited time to stop it. Time could very well be of the essence, not allowing us the luxury of rest. With the sun firmly below the horizon we decide to get a good night's sleep and see how rested we feel in the morning before we make a decision on when to press on.
During the night we are woken up by five ghostly, undead cats, each one intent on hunting down one member of the party, each one almost impervious to our weapons, and each one biting negative level damage in to us. The undead hunters are defeated relatively quickly, reduced to nothing more than a vapour, but at the expense of a handful of negative levels sprinkled around the party.
We go back to sleep, only to wake more drained than the previous evening. On the positive side, this pretty much assures the unanimous vote for a full day of rest in the barn instead of riding to the next town, and allows us to reinvigorate our health even if we can't get quite as healthy as expected, because of the negative levels. Next time, I'd prefer to read tea leaves to prophesy our future path rather than be sent more undead harbingers of bed rest.