As the voyage to Westcrown progresses Shiel and Rosalind, who are at first tight-lipped about their plans, gradually
become more open as they learn of the parties recent exploits. By the time they dock in Westcrown the rogue assassins have officially upgraded
the party to 'Allies' and the party split into two with Shiel, Rosalind, Aecrypa and Hapu trying to track down the bard Vilren directly while
the rest of the party follow up on the
Children of Westcrown lead. The two groups agree to meet daily in a suitable tavern.
The first full day in Westcrown the main party split up into three pairs. Aya and Dru learn that
Dottari are not easy to extract information from even if given a lantern, Urugu and Gurr learn quite a lot in a brothel (none of which is either repeatable or relevant) and Tiramba and Arreng actually learn where the next meeting of
the Children of Westcrown is being held. Tiramba, Arreng and Aya turn up to the meeting which is held in the backroom of an inn and run
by a leather clad young woman named Janiven. Janiven explains that the ideals of the 'Children' are to clean up the City which the
authorities have failed to do over the last 30 years. The Children's two immediate targets will be the
'Shadow Scourge' and a new and bold tiefling bandit group, the Bastards of Erebus, who are operating out of the Rego Cader, the northern ruined slum district. She emphasises that all citizens can help and those unwilling or unable to fight can be useful as lookouts or providers of information.
Suddenly a young man, Morisino, bursts into the room with the news that Arael, leader of their group, has been captured by the
'Order'. Things rapidly get worse as it would appear that Morisino has
been followed and that the Order are hard on his heels. At this point Urugu, Dru and Gurr appear from where they had been lurking on the street. Janiven asks the party members to help her form a rearguard while the other members of the meeting quickly exit through the sewers.
Dru, however, offers to cast Darkness as they retreat making it unlikely that the paladins would discover the entrance quickly.
The retreat through the sewers is going well when torches are spotted ahead. They have accidentally stumbled on a random Order patrol
who block the way. Several members of the Children bemoan that they are trapped but Aya, a keen science student, sees it as an excellent
opportunity to test the aerodynamic properties of paladins in a wind tunnel.
The experiment goes well for Aya and badly for the paladins. The next blockage in the sewers looks like a 'fatburg' but appear to be alive.
As the party hack at it they discover that the 'fatburg' likes to try and retain their weapons if struck. Luckily the party can do hacking faster than the creature can do 'retaining' and it dissolves into a foul liquid (revealing a nice looking +1 dagger in the process).
The party eventually emerge in a ruined temple of Erastil that the Children are using as a base and are introduced to the rest of the
group. The main priority now is to rescue Arael before he can be carted off to the Order's impregnable castle at Rivad. It is the practice
of the Order to convey prisoners to their castle at Rivad in armoured carriages with an escort of knights. Janiven's plan is to
use the existing members of the Children to appear on the road well in front of the carriage as if they were organising a rather
incompetent ambush. The carriage would then be ordered to stop while the knights in the escort charge off to clear the road. The ambushers
would, however, then retreat into the forest having put caltrops on the road to impede the knights. The party would then have the six paladins
left on the carriage to take care of before they can rescue Arael.
Aya uses her powers to dislodge all but two of the paladins from the carriage into the far shrubbery where several members of the party are
waiting to deal with them. All the paladins are swiftly disarmed and tied up before Aya finds the keys and releases Arael from the carriage.
The horses are then unhitched from the carriage and persuaded by Dru to disappear into the forest to prevent them being used to pursue the
rescue party.
Back at their base the Children are overjoyed to have rescued their leader in such a successful operation and also at the undeniable
potency of their new recruits. Janiven wastes no time in outlining their next mission which is to attack the base of the Bastards of Erebor.
She is of the opinion that these two missions will boost the Children's recruitment drive considerably. Despite the dangers potentially
posed by the Shadows the party suggest the attack takes place at night.
The Bastards lair consists of four or five buildings which are the only ones standing in a burnt out area of the slums. They have set a watch on the top of an old bell tower but Gurr and Aya descend out of the darkness from above with a Silence pebble to make sure
the alarm is not raised. The party then find a trap door on the tower's ground floor that leads into an underground cave. The cave
is occupied by 8 tieflings who are somewhat surprised to have an Ice Storm suddenly unleashed upon them. Gurr (flying) and Janiven (running round the walls) get to the opposite entrance to prevent any of the tieflings escaping and although they are impressively tough
for bandits they perish in the party's all out assault.