S07E04 – Cow Riders

Gottesklingen, the leader of the Iron Shields, invites Miriel and Eva to hand themselves in. While the whole tavern is getting ready for combat a young patron starts talking, apparently about the morality of arresting people while they are having fun. Miriel, however, captures the hidden message and, after a brief exchange with the rest of the group, gives herself in along with Eva.

As soon as the knights and their prisoners are gone, Nacho, offers the remaining heroes his assistance. In a strategically sound move they all unanimously accept this unknown ally’s help and set up an ambush on the forest abutting on Bluetrail. The intense combat that follows involves Don Diego leading drugged cows into combat, Morgun and Moncho riding them and heavy taunting from the otherwise knigth like  Iron Shields. After several near death experiences the group kills all the Iron Shields except their leader, Gottesklinge. After burying the bodies Nacho invites Miriel to join the thieves guild he’s part of, The White Gloves. Meanwhile Don Diego asks Eva about the whereabouts of his fiancee and she requests to be taken to Don Diego’s hamlet because María’s aura will be stronger there and it will improve her “sight”. Don Diego has no idea what she’s talking about but it sounds cogent and he convinces the rest of the group to go there.

After picking up Morgun’s baby dragon from a hidden cave they all leave, along with their prisoner and the soothsayer, towards Don Diego’s hamlet. On the second day of travel they meet a group of Vecna cultists fighting a group of Iron Shields. Unable to find a lesser of two evils the heroes skirt them. On the third day they stop a small band of lizardfolk who were harassing a carriage driven by a friendly old couple.

Finally they arrive at Don Diego’s hamlet, Maradona. Miriel scouts around the deserted village and finds an ettin, a two-headed tall orc, roaming around with a recently missing arm and a trail of blood behind it. The creature seems to be hunting down a bulette that the group spots a few houses later. While the heroes is trying to decide what to do with these monsters Eva declares her love for Don Diego and for his surely sizeable treasure, confesses that they actually didn’t need to come here and asks him to marry her. Don Diego says no and lets her know that he disapproves of her methods and forces her to tell them whatever she can see about María. She finally reveals that she has seen a frail and sick Maria working on a resplendent crevasse along with hundreds of other slaves.