GURPS Free Cities Session 1

The Party:
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (250 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (250 points)
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (250 points)

Not Present:
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (250 points)

Day 1:
The party got off the boat in Adusia, and went to the local Adventurer's Guild to look for work.  Luckily, as members of the guild, their armour has a slight enchantment that marks them as members, and provides a slight pull towards the nearest guildhall, if it's within 1-2km.

They got a job to escort a dwarven spice merchant named Gylium to the town of Carda, 3 days travel to the south, for 20gp.  They went to Gylium's store, and found a thug leaning on the front door, who claimed his friends were inside discussing business with the merchant.  After a moment, negotiations broke down, Arc landed a solid blow with his staff, and the thug ran off.

Inside were 3 unarmed thugs holding Gylium against a wall.  A short skirmish (using turned blades and no spells) resulted in the thugs surrendering, and the guards hauling them off and talking about how the thugs' boss is going to be pissed that he has to pay bail.  After some unnecessary questioning by Aurum, Gylium thanked the party for their assistance, paid them half of their fee up front, and told them to be ready to leave the next morning.

They stayed the night at the Crimson Boot, an inn directly across from the adventurer's guildhall.  Aurum played some dice and won $25, despite his default Gambling skill.

Day 2:
The next morning, the party headed out to Cosium, the first stop on the road to Carda.  Thanks to Frightens Animals, Aurum spooked the horses, so Arc got to ride in the cart with Gyliulm, while Aurum and Mor'ath hoofed it.  The weather was fair, and the journey uneventful.  The party arrived at Cosium, a small town with a half-constructed palisade situated near the forest's edge, slightly before nightfall.

They stayed the night at the Wench and Flail inn where they met Cathney, an elven merchant and friend of Gylium, and her three guards, a male halfling, a female dwarven cleric, and a beautiful human swordswoman.  Cathney warned the party of a group of hobgoblins they had encountered further down the road; further north than the hobgoblins were usually sighted.

Day 3:
The weather took a turn for the worse and it began to rain.  The path to Kral Narthis, the next town on the route, went through light forest, and with the tales of hobgoblins Mor'ath, decided to scout ahead.  This paid off in the afternoon when he spotted a group of hobgoblins that had prepared an ambush, ready to drop a tree across the road.  There were hobgoblins in the forest on both sides of the road: some with spears and tower shields (one of whom had a bronze breastplate, and was clearly the leader), some with bows, and some kind of shaman.

The party decided to have Mor'ath sneak into close quarters with the hobgoblins on the left while Gylium hid in the back of the cart, and Arc and Aurum sat in the front to launch some missiles (Sunbolt and Fireball, respectively) at the group on the right.

Mor'ath snuck up successfully while Aurum managed to not spook the horses, and Arc drove the cart around the corner, into LoS of the hobgoblins, who failed a series of Tactics+4 and Vision+4 rolls to recognize that the party was obviously alerted and prepping missile spells, thanks to the rain and distance modifiers.

Mor'ath did very well, and managed to very quickly eliminate the hobs on his side with deceptive attacks and rapid strikes, despite their tower shields.  Arc and Aurum had more trouble, with both of their missiles not connecting.

Mor'ath took an arrow, but his armour caught it.  The leader and his spearman closed to Arc and Aurum, while the shaman cast an RPM version of Flash at Mor'ath, who resisted it.

Several hobgoblins tried to retreat, but Mor'ath caught them all with his Move 8, while Arc fought the leader with his staff and Aurum used Flame Jet to get rid of the other spearman by the cart.  The hobgoblin leader fought well, and managed to stab Arc for minor damage, but was quickly killed once Mor'ath regrouped.

As is tradition, the party looted the hobgoblins, and grabbed 32cp, 3sp, the hobgoblin leader's Cheap bronze breastplate ($420, 40lbs), and 8 pairs of hobgoblin ears after Gylium mentioned a bounty in Carda of $10 per ear.

They arrived at Kral Narthis just as the sun was setting.

Notes:
I need to remember that Aurum has Frightens Animals more.

The ambush went well for Mor'ath (7/8 kills), but Arc and Aurum were easily blocked by shields.  It would have been a different story had they been ambushed, because none of them are heavily armoured, with Mor'ath in particular relying on high defences.

Adusia and Cosium are human towns, while Kral Narthis is dwarven.  Dwarven settlements are generally prefaced by a designation, such as Kral for towns.

XP:
2 for general success
2 for everybody roleplaying well
MVP went to Mor'ath for his killing spree