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Omar's Planescape Camapaign
Omar et al
I'm against that place.
-Aleph, upon hearing of the Abyss
The Bogwaite Five (hereafter unimaginatively called, once Kusk
has joined them, ``the party'') had lately been pulled into a
portal that rather unexpectedly appeared in the just as unexpected
basement beneath Mr. Trellic's ballroom.
It's a long story.
But, suffice to say that the other end of this portal was in an
abandoned warehouse in the Lower Ward of Sigil. The Sigil end of
the portal was a hole in the ceiling of the first floor of this
warehouse, through which was a rope attached to a pulley hanging
from the ceiling of the second floor of the warehouse. (Garrett
would later inspect the pulley to determine that while it was
rusted and hard to turn, it and the rope were still quite sturdy.)
Waiting for them in the warehouse were four people. Kylie, an
attractive spunky young redhead with tail and a one-eyed
four-limbed raccoon-sized mammal on her shoulder. Another was
Lissandra, a taller and broad shouldered Nordic looking woman. The
other two were boring guards. Lissandra seemed rather interested in
where the Bogwaite Five had come from, and took notes in a book she
was carrying around about where they were from and their
description of their trip. Once she was satisfied, she left with
the two thugs.
During some of Lissandra's interrogation, Garret and Aleph
wandered about inspecting the warehouse, leaving Reynald and Varrin
to do the talking (leaving Ironclaw mostly sitting there looking
stupid). The second floor of the warehouse was abandoned, though
there was a full-length window on the second story that opened out
underneath an overhang, on which was mounted another pulley (though
no rope).
Kylie told the Bogwaite Five that she'd been hired by ``a
cutter'' to bring them to him. After some confusion as to just why
a ship's boat might want to see them, our intrepid wanderers,
deciding that they didn't have any other sort of direction, went
along with Kylie. Exiting the warehouse and passing through the
alley that led to the street gave them their first look of Sigil.
None of them were impressed with the air quality, for the air was
foul and brownish in color, and caused a slight sting when
breathed. Garrett and Aleph were in particular unhappy with the
air, the lack of open sky, and the crowded and oppressive
architecture of the city. They were even more distressed when, upon
questioning Kylie, they learned that you couldn't just walk outside
the boundaries of the city; Kylie seemed to be claiming that there
was only ``the void'' there. She did say, however, that there were
many portals (or gates, similar to the one the Bogwaite Five
evidently used to arrive in Sigil) leading out of the city.
As they wandered the streets of Sigil, they saw creatures of all
shapes and descriptions. They got their first look at the goat-like
centauroid Bariaur; they saw others like Kylie who seemed to be
mostly human but who had some sort of unnatural feature; they saw
several members of what seemed to be a race of humans who had
sallow skin, prolonged features, and a tall and thin build; they
saw a few elves, dwarves, gnomes, and the like; they saw the Dabus,
the mysterious tall silent levitating creatures who maintained the
city, fixing walls and streets, and trimming back the razorvine
that always threatened to overrun the city; and they saw creatures
such as orcs, ogres, and even gargoyle-looking sorts of things.
As they passed out of the Lower Ward into the Lady's Ward, one
of the first things they saw was the Temple to the Abyss. Hanging
from one of the huge tarnished silver blades on the building
(blades being something of an architectural style in Sigil) was the
remains of yesterday's sacrifice, a gored but still barely living
human. The Bogwaite Five were a little surprised that an open
display of what sure appeared to be wanton murder would be
tolerated under the law of Sigil.
At one point as they crossed the Lady's Ward, the party suddenly
heard around a corner ahead the sound of breaking glass. Moments
later, a disheveled and poorly clad kid came tearing around the
corner. As he did, voices from whence he came were heard shouting,
``Stop, Thief!'' Kylie identified these voices as likely belonging
to the Hardheads (aka Harmonium, who function as the city guard).
The kid ran up to Varrin and, grabbing the Miere Goblin, implored
him for help. After only a few moments of thought, Varrin cast an
illusion about the kid to make him look like an adult gnome. He did
this none to soon, for a patrol of three Harmonium guards came
running around the corner, asking the party where the kid had gone.
They pointed the guards off in the direction where the kid had been
heading; after they disappeared, the kid ran off himself, though
not after surreptitiously dropping a tiny pouch with a handful of
silver pieces at Varrin's feet.
Declaring that it was ``just after peak'' (and referring to a
peculiar Sigil clock), Kylie suggested that they all stop for
lunch. At Reynald's request, she steered them to a tavern named
``L'Estomac du Cheval,'' which could serve them a nice bit of tea.
At the recommendation of Mominid, the barkeep, Reynald had a
serving of the silverfish (advertised to be fresh from the River
Oceanus), topped with a mild sauce, and the Kriglian Green Tea.
Garrett and Aleph eschewed the silverfish in favor of a more
traditional stew, though Aleph did venture far enough as to try the
``Abyssal Spices'' that the barkeep told them was available; the
rather tongue-searing nature of these spices seemed to confirm
Aleph's first impression of his personal philosophical relationship
with the Abyss. Meanwhile, Reynald's interest in the tea attracted
the attention of Bernardino Ruiz, the one other patron in the bar,
and the two of them engaged in a protracted discussion about tea.
Among other things, Ruiz indicated that he was hoping to procure a
certain specific interesting tea, available only (so far as he
knew) in the burg of Yeoman on Bytopia. Ruiz left Reynald with his
calling card, telling Reynald to call on him any time he wished to
learn more about the finer beverages available in Sigil.
Kylie took the Bogwaite Five the rest of the way through Sigil.
They passed from the Lady's Ward, on into the Market and Guildhall
Wards. They passed through the Great Bazaar, seeing the huge and
bustling melange of commerce and trade which is the hallmark of
that largest of market squares. From there, they went on into the
Clerk's ward, where Kylie dropped them at a tavern named the Scroll
Case. There, they met Kusk Fatewalker, who was a member of that
race of humanoids who were tan to yellowish of skin and long of
feature. Kusk paid Kylie for bringing him the Bogwaite Five and got
her to sign a bill of sale for the transaction. After this, Kylie
left.
The newcomers spoke for some time with Kusk. He explained to
them something about the planes in the mulitverse. He said that the
plane that they had come from was known as the Prime Material
Plane, explaining why people referred to them as ``primes.'' He
also said that many on the planes didn't respect primes, calling
them Outsiders or Clueless. He told of how Sigil was overseen and
protected by a mysterious and largely hands-off figure known as the
Lady of Pain. He described how the politics of the Cage (a name for
Sigil) were dominated by the fifteen Factions. Kusk revealed
himself to be a member of the faction known as the Fated.
Finally, Kusk told the party why he had been looking for them.
He'd been hired to track down the whereabouts of a missing caravan,
which was shipping a fine and rare harpsichord from Bytopia, the
plane of its crafting, to a town on the Outlands (another of the
outer planes). He told the party that he had consulted a seer, who
had told him that he would have need of the services of a group of
primes newly arrived in Sigil. For this reason, he had hired Kylie
to find and bring him such a group of people. Kusk agreed that he
would use his knowledge of and contacts in Sigil to help the others
achieve their goals, whatever they might be, if they assisted him
in this mission.
The Bogwaite Five agreed to assist Kusk. Kusk arranged lodging
for them for the night, and then the entire group decided to sample
the grandest of the grand in what passes for night life in Sigil:
the Civic Festhall, a huge center of entertainment in the Clerk's
Ward, run by the faction known as the Society of Sensation (also
called just the Sensates). Eschewing the offerings of the three
larger theaters, the party went to inspect some of the bars,
gambling halls, and other entertainments which are throughout the
structure of the Civic Festhall. Varrin wandered off to do some
gambling; he found that the stakes weren't huge, but that there was
a large variety of games available. Luck was on his side, and he
earned a few coins. After that, he watched some small time magical
entertainers, who used both illusion and hand-craft to entertain
onlookers. Varrin joined in with his own skills in these areas, and
added to the entertainment; the illusionist with whom he was
riffing told Varrin to come back sometime, so they might do it
again sometime.
Meanwhile, Reynald was working the dance floor. A talented dance
instructor himself, he was in fine form, and made a huge
impression. Indeed, a couple of Sensates asked Reynald to come
back, and even suggested that they might want to have him teach
some dance classes in the future. By the end of the evening,
Reynald was in such fine carousing form that he didn't need the
room which Kusk had arranged for him....
Kusk was cool and quiet, smoking a little not-to-strong pipeweed
wrapped in paper, keeping an eye on the proceedings. Aleph sampled
a huge variety of drinks, and also did a little dancing himself; he
didn't make the splash that Reynald did, but for a brief time he
had the crowd dancing a country jig. Finally, Ironclaw and Garrett
tried to sit in the corner and eat and drink. Reynald decided that
it was his duty to corrupt Garrett, and for a time Garrett found
himself talking to a young lady whom Reynald has selected for
him.
A good time was had by all, and everybody except for Kusk was
rather slow getting out of bed the next day.
Overnight, Aleph used his sometimes prophetic dreaming powers.
He asked to receive information about what happened to the
harpsichord Kusk had hired the rest of the party to help him find.
He did in fact have a dream which seemed relevant, though perhaps a
bit mysterious.
At the beginning of the dream, Aleph is in a hall of some sort.
It has a high ceiling, a wooden floor, and enough windows to make
the whole place seem light and airy. It is abandoned. At one end
sits a keyboard instrument of fine manufacture. Aleph tries to walk
towards the keyboard instrument, but as he does so, the hall seems
to stretch, and no matter how much he walks, the instrument at the
end stays the same distance away.
Eventually, Aleph does reach the keyboard. When he does,
however, he's no longer in the hall. Rather, he's outside, in a
forest. As he stands right next to the instrument, he suddenly sees
it attacked. Two strong arms, bearing a wicked looking polearm (a
glaive), start hacking at the keyboard instrument, breaking and
destroying it. Aleph's field of view is such that he cannot see
what person or creature has the arms holding the weapon. Aleph
draws his sword, trying to stop the attack, but to no avail. He
tries hacking at the arms, but no matter how well he hits, no
matter how solid of a blow he lands, he cannot damage the arms.
The keyboard instrument is destroyed, broken into small pieces,
and then the dream ends.
Well, that's not very useful.
-Varrin, on the philosophy of the
Order of the Planes-Militant
The next day, after the party had put together what traveling
rations they needed, Kusk led the others on their first conscious
trip through a portal. The Sigil end of the portal was at the
archway protruding around the back door of a uninteresting
bookseller's shop in the Clerk's Ward. Kusk activated it using the
bill of sale he'd obtained from Kylie the previous day (after he
paid her for bringing the others to him); this gate key was
consumed as he activated the portal. He led the others through it
to the gate town of Tradegate on the Outlands.
Aleph and Garret, in particular, preferred Tradegate to Sigil.
There was, at the very least, blue sky over their heads. The burg
(or town) was bustling with activity, much of it commerce. A
notable fraction of the population were gnomes, and industrious
ones at that.
From Tradegate, Kusk led the party through another gate that
took them to Bytopia. This gate had a slightly different key. One
portion of the key was a verbal component, the spoken words ``to
Bytopia.'' The other was that the people attempting to use the gate
must have some legitimate business on the plane. Evidently, the
goals of either Kusk or the party were sufficient for whatever
mysterious force controlled the gate, as it worked for them.
Bytopia (or the first ``layer'' of the plane, called Dothion, as
Kusk explained) turned out to be a pleasant, pastoral plane. There
were gentle, rolling hills, wide fields, light forest, and a wide
expanse of sky over head. Looking carefully overhead, one could see
what looked like mountains and valleys in the distance. Kusk
explained that Shurrock, the second layer of Bytopia, was actually
upside-down and hanging over Dothion. The tallest mountains on each
plane were seen to connect in spires that joined the planes like
stalactites and stalagmites may join the floor and ceiling of a
cave.
It was a pleasant spring day as the party traveled towards the
burg of Yeoman. They paused for fishing and swimming at lunchtime
on the banks of the River Splendor. Finally, before sunset, they
arrived in the town of Yeoman. Yeoman itself was like Tradegate,
only more so. The town had the air of a British country village,
only much larger. Several mills lined the river all the way to the
outskirts of town. Most houses were small and comfortable, and
several were under construction. The center of town was a bustle of
commerce, evidently an important trading nexus of the plane. At
least half of those present were gnomes.
The party saw, in several places, the symbol of a sect (a sect
being a faction that doesn't count as one of Sigil's fifteen
Factions) Kusk identified as the Order of the Planes-Militant (also
known as the Bretheren). At the center of town, where around a
large fountain several speakers proselytizing for their cause. One
of the largest crowds was around a speaker spouting Bretheren
dogma. Kusk observed that this group seemed to be very annoying,
but ultimately harmless. Another symbol the party noticed was
displayed on a good fraction of the caravans about town. Some
inquiries revealed that this symbol, a depiction of a caravan
winding through several planar portals, represented the Planar
Trade Consortium. Varrin some time later tried asking a caravan who
was not displaying this logo what the story was, but they didn't
seem to be particularly inclined to speak with him, merely stating
that they were feeling particularly grouchy about the growing
influence of the Consortium.
As evidently obvious tourists, not long after arriving in Yeoman
the party was approached by a young gnome named Arazmus, who wanted
the party to hire him as a guide. However, his prices for daily
service were too steep, so they settled for asking him to recommend
an inn and to describe the location of Borin Nimiger's shop
(Nimiger being the craftsman who had made the harpsichord the party
was looking for). The party secured rooms at the Wooly Baku Inn.
After that, they went to pay Borin Nimiger a visit.
Nimiger's house was on the outskirts of Yeoman, a pleasant
two-story house, with the ground floor a couple of feet below
ground level, and a handful of stairs leading down to a small front
porch. Nimiger himself did not answer the door; instead, a not
particularly communicative humanoid who had features that reminded
one of a deer (complete with antlers) answered. This individual
said that he was watching the house for his friend Nimiger, that he
didn't know anything Nimiger's business, and that Nimiger was out
of town awaiting a shipment from Shurrock. When Nimiger got back
would depend on how far out of town the shipment arrived. He told
them that they should come back in a couple of days.
Frustrated, the party headed back into the center of town, and
each did various different things to finish out the day. Kusk
acquired a new buckler, while Reynald secured for himself some tea
recommended by Bernardino Ruiz. Aleph negotiated a deal with the
proprietors of the Woolly Baku Inn to earn his keep, by helping
them the next day paint the outside back wall of the inn. Garret
wandered out of town, where he (as is his habit) spoke with the
forest. Much to his surprise, this time the forest spoke back, in
the person of Whisperoak, a treant who was happy to see a human who
seemed to be friendly with the forest. Whisperoak told Garret of
Centerspire, the largest mountain that connects the two layers of
Bytopia, suggesting that Garret might use this as a landmark to
anchor his direction sense. He also told Garret of the Wandering
Treant, a large member of his kin who had a tavern built in its
upper branches.
At the end of the day, everybody went to sleep.
The next day, while Aleph spent the day working hard helping the
gnomes paint the back of the Woolly Baku Inn in order to earn his
keep, Kusk and some of the others went back to Nimiger's house. The
gnome craftsman still wasn't home; the dear-like humanoid was no
less grouchy, and told them to go away. He said that Nimiger might
be back as early as that evening, ``depending on how far out of
town the shipment arrived.'' Varrin and Reynald went to speak with
a neighbor, and found a gnomish woman who was, while perhaps not as
nosy a neighbor as they would have liked, did remember seeing the
harpsichord shipped away some four weeks ago. As she told it, a
large, sturdy, blue-skinned humanoid with a naginata (the same sort
of weapon that Kusk carries), together with there or four other
human-sized people, showed up and loaded the instrument into a
cart.
The party spent the rest of the day in town, either doing some
work, doing some shopping, or digging for information. Kusk earned
a little bit of cash doing some stonework (fixing a foundation for
a very satisfied customer) in his capacity as a Earth mage. Varrin
questioned some of the local caravaners as to whether there seemed
to be a pattern of disappearing caravans recently; nobody indicated
noticing anything to be particularly worried about. Varrin [?]
spoke with a merchant in town, a tall, strange-looking blue-skinned
fellow who did not turn out to be the same blue-skinned
person that Nimiger's neighbor referred to. This individual
introduced himself as Sir Arakyne, and was running a curiosity and
magical potion business, in a tent in a central market square in
Yeoman. He told Kusk that he was an Arcane, an uncommon race many
of the members of whom are traveling merchants on the Outlands. He
knew of, but wasn't particularly concerned with, the Planar Trade
Consortium. His shop was one of a few not displaying the symbol of
the Order of the Planes-Militant.
That evening, the entire group went back to Nimiger's house;
this time, the elderly gnome was home. He invited them into his
workshop. The ceiling was low enough that the tallest members of
the group had to duck, or at least watch their head. The workshop
had a look of organized chaos; wooden musical instruments, mostly
keyboard instruments, where hanging and scattered about the single
large room. Nimiger dug through some boxes at the back to find what
records he had about the harpsichord. ``Ah, yes, I remember this
one,'' he said. ``Estivan himself arranged it.'' When asked who
Estivan is, Nimiger explained that he was a blue-skinned ogre of
some sort, a high-up (if not the high-up) in the Planar
Trade Consortium. Estivan was occasionally seen in Yeoman on
Bytopia making deals for the PTC, but he was usually found in his
office in Sigil. The harpsichord had been custom made, and paid for
by Estivan who was acting as an agent for unknown parties. It was
to be shipped to the Thirrus, a small burg on the Outlands. Estivan
arrived with several others to pick the harpsichord up some three
and a half weeks ago. With him were two or three sturdy looking
lifter and hauler types, and what seemed to be three mercenaries,
free lance adventurers who were evidently to be the caravan's
guards. This latter group included a female Githzerai, a short and
stocky well-armored male human with a scarred face, and a female
tiefling with vestigial horns, pointed ears, and longish curly
black hair.
That evening, in town, Reynald [I believe it was- memory fails]
practiced his carousing. In a tavern, speaking with some of the
other caravaners in town, he inquired if anybody knew anything
about the caravan. He did find somebody who knew the drivers
described by Nimiger. They were Brond, Siggur, and Hallvard, three
strapping large brothers from Ysgard. This caravaner (a member of
the PTC) said to have worked with them in the past, and found them
to be very reliable. He said that they left Yeoman three or four
weeks ago, in a caravan with three carts with a cargo including the
harpsichord, but mostly loaded with farm implements destined for
the trading village of Beynon, at the edge of Mag Mall on the
Outlands. From there, the caravan was going to proceed to Thirrus.
Reynald's contact didn't know any more of the caravan. He hadn't
heard from the three Ysgardian brothers since, but as it had only
been a few weeks, and since the PTC has routes everywhere, he
wasn't especially worried.
The party decided that their only lead was to retrace the path
of the caravan. In order to reduce the time it would take them to
find Mag Mall, they hired a guide (a human drifted named Corey),
who offered to lead them across the Outlands.
The party, led by Corey, went back to the gate to Tradegate on
the Outlands, and from there traveled over land to Mag Mall. On the
way, each night Kusk used his skills as an Earth mage to make a
small, domed structure in which everyone could sleep. One night,
there was a commotion, as Aleph [was it?] awoke, believing that
Corey was trying to go through the group's possessions. Corey
denied the charge, and indeed was angry and insulted that it would
be brought against him. Kusk resolved this in a manner which the
flaky GM cannot remember two months later; Corey guided the group
the rest of the way to Beynon, but parted company with them there.
Kusk was able to restore some small portion of Corey's respect by
reminding him that for his trip back to Tradegate, there were a
series of structures in place ready for his use....
Beynon was a very small village, surrounded by farmland, with
only one Inn to speak of in what was loosely called the center of
town. The group was put in touch with a man named Adam, who claimed
to have been the one who negotiated and receive the shipment of
farm implements from Yeoman. He described the members of the
caravan in much the same way as had the folks the party questioned
back on Bytopia. He also described to them the route to Thirrus
(or, at any rate, to the River Ma'at). The most significant
geographic feature between Beynon and Thirrus was a large forest,
through which there was something of a pass.
Without much else to learn in Beynon, the group set out for
Thirrus, following the directions given them by Adam.
Part way through the aforementioned forest, the party came
across the remains of the caravan. They found, in the forest pass,
a wrecked cart, bearing the symbol of the Planar Trade Consortium.
Somewhat further was the roughly 2-week old drying corpse of a
horse, with rents in the skin in its side suggesting (though it was
hard to tell at this late date) lacerations from a large cutting
implement. Inspecting the forest off to the Spireward side of the
path near the wrecked cart, Garrett found a broken branch, and a
deep rut, which suggested that the second cart may have gone
careening off the road. Off of the road some twenty or thirty yards
in that direction, there was a gully, with a small stream at the
bottom. There were the other two carts, also wrecked, complete with
the wreckage of the harpsichord (and a few residual farm implements
for good measure). There were bodies of two horses, and four
people. Three of the bodies proved to be consistent with the
description of the three Ysgardian drivers; the fourth matched the
description of the black haired tiefling. The bodies of two of the
drivers had arms visibly broken; the bones were all but smashed.
The third one was (the party discovered upon moving it) covering
the body of a small (roughly 4' tall) leathery green skinned
gargoyle-like creature. Kusk said that he believed that this
creature was a Tanar'ri (Demon) of some sort. Sticking out of the
throat of the creature was a blunted silver dagger. The leather
armor on the body of the tiefling had rents consistent with slashes
from a large cutting blade. Further down the stream, in the gully,
was the body of the sixth horse.
The remains of the harpsichord seemed to indicate that it had
been an instrument of fine craftsmanship. Although it was
impossible (for obvious reasons) to judge its musical qualities,
the carving and woodwork on the larger fragments were quite
masterfully done. The keys, scattered about, were made two kinds of
wood; a jet black wood, for the wider natural keys, and a gentle
brown heavy wood for the narrower sharp/flat keys.
As they were searching the area, Reynald found a small box, a
short distance away from the two smashed carts. When he opened the
box, it leaped out of his hands, several yards away, and 8 yards
into the air. Two light blue beams opened out from the ground, and
in between them was a swirling opaque ``wall of light,'' blue in
color, which looked for all the world like a portal.
Sure enough, moments later, fiends started to emerge from the
portal. Foul, humanoid creatures, with clawed hands, long tails,
moist and scaly skin, and snaky, disgusting beards started
appearing, one-by-one, every few seconds. They were carrying
glaives, and attacked immediately, as berserkers.
Reynald, being furthest away, began to retreat; as he did so,
Kusk called after him, ``Don't run away, you're the one with the
magic sword!'' While this surprised Reynald, he took it in stride;
in any event, he was simply putting enough distance between him and
the fiends so as to most effectively lunge with his rapier.
Meanwhile, Kusk, Ironclaw, and Aleph approached the combat to
assist Reynald. Garret and Varrin, further away, heard the
commotion and came running.
While the creatures were clearly capable of a fair amount of
mayhem, the party was able to handle them without too much trouble.
Reynald was able to hit them effectively with his rapier, and did a
fair amount of damage. Aleph hit them several times with mighty
swings from his broadsword, taking full advantage of his
supernaturally enhanced strength (although the swings did not
appear to do as much damage as they ought to have, even considering
the creature's thick skin and leathery armor). Indeed, right after
the third creature emerged, Aleph whacked the thing solidly right
back through the portal.
Kusk attempted to knock down the box with a Lightning Bolt, but
unfortunately missed. Meanwhile, Ironclaw started shooting at the
box with a Flame Jet. Eventually, the box caught fire, and after
several seconds was consumed enough that its magic stopped
functioning, closing the portal and causing the box to fall to the
ground. By now, two of the creatures had been killed, and the third
one pushed back through the portal. None of the party were
seriously wounded.
Several mysteries remained. It seemed apparent that somehow,
somebody had used the box, intentionally or inadvertently, to
summon those creatures, which in turn had attacked the caravan.
However, nobody seemed to think that the lay of the caravan wasn't
entirely consistent with an ambush. What's more, there were at
least two bodies missing (the short and stocky human, and the
female Githzerai, who were described as having been mercenaries
guarding the caravan).
Kusk sent a Wizard Eye up into the air, and found one of the
missing bodies. Across the gully was the body of a short human in
chain mail, and near to him was a mace. In the back of the chain
male were more rents consistent with the glaives of the fiends.
Other than that, they party was able to glean nothing more from the
caravan.
Since the caravan clearly never made it to Thirrus to deliver
the harpsichord, the party decided that there was no point in
continuing to Thirrus. Rather, they decided that it made the most
sense to return to Sigil, where they might find Estivan and seek to
obtain more information about the caravan from him.
The trip back to Tradegate was uneventful. Because they knew the
way (having done it once), they retraced their steps to Mag Mall,
and then out to Tradegate. Once in Tradegate, they did a little
commerce, both for it's own sake, but also with the ulterior move
of obtaining a bill of sale, the necessary gate key to activate the
gate Kusk knew that would return them to Sigil.
Well, you haven't met all the members of my race...
-Reynald, spoken with some implied disdain
Note: Because I delayed many weeks before writing
this part of the summary, my memory has gone fuzzy and as such
there may be omissions and/or errors in what remains.
Upon returning to Sigil, the party returned to their (largely
temporary) domiciles. Kusk got in contact with the people who had
hired him, to find out if the information they had already was
enough to satisfy their contract. Unsurprisingly, the response came
back that more was needed: who was responsible for setting up the
caravan to be sacked? What was their motivation?
While Kusk was doing this, Reynald got in touch with Bernardino
Ruiz, to discuss the finer aspects of tea. Ruiz told Reynald about
the faction known as the Society of Sensation (which Reynald
already had some experience with, given his earlier exploits at the
Civic Festhall). Meanwhile, Varrin spent some time hanging around
the Market Ward, trying to get a better feel for the city. He
learned that many of the merchants and small traders in the city
(as well as others) belonged to a faction known as the Free League-
and that this faction has recently been harassed by the Harmonium
in their role as the city guards. The Hardheads, it seems, believe
the Indeps (slang for Free League members) to be troublemakers.
After Kusk reported his findings to the others, they discussed
what to do next. Believing that there was some chance that Estivan
was behind it all, and not wanting to tip their hand to him, the
party was reluctant to confront Estivan directly. Kusk and Varrin
went to the offices of the Planar Trade Consortium, to speak with a
functionary there. This woman wasn't able to help them. She was
very defensive at the suggestion that a PTC caravan didn't reach
its destination, asserting that the PTC was very reliable, and that
any reports that the PTC was having trouble getting its caravans to
their destinations were spurious and slanderous. When asked about
records of that specific caravan, the woman couldn't find them; she
told them they'd have to speak with Estivan directly. When asked
for an appointment with Estivan, the woman disappeared for ten
minutes, and came back saying that Estivan would speak with them
immediately.
After a brief regrouping, Varrin and Kusk went in to speak with
Estivan. The blue skinned Ogre was sitting in a very ornately and
expensively decorated office, and was quite polite. He had the
records of the missing caravan on his desk. He told them that it
had become a sensitive matter within the PTC, for obviously the PTC
didn't want to go around advertising information about its caravans
which met with foul play.
After some back and forth, Estivan gave the party the
information he had about the caravan. All save one of the members
of the caravan were accounted for (i.e. the party had discovered
bodies for them at the gully on the Outlands where the caravan had
been attacked, evidently by Barbazu). The one additional member of
the caravan was one Bizereth, a female Gitzerai mage. Estivan told
the party the ``employment agency'' which had put him in contact
with Bizereth in the first place. In parting, Estivan asked the
party to tell him anything that they might learn about the fate of
his caravan, for naturally he was concerned.
The party sought out the ``employment agency,'' which turned out
to be a rather sleazy sub-street-level dive. The elderly tiefling
woman who ran it at first thought that the party were adventurers
coming to look for employment. Although she claimed to vouch for
the people she recommend, it because clear that her standards for
performing background checks were very lax. Indeed, she seemed to
specialize in finding positions for people who had reason to get
out of Sigil, and fast. She didn't have a whole lot of repeat
business, either; it seemed that the people she was able to
successfully place, and who succeeded in their placement, where
thereafter either able to find more reputable employment agents, or
were able to ply their own reputations.
The party did learn (although I forget where...) that Bizereth
did have substantial gambling debts, and that this was probably why
she'd signed on with the Planar Trade Consortium. They also found
Bizereth's residence, and went to speak with her landlord, an
elderly pot bellied human. The landlord didn't have a whole lot of
use for Bizereth; she had been chronically late in her rent
payments. However, he said that a few weeks ago, she'd shown up,
settled her rent in gold, and moved out, telling the landlord that
she'd gotten herself a case better than the dump he was running.
Good riddance, the landlord said. Varrin asked if she had left
behind any personal belongings; the landlord didn't think so, but
took them to speak with the current resident of her room, a very
depressed dwarf. The dwarf had found, under a loose floorboard, a
rag with a continual light spell on it, which had evidently
belonged to the mage Bizereth. Varrin used a seeker spell on
this, and was given a view of Bizereth's new residence; it was the
same size as the old one, but looked to be in better repair. A view
of the architecture outside the window made it clear that this new
residence was in the Lady's Ward.
Given her history with gambling debts, the party decided that
their best bet was to start looking for Bizereth in the gambling
houses in the Lady's Ward. The best known of these was the
Fortune's Wheel, but given the extremely high stakes that are
reputed at that place, they decided to start with more modest
establishments. The point people in this investigation were the two
with the best social skills, Reynald and Varrin. Each took a
different approach. Reynald spoke the owners of the establishments,
stating that he was representing a consortium of gambling house
owners who were concerned patterns of cheating and other ways for
customers to ``beat the system''; he mentioned Bizereth (by
description) in particular. He was able to convince a few owners
that he was legitimate, and to let him know if they saw this
Githzerai in their establishments. Meanwhile, Varrin went in to
different places, played in some low stakes games, and got talking
with some of the dealers. The other four (Kusk, Garrett, Ironclaw,
and Aleph) went along with those two, ready to provide any backup
support that might be necessary should they come across the mage
Bizereth.
It was Varrin who struck pay dirt first. He found a place where
Bizereth had been coming in, late at night, for several days over
the previous week. He came back later that night, and saw a
Githzerai matching her description. He approached her and mentioned
the topic of the PTC caravan; at first she pleaded ignorance,
claiming to have no idea what Varrin was talking about. When Varrin
got her outside, she tried to bolt. Reynald and the others had
gotten the word that Bizereth had been found, and were present;
Reynald was fast enough that he was able to keep up with Bizereth,
and keep her from getting away. She struggled with him, but became
very compliant when Varrin cast a Daze spell on her. The
party took her to an alley, where they questioned her more
thoroughly. She was very reluctant to speak at all, and it took a
lot of coaxing and threatening in order to get her to divulge her
information. Eventually, she told the what had happened.
A deva had contacted her, giving her the box which (as the party
had learned) would open a gate to Baator and summon Barbazu.
Bizereth didn't know this, however; she said that she'd just been
told to open the box, and then use a one-time teleport device to
escape herself. She was paid 2,000 pieces of gold to perform this,
which was more money than she'd ever seen in one place her entire
life. The deva had also told her that she was to reveal to nobody
what she had done, and who had hired her to do it. She was clearly
very frightened of the deva's ability to get revenge upon her for
spilling the beans. In exchange for divulging this information, the
party agreed to help her get away from Sigil, that night. After
they'd learned everything from her which they could, they took her
to Kusk's gate to Tradegate, and sent her on her way.
At this point, the party's mission was in fact complete. Kusk
recognized, from Bizereth's description, that the deva was in fact
Zipporath, a high-ranking member of the Fated. Kusk reported back
to his employers, and was paid. He distributed the share of the
payment to the rest of the party members. Although, in an absolute
sense, it was a lot of money, it didn't seem like so much once it
had been divided up. The party decided that the expenses of
adventuring, coupled with the lifestyle that certain members among
them hoped to maintain, would require them to find somewhat more
lucrative employment in the future...
During the next month, the party settled into Sigil. Kusk and
Ironclaw each spent time performing some odd jobs as a mage for
hire. Reynald began teaching dancing lessons (of the literal sort)
at the Civic Festhall. Garrett, with Kusk's help, moved away from
Sigil to Ysgard, a plane which was more to his liking. Aleph
doubtless found some work to support himself, and continued his
search for the Order of Anok. Varrin sought out Kylie, the tout who
had first greeted the party in Sigil, and convinced her to train
him as a tout and let him join her ``crowd.'' Varrin joined the
Free League (the faction to which Kylie also belonged). Reynald
became a probationary (not full) member of the Society of
Sensation. Ironclaw professed to be intrigued by the Fated, and
wanted to hear more about it from Kusk, but did not join straight
away.
At some point during their month off, Kusk took the party to
The Friendly Fiend, a magic shop in the Lower Ward run by an
acquaintance of Kusk's, an arcanoloth named A'kin. A'kin was
seemingly friendly, as promised by the title of his store. However,
Kusk was, as always, suspicious that the Arcanoloth knew more than
he was letting on, and had an agenda beyond running a small magic
shop in Sigil and being friendly with all of his customers. An
Arcanoloth is, after all, a Yugoloth.
Time passed.
A month after the completion of the party's previous mission,
Kusk was approached by an elderly gentleman who introduced himself
as Sir Gericog. This man wished to speak with Kusk and his
companions, about performing a possible task for him. Kusk gathered
the others (except for Garrett) from the various locations around
Sigil to which they had scattered, and they all met with Sir
Gericog the next evening. The first thing that became apparent was
that Sir Gericog had a rather inflated impression of the party's
capabilities; the reports he had heard were that the party had
singlehandedly held off a ``legion'' of Barbazu, without suffering
nary a scratch themselves. The party disabused him of this notion,
but he still wanted to hire them. After some negotiation, the party
agreed.
Sir Gericog wanted to the party to find and rescue a person
being held prisoner in the Red Prison (a slang name for the plane
of Carceri). Her name was Lyxellyn; she was being held on Cathrys,
the second layer of Carceri, somewhere near the town of Fetaphon.
Sir Gericog did not know any more about her location than that. He
gave the party a description of Lyxellyn: a tall, quite attractive,
lithe woman, with long, wavy brunette hair, piercing green eyes,
high, aristocratic cheekbone on a heart-shaped face, full lips, a
narrow nose, and small ears set closer to her head. Around her
right eye is a tattoo of a green, writhing snake. Lyxellyn, Sir
Gericog said, was something of a mage, specializing in the college
of Fire, but he suspected that the conditions of her imprisonment
had prevented her from practicing her art.
Sir Gericog said that he believed that Lyxellyn was being held
by fiends-- probably Tanar'ri, perhaps aided by Yugoloths.. He
didn't say why, but merely that evidently he and his organization
had managed somehow to acquire a group of fiends as an enemy, and
that Lyxellyn was being held as a result. Indeed, Sir Gericog was
very circumspect, and resisted answering many questions about
himself. This was for two reasons; first, because he had evidently
made an enemy of a group of fiends, he wished to be careful as to
how much information he revealed about himself. Second, the less
the party knew, the less they could give away if they were
captured, and the less likely they were to be recognized by these
fiends as his specific agents.
There had been attempts to scry upon Lyxellyn's position. Most
of them had been unsuccessful; one success showed her unconscious,
shackled to a wall in what looked like a small, humid cave. One
other piece of divination revealed her location near Fetaphon, and
while her exact location was not pinpointed, Sir Gericog had
learned that there is a petrified viper tree somewhere outside of
Fetaphon, and that that viper tree does in fact know the location
of the place (encampment? fortress?) where Lyxellyn is being
held.
After some negotiation, Sir Gericog agreed to pay the party
2,000gp immediately; they would receive another 3,500gp upon the
completion of their mission. He only actually gave the 1,000gp,
promising to come back the next day with the rest of the payment.
Varrin asked if he could find any item of Lyxellyn's, which might
be used to aid him in the casting of spells such as Seeker;
Sir Gericog told Varrin he would do his best. Finally, Sir Gericog
gave the party several items of magic, to help them in their
mission:
- Villiquid's Rapier
-
A rapier of fine quality, enchanted on Carceri by a Gerheleth
enchanter. It has the enchantments Accuracy +1, Puissance +2, and
Icy Weapon. The latter enchantment is coupled with a Bane that
makes it only effective against Yugoloths. The base of the handle
of the rapier is carved in the shape of an Arcanoloth's skull.
Inscribed on the blade, the words ``Villiquid Lothslayer.'' Because
of the uniqueness and power of this weapon, Sir Gericog was only
willing to lend it to the party, and stated that it would need to
be returned upon the completion of their mission.
- Melli's Wrath
-
A sturdy stabbing broadsword, of normal quality and competent
but unremarkable construction. The only enchantment on it is
Puissance +1. Sir Gericog gave this to the party outright as part
of their payment for the mission.
- Earring of Warning
-
A simple gold loop earing, with a Sense Danger enchantment. Sir
Gericog considered it to be an ``ordinary'' magic item. This was
given to the party as payment.
- Boots of Elvenkind
-
Sir Gericog scoffed at the traditional name for these boots, for
they had nothing to do with elves. They have a Hush and a single
Power enchantment. The boots are leather and of solid construction,
although somewhat worn.
Before meeting with Sir Gericog the next day, Varrin told the
party that in his current job as a tout-in-training working for
Kylie's crowd, he had come across another clueless prime arriving
in Sigil who might be able to help the party. Although her talents
did not match those of the departed Garrett, she still might be of
some use. The party agreed that they would meet her; if they did
decide to ask her to join, she would only get a limited cut of the
``down payment'' Sir Gericog had given them, but would be given a
full cut of the spoils of the mission and the final payment that
they were due to receive.
Later, Varrin brought Casraeil to the Scroll Case to meet with
the others. She was an attractive, dusky-skinned half-elf who
carried about her an air of reserved dignity. It turned out that
she had some magical skills which Kusk, nor Varrin, nor Ironclaw
could provide. She was quite skilled with the magical healing arts,
and had some knowledge of the Mind Control college of spells. This
sounded useful enough to them that they agreed that she could join
the party on their mission for Sir Gericog.
The night after their first meeting with him, the party met with
Sir Gericog again. He remained mysterious, and did not want to
reveal a whole lot about who he was. When questioned again as to
why Lyxellyn should be killed if they weren't able to rescue her,
Sir Gericog replied that it was simple mercy; being a prisoner of
fiends was doubtless no fun. When asked about time limits for the
mission, Sir Gericog replied that he had no specific limit, but
that naturally the faster they did it, the better. If it took a few
days, or a week, or even a month or two, that was fine; if it took
half a year, then things were beginning to drag on too long.
Finally, Sir Gericog gave the party the rest of their agreed-upon
down payment. He also gave Varrin a pouch which he said had
belonged to Lyxellyn. Varrin stashed this away, for potential
future use with spells such as Seeker.
Sir Gericog said that he and his associates had tried repeated
scryings and divinations, but that they had not learned much. He
told the party that they had learned merely what he had already
told them, that she was being held on Cathrys, near Fetaphon. They
had also seen one fleeting image of her, unconscious and shackled
to a wall. When asked if he had a way for them to get to Cathrys,
he told them that he understood that they were experienced
planewalkers, and that they could take care of such details
themselves. Nobody said anything to disabuse him of this
notion.
The day after meeting with Sir Gericog for the second time, the
party went on a bit of a shopping spree. By and large, they were
interested in magic. This included some small miscellaneous items,
several healing potions, and (notably) a couple of ``Stone to
Flesh'' scrolls which they would need in order to speak with the
petrified viper tree which Sir Gericog had told them knew the
actual location of the facility where Lyxellyn was being held.
The three party members with faction affiliations used their
contacts to seek potential guides who might lead them to Fetaphon.
Through his loose ties to the Sensates, Reynald was pointed to
Korek, something of an alcoholic Bariaur, who (upon further
investigation) seemed too careless for the party's tastes. Kusk,
through the Fated, produced the name of Miriva, a member of the
Athar who could get them to the first layer of Carceri, and who
would then help them find a guide to take them the rest of the way.
Finally, Varrin, through his contacts with the Free League, learned
of Gorthezern, a well-regarded githzerai planewalker who claimed
that he could take them all the way to Fetaphon.
The party agreed that Gorthezern sounded like the best bet.
However, when Varrin brought him by, he took one look at Kusk, and
instantly both raised his price and demanded all payment up front.
Kusk replied that Gorthezern had just made himself look a whole lot
less attractive for the job than another candidate; Gorthezern did
not seem to care. It seemed that the two had come to something of
an understanding, and Gorthezern left. When Casraeil tried to ask
Kusk about it, Kusk declined to reveal what had gone on. Varrin
asked if this sort of thing was likely to happen often when dealing
with members of Kusk's race, but got little more than a ``maybe''
out of Kusk.
And, so, the party settled on Miriva.
``What a nasty plane.'' -Casraeil
Miriva knew of a portal to Mt. Othrys on the first layer of
Carceri. The portal was in a tavern known as the Ubiquitous
Wayfarer, a tavern which is (depending upon whom you ask) in the
Lower, Clerk's, and Lady's Ward. (In fact, many argue that it is in
all three, even though those three wards are not contiguous. The
dark of it is that two of the three entrances are in fact rare
intra-Sigil portals.) The gate key was a silver key, worn around
the neck, which was not consumed in the passing. Unfortunately, the
portal was only one way. To return, Miriva said, they would have to
go through one of the portals on Othrys which led to the Outlands
(leading to the gate town of Curst). While she would be able to
lead them to one, she warned them that most of these portals were
guarded. See, most of the residents of Carceri are prisoners on the
plane, and cannot leave it even if they have the proper gate key
for a portal. They're a treacherous lot anyway, and this tends to
make them grouchy enough to keep anybody else from leaving simply
out of spite.
Mt. Othrys is the home of the Titans, who were imprisoned in
Carceri aeons ago by the Greek powers. This has made them a little
touchy. Miriva warned the group not to bother messing with
them.
The party arrived in a village outside an entrance to a truly
gigantic marble castle. The home of the Titans is built on a scale
to remind people that Titans are big. Hanging in the sky- filling
the sky- was a huge, ruddy red orb, the next orb over of the first
layer of Carceri. The village was at the top of a tall mountain on
their orb. The Titans' castle appeared that it was so large that it
connected a mountain on this orb with a tall mountain on the next
orb.
Miriva led the party to the hostel of one Althea Damaskaros, a
contact of Miriva's in the village. Damaskaros told the party that
their best bet for a guide was a thin young man by the name of
Andreas Inorizias; he wasn't around, but was expected back the next
day. After a day of waiting, the party spoke with Inorizias, who
told them that he did know of a conduit that would take them to
Cathrys near Fetaphon, but that it was on a different orb. He
suggested that they hire one of the Marenoloths who ply the River
Styx, a river which crosses layers and planes, often without those
riding on it noticing the crossover.
The party, together with Miriva and led by Andreas, descended
the mountain and came to a branch of the Styx not far from the base
of the mountain. Miriva warned them that they had to be careful.
Much of the foul-smelling first layer of Carceri is marshland,
bogs, and swamps. Often it is difficult to tell a brackish stream
natural to the layer from a tributary of the Styx.
The party learned first hand the danger of the Styx while
stepping aboard the Marrenoloth's barge, which arrived not long
thereafter. The footing was unstable, and Casraeil slipped and fell
into the river. A couple of the others tried to catch her, but in
vain. Casraeil found her memory completely wiped. She was
apportated out of the river by another of the party's mages. So far
as she knew, she entered life at that moment, hovering over a river
in a stinky bog, sopping wet, being stared at by a bunch of people
standing on a barge, people whom she'd never seen before. Her
skills, and the spells she knew were intact, but she remembered
absolutely nothing of her past or her memory. (Join the club,
Ironclaw said, who has no solid memories past 10 years previously;
he, however, ``woke up'' on Bogwaite, not in the River Styx.)
Naturally, this was rather stressful for Casraeil, but she coped
with the quiet dignity that is her hallmark. The party continued
down the river, generally avoiding the quiet and dangerous-seeming
yugoloth piloting the boat. Eventually, they reached their
destination, and disembarked- with great care.
The party traveled overland through the swamps of Othrys. The
insects were terrible. Miriva pointed out some of the hazards of
the plane, including the quicksand that glows a sickly green (in
contrast to the ruddy red that the plane as a whole glows). At one
point, passing along a narrow causeway that cut through a very
large patch of nearly uninterrupted quicksand, a loathsome, rubbery
green hand reached out of the quicksand, grabbing for Casraeil.
Shortly thereafter, two other hands reached for other members of
the party. Everybody managed to avoid getting grabbed. Aleph,
equipped with his slightly magic broadsword, managed to sever the
arm reaching for him.
Behind each arm was a troll; three trolls emerged from the
quicksand and attacked the party. Although a couple were injured,
the party made relatively short work of the trolls. Two of them
fell back into the quicksand (one sans head), while the third one
was killed on the causeway. Miriva then warned them to burn the
trolls, for unless their bodies were completely burned, they would
regenerate. The party did that with the one troll that was still on
the surface, and quickly made their way onwards.
They did discover one nasty thing about the plane, however. As
they cast healing spells on their injured party members, the mages
realized that occasionally the energy cost of the healing spell was
slightly higher than it normally was. What's more, one mage
Ironclaw actually managed to damage the person (Casraeil?) he was
trying to heal. As Kusk or Miriva could tell them, all of the
planes slightly altered the function of magic, depending on the
nature of that plane.
The site of Andreas' conduit to Cathrys was at the bottom of a
ravine. A small lake covered the bottom of the ravine; Andreas said
that the conduit was somewhere near the center of that lake, at the
bottom. What's more, he warned, there were stories that sometimes
Gerheleths (the fiends native to Carceri) liked to watch the ends
of conduits, ready to attack hapless and rich looking travelers
popping out of the conduits between the layers of Carceri. Not
wanting to arrive waterlogged (and with all their equipment
waterlogged), and wanting to be in as fighting trim as possible as
they arrived, they discussed ways of finding the conduit, and
getting it as dry as possible. There was some brief discussion of
draining the lake, but eventually they decided that that was too
huge of an undertaking for the amount of power the mages had at
their beck and call.
Eventually, they used a wizard eye to locate the position of the
conduit. Kusk created a wizard eye, and moved it around the center
of the lake until it disappeared. He then used his skills with the
Elemental Earth college to raise a stone bridge out of the lake,
leading to the position of the conduit. The plane asserted it's
nasty nature again, forming a discontinuity in the bridge. As he
joined the discontinuity, Kusk succeeded remarkably well with his
spell, and created a nicely designed round, railed landing in the
middle of the bridge. Finally, at the position of the conduit, Kusk
raised a cylinder of stone, and then opened it outwards, pushing
the water away and creating a sort of ``dry well'' with steps that
led down to the floor of the lake. Although water was slowly
running into this well, it gave the party ample time to walk down
to the conduit and, one-by-one, make their way to Cathrys.
During this enterprise, Kusk burnt through all of the mana he
was able to safely use during the day, and even began flirting with
the potential disaster of using too much mana. Fortunately, he did
not suffer any ill effects. So that he might be able to do
something without risking damage to himself or to those near him,
Ironclaw lent Kusk a small powerstone.
The party wanted to be prepared and careful as they went through
the conduit. Varrin cast an invisibility spell on Aleph, perhaps
the party's most sturdy fighter, and capable through raw strength
of doing as much damage as Reynald is through technique and
finesse. Aleph went through, armed and ready. He found himself on
the top of a hill or small mountain, in a rocky clearing of what
appeared to be a stinking jungle. Yes, this layer too had a foul
odor about it, a stench of corruption and decaying vegetation. He
occasionally got a whiff of something much stronger.
Moving ahead towards a small copse of trees not far from the
conduit's arrival point, Aleph realized that there were several
ugly, misshapen, large, gangly humanoid creatures watching the
conduit. They did not seem to have noticed him. He could tell that
they were there, but couldn't get an accurate count of their
numbers because of their obscuration amongst the trees. Alpeh aimed
his crossbow, ready to fire at very short range should anything
untoward happened.
When Reynald appeared, after a brief delay four of the gangly
humanoids- who would turn out to be of that breed of Gerheleth
known as Faratsu- emerged from the copse, charging to attack the
fencer. Aleph shot one square in the eye, killing it where it
stands. As this attack came out of invisible nowhere, the other two
creatures stopped their charge in surprise.
A combat ensued. Varrin appeared next through the conduit, and
rapidly levitated himself high enough that he might stay out of the
way of the nasty creatures. A ``flash'' spell directed at the
Gerheleths did not incapacitate them, but the party did notice
after a while that it must have hurt their vision, for they were
not attacking as accurately as they might have. The tarry skin on
the creatures proved to be an impediment; Aleph, after successfully
hitting one, found his broadsword stuck to the creature. This
allowed the creature to grapple him. Although he did not take too
serious of damage from it, for a part of the combat Aleph was
prevented from doing the Faratsu any harm. Meanwhile, Reynald took
advantage of the creatures' tarry nature by throwing his cloak over
the head of one, causing it a delay while it cleared its vision. He
went to work with his pointy thing. The others emerged through the
conduit, either to attack or (in the case of Andreas) quickly run
in the other direction.
Without taking too much damage, and before the last few members
of the party had come through, they managed to defeat or drive off
of the Faratsu. At that point, they were attacked again, this time
by invisible creatures who smelled utterly foul. Aleph was
attacked, by a blow well placed enough that it probably came from
something that was able to see him while he was invisible. Some of
the others were briefly overcome by the foul smell of these
Gerheleths (whom Miriva would later identify as Kelubars). However,
despite their invisibility, the party was able to poke them enough
to convince them that the party was not easy enough pickings to be
worth a continued attack.
A few members of the party were damaged, a couple (including
Aleph) quite seriously. However, they all survived, the Gerheleths
which had attacked having run away. Kusk missed the fun; he emerged
from the conduit, lightning bolt at the ready, just as the
invisible Kelubars were breaking off.
The party gathered itself together, did what healing it could,
and then began to follow Andreas across this orb of Cathrys to
Fetaphon. Much of the landscape of Fetaphon seemed to be divided
between steaming, stinking jungles, and rolling hills and plains
covered with brownish grass. The grass was knee high, and very
tough and sharp. Boots were enough to protect your feet from it,
but it's not something one would want to fall down in. (The grass
may be a distant, weak relative of razorvine.) Andreas told them
that the jungles were all but impenetrable, because the plants
secrete an acid that makes it hazardous to go anywhere where the
jungle is thick. (It's also where a lot of the Gerheleths of the
layer hang out.) As he told them about the plane, the young man led
the party down a winding trail that led to the base of the
mountain, and then through some roads which had been cleared from
the grasslands.
The trip took about half of a day. Part way there, they came
upon another group of people. As the party got close, they could
see that these people were mostly human, and were evidently
clearing and maintaining the road. They were very dirty, and there
was a greasy, dirty layer of slime on their skin; Reynald did not
approve. The party assumed a confident, strong-looking stance, and
were able to pass this group of people without being molested.
(Indeed, they stood aside to make way for the party to pass.)
The town of Fetaphon proved to be a very perversely built town.
The road through the grasslands ended at a sheer drop into a tar
pit. An bluff extended part way out over the pit, at the end of
which was a rope bridge (with planks) that led to the first of a
large number of buildings on stilts. Fetaphon was built entirely
over the tar pit, all of the buildings on stilts. They were
connected to each other with many ropes, both to provide passage
between the buildings and for mutual structural support.
Before approaching the town, Varrin [?] used the Earring of
Warning to determine if they were in any danger. He received a
sense from it that they were. Naturally, this made the party
paranoid. Was this just a general danger to travelers, or was
somebody anticipating them and hostile to their mission? Because of
this, they traveled cautiously across the rope bridge to the first
building (a tavern named ``The Trapped Mammoth''). There, they did
not enter the tavern, but moved around the deck on the outside of
it to go further into the town. Some of the people sitting outside
at the tavern looked curiously at the party, but there were no
mishaps.
The party secured some rooms at an Inn named ``Faratsu's Rest.''
They decided to rest for several days, in order to recover their
strength (and so that Kusk might recover his mana tally). While the
others were resting, Varrin and Casraeil spent some time trying to
get the lay of the land in the town, and trying to learn something
that might benefit their mission. They learned that the ``wise
woman'' of the town was a half-orc named Borth, and that she was
the one most likely to know thing useful to them. Varrin tried
talking with her, but she was very reluctant to give information,
requiring either exorbitant fees or more information in return than
Varrin was prepared to give. She tried to sell him some potions,
but he took a rain check. Varrin did learn from her that not too
far away from Fetaphon, there is something known as the ``Rock
Garden,'' a collection of statues of living creatures. He also
learned from her that there was a fiend in town, a cambion named
Pilizian, who was most likely to know something about a petrified
viper tree (what with cambions being Tanar'ri, who like viper trees
are native to the Abyss).
Using Varrin's information, Reynald approached Pilizian, taking
the role of an art collector interested in unusual statues. The
cambion was hanging out, as evidently he often does, in a tavern
known as the Drunken Dwarf, and was doing a good job trying to live
up to the first word of the tavern's name. Pilizian wasn't
particularly interested in Reynald or in art. He didn't claim any
ownership of the Rock Garden. Indeed, he said that he only went
there infrequently- every few weeks, or every month. He also said
that he'd never seen anybody else there. The viper tree had shown
up at the Rock Garden within the last several months. From all of
this, Reynald concluded that the Rock Garden wasn't watched
too closely, and that perhaps if one statue went missing it
wouldn't be immediately missed.
A few of the party (Reynald, Varrin, Casraeil and Ironclaw [?])
went to inspect the Rock Garden. It was a few hours' walk away from
town; they traveled at first back the way that they had come before
first arriving in Fetaphon, but then took a fork in the road that
led them off in another direction. Following Pilizian's description
of the location, they were able to find the hill to the right of
the road, beyond which was the Rock Garden. There were statues of
several creatures there, as promised, including a statue of what
looked like a tree that had snakes instead of branches: in all
likelihood, the viper tree. They returned with this information to
Kusk, who was the one possessed of the ``Stone to Flesh''
scrolls.
The party secured some rope and some bags, in order to create
makeshift muzzles that they could use to immobilize most of the
heads of the viper tree. This in hand, about three days after their
arrival in Fetaphon the entire party (minus Miriva and Andreas)
made their way to the Rock Garden. Once there, Kusk recognized one
of the status as an illithid (or mind flayer), and made a point of
breaking the statue into enough pieces that it would not be a
living creature should somebody else come along with a ``Stone to
Flesh'' spell. He didn't want to expound at length upon his
behavior to the others, stating merely that the creature was
dangerous.
This bit of business complete, the party covered all but one
head of the petrified viper tree, and then stood back at what
seemed to be a respectable distance. Kusk cast the ``Stone to
Flesh'' spell, and re-animated the viper tree. (I don't recall; did
the first attempt fail, and was Kusk required to read his second
scroll?) It was clearly unhappy to have its heads covered, and
looked like it wanted to eat the party, but it wasn't ambulatory,
and they were prepared, so it was not a real threat to them.
However, they did realize that nobody spoke its language.
Casraeil, fortunately, knew the Mind Reading spell, which
allowed her to get into contact with the tree. She was able to
obtain the closest thing to a rapport with the creature that any of
the party would. With her spell going, Casraeil was able to act as
the translator between the viper tree and the rest of the
party.
After negotiations about food for the viper tree had concluded,
the party was able to learn something from it about what they were
after. The underground facility had an entrance which was a in a
clearing that was ``mere'' few miles into the jungle just beyond
the Rock Garden.
At some point in the Rock Garden (or in Fetaphon; I've forgotten
when this happened), Varrin cast a ``Seeker'' spell to look for
Lyxellyn. He used her pouch, which had been given to him by Sir
Gericog, in an attempt to help him focus the spell. Although he did
not learn anything much about her location from the spell, he did
learn something about her. He saw an image of her, in some
completely enclosed room with stone walls. The light in the room
was a sickly green color. She was hanging from the walls, and
looked rather weak, broken, and exhausted. She matched Sir
Gericog's description, with one exception: Sir Gericog neglected to
mention her large, feathered wings. Naturally, this surprised the
party. As Kusk said, Sir Gericog had told them that Lyxellyn was a
mage, but not that she was a celestial. (To those in the party who
asked, Kusk told them that celestials were to the upper plains as
fiends are to the lower planes. Celestials included devas and other
powerful supernatural creatures that make up some of the more
important ranks of the ``forces of good'' that inhabit the upper
planes.)
Varrin flew invisibly to inspect the clearing that the viper
tree had talked about. He did not get to close, but he was able to
find the clearing without trouble. It was on the side of a hill, a
few miles into the jungle as advertised. There were also several
guards watching it, including several humans, somebody who looked
like a githzerai (the same race as Kusk), and a sleeping hill
giant. The humans were sitting around a fire, and the githzerai was
sitting away from them, near what looked like a small cage.
The party knew that they wanted to get to the clearing either
stealthily, or all at once. Varrin carrying people one by one over
the jungle to the clearing would not work well, given that there
were guards that the party was almost certainly going to have to
fight. They decided that the best way to arrive was all at once,
convected over by Kusk in the form of an Air Vortex spell.
This would allow them to arrive all at once in the clearing, and
(hopefully) in a manner in which they would not be expected. Even
though the party in the form of the Vortex would move quickly, it
would still take them a couple of minutes to cross the distance of
the jungle to the clearing; it was a good thing Kusk had spent the
time in Fetaphon to regain a good quantity of his mana tally!
The party landed and solidified out of the Vortex near the
position of the githzerai- whom, Kusk quickly recognized, was not a
githzerai at all, but rather a githyanki. He also recognized that
the cage near the githyanki had several astral streakers in it.
These are birds which are used as messengers; indeed, as Varrin is
well aware, Kylie's crowed (and many other people) use them to keep
in touch in Sigil.
Kusk quickly and violently attacked the githyanki, while the
other members of the party spread out to deal with the other
guards. Kusk was able to disable the githyanki quickly, and
continued to attack him until he was thoroughly dead. The other
humans were seriously outmatched by the party. One did manage to
wake up the hill giant, but the hill giant was seriously wounded by
an invisible Aleph before it could pose a real threat to the party.
In the end, the guards had all been captured or killed, and none of
the astral streakers had been released.
The party questioned one of the surviving humans, a slimy, dirty
fellow. From him, they learned that there were in fact Yugoloths in
the underground facility. The entrance to the facility was a vine
covered opening in the side of the hill; the human told them that
it curved back about ten yards into the side of the hill, where it
came to a magical elevator at the top of a vertical shaft. The
human had never been down the elevator.
They learned from the human that there was at least one
arcanoloth (the same race as A'kin the magic dealer in Sigil), who
was perhaps in charge of the facility. There were also at least two
mezzoloths (warrior yugoloths), and one warrior human. The
Githzerai had been the leader of the guards outside, and he was
usually the one who communicated with their bosses. A few times a
day, he would send an astral streaker into the facility with a
status report; the next one was not expected for several hours.
The party decided to let the human go, but told him that he
would have to leave- through the jungle. Although he objected to
this, it was clear to him that he didn't really have any
alternative.
While some of the others were questioning the human, Varrin
walked into the cave on the side of the hill, and ascertained that
yes, in fact, the cave led back about eight or ten yards, curving
to the right until it ended at a shaft, at the top of which was
hovering a plank of stone (which didn't completely fill the shaft,
so that one could look around it). Kusk sent a Wizard Eye
into the cave and down the shaft. The shaft dropped about 30 yards
vertically; at the bottom, a passageway continued in roughly the
same direction as the passageway at the top. That passageway
continued for three or four yards to an intersection. There,
inscribed on the floor, was a pentagram. The wizard eye could go no
further. What's more, Kusk realized that he also would not be able
to cross the pentagram, as he was a planar not native to
Carceri.
As most of the party was comprised of Primes, the pentagram did
not prove much of a challenge to them. The Primes were not affected
by it, and they were able to ritually cut it so as to allow Kusk to
cross it. The party went down exploring, and quickly ran into a
patrol of a couple of Mezzoloths (insect like warrior Yugoloths).
These were relatively quickly dispatched, but they summoned more. A
drawn out combat ensued. The Mezzoloths cast area darkness
spells that allowed them to remain hidden from the party, and took
pot shots with long weapons and fire jet spells from within
the region of darkness. Meanwhile, Kusk sent a wizard eye through
to scope out was going on, and saw that there were a couple of
humans working with the loths.
Eventually, the Mezzoloths and a human warrior were all brought
down, primarily due to the pointy thing of Reynald and the strong
arm of Aleph. The party moved forward through the darkness, to
encounter a human mage and the Arcanoloth who was evidently running
this operation. They did not last long. The Arcanoloth tried to
negotiate its way out, speaking threateningly of the Tanar'ri it
was working for, but in the end recognized it was outclassed, and
tried to teleport out. Kusk, however, was in body of wind
form at this point, which gave him great strength, and he was able
to fell the Arcanoloth with his ka'lanth.
A quick search of further passageways ensued. Not much of
interest was found, except for the Arcanoloth's laboratory. Shortly
thereafter, the party ran into a Babau (a major Tanar'ri) carrying
Lyxellyn, but rather than stand and fight, it teleported away,
leaving behind Lyxellyn.
During the combat, Kusk managed to use enough mana that he
passed the limits of what was safe for him. He didn't suffer any
major damage, but did endure some metaphysical and psychological
wounds. His rate of mana recovery was temporarily slowed, and for a
couple of days after the battle he would be continually dizzy, as
the whole world appeared to him to be waving around him, as if
viewed from under water.
While some of the others were battling Yugoloths and such,
Casraeil and Varrin explored passageways in another direction, and
found a row of cells. Some where empty, but two of them held
prisoners. One was a dwarven minor, and the other was a human woman
by the name of Zayin. When Zayin and Aleph met, they each
recognized each other as a sort of kindred soul, each of whom was
the one that the other had been looking for all of their lives.
Aleph would learn more of Zayin's story later.
As the party spoke with Lyxellyn, they learned that not only had
they been misled about her identity, they had also been mistaken
about it when they finally saw what she was. She was not a
celestial at all, but rather an Erinyes, a form of Baatezu. Worse,
they had been further misled by Sir Gericog; although she knew who
he was, she was not an ``associate'' who wished to see him again.
Rather, she expected that he would kill her. When asked why, she
said it was for what she knew, or rather, for what Sir Gericog
thought she knew. Having used mind control magic upon herself,
evidently to prevent the Tanar'ri and Yugoloths from figuring out
what it was she knew, she no longer knew it...
More relevant was the fact that she refused to go back with
them. A plan was quickly fermented to find a way of getting Sir
Gericog to pay the party, even though they hadn't brought back
Lyxellyn (or a part of her to prove that she'd been killed). In the
end, the agreed that they would say that while she was not dead,
she had fallen into the Styx, and had had her memory completely
wiped. This, Lyxellyn hoped, would at least buy her enough time to
find a place in the multiverse to hide from Sir Gericog. The party
hoped this would earn them the balance of their paycheck. Kusk
didn't want to have anything to do with it, however, since the
whole contract was under false pretenses.
After the agreement, Lyxellyn ferried the party over the jungle
back to the rock garden. (Kusk was not in a state to perform
further ferry services, and Lyxellyn could fly.) When that was
done, she disappeared, and the party returned to Fetaphon.
In Fetaphon, Aleph sequestered himself with Zayin for several
days, while Kusk rested and regained his bearings, and the others
enjoyed the very limited tourist attractions of what passes for the
garden spot of Cathrys.
Zayin told Alpeh that she had been born to a family of poor
peasants, in a Prime world known as the Silent Runelands, in a
country known as Clothen. At age 18, she had left home, and entered
the service of her country as a ranger and scout. Five years after
that, war tore across the Silent Runelands, and Clothen was
completely conquered. At that point, Zayin was at something of a
loose end, and dedicated herself to learning more about the dreams
she'd been having.
Since the age of 14, Zayin had been having dreams much like the
dreams of Aleph, which had introduced her however obliquely to the
Order of Anok. The ``man of her dreams'' also appeared in these
visions, and although he often had different appearances, he was
always the same person. When Zayin met Aleph, she recognized that
he was that person.
After her country fell to foul invaders, Zayin sought out a wise
mage, who told her that what she sought was elsewhere on the
planes, and opened a gate for her to the Astral Plane. From there,
she arrived on the Outlands, and wandered the Outlands for two
years.
Very recently, her dreams became more pointed, and led her to
the town of Fetaphon. She got there too late; she was just in time
to see a scuffle, in which a man was trapped on a rope bridge
between two other men. He was armed with a broadsword, and violent.
He was shouting, "Keep them away from me! They are the Borazim! The
will imprison me with Anok! Hold them back! I have to stay free, so
I can free Anok!" The two men continued to advance, while meanwhile
the residents of Fetaphon watched vaguely amused, but ready to cut
the rope bridge should they decide that the men were enough
trouble. The man refused to yield to the other men, and attacked; a
precarious battle ensued on the rope bridge. Eventually, the
residents of Fetaphon tired of it, cut the bridge, and watched as
all three men were enveloped by the tar underneath.
That night, Zayin received a very specific dream, in which she
saw several of the monks of Anok worshiping amongst a series of
statues of several different creatures. Investigation led her to
the Rock Garden, where she waited, returning every day for two
weeks. At the end of that time, she ran into the yugoloth (whom the
party had now killed). The loth challenged her, and she fought; the
loth incapacitated her with blindness and the withering of her
limb. She awoke in her cell. Over the course of the next month, her
arm regrew. She was kept well fed; she suspected that her showing
against the yugoloth impressed him enough that he decided to keep
her as a particularly interesting toy for the Mezzoloths, once she
was fully healthy.
Once Kusk was in good enough shape to travel, and perhaps even
to use a little magic, the party left Fetaphon. At the conduit back
to Othrys, there was a brief combat, as a Shaator (Gerheleth) was
waiting for them, demanding that Reynald yield his sword
(Villiquid's Rapier). The party made short work of the Shaator.
Before they were done, he summoned a Faratsu to fight with him, but
the party made even shorter work of that. They were no match for
Reynald's rapier, and Kusk's ka'lanth (suitably bolstered by the
strength afforded him by his body of air spell).
The party crossed Othrys without incident, led by Miriva to a
portal that led to the Outlands. There, there was a small
encampment, led by a tiefling, who tried to extort money out of the
party in exchange for their permission to pass. His first asking
price was exorbitant, but Reynald was able to negotiate him down.
(It helped that Kusk assumed the form of a whirlwind, and
menacingly moved through the area while Reynald was counting out
coins.)
Although Miriva had warned the party that getting out of Curst
(the gate town to Carceri in the Outlands, which was the
destination of the portal), they found it not to be much of a
problem, thanks to Reynald's expert negotiation with the city
guards. (He was able to convince them that the party had immediate
business elsewhere in the Outlands. The guards do note tend to
think that drifters and wanderers are worthy of leaving Curst.)
From Curst, the party traveled to the town of Ironridge, a small
burg populated primary by humans and dwarves, and from which Kusk
knew a gate that led them back to Sigil. (This was actually the
same gate which the party had previously used to travel to
Tradegate; the non-Sigil end of the gate oscillates back and forth
between Tradegate and Ironridge.)
After returning to Sigil, various members of the party returned
to some semblance of their normal life. Casraeil disappeared for a
while, to find out more about this large and chaotic city which
(thanks to the dip in the Styx) she had no memory of having ever
seen before. Aleph and Zayin borrowed Reynald's place, to sequester
themselves and generally have a honeymoon. (Sigil may not be the
garden spot, but it's certainly better than ``Niagra Ooze,'' as
Fetaphon had been dubbed.) Reynald hid out in Kusk's place,
generally staying out of the way, for reasons that will be
explained below. Varrin returned to working with Kylie, who was
very interested to hear anything about any Yugoloths Varrin had run
into. During the week, Varrin noticed that the mood in Sigil was
more on edge than it had been when they left, and that tensions
between the factions were increased.
Kusk, accompanied by Ironclaw, went on various tax collecting
errands for the Fated. Kusk did notice after a week of the errands
that there was a slight bias towards collection of taxes from
members of the Society of Sensation. One might speculate that this
had something to do with the fact that Erin Montgomery, the factol
of the Sensates, and Duke Rowan Darkwood, the factol of the Fated,
were at political odds in the Hall of Speakers. By the end of the
week, Ironclaw also indicated to Kusk that he was interested in
joining the fated, and Kusk passed the word back through his
contacts that the next time there was an opportunity for Ironclaw
to take the faction's entrance tests, he should be contacted.
Although Kusk decided not to have anything to do with it, Varrin
and Reynald put their heads together and decided that there was a
better way to approach Sir Gericog than they agreement they had
come to with Lyxellyn. This would involve Varrin using scrolls and
spells to wipe Reynald's memory of their real negotiations with the
Erinyes, and replace them with a false memory of the party having
defeated her in combat. Reynald would then go alone to speak with
Sir Gericog. If he tried to read Reynald's mind, he would come
across the one token red-herring enspellment Varrin would leave in
the dancing master's mind, and then see what Reynald believed was
the truth.
Shortly after arriving in Sigil, they left word with the
Vepella, the proprietor of the Scroll Case, that she should tell
Sir Gericog the next time she saw him that the party would meet
with him in one week's time.
The day before the meeting with Sir Gericog, after Kusk had come
home and when Reynald was out looking for a bite to eat (but
avoiding any of his usual haunts in Sigil), upon entering a tavern
in the Clerk's Ward Reynald saw from behind somebody who looked
very much like Sir Gericog, talking to an aasimar. Backing out
quickly so as not to be seen, Reynald set up vigil across the
street from the tavern. Eventually, the aasimar emerged, and
Reynald followed her across the city. Although stealth and
shadowing is not what Reynald is best known for, his natural grace
allowed him to follow her evidently without being suspected. She
returned to what appeared to be her house in the Lady's Ward, a
modest house in a neighborhood which is nice enough but not where
the real high-ups of the ward live. Reynald reported this event to
the rest of the party (or, at least, to Ironclaw, Kusk, and
Varrin). They did not follow up on it immediately.
The next day, Reynald returned alone to negotiate with Sir
Gericog. Although Sir Gericog asked after Reynald's companions, he
did not appear to be too concerned that Reynald was alone. Reynald
expressed displeasure with Sir Gericog, asserting that the party
had been hired under false pretenses. Sir Gericog had led them to
believe that Lyxellyn was to be ``rescued'' and brought back, and
had been given every reason to believe that she would willingly
come back. Instead, he told Sir Gericog, after the party was
already weakened from fighting her captors to free her, they then
had to battle and kill her. (So far as Reynald knew, he was telling
the truth; and, of course, there was some truth in it, up to the
party about battling and killing the Erinyes.)
Sir Gericog, however, was not convinced, and despite Reynald's
best efforts, did not budge an inch. Reynald suggested that since
Sir Gericog had misled then and hired them for a job which turned
out to be much more complicated and hazardous than advertised,
perhaps they should just keep Villiquid's Rapier in lieu of the
promised final payment. In response to this, Sir Gericog laid down
a few veiled threats, telling Reynald that he could guess whom Sir
Gericog was probably associated with now that he knew what Lyxellyn
was. Reynald was no more impressed by Sir Gericog's threats than
was Sir Gericog by Reynald's assertions that the contract with the
party had been under false pretenses. In the end, Sir Gericog
delivered the payment, in gold, to Reynald which had been promised,
and Reynald returned the rapier. When Sir Gericog offered his hand
to shake and said ``a pleasure doing business with you,'' Reynald
did not budge. Sir Gericog shrugged, and left.
There were other events during the week while Reynald was
waiting to meet with Sir Gericog. One such event came to Kusk and
Ironclaw in the Clerk's ward, when they were out on an errand for
the Fated. From a couple of streets over they heard a commotion,
and saw billowing smoke. They went to investigate. They came to the
location of Tensar's Employment Service, a well-regarded business
run by a widely respected Guvner. Asking a nearby Bariaur what was
going on, Kusk was first verbally berated, and then offered a
flower. Looking around, he saw a handful of other people behaving
similarly; Kusk guessed that this was probably a group of
Xaositects out doing what seemed like a good idea at the time, and
moved away from them. In so doing, he saw another group of people
down an ally looking suspicious and fleeing the scene.
Kusk and Ironclaw decided that they would try to do something
about the fire. Not being one to give charity or perform service
uncontracted and unasked, Kusk found Tensar (who was rather
distraught by the whole affair) and told him quickly that he could
help, if Tensar wanted to hire him. Tensar told him to go ahead and
do what he could. After that Kusk suggested to Ironclaw that he use
his skill with fire to move the fire out of the shop. As Ironclaw
prepared to do this, Kusk tried to corral the crowd that had
gathered, and get them away from where Ironclaw was going to move
the fire. He was also able to convince them, handing out silver
pieces, to run and get buckets of water to throw over the embers.
(While Ironclaw could use shape fire to move the actual fire
out of the building, the wood that had burnt would still be hot and
smoldering, and would but liable to easily re-ignite.)
In the end, Ironclaw was able to use his magical ability to
bring the fire out into the street, where it was extinguished, and
Kusk's efforts were able to ensure that the fire did not
re-ignited. About as they had the situation in hand, the city guard
finally showed up. A patrol of the Harmonium arrived, asked Kusk
and Ironclaw what they had done, and seemed relatively happy that
things had been taken care of without too much trouble. Kusk did
not volunteer any information to the Hardheads about the suspicious
characters he saw fleeing the scene.
Two days before Reynald's meeting with Sir Gericog, Kylie asked
Varrin to spend the day in the Grand Bazaar, generally acting as a
sort of watchful bodyguard for a Bariaur merchant named Rik
Bre'ennis. Rik had a cart from which he sold utility knives, axes,
crowbars, and other assorted metal tools. There, Varrin met a
tiefling, another Indep named Daisaku, who had already been working
with Rik for a couple of days. Rik had asked to have some people
with him the Bazaar to keep an eye out, as he believed that he was
being watched by the Harmonium. During the day he was with the
merchant, Varrin concluded that Rik was probably right, as the
passing patrols seemed to be just a little bit too frequent, and to
look a little bit too often in the Bariaur's direction. Members of
the Free League had been telling each other that the Harmonium, or
at least a subset of that faction, had been harassing the Indeps,
often for no other reason than their affiliation with the League.
Even though Rik was an Indep, Varrin thought that he was getting a
little too much attention from the Hardheads.
At the end of the second day of this task (the same day when
Reynald met with Sir Gericog), Daisaku and Varrin found themselves
trapped in the middle of a long alley, with Harmonium guards at
either end, demanding that they consent to being searched. Rik
whispered to Daisaku that he did not want to be searched, for in
fact he was an arms dealer, and there were weapons stored
underneath a false bottom on his cart. Daisaku and Varrin wasted no
time. The tiefling told the advancing Harmonium guards to stay
where they were, and when they did not, launched his bolas at them
and drew his sword. Varrin, meanwhile, began to levitate, and
started working on a flash spell.
At Daisaku's urging, Rik charged forward. As Rik fought with the
Harmonium guards advancing from the front, Varrin's flash
was able to blind several of them, and disrupt the vision of the
others enough so as to make it harder for them to fight. Varrin
continued to levitate, and just in time got out of the reach of the
``planar mancatchers,'' polearm grappling weapons borne by two of
the Hardhead guards, which are ensorceled so as to prevent one
caught in it from teleporting or plane shifting away.
Daisaku ran forward after Rik. Although the tiefling easily had
the speed to outdistance the Harmonium, Rik, tied to his cart, did
not. This left Varrin and Rik with something of a dilemma as to
what to do. While Daisaku alternatively Skirmished with the
Harmonium and ran after Rik, Varrin began working with illusions.
First, he created a second ``copy'' of Rik, in hopes of confusing
the Hardheads. Next, he summoned up an illusion of some Faratsu's,
bringing the Harmonium up short against this fiend evidently
summoned by that troublemaker of an Indep.
(We leave Daisaku and Varrin in the middle of this rather
untenable situation.)
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