Once Upon Time In Shadow World
Cast of Characters:
Aquarius Pius – Shuluri ( Sea-Elven ) Warrior and a Mage
Ho´c´hi – Nyani
(Arch)Mage
Killenagh – Anzeti
“Barbarian”
Lauril Paleleaf – Erlini
woodworker and a masterful bowman
Leopold Taranis – Half-Elven
“Entertainer” and a petty thief
Matteric Erwin – Half-elven carpenter,
really more of an assassin. [left behind in Sel Kai]
Rafael Fireblood – Linæri
Dervish
“Rogue” – A Shay thief/fighter/physician [wandered
off as the party arrived in Sel Kai]
Uglam Andrus
– Belgorian Shaman [jailed, waiting for his
trial]
This
account on the events start as the campaign re-starts after a few years.
Originally played with Rolemaster, now changed to
GURPS (characters generously converted).
Ho´c´hi enters the Sel Kai library to study in to
some matters he prefers not to disclose to others.
A message
is delivered to The Barge Inn “We will contact you if we find it
necessary”, we think it’s from the Grey Ring that we tried to
contact earlier. Who knows though?
‘As
we search through the city’s inns and taverns trying to find this Gevalis Gorm character we run in
to a naughty looking street fight and without much thought Leopold and Killenagh charge the gang members that have surrounded
their prey.´
A few
seconds pass and all of the assailants are down, most of them dead. Bodies are
tossed to the canals.
“Thank you for your help strangers, it is
not often one encounters such friendliness on the streets of Sel Kai”
The
rescued man appears to be a local carpenter and generally a jolly good fellow. More than one ale gets drank.
Matt
offers to help the party in anyway he can, he’s a born and raised Sel Kaian so the town is familiar
to him. He promises to visit us at the hotel tomorrow.
As we depart the pub Rafael’s elven eyes spot the young man that stole our money!
He runs after him and others follow.
We follow him for sometime until we see him enter a building in the Twelve Bridges district.
We stop to examine the house, only to see Leopold pick the lock and enter. cursing
Ho´c´hi and Killenagh circle around the back of the house Aquarius sneaks to the front door and slips in.
Rafael and Matt stay outside. Rafael looking sour and Matt
wondering “WTF…”
Leopold checks the house quickly, moves out the stairs, see the young kid changing his
clothes, and is spotted.
Leopold
“Errrr, would
you want to buy some flours …?” { Leopold will not be
allowed to forget this comment
… ever }
Kid,
screaming
“What
are you doing in our house!!!” and runs towards Leopold…
Leopold
backs down the stairs, Aquarius walks up the stairs, Killenagh
kicks in the “backdoor” and rushes in.
Too late,
as Leopold enters the room again he’s blinded by a flash. Gone.
Killenagh
bullies the parents, but they don’t seem to know much, they confirm that
the Kid, Isaac, worked for Gevalis Gorm running some small errands.
Leaving back to the inn, taking along a box that was found on the kid’s
room.
Back in
the in at midnight, going through the stuff that was in the box. Gold, powdered and a pretty plain ring. Hmmm.
Killenagh
and Leopold go to the bar to get drunk.
Late breakfast, planning day’s activity. Matt comes to visit. Going around the town trying to find people who know Mr Gorm. Leopold get a lucky break and finds a lady
who’s services
Gevalis has been using. She gives his
address to Leopold.
An old
medium sized storage building that has pier access. Looks
like the 2nd story serves as an apartment. Picking the lock
and sneaking in. Killenagh circles around to the
other side of the building and climbs up, entering the apartment
through window.
Sigh,
nobody home. Going through the apartment doesn’t reveal anything too interesting, a few candleholders look fairly valuable. One
book that has some naughty stories and drawings does attract some attention. Staying in waiting for Mr Gorm to arrive.
“Someone is coming
!”
Damn
…
Apparently
the person coming heard song from inside and runs away. Leopold, Aquarius and Killenagh run after him. It’s just some fairly
overweight older man, so Aquarius catches on him quickly … Man slows down
a bit and …
FLASH
Aquarius
is blinded …
Leopold
who wasn’t as fast runner as Aquarius was little further away and not too
badly affected by the bright flash of light, only partially blinded must halt
to walk though. Killenagh who jumped out of the
windows at the back of the house was still further back catches on the tiring
man quickly, but as Killenagh passes Leopold he trips
Killenagh.
THUD
The
barbarian hits the ground, getting up upset and more determined, and then
catches the old man, with the blade of his battle axe nearly splitting him in
half and tossing the limp body through the thin ice on the canal.
Kille
drops his axe, jump in to the freezing water and drags Mr Gorm
out.
By this
time Aquarius has regained his sight and with Leopold they help the men out of
the water.
Leopold
dresses Mr Gorm’s wounds and Aquarius casts
quick healing spell, stabilizing him.
Then Mr Gorm’s unconscious body is hurried back to his
apartment, and tied to bed. A fancy looking belt that he was wearing is
removed. Ho´c´hi casts a few healing
spells of his own and soon he’s almost as good
as new. Someone notes that one of the valuable looking candleholders is
missing; Matt is blamed (correctly) and leaves.
Time to talk about what to do with Gevalis.
Killenagh
holding his battle axe seems to do the trick, and Mr Gorm
explains what’s happened. He employed young lads as thieves giving them
the belts. Then some of the kids got greedy, he disposed of them. Mr Gorm wants to make a deal. Money, money, money buys
freedom. Nobody seems to get too excited about this idea.
Ho´c´hi and Aquarius go to the inn to pick up some personal items and the party
ends up sleeping over at Mr Gorm’s place.
Still at Mr Gorm’s place, trying to
figure what to do.
Should we give the stolen loot to the police ? What
should we do with the belts? Without belts there’s no evidence. Would we
get our money back, how about the promised reward? … all
these questions will be answered … now.
Ho´c´hi, Aquarius and Killenagh go to the park nearby
and call for a Navigator to show what the belt does. Unfortunately they forget
to mention the blinding flash, and the Navigator “flees”.
Gorm told
about this small shack on the marches outside the town. The loot and the rest
of the belts are hidden there. Everyone is sure it’s a trap of some sort.
Back in Sel Kai with ridiculous amounts of
money, gems and jewellery.
Staying at Mr Gorm’s place for another
night.
Counting
the money and planning the next actions.
Plan:
Book a trip to Kaitaine with the flying ships to get
away fast and far. Next boat leaves at
{Side note: Uglam
Andrus was found guilty for the count of murder attempt and sentenced to life
imprisonment, but at his lawyer’s request it was converted to death by an
axe. Players aren’t aware of this since after
paying for the legal presentation they haven’t visited Uglam. Guess they knew that the player won’t be
around as much anymore …}
Killenagh
goes shopping for new armour, managing to get ripped off, while the others try
to stay out of sight as much as possible. At any time there at least one person
guarding the now pretty angry Mr Gorm. Aquarius buys
a “long eye” (a small telescope), which everyone finds both strange
and little scary. Killenagh and Leopold stay with the
Gorm’s place rest of the team sleeps in the
Barge Inn. Leopold hires a guy to take care of the gagged Mr Gorm and to free him after 3 days.
{ The players were led to believe that the guy hired didn’t even visit
him once, and the Gevalis Gorm
died on his bed}
Ship
flies … wasn’t long time ago that none of the guys could believe
that one day they would fly to Kaitaine with one of
these marvellous ships. Captain Vorek Moff welcomes everyone aboard and introduces them to the
pre-flight safety tips. The cabins aren’t that big but everything on the
boat is unmatched in style and quality.
Days pass
and the travel goes smoothly. Killenagh
and Leopold spend most of it drinking in the cabin. The Iylari
are little more social talking to the other people travelling on the boat.
“As the first rays of the morning sun hit
the cabins windows I rise up to greet yet another marvellous day Orianna has given us. The brisk wind that blows on the
ships deck blowing in my hair and the cool morning air in my lungs I can tell
that we will have a great day ahead of us.
As I look south, I see the beautiful emerald
coloured sea glittering in the horizon, the airship men tell me that we are
approaching Kaitaine fast and are on schedule as
always, and as I peer over the railings I can just see the city of Kaitaine, awaiting us“
Rafael Fireblood, on the deck of Sky Eagle II
approaching Kaitaine.
First
thing to do it so find a nice inn or a hotel to stay in. The Palace by the main
square, seems to be the number one choice so we go
there. It is very, very expensive, but we are loaded so it doesn’t matter
that much. We reserve 2 rooms for a week to start with (10 days). Iylari have a 2 person room while the rest stay in a 2
bedroom suite, with the “loot”.
Jewellery
is considered too risky, traceable, so we hire a boat by the harbour for a
little fishing trip.
SPLASH
Uncounted
amounts of jewellery are at the bottom of the sea.
Killenagh
and Leopold hit the bars, trying to out drink each other. Leopold gives up
easier and makes his way to the hotel while Killenagh
stays for a few more. As Killenagh crawls back to the
hotel in the wee hours, and tries make it to the bed he almost falls over to
someone sleeping on the floor. After a moment of orientation he has a naughty
feeling that he is in the wrong room, and as he moves to put the light on, he
sees someone sneaking out of the room. Screaming he wobbles after the shadowy
figurine.
Leopold
who was in the right room across the hallway was just throwing up and runs to
the door to see what trouble Killenagh has gotten in
to.
As these
events unfold Lauril Paleleaf
is walking up the stairs bringing a urgent message to
the person living on room 35. As he steps to the 3rd floor he hears
a violent scream and dashes in to the hall, just to see a small wiry man dashing
towards a dark figure that runs towards the window at the end of the hallway.
Before reaching it the figure disappears in to the thin air though.
Killenagh points towards room #35
“There’sh a deaad pherson in thath rhoom. I wash thinksin thath it wash ouhr rhoom”
Now
Leopold, Killenagh and Lauril
enter room 35 and turn the light on. There is a body of a middle aged Nuyani ? male.
He is
definitely dead. A stylish dagger is lodged in his back just below the neck. It
has a 7 pointed star at the end of the hilt.
A quick
look through the room, but nothing special is found in the room.
Some
people from the rooms on this hallway are peaking in to the hallway trying to
see what’s happening. Leopold runs down to get the night portiere. He
feels mischievous and runs back up as fast as he can, unfortunately that just
makes him throw up again. The night portiere doe the same as he sees Leopold
bent over heaving. The two of them walk in to room 35 smelling very bad. The
portiere checks situation and runs out to get the city guard. Team goes though
the room once more. Still nothing of interest.
Guards
arrive and are told the story. Lauril Paleleaf verifies that a person was seen fleeing the room,
and the guards are satisfied. They will be back for questioning.
The dead
man is Gireg Jaan a Loremaster.
Lauril,
Leopold (after changing to something less stinky) and Killenagh
go to a pub in the harbour for a glass of wine, and to talk about what
happened. Lauril introduces himself as a carpenter
who was doing a little favour to his acquaintance Loremaster
Luronen Moje. He was
leaving the villa where Luronen lives when he asked Lauril to take a message to his good old friend who had
just come to town. The message is.
“Come to see me in Elhendil
Estates tomorrow by dusk – Signed - Your Friend Luronen
Moje”
They
agree to meet again tomorrow
Meeting in the Palace hotel lobby at noon.
Present,
Aquarius, Ho´c´hi, Killenagh,
Lauril, Leopold, Rafael, Loremaster Moje.
Moje
tells everyone that he needs to go to Karilôn
about this incident. He hopes that the party would be able to look
in to this incident if they could learn anything. He feels he must keep a low
profile as he in Kaitaine more or less In Cognito. Starting an investigation would require him to
take part in many official functions. He’d prefer to work in the
background at least for starters. Rafael and Ho´c´hi
don’t seem too eager about this and focus their interest on other
matters. Rafael to music and Ho´c´hi
to magics and sciences. (
players inactive )
“Please do not take any unnecessary risks
though”
Lauril
tells about this Cult of Stars he learned of before leaving his homeland, the
shamans told about them and gave him an ancient scripture. They couldn’t say
what it was for or of its significance, only that it was important. The 7
pointed star is their (too) symbol.
As the
party is finishing their lunch they over heard the waiters talk about someone
having been arrested for the murder. Luronen leaves.
They rush
to the police station only to be turned away.
“No you people who don’t know the
person arrested and whom I have never seen before, cannot visit the
prisoner”- Sergeant
Killenagh
decides that he’ll go shopping for new armour since the one he bought from
Sel Kai wasn’t done by the time he had to
leave. 48 gold pieces change ownership. It will take the smith 20 days to make
though.
Killenagh
and Leopold decide to try to fish some information from some pub that the
coppers might spend their free time. The Rose and Lion tavern seems to be such.
They buy some drinks to people in the pub, but mostly to themselves, and forget
to ask anything. Crawling back home.
Killenagh
feels tired and takes a carriage back. Not to hotel nevertheless, as the driver
tells him about this wonderful place of filled with beautiful scarcely dressed
women who could be his for the night...
Off he goes.
The late
fall sun shines brightly hurting the eyes on those how spent last night unable
to resist the temptations of the alcohol.
Breakfast of the Red-Eyed Ones.
Killenagh
arrives fresh smelling and happy, well as happy as he gets. Too
bad about the horrible headache tho. The rest
of the party isn’t too impressed about the information they managed to
gather last nite.
Making
plans.
The party
splits in to two groups and starts to go though the ships in the harbour since Gireg Jaan had just arrived from
somewhere and where that place is might be useful to know.
They
finally find the boat that Gireg came with. He had
come on from the archipelago in the SW corner of Emer.
He had talked to these Iylari brothers on the trip Hiradil, is the name and they are assumed to be traders.
The other
party finds that someone else had been asking after Gireg,
on the day he had arrived. A fairly tall woman dressed is some darkish stylish
clothes. Sounds pretty much same as the person they saw at the hotel.
Meet at
the hotel for a late lunch and discuss about the new info. The Iylari go out hoping they might find these brothers in some
inn. Killenagh and Leopold have another go at the tavern
where city guard spends their free time.
Last time
boys forgot that questions part, this time it doesn’t go much better.
Killenagh
and Leopold visit a few nice pubs by the waterfront before they go back to the
Rose and Lion. Those few drinks added to the ones they had been having
throughout the day cause them to be fairly drunk on entry. It doesn’t
take too long for Leopold to start feeling artistic. He starts singing and dancing
around the tavern, missing all the clues that the clientele is giving about
their interest in this performance. Some drinks are spilled.
Fortunately
Killenagh notices the change of mood and forces
Leopold to leave. Not a moment too late. Since “the night is still
young” the lads go thought a number of great houses and inns trying to
find a nice place, well a place with women really. Not much success, mainly due
to the drunken state they are in. Killenagh wants to
take Leopold to this nice “bathhouse” he visited, but can’t
remember where it was. Eventually they come to the hotel.
Womanless.
Hangover
has reached its peak. No choice but
to go out today too, just for a few…
Luronen Moje returns
from Karilôn, bringing Lauril
some news on what Gireg Jaan
had been up to. Information is not that much use. He had been in the Uj desert searching for something. then
reported to take some time off and went in to hiding. Now he came to Kaitaine to meet Luronen Moje.
Well
after all the boring stuff is out of the way the dynamic duo hits the taverns
again even more determined to find some fine ladies.
Leopold
meets Iris a beautiful half-elven maiden at a dance
where he could show his amazing dancing talents. Killenagh
tries to find if she has any good looking friends but gives up quite easily. He
jumps in to a carriage and asks to be taken somewhere where he could find
himself a woman.
He ends
up in a miserable excuse of an inn called “The Buoy” with woman
called Rose. She ain’t a real rose.
Having
taken fancy to this small but dirty inn, Killenagh
informs the rest of the party that he is moving to The Buoy and asks that
they’ll send his stuff over. He buys all the rooms for himself. Only to start regretting it by midday and moving back to the
Palace.
Lauril
comes over to the hotel for breakfast and tell them what Luronen
had found out. There is a rumour that the arrested man Yuri Kadorian
is a spy of some sort. He had just visited Gireg, the
night portiere remembered him and the reason behind this is believed to be that
he was going to reveal Kadorian as a spy.
They
hadn’t been trying to find anything about the woman in the harbour (and hotel ?) thought.
Leopold
has a date with Iris visiting a fine restaurant, since he has not been found
privy of the ridiculous amounts of the party has money, he can just barely pay
the bill. He books a room for himself for the evening, with some food and
drinks. (Charging to the party’s room)
Leopold
goes out with Iris, again. Rest of the party mostly enjoys life. Killenagh is apparently feeling dirty again since he
decides to visit the nice ´bathhouse´again.
As he
approaches the bathhouse he can’t believe his eyes, the woman they have
been looking for, well hoping to find, is moving cautiously just across the
street. After a moment of pondering whether to follow of visit the bathhouse
first, Killenagh starts to follow the woman. As he
gets closer he’s quickly spotted, and the woman runs. Killenagh
follows and after a few narrow alleys loses the sigh of her fearing he might
have lost her. The he spots her trying to get up on the roof, Killenagh jumps and pull the woman down by her leg. She
crashes down, knocking herself out.
Killenagh
carries her to the nearby park, trying to look inconspicuous, failing badly,
but this part of the town is quiet and those seeing the little barbarian
carrying a sizeable woman do not interfere.
Killenagh
searches the woman but she isn’t carrying anything, just a few purty looking rings Throwing some water to her face from a
fountain helps her to recover consciousness,
“Did my husband hire you?”
and by
now he is quite sure that this woman isn’t the one they were looking for,
but just some poor soul sneaking out to a secret meeting.
Killenagh
manages to sympathize with this woman, who has a sizeable bum in her forehead.
She was just visiting this Iylari bard ( hmm Rafael ? ) she had met at a party,
she wasn’t going to cheat, honest, just wanted to talk with him, no she
will never ever do this again. Killenagh gets her a
carriage and pays the driver.
Killenagh
decides against going to the bathhouse tonight, and returns to the hotel
looking a bit red eared.
On the
breakfast that seems to end as lunch starts to get served, the Iylari tell everyone that they’ll visit the
They
manage to get an audience with Lecturer Faidel for
the 56th and have a chat with one of the priests managing the
library; Brother Shælan enlightens them with a
few snippets of information about the Cult. They are like old
“organization”, all wimmin and stuff.
He’s pretty boring guy. YAWN
Returning
to the hotel the boy in the reception tells us that a message was just
delivered to us.
It’s
from Luronen Moje. It says
that a woman matching very well to our, sketchy, descriptions has been sighted
coming and going several times from this house on the East Shore District. There
is an address. Which is good.
Moje
tells us that he’ll meet us for a breakfast at the hotel tomorrow.
We, Killenagh, Leopold, Lauril and
Aquarius, grab something to our belts and take a skiff boat to the East Shore
District, asking to be dropped before we get too close to the house.
We try to
circle around the house to the best of our ability, all the time trying not to
look too obvious. There might have been someone at the balcony on the 2 floor,
but if there was they are gone.
Were we spotted?
Leopold
tried to ask some questions about the house and its inhabitants from the
servants of the nearby houses but doesn’t get that much useful info. Only
that there is some tough looking men living in the house, one servant has
spotted them wrestling on the yard a few times. Hmmm
It’s
getting late so the party returns back to the town centre, to plan the next
actions.
We await for the Loremaster to arrive
but he never does. We visit the Elhendil Estates, but
he isn’t there either, nor had he slept there. Leopold and Aquarius go
back to
Waiting
for the darkness to fall, and then the party takes a long walk towards this
suspicious villa. Making a long loop around it hoping not to be spotted they
circle to the south side of it to a pier where most of the villa is easily
observed.
Seems
like the best option is to steal a boat and enter the villa though the seaside
berth. They appropriate a small skiff that will hold then a quickly move
towards the house. Aquarius handles the boat skilfully and they dock it
silently. Sneaking. 1 Door,
unlocked, and a small window from which just a small glow of light can be seen.
Enter the
house, and close the door, and as soon as they are in a boat patrol is outside
the pier. Fumbling around the dark house. Someone comes, quickly back out to the pier, since the patrol just
left. The person who entered goes to a small room for a wash and then moves
upstairs, where it seems might be more people. Some sound was heard from a room
in the downstairs too.
Examine
the downstairs better. It’s clear that there are some people in the big
room in the center of the house. Leopod
tries to pick open the lock of the main doors if there is a need to get out
through it.
Someone
comes out from the big room, all but Leopold hide in a room closest to the
front door. Luckily it’s an empty bedroom. The person returns to the
room, leaving the door open.
Leopold
continues with the lock while Lauril cannot resist
his curiosity and sneaks to the open door trying to hear and see better what is
happening in the room. There is 3 women that look like the one they saw and
they are talking to a this strange mirror that seems
live. In the room there are also 2 strong looking guards.
One of the
women
“Your servants attend,
´Lyax Khâng´?”
The image on
the ´mirror´
“Your report
“We have continue with the operation, Mistress”
“Have you located the one that saw Mara at the hotel?”
“No, Mistress”
“I am disappointed. I expect you to have him by tomorrow by this time”
“Yes, Mistress”
Just as
Leopold is about to get the lock open Lauril is
spotted, the image in the mirror to whom the women, Mara?
Lauril
runs, poor Leopold, who was sure the lock was just about to open dashes in to
the bedroom from which Aquarius and Killenagh were
peaking from. As Lauril makes it in to the room the
women are already on the chase, catching fast. Killenagh
jumps thorough the window cutting his leg. Aquarius next, followed by Lauril and finally Leopold. Leopold thinks he was scratched
by the glass fragments too, but seeing a dagger stuck to his calf explains the
pain. One, two, three the women follow out, nimbly as cats. They catch on fast,
and Aquarius and Killenagh turn back noting that
Leopold and Lauril are about to be caught.
The fight
is very one-sided. The women are skilled fighters assisted by superior
equipment, darkness and magic, one by one the guys fall down bleeding. just as the situation looks grim, a flash of light and the
smell of burning flesh, one of the women disappears in a gory explosion. Then the next and the last one in a brilliant flash.
Unconsciousness
takes over the last of the party.
As the
men slowly regain consciousness they are surrounded by the city guards, the Loremaster and a few interested spectators. Plenty of
healing is needed to recover some of the lads. Amazingly nobody seems to have
acquired any permanent looking injuries.
Loremaster
had explained the incident to the guards who help the party to get a coach
which carries them to the
Luronen
tell them that the villa was searched but not much was found they had been
moving stuff out yesterday evening and this morning. He also admits that one of
the women probably “teleported” away. Lauril
tells everyone what he saw and heard at the villa.
It is
almost dawn as the party arrives back to the hotel, looking very bloody and
battered. Sleep has rarely felt so good. Everyone sleeps late into the day.
Loremaster
and Lauril meet the others at the hotel. He
hasn’t been able to find out much more, the women had been renting that
villa for a few months now, and apparently it was the base for their operation
in this city.
The
constables took Loremasters word on that these women
were behind the murder of his friend, and let Yuri Kadorian
free. He apparently left the town immediately.
The party
is bored with the hotel life; it’s just too posh for, most of, them. They
decide to rent a nice villa. They find a nice large villa with its own pier,
from
Taking a coach to the villa Jirigan, new home.
This day
and the following is spent mainly resting and
organizing the house.
The party
had booked a meeting with Lecturer Faidal to inquire
about the Uj desert, and how they could link it to
the Cult. Faidal, who seems to be a member of the Rhiani people, tells them about the Twelve Rhiani tribes, about the land and the customs.
Killenagh
and Leopold slip out quite soon, having gotten bored.
There
might be something in the south eastern part of the land where one of the
outcast tribes resides. They are old lands that hold many mysteries, and what Luronen Moje had found out
earlier about Gireg Jaan
having been spent plenty of time in the Uj desert and
most likely just in that area, there could be something.
Now,
it’s time to take it easy though, rest and enjoy
life.
Almost 3
weeks has passed, relatively uneventfully.
Aquarius
hired a tutor to learn how to read and write properly.
Rafael
did this same, but in secrecy, since he might have given a picture that he
knows how to read and wasn’t going to lose his face.
Leopold
spend his days getting to know the city as much as he gets free time from Iris.
He does go out to the taverns and bars with Killenagh
a lot, and eventually breaks up with Iris.
Killenagh
enjoys ‘civilization´ having fun, his way, drinking, fighting and
with the ladies. He did remember to pick up his armour though.
Lauril
spends mort of his time working his craft; he does live in the villa Jirigan though.
Some gossip
from people who have arrived from Sel Kai have
reached the party, no Gevalis Gorm
didn’t die as they feared might have happened. Apparently he has told the
police his version of the events, which obviously makes the party look pretty
bad. They are quite wanted in Sel Kai and there was some
talk about unofficial bounties.
Another
interesting piece of information was when they heard about an attack against
the Navigator that was guiding a caravan that was travelling though Uj. It was done by some fiendish creature called Herald of
the Night. Rumour has it that the Navigator was almost gone when something
interfered and drove the creature away. This would be just another story, but Killenagh did meet someone at the bar from that caravan
arrived and he told the same thing.
Loremaster
Luronen Moje asked if the
party would have time to see him over breakfast, and everyone has gathered in
the dining room for a lovely breakfast.
“Seems like the Cult is still active and
what is more important, they have it in for you lot. Might be a good idea to go
in to hiding for awhile, at least leave the city. I’ll try to find any
information that might help in the meanwhile”
After Luronen leaves everyone agrees that they do not wish to
meet these Cult people in the near future. Time to leave the
town. Aquarius suggests taking a ship somewhere, but most agree that
following the ´leads‘ to the Uj desert might be the best thing to do. Time
to prepare for a quick evacuation.
Rafael
and Ho´c´hi decide to take a boat along
the south coast heading towards east.
Mmmmm shopping.
Buying
some equipment that might be handy in the desert. Shopping for herbs, always
good to have plenty of herbs along, old saying that must be.
Investing
considerable amount of money to a map set from the renown
mapmaker Baleilas. Maps should be done by the 20th.
Paying the caravan some money to be taken along. They
caravan master gives a quick survival lecture for all the caravan
newbie’s. What to bring along, how to act if the weather gets bad etc.
They actually do listen.
Buying wagons, 7 draft horses and 2 riding horses. Leopold pays a teamster to give him
a three day crash course in driving a wagon.
Then waiting for the caravan to leave.
Last
minute shopping, picking up the maps and off we go. The caravan gathers by the
northern shore where these last wagons cross the
After 12
days of travelling the caravan arrives to Shezarak,
and ancient city located deep in the Uj Desert, a
sacred meeting place for the Rhiani tribes, located
in this low valley. The place looks very strange a fairly large town of times
past now permanently inhabited only by a few hundred people. The Rhiani riders will not enter the valley; they will rejoin
us day after tomorrow when the caravan leaves. Spending this
day resting in this mysterious city. We heard again about the attack
that occurred against the Navigator earlier. The person that rescued him
appeared to be just a lone rider who came out of nowhere and drove the Herald
away. Then he left a not to one of the merchants on the caravan and rode off.
Today is
spent enjoying the food and drink in Shezarak,
returning from early dinner we note a group of armed riders approaching the
town centre. They have a poster that has fairly young man’s face,
description says 6´6” to 6´9” 200lbs, a thief that they
wish to capture, a reward of 10 gold pieces is
offered.
The food
over here tastes funny; the Spice that they use isn’t very good.
Towns
folk recognizes them as Vajaar people, quite far from
home too.
Leopold
and Killenagh get little too drunk, and will feel it
in the morning.
Next
morning as the caravan continues its journey Leopold remembers that poster they
were showing about, that man in it, he is pretty sure that he saw him in Kaitaine harbour, drunk as a duck being escorted by two
mates.
Travelling
with the caravan for 4 to 6 days and then separate from them and be on our own.
We are lucky that it is winter, the heat of the day is
little more tolerable to the man and to the horses.
After
four days on boring travel there seems to be some sort of commotion as we have
camped for the evening. Perhaps some old beef between the merchants. We care
not.
After a
few hours of travel we take a sharp turn of the path and head in to the depths
of the desert. As Leopold drives the wagons down in to rocky riverbed some
strange sound alerts him. When the wagon finally stops he has a look in to the
wagon and after going through the baggage’s, he finds a skinny young man
hidden in the wagon, it seems that he has hit his head against the side when
Leopold was speeding down the bank.
He does
look a lot like that man in the picture, way skinnier though. He is wearing
nothing but rags. Only clear feature is a thin black ring that is tightly in
his right middle finger.
He
appears to be in pretty bad shape, dehydrated and starved. We give him little
water, since someone remembers that you aren’t supposed to drink a lot at
once when you have been thirsty for a long time.
“Thank you good people, please do not
return me to the caravan, they will surely find me there”
He gulps
thirstily some more water.
“Who the hell are you and what are you
doing in our wagon”
Killenagh
asks waving his great axe around
“My name is Kellar
and I am from the
After something little to eat he looks like he needs to sleep.
We let
him stay with us, since he seems to be sincere.
Killenagh “I will keeps my eye on him”
Making
steady progress we spot a few riders on the horizon looks like a small bunch of
Rhiani riders. As we follow them disappearing behind
the dynes, we take a good look at the direction we were going. Seems that we
might have followed the wrong trails and we should make a correction it the
direction, if they are doing towards the oasis we too hope to reach.
Good
think we saw them.
Kellar
tells his story. Apparently he is Prince Kellar , the youngest son of the King. He was captured by The
White Swan when he’s boat was sailing from Sel
Kai to Danachris. Then traded for favours or
something to a Vajaar leader, he’s not too sure
to whom though. Brought to Kaitaine hidden among the
cargo, there he was loaded to a wagon in the caravan to be taken to Shezarak. Where he guesses someone would have picked him
up. He escaped, hid in another wagon, then moved to this when he has heard them
talking about leaving the caravan and continuing on their own.
The ring
is something the White Swan put to his finger to prevent him from using magic.
Aquarius and Lauril help to remove the ring, which
finally breaks loose after being worked with a sharp dagger every evening by
the camp fire (on the evening of 46th). There is little tension in
the air as the ring breaks loose, but at least no immediate effects are noted.
A small
village that appears where it should be according to the map, these things are
worth the big money that was paid for them. There seems to be a sort of an inn
here so we eat and drink there. There is a lot of Spice in the food. Bleeh.
Killenagh
and Leopold drop in to the pond/lake for a quick swim, it only occurred them
later that someone might mind them swimming in it. They get loaded in the
evening. Kellar stays hidden in the wagons.
We sleep
at a small oasis keeping tight guard from the beasts and ‘other´
that we might encounter.
Unfortunately
nothing finds us (Killenagh)
But we
have barely resumed our journey when something very large leaps out of the sand
and attacks one of the horses pulling our wagon. It’s a Sand Crawler, one
of the critters we were warned about. A huge crab like
creature with a long sharp pinchers.
Poor horse
gets slashed beyond help, but Killenagh shows the
Sand Crawler that he’s not one to be messed with. Lauril
does help a bit, but those arrows do not seem to bother the huge creature too
much.
During
the fierce battle Leopold tries to control the remaining horses which try to
get out of control. He’s just great with animals isn’t he?
The
critter does take a lot of punishment before it finally falls down dead. Killenagh takes some little trophies from it.
A spare
horse is put in and the party moves on.
Arriving to Kh’lagrrr. They seem to do some kind of
farming here. Funny.
It a
decent sized town located on two sides of
We find a inn for ourselves and a stable for the horse, then spend
the day relaxing and enjoying the town. We decide to stay here for 3 days, to
rest a bit and try to inquire some information. Next three days are spent,
eating sleeping and swimming. We do manage to ask around if anyone would be our
guide for the remaining trip.
Eventually
we decide to hire this Tu’forc fella. He’s quite old but we figure he’ll know
more then. He agrees to take us this small river called
(We later find out that it would have been a
good idea to ask about the tribe living there while we were in Kh’lagrrr)
A brisk
desert wind starts to build up as we try to gather our senses and stuff in the
early hours of the say. We have loaded the wagon full of food and water and
ourselves with a few days of rest and the final? leg
of our journey begins.
We
encounter our first big sandstorm; Tu’forc
helps us to put up our tents and to protect the animals. We do pretty well.
It is
still the early hour of the day when we reach magnificent, err small,
As the
day turns to evening we come to a place that looks very suitable as a camp
site, judging from the fact that there is a fairly large camp in it.
Looks
deserted, a few tents are down and the big tent is partly down covered with
some sand. Careful approach, nobody here. Estimating
from the tracks this camp has been empty for three four days.
We go
thought the gear left behind, most interesting are the books that we find in
the big tent. A book about the Rhiani tribes, a
travelling journal of an Iylari sage and a book in
strange language none of us know. We write down parts that are interesting.
Killenagh
and Aquarius follow the tracks found leaving the camp for a few hours but then
they lose them. They were going straight in the direction of 2 mountain peaks
in the horizon, towards some small hills. They return.
According
to our calendar today is the first day of spring. There really should be a
party. Some coffee and tea will have to do. We think that we’ll stay here
if the people return.
Leopold, Lauril and Kellar stay in the
camp looking though the stuff that’s been left behind hoping to find
anything of interest. Kellar goes thought the books
again.
Aquarius
and Killenagh make a 2 day trip downstream hoping
they might find inhabitation. They only find some Rhiani.
Who take the other riding horse.
They are
back in the camp by dusk.
Killenagh
gets some water in to his ear while washing. During the day he hears voices,
singing and such, and is in foul mood. …
