Summary of 2/22/98 Play Session

T'SKRANG TROUBLES

A Summary of the 2/22/98 Session

By Brian P. Clausen 3/11/98

The party reaches the Southern Village which they quickly discover is exactly like a large, bustling city with lots of specialized shops except that it is small, stagnant, entirely devoid of shops, and actually just a smelly fishing hole. They pay handsomely to book an exclusive ferry ride to Tern, the middle city-state of Tolaria. The three city states, the other two of which are Nimgean and Kesh, apparently are at odds with one another despite all subscribing to the pirate lifestyle. The party pays to have their armor smuggled in without question and they soon find themselves on narrow streets and in the shadows of the tall, packed buildings of Tern.

Because Demek needs to train and have some armor worked on, the party needs to stay in Tern for about a week. Oxander looks up the local smith, Nethe opts to check out the local bath houses and have a well-deserved relaxing vacation, and Miles spends a lot of time in a backpack playing solitaire because windlings are unknown here and therefore extremely noteworthy.

Aliou, possibly stir-crazy from the separation from Barsaive and places like his beloved Throal, uses his Chorrolis questor power to seek for the most valuable thing in range and then sets off with Pole in tow. The trail takes them to the center of town, where stands three buildings of note. One of the side buildings flies the flag of the empire, but fortunately the trail leads to the center building. They get through the locked gate on the pretext that Aliou is here to represent the interests of a new T'skrang house, and then lose their accompaniment on the adjusted story that Aliou is really here to see a certain high-positioned married lady on the sly.

When the trail leads into a warehouse Aliou unwisely persists, arousing the suspicion of the guards despite yet another ploy. They finally succeed in learning that the treasure is a box stored in a central vault that contains precious jewelery and two orichalcum coins, but by that time the alarm has sounded. Pole helps Aliou escape a gaurd, and Aliou summons an air elemental as a distraction. The elemental gleefully pulverizes wooden crates while the two first try to go out the way they came in and then, seeing that route blocked, hastily make way towards an alternate escape. Pole leaps over the compound wall and glides to a rooftop. Aliou uses his Leaving spell successively to make his way past the assembled forces, which includes a female T'skranian swordmaster named Kring, the "married lady" with whom the guard thought Aliou intented to tryst.

After a failed ploy intended to get Kring's attention Aliou notes that the Keenan, the head of the city-state, is a magician and then heads to the party's Inn where he rebukes himself and hides in fear of the trouble he's stirred up. Demek returns and warns that the city is locked up and house-to-house searches have begun. After a party discussion Pole and Aliou flee Tern with the aid of a water elemental and end up in Kesh.

In Kesh the two are quickly escorted to Morok, the leader of this city-state, where the two fall back on an honest accounting of their situation. Morok finds it difficult to accept the concept of horrors, particularly since his two female advisors, Mia the human wizard and Tula the ork troubadour, claim to know nothing of either horrors or thread items. However, Morok is impressed when as part of a demonstration Aliou convinces a gnarled old elven councillor to buy a plant holder for one copper piece - the only time the old codger has spent any money in at least twenty years. Morok would like Aliou to help him with a negotiation involving buying out the other two city-state leaders and invites Pole and Aliou to be his "guests" until the rest of the party catches up and the negotiation can take place. The ambassador to the empire shows up and demands that Aliou and Pole be put to death, but Morok sends the man on his way.

Later, Nethe poses as a messenger to deliver the following note to Aliou:

Aliou,
I see our reputation has preceeded us. Are you and Pole okay? If you do not respond with appropriate codes we will raze the city at midnight as we agreed. Have a nice day.
Demek

Aliou is given paper to write this response, which he gives to Nethe:

Demek,
Pole and I are being treated well pending your joining us. Have a potential deal worked out with Morok of Kesh. We get two orichalcum plus other party goodies in exchange for help concluding a big deal. I trust him, Pole is more cautious. Either way I'd like you to join us here as soon as you can.
Aliou

When the guards demand to read Aliou's reply Nethe blasts off with it in a dramatic exit.

The night before the day the rest of the party is set to come to Kesh and the negotiation is to begin, Aliou hears some thuds outside his door. He opens it and shouts "Gaurds!" as a necropotling moves towards him while the sound of wingding potlings reaches his ears and a menacing dark shape flickers in the hallway.

Read the incredible blow-by-blow account of how Aliou and Pole managed to survive and what happened afterward.

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