Tim is not with us this game, and may never be with us again. However, Paul joins the group, bringing his character Cassidy with him. The remainder of the group continues to be composed of Nick (Ooth) and Bruce (Belwin Linnet).
Cassidy is a youthful human Troubador from the Scavian Barge People, sent to explore the world and learn about the peoples of Barsaive. He is a beginning character with 1000 Legend Points to burn upon Circle 1 and Circle 2 talents.
When the last session ended, most everyone had finished fighting a bunch of horrible long-fingered creatures that dissolved into blue goo when killed. Though the characters were largely successful in their efforts to achieve victory, everyone except for the Dwarf Scholar Thrumb was fairly badly-injured. Ooth in particular complains endlessly about how painful his ingrown toenail is, while Belwin issues only occasional grunts of pain due to his lacerated arm. Seriously, Ooth remains near death, Belwin is only barely staggering around, and Tz'kri (already becoming transparent due to Tim's absence) is unconscious. Even worst, Tz'kri starts to show the telltale signs of a stomach virus.
Apparently unfazed by the site of his lifeblood dripping from multiple gaping wounds upon his own body, Ooth spends some time designing a fetish for Bone Circle, passing up an opportunity to learn Shield Mist, a defensive spell that would have protected him much better than the other magics at his disposal. It isn't quite clear what he thinks Bone Circle will do for him, but he's certainly taken with the idea. The effort of learning is so strenuous that blood drips out of his ears.
With the stone shipwreck secured, the characters (principally Ooth) search through the place to look for the blue-skin's incredible horde. They are incredibly successful, coming up with some rocks, a rusty axe-head, a bone, a stick, a crystal, some teeth, an antler, a filthy glass vial, and an ancient weapon pommel. Ooth grabs the quartz, on the grounds that it is shiny and pretty. The characters dump the rest of the pile outside the wrecked ship.
The characters quickly determine that the area around the stone shipwreck is a flat field. The field itself is run through by little half-inch mounds, as if something had been burrowing through the earth in a manner similar to that of Bugs Bunny. Seeing this phenomenon, the characters decide to camp inside the wreckage of the stone ship. Acknowledging that the blue-skins are likely to attack the ship when they return, Belwin suggests that the group force Thrumb to stand guard. Thrumb is none too happy at this arrangement, but finally agrees to go along with it with a minimum of whining.
Near to sunset, Ooth happens to climb up onto the top of the wreck. He manages to spot a series of town ruins perhaps two or three miles away. About this time, Tz'kri comes down with a severe stomach virus and becomes quite useless to the group. Belwin spends his time poking through the guts of the ship, and manages to find a nice corner with a single, defensible entrance.
Ooth wakes of a sudden after sensing that something threw a rock into the characters' camp. After a moment, another rock comes rattling inside. Ooth finally manages to figure out that Thrumb is trying to alert everyone. He heads out of join Thrumb.
Thrumb points out the remaining blue-skin, who is parked off in the distance, perched back on his haunches and gesturing as if he is casting a spell. Ooth moves back to wake Belwin. By the time he returns, two additional blue-skins have appeared. Thrumb reports that the newcomers appeared from thin air.
The characters watch, fascinated and horrified, as two additional creatures appear. The leader then sends one of his creatures up towards the boat, to the pile where the characters tossed all of the beasts' loot. The creature grabs up the rusty axe-head then rushes back to the group. A small celebration ensues. The characters continue to watch as the blue-skins retrieve the balance of their "treasures" and then run off towards the hills.
After this display, Belwin lets Thrumb go to sleep. Belwin stands guard for the rest of the night.
After spending an hour to recover and eat, the characters head towards the ruins of the town. They only notice a few of the strange dirt mounds along the way. Nearer to the town, they see a few patches of wild oats and barley. The dirt runners appear to be more common in these patches. Belwin thinks he sees something moving along one of them, but it disappears a moment later. He tells a couple of nice lies about "blood runners" that can kill people in a twinkling. Ooth, hearing this, declares that he is going to step only on stones.
After a couple of moments of waiting, the characters see a little creature about the size of a rat leap from one of the runners to pick an insect out of the air. Belwin becomes curious, and tries pushing a dagger into the ground in the path of one. The creature passes right around the dagger, which shudders as the thing passes by. Belwin is more than a little disturbed to notice that the creature was able to melt it's way through the end of the dagger blade. Belwin, by way of comment, offers his dagger blade to Ooth. Ooth gets very, very nervous and redoubles his efforts to only step on stones.
The characters reach the town around midmorning. The outer walls are still moderately intact, ranging up to about seven or eight feet in height. However, the nearest gate appears to be completely gone, and the buildings inside look to be in poor shape. One large building near the gate is still standing, though the roof has caved in.
Belwin, who did pay attention to his lessons and learned something about Barsaive's history, realizes that this is almost certainly Belhanna, the original city of his people. Fortified with this knowledge, Ooth spends some time looking for things that are likely to have survived the ages. He finds a dais fronting a collapsed building with several metal plaques on it. He is quite gratified to recognize that the plaques are written in Dwarfish.
Belwin spends some time reading the plaques, quickly determining that each is inscribed with the name of one of the Passions of Barsaive. Unfortunately, while Belwin recognizes most of the names, he recalls the properties of only a few of them:
While Belwin tries to decipher the names of the Passions, Ooth ventures into the Temple, searching for items of value. He fastidiously casts Air Armor upon himself before entering. He ends up in a sizable room slightly recessed beneath the ground level. It's floor is covered with a huge mosaic. Ooth really tries to figure out it's important, but can't puzzle it out. In desperation, he calls upon Thrumb, who promptly tells him that it is a map of the area. In a trice, he pulls out paper and copies it into a more legible form.
The map shows the location of Belhanna, and one other large city that Belwin is able to identify as the T'skrang foundation Nine Diamonds.
While the characters are busy examining the man that Thrumb copied from the mural, Cassidy wanders into the room. The other characters are a touch surprised to see him, considering that the town appeared to be completely abandoned. He explains that he isn't native to the area. He actually hails from among the Scavian Barge-People, and is about a day's walk from his home barge. He offers a number of explanations to the effect that he isn't really a Horror, and that his people live in the outside because the Scourge is over. Cassidy himself is only 18 years old, and was born outside of the kaer, though his parents tell him stories about life in the kaer.
Neither Ooth nor Belwin is initially prepared to accept Cassidy as not Horror-tainted, and demand that he produce something of beauty to prove that he is okay. Cassidy pulls out a stringed instrument, and twangs out a passable imitation of music. He finally convinces Belwin that he is safe. Ooth is won over soon afterwards.
Everyone spends most of the day looking through the town, trying to find things that have survived 400 years of neglect. Ooth pokes through what appears to be an old library, coming up with two books (in poor shape) and an empty brass bowl. All of the characters find occasional evidence of the presence of small animals. Belwin asks Ooth (whom he is convinced is some kind of naturalist) to look for signs of large predators. Ooth makes up some fairly convincing answers. On the positive side, Ooth is also able to determine that there are no malevolent spirits residing in the water from the town's two wells.
Ooth spends some time looking at the two books before the sun goes down and reading becomes difficult. The first looks like a journal that was meant to be taken into the Kaer, but which was overlooked somehow. It describes the original city of Belhanna and the perhaps optimistic expectations of the citizens as they look forward to living inside a kaer. One of the more surprising revelations is that there was no native troll population in Belhanna: all of the trolls currently resident in Belhanna Kaer are descended from the crews of two disabled airships from among a flight of five that defeated a Theran Stoneship only days before the kaer was sealed. The author of the journal plainly felt that the Theran crew was intent upon enslaving the population of the kaer, and that the troll airmen were materially responsible for saving the entire kaer.
The journal also relates some of the reason why the dwarfs have so much power in the current kaer society, despite their small numbers. In the years after the Therans first conquered Barsaive, the Governor impelled the local dwarf population to become administrators and local representatives in a bid to reduce civil unrest. Ever since, the dwarfs have tended to gravitate towards political power.
Ooth spends only a small time looking at the other old book. He is quickly able to determine that it is a magical tome. Unfortunately, it is a magical tome that has nothing at all to do with Shamanism, and as such is completely useless to the troll.
The characters hole up in the library for the night, as it is one of two buildings with a second-story floor that is still intact. In the morning, the characters find that they have attracted a pack of small orange lizards that appear to be eating parts of the characters' padded leather and hide armor. Ooth reacts predictably, by squashing every lizard he can get his hands on, then serving lizard pate for breakfast. Belwin slurps the stuff up, but Thrumb refuses it, preferring to consume dry Dwarf-cracker trail rations.
The characters decide to head to the Tylan River, where they can try and link up with Cassidy's people. They set up a fairly gentle walking pace, reasoning that they have plenty of supplies and are supposed to be learning about the outside anyway.
Outside the town, the trees become thicker and the underbrush becomes more dominated by bushes and vines. The characters actually enter the jungle around midday. They see increasing populations of the little orange lizards, plus parrots and small monkeys. By nightfall, they reach a cliff overlooking a huge river perhaps a mile or a mile and a half across. Cassidy confirms that this is the river his people live on.
The characters make camp upon the cliffside. The night is uneventful.
The characters journey downriver for perhaps a half-day, keeping primarily to the cliff edge. Around midday, the characters are engrossed in a discussion of where they should stop for lunch when a brightly-colored orange jaguar comes ripping out of the trees and straight into Cassidy. Ooth drives the jaguar off by throwing a Mind Dagger at it. Cassidy is the worst-hurt of the group, suffering only a few bumps and scratches.
The characters continue to head downriver, finding a variety of new creatures, including monkeys and large, clumsy birds. Ooth eats one of everything he sees, maintaining careful records of what agrees with him. Along the way, he kills a huge bird, then spends most of the rest of the day's walk plucking it and throwing feathers at Thrumb.
Soon enough, the cliffs go away and the characters are forced to walk through a region of shallows dominated by large trees with extensive root systems. They find that pythons are fairly common, but easy to spot and avoid. From the looks of the area, the river floods regularly, clearing out most of the underbrush.
Near dinnertime, the characters hear what sounds like children calling some distance downriver. Nobody recognizes the language, but Cassidy thinks it sounds like the tongue of the local jungle tribesmen. The characters abandon their camp (over Ooth's objections: he wants to leave Thrumb behind to pluck his bird) and head towards the sounds. Along the other side of the river, the characters are able to see a few tribesmen, whose attention is dominated by the sight of a water spirit either playing with or tormenting a human baby in the middle of the river. Any cries the child might be making are completely drowned out by the sounds of the river. The spirit is nearest to the characters' side of the shore, ranging from just near the shore to almost a quarter-mile out. Ooth does his best to try and talk to the spirit, but isn't able to pull it off.
Cassidy decides to try and attract the thing, playing an Emotion Song to enhance the thing's curiosity. Unfortunately, his magic will take some thirty minutes to take any effect. In the meantime, Belwin strips down to his breeches and dives into the water with a dagger clenched between his teeth. Ooth, his efforts to talk proving to be useless, starts preparing to cast a Dispel at the thing.
Within a couple of minutes, Belwin is able to swim up to the spirit. It quickly becomes obvious that Belwin can't really fight against the thing: it flows away from his blows like water, and spends all of it's efforts harassing him. Ooth notes that the spirit isn't even trying to seriously attack Belwin: it rains on him, and splashes him, and pushes him around, but never tries to drown him or rend him. At the cost of his breeches, Belwin manages to pull the child away from the spirit and get it back to the shore (on the characters' side of the river).
Once Belwin manages to get back onto ground, he tells Ooth to "do his baddest" against the spirit. Unfortunately, the spirit loses interest and drifts away before Ooth finishes reattuning a fetish for Dispel Magic.
Some twenty minutes later, more tribesmen show up in a small canoe. They are apparently quite glad to see the characters, and even happier to see their child returned safely. The characters have a lot of trouble communicating the with them, due to a complete lack of shared languages. They do, however, accept an offer to return to the tribals' village with them.
Once the characters arrive in the tribe's camp, they find themselves the center of an impromptu feast. They are plied with gifts and food of all sorts, and are invited to a feast.
Ooth quickly determines that there are several shamans among the tribe, and does his best to engage in shop-talk with them. Again, the conversation is limited by the fact that nobody speaks anybody else's language. One of the shamans gives Ooth a fetish for some spell, though not one that he knows. After several false starts, a means of communication is arranged: the shamans lead Ooth to a huge oak tree in the center of the village, and everyone casts Plant Talk upon it. With the Elder Oak as a translator, the conversation goes much better. The Elder Oak appears to be extremely intelligent, and is intimately aware of nearly everything that happens in the jungle. He has lived through the Scourge, and remembers when his Little Brothers left him out of fear of the Evil Ones. He rejoiced when his Little Brothers returned.
Ooth learns that the tribesmen are one of perhaps twenty or thirty tribes in the area. There are both t'skrang and human tribes in the jungle, but relations between the two groups are none too good: while they cooperated prior to the Scourge, the t'skrang developed a habit of betraying the humans to the Horrors in exchange for their lives. In retribution, human tribes are now betraying t'skrang tribesmen to t'skrang slavers.
Ooth then asks the Elder Oak about the Horrors. He learns that they were pretty hard upon the jungle, and drove a lot of the native spirits away. However, some of the Little Brothers have learned a way to cleanse the Horror Taint from astral space, purging the Taint away from the worst parts of the jungle and making the astral environment more hospitable to the returning nature spirits.
Meanwhile, Cassidy plays an Emotion Song at the celebration, causing himself to become the center of attention for about an hour and a half. He also ensures that the festival is an occasion of unbridled happiness. Both he and Belwin consume massive quantities of mango wine and exotic foods. In contrast, Ooth is very careful to only get drunk after he has finished talking to the Elder Oak.
The next morning, the tribesmen start packing up to move on. The characters prevail upon them for a canoe ride back to the other side of the river. The tribesmen give the characters some bones and bits of fruit as a parting gift, and then head off upon their way. By midday, everyone heads off on their own way.
An hour or two downriver, the characters start to hear a rhythmic thrumming sound, reminiscent of a club being struck against a board. The characters approach the sound with caution. As the characters approach the source of the noise, they start to be able to hear the sounds of t'skrang shouting at each other as well.
The disturbance turns out to be a logging crew of t'skrang working on the trees near the riverbank. The cut trees are loaded onto a large sidewheel riverboat. The workers are singing, and do not appear to be slaves based upon their cheerful demeanor. Cassidy and Belwin approach, doing their best to look non-threatening.
The t'skrang prove to the be the crew of the riverboat Proud Mary, from far to the northeast. They are part of the House V'estrimon, and answer to Captain Tin'a K'turner and her Chief Engineer Ike. They intend to sell their lumber at their home on the shores of Lake Pyros. They explain that the capital of the House is at Lake Bann, and that Lake Pyros is essentially a province.
The characters explain that Belwin and Ooth are from Belhanna Kaer, and form part of the first tentative expedition outside to see if the world is safe. Engineer Ike notes that the Kingdom of Throal tried the same strategy, albeit some years earlier. He wryly explains that the first dozen expeditions they sent out got consumed, though he doesn't explicitly explain by what.
With the introductions out of the way, Ooth presents some furs as trade goods. Ike admits that the t'skrang get most of their furs from the local tribals, but is willing to take a look at whatever the characters have. Belwin suggests that a reasonable trade would be a good map of the region. Ooth grudgingly agrees to this, but holds out for some coinage as well. Ike finally gives over 10 copper pieces and allows Thrumb to copy a modern map of the Serpent River region. Ooth notices that the map includes mention of a large settlement called the Nine Diamonds Foundation. Engineer Ike explains that his House had a long-going feud with the Nine Diamonds before the Scourge. Strangely, their towers remain empty and their kaer remains sealed. Ike doesn't know what has happened to them, but he holds to the ancient V'estrimon antipathy towards the Nine Diamonds and states that his people aren't going to be waking them up.
At dinner that night, the t'skrang serve a wide variety of foods, including a nice array of fish, shrimp and crawdads. Cassidy plays for them, trying to inspire generosity with perhaps less success than he might have hoped. It also turns out that the t'skrang are not the colorless monks he might have hoped for. In contrast, they turn out to be extremely animated, with a large array of their own stories and songs. Several of the loggers sing and dance and tell stories, though none so skillfully as Cassidy (at least from his point of view). They do appreciate Cassidy's efforts, and gift him with 5 silver pieces, much to the surprise of the other characters (who haven't really used money before).
Sometime after dinner, Cassidy innocently asks "what moves the paddles?" Captain K'turner grins and gestures to Engineer Ike, who leads Cassidy upon a frenetic tour of the Engine Room. The place is a big collection of tubes and pipes and levers and steam that's all run by a little kernel of True Fire and a little kernel of True Air that combine in a big explosion. Cassidy finds himself becoming staggeringly bored.
The next morning the characters take their leave of the t'skrang of the Proud Mary to head back to Belhanna Kaer. They estimate that the journey will take about two days, just long enough to put them back home in time for the Dwarf Scholars to reopen the Kaer Seal.
In the late afternoon of the first day, the characters are intercepted by a little glowing red windling-like magical construct about 18 inches tall. The thing flutters up near the characters, then buzzes off into the jungle some distance away. It shakes it's head when Ooth asks, "Do you speak?", but nods when asked, "Are you friendly?" The characters eventually decide to follow the thing into the jungle.
It leads them to a marble building out in the middle of nowhere. The building is a perfect square with stairs leading up to an arched doorway in the center of each wall. The roof is capped in a huge brass dome.
The interior of the temple is decorated with twelve statues, three in each corner. Each statue is different, save that each has an empty bowl in one outstretched hand. Belwin and Cassidy are both able to recognize them as the Passions, some of whom Belwin had previously identified in the Belhanna temple. Cassidy examines the statues, and is able to fill out Belwin's list from before:
Ooth tries dropping items into the various bowls. A coin placed in Chorrolis' bowl vanishes, as does a leaf placed in Jaspree's bowl and a drop of blood in Thystonius' bowl. Belwin's damaged dagger, however, does not vanish when offered to Thystonius.
Ooth casts his Astral Sense spell to scope out the area, and finds that there are words inscribed in Dwarven on the floor, visible only to astral viewing. They say, "Give According to What You Are." He also spots the little spirit hiding up on the top of the dome.
Thrumb opines that the Temple is one of those legendary places where folk went to become Questors. The process requires the supplicant to perform some deed appropriate to the desired Questor, then offer something substantial to the Passion. After a supplicant gained Questor status, they would be able to steadily increase the powers granted them by the Passion by emulating the deeds and desires of the Passion in their life.
Ooth thinks about this, then drops his Plant Talk fetish in Jaspree's bowl. It vanishes. After this, the characters head off towards Belhanna Kaer once again.
That night is uneventful, except for Ooth, who sleeps fitfully and has disturbing dreams, as if someone is trying to talk to him. He gets up and heads away from the group to meditate peacefully, surrounded by Nature. The next day, Ooth appears withdrawn and meditative, as if he is contemplating deep secrets.
The characters reach the kaer around midday, slightly earlier than they had expected.
Upon their arrival back at the Stoneship wreck, the characters very decisively purge the remaining blue-skin Triplicant from the wreckage. The fight is fairly one-sided: Ooth staggers the thing with a Mind Dagger, then Belwin chops it's head off. Interestingly, it does not turn into a mush of blue goo when killed. In celebration, Ooth flays the creature for it's bones.
While Ooth engages in his own grisly practices, Belwin does his best to mend some of the divisions between himself and Thrumb through conversation. This appears to work fairly well, as Thrumb is willing to accept Belwin's explanation that he's got a lot of pent-up frustration at his lot in life, and has only recently started to see himself as anything better than Horror feed.
The characters wait through the night, and the next day for the Kaer Seal to open. At nightfall, they hear a little noise at the Seal. A little dwarf pokes his head out. He's kinda unwilling to let people back in, until Belwin does some carpet embroidery, and Ooth does a tattoo on Thrumb, and so on. He's willing to let Belwin in, and it dubious about Ooth, and ecstatic to hear Cassidy, and edgy about his pal Thrumb.
Ooth has to force his way in, but eventually everyone is allowed back in. The characters follow the dwarf elementalist into the kaer.
The situation in the kaer has taken a turn for the worse during the characters' absence.. The orks made an unsuccessful coup attempt, and actual open fighting broke out. The orks have been pushed back into some of the back caverns. The trolls remain largely uninvolved with the conflict, though they appear to be reverting to their old, savage selves.
The characters quickly get back in contact with the Dwarf Scholars. They see very few orks on the streets along the way. The Dwarfs are impressed by the characters' tales, and even more impressed by the detailed maps and old books they brought back.
The next question becomes "Who to tell?" Belwin fears that the Council may just execute the characters to keep the truth under wraps. The orks, who represent the other major power bloc in the kaer, would be perfectly happy to see the Kaer Seal opened, but might kill the messengers before they could hear the message. The Dwarf Scholars take the understandably naïve academic attitude that the characters should simply present their findings to the Council and trust it to do the right thing.
While Belwin debates with the Dwarf Scholars, Ooth heads off to tell his story to He-Who-Speaks. He-Who-Speaks is very feeble, and avows little knowledge of either Ooth's dreams, or the workings of the Council. He tells Ooth that he should lead the trolls outside. He knows that his time is limited, and that he will soon pass along. Ooth demands, "Who will teach me the next Circle, Master?" He-Who-Speaks offers no response.
During his visit to He-Who-Speaks, Ooth realizes that most of the trolls are studying under a Sky Raider, and talking about causing bloodshed and mayhem, "Because we're trolls." This is somewhat surprising to Ooth, who doesn't normally think of trolls behaving that way. The trolls explain to him that, "This is what trolls do." Ooth protests, "That's what OTHER people think trolls do!" The trolls respond, "And rightfully so!" Ooth wanders away, shaking his head.
With the Dwarf Scholars' help, Belwin, Cassidy and Ooth arrange to meet with one of the Dwarf members of the Council near the reservoir. They find Councilman Gorlock Stonebreaker waiting for them at the appointed place and time. A predictable conversation ensues, in which Councilman Stonebreaker first refuses to believe that the characters could have made it out of the kaer, then relents once shown all of the various items of evidence the characters have accumulated. Cassidy, who is clearly not a local, is the deciding piece of evidence. The Councilman then immediately suspects that everyone is Horror-tainted, an idea that Cassidy squelches by singing a moving ballad about his journey with the characters. Councilman Stonebreaker is barely able to suppress a tear as the ballad draws to a close. He agrees to convene the Council in two days to allow the characters to present their case to the Council at large.
Shortly after the interview with Councilman Stonebreaker, Thrumb approaches Belwin and offers a conciliatory gesture, admitting that they got off on the wrong foot. He then offers to have a friend of his forge Belwin's sword to improve it, and carve some runes describing his heroics upon the blade. Belwin accepts this offer. He carries a "loaner" sword in the meantime. In the background, Ooth pipes up that he wants his axe similarly improved. Thrumb agrees to this request as well, for no readily apparent reason.
Cassidy spends his time in the Library, researching the history of the kaer in preparation for writing the great Ballad of Belhanna Kaer. This keeps him out of circulation (and thus danger) for the next two days. Belwin spends most of his time hanging around the Library, trying to keep Cassidy safe. He does his best to emphasize to the other characters that they should keep a low profile to avoid unpleasant, Council-sponsored "accidents", a message that doesn't penetrate too far.
Sometime before Belwin manages to get under cover, he accidentally runs into his brother, who is understandably curious as to where Belwin has been for the last week. Belwin does his best to divert the conversation away from "where have you been for the last week?" by talking about his brother's new child. After a few minutes of innocent-seeming conversation, Belwin slinks away fairly confident that his cover remains moderately intact.
Unfortunately, whatever remained of Belwin's efforts at caution are completely destroyed by Ooth's desire to be an obnoxious git. As Belwin and Cassidy head towards the Council Keep, he spies the corpulent Little Bethany parked directly in his path, squawking out in her dissonant worst. Belwin is initially confused by her ability to ferret him out, until he spies Ooth's leering form in the shadows behind her. Belwin does his best to ignore her and slip past into the Keep, all the way offering curses to Ooth under his breath.
All ten Council members are present to interview the characters. The meeting starts off on a surprisingly polite tone with a very complimentary introduction from Councilman Stonebreaker, who then gives Cassidy the floor.
Cassidy tries to use several of his Talents, including First Impression and Emotion Song, upon the Councilors. His goal is to impress them with his ballad about the week everyone spent outside the kaer. His efforts are well-received, but not the overwhelming victory he might have wished for. At the end of his ballad, the Councilors thank him for his tale, then explain that they have much to discuss. The characters are ushered into a side chamber so the Council can deliberate. A Dwarf servant offers the characters refreshments (Belwin takes only water, claiming that he has found, "new meaning in his life").
The characters wait for a few minutes. Then thirty minutes. Then an hour. Then two hours. Then longer. An eternity later, the chamber is reopened and the Council starts peppering the characters with comparatively hostile questions. The characters note that Thrumb is also being interrogated in the Council Chambers. Eventually, the Council turns from hostile interrogation to asking questions about the conditions outside.
Eventually, the Councilors tentatively agree to Belwin's idea of allowing a few people to go out to prepare the old Belhanna City for habitation. They give the characters a week to identify a list of a dozen people who should serve as an advance party. The Council will provide a similar list, and from these two proposals a final plan will be forged.
Belwin fixes upon the belief that he needs to try and convince Mank and the orks to contribute to the rebuilding effort, to keep them a part of the community instead of as a hostile force. He starts to make plans to venture down to talk to the orks in their dark caverns.
Ooth goes to the trinket-dealer (who proves to be one of the Council members) and tries to pawn off his copper pieces and the bowl from outside for valuable artifacts. He claims that the coins and the bowl are family heirlooms kept through the centuries, and makes the claim that they are staggeringly valuable. The Council member is quite surprised by Ooth's willingness to part with these things, but eventually offers him a Blood Magic item called a Horror Fend that will help him fight Horrors, should he ever need to. When activated, it will make it harder for Horrors and Horror constructs to hit him (+3 Physical Defense, +3 Spell Defense for 2 rounds when activated). It costs 2 points of blood to maintain, and an additional point of Strain to reactivate after it has been used. Ooth agrees to the trade.
After parting with the coinage, he then tries to sell off the two old books from the old Belhanna Temple. The Councilor is deeply surprised that Ooth would even try to do this, as it should be obvious that the books belong in the Library, as common property of the kaer. Ooth grudgingly agrees.
While Ooth haggles, Cassidy goes in search of a venue to practice his art. He learns that there are no real taverns due to the lack of ale, but there is a community of singers and storytellers and some Troubador Adepts who provide performances. He searches them out, and for his trouble gets a lot of hero-worship from an elven Troubador named Herbie. Herbie apparently has only one Talent, that of First Impression, but desperately wishes to become a real Hero. Cassidy suggests that if he wants to become a real hero, he'll need to learn to use a sword. Herbie is full of words, none of which mean anything. Eventually, Cassidy gets to the point: he wants to find a Master who can advance him in the discipline. Sooner or later, Herbie introduces him to an older Elven Troubador who can help Cassidy in his quest.
The session ends with the Council having apparently embraced the idea of opening the kaer. The various goals and heroics the characters accomplished include:
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Opponents Defeated |
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Roleplaying |
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Each Legend Award is worth 75 points. All told, Cassidy gains six awards (450 Legend points), and Belwin and Ooth both gain seven awards (525 Legend points). Beyond the normal Legend Awards, each character gains a special bonus of 300 Legend points, which should be enough to raise up both Ooth and Belwin to Third Circle if they so desire.
Belwin spends a total of 900 Legend points to purchase Rank 3 in each of Riposte, Taunt and Wound Balance. This is sufficient to give him the requisite six Talents at Rank 3 or better to qualify him for Third Circle.