Chris (Pawnbroker), Nick (Mungo), Tim (Laerynthe) and Mike are all here. Ray has changed his character from Spearchucker (who has not been able to integrate well with the group) to Kestrel Vance.
Kestrel Vance is a human from a distant world only recently arrived in Abbatine. He is primarily unique in that he owns a usable riding beast, a huge cat. He has been in Patagian Zek for several months, talking with the local Cataphracts and working in a brewery in the Foreigners' Quarter.
True to his word, Lipin brought Ponborin to his meeting with the characters the morning after Pawnbroker paid him 1000 challock. Ponborin was willing to bring the characters to someone who could help: the sorcerer Suurdant, who works in the Heartwells.
Ponborin led the characters down into the depths of Patagian Zek, past the Furnace rooms into the actual wellhead of Heartwell 3. There they met with Suurdant, who agreed to introduce them to his old instructor, Jessubeki of the School of Applied Theurgy. However, Suurdant demanded a task in return. He had been expecting a package to be delivered by an oorthoi courier from Khalorben Zek. This package never arrived. Ponborin had managed to determine that the courier reached Patagian Zek, but had not been able to learn any more (at which point Pawnbroker suggested that this was because Ponborin was working for Suurdant's enemies. After hearing this, Suurdant had one of his assistants take the characters back to the Foreigners' Quarter so he could talk to Ponborin privately).
The characters agreed to try and look for Suurdant's package.
The characters returned to Tabo's Fine Food and Drink in the early afternoon, finding the place almost abandoned. Apart from a few intoxicated (and nearly unconscious) Yierdo dwarves, only Tabo's daughter was visible. She was busily engaged in putting skewers through the large beetles Tabo serves as "fried sparrows".
The characters reasoned that the local oorthoi would be the most likely to know where the missing courier might be. Mungo remembered that his recent acquaintence Bog had mentioned that some oorthoi in his family group worked in a brewery near the harbor. Lacking any other oorthoi, the characters decided to go there. Tabo's daughter explained that her brother Medden was going to the brewery to pick up several barrels of srak in about an hour, so the characters went with him (and helped him and the oorthoi workers load the cart once there).
Along the way to the brewery, the characters spotted five Dost humans setting fire to an agaf house. The meaning of this display was not really appreciated until somewhat later.
The brewery is run by the Master Brewer Lub. He told the characters that the courier, an oorthoi named Mord, arrived in the Zek several days ago and promptly got into a fight with a local agaf. The agaf was badly injured, and the Covered Palm clearly became involved with Mord: he disappeared for several days, then reappeared in a daze only a couple of days ago, clutching a sprig of willin in his hand. A local oorthoi chandler had been hiding Mord until he recovered. Lub introduced the characters to Kestrel (Ray's new character), and said that he could take them to Mord.
Before the characters could leave the brewery, however, Bog rushed in near-breathless to report a disaster. A group of some two hundred Dost humans had been massacred by the Cataphracts outside the Foreigners' Gate, and the local Dost humans were showing serious signs of unrest. Bog feared that the Dost humans might start rioting, and that the Cataphracts could move in and indiscriminately level the Foreigners' Quarter.
Lub's reaction to the news was simple: he barred the doors of the brewery and organized his workers to defend the place, armed primarily with choppers and ladles. The characters were unwilling to stay, so they snuck out of the building through Kestrel's window.
The characters found Mord hidden upon a small pontoon lashed to one of the great city supports, upon the hidden surface of the Inner Sea. The oorthoi chandler apparently maintained the pontoon as a place to store excess stock that would not fit into his basement, reaching it by a ramshackle wooden stairway built around the circumference of the support.
Mord was still somewhat delirious when the characters reached him. He was also trembling from a chill that was apparently the result of withdrawl from the same substance he was bringing to Suurdant: Celebrant brain essence. The characters plied him with jaya until he told them that he had hidden the package containing the brain essence in a concealed niche in Tabo's basement (one that Tabo was unaware of).
The characters purchased oorthoi cloaks from the chandler before venturing back to Tabo's, hoping that they would be less noticeable then. Laerynthe (with his Disguise skill) was particularly successful in this, having mastered the "oorthoi shuffle" through long hours of watching Mungo.
Armed with Mord's information, the characters swiftly returned to Tabo's place, where they found almost fifty residents guarding the place. They learned that Tabo had offered free food to anyone willing to guard his establishment. The characters took Tabo down to his basement, found the package, and gave him 200 challock to stay quiet. To ensure his silence, Messerbad also cast a Death Vision upon him (which gave him a vision of a force of Cataphracts destroying his bar).
The characters reunite with Suurdant and offer him a harsher deal: if he gets them an appointment with Jessubeki and they get useful resources from him, they will give him his Celebrant brain essence. Otherwise, they will keep it. Suurdant, after some objections, acquiesces and takes them to Jessubeki and the School of Applied Theurgy.
Jessubeki is predictably unwilling to go himself, as he is far too feeble (his eyes are rheumy, his skin darkened, and his long fingernails faded and cracked). However, he offers the services of two of his advanced students if the characters ensure their safety by bringing a total of at least a dozen men under arms.
The characters thank Jessubeki for his offer, but then reconsider their whole plan and elect to scrap it. Pawnbroker and Kestrel later write a fairly diplomatic letter to him saying as much.
Having decided to avoid Jessubeki's students, the characters give Suurdant half of his Celebrant brain essence, keeping the rest for possible future use. They then obtain passage with Atrabanjin and the Straight Wave back to the mouth of Abbatine's Great River for 100 akopt each. They wait three days for the boat to depart, then spend five more days in travel before they finally disembark upon the banks of the river.
Not much was accomplished this session, so each character gained only two experience points.
The players reaffirmed their intention to attack and destroy the Great Lifter. Several possible approaches to the problem were discussed and analyzed. Salient points include: