All the normal folk (Chris, Tim and Nick) are here. In addition, Chris Czuprynski joins the group playing Brakan, a former student of Curras the Esoteric, and April (a friend of Chris #1) joins with Patrisha Veka, a minor member of the Veka Family.
Some years ago, Curras the Esoteric (a magician who followed the inexplicable habit of living in one of the shantytowns outside the walls of Paiden, despite his comparatively lucrative practice, and a close associate of the characters) decided to take on a student. He chose as his pupil a young thief and scalawag from the shantytown named Brakan.
Unfortunately, though Brakan learned quickly and easily mastered the spells Curras taught him, he proved unable to withstand Curras' ascerbic bad spirits. He was also resentful of his master, who was often paid large sums of money, none of which made it's way towards improving either Curras' or Brakan's style of living. Three years ago, Brakan bid Curras farewell and went off to practice his skills among the outlying plantations. He made a fair income this way, until the appearance of the Holy City humans turned the plantations into closed fortresses and forced him to go back to Curras for sanctuary.
A Junior Cousin in the Veka Family, Patrisha has long been one of the more promising magicians among the family. She was taught her skills by Mibas Veka, the brother of the Veka Patriarch Benjano. Mibas is currently the most experienced magician in the Veka Family, and the master of the Family's library of esoterica. Unfortunately, though she clearly has great magical potential, her political fortunes within the Veka Family are eclipsed by the presence of Aiba Tsiba, the daughter of Senior Uncle Pyalman Tsiba. Aiba is clearly being groomed for the position of Library Master, and has been recommended for membership in the Translators' Guild, which irks Patrisha to no end.
Laerynthe, Mungo and Pawnbroker start off the session back in the Translators' Guild after having slain the jhokk. The three of them show off their various jhokk trophies to Pawag Akowa, who acts suitably impressed in a reserved, youda kind of way.
Late that afternoon, the characters take the cart Pawnbroker and the turgosk originally took from a butcher back to Old Market and return it, along with 20 challock as a service fee. Pawnbroker explains that he was poisoned, and at the time took the butcher as either his mother, or a horrible creature. The butcher exclaims, "You would strike your own mother with a spear haft?", to which Pawnbroker admits that one of the turgosk did the actual striking. The butcher then comments that Pawnbroker and the turgosk bled all over the bed of the wagon, and that it will need to be cleaned. Pawnbroker gives him an extra challock in exasperation. Afterwards, the characters head back to their villa along with the three surviving turgosk.
Pawnbroker explores the possibility of hiring the three turgosk from the Translators' Guild. They tell him that the Translators' Guild is paying them one challock per day, and that they had been paid twelve tebbit per day in the Veka Family mines. Though Pawnbroker stops short of actually making an offer to the turgosk, they are receptive to the possibility.
The characters go home to dinner, where the cook is trying to deal with the various characters' special dietary needs. In particular, Mungo expects all of his food to be properly rotted and the three turgosk need freshly killed meat. The cook proposes that she start keeping chickens, which cost about two tebbit each. Pawnbroker gives her 200 challock and tells her to make it last.
The conversation at dinner revolves around the youda body found in the Old Barracks, and the Dillir Family ring the characters found on it. They decide to wait until the Patriarchs meet tomorrow evening before taking action on the ring. In the meantime, Pawnbroker decide to go to the market to buy supplies to repair and fortify the house. Mungo and Laerynthe decide to look for a taxidermist to help him turn the jhokk head into a helmet.
The characters start the day (the 237th day of Abbatine Year 856, in the High Hot Season) by heading to the Patriarch's Market on their variety of errands.
Pawnbroker learns that repairing the (minor) damage done to the house by the jhokk will cost 20 challock, possibly less if a suitable Merchant roll is made. Pawnbroker does a phenomenal job of negotiation (he rolls a 3) and gets the repairs done for 10 challock. The workers will be by in the next two days (Pawnbroker tells the cook).
Mungo and Laerynthe talk to Apido Dillir, a youda taxidermist in the Patriarch's Market (taxidermy is only one of his businesses; he also does a lot of food preservation). Apido is dubious about what the characters' creature was, and the characters' description ("sort of like a cross between a scorpion and a lobrun") doesn't help much. He asks for 250 challock to stuff the parts and make the head into a helmet. The characters pay him 256 challock. He says he will be done by the end of the week (the 241st day, four days hence).
Mungo and Laerynthe return from Apido's shop with two big smoked sausages, compliments of the management.
The characters return to their house to find Curras sitting out on the street with another human. Both of them are eating fried sparrows Curras purchased from a street vendor down the street. Curras introduces the other man as an a former student of his who needs a place to stay. He also complains to Mungo about the fish-racks he put up on the roof (owing primarily to the smell). The characters offer Brakan a room after Curras swears that he's a great magician ("I taught him evveything he knows!"). Afterwards, everyone eats (including the turgosk).
Brakan is described above. The characters spend some time talking to him about his various magical skills, and eventually decide that he would be well worth including among their number. To cement their new alliance, Laerynthe lends him a suit of ringmail armor.
The evening of Day 237 the characters go to the Patriarchs' Hall for the assembly. The characters all go heavily armed and armored (as noted below), despite the heat and humidity.
|
Who |
Gear |
|---|---|
| Brakan | ringmail, under his robes |
| Laerynthe | acanor and scale mail |
| Mungo | sword and scale armor |
| Pawnbroker | leather armor, shield and sword |
The Bosst Family guards at the door are very particular about the armor, though they aren't so unhappy about the weapons. They demand that the characters remove their armor. The characters generally comply and enter.
All Patriarchs are seated at a table at the far end of the hall. Groups of other Family members stand around the edges of the hall. Anpago Bosst is notably not present, befitting the fact that he has been banned from the Patriarchs' Hall. The characters note that several of the Patriarchs, notably the Faiai, the Akowa, the Cassand and the Dillir Patriarchs are all extremely aged and feeble.
The Faiai Patriarch talks for about a half hour, summarizing the situation and conveying no information nobody already knows, then turns the Speaking Staff over to the Bosst Patriarch, who suggests attacking the folk from Mardaka to drive them away. The Akowa Patriarch is entitled to speak next, but gives the Speaking Staff to Kobus, who first complements the Bosst Patriarch for his knowledge and military skill, but then says that his plan will not work, due to information he did not know.
Having said his piece, Kobus passes the Speaking Staff to Laerynthe. Laerynthe speaks of the dangers posed by the Holy City folk, in particular the Living Weapons. He notes that while on even terms, the troops trained by the Bosst Family can defeat Living Weapons, they will not be fighting on even terms. There will be many times more Living Weapons. Even worse, the Living Weapons are used to fighting in the close confines of the Holy City. They will surely be able to infiltrate the city of Paiden despite the best efforts of the city's defenders. Once there, they will be impossible to dislodge.
After Laerynthe finishes his oratory, general discussion opens up. Several senior members of various Families hold the Speaking Staff and give their opinions on the matter. The discussion is interrupted by the arrival of a message from Anpago Bosst, who stands outside the hall. He requests permission to enter and address the Patriarchs, but is summarily denied. Instead, he offers up a message, that a messenger has arrived from the world of Mardaka.
Moments after Anpago's message is read, the messenger arrives. He is clad in armor worked in ornate spirals in the style of Mountainshadow in Mardaka. He does not give his own name, but states that he speaks for Prince Tonnalk of Mountainshadow, who is the Will of Mardaka. His message is simple: in five days, the forces of Mardaka will arrive in strength. When they arrive, they will slay all of those who have come from the Holy City, to purge the contamination of the Spyral. The Will of Mardaka expects that the local people will stand aside to let this work be done. All of his conversation is done through Pawnbroker, as he speaks only Tharrish.
As the messenger is leaving, he comments to Pawnbroker that he has been having some quantity of trouble with a local forest creature, one with eight limbs. The characters recognize these "creatures" to be adapoi. The messenger says that they are causing some trouble with the movements of Mardaka's soldiers, and that the priests have set fire to the forest to get rid of them. Pawnbroker suggests that negotiation might be a better strategy.
The assembly continues for about an hour after the messenger's departure, then breaks up without any real decisions made. The characters return to their house.
Patrisha Veka seeks out the characters on the request of Mibas Veka, the Patriarch of the Family. She introduces herself to the characters and manages to get them to join their little coterie. They all return to the characters' house to discuss the situation and drink lots of hot jaya.
Laerynthe wants to save some Living Weapons so he can learn their arts. He suggests splitting the group up. One group will try and contact Chabot's Plaza, and persuade them to go to Kashaad. The troops from Mardaka will kill the remaining Plazas. The second group will try and act as a liaison group between the adapoi and the troops from Mardaka.
Pawnbroker doesn't think giving the Folk of Chabot's Plaza to Kashaad will work well, as the Folk are not good workers. Laerynthe agrees, but points out that the Living Weapons and Food-Makers are going to be the people of value. The problem will be getting them to abandon the Folk. He also suspects that the people of Kashaad could probably get some work out of the Folk.
One obvious problem with moving Folk to Kashaad is getting them there. There aren't enough boats to move many of them at a time, and moving them overland requires that they go through the territory of the Ganbell Clan. All the characters agree that the Ganbell Clan would probably slaughter many of the Folk as they traveled through the Tadooban Forest.
As Patrisha is returning to the Veka Family household, she sees several Living Weapons in the Patriarch's Market. They also see her, so she turns into a rat and hides in a stall. A few minutes later, she hears some rustling sounds outside the stall. Investigating, she sees about fifty Folk led by two Food-Makers creeping by. She is still fairly close to the characters' residence, and goes to alert them.
Within several minutes, the characters head out to the Market. They quickly reach the Old Market, where Mungo sees two nearly-naked humans pulling something out of a stall. Pawnbroker shines the light from his lantern on them. One stands there, one runs. Mungo runs after the fleeing Folk and tackles him, after Laerynthe tries to shoot him twice.
Pawnbroker interrogates one of them, and learns that they are Folk from Tappo's Plaza. On learning this, Mungo kills the one he captured. Pawnbroker warns the other one about the approach of "a great killing" and lets him go. Pawnbroker then makes a lot of noise to alert the locals to thieves among the stalls.
While the characters are explaining to the local shopkeepers and craftsmen that there are Holy City folk skulking about the Old Market, Laerynthe hears a shout and a sickening crunch from nearby. Rushing to the scene, the characters find a badly-wounded shopkeeper who says he was attacked by a man in a loincloth. Laerynthe manages to locate a single Living Weapon in a nearby alleyway and wounds him badly before the Living Weapon casts a spell and rushes up a wall like a spider. The characters attempt to locate him, but find only a trail of blood.
The characters investigate the Old Market butchery, but find nothing. However, they do determine that a large number of barefoot folk traveled through the building recently. The spend some time investigating, and are briefly attacked by several rock-throwing Living Weapons. The characters decide that the catacombs beneath the cistern are better explored later, and return home for the evening.
Each character gains three experience points. Laerynthe gains three additional points because Tim helped Chris create his character. Laerynthe buys one point of Temperature Tolerance.