Chris didn't make it to the game, but the elusive Doug did, so the group consisted of only Messerbad (Mike),Yorden (Bob), Garret (Tim), and Soriac (Doug's sort of formless healer).
The characters' townhouse took a fair amount of damage from Tarquin's attack. They hide their captive in the root cellar & loot Tarquin. Tarquin's stuff:
The goons were both carrying leather armor, shortswords, 3 daggers each and 20 challock each. The characters' jaya service has been ruined.
The characters have a brief conversation with Tayal Abbas and his various turgosk guards, and send them off with no particular excitement.
Yorden goes to the Patriarch's Hall and collects the reward for Tarquin the Red. It comes to 400 challock. He decides to find a bodyguard on the way home, and ends up encountering Laerynth (Tim's new character) staring at a fried-sparrow vendor. He tries using Jhokkada on him, then walks away. Laerynth follows him (using Shadowing).
After visiting home, Yorden goes to work at Tellwae's shop. Laerynth follows him in and has an interesting conversation. Yorden uses his native language, and finds (much to his surprise) that Laerynth recognizes it. Yorden may be from Sa Opedi!
Laerynth comments that he's from the city of Mindayos Port.
Soriac (Douglas Floyd) is a human healer from beyond Padachee. He has traveled across Abbatine, from Hegger to Seitha to Trail to Paiden. He met Laerynth on the road a couple of days ago. He is well-dressed, and has made an effort to fit in. He claims to be from Ardo, apparently a world on the other side of Padachee.
Niddo Subodee shows up and makes his sales pitch, offering 40 challock to Messerbad and six challock to each of his companions to help with the family's flooded field. Messerbad agrees in principle, then drags him along to Curras the Esoteric to get Tarquin's objects identified. Curras charges the normal fee (10 challock for each of two items).
Yorden has several conversations with Laerynth and Soriac, mostly to determine who they are and, once he realizes that Laerynth is from Sa Opedi, what Laerynth can tell him about his home.
While all this is happening, Pawnbroker is kept busy supervising the carpenters as they redesign the front room of the townhouse. His choice of decor appears to be Functional Gothic, with an emphasis upon home defense. Final cost will be about 300 challock.
Yorden is standing watching Tellwae the Mixer's shop, waiting for a meeting with Laerynth, when he sees Anpago Bosst enter, then leave again after a few minutes. Yorden is now convinced that Anpago is conspiring with Tellwae to somehow advance his position in the Bosst Family. The most likely possibility seems to be that Anpago is purchasing poisons from Tellwae, intending to use them to remove Family members above him in the hierarchy.
Yorden purchases some sleeping draught (2 challock per dose, drink and have a dreamless sleep) to feed to the Jhokkada captive down in the root cellar. He intends to use this stuff to keep the Jhokkada peaceable and docile while everyone travels to the Sagorra family plantation with Messerbad.
While Yorden makes his preparations, Messerbad negotiates with Zazak (one of the turgosk guards at the Abbas Family compound) and Lembey Abbas to let Zazak go with the characters to the Sagorra plantation. He ends up paying Zazak 20 challock and Lembey five challock. Zazak agrees to serve Messerbad as a bodyguard.
The characters' journey to the plantation is uneventful. When they get they, Sorgot Sagorra greets them and tells them the problem: a large saporra field was flooded when a levee burst. Outside the main house, the characters can see teams of lobrun slaves working to strengthen similar levees around other fields. Sorgot orders dinner served (a stew of saporra and several other vegetables, spiced with jaya).
In the few hours before sundown, Messerbad and the other characters go out into the field. He estimates that curing the plants will take a total of ten Heal Plant spells, each cast with ten power. Messerbad is able to cast one such spell about every hour, but the total working time is cut to only about four hours because both Yorden and Soriac help by casting Lend ST spells on him. They finish early the next morning, impressing Sorgot with their speed and skill. She pays Messerbad 80 challock, plus 24 additional challock for his companions.
She also tells the characters about the Weeping Plague afflicting the deyrey around Tazik and Ayal Hive, which persuades the characters to depart swiftly (they don't want to be close downriver to a plague city).
The characters' initial thought upon spotting the body is to avoid it, until Soriac finally decides to hook it in. He is unable to manage it on his own, but with the others' help the body is brought to the shore. They determine cause of death (quickly concluding that a jhokk did it) and find the Fellstone brand, but don't investigate any more closely.
After finding and (briefly) investigating the body, the characters returned to Paiden quite rapidly.
Upon nearing Paiden, the characters note a large commotion and a plenitude of armed men around the Turgosk Gate. They quickly determine that the Turgosk Gate was effectively closed, and detour around the city to the Lower Gate, where they find Yadal Dillir and one solitary soldier manning the gate. Yadal gives them some sketchy details about some kind of huge massacre at the Turgosk Gate. Messerbad sees his exhaustion, and casts Lend ST on him (to Yadal's great appreciation).
The characters proceed through the city to the Turgosk Gate and engage in a series of activities (posing as healers, interrogating Bosst Family officers and bystanders, fast-talking guards) to try and figure out what happened. Their general conclusion is that someone was smuggling a jhokk into the city in a cart. Something went wrong, and the creature went berserk, killing the gate-guards and anyone else that got in it's way.
Before departing, Yorden plants a rumor that the creature was a Jhokkada construct. By the next day, the city is buzzing with news of the Jhokkada attack at the Turgosk Gate.
The Interrogation of the Captive Jhokkada
Yorden and Laerynth spend a total of almost ten days interrogating their captive Jhokkada, using a combination of Interrogation skill (Laerynth) and Mind-Reading (Yorden). They obtain the following information:
The interrogation is interrupted at one point when Laerynth goes berserk and attempts to stab the Jhokkada to death. Yorden delays him (by stabbing him in turn) until Messerbad can arrive and use Tanglegrowth to fill the root cellar with tree roots. The other characters start to look at Laerynth somewhat askance after this incident.
After his attempt to kill the Jhokkada is foiled, Laerynth purchases ingredients for a simple blade poison at Tellwae the Mixer's shop. Yorden helps him find the items he needs. Enough to make eight doses costs him 100 challock. The resulting poison will do 2d damage, 1d if the victim makes a HT-2 roll. It acts after a 2d second delay.
Yorden kept careful note of the items Laerynth purchased. He intends to get Tellwae to make him an antidote to Laerynth's poison.
Anpago stops by to tell the characters that his sources have given him Turgen Three-Tooth's name. The characters thank him and send him on his way. They are becoming increasingly suspicious of him and his motivations.
Each character received three experience points.