We assemble in our reduced form: Chris (Gruul), Chuck (Galen), Paul (Marik) and Bruce. Chris only returns to the land of the living a touch late, so the rest of us play Frag, allowing Bruce to demonstrate his incredible talents at drawing good cards and letting everyone else win the game for him. Everyone else is deeply glad to see Chris arrive.
As a bookkeeping note, each character's share from the cash loot is 573 clavars.
The session starts out on the 65th day of the 3086th Stay, in the beautiful village of Chost-by-the-Spring. Chost is the closest surviving village to Parcyclus Castle. It has a population of some two hundred folk. Most of the village's buildings are small huts, clustered around a central commons in a moderately-defensible arrangement. The healer Cheefri and the local blacksmith both occupy buildings some distance from the village proper. Cheefri's modest hut lies halfway up the hill behind the village, while the blacksmith is down close to the stream (and far enough away from the rest of the village to keep the stench of smelting metals away). There are a couple of clusters of ruined buildings, some of them very ruined, placed farther away from the village proper.
The characters spend the day hanging around the town enjoying the hospitality of the Headman Hulfri. To pass they time, they chat with some of the townsfolk. Occasionally scaring them deeply by casually mentioning Gruul's social habits. As the day grows later, the characters see growing activity around the Headman's house as the villagers prepare food for the evening's festival.
Marik asks the locals about the outlying ruins. He learns that they were once the Delluf and Zhavvo steadings, owned by wealthy local families. Both of them were destroyed when the shard-spitters came because they were too far from the rest of the village to defend effectively. Many of the Delluf and Zhavvo were killed in the time of troubles. Most of the rest made do as best they could. One of the more notable was Zhavvo Igo, the middle son of Old Zhavvo, who showed great early promise and studied at the Daua Tull monastery, then up and ran away a couple of years later. None of the villagers know what happened to him.
Seeing a possibility of adventure and quick profit, the characters spend the afternoon on field trips out to the Zhavvo and Delluf steadings. They start with the Zhavvo ruins. The site originally consisted of a half-dozen buildings in a cluster, but not one built for defensibility. Most of the remaining structures are simply decrepit, but it is obvious that the main house was burned. The characters manage to find a hurbausking skull, but not much else.
Gruul wonders aloud why the locals seem to think that it was shard-spitters who did the killing if there are hurbausking remains around. Marik defends the villagers, suggesting that they might not know the difference between a hurbausking and a shard-spitter. Gruul suggests that even villagers should be able to reason that shard-spitters don't carry axes and spears.
On the way across the stream to the Delluf steading, Marik pauses to talk to yet another villager. The man claims that the old woman Cheefri can speak to the hurbauskings. He goes on to say in a near-scandalized voice that the creatures will not attack her. The characters discuss this as they head out to the Delluf steading.
The old Delluf buildings prove to be in even worse shape: most of the buildings were burned down to the ground. In some cases, only a foundation outline remains to show that a structure was once present. Galen searches the area and finds a rusted spearhead. Marik spends his attention on the building remains, and is rewarded with a pierced bit of frame and a series of strangely-shaped quartz pieces nearby. The group deduces that the place might have actually been attacked by shard-spitters.
The last stop of the day is at Cheefri's hut. The characters reason that she might represent either a useful source of information, or some sort of low-grade opposition, and decide that interrogating her is the only way to be sure (Gruul pipes up, "That's not true! Stabbing her through the heart is the only real way to be sure!" Marik casts Madness on Gruul. Nobody notices any change).
Cheefri turns out to be a cheerful old Faian woman. The characters find her sitting over a bubbling pot of something foul-smelling. Her entire hut smells really bad, making it terribly obvious why she lives so far away from the rest of the village. She sprinkles some foul-smelling dust into the cauldron and looks up to the characters. The characters realize they can see smells now.
Marik rather tenuously gestures to the contents of her pot, asking "Is it stew?" Cheefri dimples and answers, "No, but it'll cure the boils on a cow's ass." Gruul decides to refrain from asking for a taste.
Marik asks Cheefri if she's ever spoken to the hurbauskings. She agrees that she has talked to them, and more or less confirms that their basic agenda involves spreading the jungles all through the Garden, without any particular regard for the folk who get displaced or exterminated in the process. In the meantime, she finds that it is convenient to deal with them to get rare plants and herbs. She is also able to confirm that hurbauskings really did kill the Delluf and the Zhavvo. She explains that the villagers really don't see all that much difference between shard-spitters and hurbauskings: both of them are dangerous, covered in fur, and generally found only in the Flute Forest.
She offers one final tidbit: the spring that Chost draws its name from flows from a small flute called Yaggo's Fountain. She tells the characters that the water actually comes from the base of the visible part of the flute, and that the hollow core reaches all the way down to the Bilges (by this time, the characters are terribly shocked to hear that you can get to the Bilges through a flute). Back during the troubles, hurbauskings came from the flute to attack the village, but they haven't returned for several years.
Gruul asks if she can make potions. Like healing potions. Cheefri admits that she has some healing potions on hand, but prefers not to trade them because she needs to keep them for "emergencies." She does have a couple of Syrinx (hearing) potions and a Vulcan (crafts) potion that she could trade. The characters debate what actual use a Vulcan potion might be to them, as they don't know how to make anything anyway. Eventually deciding that they don't need either type, the characters thank her and head back to the village for the festival.
The characters find that the villagers have dragged several large wooden tables out in front of the Headman's house and have piled them high with food. Most of the dishes seem to be heavy in vegetables, flavored with meat sauces. There isn't much in the way of actual meat in evidence.
Gruul drinks heroic proportions of alcohol, having previously left his weapons in the Headman's house, matching this with the consumption of heroic quantities of food. He manages to have a fine time in spite of not understanding a word the locals speak. In spite of his language problems, he also manages to notice that Headman Hulfri and his wife are the only Sangorn in the village (arguably not hard: their brown skin and black hair causes them to stand out among all the red-skinned Faians). The Headman originally came out of the Forward Gallery as a trader, settling down in Chost when Parcyclus ruled the area.
Marik approaches the festival with a more intellectual attitude. He manages to learn that Churdwil the Sewn sends men around ever so often to collect tribute from the village. The offerings are placed on a big rock about 2 kilometers out of town every second Wansday. He and Galen briefly plot to sneak out to the rock and steal the tribute before Churdwil's men can get it, until they notice that several villagers are staring at them with expressions of dismay.
Once the festivities have gotten well under way, Headman Hulfri lurches up onto one of the tables and bellows out "Quiet!" There is total silence, except for the characters burping. Headman Hulfri ignores them, instead preferring to deliver a short speech about the characters' great deeds at Parcyclus Castle, and his gratitude for the safe return of his wife Wren. He then gestures to his son Orb, who hands the characters a cloth-wrapped package.
Galen opens up the wrappings. He finds that the cloth is a tapestry depicting a sorcerer-knight standing victorious over the defeated thrux. The characters are entertained to realize that the sorcerer-knight is Parcyclus, and that the tapestry was probably made as a victory gift for him. It is somewhat damaged from age and mistreatment, but is still worth at least 2000 clavars. It was wrapped around a book titled Principles of Unquiet Wind. Marik mentions this to the other characters and is rewarded with a number of jokes about breaking wind.
Marik flips through the book, quickly spotting the story of the Steadsman's Treachery written in the back. He tells the other characters. Galen already knows that the Circlet and Saber of Nircha were lost in the sack of Nircharstal, suggests that the characters could try to locate them and then blackmail the current Steadsman for enough money to buy their own kingdom somewhere else.
Properly reading this book takes a week of dedicated effort. It is written in Parqui, and describes a variety of principles and exercises related to air magic. It will grant the reader a free point in the spells Shape Air and Windstorm, and in the skill Acrobatics, provided that the reader does not already have any points in these abilities. If the reader is unable to meet the prerequisites for the spells he will still gain the points, but will be unable to actually use the spells until such time as he can meet the prerequisites.
Parcyclus' copy of the Principles includes a series of handwritten notes in the back, apparently left by Parcyclus, describing how the thrux bribed a number of the old Nircharoon aristocrats into betraying the Firstman during the thrux attack on Nircharstal. The notes include a list of names, including the name of the father of the current Steadsman of Shochunstal, the noble who currently holds the strongest claim to leadership of Nircharoon.
Gruul spends the night sleeping in a hayrick. Everyone else makes it to their room in the Headman's house.
Nobody does anything the next morning. That afternoon, Gruul gets a bucket of beer and takes his axes out to the Zhavvo Steading to practice throwing axes at things. The characters spend six more days in the village, enough for Galen to learn Lend HT and for Gruul's new Lifewell armor to be finished.
During his stay, Gruul learns some rumors. Nobody else can understand how, because he still can't talk to any of the locals. They don't entirely buy Gruul's explanation: he says that he found that you can get only weak effects from the local psychedelic mushrooms by just eating them, but that if you crush them, boil them, and pour the result into your eyes you can get some really good visions. Marik asks if Gruul bothers to cool the stuff down before he pours it over his eyes. Gruul pops one of his blisters and asks, "No. Why?"
Galen hears that someone who might be Igway Rufo passed through Shochunstal ten days ago, and the Market Warden arrested that one of his oorthoi companions. Even though Igway is probably long since gone, the characters decide to head to Shochunstal to lean on his hireling. They depart on the 72nd day of the 3086th Stay.
The trip to Shochunstal takes only an hour by Magic Carpet, which Marik arranges with substantial help from the Gyre. By the time the characters arrive, he is down to 1 HT. He heals himself upon arrival. Choosing politeness over convenience, the characters decide to land outside the city and walk in.
Shochunstal is built on the shore and features a small harbor. A few small fishing and trading boats sit at anchor. The lands immediately around the city are farmed, thanks to an irrigation system fed by the Lower Juffey river. Beyond that is only typical wasteland.
The characters notice that the city gates are wide open, and that nobody appears to be watching them. They eventually deduce that a rather slack-jawed Faian with a spear is actually a gate guard. They approach the man and try asking if he can point them to someone in charge. He takes some time to figure out what the characters actually want, but does manage to mention that he has five kids. Marik is appalled. The characters eventually manage to get him to admit that Gelfo is the Market Warden, and is standing out on the street in plain view of the characters. Galen hands the guard a couple of coins and tells him, "Here's some money. Go have some more kids..." Marik tries to choke down nausea.
The characters find Gelfo talking to a pair of filthy-looking meat sellers. The two of them are arguing rather loudly that they should be allowed back into the market to sell their wares. Their arguments are refuted by a group of other local tradesmen, who make various comments about the maggot-ridden quality of the meat-sellers' goods. Gelfo listens to both sides, then tells the meat-sellers that they will need to place a 500 clavar surety with him to ensure their good behavior. The meat-sellers clearly don't have anything close to this much money available. They stalk off, one of them loudly shouting that Gelfo is nothing more than the tool of the powerful bakers' special interest group.
Seeing that Gelfo is finished with the meat-sellers, the characters approach him and ask about an oorthoi traveler who was arrested about ten days ago. Gelfo recognizes the guy and says that he's still in jail. He was originally arrested for starting a fight in a tavern. Besides that, "He's what you'd call an out-of-towner."
Noticing that the characters are armed for battle, Gelfo says he wants to keep the oorthoi intact in the hope that the creature might have some relatives interested in ransoming him. He is asking for 500 clavars, but he'd have to up that to 1000 clavars for the characters, given that they're obviously not relatives. And they'd have to promise to not do anything dishonorable. Galen assures Gelfo, "We promise to do nothing dishonorable to him. In town." Gelfo thinks, then says, "Well, that's good enough for me."
The characters eventually have second thoughts about dropping 1000 clavars on some random oorthoi alley-basher, and manage to talk Gelfo into just giving them an audience with the guy for 50 clavars.
Felk obviously thinks that the characters are here to ransom him. His first question to them is "You got the money?" Gruul puts an end to his misconceptions by saying, "Yeah, we just finished killing a lot of people." Felk goggles and asks, "Who the hell are you people?" Gruul rather lamely responds, "Merchants?" Galen does his best to bring the conversation to a more helpful point by mentioning, "We're the only friends you've got." Marik continues on this theme by asking, "We want to know where Igway is."
Felk explains that Igway Rufo was bringing a caravan of stuff to a detachment of Blue Fang Company guys near Nircharstal. He says that the Blue Fang Company troops are out looking for "a sword and an amulet thing" in the ruins of old Nircharstal. Galen manages to pin down that the soldiers are actually looking for the Saber and Circlet of Nircha. Felk goes on to say that Igway brought along twenty oorthoi as "bearers" just in case the Blue Fang Company guys find anything.
Felk gets onto something of a roll. He tells the characters that Igway has a boss, a financier who can produce lots and lots of money. He also says that Igway has a bunch of flellings out in the Garden looking for some guys ("twisted guy, albino, monkey and frosty spearman.") who make Igway bananas. Gruul gives the guy 250 clavars for the information about the Blue Fang Company, and another 100 clavars for the information on the flelling scouts.
The characters find out later that the money they paid Felk was enough for him to pay his own ransom, and that he left town only an hour after they finished talking to him. They are surprised and horrified to have found an efficient governmental organization. Gelfo only shrugs and says something about cash on the barrelhead.
Having pumped Felk for everything he can offer, the characters turn to selling the pile of unfinished broadswords and axe heads they brought back from Parcyclus Castle. They find a group of merchants in the Shochunstal marketplace willing to pay them 25% above the normal finished price for their goods. The merchants' front man offers them 20,000 up front and 24,000 more in 50 days. The deal breaks down because the characters suddenly realize that they're effectively loaning money to merchants they don't trust. Marik makes a short speech about how he doesn't want to be in the loan business. In surprising contrast, Gruul is eager to deal with the guy, and speaks a lot about leverage and financing in a way that suggests that he doesn't actually understand what he's saying. The characters finally decide to try their luck in Nircharstal.
The characters decide that Nircharstal is the place to be, and that Flying Carpets are the way to get there. Galen innocently asks, "Is Marik going to have scars?" Gruul leers back, "Whaddaya mean, 'Going to'?" Marik is too deeply embedded in the rush of power from the Gyre to notice the conversation.
The characters find that Nircharshal looks utterly wrecked: three-quarters of the city is in ruins. The remaining quarter is not particularly prosperous-looking, and is separated from the ruins by a wooden palisade. A military encampment for about thirty men is set up near the ruined walls, at a gap in the wall. Several wagons are pulled up nearby, and a single oorthoi is visible sleeping near one of them.
Marik wants to set down into the ruins until someone mentions that the thrux were supposed to have seeded the place with demons. At that point, he decides it might be a good idea to set down in the inhabited part of the town.
The characters quickly figure out that the locals are a threadbare lot. They make a brief attempt to find a buyer for their unfinished weapons, giving up after they determine that nobody has any money to buy weapons. They do end up in a brief and frustrating conversation with a fellow who wants them to loan him money to buy real estate. He claims that he can make them all rich beyond their wildest dreams. They are skeptical enough to shove the guy into a puddle and go on their way.
The characters gravitate to the Boar and Wheel Pub, a local tavern that serves "meat." And thick, low-alcohol beer. And bread. And stew. Everyone digs in, heedless of the species that originally contributed to their meal. In the process, they talk to the harsh-voiced bartender about Igway Rufo. He is quite blunt: he knows that Igway was in town claiming to be a "merchant" from Doorway City, but with a story that was paper-thin. For example, real Doorway City merchants usually employ bauskers as bearers and servants, but Igway was surrounded by gangs of well-armed oorthoi.
The characters deal with the bartender to hire a few smart local yutes to look for Igway Rufo and his men. Two promising-looking lads cost them 25 clavars to search for twenty days. Gruul hands them a Green and tells them to figure it out.
The characters decide to send Gruul in to talk to the gaurman troops. They reason that his onetime status as a member of Prince Gufteng's army will stand him in good stead. The fact that he actually knows File-Leader Bolufo (the leader of the detachment) only adds to their confidence. He explains to them that a file contains only ten men, and that the Blue Fang Company would actually be commanded by a Hundred-Flag. He suggests that the Hundred-Flag has designated Bolufo as the commander, with any other File-Leaders in the group reporting to him. Gruul knows that Bolufo has a reputation as a straight-talker without a lot of patience for wild-goose-chase jobs and foolish orders, a reputation that has ensured that he has had a lot of trouble getting promoted.
Gruul has a very pleasant conversation with Bolufo that convinces him without doubt that Bolufo and his men are not looking for the Saber and the Circlet very hard. Bolufo is unapologetic about explaining that the demons killed two of his men and one local guide within days of their arrival, and that he hasn't sent any search parties into the ruins since then. He is dismissive and suspicious of Igway Rufo and the supplies he brought: he shows Gruul a suit of "anti-demon" armor so heavy that even a gaurman couldn't move in it, and openly speculates on how much money Igway's master charged Prince Gufteng for it. He claims that there are fifty suits of anti-demon armor (complete with equally-worthless shields and helmets) in the wagons, but that he has only thirty men to equip.
While Gruul talks to Bolufo, Marik and Galen watch for the oorthoi. Galen spots the creature sneaking along the city wall, headed towards the inhabited part of the city. He slurps down a Hermes potion (+6 to Stealth!) and follows. His steps are so light that they do not disturb the grass.
The session ends with Galen hot on the trail of the oorthoi runner from the Blue Fang Company camp. Each character gains three experience points.