Everyone is enthusiastic to do gaming once again, so both Paul (Marik) and Chuck (Galen) show up early. Chris (Gruul) is more measured in his enthusiasm, so he shows up on time. Bruce is hosting, so he doesn't have a choice about showing up.
The curtain rises to find Galen following one of Igway Rufo's oorthoi servants. The creature makes its way along the Nircharstal wall, passing by the inhabited New City and heading towards the Lower Juffey River. Galen follows with enough distance to avoid being spotted, but is disappointed when the oorthoi vanishes into a patch of scraggly bushes and rocks. Galen follows it's tracks up to a bit of old foundation, then loses them. Fearing that the oorthoi might have many well-armed friends nearby, Galen heads back to get the rest of the characters.
On the way back around the city, Galen glances up to see a flelling flying overhead. The creature has obviously seen him, so he decides to respond. He loads and aims his crossbow, then fires as it swoops to a range of about 30 meters. The flelling screeches with scorn as his shot goes wide. It throws a single javelin at him as a parting shot (and a poorly-aimed one at that) then flies north very rapidly. Galen continues on to rejoin the rest of the group.
He manages to locate Marik first, still watching one of the approaches to the gaurman encampment. He rather breathlessly tells the twisted little paurkend "Found oorthoi, got to a foundation, then missed a flelling." Marik responds, "Huh? You think the oorthoi might have gone into a tunnel?" Galen catches his breath and nods.
While Marik and Galen are running across the countryside, Gruul is busy making deals with Hundred-Flag Bolufo. The two of them have already established that Bolufo is less than interested in getting his men killed searching for the Circlet and Saber of Nircha out in the demon-infested Old City, specialized "anti-demon armor" or no. Bolufo's disdain for the Zatulph sorcerer Igway Rufo is also fairly obvious. Gruul makes a deal with him: if the characters can find Igway Rufo and his oorthoi, Bolufo will bring his men in to help slaughter them all. As an added bonus, Bolufo mentions that the Nircharstal locals are extremely dishonest (specifically, he claims that they are the "Lowest scum of the thin-blooded Faian race"). If he and all his men were to leave their encampment to hunt oorthoi, he wouldn't be surprised if the "locals" came in and carried off all of his anti-demon gear. Gruul winks knowingly and starts thinking of ways to hire locals to cart the stuff off.
Just in case anyone has any interest in using the stuff, the anti-demon gear is made from low-grade iron and has the following stats:
| Name | PD | DR | Weight | Special |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anti-Demon Armor | 3 | 15 | 300 lb | -1 Move, -2 DX due to clumsy manufacture |
| Anti-Demon Shield | 4 | 6 | 100 lb | -3 to weapon skill, hits 20/200 |
Note that the various penalties are in addition to any encumbrance penalties incurred by the equipment's weight. Gruul doesn't even ask when Bolufo mentions that he's also got a supply of Anti-Demon Axes.
At this point in the discussion one of Bolufo's troopers comes into the tent. He tells the Hundred-Flag that a couple of very suspicious characters are lurking around outside the camp. One of them is Faian (Bolufo snorts), and the other seems to be paurkend. Bolufo instructs his man to get a half-dozen gaurmen together and bring them in. Gruul swiftly interjects that the "suspicious characters" are notably his friends, and volunteers to go along with the soldiers to ensure that nobody gets hurt.
It quickly becomes obvious that Bolufo has a very low opinion of Faians, and refuses to directly acknowledge Galen. He very cordially allows Marik to introduce himself, but when Galen attempts to do the same he pays no attention, instead asking Marik, "What can it do?" Galen thinks about objecting loudly, but decides that it would be better to simply stew in silence.
Gruul tells Bolufo that the group has already hired several locals, and has them scouring the area for Igway Rufo and his oorthoi. Bolufo agrees that this is a promising start, noting that the gaurmen have had quite a bit of trouble dealing with the locals. The characters (particularly Galen) make appropriate, "Uh huh. I wonder why..." comments.
Galen leads the characters to the area where he lost the oorthoi trail. Along the way, the characters discuss their plan. Gruul reminds everyone that even though the Hundred-Flag promised to help the characters destroy the oorthoi camp, he'd like to be in on the bloodshed personally. The Hundred-Flag also promised to strip his camp when he went to the attack so the characters could "steal" the anti-demon gear. Gruul proposes organizing a pack of locals to do the crime, and then selling the proceeds at Shochunstal, where the merchants seem to have some money.
Galen offers that the scrap iron in the anti-demon gear might be better taken up to Parcyclus Castle so the Maker-Thing can produce something useful from it. Everyone likes this plan.
At this point, Galen notices that three flellings are inbound from over the Yierdogiven Sea. Gruul agrees. Marik is too busy watching some berries to pay attention. He tells Gruul, "Hey, did you know these things grow all over the place here? Maybe we can boil some up and spray it into our eyes." Gruul ignores him and tells him to hide. Everyone does their best to adopt a low profile. The group watches as the flellings fly south of the Lower Juffey River and descend into a valley.
Once the flellings are out of sight, the characters look around the spot where the oorthoi vanished. Marik finds a stone-lined hole in the ground, something that looks like it was originally a drainage culvert. He is able to find several stone foundations nearby. It would take a DX or Acrobatics roll to get down, plus two Climbing rolls (unless some sort of Levitation-related strategy is used). Everyone fears getting stuck halfway down.
Galen remembers that the oorthoi was wearing tight leather armor in the oorthoi style, carried a sword, and had a shield strapped to it's back. Galen also remembers that he smelled rotted fish oil when he was tracking the oorthoi, something that an oorthoi might use to waterproof things. Or to season a nice plate of sausages. Gruul mulls all this over and asks, "Do we know if oorthoi can swim?" Nobody can answer him directly, but everyone does recall that a lot of oorthoi are involved in running boats through the Bilges.
Galen suggests putting a Watchdog spell on the hole. Gruul offers that it might be better to get some local youths to watch the place and to travel around in the sewers. The characters go back to the Boar and Wheel pub to talk to the bartender Four-Tooth. Gruul and Galen explain that the characters want to hire eight to ten lads to watch things. They want two of them to be available right away. Four-Tooth points them to a pair of brothers, Stinky and Stumbles. The characters feed them and pay them a Green clavar for two days' of service. They give the barkeep a Yellow for his help, plus a promise of another Yellow if he can find six more youths.
The characters take the two of them out to watch the oorthoi hole. The locals are suitably impressed with Gruul's warnings that the guys coming out of it are likely to kill them if they see them, and are diligent about setting themselves someplace out of sight.
Gruul asks the two of them in passing, "By the way, how much can you boys lift?" It turns out that Stinky has ST 11 and Stumbles has ST 10.
Content that the situation at the old drain is well in hand, the characters head down to the Lower Juffey River to try and find Rufo's camp directly. Marik looks at the river and tells the others, "I know how I'm getting across the river. How 'bout you guys?" Gruul grumbles, "We were thinking that you'd be involved..." Marik relents and Levitates everyone across. Gruul jokes, "I sting him when he's halfway across because it's my nature?"
Shortly after landing on the opposite side of the river, Marik and Gruul notice that a flelling is circling lazily in the air some distance inland. They can see that the nearby vegetation is mostly low undergrowth, with a scattering of twisted, scraggly trees and bushes about 2 meters high. The trees are too low to stand under, but high enough to crouch under. The characters decide to move carefully, with careful attention to the flelling sentry's location and probable field of vision. They move inland, relying upon Marik's Tracking skill to find the valley the flellings touched down in, making Stealth rolls every 300 meters to avoid alerting their quarry.
The characters top a rise and see a cluster of dilapidated buildings. Two oorthoi in leather sunshades are working in the courtyard. One is feeding the ducks, the other is polishing one of the cattle skulls. The characters can see that one of the buildings has patches of new thatching on the roof. As the characters watch, they see three flellings emerge from the barn and fly towards Nircharstal.
Marik notes that he can either Create Fire or Glue across almost the entire compound if he uses the power of the Gyre. He camouflages Gruul and Galen with bits of undergrowth to give them +1 Stealth then circles around the compound with Flight. He waits until the other two have snuck up to the walls, then casts a 5-hex radius Glue on the building. Nothing visible happens, except that one of the oorthoi in the yard is visibly stuck in the glue. Gruul shoots him. Galen shoots the other. The wounded oorthoi runs for a gap in the wall, clearly hoping to escape. While Galen reloads, Gruul runs to intercept him.
Marik notices that his Glue suddenly evaporates. Irritated by the presumption of any magician who would dare to interfere with his spells, Marik creates an inferno all through the repaired hut. Galen, his crossbow ready, waits for new targets to emerge from the one door. Nobody appears.
In the meantime, Gruul manages to incapacitate the fleeing oorthoi and (in a supreme display of willpower) then takes him prisoner. He has little trouble taking the other oorthoi prisoner as well. Galen moves up into the courtyard and the two of them engage in a bit of light interrogation, learning that Igway Rufo and about eight more oorthoi were in the burning building, plus another six flellings staying in the barn. Neither oorthoi knows how many flellings are still in the barn, but the characters guess that there can't be more than one or two.
Gruul marches on the barn, knocking the door open. He sees movement above him, then hurls himself to one side as two flellings throw javelins at him. One strikes home, but his Lifewell armor blunts the injury. Gruul yells at them, "If you don't surrender, we're burning you out!" The flellings respond by moving back out of sight and breaking a hole through the roof.
Marik notices a flelling pushing itself through the barn roof and resolves to stop it. He flies up nearby and swiftly Glues the creature in place. The second flelling, hearing it's companion's cries of distress, flies out the front door, narrowly dodging Gruul's thrown axe. Marik flies down upon the creature and quickly casts a Mental Stun, knocking the creature from the ground. It dies from the impact.
Gruul climbs up to the top floor of the barn and persuades the surviving flelling to surrender (once again making Will rolls to avoid Bloodlust).
The characters bring their three captives together in the courtyard, and decide to tie them to the wagon, starting with the flelling. The creature becomes frantic as Gruul drags it over, blurting out something about "Monsters!" Gruul decides that the flelling is just being excitable, and continues dragging it. As he reaches the wagon a massive armored shape crashes out, knocking him over and savaging him. Marik notices that the thing looks like a ghulkraw, a savage creature from the jungles, but covered in thick iron plates. Galen has no time for such erudite thoughts, as a second one explodes from the hole in the side of the wagon and attacks him.
Gruul and Galen fight for their lives against the snapping, gnashing teeth of the creatures. Marik does his best to help them, casting Haste spells on them and Hinder spells on the ghulkraws. It takes all three characters some time to chop the things to pieces, during which time Gruul learns that they can attack not only with their teeth, but also with their tails. When the dust settles, Gruul tells the others, "I humbly apologize for assuming that 'monsters' didn't just mean something like a vicious dog." Marik seems eager to accept this apology. Galen doesn't look so sure.
It is at this point that the characters notice that the repaired building is no longer on fire. Gruul takes point, opening a window and peering inside. He sees a bit of movement. He also notices that the interior is a hellish mix of soot and dripping water. Everything is wet. He calls back out, "Hey, guys! There's at least one guy in there and they used a water spell to put out the fire!"
Marik moves around to the back of the building and peers through another window. He spots a couple of oorthoi and casts Madness on them. One goes Catatonic, the other becomes Phobic of water and runs deeper into the building to hide. Marik then tries tossing a series of Madness spells at "Igway, who must be in there somewhere", but the penalties for this are so large that even he cannot succeed.
Knowing that some of the enemy still live, Gruul kicks open the door. An oorthoi tries to stab him with a spear. A brief fight ensues. Three oorthoi with yellow glowing eyes engage him. He makes short work of them, then spots Igway Rufo lying on an overhead beam. Gruul kills Igway with one blow after Igway tries spraying him with water.
The characters swiftly search the area after suppressing the remaining oorthoi. They pull 450 clavars and a silver bracelet (worth 100 clavars) mounted with a 4 ST powerstone from Igway's body. Igway's goons were carrying a total of 400 clavars. Galen finds a big jar of brine in the kitchen, and Gruul uses it to preserve Igway's head. Other equipment the characters liberate includes:
The characters spend some time discussing how exactly to get the iron plates off the ghulkraw bodies. Now that they have a chance to look at the creatures, it is obvious that they are Mournful Sara's handiwork. The iron plates are very solid, and are bolted right through the creatures' bodies. They finally decide to burn the bodies. They set the two oorthoi prisoners to gathering wood for the pyres. It takes six hours for the oorthoi to gather up enough wood, and four more hours for the armor to cool down enough to touch. In contrast it takes only ten seconds for the oorthoi to be convinced that the characters are all incurably insane.
While the fires burn, the characters ask the oorthoi about their trip to Nircharstal. The oorthoi claim that they hired a barge to get the wagon across the river, and that Igway Rufo had had the ghulkraws as longstanding pets. Once the fires burn down and the ghulkraw armor is loaded aboard the wagon, Gruul gives each oorthoi a spear and sends the two of them packing.
The characters load up all of their loot onto their new wagon and head out. They are able to find the village where Igway originally hired a barge without any trouble, and hire themselves a drover for two yellow clavars a day. On the way out of the area, they stop by the Boar and Wheel to give the bartender a green to divide among the guys he's collected and to pay off Stinky and Stumbles. As a final detail, Gruul takes Igway Rufo's pickled head to Hundred-Flag Bolufo, who is suitably impressed.
Their business in Nircharstal done, the characters start out on the road to Shochunstal. They estimate that the trip will take about four days of travel if they stick to the coastline.
The characters arrive in Shochunstal on the 77th day of the 3085th Stay. They decide to stay there for five weeks. They estimate that they originally talked to Mournful Sara on the 58th day of the Stay. Living expenses amount to 10 clavars/day for everyone except Marik, who spends 50 clavars/day. Over their thirty-day stay, the total cost is 300 clavars for Gruul and Galen, and 1500 clavars for Marik.
Gruul spends 50 clavars/week to get instruction in Naturalist from a local sage. He manages to accumulate enough training hours to get himself a free point in the skill. He also becomes interested in finding some companionship, and spends some time asking the important question, "Do they have demek whores here?" He is quite disappointed to learn that the answer is "No." Galen suggests, "You could put a wig on a bausker. Or get four bauskers to hide underneath a rug..." Gruul is not amused: "My problems in finding members of the opposite sex of my species should not be a topic for your amusement."
Marik and Galen spend their time in town learning spells (spending experience) and engaging in enough swordplay to let Marik spend one point on Two-Handed Sword.
The session ends on the 107th day of the 3085th Stay in Shochunstal. Each character gains four experience points.