Chuck (Arnoux Urag) has the honor of being the first to appear. To celebrate, he drinks 44 oz of soda in one gulp, following it with a 12" sandwich in only three bites. We fear Chuck and his incredible, unnatural powers. Chris (Dojango Sangaree) and Paul (Marik) appear in good time. We expect that Tim (Antok of the Storm Tribe) will diss us in favor of his future, and he doesn't disappoint. Dan (Mahees) remains the Unknown Soldier: none of us can figure out where he's gotten himself to. Bruce makes a big show of being in charge, but it doesn't fool anyone.
Since his return to the Venturer Hall, Marik has heard some rumors about important items lost to Ogub when the Holy City rabble invaded his stash. Curious about the veracity of these stories, he invites Ogub to come by and drink at his place for free. Ogub proves to be more than happy to accept the invitation, though he is not particularly voluble when Marik starts asking him about items that might be missing. The paurkend initially denies that anything of importance is missing, but then talks about an item he calls the Keepsake Chest.
Ogub explains that the Keepsake Chest is a remarkable item. It carries two enchantments upon it: one to make it hard to find through mundane search, and another to make it unfindable by magic. The Voko family has held it for three generations, and has made good use of it all that time. Through the story, Ogub never quite comes out to say that the chest is missing ("How would you know?" ask some of the more waggish characters), but he does suggest that if something like the Keepsake Chest were to go missing, he would be willing to give the folks who returned it a fee of a thousand Reds.
Through the conversation, Dojango Sangaree makes constant comments about Ogub's rocky hide, to both Ogub's and Marik's annoyance (Marik is also, after all, paurkend). He finally offers up the comment, "When I die I'm not going to be used as an anchor." Ogub tells him to, "Be quiet, monkey-boy." Dojango decides to shut up, on the basis that the more he annoys Ogub, the less likely it will be that Ogub will pay him lots of money for returning stolen property.
Having more or less established that Ogub might be missing some valuable items, the characters ask him who might be inclined to have taken them. Ogub suggests that a Kupri gang leader from the Bilges named "Big Chungon" Surk has been nosing around him for a while, and might know something. The characters consult amongst themselves for a moment, and find that they have already heard of "Big Chungon" Surk: he has been recruiting people in the Safe Hearths shantytown.
Dojango asks Ogub if he might have any ideas on where to find Surk that might not be the Bilges, as they're rather cold and miserable. Ogub says that he doesn't know of any other likely places. However, he does comment that Surk's gang usually has between 20 and 30 members, of quality ranging from vicious oorthoi fighters to shantytown scum barely able to fight.
After the conversation, Ogub excuses himself from Marik's tent, explaining that he expects to leave for Doorway City within the hour, escorted by an array of well-armed Sangorn humans.
Only a few minutes after Ogub's departure, a finely dressed fellow of no small girth shows up at Marik's tent and makes a big show of talking in an outrageous Texan accent (for all that he looks like a Faian human). He introduces himself as Maratelle, brother of the Doorway City trader Jomon, and invites the characters over to Mulumchithra's Fine Foods ("they have waiters!"). Maratelle suggests that the characters might want to wash and wear their finest clothing for the occasion. The characters, painfully aware of the fact that Dojango is still picking hay out from between his teeth, agree. Maratelle glances up at the day-marker on the Venturer Hall (which shows the time as after the morning bell) and tells them, "Ahh will see y'all slightly after the midday bell, which implies that y'all are drinking rather heavily in the morning."
The characters, faced with an opportunity to get a free meal, decide to spend the rest of the morning shopping. This is a plan impeded by the fact that the economy in the Venturer Hall courtyard is very cyclical, and that this is not the best part of the cycle.
Dojango Sangaree finds that lux gems the size of a fist (able to light a room well) cost only a Yellow ($16). Overjoyed, he buys two. He takes the remainder of the money Hall Warden Tobrey paid him and goes looking for members of his clan. He manages to run into Lijo Sangaree, a female demek weaver from a different branch of the Grosh tribe. He gives her three Greens to take back to the clan. She is quite grateful, and in return gives him a nicely-made pouch for his lux gems. She mentions that she and her relatives will be heading back to the Garden in a couple of days, and that he might want to stop by and talk to the matriarch of her family group if he ever happens to be in the area. Dojango agrees that he should stop by, and walks away from the meeting with a grin on his face.
Arnoux Urag, despite being like nothing anybody's ever seen before, buys a nice new shirt for a yellow. Marik decides that he would like to follow Arnoux's example and buy some new clothes, plus some jewelry and a nice powerstone. He quickly discovers the problem: even though one of the two tailors in the Venturers' courtyard stocks clothing for paurkend, the fellow doesn't have anything suitable for a dwarf, hunchbacked paurkend. Marik ends up spending almost two Greens getting a new robe made. He then spends 200 Reds on a quirked ST 3 powerstone (it only recharges when immersed in alcohol).
The characters show up at Mulumchithra's Fine Foods at the appointed time. The place is an eclectic combination of tent and wooden building that has obviously expanded through the Voyages by aggregation: the proprietor buys out nearby buildings, then extends the tenting out to cover them. Bauskers scamper everywhere, both inside and out. The characters gather that they are all the children (and grandchildren, and great-grandchildren) of the matriarch Mulumchithra.
Inside the restaurant, the characters discover that there is no published menu or pricelist. A pregnant bausker leads them to the table, expertly avoiding tables, diners and relatives along the way. The characters follow as best they can. They meet Maratelle at a table near one of the tent supports. He greets them, and then allows the bausker hostess to fetch them drinks from a little mechanical cart just overhead. The characters can see bauskers everywhere. Even above them, in the folds between the inner and outer layers of tenting they can see yellow eyes and snaggle teeth in the shadows.
The meal consists of a thick, uru-based stew served from a communal stoneware pot supplemented by bread brought from a larder somewhere above the characters' heads. Through the evening, the characters are treated to a high level of service from the omnipresent bauskers. Marik particularly appreciates this, as he ends up knocking over his drink several times, only to see the mess swiftly cleaned up by two bauskers with rags.
Maratelle explains his problems to the characters throughout the dinner. His brother Jomon trades with the town of Dith Lun in the Garden, a profitable venture that has established three generations ago, and which Jomon had thought would be passed along to his own sons. He trades barges full of filth and wastes from the Forward Gallery to the townsfolk in exchange for medicinal herbs and glazed pottery. More recently, he had also begun to trade worked iron to the townsfolk. Maratelle notes that the people of Dith Lun have some strange customs, and have never allowed any member of the family (or, as far as he can tell, any other outsiders) inside the town. However, their appointed representatives have always been polite, and have always been willing to offer a good price for Jomon's goods, typically several bags of herbs for each cartload of filth.
The troubles started during the last trading journey. The representatives from Dith Lun were unfamiliar, and were only willing to offer a single bag of herbs for each cartload of filth. They also barely even looked at the iron goods, and refused to offer anything for half of them. Jomon is quite concerned that something has happened in the town, and wants to send someone to investigate. He cannot do the investigation himself, as he doesn't want to upset the townsfolk. He asked the merchant Ogub for recommendations, and Ogub enthusiastically recommended the characters.
Maratelle says that he will head back to Doorway City in three days, and asks the characters to accompany him. He explains that though he has already told them everything that they need to know about the job, Jomon will not hire them if he cannot talk to them directly first. The characters ask him how he expects to get past the hordes of Holy City Folk currently besieging the Venturers Hall. He explains that he needs an escort, and was hoping to find some demustered Red Pikes to serve. Dojango pipes up that some of his people will be heading back in three days too, and that a bunch of demeks would certainly look much more threatening than a few wimpy Red Pikes. Maratelle considers this, then offers a fee of three Orange clavars to each demek who can act as an escort, and suggests that they get back with him to make arrangements.
To conclude the evening, Dojango slurps the stoneware stew pot dry.
Dojango goes directly from Mulumchithra's to the Grosh Tribe tent to talk to Lijo. He tells her about Maratelle's offer, and asks how many demeks are going to head out to Doorway City. She tells him that the group consists five adults (two hunters, and three weavers or tailors) and ten pups (Maratelle proves willing to pay only one Orange clavar to each of the pups). The pups range from those still clinging to their mother's fur to some adolescents with ferocious looks. Dojango notices that one of the adolescents has been misbehaving: his arm has been shaved as a punishment, and he scratches it constantly.
Lijo is quite happy to accept Maratelle's offer, as she had expected to go back to Doorway City for free. She proposes daubing the demeks in mud to make them look bigger (more ferocious). Dojango licks his lips in response.
The characters' journey to Doorway City is rendered rather dull by the fact that they are traveling in a large armed group. They find the city gates manned by a group of very bored-looking guards with pikes who explain to them, "The city is closed. No entry is allows. Go ahead on in." The characters are perplexed until they realize that the guards only enforce the closure against Holy City Folk who try to get in. They watch as one of the guards jabs away a cluster of Folk with the butt of his pike.
The characters enter Doorway City to find that the Departure Festival is (theoretically) in full swing. The festival is scheduled to start one week after the end of a Stay, and last for a full week. After a normal Stay, Doorway City would be flush with new wealth and delicacies and the entire city would be a mass of drunken revelers. This time, the tenor of the festival is more restrained. Street performers and musicians are about, and some folk are doing their grim best to celebrate, but there is an air of desperation about them. Those drunk citizens the characters do see don't appear to be celebrating so much as they seem to be trying to forget their troubles.
On the other hand, they also see several handbills pasted to walls indicating that the chariot races will be beginning in two days. When Dojango mentions this, and comments that there is supposed to be a new, skilled demek driver, Lijo suggests that the driver might be her kinsman Zungen, who always liked horses and who ran away years ago.
Jomon's villa is a large stone structure on the Market Square that looks like it predates even the arrival of Jomon's ancestors on Yaggo's Boat. Every bit of the place yells out "fortress." It fits right in.
The household is roughly square, with an exotic flameleaf plant in the center of the screened courtyard. The characters are shown to their rooms along the back edge of the courtyard. They notice that both the exterior and interior walls of the buildings are a foot thick, and that the windows are secured with metal bars.
Jomon meets the characters for dinner. Over a meal largely composed of vegetables from the Garden, he explains that the journey should take 60 days or less, and that he will pay one White ($1024) per person for the journey. If the characters are unable to find any useful information, or can't assure Jomon that trade will be normal from then on, he will only pay them half. He says that he will provide them with a boat and a crew, plus enough uru to last for 60 days. After a small amount of negotiation (for show), the characters agree to his terms. They head out through the Garden Gate to the otherwise-nameless river port to start their journey early the next morning.
The characters find that they must travel down the Doorway River, then change course at the confluence with the Yenyen River and travel upstream until they reach Dith Lun. They sail upon the Induway Traveler, a wallowing tub of a boat crewed by a gang of fifteen folk of varying species led by Captain Rattouf, a Kupri human with a seamed, tanned face. Characteristic of his race, Captain Rattouf is none too happy to see the characters. He makes a point of speaking to them only when absolutely necessary. The characters suspect that the Captain normally doesn't spend much time hauling passengers.
In the early stage of the journey, the characters are treated to a view of the Flutes, a series of massive gray pipes protruding from the ground some distance from the riverbank. The tallest of them rise up higher than a bowshot. In dramatic contrast to the wasted scrubland that otherwise decorates both banks of the river, the land around the Flutes is a dense forest of deep green trees with wide leaves. The Captain breaks his sullen silence to explain to the characters that, "They say that the Flutes go down into the Bilges, and that there is uru and water there. Nobody goes there. Monsters." The characters accept this commentary without too much debate.
A couple of days later, the characters see another patch of greenery along the banks. They ask the Captain about it, and he grudgingly admits that it is the site of Nan Ro Nan, a place that was once a fairly large town. Nobody lives there now, because (the characters can almost predict) "there are monsters." Captain Rattouf doesn't know too much about the history of Nan Ro Nan, but he does know that the plants and the monsters arrived at about the same time. The characters nod in as sage a manner as they can muster.
Things become more interesting as the boat draws closer to the greenery and a couple of the characters spot what look like birds high above the river. One of the crew tells the characters that they are greyfeather storks, and that they are some of the worst monsters of Nan Ro Nan. The characters are initially unimpressed by the quality of Yaggo's monsters until one of the storks starts to descend towards the Induway Traveler. The characters very quickly realize that the creature is at least three meters long, with a wingspan twice that. They also realize that the stork is angling in towards the boat at a steep angle, apparently with hostile intent.
The curtain draws down as the stork swoops in and the boat's crew dives for cover...
The session ends with the characters on the Yenyen River near Nan Ro Nan, on the verge of making the acquaintance of a greyfeather stork. Each character gains three experience points.