Today is Mother's Day, so Tim (Antok Six-Hearted) spends the day with his beloved family. Bruce, Chris (Gruul), Chuck (Galen), Mike (Kellin) and Paul (Marik) are all motherless bastards who crawled out from underneath rocks, and feel no compunctions about ignoring their own relatives in favor of gaming. Mike corrects Bruce, pointing out that he is not a motherless bastard.
The start of the session finds the characters in Shochunstal on the 19th Day of the 3090th Voyage, debating the current political situation with the Holder Bala Taften. They are holding this debate from a unique position, given that they have the Steadsman Cabo Durgis, his Castellan Argul Yosp, and his wife Gleya Aucul Durgis as captives in the basement.
For the characters' purposes, there are three factions among the thirty Holders of Shochunstal. Fifteen Holders are Faian Nationalists. All of them are likely to vote for the removal of the Steadsman. Six more are the Steadsman's close allies, aristocrats whose wealth and political fortunes are closely tied to those of the current Steadsman. The Steadsman himself increases their number to seven. Even in the current situation, none of them are at all likely to vote for the removal of the Steadsman. The remaining eight Holders are neutral, and are not particularly interested in backing a political course that will take Shochunstal straight into the path of an oncoming thrux army. Their opinion is that the thrux are reasonable people, and that Shochunstal should negotiate with them. The characters quickly decide that their response will be that Nircharstal took it on the chin for the people of Shochunstal twenty Voyages ago. Today, Shochunstal must stand on its own.
The traditional laws of Shochunstal state that three-quarters of the Holders must vote in favor to remove the Steadsman from power. The characters must rally another nine Holders to their cause.
This task is complicated by the very real possibility that some of the Holders among the neutrals and the Steadsman's allies might be actual traitors in the pay of the thrux or the Gua Far.
The characters decide to send Galen around to chat with all of the neutral Holders. He will, of course, be wearing the Circlet and Saber of Nircha, ensuring that the Faian Holders will all be very willing to listen to his words. He manages to convince six of them of the rightness of the characters' cause. He manages to convince two of them so thoroughly that they in turn manage to bring in one of the two holdouts.
After Galen's efforts, the characters have twenty-two Holders willing to vote to remove the Steadsman.
Kellin spends his time reading the papers captured by from the Steadsman's quarters. Most of them are staggeringly dull. He complains to Marik, "All this stuff is just records of the city's grain production, iron goods production, municipal pay records, tax receipts and treasury contents. It's all very uninteresting." Marik breathes, "Oooh, this is killer stuff. This will tell us everything we need to know about Shochunstal!" Kellin walks off convinced that the twisted dwarf paurkend's mind has snapped. He does, however, gain a new appreciation for the possible value of the written word.
Armed with this new sense of purpose, Kellin manages to learn that the Steadsman's treasures are contained in a half-dozen vaults. Unfortunately, the records do not include the actual locations of the vaults. Kellin thinks that there are two located within the Keep. He is none too sure where the other four are. On the plus side, he does know exactly how much money is in each of them. He also gets a sense of the sort of magical artifacts the Steadsman has commissioned for the defense of Shochunstal over the last ten Voyages:
Having decided that there might be some value in picking through people's personal documents after all, Kellin and Marik turn to the Castellan's papers. They swiftly conclude that a large part of the Castellan's daily business was none too exciting: correspondence from various traders on the payment of an array of fees and taxes, petitions from locals interested in legal redress for all manner of troubles, and so on.
Then Kellin comes across the first group of letters with return addresses in Bao Lat and Bao Am. He is more than a little disappointed to find that they are written in thrux, and that nobody (except, possibly, the Castellan) can actually read them. There are enough of them to convince the characters that the Castellan is buried to his ears in this business.
The situation becomes more interesting when he finds financial records indicating that the six Holders most closely aligned with the Steadsman have been the regular beneficiaries of money payments that originated with the thrux. It is not completely clear if the source of this money was revealed to the Holders, though given the amount it seems quite clear that they had to realize that it wasn't derived from normal tax receipts.
He also encounters a letter written in Parqui that contains a very casual mention that the Steadsman's wife Gleya Aucul is the daughter of a Gua Far Elder from Bao Am. The characters had previously thought that the Steadsman's wife was just some powerless chickadee with little involvement in the political situation. Everyone they had talked to on the subject had believed that she was from the Aft Gallery and was somehow related to the Gaurgast.
The characters decide to use the evidence they have uncovered to try and convert some of the Steadsman's close allies to their cause, at least for a single vote. In addition to the Steadsman, this faction includes six members:
They decide that there are three levels of involvement with the thrux. The first level collaborators simply take thrux money, probably with an awareness of where it comes from, but do not have any lasting loyalty to the thrux. The second level collaborators are definitely aware that the Steadsman's money was coming from the thrux, and are loyal to him, but are more loyal to the Faian people than they are to the thrux. The third level collaborators are owned by the thrux through and through. The obvious problem is that the characters do not really know where each of the six Holders falls on this scale.
After some discussion with Holder Taften, the characters decide that their basic offer to the Steadsman's allies will be, "Who do you want to be the fall guy, you or the Castellan?" They reason that this should be a pretty attractive offer even to the die-hard thrux supporters. To help even more, Galen was able to find some unrelated "leverage" on three of the Holders, enough to give him a +1 reaction roll to lean on them (they're marked with asterisks above). As usual, Galen ("Pardon me while I adjust my Circlet.") gets the job of talking to the Holders while Kellin, Marik and Gruul head down to the basement for a conversation with the Castellan.
By the end of Galen's conversations with the Holders, he has managed to convert Holder Curveil and Holder Elben to the Faian Nationalist cause, at least for the time being. This brings the vote total high enough to unseat the Steadsman. The other Holders were generally unimpressed with Galen's efforts, even backed with the Saber and Circlet of Nircha. Holder Fiedvelle was so unimpressed that he ordered Galen to leave his home upon threat of actual violence. Galen marked Fiedvelle's name down on his Enemies List. He also makes a note to buy more paper for the List.
Marik and Gruul decide to use "vigorous shaking" as part of their interrogation of the Castellan, secure in the knowledge that the Israeli Supreme Court has ruled that it does not constitute torture. Marik reflects that the Israeli Supreme Court may be a bit biased on this topic, but Gruul gives it not a second thought, declaring, "If it's good enough for the Israelis, then it's good enough for me! By the way, what are Israelis?"
Each shaking attempt involves a ST v. HT roll. Each attempt inflicts one point of damage upon the shaking victim. Each point by which the shaker wins the contest gives a +1 to the next Interrogation attempt. However, if the victim fails the HT roll he blacks out for 1d minutes. If the victim suffers a critical failure, or the shaker gets a critical success, the victim takes 1d damage and is unconscious for 1d hours.
Gruul's first try at interrogation is less than impressive. The Castellan laughs at the demek's puny attempts. His second try is much more impressive. The Castellan becomes very willing to answer questions. Marik asks, "Who else is involved with the thrux?" The Castellan tells them that the Steadsman's wife is in. In addition, all five of her servants are Gua Far agents. Gruul comments, "And I bet the servants are running loose because we didn't think they were a problem." After the third interrogation attempt, the Castellan admits that Holder Curveil and Holder Fiedvelle are both hiding Gua Far agents at their plantations.
A servant interrupts the interrogation session with a very apologetic knock. He informs Gruul and Marik that the Steadsman's wife is gone from her cell. He assures them that she was there only a half-hour ago, resting peacefully. He also indicates that the staff has already entered her room and searched it thoroughly. Gruul heads out to examine the scene personally.
While Gruul is out, Marik finds himself in a little spellcasting duel with the Castellan. The Castellan attempts to intimidate Marik into freeing him by casting repeated Pain spells at him. Marik responds in kind until he gets disgusted with the situation and casts Sleep on the Castellan, who slumps down in his chair.
When Gruul returns, Marik explains that the Castellan is a magician. Gruul kicks the Castellan in the kidneys to wake him up, then asks Marik, "Could you cast Consume Thrux on that servant out there?" Marik obliges, then reports back that the servant is immune.
Marik and Gruul escort the Castellan over to the Steadsman's cell. They find the Steadsman writing something. Gruul marches in and pokes him to make sure he is real. The Steadsman takes this treatment with poor humor. He asks Marik, "Magician, could you get your hairy familiar-thing to stop poking me?" The characters lock him back in the cell and head to his wife's former cell.
It doesn't take the characters long to conclude that the Steadsman's wife really is gone. Marik makes a Seeker attempt that convinces him that she is more than a mile away. Galen arrives on the scene in time to muse, "Two of the Holders have Gua Far agents in their employ. Their lands would be more than a mile away." Gruul suggests, "Let's look for her servants. Even if they're not involved, they are a danger."
The Castellan is shut back up in his cell (a converted storeroom with a dirt floor, stone walls, a thick wooden door and no windows). Gruul tells the servants, "He's a magician. Keep him shut up in there with water and a slop bucket. Push food under the door. Don't open the door whatever you do. Remember that he can inflict magical Pain without moving or speaking."
Kellin makes a quick attempt to find Her Ladyship's "spymistress journal". He manages to come up with a rather sketchy and poorly conjugated diary in Parqui. It is very dull to read, without even any of the trivial interesting bits that normally make it into diaries. He concludes that it is not her real diary and continues searching. He finds a second very small volume, filled with dense writing. All of it in thrux. Goddamn! He shows it to Marik, who suggests that the clockwork teacher Inverse-Fitted Gimbal might be able to read it. The characters decide to worry about this idea later.
The characters very quickly round up some personal items from each of the servants. Marik makes a Seeker attempt for one of them and verifies that he is close by, still in the city.
Galen, Gruul, Kellin and Marik head across town to apprehend the servants, leaving Antok Six-Hearted behind to guard the prisoners. Their initial approach is very confident, right down the center of the road. They decide that the building they're interested in is probably the common-house down the way just about as someone pops up from a second-story window and fires a crossbow bolt at Galen, barely missing him. Marik asks, "Is he the one we're looking for?" Galen responds, "I don't think it matters: he's shooting at us."
Marik casts Flight upon Gruul as Galen and Kellin run towards the front of the building. Gruul curves around the side of the common house to the alley, where he encounters another crossbow-happy servant. He evades the man's shot, then hits him with four jabs. The servant is staggered, but not stunned. He groans, "How can you hit so hard?" Gruul responds, "I had an unhappy childhood." The servant backs away from Gruul's attack, bringing his blade up to cover his retreat. Gruul rushes in anyway and takes a vicious hit to the side for his trouble. He restrains himself from going berserk, but then goes ahead and beats the servant to death anyway. He then proceeds to validate the townspeople's opinions of him by dragging the body back down the street.
Kellin arrives at the common-house door first, only to find it locked and barred. He quickly realizes that at least one of the servants was waiting near the first floor window. He strikes through the window only to see the servant dodge backwards out of the way of his blow. He considers this to be a minor setback. The setback becomes major when the servant reveals that he is a magician and knows the Sound Jet spell. Kellin staggers back from the wave of sound, stunned. He shakes his head a couple of times, then leaps bodily through the window, heedless of any possible danger. Once again, his enthusiasm gets the better of him: another servant had been waiting in ambush, and hits him twice very badly before he even realizes what is happening.
Galen notices all this, but decides to hold back for a moment while he casts Might and Dexterity upon himself. Marik takes a more active role, casting Flight upon himself and zooming in to cast Sleep upon both the crossbowman in the upstairs window, and the magician in the downstairs. Kellin staggers to his feel, then rushes the swordsman, crippling his leg with a quick swing. The man keels over, out of the fight for the day.
His spellcasting done, Galen steps up to the common-house door and kicks it in with one mighty kick. The last crossbowman had been waiting on the stairs for just such an event. He shoots Galen as the Faian crashes through the door. Galen casts a quick Block spell, dodges to the side, then rushes in to slam the fellow into a wall. He wins the contest of ST very handily, slamming the luckless servant back into the wall. The fellow is stunned by the impact and slumps to the floor.
By the end of the fight, the characters have managed to account for all five servants, four of them warriors and one of them a magician. Except for the one warrior who suffered a broken neck thanks to Gruul's pugilistic skill, all the others survived to be taken captive. A quick search determines that the servants don't have a lot of stuff, though they do have traveling gear and some money. In addition, the characters take the servants' gear:
Galen gives the innkeeper some money to pay for the door and the window and the other mess. He also orders a meal from the kitchen, despite some concern among the other characters that the food might be poisoned (Marik verifies that it isn't).
The characters do a quick job of interrogating the servants, complete with a bout of vigorous shaking. They manage to learn that (surprise, surprise) all five servants are Gua Far. They claim that they didn't help their mistress escape, that the Zatulph magician Jeggrey Zetto escaped too, and that he has the power to turn invisible and walk through walls.
The characters take this last piece of information rather badly. They bring their prisoners back to Holder Taften's townhouse for confinement, then whisk themselves over to the Steadsman's Keep to find any of Zetto's personal effects. Marik uses Seeker to get an image of Zetto making himself porridge in a cave near the sea. Galen recognizes the cave as one of a series of chalk caves midway between Shochunstal and Nircharstal. He explains to the others that he used to camp out there when he was a boy in the Junior Faian Scouts.
Galen, Gruul and Marik prepare a quick expedition down to the sea caves. Kellin and Antok stay behind to guard the prisoners, as there is some fear that the city might actually be neck-deep in Gua Far sympathizers who might be prone to irrational rescue attempts. Marik whips up a quick Flying Carpet and shuttles the group down the coast almost 25 kilometers to the chalk caves in under 30 minutes. The characters set down some distance inland and wait for a few minutes to give Marik a chance to rest.
It doesn't take Galen long to find some of Zetto's footprints along the beach and follow them to the cave. The fire is still burning, and the pot Marik saw is sitting to one site. It looks like Zetto was in the process of making tea just before he left. It is clear that he doesn't have a lot of other supplies: the only other items in the cave are a bedroll and a rather paltry collection of supplies.
It is obvious that Zetto is somewhere nearby, though exactly where is none too clear. Galen casts a large Sense Foes spell over the cave and finds nothing. Marik offers up several helpful theories on how an invisible magician who can walk through walls might have escaped from the cave, none of which make the other characters feel particularly good.
The group heads out to search the area. Marik and Galen find a trail leading away from the cave that ends abruptly, in mid-step. They return to the cave to find that Gruul has found a nest full of eggs. He is busily cooking them up in the magician's pot. Galen scolds the big demek, "Can't you ever stop thinking about your stomach?"
Marik finally offers up a theory that doesn't just make the other characters feel bad. He tells them, "I think he's in a subterranean cave. I can turn ethereal and go look for it." Marik descends almost to the limit of his endurance before he finds Zetto almost eighteen meters underground, inside a chamber only barely bigger than he is. He makes three attempts to put the concerned-looking magician to sleep, all of which fail. He returns to the surface exhausted to the point of unconsciousness.
A few minutes later, Marik wakes up and tells the other two what he saw. Among themselves, the characters figure out that Zetto used Entombment on himself. Galen asks Marik, "So, you want to burn one of those Earthquake scrolls?" Everyone laughs. Gruul muses, "If he's not claustrophobic yet, he will be."
After a chance to rest, Marik makes a second attempt, but finds that Zetto is no longer in the chamber. Marik makes an attempt to cast Madness on him anyway, reasoning that Zetto might just be invisible. He learns that Zetto is quite some distance away as the spell blows up on him.
Marik returns to the surface again to admit failure. Galen looks around and notices some footprints. Recent footprints. Footprints moving away towards a rock outcrop. He gives chase! The other characters see a quick nimbus of light, then watch as Galen vanishes into the ground with a short, strangled scream.
Gruul sucks down an Argus potion and looks for signs of Zetto's location. He manages to figure out where the magician is to enough accuracy to let Marik tag him with a Madness spell. Zetto is driven in to hebephrenia ("nuts!"), which helps the characters keep track of him quite a bit. He attempts to throw a knife at Marik in one of his moments of lucidity, only to see the blade clack off the twisted paurkend's heavy breastplate.
Marik moves in, casting Mental Stun spells. Confident that he has managed to stun Zetto, he indicates that Gruul should deliver the coup de grace. Gruul rushes headlong into the stunned, insane, invisible magician and knocks him to the ground. From behind him, Marik screeches out, "Stab him! Stab him!" Gruul turns from restraining Zetto to comment, "We might not be able to get Galen back! You remember our good friend Galen? The one who got entombed? Just a moment ago?" Marik sulks as Gruul finishes tying up Zetto.
Marik decides to summon up a demon to get Galen back. Gruul sits on the captive and complains, "That's your solution to everything!" Marik ignores him and calls up the smallest Entombing Demon he can find. He ends up with a creature that looks like a little three foot tall humanoid goat with the face of a lion. Blood drips continually from its hooves. It has ST 5, DX 13, IQ 8, HT 15/20, PD 0, DR 1, inflicts ST cutting damage with hooves, and has Entombment-15 as a power. Gruul looks over the creature and comments, "Marik, I thought you said you were going to summon a demon?" Marik ignores him and tells the demon, "Free my friend and your task is done!" Galen reappears in a twinkling, looking none the worse for wear.
A search of Zetto determines that he is carrying two 20 ST powerstones, both completely dry. His dagger is enchanted with +2 Puissance, and was coated with poison (which Gruul very carefully wipes away). The characters drag him back to Shochunstal.
The session ends on the 29th day of the 3090th Voyage. Each character gains three experience points.