Today being Mother's Day, only the heartless scavengers of our group appear: Chris (Gruul), Chuck (Galen), Paul (Marik) and Bruce. Tim (Antok of the Storm Tribe), Billy (Sai'aggo) and Breanna all spend the day demonstrating that they retain some measure of loyalty to their mothers.
The session starts upon the 121st day of the 3086th Stay.
The characters start off with a trip down from Mournful Sara's demesne to the Electors' Palace to deliver her message. They are disarmed at the doors by "threatening"-looking militia who probably don't have as many points in all their weapon skills combined as Gruul does in just his Ax/Mace skill. Gruul cooperates. Marik acts like a weasel. Everyone makes plans on which militiaman they will kill with their bare hands first should things go wrong. The militiamen seem worried, but they lead the characters into the Speaking Hall even so.
The Speaking Hall is the center of the Electors' Palace, a massive chamber normally used for formal meetings of the Electors and the aristocracy of Doorway City. Today, it stands empty. The militia guards ask the characters to stand inside a circular area marked out with arcane symbols in the center of the hall. This request causes a fair amount of consternation until Marik identifies it as a Scrywall, and reassures the other characters that it should be safe.
A couple of minutes after the characters are shown in, the Elector Romas Anadun enters and seats himself upon a fancy chair on a raised platform. He is accompanied by three bodyguards: two Sangorn and one paurkend wearing the robes of a Yaggo Hidden monk. The Elector is a graying Sangorn human whom the characters know mostly for his longstanding practice of backing losing chariot-racing teams.
Gruul looks over the monk and comments, "If those guys really wanted to find Yaggo, they should do something really horrific, something that will force Yaggo to appear." The monk seems unimpressed, suggesting, "We let the Yaggo Ascendant people do that." Marik asks Gruul, "You have zero points in Yaggo Theology, right?"
With the various introductions taken care of, the characters deliver their message. The Elector reads it, and then thanks them for their efforts. Gruul responds by asking, "Are those men supposed to keep you from being killed? I think I could kill them all with my bare hands." Gruul urges the Elector to double his bodyguard staff if he is really serious about staying alive. Elector Romas takes Gruul's suggestion with better humor than his bodyguards, who seem downright threatened. He actually seems to be in a surprisingly good mood, and asks the characters to wait while he has writing equipment brought and composes a response to Mournful Sara. In the meantime, he offers them a few tidbits of news about the city:
The characters head back towards the stairway up to Mournful Sara's territory with Elector Romas' message in hand. They are met near the base of the stairs by Abbek Choff, whom the characters already know is one of Mournful Sara's lieutenants. He accepts the Elector's message, then makes a request of them. He enters into a very touching little story about how he was once a terrific fan of the chariots, back in his breathing days. Now that he has... changed... it is nearly impossible for him to get out to the track, and he's missed the excitement and drama of the races terribly. However, he recently read the memoirs of the old champion racer Gamgen Kruvik, a book titled Twenty Voyages Around the Track. The book has really reawakened his old fascination with the races, and he desperately wants it signed by the author.
Abbek Choff explains that he has learned that Gamgen Kruvik lives in the Longshadow Quarter, near the Watchful Eye Tower, and is in quite poor health. He asks the characters if they could get the man's signature in the book. In exchange, he promises to offer them some interesting information about the demons in the Nircharstal Old City. The characters agree to do it. Gruul feels it necessary to go the extra mile, and promises to bring Kruvik's body back for Choff to raise as a zombie, just in case the old fellow turns out to be dead. Abbek Choff indicates that Gruul shouldn't trouble himself.
Once the characters are safely away from Abbek Choff, Gruul turns to Marik and asks, "Do you want to do your Detect Magic thing on this book just to make sure it's not going to cast some soul-sucking spells on this Kruvik guy?" Marik makes a few magical gestures, then reports that the book is safe and nonmagical. And it tests as edible, too.
The characters start asking Sangorn humans, primarily shopkeepers and craftsmen and people around the track, where Gamgen Kruvik lives. Along the way, they pass through the marketplace in the Electors' Plaza, where they are hailed down by Occok the Short, a Paturki merchant who tries to sell them several items he has brought back from Aeldrine. Gruul breaks into abject laughter upon hearing the fellow's name.
The characters find most of his stuff either uninteresting or useless, but do purchase some Atalanta potions from him (each provides +1 Speed and +1 Move for 3dx4 minutes). He does his best to persuade the characters to purchase some ieffesh tubes, which he claims are filled with Madness-inducing poison. Marik casts Detect Magic and Test Food on the ieffesh tubes, concluding that he'd rather not eat the things. Gruul explains to Occok that while the characters are not necessarily above using poison, they aren't in the market at the moment.
The characters also pick up some interesting rumors, including the news that Captain Turo of the Iron-Talon Eagles is organizing an archery competition. Militia members can join free, but everyone else must pay a stiff 50 clavar entry fee. The prize is 1000 clavars and a set of five +1 Accuracy arrows. The bausker Tucufirinung from the Gelrullpebling Irregulars is favored to win, but Captain Turo says he's got a new guy who can beat him. The competition will be on the 130th day of the 3085th Stay.
Galen finally manages to learn Gamgen Kruvik's address. Gruul finds out all that plus much more. He finds out that the former champion is deeply ill, and that his wife Chuvia runs his public affairs. Even beyond that, he learns that when Kruvik married Chuvia she was nothing more than a barmaid. Since then, she has made the assumption that her husband's wealth should translate into wide social acceptance for her, and has made tremendous efforts to be accepted as a lady of the city. Her continuing failure in this quest has made her somewhat bitter, particularly since everyone knows that Kruvik's wealth all came from his successes on the chariot track.
Marik takes the lead in trying to talk to her at Kruvik's fashionable townhouse. He mentions chariot races and books once too many times, and gets the door slammed in his face. The characters decide that they will try and bribe a servant to get the book signed, settling upon the old wyrd-woman who cares for the sick racer. She agrees to their offer.
The characters spend a day waiting in a bar, drinking and coming up with progressively less-plausible plans on how to clear the demons out of Nircharstal.
When the wyrd-woman returns with the inscribed book, the characters pay her and send her on her way. The old woman tells them that Kruvik was so terribly happy that someone liked his book. It is obvious that the old man spent a long time writing the dedication in his rather wavery, nervous hand. The characters joke that the first words in the dedication are, "I leave my whole fortune to my only fan..." In fact, the first words are, "Hope you're well, my wife hates me and won't let me go out to the track."
The characters return to Abbek Choff and give him the signed copy of Twenty Voyages Around the Track. In return, he tells them about the thrux and how they originally cursed the city of Nircharstal.
When the thrux virators ordered the city of Nircharstal to be cursed, the sorcerers knew that it would be a great project, and would require a blueprint. The Chel Auxur-Dau is the blueprint. It is a massive book, covered in iron and weighing almost 20 pounds. The pages are weathered and blue, with a strange slick feeling to them, and covered in incomprehensible thrux magical writing. Each page of the Chel Auxur-Dau describes one of the demons in Old Nircharstal. The page holds the key to the demon's life, even more than it's binding stone. If one of the demons of Old Nircharstal draws close to the Chel Auxur-Dau, it's page will become hot to the touch. If a demon has the contents of it's page read to it, it will be destroyed, either bursting into flames or dissolving into goo. Reading the wrong page in the book to a demon will have no effect.
Abbek Choff claims that the Chel Auxur-Dau was held by the thrux sorcerer Tettek. After the thrux defeat at Augurn Plain, Tettek fled down into the Deep Bilges, where he has established himself in exile. Choff gives the characters directions for two different routes down to Tettek's refuge. One involves walking through the Warrens, and is a trip of eight to ten days. The second requires a trip out into the Garden to Dassurbal's Flute, and then a descent down the flute. Depending upon how the characters are able to travel, the journey down the flute might be shorter, if somewhat higher-risk.
As a final gift, Abbek Choff gives the characters five magical scrolls containing the spell Consume Thrux Slave, written in Parqui.
This spell was originally brought over from the world of Tua-Thrux. It causes terrible, withering injury to anyone who is subject to the will of the thrux. Valid targets include anyone with the disadvantages Duty or Sense of Duty towards any or all thrux, anyone with a thrux Patron, and anyone currently under the magical control of a thrux slavemaster. It cannot affect thrux themselves. Thrux are also unable to cast this spell, though they are able to learn it.
Each point of energy placed into the spell inflicts 1d+1 damage upon the target. DR does not help absorb this damage. If the spell is cast at a range, the damage is general body damage. If it is cast by a touch, a specific location can be targeted.
This is a Body Control spell.
Duration: instant
Cost: 1 per 1d+1 damage, maximum 3.
Time to Cast: 1 second.
Prerequisite: Four Body Control spells including Pain. Cannot be thrux.
The characters thank Abbek Choff, then head back to the city. They arrange for quarters at Culchichuk's rooming house, then Marik and Galen head back to Lakkemon's School of Sorcery to learn the Pain spell, which they need to know to be able to learn Consume Thrux Slave from the scrolls. They try to persuade Lakkemon to exempt Galen from the incredibly boring Introduction to Magic class, but fail. That costs 300 clavars and takes six days. The Pain spell takes another 200 clavars and six more days. While Galen sweats away his time in Introduction to Magic, Marik learns some other spells: Seek Air, Seek Earth and Seeker. All told, their studies take a total of eighteen days.
Gruul spends the time practicing drinking beer and throwing axes at his wall. He also makes arrangements to work with Gulwith, a Sangorn boxing master. Gulwith charges 25 clavars per day for individual instruction and 5 clavars per day for group instruction. He can teach Boxing and Shortsword skills, plus the maneuvers Feint, Slip, Riposte and Jab for Boxing, or Off-Weapon Fighting for Shortsword. Gruul puts one point each into Riposte and Slip.
On the 130th day (about halfway through their stay in Doorway City), the characters take some time off to go see the archery contest. They find that there are three categories: Drawn Bow, Crossbow and Javelin. Thrown Axe would normally be a category, but axes are currently a politically-sensitive weapon so Captain Turo left it off the bill.
Marik decides that he's going as a spectator, at a cost of 1 Red. Both Gruul and Galen join as crossbow competitors. There are a total of 70 competitors, but only 30 of them are militia members. Obviously, Joven is among the competitors in the drawn bow category. The characters immediately look him up to wish him well. Joven is totally petrified, even when the characters congratulate him upon finding a new job. When they ask him where the stork sorceress Kaifura went, he breathes out almost inaudibly that the last he saw of her she was heading towards Lin Vu Quo. The characters also tell him that they'd like to buy Ogango's Sparrow if he ever runs into the guy who's got it. They leave him by wishing him luck in the competition. He tells them that Tucufirinung is supposed to be quite the archer, to which Marik responds, "You'll kick his little hairy snaggle-toothed ass."
The characters also end up talking with Captain Turo, a heavy-muscled Sangorn who clearly wants them to join the militia. He explains that their entry fees will be refunded if they join the militia today, and if they do well in the competition they could get rated master right off. Gruul complains that he is a master of the axe, but has no way to demonstrate his skill in the competition today. Captain Turo confesses that he is constrained by political issues. Gruul is infuriated: "Whaat! Just show me a group of people you don't like, and I'll demonstrate what mastery of the axe looks like!"
The first round of the competition is the qualifying round. Each competitor takes nine shots (skill rolls against the appropriate weapon skill), and must make at least seven of them to continue. The subsequent rounds are elimination rounds, each of three shots. Half of the contestants are eliminated in each round, based upon their total score. Score is determined by making three skill rolls and adding up the total amount by which the competitor made the rolls. Failed rolls add zero points. Fumbled rolls result in immediate elimination.
Gambling is allowed, with bets taken for either winning or passing (surviving to the next round of the competition). A competitor is not allowed to bet on his own category, at least until he is eliminated.
Joven manages to beat Tucufirinung after a grueling three-round elimination. Gruul, Marik and Galen all win quite a bit of money betting on him.
Both Gruul and Galen manage to reach the elimination rounds, but don't do well after that. Neither of them manages to make it to the second elimination round. Marik places a lot of bets upon the bausker Chafuguluruun, who eventually loses out to the Sangorn human Tullug. Gruul (who bet on Tullug) is quite satisfied with himself. Galen ends up winning two and a half White clavars, and buys drinks for everyone else.
The session ends on the 139th day of the 3086th Stay. The characters are ready to head out into the Garden and descend down Dassurbal's Flute. Each character gains three experience points.