Attendance is flawless. Perfect. Without blemish or stain. Chuck (Galen) wanders by, followed on by Paul (Marik) and Tim (Antok Six-Hearted). Bruce is waiting there for the lot of them. Chris decides that he does not wish to subject his digestive system to the rigors of our typical lunch, so he joins us later on. Or was that last week, I can't remember.
The characters start off at the base of Dassurbal's Flute. They say their good-byes to their Ungulfinling guides and start climbing. As they start their ascent back into the Garden they already know that the 3086th Stay has ended. By the time they reach Doorway City, it is the 9th day of the 3087th Voyage.
By the time the characters have come into view of the gates of Doorway City they already know that something has changed: the gates are closed and heavily guarded. They quickly learn of several new developments from the guards. Most important, there is a new assessment in Doorway City. The Electors have decreed that all property must be assessed in anticipation of a 10% tax. The tax will be collected at the end of the Voyage. To minimize tax evasion, the Electors have already arranged for the silence of all well-known local augurs, so few folks in the city know when the Voyage is going to end.
The characters are understandably appalled to hear all this. Their horror only deepens when they learn that there is also a 20% sales tax in effect. There is no tax upon food, but all food sales must be registered through the Electors' Council. There has been some price gouging and unregistered food sales. The Electors responded to this problem by executing several food-hoarders in the Electors' Plaza. Since then, the situation has calmed down quite a bit. The characters by now have become aware that there are no street peddlers selling dumplings and soup anywhere in sight.
Despite their dismay, the characters make a point of not bothering the guards. For their part, the guards are equally polite, aware that the characters are well-equipped with bright blades and strong armor. The guards tell them that they can find an assessor at the Electors' Plaza, and that they must get their property evaluated in the next five days.
Marik tells the guard, "Thank you for providing this information. We will find an assessor shortly, and report back to you when we determine our final resting place." He tells the guards that the group may end up staying at "the rooming-house with all the axe-marks." The characters imagine the conversation between the tax collector and Culchichuk when the time to collect the money comes around: "Who made these, ma'am?" "One of my upstairs boarders. He's a fantastically strong homicidal gorilla, but I think he's rich."
On a final note, the gate guards make Antok Six-Hearted sign up on the militia rolls. They neglect to charge the characters any sort of gate-toll.
The characters head across the city to Ulgutulgun's. The little bausker blacksmith is very happy to see them, chirping out, "You back! Is so good! So good to see you back in city! So good for city!" He assures the characters that their six crates of ancient Sangorn porcelain has already been assessed, albeit as "old pottery" worth only 2 clavars per kilogram. There is a total of 300 kilograms of the stuff. The listed owners are Marik and Gruul.
Ulgutulgun tells the characters several other tidbits of interesting news. The Venturer Hall Warden Cull Yanag has spurned the Venturers' traditional relationship with the Red Pikes and contracted with the Thousand-Flag Gultel Chu to provide security for the Venturer traders in the upcoming Stay. Things are getting hard in Prince Gufteng's lands as well, as Gufteng's Minister of Finance has raised all taxes. Even beyond that, the Minister of Boulevards has raised the residence fees again, approximately tripling them. Folk doubt that many of the Boulevard-dwellers in Gufteng's realm will be able to pay. On a happier note, the Kupri aristocrat Padura Vyn has announced that he will again sponsor two chariot teams next Stay. Even though his drivers did poorly last season, race experts think that he might have a better chance this time: the recent hardships will narrow the field, forcing some syndicates to drop out of contention.
The characters ask about assessors who can be greased. Ulgutulgun suggests that one of his kinsmen, Tchircuchul, might be a good choice. As normal for bauskers, he indicates that the characters should talk to his matriarch Yachircuchek if they want to talk to Tchircuchul.
Ulgutulgun is none too optimistic about the future: he thinks that Gufteng will destroy the entire Forward Gallery, noting that, "Gaurmen are just like that." Galen listens to the little bausker then comments to the others, "I think we should do our business and go back to the Garden where things are safer." Gruul adds, "And tax-free." Marik leans back on a cushion and opines, "I don't buy the whole 'Gufteng will destroy everything because that's his nature' argument, at least not in this game. Things usually happen for a sensible reason around here. And while I'm on the subject, what's with all these pseudo-feudal townsfolk with a good understanding of free-market dynamics, anyhow?"
Their hearts set upon massive tax evasion, the characters head over to Yachircuchek's clinic. They find the building strangely deserted. Wooden slats cover over the wide entrances to the clinic. There are no patients visible at all. Things look very, very wrong. Then the characters notice three guys in similar armor lazing around on a bench at the other end of the building, near the entrance to Culchichuk's rooming-house. All three of them are all Sangorn humans.
The characters approach the men and ask what's going on. The men explain that the building is now a barracks, housing a company of the militia. The soldiers don't know if the building owners are getting paid for the inconvenience, but they do know that there are lots of squirrel-things living in the other half of the building. Gruul tells the other characters, "Isn't is great that every race on Yaggo's boat knows what a squirrel is?"
The group approaches one of the closed entries. Gruul knocks on one of the slats. Very obligingly, it moves aside, but Gruul doesn't see anybody there. Until he remembers to look down to see a bausker looking back up at him with beady eyes.
The characters are quickly brought to Yachirchuchek. Along the way, they notice that very little healing is happening in the clinic. Instead, the place has become a huge bausker warren. Yachirchuchek looks like she has been under considerable stress recently, and she is willing to offer up a litany of her problems with almost no prompting on the part of the characters. Foremost are the soldiers, who have completely taken over the rooming-house. The Electors' Council claims that rent will be paid, but she has yet to see any large sum of money for her troubles. Galen mumbles to the other characters, "They're probably doing well on the gambling. And of course there are also the bausker prostitutes. It's like Korea." Beyond that, she's had to shut down the clinic because all of her people with training in healing are out on the walls, caring for the soldiers. And to top it off, she's got all the rest of her relatives stuffed into the clinic rooms to keep them off the street and away from the press-gangs.
She complains rather loudly, "Bauskers support the weight of the city. Those tall Sangorns, they act like they own the place. The big Faians, they strut around like lords of the world. But the whole place would fall apart without the little bauskers!" Galen (himself one of the "big Faians") muses, "Hmmm, so we're going to lead a bausker uprising in the city?"
The characters talk to Yachircuchek and her niece Tchircuchul for a while on the subject of getting some favorable assessments of their property. While they negotiate, Marik sits down and does several auguries. He learns that the 3087th Voyage will be only 21 days long and that the next world will be Eafa. The characters don't know a lot about the place, except that it is known for crafted goods and clever architecture. Marik estimates that the say will be short, only 34 days long.
By the time Marik is done, the negotiations are over. Tchircuchul has explained to them that the Electors already know that bauskers will bend over backwards for their own relatives, and that this is a time when there is substantial risk of corruption amongst the assessors, so she isn't able to do much for the characters without unacceptable risk. However, she understands that their situation is different, and might deserve special treatment. For 300 clavars, she offers to get them an introduction to the Elector Romas Anadun. She is confident that he will be amenable to some negotiated solution: "He is human, like you!"
The characters follow Tchircuchul to the Electors' Palace and spend some time waiting for the Elector to agree to see them. Soon enough, they are led into the Electors' Hall to see the familiar face of the Elector Romas Anadun. He appears to have taken Gruul's previous warning to heart, as he now has a dozen bodyguards including two magicians scattered about the room.
The Elector is initially none too willing to give the characters special tax breaks, until they start hauling out the magical items they propose to pay their obligation with. These include the Ravager Club (+2 Puissance against Outsiders of Yaggo, cannot be used by an Outsider), Tettek's Robes, the Rainmaking Amulet, Arcul Vok's Black Blade (+2 Puissance shortsword), and the book Essences of Sensation. Elector Anadun and Marik head off to a side room to discuss the exact terms while the other characters wait in the main hall and make idle chitchat with the bodyguards.
After two hours with no sign from either of them, the rest of the group and a couple of very concerned bodyguards go to see what happened. They find that both the Elector and the twisted little paurkend overestimated their capacity for wine: the two of them drank each other under the table.
Everyone agrees to call off the negotiations out of embarrassment. The characters hand over the five items listed above. In return, Elector Anadun gives them a rather shakily-written receipt claiming that they have met all of their property tax commitment. After which he falls over with a solid thud.
Confident that he can spend some time in Doorway City without being accused of tax evasion, Marik heads to the marketplace to sell off a bunch of spellbooks for 955 clavars. With the proceeds, he goes shopping. And the local dealers in magical books rub their hands with glee. He buys the Book of Banishment (containing the Banish spell) for 400 clavars, picking up a custom case for it for only 200 clavars more. 400 clavars more gets him The Book of Summoning (containing Summon Demon).
Galen follows Marik's example, purchasing The Far-Armed Strike (Distant Blow, 200 clavars). The two of them spend the next several days learning spells. And Marik sends out for a prostitute. What kind of prostitute? It doesn't matter, as long as she's willing to do business with a hunchbacked paurkend sorcerer with dwarfism.
The characters now face an interesting problem: where to stay. They can't live at Culchichuk's rooming-house thanks to all the soldiers, and they want more privacy than they can get at Ulgutulgun's place. They decide that there are high odds that other rooming-houses and inns in Doorway City have suffered the same fate as Culchichuk's, so there's no sense in even looking at them.
Then they realize the answer to their problems: Igway Rufo's old fortress. They head over to check the place out. They find that nobody lives there anymore, not even a few squatters. Gruul finds another nearby building that is obviously occupied by squatters and asks them why nobody lives in the building. The squatters tell him, "Nobody there because of the evil spirits." Gruul presses, "What did the spirits do?" The squatter looks both ways very carefully and responds, "They came in one night and murdered the owner and everyone else inside." Gruul grins, and the squatter flees into the shadows.
The characters make their way through the place, clearing up the debris. Gruul finds a galley rat (a creature about two feet long) in the cart-house and kills it. This injects a bit more caution into the search. The characters manage to locate a total of nine more of the things in the building, prompting Gruul to indulge in something of a galley rat massacre. Marik watches his progress from a window, idly casting spells at the rats and commenting, "Well, they don't seem to be thrux slaves. Except that one." Gloosh...
In the course of the Great Galley Rat Hunt both Antok and Gruul make a point of practicing some of their lesser-known martial skills. Antok does his best with Spell Throwing (ice dagger), while Gruul draws out his great golem bow and tries archery. Marik notices Gruul's accuracy and comments, "I'm moving. I don't think I trust you with one of those things." It takes the characters a day to clear out the rats and clean the place up enough that it doesn't smell of death and rot. Antok helps this latter process along with several castings of Purify Air. Much of the rest of the mundane cleanup is gone by a gang of bauskers Gruul hires. He also gets them to seal all the doors except for the front door and the roof hatch. As a final touch, the characters obtain some cheap furniture. Total cost is only 200 clavars.
The characters live in their new residence for the next twelve days, until the end of the current Voyage. Current food cost is 3 clavars per day for subsistence, 10 clavars to eat well. The characters decide to eat well and pay the higher rate. As usual, Marik's expenses are somewhat higher: he adds on 40 clavars/day for prostitutes, and insists that he have a private room. He displays disturbingly little preference for specific race. The other characters make tsking noises while they're not cracking impolite jokes asking how he can feel anything with DR 2 on his pecker. And then Antok realizes (with horror) that he's developed human desires since the last time he was around a large female population. His daily living expenses shoot up to 50 clavars a day.
Marik is overjoyed to discover that one of the girls he spends a lot of time with knows how to cook. He learns this by returning home to find her slicing up the remains of a galley rat over a pot. She tells him, "We used ter have rat all the time. Rat stew, rat kabob, rat steak, rat fricassee, rat tempura, rat sausages, rat-tatooie, rat nuggets, rat croquets, stuffed rat, rat boil, rat tart, rat tartar, and more. Here, have some rat stew."
Marik spends his working time learning to summon and banish demons, reasoning that this will come in handy later on when the characters move on Old Nircharstal's demon population. He decides that he must test his skills by summoning up a really weak demon. Not being totally daft, he has all the other characters standing by with drawn weapons in case things start to get out of hand.
His control is quite impressive, as he manages to call up a demon with ST 5, DX 13, IQ 7, HT 15/16, PD/DR 1/2, Flying at Move 16, three arms and two needle-like swords doing ST+1 cutting (base damage of 1d-5, increased to 1d-4). It looks like an overgrown mosquito armed with a pair of barbecue skewers. Unfortunately, the characters don't know this because it also has the power of Invisibility. And then it manages to resist Marik's attempts to control it.
It goes for the eyes.
All manner of chaos breaks out.
It starts with Marik, savagely trying to blind him as he concentrates upon a Banish. Antok gets its attention by spearing it. Finally, Gruul wades in with his massive mace, laying about wildly until he connects, squashing the thing into the wall in a slash of gook. Marik looks at the ruins of his demon and complains to Gruul, "Why did you have to do that? I was just about to banish it!" Gruul grumbles and stomps off.
With the excitement of demon-summoning behind him, Gruul spends 50 clavars getting the golem bows reworked so he can use them with proper accuracy. His new weapons in hand, he buys a barrel of beer and spends the next twelve days (until the end of the Voyage) throwing axes into the now heavily-scarred wooden wall he left at Culchichuk's so long ago. Inspired by this sight, Galen joins him with another barrel and practices with the Distant Blow spell. Antok follows suit with a third barrel and practices throwing the ice daggers created by his new magical amulet.
All of this activity has some quantity of impact upon the increasingly nervous soldiers quartered in Culchichuk's rooming-house, but none of them have enough courage to ask the characters to stop. They content themselves with occasional frightened glances out the windows to make sure that the characters have not decided to take their target practice "to the next level."
The session ends on the 21st day of the 3087th Voyage, just before Yaggo's Boat docks at Eafa. Each character gains three experience points. Gruul spends one point on Musical Instrument (Ukulele), triumphantly exclaiming that he now has at least one skill that has nothing to do with killing people. The other characters point out that while that may be so, it still has everything to do with hurting people.