Paul (Marik) decides that he must go to Dallas to obtain a rare cat and Tim (Antok Six-Hearted) heads off to spend time with his family, leaving the rest of us somewhat diminished. Chuck (Galen), Chris (Gruul) and Bruce resolve to carry on as best they can, and Mike (mar-Wyf sif-Del sif-Tur sif-Firil Glenwyf and Skeeter) chooses to help.
The scene opens with Marik and Galen walking up the slopes of the tayfal mines at Drumbek, towards the dugun outlaw vul-Helten Osk. The characters are fresh from their victory over three huge garrab, and accompanied by the aristocratic tsian mar-Wyf sif-Del sif-Tur sif-Firil Glenwyf, who is operating under an illusion disguise of an outlander to keep the renegade dugun from making any overly hasty actions.
Before anything can get too much under way, Gruul arrives on the scene. They bear an important piece of news: he has discovered that several Venturer merchants of the less-reputable ("Belgian") kind have arrived in Eohel with the more or less explicit idea of purchasing as many dugun slaves as they can find. This isn't going over well with the tsians, who regard the dugun more as their dependents than their property. There is some fear among the more respectable merchants that desh-Ausef Shesh may take action against the outlanders soon. When that happens, it might not be a good idea to be a foreigner in Eohel. The other characters are appropriately appreciative of Gruul's news. They move from the political situation to a short discussion on the sorts of goods that they would like to purchase from the locals, and the sorts of prices they would like to pay. At the end of the conversation, they agree to send Marik and Antok Six-Hearted back to Eohel to make arrangements and monitor the situation.
During his time in Eohel, Gruul arranged with the tsian aristocrat pfaf-Tassef sif-Tansan sif-Firil Jiruj ("George") to purchase a fine composite bow for 2700 scepters (local silver currency). This is a price 25% lower than normal for a fine weapon.
The characters finish with their internal debates to find that Vul-Helten Osk has waited patiently for them to pay attention to him again. He has been watching them from the lip of the canyon, his niece geth-Helten Geta seated beside him. He floors them by explaining, "Once I got my MBA, the world opened up to me. I'm starting wars in Third World nations, developing anthrax, and conquering obscure ethnic groups." It takes the group a little while to understand that he is actually channeling some sort of strange extra-spatial consciousness. The characters use a few gestures to persuade him to put on a Tongue-Twisting Circlet and get down to the business of their visit. Gruul tells Osk that he and his companions are all outlanders from Yaggo's Boat, and that they are very interested in the local spiral-woven fabric. They want a loom, some samples of the cloth, and possibly some artisans who wouldn't mind emigrating to the boat. Gruul indicates that the characters have previously heard that Osk might know some folks who could obtain a loom, or who might know how to use them.
Osk scratches his balding pate, looks at the desolate landscape and tells the characters, "It strikes me as odd that you would look here for a loom. Or cloth. We do not have any nice things like that here at Drumbek." Gruul tells Osk a little bit about the political conflicts in the Forward Gallery, specifically the ongoing conflict between Prince Gufteng and Doorway City, and how it has created significant taxation problems with bringing goods through the area. He tells Osk, "We don't want slaves, we want business partners."
Sensing that Osk is not convinced, Gruul starts telling him about life inside Yaggo's Boat. He tells the dugun that some parts of the boat are quite dangerous, while others are safe. He describes the Garden as safe, and the Bilges and Warrens as very dangerous. Other characters interrupt ever so often to give their own opinions on Gruul's comments, the Boat, and the concepts of "safe" and "dangerous." Gruul goes on to describe the city-states that rule over the Forward Gallery, and draws a small map to show how getting anything past the tax collectors in both Prince Gufteng's territory and Doorway City is so very difficult. Galen takes over the description of the Garden and its hazards. This whole process is made rather more difficult by the fact that while both Galen and Gruul are quite expert in the subjects they describe, neither of them are much at storytelling. Their stories are uniformly uninspired in a way that makes them despair of convincing Osk of anything good.
As it happens, Osk seems to take a shine to Galen, and makes appreciative comments about the Garden and how it sounds like a pleasant place. He is much more intimidated by Gruul, who inadvertently makes the Forward Gallery sound like a horrible place of endless blazing light and constant bloodshed.
When the characters end their tale, Osk returns the favor by telling his story. He tells them that once he was a simple weaver, working in a shop underneath his tsian masters. All that changed when he was granted a message of inspiration from Eafa. His voice becomes messianic as he describes how Eafa told him that the dugun were the Chosen Folk, and that he was the one to lead them to freedom. From that day, he ceased to work to benefit the tsians, and he called only Eafa his master. He escaped into the wilderness and learned the secrets of surviving in the uplands from his savage brethren, and he has now returned to liberate the dugun. His disdain for tsians is quite obvious.
Gruul listens to Osk's story. He suppresses his need to share until the end, when he tells the story of the long march of the demek people to freedom. He omits the fact that he cannot stand his own family, and has never closely associated himself with the demek race.
By the time Osk has finished telling his story, the characters understand that he is willing to deal with them. He tells them that he has under his guardianship hundreds of former miners, many of them in family groups. Some of them have worked the mines for generations, but most of them were sent to Drumbek as punishment and have other skills from their old lives. He explains that he does not have a loom and never learned how to make one (the tsians do not teach that knowledge to their dugun weavers), but agrees to talk to the others to see if any of them have weaving skills or know where a spiral loom could be found.
Osk also makes it clear to the characters that he has a mission to accomplish, and that he will not go with them to the Boat. His allies among the savages (who brought the garrab and who were responsible for liberating the mines in the first place) also will not go to the Boat, as they want to return to their tribes in the uplands. He tells the characters that he will walk among the miners who will go and find leaders among them, leaders who can deal with the characters and hold the loyalty of the others. The characters offer their thanks and allow Osk to go back into the mines and speak to the dugun. They wait in the mouth of one of the caves until he returns.
Osk returns after a while, bringing three other dugun with him:
Shortly after the characters are introduced to the leaders among the mines, Glenwyf gets a brief glimpse of a chunky human with pale skin scaling the cliff on the other side of the canyon. He quickly loses sight of the man, but thinks enough of it to warn the others. The characters initially suspect that they might have seen a highlander, but decide to ask Osk about it.
Osk listens to their description and decides that whatever they saw, it wasn't one of his people. And it probably wasn't a tsian either. He fetches a group of savages to search the ravine. When the savages arrive, Glenwyf looks at their long hair and braided beards and is immediately certain that whatever he saw, it wasn't one of them.
The search parties head out in two directions, one group at either end of the mines. The characters join the group heading across the upper stretch of the ravine. Their companions are two hunters and one master hunter armed with a composite bow.
The characters reach the midpoint of the ravine without seeing anything. Galen gets a bad feeling, so he casts Sense Danger. He immediately has an even worse feeling. The characters move more slowly, alert for threats. Gruul sees what looks like a Living Weapon in armor hiding behind a tree and moves to intercept. The other characters follow suit, and swiftly find themselves in a game of cat-and-mouse with three Living Weapons (armed with maces, axes and armored in scale), one sorcerer and several hidden bauskers armed with crossbows. By the end of it, two of the Living Weapons have been cut to pieces, one Living Weapon has been torn apart by garrab, the sorcerer Ont has been captured less an arm, and one bausker sniper has been killed by Galen's Distant Blow magic. The characters know that at least one other bausker sniper managed to get away from them. They have also watched the spectacle of a dugun "master hunter" unable to spot a sniping bausker to save his life, even after he gets shot by one of them. One of the dugun hunters was hurt very badly, and Grenwyf put out his back, but the other characters are largely unharmed.
Galen notes that the dugun hunters don't appear to be particularly good at fighting. Or tracking. He speculates that dugun hunting techniques involve using the slowest member of the tribe as bait. Other characters suggest that the dugun must only hunt very large, slow prey animals.
Galen heals the wounded dugun. He gives Ont just enough healing to ensure that the magician doesn't bleed to death from the stump of his severed arm. He then takes a better look at the fellow. The sorcerer is wearing heavy bronze armor and carrying a couple of potions. He is Paturki human, and looks though he might be from the Ecularium in Doorway City. The characters gag him then send the master hunters off to track the escaping bauskers.
Two master hunters set off to follow the bauskers. They return a short time later to report that the bauskers went to a camp of about thirty people, all of them outworlders. The dugun say that most of them looked like slaves: they were carrying big packs of stuff, almost too heavy for them to carry. They were able to see maybe five other bauskers. Most of the ones who were not bauskers or slaves were heavily tattooed. The characters gather that the tattooed ones were probably Living Weapons.
The characters turn to Ont, who proves more than willing to tell them everything he knows. He says he's working for Grunvey Jhegg, a Paturki trader and a Venturer. Grunvey Jhegg's expedition was out looking for gemstones: he had learned that savages had taken the mines, and thought that it might be possible to sneak in and make off with enough stones too make a tidy profit. The characters speculate that Jhegg might actually be a slaver, then dismiss this notion on the basis that everyone they had encountered was armed with lethal weaponry, but nothing good for subdual.
Eager to demonstrate his sincerity, Ont also claims that Jhegg can get all sorts of stuff past the guards at the ramps. He indicates that Jhegg is a very influential person, and has all manner of pull with Prince Gufteng. The characters don't buy this at all. They ask a much simpler question: "Can we find him in a half-day?" Ont doesn't know the answer to this question, but the characters decide that a caravan of thirty or forty people shouldn't be too hard to follow.
Even a master hunter can follow the trail left by Grunvey Jhegg's people. The characters make good time running them down. An hour after they start along the trail, they find their way blocked by a single armored figure, his axe and shield ready. He is obviously a Living Weapon.
The man glares at them. "I am Gaffad!" The characters and their dugun companions stop dead, comfortably out of his striking range. He goes on: "I am Gaffad! I was of Tumbrel's Plaza until I slew Tumbrel with my own blade! I am Gaffad! No man is master to me, but I am master to many! I am Gaffad!" The characters listen to him vent for a while He has quite the ferocious-looking pot helm and speaks of himself in third person a lot.
The characters quietly debate various approaches to getting him out of their way until Ont speaks up. They listen with interest as Ont mentions that Gaffad is quite willing to pervert his own sense of honor. This appeals instantly to the characters. They offer him 500 clavars, plus 75 clavars for each of his six men, to work for them. He agrees promptly. The characters are rather entertained by the notion that they have just hired away Grunvey Jhegg's security, and at a bargain rate, though they are none too confident that Gaffad (whom they suspect may have killed every boss he has ever had) will stay loyal to them for long.
With Gaffad at their side, the characters continue on the trail.
Not too long after their meeting with Gaffad, the characters find Grunvey Jhegg's caravan. It is clear that the caravan is not making very fast time because their train of twenty Folk is burdened so heavily that they cannot manage much more than a slow shuffle. Living Weapons walk alongside the Folk, and bauskers scurry about in clusters all through the group, drawing the occasional dispirited glare from the Folk.
A single Paturki separates himself from the mass and walks back to speak to the characters. He introduces himself as Jelf. He explains that he is able to speak for Grunvey Jhegg, who isn't able to speak to the characters at the moment. Both Gruul and Galen, on the forefront of the discussion, find that they have an immediate liking for Jelf, though they don't really understand why.
The conversation continues until Glenwyf, who hadn't been talking to Jelf and hadn't been particularly interested in him, notices a bausker in the underbrush along the side of the trail. He gets the other characters' attention. They are quickly able to determine that there are actually eight bauskers around them, all of them pointing crossbows. The characters look questioningly at Jelf, who smiles and shrugs.
With his ambush uncovered, Grunvey Jhegg emerges and approaches the characters. The characters decide to talk to him before they kill him. They explain that they need to get several hundred dugun into the Garden, and they think that he has the connections necessary to get them through Prince Gufteng's customs officials. Grunvey Jhegg immediately understands that the characters want to sell hundreds of dugun into slavery, and starts to negotiate on that basis. The characters don't bother to correct this impression. Jhegg claims that a dugun slave will bring a price of at least 300 clavars on the boat. He proposes to get the characters and their dugun through for 7500 clavars, approximately 10% of their "market value". The characters agree to this total, and even off to give him a 2500 clavar bonus if everything works out. However, they are quite particular about how he is going to get paid. They give him 1500 clavars on the spot, with another 1500 clavars after he gets the dugun through the first customs checkpoint and the balance only after everyone gets to the Garden.
With this deal concluded, Galen mentions to Gruul, "I have a bad feeling about this…" Gruul explains to Galen, "Don't you see? We get the pleasure of killing him if he steps out of line." Galen agrees that this really makes perfect sense.
The characters agree to meet with Jhegg at the ruins where the soup-selling Faians are, in fifteen days. They tell him that they will have the dugun with them. The characters wave goodbye to him and head back towards Drumbek. Gaffad takes this moment to show unusual loyalty to an employer and stays with Jhegg. Gruul throws a Green clavar at the guy's feet in disgust.
On the way back to Drumbek the characters discuss the problem of moving several hundred escaped dugun laborers through tsian territory without running afoul of the local officials. Grenwyf nominates himself as the leader of this effort, pointing out that the dugun are accustomed to following tsians, and that the tsians will be more willing to accept a group of dugun led by a tsian than one led by outlanders.
During this discussion, Galen starts referring to Jhegg as "Groovy Jheggy." The other characters accept this nickname instantly.
Back at Drumbek, vul-Helten Osk tells the characters that he has found two dugun among his people who worked as weavers in a workshop near Eohel. They think that there are looms there that can be taken. The two dugun will help the characters take a loom, and will provide a layout of the place, but they want the characters to promise that none of the tsians there will be hurt. The characters are understandably concerned with this request, especially after the dugun explain that there are twenty tsian in the household.
Gruul tells Osk about the idea of using a tsian to lead the dugun to the boat. Osk is not very happy about this idea, but eventually acquiesces. He tells Gruul to try to think of another plan, urging him to remember, "You should be proud! You are acting as the arm of Eafa!"
Galen gathers together the dugun leaders Isaac, Carl and Tim. He teaches them some simple phrases in Market Tongue, and some common safety tips for life in the Garden. He urges them to teach this to their people.
The session ends with the characters camped out at Drumbek, discussing their plans for bringing the dugun into the Garden and creating a new Faian nation. Each character gains three experience points.