It is the beginning of the end for Tim's semester, so he decides that passing his classes is more important than hanging around with the rest of us layabouts: Chris (Gruul), Paul (Marik), Chuck (Arnoux Urag), and Bruce.
The session begins with the characters back at Ulgutulgun's shop, the morning after their battle with Igway Rufo and his minions.
The evening before, the characters left the injured Zatulph warrior Shulbo Zubo tied up at Igway Rufo's Doorway City redoubt. They only remembered him after they returned from an attempt to follow Rufo through the Bilges. A quick trip back to the redoubt found him missing. Arnoux Urag notices that someone left ten Red clavars where Zubo had been. He comments, "Well, he's oorthoi meat now. At least the oorthoi are an honest people." The other characters resolve to stay away from sausages for a while.
The characters wake up at Ulgutulgun's place. It is Seersday morning, the 32nd day of the 3086th Stay. Based upon Marik's augury, there are 218 days remaining in the Stay. Gruul suggests finding a place to stay and something to do for the next 25 days, while the characters wait for Ulgutulgun to finish their weapons orders. As a side precaution, he also proposes purchasing about 45 days' worth of food. Always interested in saving money, the characters decide to purchase compost from Jomon the filth-dealer, and then use Marik's spells to transform it into edible food.
The characters also need living quarters, and don't want to sleep in Ulgutulgun's side tent for the entire time. Reflecting that the bauskers are the only people they seem to get along with, the characters talk to Ulgutulgun to get some recommendations on folk who might be able to rent them a room. They suggest that they'd like to rent from someone honest, someone who owns a real building. Ulgutulgun quickly suggests that the matriarch (and healer) Yachircuchek has a big stone building, and that one of her nieces rents out rooms in it.
The characters decide that this sounds like a good opportunity, especially considering that Yachircuchek is a healer (a talent the characters feel they are likely to need often). Her building is about a block from the Electors' Palace, and looks like it was once a barracks: it is two stories high, with solid-looking stone walls and lots of narrow windows. Yachircuchek mixes her poultices and treats patients from one end of the building, where the door has been widened out to create an open-air clinic. The characters find her easily, and explain what they want. She directs them to the proper niece, an obese bausker named Culchichuk.
Culchichuk tells the characters that all the rooms for hire are on the second floor. She will charge them 50 clavars for 100 days (with no discounts for early departure). This money gets the characters two 4 meter by 6 meter rooms. The characters accept her offer. She shakes Marik's hand, telling him, "Here are rules - don't murder anyone, don't disturb other tenants, don't set building on fire." The characters promise to do their best to follow these rules, though they think the first one might be tough.
A good (-2 penalty to Lockpicking) lock for the rooms costs them another 100 clavars. The characters pay the money eagerly.
Arnoux Urag notices that Yachircuchek has several magical potions available, and trades his Sand Jet Spellstone for an Ares potion.
A bucket of compost from Jomon costs two Red fragments. Marik finds that the can turn it into a sort of stew filled with mercifully-unrecognizable objects. The stuff is slightly better tasting than raw uru, but not that much better. Seeking a more appetizing diet, the characters spend a full Red clavar to buy a bucket of higher-grade (all-vegetable!) compost, which Marik is able to turn into two fairly-acceptable vegetable cakes. The characters arrange to have Jomon deliver them thirteen barrels of high-grade compost (each barrel contains 20 buckets) over the next forty-five days. They agree to a price of eighteen clavars per barrel, 240 clavars for the whole lot. The characters pay up front, and persuade Jomon to deliver the barrels to Culchichuk's boarding house.
Marik thinks that he might be able to sell his vegetable cakes, so the characters spend an additional 20 clavars to buy another barrel for him to fool with.
The characters settle down into their new home and wait, filling their time with a variety of hobbies.
Marik decides that he wants to learn some additional spells. He heads over to Lakkemon's School of Sorcery, a fairly substantial institution housed in a tent complex at the edge of the Market Plaza. The headmaster is Lakkemon, a very mercantile-minded paurkend magician. He requires that Marik take the six-day Introduction to Magic class at a cost of 300 clavars before he can learn any specific spells. Marik sits his way through the class, bored to tears. He is very aware that all of his classmates are extremely young (he learns that most of them spend much more than six days in the Introduction to Magic).
With the "prerequisite" out of the way, each spell Marik learns takes him six days of instruction and another 200 clavars (provided that Marik can put up the experience points for the spell). He spends twenty-four days and 900 clavars learning Mental Stun, Forgetfulness and Madness. He spends another 600 clavars to buy the Formal School Robes (with gold facing). And another 100 clavars for special tailoring (at the last minute, so the robes will fit over his hunchback). Sensing a tremendous business opportunity, Lakkemon also tries to sell him a school ring, but Marik manages to muster up enough force of will to turn down the offer. Lakkemon is quite disappointed.
During his time at the school, Marik also manages to spend an additional 300 clavars on trinkets, pastries for all his classmates class, and other necessary expenses. The local pastry vendors are deeply saddened to see Marik complete his studies.
Much to the other characters' amusement, Marik wears his formal School Robes all the time. To his dismay, he finds that this doesn't cause the lady paurkend to mob him. A little voice in the back of his head keeps on suggesting that if he bought the School Ring, he'd have to beat them off with a stick. When Marik mentions this idea to the other characters, Arnoux jokes, "Sure, he'd need a stick. He just wouldn't be able to hit them..."
Gruul starts his vacation off with a trip to the cobbler to buy some new boots. He has them made specially: the left boot includes a hidden sheath for a dagger (+2 Holdout), while the right boot incorporates a hand axe sheath. They cost him 160 clavars, about twice the normal cost of boots.
His boots in hand, Gruul wanders the market buying hand axes. He patronizes every dealer he can find until he has manages to buy twelve of the things at a total cost of 720 clavars (50% higher than normal due to the troubled economic situation). A section of wooden wall from a burned-out tavern is much cheaper at only 5 clavars. The team of bauskers he hires to carry it to the back of Culchichuk's building costs him more, at 20 clavars.
Gruul props up his wall section outside Culchichuk's building and spends his time throwing axes at it. After a couple of days of this, Culchichuk comes by to complain that flying axes make her tenants nervous. Gruul agrees to move to a more secluded spot, takes to buying a tub of beer every day. He spends a total of twenty-five days practicing his Axe Throwing skills, for an average of ten hours per day (250 hours total). He gains a free point in Axe Throwing.
To provide a bit of spare change and some possible excitement on the side, Gruul makes it known to both Culchichuk and her aunt Yachircuchek that he is available for bodyguard work. He learns that Yachircuchek does a lot of charity work for other bauskers (though she charges whatever she can get from anyone else), and doesn't have much actual money available. In exchange for the odd bit of escort work, Yachircuchek gives him free food from her table.
Finally, Gruul decides to polish his image a bit. He gets his shield repaired (20 clavars), then hires a good artist to paint two images of the Bone Demek, one on the shield and one on a canvas shield cover. To go with the shield, he buys some potions from Yachircuchek: two Hercules potions (500 clavars) and four Chiron potions (480 clavars).
Finding himself with time to kill and money to spend, Arnoux does what comes naturally to him: he goes to a bar. Actually, he goes to every bar in the Market Plaza, and gets himself rip-roaring drunk. In his spare time, he stands next to Gruul and practices shooting crossbow bolts into Gruul's burned-out wall. Gruul lets this go on until he notices that half the time Arnoux is still so tipsy that half his shots go ricocheting off into the neighborhood.
Ulgutulgun is good to his word. On Riseday, the 57th day of the 3086th Stay, he delivers Gruul's fine axe and fine mace and Arnoux's fine saber.
Marik finds that his school chums at Lakkemon's are a surprisingly good source of information about the progress of Prince Gufteng's forces. He learns that the Main Keep at Sayoch Bounty has fallen. Most organized Sangorn resistance has ceased, leaving Prince Gufteng in de facto control of Sayoch Bounty. Considering the fierceness of the resistance, there have been surprisingly few atrocities.
On a more pessimistic side, Marik also learns that Gufteng's Seven Stones Brigade hasn't been paid for almost 50 days. The magician telling him the story gives great credit to their commander, the Thousand-Flag Juf Ergu, for being able to keep them under such good control. Marik chortles, "Maybe someone stole the payroll..." Gruul whispers into Marik's mind, "If your source knows the descriptions of the thieves, you might want to use Mental Stun and then run away."
As a side note, Marik remembers that the Seven Stones Brigade was originally responsible for breaking the outer walls at Sayoch Bounty, and that it suffered greatly for it's heroism.
Arnoux Urag learns some other interesting tidbits from his fellow bar habitués. One of them tells him that Tulgrey's Harness was taken from the cold, dead body of the Sangorn warrior Tafman Beg. Beg was slain by the gaurman Ten-Flag Hragbuch of the Seven Stones Brigade. Hragbuch was promptly promoted to Hundred-Flag for the deed (apparently, there were plenty of officer billets that had recently become available in that unit). Arnoux asks about Tulgrey's Harness, and is told that it is an ancient magical artifact, originally given to the Sangorn hero Tulgrey before his epic battles against the venomous Razor-Tongues. Tulgrey's victories allowed him to secure a safe home for the Sangorn around Sayoch Bounty. Tulgrey's Harness is reputed to make it's wearer almost unkillable. Arnoux notes that the key adjective appears to be "almost."
Gruul is able to tell the characters that ranks in Gufteng's army start with Standard-Bearer, then go to Ten-Flag and so on. Strangely, he was never given the office of Standard-Bearer.
The characters make some abortive attempts to sell some of their Sangorn pottery. After learning that selling anything to the Gaurgast is a painful exercise in bureaucracy, and that most of their demand is for Lin Vu Quo pottery anyway, they decide to wait for a while. They manage to figure out that the world of Firesky showed a good demand for Sangorn pottery the last time Yaggo stopped there, and that many augurs feel that a cluster shift bringing Yaggo closer to Firesky is due.
The characters decide to try and determine who is ultimately responsible for the various attacks against them. They ask a number of people and learn rather little, until they think of talking to the Faian gangster Sawuk Ehro. He thinks for a moment, then says, "Yeah, some scruffy Zatulph and a tough-looking gaurman who claimed to be an oil merchant came around asking if I'd seen you. But they weren't real polite and they didn't pay me 50 clavars like you're about to, so I didn't tell 'em anything." The characters dutifully pay him the money. For an additional 20 clavars, he also tells them that the merchant can be contacted at the Zatulph café just outside the flelling aerie.
The characters finally decide to try talking to Mournful Sara. They head over to the section of Stacks leading to the Sours. Along the way, they are intercepted by an aged Zatulph man who tells them his name is Yogen Affo. He offers a few words on Igway Rufo's past history, in particular bemoaning the fact that that generation had been so promising, up until the troubles started. He mentions that in addition to sending Rufo off to the Zullkreftsskul, a couple of his compatriots went to study with the Archivists. After Igway Rufo was dismissed from the Zullkreftsskul he severed his ties to the Zatulph community in Doorway City. He only reappeared recently, backed by a lot of money. He hired a lot of the young men and took them away from the Zatulph ghetto in Doorway City. Yogen Affo claims that he doesn't know what happened to most of them. The characters listen to the old man, then send him on his way.
The characters find the stairway leading up to Mournful Sara's realm without much trouble. Sitting at the base of the stairs is a foul-mouthed, diseased looking Kupri named Turk who is more than willing to offer his opinion on the characters' plan to head up the stairs: "Yu'r gonna get yerselfs fuckin' killed. Only two guys ever gone up there an' come back, tough-lookin' Zatulph sorcerer with a bunch a guys, and one gaurman. Tough-lookin'. Looked like a merchant, much as you can look like a merchant in half-plate. Next time I see ya, yer gonna have metal plates stapled to yer heds and yer gonna be moaning 'braaaains' for all yer werth."
Gruul takes an instant liking to the guy. He gives him a Yellow clavar and tells him, "If I ever host a party, I want you to be the entertainment." Turk glares at him, takes a pull from a filthy bottle, and belches extravagantly.
The characters head up the stairs. As they pass into the darkness, Gruul asks the others, "You guys have lux gems?" Arnoux's self-important tones float back, "No. I have Night Vision." Gruul responds, "But I don't." Marik senses that Gruul might be close to clubbing Arnoux in the head, so he pulls out a lux gem and chirps, "Here! Isn't this better!" Gruul grunts, "Yeah. Now gimme one of them things too."
The stairway is cluttered with little scampering zombie rat and bat things. Gruul accidentally steps on one. "Even the oorthoi are cleaner than this!" Marik: "I would trust myself to eat one of these before that sausage you bought." Gruul ignores him.
The characters make it to the top of the stairs without being slaughtered by zombies, though they do notice that the creatures start to gather around them in silent crowds after a while. They are finally intercepted first by another of the undead spider-things, and then by an alabaster-white paurkend named Wulk who listens to their request and agrees to take them to Mournful Sara.
The route to Mournful Sara's audience chamber passes through what Marik takes to be Yaggo's Boat's only armory completely manned by the undead. The characters watch as zombies work tirelessly at anvils, pounding out sheets of armor plate, or at blazing open forges, melting down scrap metal. They watch more curiously as one zombie loses it's grip upon a large piece of metal scrap and falls into the forge. The creature pulls itself out, then stands about in confusion until it burns to ash. Wulk notes the characters' interest and scoffs, "Bah. That's just another one we'll have to replace." The characters notice that there are actually quite a large number of ash piles around the armory, each one presumably a burned-out zombie.
The characters are led into the presence of Mournful Sara, who proves to be a marginally well-preserved former human wearing a luxurious black wig. She is dressed in a gown of fine silk, and speaks in a brittle, husky Southern accent that contrasts rather oddly with her appearance. The characters learn that she has been leasing out her various minions to Igway Rufo for payments totaling 10,000 clavars. However, she claims to be willing to promise never to (knowingly) send minions after them again if the characters are able to bring her a specific magical artifact. She is interested in a device called the Parcyclan Gyre, once a possession of a rival of hers who died at Augurn Field. She thinks it very likely that the Gyre is still in his abandoned stronghold in the Garden (within 30 days' walk of Doorway City), and wants the characters to bring it back for her.
The characters agree to this bargain, with one addition: they make Mournful Sara agree that if she ever finds she has been tricked into sending minions after them, that she will wreak vengeance upon whoever hired her.
On the way back from Mournful Sara's lair, Marik casts Madness on Turk, driving him in to catatonia. He offers no particular explanation for this bit of malice beyond a certain annoyance towards the fellow.
The session ends with the characters preparing to head into the Garden to retrieve the Parcyclan Gyre. Each character gains three experience points.