The Knights of the Spoon

7Apr2014

After the aimlessness of the previous session, we started with a quick review of our possible options:

1. Attack the Rahib (who is not Hasan).
2. Investigate the room behind the curtain.
3. Descent into the Well of Lost Souls.
4. Leave and find a more interesting adventure.

The fourth option seemed unpopular with the DM, so we ran through the first three.

We decided first to try subterfuge and disguise, and get Alki and Tanara, who are elves, to check out the room behind the curtain relying on their disguise as Siswa and ability to speak Elvish (or Elven).  We went to that doorway, and they entered.  Beyond was a small, long chamber, with four Siswa sharpening large swords who glared at us but otherwise ignored us.  Apart from this, the room was bare, and uninteresting, so we left.

This left options 1 or 3.  We considered option three, but were concerned that someone would find our captives at some point and raise a hue and cry.  We might then be cut off in the lower level if they found our rope.  So we decided that we needed to bite the arrow and attack the Rahib in the temple.  We decided that we would enter en masse, disguised as Siswa, and get as close as possible before attacking to give him less time to use his spells.  The moment we were in range, or he appeared to be suspicious of him, Tanara would attempt to charm him and Titus would try and blind him with divine light.  If neither of these affected him then the rest would attack with cold steel.

We descended to the lower level using the teleport corridors and opened the door to the temple.  The Rahib was still there, so we advanced in.  As the door opened, it scraped the door and alerted him.  He turned, saw us, and raised his hands.  Before we could cast our spells, there was a flash and a cloud of smoke, and he disappeared.

We advanced into the room and had a look behind the altar.  We quickly discovered a trapdoor in the floor with a pull-ring.  Checking behind the statue, Oin’s stonecraft also found another, more cunningly concealed, trapdoor as well, and a pressure panel on the rear of the statue that opened it.  We descended this trapdoor, expecting that there was less chance the Rahib would be waiting for us in ambush, but after a half turn of a circular staircase it ended in a solid steel door that we were unable to open.

Returning to the temple, we opened the other trapdoor, which also descended via a staircase.  No ambush appeared forthcoming, so we descended into a smaller octagonal room, with doors on the south, east and west walls.  As we entered, a ghostly elven apparition appeared from the south door. Hasan recognised it as Rahasia’s father, Akbar. The ghost spoke to us, saying:

“By the Rahib’s hand was I here felled
And since, awaited you to come.
Rahasia’s pain I have dearly felt
But you have come to free her.
Hasan is in the dungeon south
My gold is toward the north.
An ally in the dragon guard
Waits before the gold.
The Rahib is just a pawn
A darker evil lies below.
The dragon guard knows the story
And guards the way below.”

We opened the south door, and were faced by four guards guarding a door in the other wall of the small room beyond.  We said that we had been sent by the Rahib to check on the prisoner, but one of the guards said that he was ordered to only allow people past if accompanied by the Rahib himself.  We argued briefly, but fruitlessly, so instead suddenly attacked, surprising them.  The fight was brief, as they didn’t take much punishment, even though we were holding our blows so as not to kill them.  Three were knocked unconscious, and the fourth surrendered, so we took their keys and opened the door beyond.  We found a room of cells, so bound the guards and locked them in a vacant cell.  In other cells we found Hasan, who was grateful to be rescued, and another human sellsword, called Baik Telor, who agreed to join us if we released him.  We questioned the conscious guard, and he told us that to the west was the kitchen and the portal to the dining hall under the courtyard, while to the east was the Rahib’s quarters.

We armed Hasan and Baik with the swords and chainmail of the guards and returned to the octagonal chamber.  We opened the east door and a corridor stretched out, ending in double doors flanked by single doors in each side wall at the far end.  We chose the northern door and opened it, expecting that the Rahib’s quarters would be behind the double doors.  Instead, the door opened into a library with a dark cloaked figure sitting at a table.  Both the Rahib and us were surprised, but we recovered first and charged in, a lucky blow from Hasan ruining the spell that the Rahib was in the process of casting.  Most of the rest of our blows were stopped by his armour though, and he dealt a savage blow to Alki in return with his mace.  We kept up a flurry of blows, and Hasan struck him repeatedly, but he was a tough customer.  Finally, as the Rahib began to back away from the fight, Tanara used the last magic missile in her ring of spells. The damage from those was enough to finally kill him.

We quickly grabbed his mace, and his armour, which was obviously enchanted given the amount of damage he had weathered, and also a large bunch of keys we found on him.  Then we searched the room in detail, but found the books to be of little interest.  In the niche in the north-east corner however, we found a secret door, which we opened…

We left the octagonal room down the corridor deeper into the mountain.  The corridor opened out with three small vaults on each side, and then continued, until we reached a cross-roads.  Far up ahead we though we could see some movement and lights, so we turned right down that featureless corridor.  After a while we glanced behind us and saw that the corridor behind us, up which we had just come, was now blocked by a stone wall.  We stopped and examined it, thinking that a panel might have slide soundlessly behind us, but it seemed to be a seamless part of the corridor.  Mere men might have panicked at this point, but as an elf Tanara was familiar with all forms of magic and glamour, and surmised that we had been teleported as we went down the corridor, and were now somewhere completely different in the mountain.  We drew out a new sheet of parchment and started mapping again.

This corridor led to another crossroads, and the corridor on the right ended in a dead end again.  We continued straight on, and there was a door in the left wall.  We peeked this open, and discovered a vast circular temple, with two other doors and a huge statue to the great old one.  In front of this was a altar with a black-robed figure attending to it.  Fortunately he didn’t observe us, and we shut the door and moved on.  The corridor continued and ended in another cross-roads, with two dead ends, and a corridor continuing to the left.  We proceeded up this corridor, but Bryan’s observant eyes discerned something strange up ahead – a sudden lack of clarity in the view.  We probed and realised that a gelatinous cube was advancing towards us.  We turned and ran back down the corridor, checking occasional to see that it was still following us.  We turned right, and then right again, putting a fair distance between the cube and ourselves.  At this point we came to a pair of doors, one on each side of the corridor.  The doors on the right were probably the ones we had seen in the circular temple, so we cracked open the ones on the left.  We realised that they were guarded on the far side by a warrior with a drawn sword, so we closed it rapidly before he saw us, and continued.  At the far end we found another cross roads, with two more dead ends ahead and to the left, so we turned right and proceeded.  Again, we found a door on the right hand side of the corridor, we appeared to line up with the one we had seen in the temple.  We passed on, and came to another crossroads.  The corridor to the left was a dead end, and the one to the right seemed to be the one we had encountered the gelatinous cube, so we continued straight on.  After a while, we glanced back and saw again that the corridor we had come down was a blank wall – we had been teleported again!

We continued and came to another crossroads – as we were examining the directions, a group of people came running out of the blank wall on the left hand side and cannoned into us.  We parried their feeble attacks and called on them to stop attacking us, which they did.  It turned out that they thought we were Siswa, and are adventurers who had got lost inside the temple and had been attacked repeatedly by Siswa, which is why they had attacked us, as we were in Siswa robes.  They asked us if we would help them escape from the temple with some loot that they had picked up from inside the temple.  We agreed to, in return for some of their loot.

Picking ourselves up, we tried the corridor to the right, starting a new piece of parchment once again, as we again had no idea where we were in the mountain.  After a while, the corridor opened out into a series of three niches on each side, holding a total of six statues.  One of them had a metal necklace and amulet.  We went past and Bryan then went back to remove the amulet, but failed. Tanara went to help him, hoping that an elf might be able to remove it, but was also unable to.  We did see that there was some writing on it and a ring-shaped depression in the amulet, but none of our rings would fit it or do anything.  The writing read:

Stone of Power, Stone of Bright
Giving men their rays of light.
Forces dark will thou make small
Weak’ning men of night’s dark call.
Putting ring into the back
Vengeance give to those in black.

This made us think that this might turn out to be quite important or useful later on.

We continued and entered an octagonal room, with a statue of the great old one in it, and a hole in the floor in front of it.  At this point, we guessed that we might be near the front door again, but didn’t want to lead the other adventurers out so quickly, so turned round and retraced our steps.  Turning right at the crossroads, we found a curtain across a doorway on the left hand side of the corridor, and heard the sounds of elven voices behind it, so passed on.  Coming to another crossroads, we turned right again, and confirmed that we were on the first level.  At this point we showed the other adventurers the front door, and took a sack of loot from us in payment.  They confirmed that they had entered the complex through the outer courtyard and the monastic cells below the courtyard, so we resolved to check them out next.

Inside the temple

We crossed the courtyard to the corner tower and descended into the depths.  We crept along the corridor, but found only one cell was occupied, and the occupant was too busy chanting and meditating to hear us.  Turning the corner, we saw that there were two pairs of double doors flanking the corridor.  The inner pair, on the right as we came, opened into a dining hall under the centre of the courtyard, with another pair of doors on the far side, and two niches on each of the side walls.  There seemed to be nothing of any interest in here, so we tried the doors on the far side.  These opened easily into a short corridor ending in another pair of double doors guarded by a pair of Siswa with drawn swords.  These were obviously the doors that we had opened from the other side earlier – the level we had been teleported to was only one level below the level we had been on!  The guards looked confused because we were wearing Siswa robes, but two of us were obviously far too short to be Siswa, and the one who spoke was obviously not a male elf.  They decided to attack us, but a word of power from Tanara caused them to both drop into a deep slumber.  We tied and gagged them, and dragged them into one of the unused side corridors on this level.  We questioned one of them, and discovered that the man in the temple was the Rahib, and that they all served him willingly as acolytes.  He also revealed that Rahasia’s father and her beloved Hasan had probably been thrown down the Well of Lost Souls – the hole we had found in the octagonal chamber.

Under the courtyard

At this point a combination of dysentery and exhaustion finished the session.

We finish donning our equipment, and find some extra useful kit in the cupboard as well, which we take.  We have a quick planning session, and decide to take some food upstairs with us, leave it outside each door and then knock on the door.  The idea is that they will come to the door, see the food and be momentarily disoriented, at which point we will attack with the advantage of surprise.

We execute the plan and it goes fairly well, although our devastating touch from the previous session deserts us and it takes a few hacks to bring the Reavers down.  We then search their rooms and find little of interest, and search the Head Reaver’s room again, and find some more cash.  We also take his map, so we know where we are going, which is obviously to help Rahasia, because we are heroes.

We carry the gnolls out and leave them in the forest, loosely tied, then take the horses from the stables and torch the manor house, to prevent the Iron Ring using it easily as a base.  Checking the map, we realise that we are actually in the Republic of Darokin, not far from the Selenica road, and that Rahasia’s village, Kora Hoton is a day or so’s march to the north east.

We proceed rapidly to Kora Hoton without incident, and find it relatively easily.  The village is isolated and appears undefended and we are welcomed with open arms.  They appear rather too trusting of heavily armed warriors.  Rahasia greets us, and is saddened when we tell her that her messenger died before we could save him, but is grateful that we have come.  She tells us little that her letter had not already shown us, but offers to guide us straight away to the temple, which is only a mile or so from the village.  We demur and ask for some lunch first.

After lunch we proceed through the forest towards the mountain.  At the edge of the forest is a road-side shrine to the Old One, where she stops, and tells us that we must proceed alone.  We agree, because we are heroes.  We also forget to ask about what our reward will be, because we are heroes.  Pretty stupid heroes it seems.

We start a debate about the bet way to approach the temple, which is easily visible on the bare mountain.  We consider the option of approaching by circling through the forest and then climbing the side of the mountain, out of direct sight of the temple, but find that while we have been discussing this, our heroic feet have taken us up the roadway that winds up the open slope of the mountain right in front of the temple, and we now stand before the great gates of the temple.  Obviously no-one was on watch, or fortune has favoured the bold.

Bryan scales the thick creepers that cover the outer walls and looks down into the deserted courtyard, thick with the detritus of many days abandonment.  We push open the valves and enter.  The courtyard is deserted.  In each corner is an octagonal tower.  We enter the right hand one, which is a shrine to the Old One.  As we start to investigate, we are attacked by a small stone-like winged creature which leaps out from behind the statue of the Old One and slashes and bites us.  Pavel and Oin strike at it without effect, until Oin remembers his magic sword and uses that instead of his axe.  As more and more of us attack it, it finally dies under our blows.  Behind the altar we find the some coins and the remnants of a leather sack with an embossed symbol of two panthers.

There are steps down on either side of the altar, and Tanara descends.  Underneath is a corridor that follows the lines of the walls above.  The outer side is lined by curtained cubicles – Tanara looks and the nearest contains a bed, a pile of rags and a pile of round stones.  She takes one of the stones, and returns upstairs – there is a very creepy feeling down there.

The tower in the other corner is also a shrine with stairs, but we are not attacked.  On either side of the courtyard are four hovels, which contain nothing of any interest.  In the centre is a large octagonal pool, filled with a murky liquid, and steps up to the doors of the main temple.  Bryan throws a coin into the pool, and the surface trembles and churns.  We decide not to disturb it any further, and climb the steps.  The doors at the top are closed but open easily.  Beyond there is a transverse corridor, with a hand drawn on the wall pointing to the right.  Near the entrance is a curtained doorway, beyond which is a small room with many pegs and some rags, which turn out to be clothes, similar to those worn by the elves in the village.  On the other side is a similar doorway, but the room beyond is thick with dust.  We enter and are suddenly attacked.  Our assailant seems to be an elf, so we strike to subdue him, for Rahasia had asked us not to kill any of the Siswa.  We strike him, and Oin knees him in the unmentionables, so he collapses, grunting as he does that we he had not realised that we were not Siswa.  We disarm him and wait for him to recover.  It turns out that he was a companion of Hasan, Rahasia’s lover, but became separated from him, somehow, on a 15 minute walk from the village, and arrived here after him.  He has been looking for him, but for some reason has not got further than this room.  It seems that in the stupid hero stakes we are facing some pretty stiff competition for the bottom place.

We continue along the main corridor in the direction the hand is pointing, with our new companion, who is called (rather amusingly) Alki.  We resolve to keep him away from our meagre stock of wine.  The corridor ends in a large octagonal chamber with another large statue of the Old One, and a pile of rags in front of it, which turn out to be robes. Alki recognises them as Siswa robes.  There are many footprints that cross the chamber from the doorway we entered by to the other doorway on the north wall.

We awake in a small, twenty foot by twenty foot cell, made of stone but with one wall of bars and with a barred door.  We are stripped of all our possessions and most of our clothes, and are chained to a large ring in the floor.  We wait for several days as we gradually recover from the effects of the gas, and the only person we see is a gnoll jailer who brings us food and water three times a day.  On the third day, we realise that Sergeant Boris is not going to rescue us and that we need to rescue ourselves. When the jailer next appears, Tanara tries to engage him in conversation in gnollish, a language she has picked up in her homewood.  He turns out to be a pretty hard-boiled character, and doesn’t seem interested in our offers of riches beyond his wildest dreams (although we are assuming that his dreams are not very wild).  We abandon the conversation and use the arranged next step, which is Bryan faking a leg injury and trying to trip up the jailer.  Bryan pulls a blinder and the jailer goes down like a sack of tatties.  The rest of us bundle him rapidly, and he quickly surrenders.

We relieve him of his mace, dagger and keys, and quickly release ourselves from our fetters, and chain him up.  Bryan starts to question him, via Tanara, while Pavel and Titus open the cell door and start exploring.  There turn out to be three cells in the corridor, as well as an alcove which seems to be the living quarters for the jailer, and two doors, one locked. The next cell contains a chained female human, who turns out to be a young cleric called Zoe.  The final cell contains a badly wounded elf, who only has time to whisper ‘Rahasia, save her….’ before he dies dramatically in Titus’ arms.  Titus and Pavel rapidly dismantle a chair and table in order to provide us with some clubs and grab a curtain pole to use as a quarterstaff, then return to the others.  Bryan has discovered various details: we are not in Specularum, but rather in the woods somewhere, in a manor house; we are prisoners of the Iron Ring, not the Veiled Society (or maybe the Veiled Society are part of the Iron Ring); there are 8 Hounds, 2 Reavers and a Head Reaver (we thing these are ranks in the Iron Ring) in the house, as well as the gnoll’s wife who is the cook; our equipment is behind the locked door, and the jailer has not got the key – the Head Reaver has instead. We tie up the jailer and shackle him in his locked cell.  We check out the locked door, and decide there is no way we can open it without alerting the rest of the house, so we open the other door.  We find a store-room, and a meat store beyond.  We equip ourselves with some small pouches of flour, to fling in opponents’ faces to blind them, and some flasks of oil to smear on stairs to see if we can get enemies to fall and break their necks.

We then creep up the stairs to the door at the top.  We open this, to find ourselves in a pantry.  From behind the door, there is the sound of a guttural female voice singing, and the noises and smells of cooking.  Bryan cracks open the door and we see the gnoll cook making some food with her back to us.  Bryan creeps into the room and hides under the table.  There is another door out of the kitchen, and an archway leading to another room, where we hear the sounds of many voices talking.  On the table were eight plates, and Bryan also sees a rack of knives.  He creeps back, and we have a rapid planning meeting.  We wait as the cook ladles up the plates, two at a time, and takes them into the next room.  Finally, as she takes the last pair, we creep into the room and grab the knives, then wait behind the partition wall.  As she comes back in, Pavel grabs her from behind, covering her mouth, and Tanara whispers in her ear in gnollish ‘Don’t make a sound or your husband will be killed’.  She nods her acquiescence and we quickly bundle her into the pantry and tie and gag her. Tanara takes up position behind the partition and casts her last remaining Sleep spell into the room beyond.  There are some thumps, and silence. We burst in, and see that there eight men there, all asleep.  A triumphant success, although it leaves Tanara with only her Levitation spell.  These are obviously the Hounds of the Iron Ring.  We have a brief discussion of what to go with them, but we have heard much of the depravity of the Iron Ring and decide that the only justice we can deliver is to slit their throats as they sleep, so we do.  We then steal their leather armour and their daggers. We take the cook down to the cells and lock her in the same cell as her husband.  For Pavel and Titus it feels strange to be saving the humanoids but slaughtering the humans.  For Tanara though, the humans are obviously evil, whereas the gnolls are just servants going about their normal business, and we have no right to kill them for that.

We then creep out of the kitchen and find a hallway, with stairs going up, and doors on the far side.  We check the doors on the far side, and find a pair of barracks rooms.  In the lockers by each bed we find proper swords, so equip ourselves with these.  The only way is up now, so we ascend the stairs.  At the top we find a landing around the stairs – two doors on the near side and one on the far side.  Based on the layout of the house below, we assume the two nearer doors are for the Reavers, and the one door on the far side is for the Head Reaver.  We decide that we would rather face the Head Reaver straight away on his own, rather than fighting our way through two minions, and giving him time to buff himself, while we lose hit points. We creep around the landing, pausing nervously when Oin and Pavel step on a squeaky floorboard.  But there is no reaction so we continue on our way.

We listen at the far door but hear nothing, so open it.  Beyond is a well-furnished room, with a large desk with a map on the wall above it.  Sat at his desk, with his back to the door is a man, writing and chuckling to himself (obviously no student of Gurney Halleck).  He obviously hears us, as he waves to his right and says – ‘Ah, dinner.  Put it down over there will you.’  Bryan, Oin and Pavel advance into the room, as if going in that direction, and suddenly change direction and lunge for him.  The surprise is total, and before he can react we attack.  Bryan nicks him slightly, but both Pavel and Oin strike powerful blows, and he is killed instantly, and before he can make any noise.

We all enter the room and close the door. On the desk is a newsheet that seems to detail the activities of the Iron Ring, more evidence of how confident they are that they are beyond the reach of the Duke’s justice.  It mentions the death of Golthar, and has descriptions of Stephen, Jubal, Morkel, Vyarnen and Maglor as his killers.  It also tells of how they are expanding into the Republic of Darokin, and how the first slave caravan is even now departing for Selenica.  Also on the desk is a long letter that appears to have been taken off the elf, and detailing the terrible fate afflicting Rahasia.  The map above the desk shows that we are nowhere near Specularum, instead we are far in the north, in the mountains.  Also on the desk is a staff, which feels potent in the hands of Titus and Zoe.  On the dead man’s belt we find a key. We decide to return to the cellar and see if the key fits the door that wards us from our equipment.  We return around the landing, although Oin and Pavel once again step on the squeaky floorboard.  We are more confident now though that we will be though to just be the cook, so continue on our way.  The key opens the cellar door, so we take our equipment again, with much joy.

We went to speak to the leader and he said that he would post a guard near the blue water mead hall and look out for the two murders Akarios and Zachariah. We were going to go in in disguise and tell the murders that they have been founded out and should run. Then the guard will now who they are because they are running away. Then we went to the guild of magic to get Tanara Silverleaf’s magic back. We manage to get them all back for a fee of 2,000 because we were buying in bulk if you wanted to get one spell it was 500. As we were coming back we were attacked and as we charged he lead us round the corner and lead us into a trap we shoot some arrows at them but they all missed. They all got away down a side street.

We awake refreshed, and break our fast.

Tanara ventures forth in search of the Magician’s Guild in order to replenish the spells in her Ring of Spell Storing.  The Guild is located and they agree to cast the spells in return for many shinies.

On the way back, we are ambushed by a lone hooded assassin with a crossbow, who shoots ineffectually at us.  We pursue and he flees around a corner. We follow and it turns out that there are three more hooded hoodlums around the corner.  It’s an ambush.  Fortunately they are not very good at shooting and hardly hit us.  They flee again, and we follow them, more cautiously this time.  Tanara shoots a couple of arrows at them and misses completely.  We give up on the chase, as we fear an even larger ambush further along.

We return to the inn and have lunch.  As evening comes on, we level up (ping), except for Tanara.  We then venture out to the Blue Waters Tavern.  We enter and try to blend in with the locals, probably without much success.  In the corner though, we spot a red-haired man with a wound on his face.  Surely this is Akarios?  Behind him are two curtained doorways.  Once is in constant use, and we surmise leads to the privvies.  The other is hardly used.  After a while, the red-haired man gets up and leaves through the curtained doorway.  We wait a while to see if anyone else follows.  They don’t, so finally we leave through the doorway.  Beyond it is a small room, with two men playing dice, and a corridor beyond, leading to the street.  We pass the two men and proceed down the corridor, wondering where the red-haired man has gone.  We look into the alleyway, but can see no sign of him, nor any obvious doorway.  We are obviously behaving suspiciously as we are suddenly unable to hear each other.  Pavel is struck from behind with a sword by one of the two men who were playing dice.  We surmise that the other one must be a cleric who has cast Silence on us.  Tanara rushes into the alleyway – Pavel turns and strikes the man who struck him.  Oin charges the other man, and kills him.  Tanara casts Charm on the man with the sword, and he stops fighting, dazed.  Pavel restrains himself, and Tanara quickly asks him where the Veiled Society meet.  He eagerly shows us a secret doorway…

Entering the door, we find a small chamber with hoods and cloaks.  He garb ourselves, and find another secret door on the far side.  We  proceed down some stairs and find a fork in the narrow passage.  There seems to be a dim light coming from the left fork, so we take that.  The tunnel gets smaller and we feel fronds or roots on the walls and ceiling.  As the fronds get denser, we try to turn round, but they grab us and try to entangle us.  We slash violently at them, and finally extract ourselves.  We return to the fork and try the other tunnel.  It ends in a blank wall, and we find another secret door.  This opens onto the balcony of a large chamber.  We enter and hide behind the balustrade in the shadows.  Twenty hooded men are gathered watching a man garbed in black and red robes on a dais at the far end.  He rants at them in a booming voice about how they are strong and their time has come:

“And now is our time! The city will lie helpless before us! The people will side with us.  Our enemies can be crushed. The Duke will feel our power, will hear only our voice. Those who oppose us are weak, those who betray us are traitors. We know what to do with traitors.”

Shouts of agreement fill the air.  “Then take him, take the traitor!” he shouts, and points to one of the robed men. “He will suffer for disobeying our orders. The woman should not have been killed!”

We assume he is referring to Lucia.  The hooded man is grabbed and his hood removed.  He is not the red-haired man.  They rapidly stab him to death.

Then the leader booms again.  “There were two traitors!  That man is also a traitor.  Take him as well!”.  A second man is grabbed, and this time it is the red-haired man that we saw in the tavern.

The two men lie dead on the floor, and in the chaos, we realise that the leader has disappeared.  The remaining eighteen men also file out of various exits, none of which we had previously noted.  Some head for our balcony, so we hide down the branch of the passageway with the entangling vines.

We re-enter the chamber and check the dead bodies.  Then we search for a secret exit behind the dais.  We find one and pass through.  Beyond we find a corridor and a door, from behind which we can hear clanking chains.  We also find another secret door, and open it.  Beyond is a luxuriously appointed study.  A middle-aged man and a younger man are arguing over the body of an older man – the young man is accusing the middle-aged one of having murdered their father.  The middle-aged man sees us and attacks, dealing Oin a mightly blow with his sword.  Pavel moves up to attack him rather than the young man, which enrages Oin, but as he does the younger man steps behind the desk and fiddles with something.  Oin screams at Pavel in rage as a cloud of smoke billows out of the front of the desk and we fall to the ground, unconscious.

Tanara continues to talk to Orel, and he starts to blurt out some details that he probably shouldn’t.  There is a meeting of the Veiled Society tomorrow night – he won’t say where, but he normally uses the entrance in the Blue Water Mead Hall, which is not far from the water front.  The password for tomorrow night’s meeting is Eclipse.  At this point he starts to look confused and Tanara is worried that revealing the information is causing the charm to break down.  Orel turns to leave.  With a single smooth motion Tanara pulls her dagger from its sheath and stabs him in the back, running up through his kidneys into his heart.  With a gurgle, his body collapses to the floor.  Tanara wipes her blade as Pavel frisks the body and removes his money pouch.  Then we drop the body into the tunnel and leave the hovel.  We locate ourselves, and return to the Rattlebone Inn.

Meanwhile Bryan has given up on waiting for us outside the first hovel and returns to the Inn as well.  In the square he meets an exciting Titus who has been having a whale of a time slaughtering rioters and making friends with the Duke’s Guard.  They both also head back to the Rattlebone.

Oin the Courageous makes it to the Hightower and reports to Sergeant Boris.  The Sergeant doesn’t seem keen to leap to deal with the problem, but eventually wanders up to the square with Oin, where the Duke’s Guard are just clearing up the last remnants of the riot.  Oin returns to the Rattlebone.

At the Rattlebone, we settle down for some dinner.  All the gossip in the inn is of the riot, but since the inn is basically pro-Toronescu, Titus doesn’t need to go into hiding just yet.  However there is a message waiting for us from Theosios.  We are apparently to go to the Jade Sea (a ship) tonight to pick up a package that must be delivered to Senator Epistolo.  It is expected that the delivery of the package will meet with interference.  We finish dinner and tool up.  We head to the docks, and establish that the Jade Sea is moored on the north side, near the naval docks.  This is Vorloi rather than Radu territory, so we are somewhat relieved.  We find the Jade Sea and are rudely abused by the watch, but he fetches the package, which turns out to be a nobleman called Symeon Toronesu.  He seems a bit aristocratic in mental faculties as well as manner – this could prove a trying evening.  However before we can depart, a dozen ruffians with swords and cudgels appear.  Expecting the inevitable attack, we are poised to defend him, when the leader bows and pledges their service to Symeon in the name of Prince Demetrios of the Beggars.  Symeon seems to accept this, so we follow his lead.  Bryan suggests that Symeon could dress as one of the beggars, and he accepts this as a ‘fearful jape’ (there is obviously quite a lot of inbreeding in his recent family tree).

We set out with the beggars and the disguised Symeon – another beggar is wearing Symeon’s clothes.  As we enter the city gate, we hear a whistle, and assume that we have been spotted.  We rapidly duck up Vintner’s Lane to try and avoid any ambush, but it seems they were expecting us to do just that, because we are ambushed at the top of Vintner’s Lane by three groups of hooded ruffians.  We split up to take on each group.  Tanara levitates in order to use he bow most effectively, especially since the group attacking from the rear has seven men and only Pavel and two beggars to stop them.  Pavel is heroic, slicing an attacking in two with his first blow but one of the ruffians is similarly effective, smashing in the skull of one of the beggars with a single blow of his mace.  Tanara assumes that he is a major threat and uses one of the Fire Arrow spells in he ring to blast him with two Fire Arrows.  They hit and he staggers, but he is still on his feet.  Next turn she hits him with two more, using the last Fire Arrow spell in her ring, and he drops dead.  Many of the other ruffians are also dead, and the last few break and run.  Pavel quickly snatches the mace and ornate gauntlets from the dead leader, and we also grab several masks, then leave quickly before the watch arrive.  Several of the beggars are also dead, but we are forced to leave them.

We suffer no more interference before we reach Senator Epistolo’s house.  We deliver a grateful Symeon and are rewarded with a pouch of money each.  We bid farewell, and commiserate Stanis, the leader of the beggars on the loss of his men before we return to the inn for some late night vittals.  Finally we check our loot for the day.  The mace is given to Titus and the gauntlets of might to Bryan.  Orel’s pouch contained 200 royals, and the pouches given to each of us by Symeon contain 500 royals each.  A good haul for the night indeed, as we turn in.

Bottles of fine red Thyatian wine: 1 (bad).  Pipeweed: 0 (v. good).

There is a brief discussion on the merits of outflanking manoeuvres before Captain Wighamescu orders us up the ladder.  We climb up and into a tatty bedsit.  Looking out of the grimy window, we see that we are in the garden of a larger house.  We examine the contents of the room briefly.  On the desk is a bottle containing the remnants of some wine – similar to what we found in Fortunato Vorloi’s house. The seal on the neck of the bottle identifies it as Trouscan, which is an unusual and moderately expensive wine.  In the desk drawer we find a hood, with some red hairs still attached.

We discuss whether we should sneak back out, or stake out the hovel to see if someone returns, or whether the occupants of the house are part of the plot.  Captain Wighamescu is however a fan of frontal attacks, and marches up the garden path and knocks on the back door.  We follow, meekly.  A maid answers and we cross-examine her.  The house belongs to a wealthy local master-butcher called Turano.  The hovel at the end of the garden has been let to a journeyman blacksmith called Skevlos for the last few weeks, but he left several days ago.  It has been unoccupied since.  Oin’s spidey-sense tells him that the tunnels would have taken longer than a couple of days to dig (and Goodwife Thanato has been hearing things for several weeks, so that implies they have been digging for several days as well), so we suspect Skevlos is implicated in all of this. Apparently he was working for Oleg, who is the blacksmith that I bought my dagger off this morning.

We decide to go and talk to Oleg.  The rozzers depart, in search of more high calorie sustenance.  We stop at the inn for some quick vittals, and have a chat to Igor.  Previous conversations have led us to think that he is pro-Toronescu and afraid of the Radu.

Moving on to Oleg, we have a chat with him about Skevlos.  He was a large chap apparently, and didn’t have red hair, so that means that there must have been someone else involved who wore the hood, and killed Lucia.  He left a couple of days ago apparently, heading to the south west.  Oleg is concerned that he doesn’t end up in the Black Eagle Barony – we suspect that if he is involved in murder that might be just where he is heading.  He was a good blacksmith apparently – had a knack for the work – but was too footloose to settle down.  Apparently he helped make my dagger – which may come in handy one day.  There must be some sort of complex necromantic ritual you can use to enchant a dagger that has killed its maker.

Oleg seems to have taken a liking to us and offers to sell us some ‘quick-release’ weapon bindings to replace those added by the city guards.  We take him up on his offer, although we are intrigued to see how you can ‘bind’ a mace to make it safe – we assume Titus is wandering around with a 4 foot diameter ball of bubble wrap on the end of a stick.

Restored, and feeling freer in our actions, we proceed to check out the wine-merchants of the city.  We have been told that Aristo is the most likely to stock Trouscan wine.  We ask at the Water Gate where we can find Aristo, and are directed along the Harbour Wall to Vintner’s Lane. We find Aristo’s shop, and Aristo inside.  He is a large and sweaty man, also without red hair. We engage him in conversation and ask him about Trouscan wine.  Apparently it comes from Thyatia, and is quite rare, although not really that expensive, just artisanal, which I think means made by peasants.  Not really a wine for your serious nobility, who drink the really exclusive Thyatian wines, more something for the pretentious arrivistes, being a cut above the cheap plonk from Irendi.  He has some bottles in stock, and offers to fetch one for us.  We accept and Bryan follows him into the stock room to engage him in conversation on the various forms of alcohol that he has enjoyed – a subject he can talk for the Five Shires on.  While they are out, I have a quick look at the ledger on the desk.  Five people have recently bought Trouscan wine.

Aristo returns and we buy and open the bottle to sample it.  It is very drinkable.  We ask to buy a case of it, as it is only 2 royals a bottle, and we are rolling in cash at the moment.  Heck, we have so much I even started deducting expenditure on my character sheet.  Our efforts to stimulate the local economy are thwarted however as he only has a single bottle left, so we just buy that.  Chatting to him, we tell him that it was recommended to us by a friend called Skevlos.  The name doesn’t ring a bell, so I describe him as a large man with red hair.  Oin starts to mutter something about him having dark hair, but I kick him under the counter.  Aristo still doesn’t remember him, and tells us that the only red-haired customer he has who buys Trouscan wine is Akarios the Shipwright (whose name had also appeared on the list in the ledger).

We thank him and leave, with Akarios high up our list of suspects.  We wander out onto the quayside, pausing to bring Sergeant Boris up to speed on our latest findings.  Along the quayside, we are unable to find anyone who will admit to having every heard of Akarios, and we suspect that they are holding out on us as outsiders.  We even try a dockside tavern, which goes ominously silent as we enter.  We glean no information as to Akarios there either, but here a lot of gossip about the murder of Lucia Vorloi, and how the Toronescu are responsible.

Giving up on the dockside, we return to the gate and head for home, or at least the Rattlebone Inn.  On the way, as we cross the market square, we hear an oarator stirring up the crowd with a fiercely anti-Toronescu speech.  The crowd are getting very restive and aggressive and we decide that it is time to leave.  Before we can though, 30 of the Duke’s men ride into the various exits from the square and form a cordon.  Their captain rides up and orders the crowd to disperse, but is hit with a well-aimed cobblestone.  The crowd surges forward, attacking the Duke’s men.  We decline to join in, throwing the module into confusion.  Oin breaks and runs for the harbour, narrowly dodging the sabre of a cavalry man.  Titus unwraps his mace and joins the Duke’s men, hoping to show his prowess and impress them enough to help him join the Order of the Griffon.  Tanara pushes through the crowd towards the orator, who looks to be escaping, his seditious work done.  Tanara swiftly casts Charm on him, and he turns, smiling at her (the module whimpers at this point and gives up the ghost – charming the orator is not an eventuality it had considered).  She asks him to help her escape, and he leads her and Pavel out of the square, followed by Bryan.  They dodge the Duke’s men, although the orator gets a cut in his shoulder.  He leads them down a narrow alley to a small hovel, which he says is a safe refuge.  There, they catch their breath, and he introduces himself as Orel.  He boasts of how he was chosen for this role by the Veiled Society for his oratorical skills.  The mention of the Veiled Society interests Tanara, but not the others, who have cheated by looking at the cover of the module.  He admits that he doesn’t know many other members, as they are all veiled (or rather hooded), but has heard of Akarios the Shipwright.  He says that Akarios and his accomplice, Zachariah Boestes have possibly gone too far with the murder of Lucia, as it has really stirred things up.  He then shows Tanara and Pavel a tunnel under a hatch, and urges them to escape with him along it – they emerge in a similar looking hovel around 300 feet away.  Bryan has followed them discretely to the first hovel, but decides not to follow them down the tunnel and returns to the Rattlebone Inn.  We have now achieved our stretch objective of splitting a 5 person party 4 ways.

So we now think that we know who dunnit, we just don’t know why.  We suspect that the Radu might be behind this – the waterfront is their domain, and Lucia’s last writing is suggestive of this as well.  But we need more evidence before we can accuse them in the Duke’s court – if it comes to that.  And who are this Veiled Society, and who do they report to?  What is their objective.  And are they linked to the Iron Ring that Stephen has been fighting, or are there two secret societies in Karameikos?  If so, why aren’t we in either of them?

Dead humanoids: 0 (still good).  Dead friendlies: 1 (bad, but not our fault). Gold royals: 0 (v.v. bad).

We finally make our way to the Rattlebone Inn, which appears to be very highly recommended by everyone that we have met so far.  It seems clean and pleasant so we casually drop the name of Captain Gregor to see if we can get mates rates on the room. Igor, the innkeeper, is delighted that we are friends of his cousin Gregor and offers us a room for 1 royal a night, including dinner and breakfast.  There is no way that Tanara is sharing a room with Oin’s apparently ever-increasing smoking habit or Bryan’s wandering hands, so we decide on two rooms instead.  Pavel looks hopeful, but Tanara is still playing hard to get.  We freshen up rapidly, and descend to the common room for a meal and some refreshment.  Bryan discovers some good local ale and is under the table a pint later.  We spot Sergeant Boris with some of his colleagues and buy them a round of drinks as well – always good to keep on the good side of the law.  Then Titus appears, looking crestfallen.  Apparently the Order of the Griffon are looking for warriors with more experience.  We buy him a drink as well to commiserate, and suggest that he should join us to get more experience.  Pavel looks worried, but Tanara rapidly explains that it is experience in smiting the unrighteous that she was thinking of, so he calms down again.

At this point we are approached, somewhat unsteadily, by a chap who introduces himself as Theosius.  He suggests that he might have some work for types such as us, and offers to pay for our drinks, board and lodging if we will do something for him.  Since we have bought drinks for most of the inn so far, we rapidly accept his offer, not even bothering to check exactly what he wants.  Soon after that he drinks himself into a complete stupor, so we leave off trying to question him and turn to Igor instead, who confirms that he is a local and a regular, and works as a high-class wood carver.  We are still unsure what a high-class wood carver needs with an elf, a dwarf and a halfling (except possibly as the intro for a bad joke), but gainful employment is gainful employment, especially in this market.  We continue to imbibe, but turn in for the night relatively early, dragging Bryan with us to stop him making drunken amorous advances on the cat.

Next morning we are up bright and early for a tasty breakfast of ale and cheese.  Tanara is about to nip down the road to buy a dagger (having realised that all her weapons are a little conspicuous in a city like Specularum), when a distraught woman bursts into the inn, complaining that her cellar is haunted by strange voices and scratching.  We help Igor calm her down with a swift tot of his brandy and she tells us the whole story, which is pretty much exactly the same as the synopsis.  Goodwife Thanato (for that is her name) lives just around the corner, so we offer to go and sort out whatever ails her cellar.  It turns out that we will do pretty much anything for money, not that she has offered to pay us.  We will do pretty much anything just for kicks it seems.  Pavel looks hopeful again.

Tanara nips out to buy her dagger and we then follow Goodwife Thanato back to her house.  She shows us the entrance to her cellar and we climb down.  It seems a normal cellar, but we hear scratching from the other room.  Pavel, Tanara and Bryan investigate and find a pantry, with a small hole on the far side, about four feet high.  Titus and Oin now hear noises from the corner of their cellar, so we go back and investigate, and find another tunnel.  We are obviously dealing with some sort of giant rodent infestation.  We advance into the tunnel, in increasing order of height.  The narrow tunnel winds and turns.  A side tunnel reveals an extremely unpleasant cesspit.  We continue past it, following the noise through several junctions, until we reach a wooden hatch.

Peering through the hatch, Bryan can see two figures digging a hole in the floor of another cellar.  One of the cloaked and hooded figures suggests that the hole is deep enough – the other insists it must be deeper, because no one must find what they are burying.  Finally the hole is deep enough and they place a large bundle in there and fill it in again.  At this point Tanara quietly casts a sleep spell on the two diggers, but they are completely unaffected, which is worrying.  Given that this implies that they are either very powerful, or not living, we opt to continue watching them.  The finish filling the hole, and leave the cellar, closing the trapdoor.  We enter the cellar, pushing aside the crate that covered the tunnel, and uncover the bundle.  Slitting it open, we find the recently deceased body of a beautiful young woman with blonde hair.  A quick examination reveals that she has been strangled, and that from her hands she is obviously well-off.  We decide to retire with the body, so that someone can’t come and take it away, and alert the authorities.  As we do so, we spot some red hairs caught under her fingernails, possibly scratched from her killer, and blood on her hands and nightdress, despite her not having been wounded.

We carry the body back, having filled the hole back in again, and place it in Goodwife Thanato’s cellar.  Tanara and Pavel remain to guard the body, while Titus goes to fetch Sergeant Boris, and Bryan and Oin go to try and work out which building might be above the cellar.  Sergeant Boris remembers Titus and believes him, which is lucky.  They return to the scene, stopping briefly to pick up another Captain of the Watch called Wihgamescu.  Meanwhile Oin, catching a quick fag break, and Bryan have identified the building they think is above the cellar.  Talking to Igor at the Battlebone Inn, he says that it is the house of a sea-merchant, Fortunato Vorloi, although he is away at the moment and only his daughter, Lucia is at home (with the servants of course).  She is beautiful and blonde, so we might have identified our victim.  Igor also says that Stefanos Toronescu has been courting her, but she has rudely rejected his advances.

Oin and Bryan return to the cellar, to find Boris and Wihgamescu already there, with some local deep-fried dough rings and a couple of cups of a rather bitter hot drink which we are told is very popular in  Ylarum.  They confirm that the body is indeed Lucia Vorloi and tell us to show them where we found it.  We leave a couple of watchmen with the body and return to the other cellar.  It is untouched, so we climb the ladder and enter the house above.  On the ladder we find drops of pitch – maybe one of the two men was a sailor?   We are in the kitchen of the house.  In the hall we find evidence of a fight, including a bloodied dagger, so someone was badly cut-up.  There is blood on the floor, and on the edge of one pool, someone has tried to write something.  It looks like (R|P)A(D|O).  Tanara leaps at the possibility that it might say Radu, as they might have an interest in starting a vendetta between the Vorloi and the Toronescu.  On the other hand it might just say Rache.  Bryan also finds some drops of a brown liquid that he identifies as good quality wine, but we find no bottle or glasses.  In the kitchen we find some bloodstained rope that we identify as the murder weapon, and a Toronescu signet ring.  Tanara is convinced that the signet ring is a plant to frame the Toronescu for the murder – it is very difficult to tear off a signet ring, and the two men burying the body were in no hurry – they would have removed such an incriminating item as they had time, and you can’t not notice losing a signet ring.  That said, if you want to frame someone for a murder, why go to such lengths to hide the body?  No one else is present in the house – where are all the servants?

Returning to the cellar, Boris insists that we explore the rest of the tunnels.  They are a confusing mess, but the only other feature is another cellar, that the digging seems to have started from, as there are wheelbarrows, supplies of timber for propping and tools.  It looks like the assassins started at this cellar and tunnelled into the cellar of the Vorloi house, which is how they gained access.  It doesn’t explain why they didn’t leave by this route as well – we are fairly sure that they didn’t, as we were in the cellar for quite a while.  Maybe they spent a long time arranging the murder scene though, and then retired through the tunnels as we were in the Goodwife’s cellar.  A lot of the tunnels seem to be dead ends when they realised they were going in the wrong direction, and they seem to have tunnelled into her cellar by mistake – their digging noises explains what she heard.

We are now in the cellar, waiting to open the trapdoor and see what lies above. Hopefully some answers, rather than more questions.

Dead humanoids: 0 (good).  Dead friendlies: 0 (v.v. good).  Gold royals: 95 (bad).

We (the non-human part of the party) are drinking the last of our house clearance money in a bar in Kelven when a message arrives asking us to attend upon Captain Grygor.  We go and meet him and he asks us to take a message to Captain Thrommel in Specularum to tell him that the Iron Ring have been causing aggro around Kelven.  He feels this is the best way that we can help our long lost friends (not that anyone probably regards Stephen as a friend).

We immediately wrong foot the whole adventure by using the obvious method of travel to Specularum – floating down the river.  We were apparently supposed to use the road.  We find a boat that is going downstream and haggle for passage, getting it for 5gp provided we agree to defend the boat from any bandits.  We also meet a couple of likely lads on the boat – Pavel, a wandering fighter, and Titus, a young priest of Helim who is going to Specularum to join the Order of the Griffin.

The day passes uneventfully and we reach Voska at nightfall, which is where we are supposed to spend the night.  There is a caravan there led by Ahiktos, who has met Stephen and his cronies after Sukiskyn, so can confirm that they survived a goblin attack there.  Apparently they also attacked some big honcho in a tower and stitched him right up, so now the Iron Ring are after them.  Apparently a bloke and a tall black haired woman are the Iron Ring’s representatives on earth in the matter of pursuing Stephen.  I am not sure who I am rooting for in this.

The rest of the evening passes uneventfully although Pavel tried to put the moves on Tanara.  Not that Tanara isn’t interested, but she’s not that sort of girl.  Well, actually she is, but only when she wants to be.

The next morning we awake in our own beds, and set off again.  The river becomes the Highreach, or Volaga. The calm ripples lull us into sleepiness until by mid afternoon we see the river-forts that mark the entrance to Specularum harbour.  The harbour of Specularum is one of the 9 wonders of the modern world, and we gaze in awe at the great gates that can close off the river entrance to Mirror Bay at the heart of the city.  On the far side of the harbour a great tower rises – the Hightower – our destination.

We have been told by Captain Grygor to head for the Rattlebone Inn, which is owned by his brother or cousin or something.  But first we head for the Hightower.  We reach the Hightower and are stopped by a pair of guards.  We do a quick ‘who said that’ routine with Bryan as party spokesman, but manage to persuade them that we have a message for Captain Thrommel from Captain Grygor.  They lead us into the tower and to Captain Thrommel’s room.  We hand over the message and converse with Captain Thrommel.  We are thanked and then escorted out by Sergeant Boris, who hands us a small pouch of money (100 gp) and also recommends the Rattlebone Inn.  Our destiny obviously lies at the Rattlebone Inn.

To get their we have to pass through the city gate (the wrong city gate apparently, but we took the easy road, i.e. the river).  Entry into the city is a monumental 8 gp, which must surely be leading to serious problems with restraint of trade.  Its amazing any food gets into the place at all.  We also have to have our weapons ceremonially bound up with filthy rags for some reason and get the harsher end of the local penal code read out to us.  A warm welcome indeed to Specularum.  It appears to be festival day in Specularum – some local trumped up deity I think.  Apparently its an ancient priest called Lucor whose statue they lob in the harbour each year.  Some local noble bint is chosen to lead the procession – this year it is Lady Magda of the Toronescu (maybe we will be able to pick up a copy of OK and find out who she is later).  The place is crowded with peasants and is filthy as only a human dwelling place can be.  I imagine the next step will be to have our pockets picked.  Nope – an argument has started – its Romeo and Juliet all over again.  Seems that a dance fight between the Toronescu and Radu is about to break out.  Two guys in green livery break up the argument – they are Vorloi men.  A nice woman fills us in on the local politics.  The Vorloi are a Thyatian family that are a big merchant family that come from a town called Vorloi to the south-east.  The Toronescu are an old Traladaran family in the city, but are said to be fading since the old man, Christof, died a few years ago.  They are the power behind the merchant guild, but Christof’s brother Boris and his son Alexander are quarrelling over control of the family.  The Radu on the other hand, are the other power on the waterfront – they are the longshoremen.