Players: Daniel Coleman (Amman), James Dean-Hughes (Phaid), Neil McClean (Gellis Tarn), Graham Reynolds (Bruce)
Date: 19 August 2008
Phiksday, 26 Geomyr 1082 PS
Gellis, Phaid, Quarlius and Vex dig out Baron Faith. Gellis wonders at the baron’s predilection for being buried under large amounts of masonry. When they recover Faith he is unconscious and very nearly dead. With no healing skills between then, and Amman not present, the party have no choice but to carry him back to the service. But what to say to Croxam? The dragon is waiting for an answer.
Gellis says that he’ll handle it. The elf, Bruce and Phaid return to the chamber where the black dragon is waiting for them. The choice is obvious: they either agree to the dragon’s terms, or they fight him. Gellis doesn’t want to fight the dragon. That strikes him as rather silly. He talks to Croxam and wants to make sure that he understands the situation correctly.
“If we obtain this Key of the Crucible for you, then you’ll hand over the scroll. All fair and above board? No unnecessary killing or dying?” Croxam says that he will. Well, Gellis can’t see the harm in lending a hand here. He seals the deal with the dragon by shaking him by the claw, and then returns to the others.
Phaid and Gellis carry the baron out of the corridor and back through the double doors to the goblin’s chamber. Fortunately, all the sleeping goblins have awoken and fled. Faith is unceremoniously dragged on his back through the sewer and back to Phaid’s boat. The group then returns to Karris’Mhor.
Quarlius and Vex take the baron to somewhere he can get help. Meanwhile Bruce, Phaid and Gellis return to the Explorers Society. The trio meet up with Amman and, to celebrate not being dead, and embark on a wild frenzy of drug-induced abandon. Well, Gellis does anyway. Bruce nurses one toad all evening, while Gellis manages to consume most of the Brunt Bverantbørn’s supplies.
It is during this evening, that Gellis once again crosses swords with the Blue Owl – or the Pink Wombat, as Gellis now insists on calling him. The Blue Owl’s companions are spoiling for fight, and Gellis’s companions are spoiling to be somewhere else. Has the constant baiting, jibes and insults finally got the best of the Blue Owl? Is Gellis going to get his comeuppance? The elf is rather too stoned to care either way.
Zethusday, 27 Geomyr 1082 PS
Gellis wakes up in a hammock slung between the third floor of the Mercenaries Guild and an adjacent building. He is about thirty feet from the ground. His tongue is roughly three times the size it should be, he can hear nothing for the pounding behind his eyes and his stomach feels as though he’s consumed a dozen live eels. He also notices that he’s wearing high heels, suspenders and at least three quarters of an elegant pink ball gown. “Good night,” he surmises.
Grasping the side of the hammock, Gellis begins to shinny his way back to the Mercenaries Guild, and succeeds in climbing in through an open window. Breaking into his quarters, Gellis leaves the dress on the bed of the Blue Owl and then heads back to his own room, where he changes into more traditional raggedy attire. He keeps the suspenders just in case.
Heading down to the common room, Gellis sees the Blue Owl and his friends who are laughing raucously. He smiles and heads over to them. “Nice one,” he says extending the hand of friendship to the Blue Owl. However, the Blue Owl is not accepting such a gesture. Something in Gellis’s demeanour offends him again, and he storms out. “I thought we were friends!” Gellis calls after him as the Blue Owl departs in a huff.
Meanwhile, Amman is out in the city administering the will of Tiamat to anyone who will sit still long enough to suffer it. He has been briefed over the events in the sewers, and thinks that one of his many shady contacts might be able to shed some light on what is happening. He wants the word on the street.
Remarkably, Amman’s contact is even more scruffy and disreputable than he is. Amman takes the old codger into a near-by bar and plies him with two large jars of beer. Alcohol is well beyond the man’s means and he is happy to spill what he knows: which isn’t much and doesn’t seem at all related to anything the party is currently investigating.
The raving old loon tells Amman of dirty business going on in the Docklands. There’s a mobster called Travis: a right nasty piece of work. He’s breaking legs and taking names. Shaking down the local criminal underclass for anything they known on the Gentlemen of the Black Rose. Amman blinks at his uncomprehendingly. Wiping the froth from his sore-ridden chin, the contact ‘reminds’ the tiefling that the Gentlemen are a bunch of high class thieves. Rumour has it they’re the sons of noble dragonborn. They steal things for larks. A bunch of hooray-henries in his book.
Word is that one of the Gentlemen has knocked up one of the six daughters of Duke Marnik of the Comet. Seems old Duke Comet isn’t too thrilled by this turn of events, and he’s asked Travis to look into the matter for him. It’s only a matter of time before Travis finds them, and then who knows what will happen? The Gentlemen have a code. They don’t kill. That puts them at a disadvantage against men like Travis.
Amman thanks the raggedy man and returns to the Mercenaries Guild, where he meets his scummy companions. When he retells his story, a plan begins to form between them. If indeed Duke Griff has the Key to Crucible then there’s no way that they can go and steal it from him. Subtlety and stealth isn’t really their style – at least not on the scale that would be required to pull this off. What they’re good at is random destruction and murder.
Now the Gentlemen of the Black Rose are just the sort of thieves capable of pulling off the heist that is required. And the party are the sort of cut-throats capable of sorting out a man like Travis. It seems to Phaid that what they have is an obvious case of you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-scratch-yours.
They should go out and take down Travis. That will gain them goodwill with the Gentlemen. Then the Gentlemen can get them the Key to the Crucible, that they will give to Croxamkellvandarlis, who will give the Scroll of Tanmash’Mhor to Baron Faith, who will give it to Baron Sarlan who will then pony up the cash for Phaid, Gellis, Bruce and Amman.
A simple plan, surely.
The Walk Between Worlds 