Session #7

[Nathan Sherman]

Hugh's foot is on the chest of the thief and he's holding Torgren's axe over her head. The thief is a half orc female in studded leather armor.

Aruzmathel does a quick check on her for magic and finds that she has something magical in a pouch and something in a leather case on her belt. Aruzmathel takes them both.

The ships officers arrive and try to take control of the situation. The thief claims that she was just trying to find some food. We have them search her. They find weapons and money on her. They take her armor and weapons from her and take her to the brig.

We head back to the room we find that the door is open and there is blood on the floor outside. There is a dead woman on the floor in the middle of the room. Lugar is wounded and leaning on a bed, Finnegan is tending to him. Aruzmathel checks and there is no magic on her. Hugh goes to tell the officers what has happened and on his way he wakes Paragon up and tells him to report to our room.

Aruzmathel checks and there is a very light pulse in the half orc. He tries to stabilize her but she slips from unconsciousness to death. We ask Lugar what happened and he explains that there was a fight and he had to kill her. Aruzmathel closes and locks the door while waiting for the rest of the party to show up. Paragon shows up first and is let in.

We search her and find a sword, dagger, armor, 7cp, 10sp and 5gp (Torgren takes the gold to help pay for our passage). Hugh brings the guards to our room and we explain what happened and they take the body away. We have them send someone to clean the floors, but Aruzmathel doesn't think they did a good enough job so he uses Prestidigitation to get all the blood and mess off the floor.

Everyone goes back to their separate places to sleep. Aruzmathel checks what was in the leather case and the pouch and finds a set of magical lock picks and a long rectangular (24" x 8") piece of cloth that radiates divination. Finnegan checks it and says that it is a blindfold of x-ray vision. Aruzmathel buts both of them in his backpack after testing out the blindfold on the neighboring rooms (it lasts for one minute before fading out). We have Lugar sleeps in front of the door to the room.

During the next two days on the river trip the party keeps an eye on the Red Eye Corp orcs and find out that there are six of the orcs and a human in their party. Every now and then one of the orcs writes something down. They are looking for something or someone. By they way we see them studying faces it looks like they are trying to find someone.

Aruzmathel spends the days studying the dead Wizards spell book. He tries to find something in the code that ties into the modified web and modified shield spell that the wizard used in the battle. He is pretty sure that he'll have much more luck when he gets access to a main library.

That night, Aruzmathel tries to use the blind fold on the room with the huge block of oricalcum but he can't see into the room due to the charged oricalcum. Well, duh.

We put Finnegan to work identifying the magic items we've found. One of the potions makes all spells cast be maximized for 2d6 rounds. Aruzmathel gives it to Paragon to help with healing. The other potion has something to do with invisibility but Finnegan can't figure out what it is at this time. The stone boosts the strength of a potion that it is dropped in or if it's held it boosts someone's ability to identify. Aruzmathel gives it to Finnegan. While he is engaged in his second favorite pastime, sleeping, we take the pouch that Oliff found in the kitchen of the ruins and find out it is a Bag of Holding and it keeps things fresh forever. We put it back without telling Oliff what we found because we want to see what happens when the full moon comes and goes and his rock doesn't turn into a gem like promised.

Finnegan works on Hugh's sword but he can't figure out what the other function is. The next day he spends the whole day working on it and he finds out that three times per day the sword can control fire. Aside from the trip to the brig that resulted in almost no information from the captured thief, Hugh spends most of his days sharpening his weapons. Aruzmathel tries to get Hugh to help him with sharpening his dagger, but Hugh won't do it. He loans him an extra sharpening stone that he has and Aruzmathel does a half felt job of sharpening, figuring that he will just pay for a real job of it in the city.

On the third day, the river takes us into the magnificent city of Drakkel through the River Gate. We get to the docks and dock hands assist with tying up the boat. Hugh offers to escort the thief to the city jails and Aruzmathel goes with him. It's only a short distance to the closest guard tower and we have no trouble out of the thief.

Once back to the boat, we wait for the rest of the passengers to clear off before leaving. Lugar was posted outside our room and didn't see anyone come or go from the room with the oricalcum). The Red Eye Corps and human get their horses and clear off the barge without any indication that they were associated with that room.

As we are leaving the docks, Aruzmathel takes a moment to talk to a street urchin and pays him a copper to watch the boat for the oricalcucum to come off the ship. He tells him that he will be back in three days to pay him 3 gold for news of what happens when it comes off the boat and 5 for the location it's taken to. If there is any news before the three days expires to let the inn keeper of the Pig and Whistle tavern on that block know.

We head off to House Kagen with Lord Pellar. This is the most amazing and prosperous city we have seen. Lugar leads us through the best part of town to House Kagen. Roberto, the head chamberlain comes to talk to us and extends his deepest thanks for delivering Lord Pagen safely back. For the first time we think to/get the nerve up to ask the business of the guild and find they are in the business of exotic items and curios from foreign lands. They are an import/export business (smuggling?). He offers us free room and board for us for as long as we are in the city. The mistress of the house, Alia Qaigen, will be back in three days. Lord Kriten, second in command, will be back tomorrow and Roberto would like to wait till then to reward us.

We're informed that our rooms will be ready by that evening and until then we are welcome to have a hot bath and have their tailors work on some proper clothes as well as any other services the house can provide.

We check on local policy and find that heavy weapons are not allowed in the city and heavy armor isn't considered proper. There is a wizards guild in town that also runs a school and has an extensive library. When Mistress Qaigen gets back she will write me a letter of introduction to the school.

Aruzmathel takes them up on the bath and laundry service and dagger sharpening. Ethos gets the weapon master to work on his weapons. The house seamstress takes measurements for Ethos and Aruzmathel for new outfits. Aruzmathel then has a house runner go to the Pig and Whistle and let the bar tender know to deliver any messages for him to House Qaigen. The two then set out for the library and Ethos researches how the city and guilds work and who is House Qaigen. The house has over 1750 employees, being one of the smaller guilds of Drakkel. They are a proper guild house and stay within the laws of the city. Aruzmathel spends his time researching the wizards spell book but finds nothing that helps him. He will have to wait to use the library at the wizard's school.

Torgren goes and talks to the dwarven mining guild and finds out that there shouldn't be any Red Eye Corp in the town or shipments of oricalcum.

That evening, Hugh tells the head of security of House Qaigen about the xorians. We are treated to a great dinner in House Qaigen and are provided great rooms with quality locks on the doors. It is the first good sleep we've had in a long time.


On the second day once Lord Kriten arrives, we tell him and the house wizard about the magical compass and the fact that it might be a homing beacon. The wizard will make plans to try and shield it from scrying and decode its uses.

Later that morning we meet with Lord Kriten. Lord Peldor is there and he is looking much better. He thanks us for all our help and for saving his life. He presents Hugh with an ornate silver box containing a magical dagger for the generous gesture for buying the healing broth. We tell them all about the adventures from finding Lord Peldor in the cells to getting him here. We play up the heroism of Lugar and Bull in saving Lord Peldor. They offer us room and board for as long as we would like and also reward us with 1,000 gp each and a nicely carved wood box with a vile of golden glowing liquid that purges all wounds.

Lord Kriten presents us each with a signet ring and offers us the position of retainer within the house. He would like to put forth a team for specific goal accomplishments. We ask to respond during dinner and talk about it amongst ourselves later. We agree that it would be good to have them as patrons. Over dinner we tell them that we are honored to have them as our patrons. We are given rooms in our own private wing with a chef/servants and maids.

Morkei, the house wizard, Finnegan and Aruzmathel spends the day working on decoding the compass. Some of the symbols on the compass match some of the symbols in the wizards spell book and the Huridian code.

A message is delivered that the street urchin is waiting for Aruzmathel at the tavern by the docks. Everyone else from the party is out shopping with their new found wealth so Aruzmathel takes Luger and the chief of security with him. Once they get to the Pig and Whistle, Aruzmathel finds the 12 year old urchin, Trevor, having an ale and a hunk of bread at the bar. Aruzmathel pays for Trevor's fare as well as a drink for himself. They move to a quiet area and Trevor says that he didn't see anything unusual that afternoon, but his friend Pidgin saw a row boat pull up along the side of the barge while everyone else was getting off on the dock side. A bag was lowered from a room's window to a one of the two waiting row boat. It was satchel sized, full and it look heavy, maybe 60-70 lbs. The guy from the room climbed down into the row boat. He was wiry human in his 40's with a salt and pepper beard. The two in the row boat were cloaked humans and one had on a gold ring that caught Pidgins attention. It was a long and sleek row boat that sat low in the water. They headed under the pier towards the south west.

Aruzmathel pays Trevor 5 gold and another 5 for Pidgin and lets him know that he wants more information about where that boat went.

That day, Hugh goes horse shopping and buys a very nice charger that is combat trained. Torgren works with the house weapon master and acquires a magical ax, but doesn't have enough funds to pay for it outright so will have to work the rest of the debt off.

The next day Mistress Alia Qaigen returns and is extremely pleased with all we have done to help and that we have decided to joined house Qaigen. We tell her about the smuggling of oricalcum into the city and she agrees that her house is interested, even if just from the value of the information. She lets us know that she will give us each a personal gift in the days to come as a symbol of her thanks for bringing Lord Peldor back.

That afternoon, Finnegan spends more time and with the aid of the magical stone he successfully identifies that that potion will give invisibility for 3d8 rounds. He also finds that house signet rings unlock doors and allow communication between the team members.

Aruzmathel copies down all the runes on the compass. He pays for an annual membership and a months unlimited access to the wizards guilds library. There is also a requirement of demonstration of ability in order to join, but the test is so simple that the average 5 year old Corvenian could pass.

He works with Morkei, the house wizard, and purchases many spells from him. It costs 50gp per spell level from him or 75gp per level from the wizards guild. In order to get all the spells that he needs, he sell the magical lock picks that he got off the thief. Aruzmathel asks Roberto who would be best to help with this and he sends him to the chief of security. He offers to sell it for him through some contacts he has down at the docks and gets 300gp for it, keeping 10% and giving Aruzmathel 270gp. Between this, trading a couple spells that Markei didn't have and researching the creation of two new spells, Aruzmathel is able to fill all of his main second level spell desires.