Session 29 – The Thief Both Short and Tall

[avisarr]

Session 29 – The Thief Both Short and Tall

Gen met with Larnis the Lucky and he told her that he knew that she and her group were planning on heading into the Desolation of Shidar. And they would need a guide. He told her that he knew of someone who could guide them into the Desolation. He simply wanted a reward for the information.

She met briefly with the group. They discussed it and decided to pay him for his news. They paid him 50 gold coins and he told them the following:

"I have the perfect man for you. A man who has been into the Desolation six times. No one knows the lands beyond the Wall better. And he is not a wealthy man. No. He's got gambling debts. He could easily be persuaded with gold.

You must not enter the Desolation unprepared. Better to go in with someone with experience. All I ask for my information is the very humble sum of 20 gold siar".

Gen paid him the 20 gold.

"The man's name is Kaelig. He's a thief, but don't let that bother you. What in life can you trust more than a man whose loyalty can be bought with gold?"

"I know right where you can find Kaelig. He's in the town of Calannon. He's there for the Festival of the Burning Wood. That festival starts today and runs for a full week so he'll be there for at least a few days. Kaelig has connections with the thieves guild in Calannon and the Underworld in Chaddamar. In Calannon, seek him at the Silken Saber tavern where most thieves hang out. Tell him I sent you."

The party now had Grimnoth and they had a good lead on where they could find a guide.

[Around this time, we picked up a new player and character. A ranger named Teela joined the group. I honestly forget exactly what time and under what circumstances she joined the group.]

Ugita cast a Windwalk spell and in a matter of hours, the group flew across the lands of the Aukarian Republic. In the western Republic, they came to the town of Calannon.

From a distance, Calannon looked to be a fairly large town. It was a walled city with an impressive main gate. A sprawling maze of tents and buildings surrounded the main city walls. The outer city was a shanty town. Dozens of tents and lean-tos were set up and people were hawking their wares.

At the gates, four city guards were taking entrance fees. Entertainers were entertaining the crowd that was waiting in line.

Once inside, the party found the city to be clean, organized and very decorative. The whole city bustled with activity and a festival raged on every street. The entire city

The party got settled into the city and spent some time enjoying the festival. Gen and Martin made contacts with the local thieves guilds in Calannon. They went to the Silken Saber tavern and asked about the thief, Kaelig.

"Who's asking?" barked the bartender.
Gen and Martin quickly convinced him that they were thieves passing through with a business proposition for Kaelig.
"I've not seen him. He was supposed to be in this morning, but he never showed up. Not sure where he's gotten himself off to".
Another thief at the bar says... "Barak would know where he is. Find Barak and you'll find Kaelig.
"What does Kaelig look like?"
"Tall man, bright red hair in a ponytail and a scar on his right cheek. I saw him at the town square this morning. Center of town."

The party went to the Town Square. There they found a wooden stage with five criminals in irons and a bloodthirsty crowd booing the criminals and pelting them with food.

The five prisoners were as follows:

A huge muscled man
A tall, thin pale skinned saridian
A halfling dressed as a jester on stilts.
A magrakian warrior.
A tall, red-haired pony tailed human.

Of course, the fifth criminal was Barak. The party had found him, but he was not available to answer their questions. If they wanted to talk to him, they were going to have to save him from the gallows.

There were too many city guards around to try a direct assault, as one might expect with this group of heroes.

The party offered to pay the guards a handsome sum to release the red haired thief Barak. However, an immensely obese man, dressed in silken robes and dripping with jewelry, intervened. This overfed noble was reclining in a litter and was being attended to by an entourage of servants and bodyguards. The noble doubled the price that the party had offered, in order to make sure the guards kept Barak in irons. It seemed Barak had stolen from this noble and the noble was going to enjoy watching him hang for it.

The party quickly devised another plan. They were going to convince the guards and the crowd to hand over the criminal...

Callister approached the stage and with great gusto, swearing up a storm, and quickly caught the crowd's attention. He pointed an accusing finger at Barak and began a rant!

"I demand justice! This man raped my sister and I will not sit idly by while a soft hearted magistrate gives him a quick and easy death at the end of a rope. No! He must suffer! I demand the hand that he laid upon my sister! I will settle for nothing less! What do the good people of Calannon say? Shall I have my prize? Shall I take his hand? Do you not demand blood?

The crowd cheered Callister on. The fat noble protested loudly saying that he wanted to see the criminal hang. Callister persisted, describing all manner of punishments that would be inflicted on the criminal if he were allowed to take him back to his land. He got the crowd riled up and screaming for blood. Soon, the crowd was cheering and demanding that the criminal Barak be handed over to Callister and that the noble surrender him. Soon outshouted and outvoted, the noble conceded and the guards agreed.

The crowd, however, wanted to see the first blood spilt. A chant rose from the crowd: "Cut off his hand! Cut off his hand!"

The criminal was brought forth and forced to kneel down with his hand on the block. Martin and Gen held him down while Callister advanced, blade drawn.

"Now, dog! Your pain begins before these good people. But we'll finish it in private!"

The crowd cheered. As they did, Callister leaned down and whispered into Barak's ear...

"Callister Draabyn of the Third Wind. Don't worry... we're here to help you.  Now, hold still, this is gonna hurt"

Barak looked up with bewildered eyes. It seems the Gods had placed his fate in the hands of a mad man.

The blade flashed and came down, slicing cleanly through Barak's forearm. The severed hand limply dropped to the wooden stage floor. Barak threw back his head and screamed, clutching his bloody stump. Gen and Martin dragged him away with the help of the guards.

Callister turned back to the crowd screaming "My name is Callister Draabyn and I demand blood! Blood! Blood!" The crowd exploded in a torrent of bloodlust and cheers. Callister picked up the hand and held it before the crazed onlookers, shaking it, flinging blood into the crowd. He played the part for all it was worth, a wild, mindless animal lust. He then ran off the stage accompanied by cheers and shouts of "Callister! Callister! Callister!"

Gen, Martin and the others quickly got the whimpering Barak away from the throngs in the town square as quickly as possible. Ugita threw a cloak over Barak and they took him to a nearby alley away from the crowds. With a wave of his hand and a muttered spell, the pain in Barak's arm vanished and Barak quieted down. Callister joined them a moment later and handed the severed hand to Ugita. Ugita placed the severed hand against the bloody stump and began to chant. The healing power of Oxolai rushed through the limp and the flesh and bone melted together. The healing was quick and in mere seconds Barak gazed, astounded, as his arm, made whole. He flexed his fingers and gaped in awe.

"Why have you done this?"

"We need you. Sorry about that, didn't have any other way to get you off the stage. But we needed to get you out of there. We have a deal for you. We just rescued you from the gallows and we'll let you go. You've got your freedom. But first, we need you to help us find a man named Kaelig. We were told you would know where he is. Help us and you go free. Refuse and we'll hand you back to that fat noble."

"Kaelig? You want Kaelig?

"That's right. Where can we find him?"

Barak shook his head in utter amazement. "But... Kaelig was up on that stage with me! He was the one in the middle... the little man dressed as a jester, on stilts."

Callister and the rest smacked their hands into their heads almost as one. Ugita rummaged through his satchel and pulled out a piece of parchment. He had written down the cryptic verse that the shadow world had spoken to him. One verse leapt out at him immediately

"Seek the fool both short and tall"

The midget dressed as a jester on stilts. It was so obvious. The party groaned at the capricious humor of the Gods.

The party let Barak go and snuck back to the town square, keeping care not to attract attention to themselves. They quickly devised yet ANOTHER plan. Teela, one of the party members, a very good looking female half elf, and had not been involved in the previous plan. Teela was a recent addition to the group.

The party to decided to try a more extreme method. Ugita prepared a small magical token, one that was tied to a short range teleport kind of spell. It had a limited mass and limited range, but would teleport the possessor of the token to the caster (in this case, Ugita). The token was a small copper coin.

Teela took the token and would be the one to pass it to Kaelig. She used her charm and beauty to woo the guards and convince them that the halfling was her husband. They looked at the petite woman and doubted, but she flashed them a look that promised them great rewards if they would allow her but "one last kiss" with her husband. She emphasized that she would be a widow soon and available to them. The two guards grinned and let her pass.

Teela mounted the stage and went to Kaelig. He was still in iron and standing on his stilts, he was almost as tall as the men he stood beside. Before he could say a word, she kissed him full on the lips. In the kiss, she passed the coin to him, pushing the coin into his mouth with her tongue. She ended the kiss, smiled at him and said "Keep it in your mouth and you will be saved from the gallows. I promise you."

Teela left the stage and the party quickly left. They went to their room in a nearby inn which Ugita had procured. There in the inn, they gazed out their room's window overlooking the town square. Ugita spoke the final words of the spell and with a great flash, Kaelig vanished. He appeared in their room, irons manacles, chains and a piece of the stage came with him.

The party had succeeded. They had Kaelig. They helped free him from his chains and explained that they needed him to guide them through the Desolation. They had spared his life for that very task.

The rest of the day, the city guards searched high and low for the missing criminal. City mages used scrying spells to ascertain Kaelig's whereabouts, but Callister's tattoos protected him (and everyone with him) from detection by magic. The party and Kaelig stayed in the inn until dawn the next day. Then, they donned festival masks and costumes and snuck out with a crowd of other revelers past the city gate early in the morning.