"I hate this city."
May. 6th, 2004 12:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothTonight was more of Jeff's Dragonlance campaign. We struck viciously at the enemy's outposts, then walked into their fortress and confronted their leader in his center of power. THEN discovered that he was, in fact, their leader, and not just some corrupt intermediary we could bribe. Oops!
After the ogres and trolls were dead, the party advanced into the cave to search for captive elves, or any remaining enemies. They found neither, but did find a map with many Xs on it, scattered throughout the forest, one of which was obviously the place they were at, and another of which was the campsite where they'd fought the giant. They also found a note saying that some guy in Apsic was paying a 2000 steel bounty for each live elf.
It was a crude map, but they decided to see if they couldn't hit a few Xs on the way to Apsic. The first camp they checked was deserted, and while approaching the second they saw a small army of orcs, ogres, and giants marching down the road towards them -- so they climbed into several rope tricks, and waited until the enemy marched underneath, then FIREBALL! FIREBALL! With some archery support from Morgan and Sonnet, hiding outside behind trees. The heavies were taken down, but despite Thor and Kijj's pursuit, most of the orcs scattered into the forest and got away. They hit a third campsite -- where the inhabitants were dead drunk, and thus easy to sneak within fireball range -- then finally reached the city.
They had to pay a fee to enter the city, which was only a dozen or two steel per person. Sonnet and Mike lied and claimed to be laborers, and got in for less. Sonnet then had to pay an extra bribe to the guards because he hated gnomes. Especially gnome women who hit on him.
The city had a lot of draconians in it, along with a scattering of every other race -- including giants, ogres, and orcs, along with minotaurs and gomes and LOTS of humans.
The first order of business was to report to the elves. There was an elvish encampment in the city, and after explaining their business, the elves realized who they were, and thanked them for rescuing their downed griffon riders. They told the elves everything they'd found out, and discovered that the person offering the huge bounty on elves was the head of the thieves' guild. And the assassins' guild. And the bandits' guild. And owned the mayor. And was the harbormaster, which meant that they'd need his permission to leave the city.
"I hate this city," Morgan remarked.
They next visited the only good temple in the city, of Rondalla, god of bards. The priest there offered to raise Sawyer from the dead if the party would go buy the required component... so the party took the opportunity to restock on identify pearls and sell off the loot from the forest slavers.
Then it was time to find out about the place they were heading. The city was Scarp, newly rebuilt on the ruins of the earlier city. A former sailor was willing to talk to them, for steel, and told them that the elves were indeed taken there, where the group of ogre magi who followed the white dragon took custody of them for some unknown purpose.
The sailor left immediately after talking to them, so Morgan tailed him -- right to the harbormaster, where he went in to chat and came out with a letter of passage, then straight onto a ship setting out for Palanthas.
"I hate this city," Morgan remarked, then came back and reported that their 'informant' had sold them out. Probably. He might have just been buying passage out.
The party didn't want to talk to the harbormaster. There were several ships they could take across the straight -- one straight to Scarp, one to Sylvamori of the Kagonesti, which was about a week out of the way. They could also buy a folding boat or some feather tokens from the magic shop and use them to cross, or a small craft that was for sale relatively cheap that Kijj was sure he could use, since 'all minotaurs are natural sailors'.
Unfortunately, all of those involved getting permission from the harbor master. Even buying the magic items was regulated, and finding an honest magic shop cut both ways. So they gritted their teeth, and went in to chat, hoping that the harbormaster wouldn't put two and two together, or wouldn't care about what they were doing. They made sure to tell Kijj NOT TO TALK (since he refused to lie that they were slavers interested in collecting the bounty on elves).
So, after sitting in a waiting room for ten minutes or so, they were led to the harbormaster's office, where half a dozen draconians lurked about, and were informed that certainly they could have passage to cross to Sylvamori, for 50 steel a head -- oh, but first they'd have to pay reparations for all of the master's employee's they'd ambushed and murdered in the forest. According to some orcs that had escaped.
The stated reparations came to about 5000 steel... Mike and Sonnet protested their innocence, and the master was more than happy to offer them a trial, where truth-detecting magic would be used to discover if they were guilty or not. But the orc had clearly seen a scary minotaur who looked just like Kijj.
"I hate this city," Morgan remarked.
So, Sonnet and Mike tried to sell out Kijj. 'Just arrest him,' they said, 'We never met him before yesterday.' Now THAT was obviously a lie, since they'd been seen coming in through the gate as a group two days previous, and Kijj had been part of a party that had participated in the ambush -- a party with lots of wizards. Like Mike and Murphy. And they fit the description of the group sent by the Tower of Wayreth to take care of his employees in the forest. And their spy in the elf encampment had heard them proudly admit to their crimes. So, if they weren't going to pay reparations, they could have their trial, but they'd all be split up and imprisoned until the court was ready for them.
Mike asked for time to think it over before deciding, and they were led back to the waiting room. They were sure they were being watched, so Mike cast a rope trick and they all climbed inside and tried to decide what to do.
For about fifteen minutes, they argued about whether to buff up and fight their way out, or buff up and fight their way in to kill the leader. They neglected to actually cast any buffs, and were caught a bit by surprise when the draconians, getting a bit impatient, filed into the room and surrounded the rope trick.
They did have time to get a few spells cast before the rope trick was dispelled, but now they were surrounded by kapaks with dispel magic wands and bozaks casting magic missile and scorching ray, while the Sivak harbormaster and his Aurok wizard servant sat blocking the door inside a lesser globe of invulnerability.
Morgan and Thor moved to flank the Sivak, while Gogo (Murphy's new cohort, that he'd hired while the party was looking at ships), Sawyer, and a tiger from Sonnet's rope trick attacked the lesser draconians around the edges of the room. Everyone was careful to stay outside the globe, so their spells wouldn't be negated... and so they were all caught in the area dispells from the kapaks' wands -- every single buff was removed, including Thor's stone skin.
This didn't hurt the party as much as it could have, though. Sawyer and Kijj started taking down the kapaks, putting an end to the dispel-fest, while Murphy, Gogo, Morgan, and Thor concentrated on the Sivak, and Mike provided spell defense, counterspelling a fireball and a scorching ray.
The Sivak, sick of Murphy enervating him, marched across the room and with two powerful swings cut the wizard down -- after which the Aurok put up a wall of fire which caught Gogo and the warhorse from the bag of tricks straight on, with Mike, the dying Murphy, Kijj, and Sonnet on the wrong (hot) side, along with a single bozak.
Sonnet healed Murphy, then (with Mike's help) took out the bozak, while Kijj dropped his spear and charged through the wall of fire to brutally slice into the Sivak with an admantium longsword he'd picked up in Palanthas (since it was really obvious from the fighting up till then that the Sivak had a stoneskin on). Thor struck a final blow, and the harbormaster was no more. Seeing him fall, the Aurok fled, having no reason to continue to fight.
There were still a few enemies left to kill, and those trapped on the far side had to run through the wall (Kijj had to run through it twice, but his amulet was protecting him from fire, so it didn't matter much), but they retrieved the wands of dispel magic from the acid pools the kapak had left before they dissolved, and shoved the Sivak's entire body (now a duplicate of Thor) into Mike's bag of holding -- since it was too heavily studded with magical items to loot in any kind of reasonable time frame, especially considering that the building was now on fire.
The door opened (despite some fears that the draconians might have arcane locked it to keep them in), revealing the magically warded hallway between them and the stairs... and there were two levels to go before they could leave the building. And then they'd still be trapped in the city whose unofficial leader they'd just slain.
last session next session
It's a pretty low blow to make your lawful good minotaur swear not to speak during a critical negotiation 'because he'll screw it up', then try to sell him out RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM, with him not able to say a word. They're just lucky Kijj is too stupid to remember the incident.
After the ogres and trolls were dead, the party advanced into the cave to search for captive elves, or any remaining enemies. They found neither, but did find a map with many Xs on it, scattered throughout the forest, one of which was obviously the place they were at, and another of which was the campsite where they'd fought the giant. They also found a note saying that some guy in Apsic was paying a 2000 steel bounty for each live elf.
It was a crude map, but they decided to see if they couldn't hit a few Xs on the way to Apsic. The first camp they checked was deserted, and while approaching the second they saw a small army of orcs, ogres, and giants marching down the road towards them -- so they climbed into several rope tricks, and waited until the enemy marched underneath, then FIREBALL! FIREBALL! With some archery support from Morgan and Sonnet, hiding outside behind trees. The heavies were taken down, but despite Thor and Kijj's pursuit, most of the orcs scattered into the forest and got away. They hit a third campsite -- where the inhabitants were dead drunk, and thus easy to sneak within fireball range -- then finally reached the city.
They had to pay a fee to enter the city, which was only a dozen or two steel per person. Sonnet and Mike lied and claimed to be laborers, and got in for less. Sonnet then had to pay an extra bribe to the guards because he hated gnomes. Especially gnome women who hit on him.
The city had a lot of draconians in it, along with a scattering of every other race -- including giants, ogres, and orcs, along with minotaurs and gomes and LOTS of humans.
The first order of business was to report to the elves. There was an elvish encampment in the city, and after explaining their business, the elves realized who they were, and thanked them for rescuing their downed griffon riders. They told the elves everything they'd found out, and discovered that the person offering the huge bounty on elves was the head of the thieves' guild. And the assassins' guild. And the bandits' guild. And owned the mayor. And was the harbormaster, which meant that they'd need his permission to leave the city.
"I hate this city," Morgan remarked.
They next visited the only good temple in the city, of Rondalla, god of bards. The priest there offered to raise Sawyer from the dead if the party would go buy the required component... so the party took the opportunity to restock on identify pearls and sell off the loot from the forest slavers.
Then it was time to find out about the place they were heading. The city was Scarp, newly rebuilt on the ruins of the earlier city. A former sailor was willing to talk to them, for steel, and told them that the elves were indeed taken there, where the group of ogre magi who followed the white dragon took custody of them for some unknown purpose.
The sailor left immediately after talking to them, so Morgan tailed him -- right to the harbormaster, where he went in to chat and came out with a letter of passage, then straight onto a ship setting out for Palanthas.
"I hate this city," Morgan remarked, then came back and reported that their 'informant' had sold them out. Probably. He might have just been buying passage out.
The party didn't want to talk to the harbormaster. There were several ships they could take across the straight -- one straight to Scarp, one to Sylvamori of the Kagonesti, which was about a week out of the way. They could also buy a folding boat or some feather tokens from the magic shop and use them to cross, or a small craft that was for sale relatively cheap that Kijj was sure he could use, since 'all minotaurs are natural sailors'.
Unfortunately, all of those involved getting permission from the harbor master. Even buying the magic items was regulated, and finding an honest magic shop cut both ways. So they gritted their teeth, and went in to chat, hoping that the harbormaster wouldn't put two and two together, or wouldn't care about what they were doing. They made sure to tell Kijj NOT TO TALK (since he refused to lie that they were slavers interested in collecting the bounty on elves).
So, after sitting in a waiting room for ten minutes or so, they were led to the harbormaster's office, where half a dozen draconians lurked about, and were informed that certainly they could have passage to cross to Sylvamori, for 50 steel a head -- oh, but first they'd have to pay reparations for all of the master's employee's they'd ambushed and murdered in the forest. According to some orcs that had escaped.
The stated reparations came to about 5000 steel... Mike and Sonnet protested their innocence, and the master was more than happy to offer them a trial, where truth-detecting magic would be used to discover if they were guilty or not. But the orc had clearly seen a scary minotaur who looked just like Kijj.
"I hate this city," Morgan remarked.
So, Sonnet and Mike tried to sell out Kijj. 'Just arrest him,' they said, 'We never met him before yesterday.' Now THAT was obviously a lie, since they'd been seen coming in through the gate as a group two days previous, and Kijj had been part of a party that had participated in the ambush -- a party with lots of wizards. Like Mike and Murphy. And they fit the description of the group sent by the Tower of Wayreth to take care of his employees in the forest. And their spy in the elf encampment had heard them proudly admit to their crimes. So, if they weren't going to pay reparations, they could have their trial, but they'd all be split up and imprisoned until the court was ready for them.
Mike asked for time to think it over before deciding, and they were led back to the waiting room. They were sure they were being watched, so Mike cast a rope trick and they all climbed inside and tried to decide what to do.
For about fifteen minutes, they argued about whether to buff up and fight their way out, or buff up and fight their way in to kill the leader. They neglected to actually cast any buffs, and were caught a bit by surprise when the draconians, getting a bit impatient, filed into the room and surrounded the rope trick.
They did have time to get a few spells cast before the rope trick was dispelled, but now they were surrounded by kapaks with dispel magic wands and bozaks casting magic missile and scorching ray, while the Sivak harbormaster and his Aurok wizard servant sat blocking the door inside a lesser globe of invulnerability.
Morgan and Thor moved to flank the Sivak, while Gogo (Murphy's new cohort, that he'd hired while the party was looking at ships), Sawyer, and a tiger from Sonnet's rope trick attacked the lesser draconians around the edges of the room. Everyone was careful to stay outside the globe, so their spells wouldn't be negated... and so they were all caught in the area dispells from the kapaks' wands -- every single buff was removed, including Thor's stone skin.
This didn't hurt the party as much as it could have, though. Sawyer and Kijj started taking down the kapaks, putting an end to the dispel-fest, while Murphy, Gogo, Morgan, and Thor concentrated on the Sivak, and Mike provided spell defense, counterspelling a fireball and a scorching ray.
The Sivak, sick of Murphy enervating him, marched across the room and with two powerful swings cut the wizard down -- after which the Aurok put up a wall of fire which caught Gogo and the warhorse from the bag of tricks straight on, with Mike, the dying Murphy, Kijj, and Sonnet on the wrong (hot) side, along with a single bozak.
Sonnet healed Murphy, then (with Mike's help) took out the bozak, while Kijj dropped his spear and charged through the wall of fire to brutally slice into the Sivak with an admantium longsword he'd picked up in Palanthas (since it was really obvious from the fighting up till then that the Sivak had a stoneskin on). Thor struck a final blow, and the harbormaster was no more. Seeing him fall, the Aurok fled, having no reason to continue to fight.
There were still a few enemies left to kill, and those trapped on the far side had to run through the wall (Kijj had to run through it twice, but his amulet was protecting him from fire, so it didn't matter much), but they retrieved the wands of dispel magic from the acid pools the kapak had left before they dissolved, and shoved the Sivak's entire body (now a duplicate of Thor) into Mike's bag of holding -- since it was too heavily studded with magical items to loot in any kind of reasonable time frame, especially considering that the building was now on fire.
The door opened (despite some fears that the draconians might have arcane locked it to keep them in), revealing the magically warded hallway between them and the stairs... and there were two levels to go before they could leave the building. And then they'd still be trapped in the city whose unofficial leader they'd just slain.
last session next session
It's a pretty low blow to make your lawful good minotaur swear not to speak during a critical negotiation 'because he'll screw it up', then try to sell him out RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM, with him not able to say a word. They're just lucky Kijj is too stupid to remember the incident.
