Operation Desert Spies
Oct. 12th, 2004 12:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothTonight we had a session of Jeff's Darksun campaign, which went a lot better than yesterday's demon game. It was actually fun... even if there wasn't much real combat.
I swapped out Laika for one of my backup characters, Brightstone the Pterran druid. This'll let me keep all three characters about even in XP, maximizing overall XP gain and minimizing XP lost in the event of an untimely character death. Of course, it did mean playing with a 6th level character instead of a 7th, for this session, but druids totally rule, so nya.
The party spent a week in Tyr after opening the trade route and informing the council of the oncoming insect army. None of them were interested in actually enlisting to fight, so they mostly spent money and enjoyed their rest. The exception was Laika, who decided it was a good time to fly up to his village and tell them what he'd found out about the earthquakes, and maybe try to enlist their help against the Kreen swarm. He didn't abandon his companions completely, though... he ran into a Pterran druid he knew, who lived in the mountains nearby and that he'd seen before on his wanderings, and asked him to join up with them and keep an eye on them.
Brightstone had just met up with Cypher and April, and they were discussing looking for work to make some money, when a mysterious woman sat down with them and offered them a gold to take a job watching a certain caravan master on his next trip, reporting back to her anything suspicious. They bargained her up to one gold now and one on completion, and half-price access to new spells for April. Then Brightstone and Cypher split the initial gold, planning to tell Saurian and Santino (Ducati had changed his name in mourning for his slain sister) that the gold on completion was the total pay, along with of course the money for being a caravan guard and any loot they picked up.
Before they could meet up with the others, they were ambushed by six thugs in an alleyway. While April and Cypher used stunning spells to disorient and delay the attackers, Brightstone had Peppermint -- his companion, a heavy crodlu (think feathery velociraptor) -- pounce on one thug after another, generally taking each down in a few seconds of thrashing claws and teeth. Two survived to run away, and one wasn't *quite* killed, so April healed him, and Brightstone interrogated him, politely -- the good cop to Peppermint's bad cop. They didn't find out much, except that the thugs had been *hired* to take them on, and weren't random muggers.
So they went to get Santino and Saurian right away. The others weren't enthusiastic about the low pay being offered, but the job seemed simple enough, and they didn't have anything better to do. When they got to the House Vordon estate, it was too late to hire on with the caravan that night, but they'd be able to in the morning. So they broke for the night -- most of them returning to the Wayward Wanderer, except for Saurian, who bought luxurious accomodations at the Sweetwater Inn.
Because they were cheap, the four staying at the Wanderer bought a single room, large enough for two very friendly people, and slept in a rope trick. When they woke up, half the top floor of the building had been burned to a crisp, and it looked like their room was the center of it. They decided to sneak out without confronting the innkeeper, retrieved Saurian (who'd been undisturbed in the much-better-guarded Sweetwater), and headed back to sign on with the caravan.
The caravan master asked them about their skills, and (after a little haggling) offered them between 4 and 6 ceramic a day to accompany the caravan, with an expected 11 day round trip to Uruk and back. He told them to report to the caravan before midnight, as they were leaving before dawn.
Brightstone did a little spying on him that day in the form of a large scavenging bird (which were always thick above the city), but didn't find out anything useful. He also tried to tame a tiny lizard to spy on the caravan master once they were actually in the caravan, but that didn't really amount to anything. Saurian and April spent the day shopping, the others spent their time doing other things, and eventually they all reported for duty.
Nadar, the caravan master, was a hard-ass, and chewed out or fired the guards who showed up late. One in particular, who got there JUST in time, was Damon, who befriended the party and chatted with them about how guard duty usually went, and what to expect. Other notable guards were Rosha, leader of the outriders, and Kratek, a vicious Mul who seemed to be Nadar's bodyguard.
It took six days to get to Uruk. There were thirty six guards besides the party, two giant turtle-lizards pulling the huge, multistorey wagons, and four passengers. The party spent the time chatting everyone up, fishing for information, but didn't really learn much of interest. Aside from a friendly (if quite insane) giant and a small band of elves who didn't feel up to facing down forty-plus guards, they didn't run into anything threatening before getting to Uruk.
Uruk itself was a city known for its obtruse and arcane code of law, which was inscribed on a massive pillar in the center of the city, for no one to read because the first law written on it outlawed reading. Damon suggested that the party just stay in the inn with the other guards, as the caravan was leaving an hour after dawn, when the gates opened.
Nadar seemed pissed that he'd spent so much money on guards only to not run into any fights, and fired half the rank and file, although he told the party he'd probably be able to hire them on for the return, at reduced wages. Then he headed off with Kratek to do his business in the city.
The party followed him, of course -- that was their real mission. Saurian and Brightstone sort of stood out, but once they got into the slums there were enough vermin around for Brightstone to turn into a less conspicuous kestrel... Saurian just hid under her cloak.
Nadar first went to a small, run down building, and spoke to someone through the door. He didn't seem pleased at the answer, and didn't go inside, so Saurian, Cypher, and Santino continued following him while Brightstone searched the building as a bird. He couldn't get into the occupied chamber, but he found a glowing door in the basement with a strange glyph on it. Not having either spellcraft or the ability to read, the glyph didn't mean much to him.
He caught up with the others in time to see Nadar go into House Strell (who he was *supposed* to be doing business with) and make the normal transaction for the caravan trip. Seeing Nadar heading back to the slums, Brightstone flew ahead and positioned himself close enough to hear the conversation when the door opened. The graying human inside accepted a huge bag of money -- the entire proceeds from the trading Nadar had done -- and told him "Tell your master that you can count on my loyalty."
The others got stopped by the Templars, who fined Saurian 30 ceramic for wearing a cloak in the city. Only templars were allowed to wear cloaks! The fine would, of course, be split between her and her companions... who insisted they didn't know her, leaving her to pay the whole fine or face enslavement for life in the salt mines. She paid up, under protest, and vowed revenge on... someone. Not the Templars, so much as Damon or Nadar, who should have warned her not to wear her cloak into the city.
Everyone met back at the inn near the gate, and compared notes. April hadn't followed Nadar, instead she'd wandered around shopping and lost 10 ceramic to a cutpurse. Cypher and April pulled the glyph from the basement out of Brightstone's mind, and identified it as being something akin to an Arcane Lock. They discussed going back to break into the locked room, but the majority felt that they'd already fulfilled their obligation by overhearing the deal going on, and that further zeal was not being paid for. So they turned in early, planning to get up a half hour before dawn so as to be sure not to miss the caravan.
But when they got up the next morning, packed their things, and came down for breakfast, the caravan was already out the gate -- and the gate was locked until an hour after dawn, unless they were with a registered caravan, like the one who'd just left. Which they weren't. They dimension-doored and/or flew over the wall to confront Damon (who'd lied about the departure time) and Nadar, but Nadar told them that he couldn't afford to hire them -- he'd run into 'unexpected expenses'.
So they spent an hour or so gathering supplies and food to travel through the desert on their own, and planned to hurry a little to catch up with the caravan so they could run to them for protection, and also keep an eye on Nadar. It was not to be, however. The noontime sun was too hot to continue on foot, and in the early hours of the morning, they were attacked!
Four Mul came rushing out of the dunes, howling like Lirr. They were driven off without too much injury to the party -- Saurian was nearly killed, but April healed her in time, and Santori and Peppermint rushed to her aid and slew her assailants. Most of the casters (except Brightstone, who'd sat back and let his companion do the work) had ruined their rest, however, so the party spent another eight hours resting, losing the whole day, basically.
From that point on they had Cooling Canopy and Endure Elements spells up, at least. Soon they came upon the ruins of the caravan -- the giant lizards were slaughtered, as were the guards and other crew, and everything of value had been stolen. They found a cook clinging to life, and he managed to tell them about the large tribe of elves that had destroyed the caravan and kidnapped Nadar, before expiring from his horrid wounds, which were beyond the power of simple clerical magic to cure.
The party argued about whether to try to rescue Nadar, until they realized that no one was arguing in favor of his rescue, since they all hated him. Back to Tyr, then.
The rest of the trip was uneventful, and they reported the caravan's loss to House Vordon, who'd gotten word earlier by kankback. They also went to the meeting place they'd arranged with their employer, and told her what they'd found, receiving their payment.
Before she could explain further, however, a poisoned knife flew through the window, and struck Cypher, quickly weakening and paralyzing him. They rushed to look out at the street, but it was thronged with poeple, and whatever assassin had thrown the knife got away.
Their employer told them to meet her the next day at noon at the Golden Ibix to discuss this further, since it obviously wasn't safe to do it in the bar they were in. Ed told her to meet them at the Sweetwater instead, where Saurian was (of course) going to say, again. The other found a different bargain basement inn to rope-trick in, and this time woke up to find a bag with their names on it set out in front of their doorway.
Suspecting another trap -- maybe a Fire Trap? -- they mage-handed it out onto the still-quiet streets and stood 30 feet back while a cantrip opened it. Inside were three golden scorpions, which never made it to the party before being magic-missiled, sling-stoned, and crossbowed to death.
Saurian was also left a bag of scorpions, but was also cautious opening it, and was able to flee her room ahead of them and have the hotel staff take care of rounding them up.
At noon, they met with their employer again, who revealed herself as Telara Vordon, one of the cousins vying for control of House Vordon. Her cousin Thraxos was the one Nadar and Kratek -- who'd mysteriously escaped from the elves -- were working for, and she was sure they were up to something. If only she could prove it! Oh, also, the random attacks on the party were probably because they were working for her.
They agreed to take on another spying mission for three gold apiece this time, with ten times that if they managed to acquire proof of a plot enough to depose Thraxos and leave Telara in full control. This time, Nadar was travelling to meet with House Ballac in a nearby city, but wasn't hiring any guards becuase he had no caravan, so they'd have to follow his with a bit more subtlety.
last sesion | next session
I think it's fair to say that the mission would not have succeeded if I'd still been playing Laika, and we might have ended up enslaved in the salt mines, or dead of dehydration in the desert.
I swapped out Laika for one of my backup characters, Brightstone the Pterran druid. This'll let me keep all three characters about even in XP, maximizing overall XP gain and minimizing XP lost in the event of an untimely character death. Of course, it did mean playing with a 6th level character instead of a 7th, for this session, but druids totally rule, so nya.
The party spent a week in Tyr after opening the trade route and informing the council of the oncoming insect army. None of them were interested in actually enlisting to fight, so they mostly spent money and enjoyed their rest. The exception was Laika, who decided it was a good time to fly up to his village and tell them what he'd found out about the earthquakes, and maybe try to enlist their help against the Kreen swarm. He didn't abandon his companions completely, though... he ran into a Pterran druid he knew, who lived in the mountains nearby and that he'd seen before on his wanderings, and asked him to join up with them and keep an eye on them.
Brightstone had just met up with Cypher and April, and they were discussing looking for work to make some money, when a mysterious woman sat down with them and offered them a gold to take a job watching a certain caravan master on his next trip, reporting back to her anything suspicious. They bargained her up to one gold now and one on completion, and half-price access to new spells for April. Then Brightstone and Cypher split the initial gold, planning to tell Saurian and Santino (Ducati had changed his name in mourning for his slain sister) that the gold on completion was the total pay, along with of course the money for being a caravan guard and any loot they picked up.
Before they could meet up with the others, they were ambushed by six thugs in an alleyway. While April and Cypher used stunning spells to disorient and delay the attackers, Brightstone had Peppermint -- his companion, a heavy crodlu (think feathery velociraptor) -- pounce on one thug after another, generally taking each down in a few seconds of thrashing claws and teeth. Two survived to run away, and one wasn't *quite* killed, so April healed him, and Brightstone interrogated him, politely -- the good cop to Peppermint's bad cop. They didn't find out much, except that the thugs had been *hired* to take them on, and weren't random muggers.
So they went to get Santino and Saurian right away. The others weren't enthusiastic about the low pay being offered, but the job seemed simple enough, and they didn't have anything better to do. When they got to the House Vordon estate, it was too late to hire on with the caravan that night, but they'd be able to in the morning. So they broke for the night -- most of them returning to the Wayward Wanderer, except for Saurian, who bought luxurious accomodations at the Sweetwater Inn.
Because they were cheap, the four staying at the Wanderer bought a single room, large enough for two very friendly people, and slept in a rope trick. When they woke up, half the top floor of the building had been burned to a crisp, and it looked like their room was the center of it. They decided to sneak out without confronting the innkeeper, retrieved Saurian (who'd been undisturbed in the much-better-guarded Sweetwater), and headed back to sign on with the caravan.
The caravan master asked them about their skills, and (after a little haggling) offered them between 4 and 6 ceramic a day to accompany the caravan, with an expected 11 day round trip to Uruk and back. He told them to report to the caravan before midnight, as they were leaving before dawn.
Brightstone did a little spying on him that day in the form of a large scavenging bird (which were always thick above the city), but didn't find out anything useful. He also tried to tame a tiny lizard to spy on the caravan master once they were actually in the caravan, but that didn't really amount to anything. Saurian and April spent the day shopping, the others spent their time doing other things, and eventually they all reported for duty.
Nadar, the caravan master, was a hard-ass, and chewed out or fired the guards who showed up late. One in particular, who got there JUST in time, was Damon, who befriended the party and chatted with them about how guard duty usually went, and what to expect. Other notable guards were Rosha, leader of the outriders, and Kratek, a vicious Mul who seemed to be Nadar's bodyguard.
It took six days to get to Uruk. There were thirty six guards besides the party, two giant turtle-lizards pulling the huge, multistorey wagons, and four passengers. The party spent the time chatting everyone up, fishing for information, but didn't really learn much of interest. Aside from a friendly (if quite insane) giant and a small band of elves who didn't feel up to facing down forty-plus guards, they didn't run into anything threatening before getting to Uruk.
Uruk itself was a city known for its obtruse and arcane code of law, which was inscribed on a massive pillar in the center of the city, for no one to read because the first law written on it outlawed reading. Damon suggested that the party just stay in the inn with the other guards, as the caravan was leaving an hour after dawn, when the gates opened.
Nadar seemed pissed that he'd spent so much money on guards only to not run into any fights, and fired half the rank and file, although he told the party he'd probably be able to hire them on for the return, at reduced wages. Then he headed off with Kratek to do his business in the city.
The party followed him, of course -- that was their real mission. Saurian and Brightstone sort of stood out, but once they got into the slums there were enough vermin around for Brightstone to turn into a less conspicuous kestrel... Saurian just hid under her cloak.
Nadar first went to a small, run down building, and spoke to someone through the door. He didn't seem pleased at the answer, and didn't go inside, so Saurian, Cypher, and Santino continued following him while Brightstone searched the building as a bird. He couldn't get into the occupied chamber, but he found a glowing door in the basement with a strange glyph on it. Not having either spellcraft or the ability to read, the glyph didn't mean much to him.
He caught up with the others in time to see Nadar go into House Strell (who he was *supposed* to be doing business with) and make the normal transaction for the caravan trip. Seeing Nadar heading back to the slums, Brightstone flew ahead and positioned himself close enough to hear the conversation when the door opened. The graying human inside accepted a huge bag of money -- the entire proceeds from the trading Nadar had done -- and told him "Tell your master that you can count on my loyalty."
The others got stopped by the Templars, who fined Saurian 30 ceramic for wearing a cloak in the city. Only templars were allowed to wear cloaks! The fine would, of course, be split between her and her companions... who insisted they didn't know her, leaving her to pay the whole fine or face enslavement for life in the salt mines. She paid up, under protest, and vowed revenge on... someone. Not the Templars, so much as Damon or Nadar, who should have warned her not to wear her cloak into the city.
Everyone met back at the inn near the gate, and compared notes. April hadn't followed Nadar, instead she'd wandered around shopping and lost 10 ceramic to a cutpurse. Cypher and April pulled the glyph from the basement out of Brightstone's mind, and identified it as being something akin to an Arcane Lock. They discussed going back to break into the locked room, but the majority felt that they'd already fulfilled their obligation by overhearing the deal going on, and that further zeal was not being paid for. So they turned in early, planning to get up a half hour before dawn so as to be sure not to miss the caravan.
But when they got up the next morning, packed their things, and came down for breakfast, the caravan was already out the gate -- and the gate was locked until an hour after dawn, unless they were with a registered caravan, like the one who'd just left. Which they weren't. They dimension-doored and/or flew over the wall to confront Damon (who'd lied about the departure time) and Nadar, but Nadar told them that he couldn't afford to hire them -- he'd run into 'unexpected expenses'.
So they spent an hour or so gathering supplies and food to travel through the desert on their own, and planned to hurry a little to catch up with the caravan so they could run to them for protection, and also keep an eye on Nadar. It was not to be, however. The noontime sun was too hot to continue on foot, and in the early hours of the morning, they were attacked!
Four Mul came rushing out of the dunes, howling like Lirr. They were driven off without too much injury to the party -- Saurian was nearly killed, but April healed her in time, and Santori and Peppermint rushed to her aid and slew her assailants. Most of the casters (except Brightstone, who'd sat back and let his companion do the work) had ruined their rest, however, so the party spent another eight hours resting, losing the whole day, basically.
From that point on they had Cooling Canopy and Endure Elements spells up, at least. Soon they came upon the ruins of the caravan -- the giant lizards were slaughtered, as were the guards and other crew, and everything of value had been stolen. They found a cook clinging to life, and he managed to tell them about the large tribe of elves that had destroyed the caravan and kidnapped Nadar, before expiring from his horrid wounds, which were beyond the power of simple clerical magic to cure.
The party argued about whether to try to rescue Nadar, until they realized that no one was arguing in favor of his rescue, since they all hated him. Back to Tyr, then.
The rest of the trip was uneventful, and they reported the caravan's loss to House Vordon, who'd gotten word earlier by kankback. They also went to the meeting place they'd arranged with their employer, and told her what they'd found, receiving their payment.
Before she could explain further, however, a poisoned knife flew through the window, and struck Cypher, quickly weakening and paralyzing him. They rushed to look out at the street, but it was thronged with poeple, and whatever assassin had thrown the knife got away.
Their employer told them to meet her the next day at noon at the Golden Ibix to discuss this further, since it obviously wasn't safe to do it in the bar they were in. Ed told her to meet them at the Sweetwater instead, where Saurian was (of course) going to say, again. The other found a different bargain basement inn to rope-trick in, and this time woke up to find a bag with their names on it set out in front of their doorway.
Suspecting another trap -- maybe a Fire Trap? -- they mage-handed it out onto the still-quiet streets and stood 30 feet back while a cantrip opened it. Inside were three golden scorpions, which never made it to the party before being magic-missiled, sling-stoned, and crossbowed to death.
Saurian was also left a bag of scorpions, but was also cautious opening it, and was able to flee her room ahead of them and have the hotel staff take care of rounding them up.
At noon, they met with their employer again, who revealed herself as Telara Vordon, one of the cousins vying for control of House Vordon. Her cousin Thraxos was the one Nadar and Kratek -- who'd mysteriously escaped from the elves -- were working for, and she was sure they were up to something. If only she could prove it! Oh, also, the random attacks on the party were probably because they were working for her.
They agreed to take on another spying mission for three gold apiece this time, with ten times that if they managed to acquire proof of a plot enough to depose Thraxos and leave Telara in full control. This time, Nadar was travelling to meet with House Ballac in a nearby city, but wasn't hiring any guards becuase he had no caravan, so they'd have to follow his with a bit more subtlety.
last sesion | next session
I think it's fair to say that the mission would not have succeeded if I'd still been playing Laika, and we might have ended up enslaved in the salt mines, or dead of dehydration in the desert.
