# More Charisma Than a Roomful of Nymphs (finished, link to full SH in last post)



## haiiro (Jul 19, 2004)

_Welcome to the Selgaunt campaign Story Hour! Updates will be frequent, it's set in a modified version of the Forgotten Realms, and I'd love to hear your feedback on the story. _

*The Road South*

The party's attempts to stay undercover ended the moment they stepped out of Vars' wagon and found everyone staring at them. Behind them was the Dalesouth path, leading back to their training ground in Tasseldale. Ahead, the last leg of Rauthavyr's Road -- with Selgaunt at it's terminus. All around them was the dust and noise of dozens of people passing through the small and squalid town of Essiar, the closest settlement to the north of Selgaunt.

Their journey up to that point had been by wagon. Specifically, a cramped and strange-smelling wagon that belonged to an amiable spice merchant, Vars. He spoke of only one thing of consequence on the entire trip from Essiar: a recent spate of bandit attacks around Selgaunt and the River Arkhen. As a result, our merry band was alert, but not terribly worried -- they were seven in number, and only a long day's walk separated them from Selgaunt's gates.

Bidding farewell to Vars, they began marching southward.

The road was busy at this time of year -- and all the more so because of Rook's Night, which had provided them with a cover story thus far. Among the items that their principal contact within the Harpers, Agrafion, had given them was a small cage that contained four ravens. As people from all over Sembia travelled to Selgaunt to celebrate Rook's Night -- an annual festival commemorating the nation's most illustrious bird, the raven -- a few more would hardly stand out.

Unless, of course, those few were these seven peculiar individuals.

Here is what the average Sembian passerby -- a farmer returning from Selgaunt with his mule, or a trader heading there on a laden wagon, perhaps -- might have noticed about them, in approximately chronological order. There was a silver-haired elf, clad in an outlandish iridescent outfit bedecked with jingling bells. Oh! And look -- a worshipper of Torm in gleaming banded mail, whose mild-mannered expression belied the fact that he looked as though he had stepped out of a stained glass window. Next to him was the most striking woman they'd ever seen, who clanked sleekly along in heavy plate shot through with enamelwork flowers -- and _also_ looked like she might have emerged from churchglass.

Her radiant beauty was matched only by the blazing good looks and natural charm of another elven companion, who idly strummed a lute and took in the scenery with glittering eyes. The next two folks might have looked a bit out of place, but to a keen observer one's twitching gait and the other's fluid, loping stride would have made them equally hard to miss. The latter looked like a strange collision between a swashbuckler and a barbarian, while the former appeared to be the product of a ruffian and a meaner ruffian -- unarmed, but appearing fully capable of uprooting trees with his bare hands. As these two were content to remain quiet, it was the silken voice of the final figure -- not his size or garb -- which drew the viewer's notice. Moving in and out through the group as they walked, this attractive gnome projected a certain something that made passing farmers think it might be wise to have their prettiest daughters move to the _back_ of the wagon, out of sight.

Next to most of the other travelers on Rauthavyr's Road, this bunch stood out like a gold coin in a purse full of coppers. Quickly realizing this, the party began to work on a new and somewhat more elaborate cover story. They would need to be able to move about Selgaunt without exposing themselves as Harpers -- which would be a dangerous thing to do, given the way most Sembians felt about Those Who Harp. The Harper who had trained them, the thistle-haired Agrafion, had tasked them with pursuing the Harper cause and code in Selgaunt -- and given them their first mission.

The last Harper to pass through Selgaunt, a woman by the name of Allekar, was able to secure an excellent contact within the city: Thissiken of Dracon Row. The majority of what the Harpers knew about Selgaunt came to Allekar through Thissiken, and he had been an invaluable resource thus far. Before the party started their journey from Tasseldale, Agrafion received word by from Thissiken by _feather token_ that his life was in danger -- and that he needed their help. Agrafion dispatched his newly trained recruits -- our charismatic party -- without delay.

As the party walked down the road in conversation, they quickly arrived at the notion of hiding in plain sight. This motley band was going to stand out anywhere, so why not deflect questions by standing out as much as possible? In short order, they became Tuggle's Follies -- a troupe of traveling entertainers accompanied by their manager, porter and guards.

With their legitimate musical talents, Cupric and Jaehn fell into the role of the principal entertainers. They were backed up by Artemis, whose tumbling talents were adaptable to the stage. Armed and heavily armored, Tal and De'lea became the guards. Strong, unarmed and possessing no talent whatsoever for entertainment, Vicktor was relegated to the role of porter. Lastly, Tuggle's prodigious charm made him the natural leader -- the manager and face man for Tuggle's Follies.

Once they'd settled on this course of action, the Follies wasted no time spreading the word -- to be precise, spreading it to each and every person they passed on the road. Amidst strumming and singing, they announced to anyone who would listen -- which was, not to put too fine a point on it, everyone -- that they would be performing in Selgaunt. Cupric at last remembered a Rook's Night song he had been trying to recall, and its merry chorus of "Ca-caw! Ca-caw!" accompanied many of their meetings with other travelers.

In this manner the Follies passed the time until dusk, when a thick fog began to set in. They were close enough to the Sea of Fallen Stars to smell the salt on the breeze, and Cupric noted that fog was a regular occurrence in Sembia at that time of year. Nonetheless, with visibility limited to hundred yards at most, the group formed up into a proper column and began actively scanning the terrain to either side of the road.

In the front was Cupric, who had ceased singing and instead scouted a little ways ahead of the rest of the party. Behind Cupric was Talishmere, the gleaming symbol of Torm on his breastplate beaded with moisture from the fog. De'lea brought up the rear, and the metallic noises of her enameled plate sounded strangely loud within the mist. In the middle of the column were Tuggle, Vicktor, Artemis and Jaehn. Jaehn's bells tinkled merrily, while Vicktor slouched quietly along next to him. Artemis kept a ready hand on the hilt of his rapier, and Tuggle walked near him off to one side, where the thicker patches of fog rose to his chest.

_To be continued..._


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## Wolfspirit (Jul 19, 2004)

Heh, good start, looking forward for more to come.  So what kind of charisma are we talking about anyways?  16+?  Or a whole lot of 18s?


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## haiiro (Jul 19, 2004)

Wolfspirit said:
			
		

> Heh, good start, looking forward for more to come.  So what kind of charisma are we talking about anyways?  16+?  Or a whole lot of 18s?




Thanks, Wolfspirit! 

At the start of the campaign, the party looked like this:

Artemis Blade, human barbarian 2/rogue 1, Cha 10
Cupric EmeraldEyes, dreamborne bard 3, Cha 20
De'lea, aasimar paladin 2 of Sune, Cha 17
Jaehn Erlan'shin, sun elf illusionist 3, Cha 14
Talishmere (Tal), aasimar cleric 2 of Torm, Cha 15
Tuggle Scheppen, gnome sorcerer 3, Cha 18
Vicktor, human pugilist 2/rogue 1, Cha 8

...for a grand total of 102 points of Charisma!

The current party, with two less members and a slightly different makeup, has a combined Charisma of 81. 

That's what I get for telling everyone that "Charisma matters" before character generation.


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## Black Bard (Jul 20, 2004)

Great beginning!!!
Just a question, what's a "dreamborne"?


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## haiiro (Jul 20, 2004)

Black Bard said:
			
		

> Just a question, what's a "dreamborne"?




Glad you enjoyed the first post. 

Cupric's player (who posts here as thedangerranger) wanted to create a character based around a compelling idea from the Manual of the Planes: sometimes a dreamscape in the plane of dreams shatters, scattering the shards into the material plane. Most of the time, these shards fade away shortly thereafter -- but in rare instances, they become permanent and take on life.

Cupric is one of these rare cases, a dreamborne. We worked up a custom race for him -- literally a race of one, as our take on the idea was that every dreamborne would be fundamentally different. In Cupric's case, one theory is that he was someone's dream of the perfect elven bard. Much like planetouched, he possesses physical traits that make him identifiably unusual, if you look hard enough: he has emeralds for eyes, and his hair is composed of strands of copper.

Here's the racial writeup, if you're curious:

- +2 Cha, -2 Con: Dreams are often surpassing perfection in appearance but lack in depth of substance.
- Medium size.
- Base speed 30 feet.
- Low-light vision.
- Immunity to magical sleep effects, and dreamborne do not sleep (as the elven trait).
- Obscure Lore: A dreamborne receives this feat from Song & Silence for free.
- +2 racial bonus to checks with one Perform skill of your choice: Dreamborne are natural performers, and their stunning appearance helps them in this regard.
- +2 racial bonus to Knowledge (history) checks: Knowledge of the world is a part of a dreamborne's making, whether he has studied the topic or not.
- Favored class: Bard.

Apart from that, the origin is mostly flavor -- and thus far, it hasn't been completely pinned down. Some of that mystery is being resolved by Cupric's player, some of it by me.


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## Spider_Jerusalem (Jul 21, 2004)

*charisma charisma*

Hey haiiro, nice first post.

Big charisma parties are great to DM! Looking forward to the next installment.

So, these dreamborne shenanigans mean that somewhere out there is the dreamer of Cupric's character?

Spider


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## haiiro (Jul 21, 2004)

Spider_Jerusalem said:
			
		

> So, these dreamborne shenanigans mean that somewhere out there is the dreamer of Cupric's character?




Yep, it does -- and as a DM, I find it presents such _delicious_ possibilities.

As for the high Charisma party thing, it's definitely fun (and not something I've ever really done before). The oddest thing is that they often comment that they can't see how their high CHA has affected the game -- but when I look back on sessions, I can see all sorts of things that went differently because of it. Probably means I'm not getting something across well enough...

Something to work on, in any case. I'm glad you enjoyed the first post, Spider. 

And: there'll be an update tomorrow morning!


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## haiiro (Jul 22, 2004)

*(continuing session 1, Tuggle's Follies)*

_Forgot the campaign date last time: 4th of Kythorn (June), 1372 DR, The Year of the Rested Serpent._

*Ambush*

Not long after they'd settled into this marching order, Tal heard a bestial grunting off to the right side of the road. The party fanned out a bit, and Tal drew his greatsword and headed for the copse of trees where the sound seemed to be coming from. Facing the opposite direction, De'lea concentrated and _detected evil_ on the far side of the road. Just as she sensed the aura of evil's presence, a massive form lunged out from behind the tree Tal was approaching. Shaking leaves free as it shouldered its way around the trunk, the two-headed creature roared and took a swipe at Talishmere -- and in the moonlight, he saw that its arm was wrapped in thorny vines and spiked straps.

The blow connected, staggering Tal, and suddenly the other Follies were jolted into action. Tuggle created the _ghost sound_ of a swarm of giant rats off to one side of the creature, while De'lea approached the underbrush wherein she had sensed the presence of evil. At the same time, feral-looking humanoids stepped out from behind trees and rose up from the bushes on either side of the road, and sent several arrows zinging through the group. Vicktor moved up to engage the two-headed creature with Tal, while Cupric tried to get a bead on the archers. Jaehn prepared to assist the others with his spells, while Artemis took this opportunity to flee down the road and into the fog.

A few short seconds later, Cupric had told the nine-foot tall two-headed humanoid a magically charged joke -- he cast _Tasha's hideous laughter_ and rendered it helpless. As bizarre as the spectacle of this giant beast clutching its sides and roaring with laughter was, Vicktor and Tal wasted no time laying into it with sword and fists. Across the road, De'lea was able to dispatch an archer, although she still couldn't tell what manner of foul creature it was.

Looking like an unwholesome crossbreed of orc and gnoll, the archer's skin was oddly withered in some places, and scaled in others. Cupric noticed this as he felled another one, catching it with an arrow in the throat despite its best efforts to stay behind cover. The remaining two archers let fly again, and again their arrows failed to find their mark. A heartbeat later, Tal and Vicktor had killed the laughing creature -- and at this, the two archers wasted no time in bolting into the fog and fleeing the battle.

Searching the bodies revealed a few troubling details. The hybrid nature of the archers was made clear, and Cupric's store of bardic lore brought their name to mind: dogsbloods. They were apparently fairly common in Sembia, and were indeed suspected to be an orc/gnoll cross that bred true. They wore ill-fitting clothes and dark leather armor, and wielded odd horn bows. One of them carried a large brass whistle, which the party claimed for their own. The larger creature was first thought to be an ettin, but it too had odd patterns and variations on its skin. Cupric was able to identify it as a war-ogre, but knew nothing of them apart from the name.

An examination of the war-ogre's body turned up several very large nails that had been pounded into its back -- as well as one that was driven into the back of its head. These were not magical, but careful study suggested that they were used to control the creature in some way. Someone with sufficient knowledge of anatomy could insert them into specific areas of the body and brain to make the creature more docile -- or fiercer. When Talishmere pulled out the nail in the war-ogre's head, it was found to be at least eight inches long.

Although they were waylaying travelers along Rauthauvyr's Road, it was clear to the Follies that these were not mere bandits -- rather, part of some much more organized and powerful group. Before they had a chance to leave the ambush site, however, they were subject to a strange visitation.

*The Shimmering Man*

Practically in the middle of the party, a glowing orb appeared in the air -- it popped into existence under a small tree by the side of the road. The Follies scattered, and took up various hiding places in the immediate area. As they looked on warily, the ball of shimmering light expanded slowly -- from a mote into an oval, then a larger oval, then a doorway with a rounded top. When the bottom touched the ground, Jaehn created a _minor image_ opposite the doorway, and mirrored it exactly as it continued to grow. Artemis returned at this point, and lingered just at the range where he could observe the light.

A moment later, the sparkling door coalesced into a shimmering humanoid form. This form appeared to walk through the doorway while at the same time pulling himself together from its substance. As the _image_ mimiced this action, the being stepped completely through the doorway -- which was no longer there, as all of the light had gone into giving depth to his form. The shimmering man seemed poorly resolved, and no details could be made out on his glowing body.

He stood still and impassively surveyed the area, without seeming to notice the _image_ or those members of the party who were still visible. After he had looked from side to side, he reached up with his right hand -- as if to grasp a staff that was not there -- and seemed somewhat surprised. With his hand still up, he said, "_Shauuuuuundaaaaaakul_" in a sonorous voice, and then disappeared without fanfare.

Although Jaehn and Cupric both had knowledge of _portals_, neither they nor any of the other Follies had ever seen or heard of this sort of thing. Baffled, the party pressed on for Selgaunt with all haste.


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## haiiro (Jul 23, 2004)

*Entering Selgaunt*

They arrived at the Statue Gate in short order and without incident. Twin armored warriors were carved around the massive gateway arch, as if protecting the entrance. The statues were thrown into sharp relief by the light of several torches at ground level, and a scattered crowd was gathered in front of the gate.

A number of guards were also present, admitting people into the city, and they seemed to be divided into two distinct groups: one group clad in luminous sky blue capes, the other in functional black tabards. The guards in black seemed to be doing most of the actual work, and the Follies approached them. Tuggle spun their tale, describing the troupe as Vicktor brandished the cage of ravens. Satisfied that they were there for Rook's Night, the guards let them pass with only a cursory inspection.

Having asked about finding a place to stay for the night, they were directed to the Flags -- a large district of inns and taverns down one fork in the road and not far from the Gate. The street itself was bustling with activity, even this late at night, and people with cages of ravens were everywhere.

As the party quickly found out, most businesses in Selgaunt didn't use wooden signs or representative objects to advertise themselves. Instead, they hung large colored flags over their doors, depicting their wares and services. Divining this, the Follies wandered down the crowded street looking for a flag that suggested musicians and was hung from a decent inn. Only one building in easy view fit the bill, and they decided to go inside.

*The Follies' First Performance*

Noise and light spilled out as they opened the door, and they stepped from the crowded street into an equally crowded common room. At one end were two small stages, with a troupe of untalented minstrels on one and a dancing bear on the other. The common room was packed nearly wall to wall with people, and a long bar ran across the back wall.

Thinking that this might be a good time for their first public performance, Tuggle began casting _glamour_ to make himself more charming -- and before the spell was even cast, the head bartender had begun shouldering his way through the crowd, glaring at Tuggle. The barkeep was a short, stocky man with a bald head and craggy features, and he brandished a cudgel in a businesslike manner. Before any of the Follies had a chance to react, he growled, "We'll have none of that in here!"

Tuggle started to apologize as Cupric stepped in and tried to mollify the barkeep. Between Cupric and Tuggle, the barman was convinced that they meant nothing by it -- and even agreed to give them a chance to perform on the spot. By way of explanation, he whispered conspiratorially to Cupric that if they start using magic openly, the Skyclads would be all over the place in no time. Cupric's honeyed words also pried out the fact that the bartender -- Frango, actually both head barkeep and owner of the inn, which was called Farry's Port -- made regular bribes to the guards to avoid their attention.

The minstrels seemed somewhat resigned to being shooed off the stage by Frango, but the dancing bear troupe was a different story. Led by a dwarf with a massive handlebar mustache, this group shot dark looks at the Follies as they made their way offstage and out the front door. Once the stages were clear, Tuggle began introducing the group as the other Follies conferred about the precise nature of their act.

After borrowing a mandolin from Jaehn, Cupric and the outlandish wizard struck up a merry tune. Artemis, despite being urged to perform feats of strength, settled on a vigorous kicking dance he had learned among the Storm Horn barbarians. On the smaller stage, De'lea began posing seductively in her plate armor, making eye contact with attractive men in the audience. Meanwhile, Tal stood near the stage in case his blade was needed, and Vicktor lurked by the exit.

Within moments, the crowd was caught up in the performance -- people were clapping in time with the Rook's Night tune being played by Jaehn and Cupric, and several men had moved to the front of the audience to dance with De'lea. Although improvised on the spot, the Follies' performance far outshone the average tavern fare -- so much so that people were stepping outside to bring in passersby. It wasn't long before the common room was more full than before, and the bartenders were busy keeping the wine and ale flowing freely. Seeing that things were going well, Tuggle began working the crowd: a combination of charming the ladies, taking song requests and spreading the word about the Follies.

The Follies played and performed for around half an hour, at which point they bowed their way off the stage. Frango was thrilled at their performance -- and the business it brought in -- and offered them room and board until Rook's Night was over, in exchange for daily engagements at dusk. The Follies agreed in a heartbeat -- they'd just covered their expenses for a short while, and found a perfect way to begin building their reputation. In combination with the gold and silver that was tossed into Jaehn's upturned hat during their act, they made out quite well. Ready for sleep, all but Jaehn, Cupric and Tuggle retired to their fine rooms upstairs, one at each end of the hall on the second floor.

The remaining three lingered for a bit to mingle with the crowd, and established that everyone had enjoyed themselves -- despite missing the dancing bear -- and wanted bawdier songs in the next performance. Shortly thereafter, they called it a night and joined their companions upstairs.


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## haiiro (Jul 26, 2004)

_A little interlude, and a map of Selgaunt with some of its landmarks and locations marked in!_

*Night at Farry's Port*

After the common room emptied out and all of the Follies had gone upstairs, everyone was asleep in short order -- with the exception of Vicktor. Their rooms were good enough to have glass in the windows, and Vicktor stayed up for some time looking out over the main thoroughfare. A little while after the street had more or less cleared out, he saw a figure emerge from an alley opposite the inn. Cloaked and hooded, Vicktor couldn't make out much about him except that he was fairly short in stature. After a few moments spent glancing around, the figure faded back into the alleyway and out of view.

When this process had been repeated twice more over the next several minutes, Vicktor trudged down the hall and woke Talishmere. Watching with Vicktor, Tal's darkvision let him pick out enough details to establish that the figure was none other than the dwarf who led the dancing bear troupe, mustache and all. They watched for a little while longer, and then both Tal and Vicktor headed for bed.

Hours later, the Follies were all awakened with a start by a tremendous *BOOM* -- distant, but so loud and powerful that it made the floor shake. After leaving their rooms to confer briefly, the Follies decided that it wasn't an immediate threat and returned to sleep.

During breakfast in the common room the next morning, the Follies found out that the sound had probably been an explosion -- most likely one of the dracotechnics shops in the east end of the city going up. This was apparently not all that uncommon, and no one at breakfast seemed terribly disturbed by it. A brief foray by Artemis, Vicktor and Cupric into the alley across from Farry's Port turned up an enormous bear turd, found near where the dwarf was seen during the night. With no other sign of dwarf or bear, the Follies decided to let it go and set out into the Low City to seek Thissiken of Dracon Row.

*Heading Into the City*

A bit of asking around established roughly where Dracon Row could be found, and the party made its way over the Arkhen and deeper into the city. As they walked through the already busy and bustling streets, they noticed that the guards dressed in a variety of colors -- and each time a new color was spotted, the Follies made casual inquiries as to what each group was called. In this manner, they established that there were nine groups of guards (plus the Silver Ravens), each associated with a particular merchant prince:

*Black* - Shalligh’s Black Capes
*Blue* - Ursmeril’s Skyclads
*Dark Grey* - Bright Slayers
*Gold* - Baric's Pikemen
*Green* - Daridon’s Ravens
*Grey* - Gurrom's Wheels
*Pale Green* - Calderro's Blades
*Red* - Alseyn's Rangers
*White* - Davisson's Legion

The areas of the Low City that they passed through were marked by taller buildings -- most were two stories, often more -- of widely varying ages and styles. In the smaller streets, construction seemed to have been haphazard and frequently revisited. Buildings overlapped, and the higher floors were braced against those on the opposite side of the street; some roadways were paved or cobbled, while others were packed dirt criss-crossed with wagon ruts. Most buildings seemed to be quite old, and there were more wooden structures than stone ones. No matter what area they were in, however, people carrying caged ravens of all types were a common sight.


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## Spider_Jerusalem (Jul 28, 2004)

Nice updates!

Did the characters role play the whole dancing/singing sequence? That would have been interesting.

Tuggle is easily the most advanced of the characters, and despite a loathing of gnomes, I'm kinda rooting for him.

Well haiiro this is pretty good so far. Keep it up! 

Spider


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## thedangerranger (Jul 28, 2004)

Hello all, Cupric's player here.
It's fun to re-read these journals.
It give a sense of how diverse the characters truly are, even though they are mostly charisma based (or at least high charisma).

My wife (Tuggles player) would be ecstatic at your praise spider.

If you are interested in any of the character I urge people to check out the backstory journals on the characters at 3d6.org.
There are currently backstories for Cupric and Tuggle.
Cupric's Journals 
Tuggle's Journals 

Actually haiiro does a stupendous job keeping the site (3d6.org) updated with pertinent info and interesting additions to the campaign. He wont pimp it in this thread, but I will


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## haiiro (Jul 28, 2004)

Spider_Jerusalem said:
			
		

> Did the characters role play the whole dancing/singing sequence? That would have been interesting.
> 
> Tuggle is easily the most advanced of the characters, and despite a loathing of gnomes, I'm kinda rooting for him.




They didn't RP the Follies' performance in terms of actually singing, dancing, etc., but reading the crowd, responding to the audience, and putting on a good show were all talked through. It was a fun element of this session.

They surprised me with the whole "troupe of traveling entertainers" cover story, and it's worked out very well in the campaign. That's one of my favorite aspects of running a game. 

As for Tuggle, in what sense do you mean he's the most advanced of the PCs? Gnomes definitely seem to be a love 'em/hate 'em race, but I quite like them. I got my intro to gnomes from Dragonlance's Time of the Dragon boxed set, the first campaign setting I owned, and it kind of stuck with me.

To the loathing/delight of all, there are more gnomes to come. 




			
				thedangerranger said:
			
		

> If you are interested in any of the character I urge people to check out the backstory journals on the characters at 3d6.org.
> There are currently backstories for Cupric and Tuggle.
> Cupric's Journals
> Tuggle's Journals




These journals are both quite good, and they'll give you an enjoyable look at Tuggle's and Cupric's backstories. They're one of the bonus XP activities I offer -- as someone put it, "shared investments in the fantasy" that net the players in-game rewards.

I sort of figured there wasn't going to be much crossover between people interested in this Story Hour and people interested in visiting the campaign website, so I haven't connected the two here.


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## thedangerranger (Jul 28, 2004)

haiiro said:
			
		

> They surprised me with the whole "troupe of traveling entertainers" cover story, and it's worked out very well in the campaign. That's one of my favorite aspects of running a game.




But it was the perfect cover for our troop of "bandit slaying jingle golemns" (actual quote from the very first session).
-tdr-


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## haiiro (Jul 29, 2004)

*Dracon Row*

Arriving at Dracon Row, the Follies noticed that quite a few things were different about this ramshackle little district. Passing under the iron entry sign that bore the district's name, the road beneath their feet went from cobbles to sand. Before them stretched a maze of haphazard streets, all covered in sand -- piled into deep drifts in some places -- and flanked by stone and brick buildings. There were no torch brackets to be seen on any of the buildings, and there was at least one shovel by every doorway, as well as a prevalence of what looked to be water barrels.

Walking a short distance down the substantially quieter street, Cupric entered the first shop he came to -- a small sandstone building with a brass plaque over its door that read "Garyid's." While Cupric was finding out if the shopkeeper had heard of Thissiken, the rest of the party noticed that all of the businesses in Dracon Row used lettered signs and plaques, rather than the colorful flags so common elsewhere in the city. After coaxing a squeaky halfling, Garyid, out of the pint-sized door in the rear of his shop, Cupric was able to get precise directions to Thissiken's -- which turned out to be not too far down the street.

The other thing that turned out to be not too far down the street was a large pile of rubble strewn between two buildings, accompanied by a pall of dust and smoke that had lingered and spread down the road. Small groups of onlookers could be seen around the rubble, and as the party approached it was clear that this was the wreckage of a shop -- quite probably the one they had heard explode during the night.

Scampering about among the smashed stone, broken timbers, roofing tiles and other detritus was a frantic, sooty gnome. His wild white hair waving about, he was attempting to shore up the building on the far side of the blast site -- lifting scorched planks and beams and wedging them in against the wall.

The Follies picked their way through the rubble and offered their assistance, which the gnome gladly accepted. Still propping things against the wall, he started ordering the Follies around. Seeing that the building he was trying to shore up looked fine -- remarkably unharmed by the blast, actually -- and that his efforts were fairly pointless, they mostly tried to look busy. While trying to convince the gnome that he could stop propping things against the wall, one of the Follies asked if he knew Thissiken.

"I'm Thissiken!" said the gnome. "Why do you want to know? Who are you? What do you want?" He delivered all of this almost without punctuation, _"Whydoyou wanttoknow? Whoareyou? What doyouwant?"_ Trying to calm him down, the Follies assured him that they were friends, and that they had been sent by Agrafion. At this, Thissiken insisted that they go into his shop.

The shop, which was adjacent to the blast site, somehow contrived to feel cramped despite the fact that it was actually a sizable building. The interior was dark and cool, lit only by some kind of magical globe off in one corner. There were two gnome-sized doors on the back wall, and a hodgepodge of shelves and seating in the main area. Also noticeable was a large bell hung from the ceiling, adjacent to which was a round trapdoor of some sort.

A series of rapid-fire introductions and explanations ensued. Thissiken flitted about, trying to explain things too quickly or not at all, and eventually disappeared into the back to prepare some tea. When he returned, he insisted that everyone partake -- "Havesometea!" -- and settled down somewhat once a few Follies had done so.

Tal and De'lea did much of the talking, patiently explaining to Thissiken why they were there, and trying to find out exactly what it was that he needed. What emerged was this: the shop next door belonged to a fellow drakesmith, Algaer, and Thissiken knew that it hadn't blown up by accident.

Sometimes little accidents happened in the dracotechnics trade, but this wasn't one of them. Last night, he was up late and noticed flickering flames -- "Strictlyforbidden!" -- outside his shop. He rang his shop's blast bell and jumped into his blockhole -- here he gestured at the circular trapdoor, and explained that every dracotechnics shop had a bell and a blockhole. The blockhole was a thick-walled stone tube, much like the top of a well (only set into the ground) intended to protect the drakesmith from an explosion.

Before he made it into his blockhole, he caught a glimpse of several figures in red cloaks (one of whom was extremely tall) running down the street carrying torches. They were heading away from Algaer's shop. He related that he had seen this same group twice in the last two tendays, and that he had sent the message to Agrafion after the second time. While explaining all of this, he kept telling the Follies that he feared for his life -- while appearing to mix up his facts at the same time. De'lea concluded that he was hiding something, while Tal and some of the other Follies thought he was telling the truth.

Wondering why the fact that strangers blew up _someone else's_ shop made Thissiken think he was next, the party kept pressing him for details. In due course, he explained that it seemed like the cloaked group had been casing Algaer's shop -- "WhywouldI wanttocall theguards? Noguards comedownhere." -- and that at one point they came into _his_ shop and started asking him all sorts of questions about paintings. Further probing into this topic revealed that Algaer had quite a few paintings, and that he had even shown them to Thissiken on occasion. Thissiken also recalled that Algaer had returned from a long trip just yesterday, and that he had been carrying something large and flat wrapped in cloth -- perhaps a painting?

Realizing that Algaer might still be in his shop -- possibly even trapped in his blockhole -- the party asked Thissiken if he'd looked for Algaer. He seemed surprised that they would ask this, and said that no one had looked for him.


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## haiiro (Jul 31, 2004)

*Clues in the Rubble*

The Follies returned to the rubble pile and began searching around in earnest. While some tried to uncover the blockhole, others scanned the outlying areas for clues. They turned up several items of interest: a torch stub, which smelled strongly of smoke and ash and faintly of honeysuckle; shreds of canvas, some still bearing paint; and a tiny rune, crisply etched into one of the remnants of Alger's door. In addition, they also cleared the area over the blockhole -- but Algaer was not inside.

The blockhole was not empty, however, and Cupric used a bit of sleight-of-hand to retrieve a leather pouch that was half-covered by sand. While this was going on, Vicktor identified the symbol on the door, which looked as though it were etched by acid: it was a mark of death, often used by thieves and assassins.

Peeking into the pouch while screened from view by the other Follies, Cupric found several wooden tokens, a carved brass object and a letter:

_Hail and Well Met, Lockmyre. My regrets, but I do not have the work you’re looking for. I deal in the fire of dragon’s breath, not in the flames of artists' brushes. Perhaps one of the many fine shops that line Avent Row will have what you seek. (Signed, Algaer of Dracon Row)_

Returning to Thissiken's shop, the Follies asked exactly what he'd like them to do for him. What he wanted seemed fairly straightforward: find out who blew up Algaer's shop, and keep him (Thissiken) safe. In exchange, he would set them up with lodgings at Selgaunt's premiere inn, Pub, for two tendays. Yes, just "Pub" -- "Roomsarevery difficulttoget!" Also, he could provide them with information about the city.

Sensing that this might not sound attractive enough, he asked the Follies when they entered the city and at what time of day. When this was related to him, he said, "Then the guards on the gate would have been Skyclads and Blackcapes -- and I can tell you that for any time, any day." Pleased with this sample and with his offer, the Follies agreed to help Thissiken.

They gave him one of their _feather tokens_, which he had used before, and told him to use it to contact them in an emergency. Some considerable effort was spent making him understand exactly what was meant by "emergency" -- for example, people asking him questions about paintings would not be an emergency. They also arranged to meet him at Pub one hour after dark that same day, so that they could get their room keys and begin learning about the city from him. Still somewhat distraught, Thissiken insisted that they walk him back to his shop from Pub afterwards, and they agreed.

At this, Thissiken returned to the back of his shop and closed the small door behind him. Cupric took this opportunity to send a brief message to Agrafion, who had requested that they get in touch with him within ten days of reaching Selgaunt, or once they had made contact with Thissiken -- whichever came first.

The dreamborne accomplished this by opening the door and pretending to have lost the sleek raven that darted from his hands and streaked off into the sky. While he was doing this, Jaehn used _detect magic_ to establish that the peculiar brass token -- a small, flat object on which was carved some sort of fire or wind emerging from a doorway -- radiated very faint conjuration magic.

After sharing what had been found in the rubble, and discussing some of what Thissiken had told them, the Follies arrived at a plan. Since Thissiken had mentioned that another drakesmith, Martooth Battlebrow, had also spent some time with Algaer, they wanted to try and track him down. As the wooden tokens in the pouch from Algaer's blockhole turned out to be tavern tokens for a dockside bar, the Copper Cup, that also seemed like a good place to visit. Lastly, Cupric needed to acquire an instrument -- and of course they had a performance at dusk at Farry's Port.

With all of this in mind, Tuggle's Follies stepped out of Thissiken's shop and prepared to do some detective work.


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## haiiro (Aug 2, 2004)

*Dockside Battle (Session 2)*

_This is the first post from our second session, which was called "Dockside Battle" (the first one was entitled "Tuggle's Follies")._

*Rooftop Lurkers*

Since Thissiken had told them that the only other drakesmith who spent much time with Algaer was one Martooth Battlebrow, the Follies decided to make his shop their first stop. They were only a stone's throw from his place, so they entered the alley alongside Thissiken's in single file, headed for the next street over. Cupric, however, went the opposite direction -- intending to seek out a music district and obtain an instrument for himself. He had arranged to meet the rest of the Follies at midday at their second stop, the Copper Cup.

Emerging from the alleyway, Tal caught a glimpse of movement on the ramparted building adjacent to Martooth's ramshackle shop -- a brief flash of blue on the rooftop. As soon as Tal had whispered this news to the other Follies, they spread out across the street.

Narrowing her eyes, De'lea tried to _detect evil_ on the rooftop, and found two faint auras. She communicated this to the party in a slightly louder voice than Tal, and in response Tuggle aimed a _recent occupant_ at the same area. He learned the name and race of one of the beings on the roof -- Ursuro Mull, a tindali -- and informed the Follies that something up there wasn't human.

At this point, Vicktor had circled around behind Martooth's shop -- which sat askance to the road, jutting out from the ragged line of shops to either side of it. Finding the junction of Martooth's side wall and that of the adjacent shop to be very convenient, he began climbing up towards the ramparts. On the street, Tal had approached the door of the shop closest to Martooth's (the small metal sign over it read "Tarayn's") and knocked on it sharply, while Artemis had begun swiftly climbing the front of that same building. Jaehn, Tuggle and De'lea were all hanging back, waiting to react to what transpired above.

What happened next depended on the observer's viewpoint.

Artemis crested the ramparts and surveyed the scene: he took in a figure in faded blue robes with leather wrappings on his feet, hastening to the back of the rooftop. In the same heartbeat, he heard a faint _sizzle_ off to his left, and a thin blue ray emerged from the shadowed corner, striking him in the shoulder.

This beam's effect was dramatic: Artemis went through several minutes of becoming very frightened in just under a second, broke out into a cold sweat and prepared to flee in a blind panic.

Seeing this from his vantage point on the street, Jaehn finished up a summoning spell -- and brought a celestial giant bee into existence on the roof, directly in front of Artemis. For Artemis, this didn't improve the situation -- now sheened in sweat, he let go of the rampart and began his drop into the street.

On the roof, observed by none of the Follies, the enormous bee flourished its glowing Stinger of Judgment and launched itself at the fleeing blue-robed figure. Without turning around, he nimbly sidestepped the bee's attempt to smite him and simultaneously drew a dagger from under his robes. Those below could hear only the rumbling buzz of the giant bee.

Down in the street, De'lea readied her bow and prepared to fire at the first hostile creature that showed itself on the roof above. Out of everyone's sight, Vicktor finished his brief ascent -- and came face-to-stinger with the bee. In his peripheral vision, he spotted a small floating object -- about the size of a grapefruit, with several stalks or tendrils protruding from it -- near the front of the rooftop.

Zipping through the air, this tiny creature let loose with a thin blue ray from one of its stalks, and this ray struck the bee. The bee's buzz went up several notches in volume, and it did an about face and headed straight for Vicktor. Vicktor leaped onto the roof and grappled the bee in one smooth motion, catching it around the base of one frantic wing and pinning it to his body, and roared, "I have the foul beast!"

Having landed safely in a drift of sand, Artemis had now fled at top speed down the nearest alley, disappearing from view almost before any of the Follies had noticed his passage. Seemingly unperturbed, Tal knocked again at the door of Tarayn's shop -- and when he received no response, tried the handle and found it open. He stepped into the shop's cool and quiet interior, taking in the blockhole, bell and shelves jam-packed with alchemical peculiarities, as well as two doors on the back wall. As one of the doors was barely thigh-high on him, Tal knocked on the larger door -- and heard glass break on the other side.


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## Spider_Jerusalem (Aug 2, 2004)

Hey haiiro, good work so far. Multiple perspectives was a nice touch.

Just so you know, I have a real soft spot for beholders - and illithids, as a matter of fact (crossing fingers they get involved at some point) - so this is pretty cool so far. 

Oh yeah, the celestial bee. Nice work Jaehn. Low level summonings are just great! And I actually mean that. Why 'port in a dragon when a giant glowing horse or something can be done instead?

Yours, direct from the Underdark,
Spider.


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## thedangerranger (Aug 3, 2004)

Poor, poor bee.
Summoned from its happy celestial honeycomb to be immeaditely zapped with a fear ray and then grappled into submission by a confused ally.
Some days it just doesn't pay to buzz out of the hive.
-tdr-


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## haiiro (Aug 3, 2004)

Spider_Jerusalem said:
			
		

> Just so you know, I have a real soft spot for beholders - and illithids, as a matter of fact (crossing fingers they get involved at some point) - so this is pretty cool so far.




My lips are sealed. 

Spider, I really appreciate your commentary and feedback -- it makes a big difference to get responses when writing a SH!

TDR, you're right about the bee, and I'd say with a few exceptions it generally doesn't pay to run/slither/fly/swim out of the nest/planar skies/ocean to answer Jaehn's summons...


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## haiiro (Aug 4, 2004)

_I'm off to Salt Lake City for about a week, so here's a quick post just in case I can't update from the road (darn that whole "not owning a laptop" thing). Enjoy!_

Suspecting that his bee might have missed its mark, Jaehn finished up a second summoning spell -- this time calling into being a shining white celestial monkey. This monkey appeared on the roof and immediately began chasing after the blue-robed figure, its wild shrieks sounding like a cross between monkey howls and a choir of monks. Faced with a wide gap between two buildings, it somersaulted into the air -- De'lea and Tuggle spotted it from the street, tiny sparkling halo and all -- and disappeared from sight. Blinking, De'lea said to no one in particular, "I think I just saw a monkey of Sune run across the roof."

Inside Tarayn's shop, Talishmere opened the inner door with a vague premonition of dread. In the small room beyond was a bulky dwarf wearing some sort of armor cobbled together from leather and various bits of metal plate. He was staring, aghast, at a smoking puddle on the glass-strewn floor in front of him. Tal said, "Are you open for business? I tried to knock."

His eyes still wide, the dwarf responded, "Get that armored apron from the bench behind you." When Tal had found the apron, the dwarf said, "Put it on." After waiting for Tal to do so, he continued: "Now lay on the puddle."

Tal replied, "How about if I just lay it _over_ the puddle?" This done, the dwarf stepped carefully around the spill -- trying to tread on the apron as little as possible -- and made it through the door, which he slammed shut. Leaning against the door, he gave Tal an appraising look and said, "You're pretty sharp, for a human."

A brief discussion ensued, during which Tal learned that Tarayn last saw Martooth that morning, and that he couldn't understand why any self-respecting drakesmith would want to keep regular hours. Things headed south when Tal told the dwarf that there had been people up on his roof, and got steadily worse once he mentioned that his friends were in fact up there right now. Meaning to head up to the roof, Tarayn demanded Tal's sword -- Tal refused -- and the dwarf wound things up by ejecting him from the shop.

Outside, Jaehn's bee had vanished -- leaving Vicktor somewhat confused -- and Artemis, his fear having worn off, had returned to the group. When Jaehn felt the bee pop out of existence, De'lea lowered her bow and the Follies moved completely out of combat mode.

As there were now small crowds of people watching them from one street over, Tuggle bowed and announced loudly, "And thus ends our performance!"

While De'lea waited nearby, Artemis, Jaehn and Tuggle gathered around the door to Martooth's shop. On the roof above, Vicktor found a rope-wrapped glass jug of wine and a few crumbs where Tal first saw the robed figure. Speculating that perhaps it had just been a wino after all, he walked over to the edge of the roof facing the street to tell the other Follies what was on the roof.

At this moment, his failed attempt at diplomacy complete, Tal emerged from Tarayn's shop. Spotting him, Vicktor shouted down a description of what he found -- and then dropped the wine bottle. Making to catch it with his heavy steel gauntlet, Tal naturally wound up drenched in wine when the bottle shattered over his upraised hand.


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## Broccli_Head (Aug 5, 2004)

hey...this is all deja vu....

haven't I seen this somewhere before?   

can't wait to re-read the dockside battle...loved it.


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## haiiro (Aug 7, 2004)

Broccli_Head said:
			
		

> hey...this is all deja vu....
> 
> haven't I seen this somewhere before?
> 
> can't wait to re-read the dockside battle...loved it.




I was hoping you'd stop in, Broccli! It's good to see you, and I'm glad you still enjoy the SH. 

I re-edited (past tense is your friend), cleaned up the format a bit, and decided to start it up again. Not long to go until the dockside battle (one of my favorites as well).


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## haiiro (Aug 10, 2004)

I just discovered that there's no way I'll be able to update from Salt Lake, since I left the current edit of the next couple of posts at home... 

I get back to Michigan on Wednesday night, and I'm going to be very busy -- but I'll do my best to update on 8/11 or 8/12!


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## haiiro (Aug 12, 2004)

_I'm back from SLC -- as promised, here's the update!_

*Martooth's Shop*

By then, Artemis had already picked Martooth's lock and let himself in with Tuggle and Jaehn in tow. They were joined shortly thereafter by Vicktor and a rather pungent Talishmere, who was the subject of some ridicule. The Follies found the interior of the shop to be much like the exterior: haphazard and disorganized.

The lower floor was mostly taken up by a large table and benches, a small stairway that corkscrewed up into the ceiling, and shelves on every wall. These shelves were cluttered with all manner of containers, from heavy earthenware jugs to delicate glass boxes, and in combination with the marked absence of a bell or blockhole this made it look like Martooth might just be in the container business.

While De'lea waited outside, the rest of the Follies searched Martooth's shop from top to bottom. They turned up two items of interest, one inside and one out.

Upstairs, they found a small painting depicting an unusual scene. The left half of the work was taken up by a wall and doorframe, while the right half depicted a rather nondescript street at night. Centered in the right half, as if observed by someone peering around the doorframe, was a shimmering humanoid figure -- more faded and redder in color than the one the Follies encountered on Rauthauvyr's Road, but in exactly the same "looking for something" pose. A brief discussion established that they weren't going to steal the painting, and Jaehn ascertained that it wasn't magical before returning it to the shelf.

Downstairs, Vicktor was called over to identify a symbol that had been scratched into the lower right corner of the front door. It consisted of three dots or circles, and to the left of the top two circles were two small triangles. Drawing on his carnie background, Vicktor related to the Follies that this was thiefsign: each circle represented a time that someone had entered Martooth's shop, and each triangle stood for an occasion on which they stole something from him. Before they all regrouped on the street in front of Martooth's shop, Artemis took a moment and re-locked the door behind them.

*Meanwhile*

After taking a few minutes to share information and speculate as to who -- if anyone -- the blue-robed being had been watching, the Follies began walking in the general direction of the river. Jaehn, however, split off from the group and headed back towards Farry's Port. His intention was to send out empathic signals to Drake, his silver raven familiar, until he got within a mile of the inn and was able to receive a reply. Once Drake had joined him, he'd make his own way to the Cup and meet the others there.

Meanwhile, Cupric had been making some discoveries of his own. Deftly gathering information from a variety of Selgaunt natives and other passersby, he had been researching the music business while the other Follies were at Martooth's shop. He learned that there were two music districts in the Bazaar: the first was in the Southspur district, adjacent to the city wall some distance East of the Trade Gate.

This was one of three gates into Selgaunt -- the other two being the Statue Gate, which the Follies came through last night, and Sailor's Arch, to the South. In Southspur was a very large and exclusive shop called Mazendria's, which was said to be frequented by the High City's best musicians. As people laughingly informed Cupric, it cost twenty gold pieces simply to set foot in the door -- and so a cluster of less pricey shops has arisen around Mazendria's, catering to those who couldn't afford it but wished they could.

The other district of note was called the Strings, and consisted of a street packed with cubbyhole shops each devoted to a particular instrument, or part of an instrument. The Strings was quietly tucked in behind Red Cobbles, a service market that bordered the Arkhen just South of the Davisson Bridge. Instrument-wise, nearly anything could be had in the Strings, but quality varied and most shops were too small to have much on hand -- instead, one had to wait for an instrument to be crafted to order.

A bit more asking around also determined one other significant fact about both of these districts: they were too far away for Cupric to make it there, shop around, and still be at the Copper Cup by noon. Intending to seek them out later, Cupric instead turned his talents to finding out where the Cup was located -- and once he had done so, began making his way towards the docks.

Off on his own, Jaehn had made contact with Drake. As the raven took flight, Jaehn turned around and began giving directions to Drake while he walked towards the river. After making inquiries into the whereabouts of the Copper Cup, he changed direction slightly and began heading directly for it. Still in his customary disguise -- a portly human of completely unremarkable appearance -- Jaehn moved through the busy streets as he listened to Drake describe what he saw at Farry's Port. Only one thing stood out: a group of bears that were led up and down the street in front of the inn a few times, after which they disappeared and did not show up again.

After receiving this information, Jaehn posted Drake in the rooftops around Martooth's shop -- with instructions to keep an eye out for anyone in blue or red robes, and for non-gnomes entering the shop itself.


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## haiiro (Aug 12, 2004)

*En Route to the Copper Cup*

Not wanting to draw undue attention to himself, Vicktor hung back about fifty feet from the other Follies as they walked through Selgaunt's busy streets. Of the Follies, only Cupric had been to Selgaunt before -- the others all had experience with cities, but none so large or busy as Selgaunt.

The winding streets were jammed with people, nearly all of whom seemed to be carrying ravens. It was difficult for anyone to take it all in, but the Follies also caught sight of myriad wine sellers, raven hawkers (carrying tall poles draped with cages full of rooks), messengers flitting from place to place, halflings selling sweetmeats, swarthy fruit merchants, and beggars showing off their ailments. All of these people combined make it difficult for Vicktor to keep the Follies in sight, so he moved a bit closer to the main party as they walked.

Taking immediate notice of the beggars, Talishmere began handing out iron rations. He gave a day's rations to each beggar that he saw, and while they thanked him he tried to find out the location of the Copper Cup. As always, De'lea had her eye out for flowers -- but after several minutes she had not seen a single flower-seller. Settling instead on scarves, she had no problem spotting a number of outlandish cloth merchants.

Each appeared to have donned an entire closet before leaving the house, and they were swaddled and draped about with all manner of brightly colored clothing. Flashing a gold coin, De'lea was able to buy several handfuls of scarves from one such merchant, and she began handing these out to attractive (and apparently unattached) men as she encountered them.

Coupled with her radiant beauty and innocent comments -- "Love is free if you look hard enough" -- this practice quickly drew an entourage around her. Tal and Tuggle kept a watchful eye on her as the crowd of hangers-on continued to grow, and Tuggle had to suppress a smirk when someone commented loudly, "I've never seen a hooker in armor before!" De'lea seemed unaffected by this, and continued handing out scarves even as Tal was handing out rations.

Vicktor, who had been watching all of this transpire as he moved through the crowd, was suddenly distracted when he made eye contact with a peculiar figure off to his right. He appeared to be an elf, but the ugliest elf Vicktor had ever seen. He was completely bald, and his face and head were covered in scars and pockmarks. The scarred elf didn't break eye contact as he shouldered his way through the crowd and stepped up to Vicktor, who had stopped to wait for him.

Observing this from further down the street, Artemis remarked, "Ahh! Carnie elves!"


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## haiiro (Aug 13, 2004)

In a gravelly, accented voice, the elf said, "You look like a man who's good with his fists." Vicktor grunted in assent. "How'd you like to come fight for me?" Vicktor made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat. The elf continued, "Name's Orkrur," and stuck out his hand. Noticing that his knuckles were scarred and bruised, Vicktor shook Orkrur's hand and told him his name.

Cracking a joke about how hard it was to obtain a license to fight within the city, Orkrur went on to explain that he ran a fighting ship, the Bloody Barge, and that he'd like Vicktor come do some boxing for him. He told Vicktor that the Barge moored just South of the city most of the time, but would be tied up at the largest pier in the bay for Rook's Night. He intimated that Vicktor would have a chance to make several hundred gold pieces, which caught Vicktor's interest.

Still deadpan, Vicktor agreed to come fight for Orkrur, at which the elf handed him a wooden ring. As Vicktor looked it over -- its dark surface stained with blood and sweat -- the elf explained that this token would get him onto the Barge. With a wink, he bade Vicktor farewell and faded back into the moving crowd.

The rest of their walk to the docks passed without incident, and the Follies (or at least, most of the Follies) at last arrived at the Arkhen. Between them and the river were the tidiest -- and by far the largest -- docks any of them had ever laid eyes on.

From end to end, the whole dockside area must have been at least a mile long, and the shoreline swarmed with people. The broad river was no less busy, jammed with every imaginable type of boat along its entire length. Looking out towards the bay, the party saw only a thicket -- or more aptly, several forests -- of masts, bobbing and weaving every which way as galleys, sloops, traders and ships of the line headed up and down the Arkhen.

Across the river, high white marble walls ran the entire length of the shoreline: the Follies had caught their first glimpse of the High City. A few towers could be seen protruding above the vast walls, and one tower in particular caught their collective eye. This edifice jutted at least a hundred feet higher than the wall, and from its apex they saw massive cables stretching down and across the river -- into the Low City -- in three different directions.

Once their attention returned to the stretch of impossibly busy docks ahead of them, the Follies continued making for the Copper Cup. As they avoided bales, beams, lines and clutches of dockworkers, they noticed that there didn't seem to be very many guards on the docks -- and those that they did see were mainly orcs and half-orcs. This went for most of the dockworkers as well. Continuing down the docks, the Follies were once again struck by how clean and orderly the area appeared to be.

As they approached from the North, Cupric had already gone into the Cup and begun making inquiries about Martooth Battlebrow. At the same time as Cupric was finding out that no one at the Cup had heard of Martooth, Jaehn was one street away to the South, walking down a narrow road that ran parallel to the Cup.

At this point, everyone in the party -- and on the docks around the Copper Cup -- heard the same thing: an inhuman roar loud enough to wake the dead.


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## haiiro (Aug 16, 2004)

_Welcome back for a post-hurricane update! With a bit of luck I'll be able to continue the dockside battle posts fron GenCon. _

*A Lot Can Happen in Sixty Seconds*

In full view of the main group of Follies, a section of deck on a large ship moored at the dock exploded upwards in a shower of planking and splinters. A massive, hulking figure smashed its way out of the wreckage and began hauling itself ashore -- and although only its upper half was visible, it was clearly at least ten feet tall.

In that frozen moment, the Follies had time to observe that the creature was roughly humanoid in appearance, but lacked any sort of defined musculature -- instead, it looked like a mass of guts and ropy muscles jammed into a mottled, giant-shaped skin. The monstrosity howled again, and suddenly everyone was in motion.

As the dozens of dock workers, pedestrians and onlookers began to flee from the river's edge, a second creature -- clearly of the same type, although not identical -- smashed through a different section of the ship's deck and leaped ashore. As the ship's masts thrashed wildly and sailors were tossed into the river, Artemis was already speeding towards the second creature.

He drew his rapier as he ran, nimbly dodging coiled lines, barrels and other impediments while building up speed. Knowing that the giant's great reach would allow it to strike him before he could skewer it, Artemis dodged to one side as he came within striking distance -- but not quickly enough.

The behemoth's barrel-sized fist caught Artemis in the ribs, snapping several and sending jolts of pain through his body. Undeterred, he continued his lunge and aimed his rapier for the giant's chest. The blow struck true, and Artemis watched in horror as the slender blade bent to a right angle and completely faild to penetrate its thick hide armor.

While this was going on, the first beast smashed through a pallet of barrels arranged by the dock, crushing some to splinters while flinging others aside like toys. As the crowd around the Copper Cup finally had a chance to fully react to the situation, their screams became loud enough to drown out the tormented roars of the rampaging giant.

Jaehn poked his head out from between two buildings not far from the Copper Cup, and saw a third giant emerging from the swaying ship behind the first two. He sized up the situation and decided to see if he could distract the trio of giants -- and with this in mind, he created a _minor image_ of two more giants, right in the thick of things.

To make it clear to his companions that these were _their_ giants, he added huge scars on the backs of their heads in the shape of his mage rune. Knowing that any physical interaction with the real giants would make it fairly easy for them to disbelieve his illusion, Jaehn concentrated on making them swing and miss, while avoiding the blows their foes aimed at them.

The giant facing Artemis clasped its hands together and brought its paired fists down on the slender man like a piledriver. As Artemis reeled, the beast followed up with a swift kick that nearly drove him to the ground. Trying to roll with the blow, Artemis began to set himself up for a quick escape from this fearsome melee -- he was seriously wounded.

The other giant, meanwhile, had focused its attention on the beast that first broke out of the ship -- a punch was followed by the same paired-fist attack that nearly felled Artemis, and both blows hit the other giant like falling tree trunks. Not so for De'lea's arrow and Tuggle's _magic missiles_, however, nor Tal's crossbow bolt. The arrow sank into the wounded giant's hide armor with no effect, while Tal's bolt went wide. Only Tuggle's tattoo needles found their mark -- but the giant didn't even seem to notice their impact.

As the Follies began attacking the giants in earnest, nearly all of the people on the dockside had fled from the scene, including De'lea's entourage. Two carts with chocks under their wheels -- with two wild-eyed, neighing horses hitched to each of them -- and a few cowering pedestrians were all that remained.

Finding himself suddenly alone in the Cup -- the other patrons having fled out the rear door when they caught a glimpse of the giants -- Cupric assessed the situation through one of the windowframes. Hearing a shrill whistle blast cut through the bedlam, he tried to see whether or not the rampaging giant bore the same control nails in the back of its head as the war-ogre they had fought the night before.

Between the giant's frenzied movements, the scattered people on the docks and the clouds of grain erupting from the barrels the creature was destroying, he couldn't tell for sure -- but he spotted what could be glints of metal studding the back of its head. Hoping for a repeat of his earlier success, he stepped out of the Cup and sent a wave of _Tasha's hideous laughter_ washing over the wounded giant. It doubled over with laughter, pounding a barrel to splinters in the process.

Just then, several of the Follies heard another whistle -- this one much lower in tone than the first, and coming from a different direction.


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## thedangerranger (Aug 30, 2004)

*A short intermission.*

This commercial break brought to you by Allied Van Lines.
The official movers of haiiro to Salt Lake City, Utah.
A soon as haiiro has internet capability again, expect to see more update.
mmm... good stuff on the way, including thrilling moments like...shopping and chopping stuff in half.
Expect to see more updates in about a week.
-tdr-


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## haiiro (Sep 1, 2004)

_Woo-hoo! I'm now once again lapping at the sweet, sweet nectar of the internet -- and I've been itching to post this update. Sorry for the delay, and thanks to TDR for the explanation.  The dockside battle continues..._

At this point, it seemed as though everything was happening at once. The wounded giant was laughing and roaring in pain all at the same time, and stood rooted to the cobbles. Near death, Artemis tumbled away from the knot of giants, avoiding one last swipe that was aimed at him as he retreated. Tuggle had slipped down an empty alleyway, entered a small storehouse, and found a window from which to rain _magic missiles_ on the giants. Vicktor, who had been crouched behind one of the horse-carts (now creaking wildly as the horses struggled to escape) from the start, had begun trying to pinpoint the source of the high-pitched whistle. Jaehn had stayed put, and continued to try and keep two of the giants occupied on the shoreline. Cupric bellowed out a joke about the closest giant's mother at the top of his lungs -- and it glared at him with its fist-sized eyes and roared back, "I ate my mother!" De'lea bobbed and weaved to avoid obstacles as she kept loosing arrows from her bow. Tal moved to intercept Artemis, loading his crossbow as his heavy boots clattered across the cobbles.

Hoping that the frenzied horses might do some damage the giants, Tuggle called up a _mage hand_ and began worrying free one of the tethering pins on the nearest cart. As he got the pin loose, that horse bolted straight for De'lea -- and as if on cue, all three of the other horses also broke free of their burdens.

One trampled a cowering halfling under its hooves, mashing him to a pulp and splashing blood on his companion -- also a halfling who hand't fled fast enough. The other two horses bolted off at top speed: one headed straight for the river, and the other straight for the Cup. De'lea avoided being run down only by blind luck, as she hit the ground and the horse's hooves struck the cobbles all around her. Seconds later, two of the horses had tumbled headfirst into the river (after maddened attempts to halt their forward movement), and the others had bolted off into the city.

Both whistles had been heard again amidst the chaos, and Vicktor was finally able to determine the direction of the high-pitched one. Crouching low, he scooted away from the mayhem, heading further up the shoreline. At the same time, Tal suffused Artemis with Torm's blessing, mending bones and stanching blood with curative magic.

Throughout the past several seconds, Tuggle had launched _missiles_ at the giants as often as he could cast the spell. Even though they didn't seem to have had any effect, he knew that they _must_ be doing damage, a little bit at a time. Noting that the low whistle made the two pursuing giants look around, Cupric used _ghost sound_ and his knack for vocal performance to mimic it perfectly, and caused it to emanate from a point right in the midst of the giants.

The nearest one didn't appear to notice, but the giant that had been attacking Artemis perked up and turned towards the sound. As he began moving towards the source of the phantom whistle, however, all three of the misshapen creatures were distracted by the appearance of a squad of humans and half-orcs wearing the grey of Gurrom's Wheels, who burst onto the scene from the South. Although as yet unnoticed by the Follies, a squad of Baric's Pikemen had also arrived, and was making its way down the alley behind Tuggle's hidey-hole.

Several of the Follies were visibly relieved when the Wheels showed up, clad in chainmail and armed with shortswords, and led by a whipcord-thin bald man with the bearing of a veteran. The Wheels all came to an abrupt halt, clearly trying to take in the chaos before them: three hideous giants, two of them wounded (and one of those laughing hysterically); a sinking ship moored to the dock; the trampled halfling; smashed barrel-staves and planking scattered everywhere; and the armed and armored Follies in the middle of it all.

Their leader shouted, "Gurrom will kill us if we try!" -- although his words were all but lost in the noise of the battle. At the same time, three of the half-orcs in his squad charged the nearest giant. One of them set his sword just right and rammed it into the giant's chest up to the hilt -- and in response, the giant reared to its full height and swatted the guard's head off with a single blow.

Following through, the giant staved in the next guard's sternum in a shower of bright blood -- and in the same movement, threw one leg out in a powerful mule kick that tore one of the third half-orc's arms clean off. The momentum carried the guard spinning to the ground, and he was dead from shock before his blood had finished spattering to the cobbles.

In the same moment, the Follies at last felled the first giant, who continued laughing uproariously even as blood clogged his throat and gurgled messily from his wounds. As he crashed to the ground like an avalanche, Tal, Cupric and De'lea headed into the thick of things -- traipsing through his innards in the process -- and wound up among the remaining Wheels. This group had still not acted, and they were caught completely off-guard when the Wheel-slaying giant plowed into one of them, breaking bones and driving him back with one massive shoulder.


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## haiiro (Sep 2, 2004)

*Surprises*

Three Follies and the last three Wheels were now arrayed against two giants -- one right in front of them, the other ten paces off by the shore. Cupric moved his _ghost sound_ to the listing ship, and the unharmed giant spun about and began clambering aboard, following the low whistle. What happened next took the Follies completely by surprise.

Appearing to have come to some sort of decision, the leader of the Wheels narrowed his eyes and stabbed Talishmere through a gap in his armor.

One of the half-orc Wheels swung at Cupric, who avoided the blow while casting another _hideous laughter_ on the guard-killing giant -- this time meeting with success. As Tal drew back, startled, a third guard darted around behind him and slippd his blade between Tal's ribs. Almost simultaneously, De'lea cried out, "We're on your side!" and Cupric shouted, "Stop attacking my friends! We're trying to help you!"

As this was going on, the Pikemen began pouring out of the alley just North of the melee.

As they emerged, the lured giant stomped aboard the ship -- which promptly capsized from his weight. He fell to the deck, causing it to list even more, and became caught up in the rigging. As the ship heeled over completely, its slick, barnacled underbelly glistening in the sunlight, the giant slipped off the deck and slid into the Arkhen with barely a splash. Without further ado, he began noisily drowning.

As De'lea shouted once more for the Wheels to stop attacking them, the final laughing giant was taken down by water blasts from Jaehn (lurking in the Copper Cup) and magical needles from Tuggle (still hidden in the storehouse).

Clutching his face where Tuggle's final _missiles_ struck, the giant sank to his knees and began to topple -- and at the same time, one of the Wheels took another stab at Tal, catching him in the throat. Blood welling out over his armor, Tal crumpled to the ground.

At this, De'lea stopped trying dissuade the Wheels and began wading into them -- and in the same instant, the melee was joined by several of Baric's Pikemen.

Staying well back, the Pikemen jabbed at the Wheels with their long spears as De'lea chopped at them with her sword. Cupric took this opportunity to crouch and force a flask of healing elixir down Tal's throat. When they both rose to rejoin the battle around them, they were thoroughly surprised when a few more Pikemen arrived -- and begin thrusting their pikes at _them_.

While things began to get _really_ confusing in front of the Copper Cup, Vicktor was crouched behind a stack of masts further up the docks. All of a sudden, he heard the shrill whistle again and was able to pinpoint its source: on a small barge moored about ten feet offshore, lurking under a canopy that covered the aft portion of the boat, was a shadowed figure holding a large brass whistle.

In a heartbeat, Vicktor was up and running across the cobbles. By the time he reached the edge of the dock, his run had become a full-out charge, and he leaped out over the water and into the barge -- where he tackled the whistler.

As Vicktor's ropy arms closed around him like an iron vise, the whistler's hands wound up crushed against his chest and he uttered a short girlish scream -- which was cut off abruptly as Vicktor increased the pressure, and said, "Well, he can't whistle anymore!"

The barge continued to sway as Vicktor grappled the figure -- clearly an orc of some sort -- and refused to let him draw breath. As the orc tried to speak, Vicktor whispered to it, "Sleep...sleep..." and its eyes began to close as it succumbed to the crushing strength of the Beast of Saerloon.

Once he was certain the orc was out cold, Vicktor examined him a bit more closely. He was dressed in drab greys and browns, and his only possession of note appeared to be his whistle. Pocketing this, Vicktor hauled the small barge in to shore and hoisted himself back up onto the docks. Still able to hear some of the noise from the ongoing battle, he headed back towards the Cup at a brisk pace.


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## haiiro (Sep 3, 2004)

Back in front of the Cup, everything was still happening at a breakneck pace. A few of the Pikemen had hung back, not sure what to make of what they saw: the trampled halfling and his wailing companion, the expiring giant -- and his dead and drowning fellows -- and the quick-and-dirty melee between the Follies, the Wheels and the other Pikemen.

Wasting no time, De'lea grappled one of the Pikemen who was trying to impale Tal yet again, and Tal felled one of the Wheels flanking him. Meanwhile, Artemis had recovered enough of his strength to head back into the fray, and skirted the line of buildings as he approached the fighters.

Thinking fast, Tuggle fired off a _recent occupant_, targeting the spot where the Wheels' leader was trying to kill Cupric and Tal. Learning that the man's name was Garilly, Tuggle took a deep breath and belted out, "Garilly! Cease fighting _now_!" from his hiding place.

Garilly's brow furrowed as he considered this -- and also took in the fact that his squad was down to himself and one other Wheel.

With one last swing at Tal, he turned and bolted from the scene, running full-tilt towards the closest inland street. His cohort did the same, not even bothering to get in a last lick as he fled. Seeing this, the shell-shocked Pikemen came out of their reverie: two charged in towards the Follies, spears at the ready, and another wheeled about and stabbed at Artemis as he came within range.

Not having any of that, Artemis ducked under the pike-thrust and slipped his rapier into the guard's throat, killing him instantly.

At the same time, Jaehn -- who emerged from the Cup as the Follies and Pikemen were routing the last of the Wheels -- saw two Pikemen bearing down on him. Magically disguised as a drunken vagrant, Jaehn staggered back towards the nearest wall, trying to get out of their way. Both stabbed at him as he stumbled by, and the leader's pike pierced him so deeply that he almost passed out on the spot.

Yanking himself off the spear and running back into the Cup, he rallied and used a well-placed _color spray_ to daze both of the Pikemen. Struck blind and rendered unconscious by its wondrous display, they collapsed to the ground, their pikes striking the cobbles with a harsh clatter.


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## haiiro (Sep 3, 2004)

Aparently unconcerned about the danger to his compatriot, one of the advancing Pikemen tried to skewer De'lea while she was grappling another member of his squad, and he narrowly missed them both. Seeing that things were going poorly, the last Pikeman to emerge from the alley dropped his spear and started running down one of the long piers that jutted out into the Arkhen.

The remaining two active Pikemen were quickly cut down by the Follies, and when De'lea let go of the one she was grappling he took off like a shot, bolting for the river's edge and leaping in without hesitation.

At the same time, Vicktor returned from his little excursion to find Tal and Tuggle trying to rally the Follies -- and nearly all of their various opponents dead or fleeing at high speed. As Vicktor assessed the situation, a Wheel that no one had noticed before darted out of the Copper Cup with a long dagger in his hand.

Taking note of the two fleeing Pikemen, Cupric (who had cautiously avoided engaging any of the guards up to that point) took careful aim at the one who was already in the water and let fly with an arrow.

It arced out over the water and found its mark, and the guard thrashed noisily for a moment before sinking under the surface. Seeing the second Pikeman leap from the end of the dock, Cupric considered shooting him as well -- and decided against it.

In the confusion, none of the Follies -- most of whom were heading for the alleys that Tal and Tuggle were waving them towards -- attacked the Wheel that emerged from the Cup as he set upon the first of the dazed Pikemen.

He drew his blade across the man's throat, and then stabbed him under the collarbone for good measure. Moving on to the second man, he slit his throat in one smooth motion -- and then tore aside his armor and carved a large "G" into his chest.

As the Follies scattered -- Vicktor to the north, Cupric and Artemis to the west, and Tuggle, De'lea and Tal to the northwest -- Tuggle shouted for them all to meet up back at Farry's Port. Hoping that everyone had heard him, he took off himself -- and after the last Wheel carved his mark into the second Pikeman that he had dispatched, he too fled the carnage with all haste.

From the moment the first giant emerged to the moment the Follies left the docks, only sixty seconds had passed.


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## haiiro (Sep 4, 2004)

We had a lot of fun with the dockside battle, and at that point it was the largest and most chaotic 3.x combat I'd ever run -- that battlemap is pretty darned huge. 

One of the players (who would prefer to remain anonymous) did some great cartoons of things that happened in the battle, which I've attached to this post. Enjoy!

Edit: Going from right to left, they are: Artemis, Tuggle, Vicktor and Jaehn. The sketch of Vicktor is my personal favorite.


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## Spider_Jerusalem (Sep 4, 2004)

And... I've caught up. Phew.

Great stuff again Haiiro, really enjoying it so far..

You've got a knack for setting the scene and that works beautifully, that roof fight, for example. Also, well, up until those giants maraudered out of the ship, I was given the impression of a very grounded world view - or maybe its me and my bleary-eyed romanticism of the lower levels - because of the bees, and monkeys and bears. 

Actually, i don't know what i'm getting at here. 

Put more wildlife in? And illithids. 

Next point... nice to see adventurers running away a bit. And brownie points for mowing up the half-orcs like that - Evil Dead came to mind. 

ANYWAY. 

Cheers for a good story so far, and check out my story hour sometime.

Spider Jerusalem


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## haiiro (Sep 6, 2004)

*The Follies Regroup*

With two exceptions, the Follies made their way back to Farry's Port by the most direct route possible.

Jaehn took a path that brought him close to Dracon Row, and collected Drake without slowing down. Drake communicated to him that he had seen nothing out of the ordinary while they were gone.

Vicktor made a stop of an altogether different nature: he returned to the barge that he had left only moments ago, stuffed its unconscious passenger into a large burlap sack, and then headed for Farry's Port with the orc tossed over one shoulder. With none of the Follies drenched in blood -- spattered, or red to the ankles, yes, but not drenched -- and Vicktor sticking to side streets with his cargo, everyone managed to make it back to Farry's Port without incident.

Arriving separately and in pairs, the Follies immediately headed upstairs, and all of them gathered in the larger of their two rooms. Vicktor got there last, and everyone was surprised to see that he had brought a prisoner.

Once the orc was out of the bag, some Follies searched him -- finding only a coin purse containing twenty of Sembia's pentagonal gold coins, called Princes -- while the others examined the whistle. It looked nearly identical to the one carried by the dogsbloods they had encountered the night before, with the only real difference being that it was built to produce a different tone.

Having had some time to get their minds around what just happened on the docks, the Follies began sharing stories and discussing the events of the past few hours -- and in particular, the wild and confusing minute-long melee in front of the Copper Cup.

The Follies were mostly in agreement that the first giant was out of control, and the two whistlers were trying to get the other giants to help them keep him in check. They were more divided on other topics, some seeing coincidences -- the two attacks roughly coinciding with the two times they saw the shimmering man, for example -- and others speculating about conspiracies.

Whether or not Gurrom's Wheels and Baric's Pikemen were involved in some sort of guard war was also a topic of discussion -- but everyone agreed that whether or not they themselves had been involved before, they certainly were now.

When Vicktor pointed out that their prisoner wasn't going to stay asleep forever, talk turned to what to do with the orc.

Having sensed his evil, De'lea favored turning their prisoner over to the authorities, while Tal preferred the idea of bringing him to justice in the nearest temple of Torm. The others disagreed in one form or another -- but one thing everyone agreed on was that they didn't want the orc to wake up and get a good look at them all.

After blindfolding him, Cupric cast a _ghost sound_ to mask their location as well, making the room sound like the inside of a barn (complete with whickering animals, chirping birds and so forth). Tuggle followed up by using a _recent occupant_ to learn the prisoner's name: Valic Zell.

With the sounds of Selgaunt outside their window -- and the sounds of a pastoral farmhouse in their room -- the Follies settled in to wait for Valic to wake up.


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## haiiro (Sep 8, 2004)

Before heading into Valic's interrogation, a little aside...

At the time, the dockside battle was easily the largest and most chaotic combat I'd run in 3e -- big map, lots of combatants and other variables, and it took awhile: 3 hours of real time for 60 seconds of game time.

I tried to capture some of the intensity that cramming so much activity into so little time must (I imagine) really produce in combat. The monsters and NPCs reacted quickly, often to an incomplete picture of what was going on -- their slice of the Dockside Pie -- and they didn't always make good decisions. Not sure how much that comes across in the post, but that was the goal. 

To give you an idea of what the map looked like, here it is towards the end of the battle, and then at the beginning. I'm a huge fan of Fiery Dragon's counters, and we got to use a crapload of them in this battle. After using them for a year, I've come to view them as pretty much indispensible.

As far as the pictures go: Do you enjoy them, or do they just clutter up the thread?


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## haiiro (Sep 9, 2004)

*The "Promise of Darkness" (Session 3)*

*Interrogating Valic Zell*

Realizing that Cupric's _ghost sound_ would expire long before Valic was likely to wake up naturally, the Follies returned to discussing what to do with their prisoner.

"I can make him talk," Talishmere intoned darkly. A perceptive observer might have watched for his hand to twitch towards the hilt of his greatsword, but the twitch never came. Tal meant this in his _bones_.

"I can make him fall in love with me," replied Tuggle.

"I don't want to see the results of that," Tal shot back, giving the orc a light kick in the ribs for emphasis.

After a bit more banter, the Follies had formulated their plan. With Valic still bound, blindfolded and gagged, they would ask him a list of questions -- starting with those that could be answered with a nod or shake of his head. Since they didn't know whether or not he spoke Common, Artemis would get things started in Orcish.

Calling forth the least of Torm's blessings, Talishmere used a _cure minor wounds_ to bring Valic out of unconsciousness. Once Artemis had established that Valic did indeed speak Common -- and conveyed to him that he shouldn't try to cause any trouble -- Cupric started in with their questions.

Drawing on his vocal training, he altered his voice (sounding like a cross between a pompous priest and a drill sergeant) and fired them off in rapid succession: Were you hired by the guards? Were you controlling the giants on the docks? Do you work with dogsbloods and ogres?

In response to each question, Valic shook his head or shrugged, as if confused.

Rightly suspicious, the Follies changed tactics: Cupric looped one of Jaehn's mandolin strings loosely around Valic's neck, and asked Tal (referring to him as "Jurvius") to come forward. Tal placed a dagger at Valic's throat, at which the orc flinched back.

Cupric said, "It seems that some of your answers can't be conveyed with a simple yes or no. We are going to remove your gag, but if you scream or call out, we will be forced to harm you. Do you understand?" After a moment's hesitation, Valic nodded his assent.

Once Artemis had given him some water, Valic proceeded to answer Cupric's questions somewhat more clearly -- at first. When asked why he was blowing his whistle during the dockside battle, however, he replied, "I like to whistle."

At this, Vicktor moved Tal aside and crouched behind the orc. Almost languidly, he gently placed his hands on Valic's shoulders and chest.

"My friend, I remember your pretty whistle, whistle..."

At this, Valic squeaked, sat bolt upright, and blurted out, "I'm sorry I lied!"

Vicktor smiled, glad that the orc remembered him so well. From that point forward, Valic was completely forthcoming -- and visibly relieved as soon as Cupric called Vicktor off (using the name "Jamis").


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## haiiro (Sep 10, 2004)

*Valic's Story*

As he told it, Valic was a handler and trainer of giants that had been fitted with "the iron spines." The spines made them calm or angry, and allowed the giants to be controlled with the right kind of whistle. He considered this to be a an art, although he allowed that it wasn't a _perfect_ method of controlling the creatures.

He revealed that he worked for a woman named Lassiter, though he had never seen her. The moment he blurted out her name, he appeared to regret it. With fear in his voice, he described Lassiter as riding on a barge that was completely shrouded in cloth -- and told the Follies that she "speaks inside his head." For the past three years, Lassiter had been bringing him and his fellow handlers giants and ogres to train.

He and these two others -- Asdruc, who he described with some trepidation as "the dwarf with no face,&#34 and Leleeria Yane, an orc ranger of some sort -- trained the giants for weeks or months at a time. Once their training was complete, one of two things happened: either Lassiter returned to take them away (perhaps bringing new creatures with her), or she instructed Valic and the others to deliver them to a client. In this particular case, their client was Gurrom Lek -- a High City merchant prince in Selgaunt, whose guard faction is known as Gurrom's Wheels.

In the last year, Valic, Asdruc and Leleeria had delivered giants to Gurrom six times. This time, Gurrom was supposed to meet them just after dark -- and Valic cringed as he told the Follies how angry Gurrom would be now that the giants had escaped. When they told him that the giants were all killed and Gurrom already knew about it, Valic became even more fearful.

When asked who else bought his giants, Valic told the Follies that he had only had one other customer: a dark-skinned halfling in Saerloon. This halfling was always clad in chainmail, but apart from that Valic couldn't remember any other details -- and he never knew his name.

Eager to please his captors, Valic told them that he also had a meeting with Asdruc that night. Whenever they arrived in Selgaunt, Asdruc disappeared into the city -- and returned with "his pets." Their meeting was to take place in their usual spot: a trio of piers called the Lamb's Feet, popular with small barges because they were close to Davisson Bridge. From there, the three handlers were to return to their base camp via the River Arkhen.


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## Spider_Jerusalem (Sep 10, 2004)

Keep the pictures in you fool!

Why would you not? Though the cluttering up the thread thing is entirely subjective. I liked the big dock fight. Nice idea with the giant-tuning-stick-whistle malarkey. Is that ripped from somewhere?

Once again, nice description. And now I'm getting a much better handle on the characters. So great. Keep it up.

ps. nice interrogation scene. 
pps. Illithids?

Spider - wishing he was in a neverending Knightmare


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## haiiro (Sep 11, 2004)

Spider_Jerusalem said:
			
		

> Nice idea with the giant-tuning-stick-whistle malarkey. Is that ripped from somewhere?




Not that I know of. We've just scratched the surface of the "iron spines" stuff, too, as things go in another direction fairly shortly. They do return, though. 




> pps. Illithids?




There's a _teensy_ portion of illithid in the writeup for the next session, but we've got a little ways to go until that gets posted here. I will say this, though: _I like 'em too_. 

Maybe I'll start up a campaign where the PCs are all illithids (myseriously non-evil, white-haired, dual scimitar-wielding illithids, perhaps?). Wait a sec: that's actually not a half-bad idea, and there's some good stuff in _Underdark_ that might make it workable...


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## haiiro (Sep 12, 2004)

Asked for details about the location of their camp, Valic could only tell the Follies that it was to the north, mostly. He had never walked from there to Selgaunt, and without looking at a map he couldn't be any clearer than that.

Using his own musical knowledge as a sort of sounding board, Cupric spent some time finding out about the process by which Valic trained his giants. He established that each creature or group of creatures was trained to respond only to a certain pitch of whistle, and that what commands they were taught varied widely. There were no universal commands, unless a particular group was specially trained to respond to them.

Wanting to find out if Valic could tell them anything about the dogsbloods that ambushed them on Rauthauvyr's Road, the Follies decided they needed to show him the whistle -- which would mean removing the orc's blindfold. All of them save Jaehn moved behind the curtains that divided their room, and Jaehn used his _hat of disguise_ to change his appearance -- into that of Garilly, the Wheel captain who stabbed Tal during the dockside battle.

Once Valic's blindfold was off, it became clear that Jaehn had nailed his disguise: Valic squinted at him, and then said, "I _know_ you. You work for Gurrom!"

Ignoring the whistle that was proffered to him, Valic just wouldn't let go of this notion -- so the Follies decided to perpetuate it. Over the next few minutes, Valic established that they weren't _betraying_ Gurrom, so all of this must have been some sort of test. Since he'd obviously failed Gurrom very badly by letting the giants escape, they were trying to find out if he was still worthy to work for him.

As he told them that the whistle sounded familiar (and was definitely used to handle war-ogres), but that he couldn't remember who might have owned it, Valic appeared completely convinced that he was being tested.

Satisfied that Valic had told them all that he could, Jaehn re-blindfolded the orc and Vicktor choked him into unconsciousness once again.


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## haiiro (Sep 14, 2004)

In case folks are curious how things have progressed in terms of actual gaming sessions, the post titled "The Follies Regroup" finished up session 2, *Dockside Battle*, and the one titled "Interrogating Valic Zell" is the opener for session 3, The *Promise of Darkness*. Session 1 was called *Tuggle's Follies*.

I went back and added the titles to the first post for each session, and if I can remember to, I'll keep that up from now on.


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## haiiro (Sep 16, 2004)

_I've debated editing some of the stuff that happened in this session out of the Story Hour, but decided to leave it in. Suffice to say that while I like the ideas behind Mazendria's and the Strings a lot, I really mis-handled this session as a DM. Instead of keeping the party split up for several hours because I'd already decided how buying instruments would work in Selgaunt, I should have said "You find a nice lute for XX gp" and left it at that.

Ah well, hindsight and all that. I'm not proud of it, but I left it in anyway. :\_

*The Follies Split Up*

A brief discussion ensued about the Wheels' participation in the dockside battle, during which Jaehn revealed his role at the end of the conflict. He told the other Follies that it was him -- disguised as a Wheel -- who slew the two Pikemen and carved the letter "G" into each of their chests.

At this, Tuggle made a face and said, "Aww...you use that dagger for _eating_."

The other Follies' reactions were varied, but Cupric was able to get things back on track by reminding them that everyone sometimes did strange things in the heat of battle.

With their performance at dusk and a meeting with Thissiken shortly thereafter, the Follies decided to split up for a few hours: Tal and Jaehn would take the unconscious Valic and drop him off near the docks (allowing him to keep his meeting with Asdruc, and continue to sow confusion among the guards), while Cupric and Artemis went off in search of a lute for the bard. De'lea, Tuggle and Vicktor would all remain at Farry's Port. Before Tal put Valic back in the burlap sack he arrived in, Artemis forged a brief note to pin to his chest:

_For now the test is passed, speak of this and death is at hand._

To further muddy the issue, he forged this in Algaer's hand, using the letter to Lockmyre as his sample. After that, Valic's whistle was tucked into his shirt and he was unceremoniously dumped back into the sack.

*In Search of a Lute*

Particularly in a city as large and bustling as Selgaunt, one might think purchasing a masterwork lute would be a simple affair -- but this simply wasn't the case. As Cupric had found out earlier in the day, there were really only two places to buy good instruments in Selgaunt: Mazendria's, and the Strings. As Jaehn and Tal were heading out to drop Valic off by the docks, Artemis and Cupric set out for the Strings.

Watchful for guards, the two Follies were able to reach the Strings in short order. What they found was a long, fairly narrow street composed entirely of tiny stalls and shopfronts -- some large enough to walk around in, others small enough to be called alcoves. The street was surprisingly quiet, though not in the sense of being empty of people. Rather, it was quiet in the sense that the only ambient noise came from the small sounds of people busily applying their craft: fretsaws, hand-drills, tiny boilers, the plucking of strings and so forth.

Just as was described to Cupric that morning, most shops seemed to focus on a single type of instrument, or even _parts_ of a single type of instrument. Given the sheer number of tradesfolk, it took well over an hour for the two Follies to find what Cupric was after: an elven lute merchant. Knowing well that the craftsmen of Cormanthor and Evermeet were some of the finest lute-makers in Faerûn, the dream-bard was thrilled to find one tucked away in Selgaunt.

He was less thrilled to find out that like most of the shops in the Strings, Sefin the lutecrafter's tiny store kept no instruments in stock. Instead, Sefin made each one to order, with an average lead-time of two tendays. Since he was hoping to acquire one for that evening's performance, Cupric politely exited the shop, noted its location, and nodded for Artemis to follow him to Mazendria's.


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## haiiro (Sep 18, 2004)

*The Temple of Sune*

At Farry's Port, Vicktor discovered that one silver piece would be more than enough to drink himself under the table. Showing restraint that would have been wholly uncharacteristic a few years ago, he settled for merely drinking copiously instead.

Also in the common room (where they would be performing that night) were De'lea and Tuggle, respectively attempting to pick up an attractive elf and socializing with the other patrons. Most people were more than happy to share their versions of the dockside battle, rumors of which had already spread that far. Their tales seemed to divide into two sorts: those that centered on giants killing guards, and those that revolved around an attack by winged minotaurs -- leaving Tuggle pleased that none of them included the Follies.

As was so often the case, De'lea met with almost immediate success: the gorgeous elf, Laffia, was very interested in learning more about the teachings of Sune. He suggested to De'lea that they visit the temple of Sune, and once she'd checked his aura (not evil) De'lea agreed. Having been half-listening to their conversation, Tuggle's interest was piqued, and he offered to accompany them. Since Vicktor was content to drink and await the return of the other Follies, De'lea, Laffia and Tuggle headed out for the temple.

After some unfocused rambling (Laffia proved not to have known where the temple was _per se_), the trio arrived at Sune's sanctuary. It was an imposing building: a tapering, lacquered red spire, six stories tall, with slender windows scattered randomly up the facade. Incense and soft music suffused the interior, which was delicately lit by the tall windows and a small forest of red candles.

Having grown somewhat tired of Laffia's company, Tuggle and De'lea tried to pawn him off on a nearby priest. The devastatingly attractive priest was more than happy to take him under his wing -- but his real interest lay with De'lea. Sune's faith was not known for producing many paladins, and even in a city as large as Selgaunt the cleric could have gone his whole life without meeting more than a handful. Perhaps able to spot her celestial heritage, he fawned over De'lea, leaving Tuggle bored -- or at least, bored until De'lea mentioned their performance that night.

In full-on entertainer mode, Tuggle stepped in to talk up their engagement at Farry's Port. As soon as he was certain that De'lea would be involved in the actual performance, the priest told them that he would be attending it -- along with as many other Sunites as he could gather before dusk. Bubbling with excitement, he told the Follies to expect a crowd and bustled off to begin spreading the news.

De'lea and Tuggle left the temple shortly thereafter, and began walking back to Farry's Port (with Tuggle advertising their performance en route).

Without warning, a raven dropped from the sky and swooped straight towards Tuggle, who was startled but still managed to throw up an arm for it to land on. The bird neatly dodged his upraised arm, landing instead on his shoulder. The moment it touched down, the raven crumbled to dust before Tuggle's eyes -- and left behind a crumpled scrap of paper.

Opening it, Tuggle found a message from Thissiken:

_left shop going to pub was followed trying to lose him in belv row herbal come quick please
damn didn't lose him will try again help_


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## Spider_Jerusalem (Sep 18, 2004)

> Rather, it was quiet in the sense that the only ambient noise came from the small sounds of people busily applying their craft: fretsaws, hand-drills, tiny boilers, the plucking of strings and so forth.




and



> Without warning, a raven dropped from the sky and swooped straight towards Tuggle, who was startled but still managed to throw up an arm for it to land on. The bird neatly dodged his upraised arm, landing instead on his shoulder. The moment it touched down, the raven crumbled to dust before Tuggle's eyes -- and left behind a crumpled scrap of paper.




Stuff like this is exactly why I follow this story hour. Keep it up Haiiro.

Spider


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## Hairy Minotaur (Sep 19, 2004)

Winged minotaurs? Hmm... that gives me an idea


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## freedoms_edge (Sep 19, 2004)

Haiiro, very very nice. Spider put me onto this with great praise, and can i just that this is one of the most brilliantly written pieces i've read!

I think your writing style is excellent, INCREDIBLY descriptive yet flowing. I think it is very much along the lines of Tolkiens writings, which, as far as i'm concerned, is the best! 

Keep up the good work!

Torious, Slayer of Emberguard, Servant of Tyr, and all round bane of Spider J.


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## haiiro (Sep 20, 2004)

Tolkien, eh?  Thanks for the comments, guys. I'm glad you're enjoying the SH, and it's always good to hear detals about what exactly gets you going.


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## haiiro (Sep 20, 2004)

*Dropping Valic at the Docks*

With Valic draped over his shoulder like a sack of unconscious potatoes, Tal exited Farry's Port and started heading for the docks. Disguised as a nondescript human -- average height, brown eyes, brown hair, etc. -- Jaehn followed him at a respectable distance. Up above, Drake scouted ahead of them, keeping an eye out for guards along their path to the docks. At one point, a vendor Tal had just passed shouted, "Oi! What's in the sack?" -- to which Tal replied, "Your mother!" and kept walking. Apart from that, Drake's empathic guidance allowed them to reach the docks without incident.

Finding that the closer they got to the North end of the docks, the more Wheels they had to avoid, Jaehn and Tal decided not to take Valic all the way back to his barge. Instead, they found a likely alcove in a relatively empty street and dumped him there.

Tal reached into the sack and cut his bonds, and in the process jostled Valic just enough to wake him up. As the orc started shouting incoherently from inside the sack, Tal and Jaehn headed back to the nearest busy street -- not too quickly, not too slowly -- and disappeared into the crowd. Before long, they were safely on their way back to Farry's Port.

*Mazendria's*

Just as Tuggle was receiving Thissiken's _feather token_, Artemis and Cupric were arriving at Mazendria's.

The shop was easily the nicest building they'd seen since they arrived in Selgaunt, bar none. Four stories high and done in an exquisite greenish stone, its two massive teak doors were flanked by a pair of impassive footmen. Mirror-smooth glass was in all of the building's windows, and the stairs leading up to the entrance were of milky marble shot through with streaks of red and gold. The whole area around the shop was quiet and nearly devoid of passersby.

Ascending the stairs with Artemis, Cupric found out that the rumors were true: it really did cost twenty gold pieces just to enter the shop. Artemis scoffed at this and walked back down the stairs, while Cupric counted out the money and presented it to one of the footmen. Bowing with a flourish, the man admitted him to the inner sanctum: a long hallway, richly carpeted and dimly lit.

The only illumination came from tiny magical light sources, all arranged to spotlight small shelves that ran down the length of the hall. Set at various heights, each shelf held a single perfect instrument. Doors of various sizes were arrayed between the shelves, and a stairway could be seen at the end of the hall. After locating the shelf that held a lute -- or, more aptly, The Lute -- Cupric approached it gingerly.

The moment he came close enough to the lute to make out the details of its fine workmanship, there was a pattering of feet on the stairs. The smallest gnome the dreamborne had ever seen emerged -- barely two-and-a-half feet tall, with a subdued style to his garments and grooming that projected an image of wealth. He greeted Cupric, asking if perhaps sir would like to see the lute room. When Cupric gave his assent, the little gnome told him, "It costs ten gold pieces to see the lute room." Inwardly fuming, Cupric coughed up another ten Princes.

The gnome escorted him up two flights of stairs to the third floor, where he ushered him into another hallway -- much like the first, save for the absence of instruments -- and then stopped in front of a smallish door. Unlocking this, he bowed and indicated that Cupric should enter the lute room. Once again, capital letters might be called for: this chamber earned the right to be called The Lute Room.

Masterwork lutes of all shapes and sizes covered all four walls of the room from floor to ceiling, each held by brackets in such a way that it was easily accessible yet took up as little real estate as possible. Needless to say, it didn't take Cupric long to find The Perfect Lute.

By its appearance, this lute was the sort of thing that, when the final touches had been put on it by its elven master craftsman, made that craftsman set down his tools for good. As before, the moment Cupric seemed certain to buy the lute, the tiny gnome opened the door and politely inquired if sir would like to buy this instrument.

When Cupric indicated that yes, sir would like to buy this instrument, the gnome inquired as to the identity of Cupric's patron. Cupric informed him that he was buying the instrument for himself, and had no patron -- and the gnome's reaction was somewhere between shocked and appalled. Recovering, he asked, "May I know what you're going to use the lute for?" -- as if Cupric's first action as its owner might be to chop it up for kindling, perhaps. When he was satisfied that this was not the case, he asked whether Cupric would consent to give him an impromptu performance.

Not without some trepidation, Cupric agreed to do so. The gnome escorted him to the shop's finely appointed solarium, clambered up onto a padded bench (in an uncharacteristically undignified manner), and awaited the music. Finding that the lute was already perfectly in tune, Cupric went into a high-class ballad, accompanying the delectably mellow tones of the lute with his voice. He delivered a marvelous performance, clearly satisfying the gnome's high standards, and earned the right to purchase his instrument.

He was escorted back downstairs, through two locked doors (which were re-locked behind them), and into a bare stone room containing a desk, two chairs and a small door. Going through the other door, the gnome produced a pillowed basket and set it on the desk. After carefully placing the lute into the basket, he informed Cupric that there was a small commission attached to paying in cash. After he made a few notes on a piece of vellum, the final price was delivered: two hundred and twenty-five gold pieces. After making sure this included a case, Cupric forked over most of his Princes, glad that the ordeal was nearly over.

Not long after that, he had selected an excellent hard case from the case room (which, surprisingly, did not cost money to enter) and left the building. Blissfully unaware of what sort of trouble the rest of the Follies had gotten themselves into, Cupric and Artemis made their way back to Farry's Port in a leisurely fashion.


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## Hairy Minotaur (Sep 20, 2004)

haiiro said:
			
		

> *Dropping Valic at the Docks*
> Not long after that, he had selected an excellent hard case from the case room (which, surprisingly, did not cost money to enter) and left the building. Blissfully unaware of what sort of trouble the rest of the Follies had gotten themselves into, Cupric and Artemis made their way back to Farry's Port in a leisurely fashion.




Not really surprising, since they'd already gouged the buyer by the time any purchase is made. The cost to see the cases as well as the case was most likely tacked on to the price of the lute. It's those hidden fees you have to watch out for.


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## haiiro (Sep 22, 2004)

*Belvemma's Row*

Relaying Thissiken's message to De'lea, Tuggle quickly ascertained the location of Belv Row -- which was actually Belvemma's Row, a small district populated by herbalists, potion-brewers and the like. They decided that De'lea would head straight there, while Tuggle ran back to Farry's Port and rounded up the rest of the Follies. If they had trouble linking up in the Row, they'd meet at the closest lavender shop.

Returning to the inn, Tuggle found Talishmere entertaining drunks with an account of Torm's defeat of Bane, and Vicktor on his way to becoming a drunk himself. After breaking off Jaehn's mediation session upstairs, Tuggle left a note with the barkeep for Cupric and Artemis: "_Belv Alley - South end of city...quickly! All but you two are there for our friend. - Tuggle_."

He tried to strike a balance between being informative and giving away too much to the barkeep, and did a fair job of it -- which was really too bad, because after the barkeep received his tip (one copper piece), he looked highly unlikely to deliver the message to anyone.

Since Tuggle's familiar, Thss, wasn't terribly well suited to the role of advance scout, Jaehn dispatched Drake to Belvemma's Row. The raven's instructions were to find Thissiken, make as much of a racket as possible, and then lead Thissiken to De'lea.

As Drake picked up speed and flapped off over the rooftops, Vicktor, Jaehn, Tuggle and Tal headed for the Row with all possible haste. By the time they reached it, half a candlemark (thirty minutes, to one of Gond's clockmakers) had passed since the Follies received Thissiken's missive.

Belvemma's Row turned out to be a large open-air bazaar jammed into a crowded, twisting maze of narrow streets, alleyways and courtyards. Where the buildings leading up to it tended to be two or three stories tall, those in the Row looked to be rarely more than a single story in height. Nearly every building sprouted an awning or two, under which vendors stood behind stalls; between open doors and curtained entryways were peddlers with their wares spread out on bolts of cloth, vying for space with those who had set up tables.

The Follies were immediately assaulted by a range of strong smells -- and given the sullen and unsavory atmosphere of the Row itself, being assaulted by the vendors themselves seemed fairly likely. In fact, it had been clear for some time before arriving in the Row itself that they were not in a very good part of the city. Still, the Row itself made the surrounding neighborhood look positively inviting -- and noting this, De'lea focused her will and _detected evil_ in the direction of the stalls.

Of the dozen people she could readily see, every one of them radiated an aura of evil.

At about this time, the Follies converged on De'lea, and Drake emerged from the Row, cawing loudly and herding Thissiken in their direction. He ran up to them at full tilt and barreled into Tal. Clutching one of Tal's legs, he began shouting: "Wehaveto getaway! He'safterme! Youhaveto helpme!"

Somewhat skeptical, the Follies nonetheless calmed him down and tried to find out exactly what was going on. After a few moments, a description of his pursuer emerged: a tall man, well over seven feet, dressed entirely in white. Although no one fitting this description was visible from where the Follies were standing, Thissiken seemed to think that he was heading in their direction.

At Jaehn's command, Drake took off and did a quick reconnaissance flight over the Row -- reporting back almost immediately that a tall man in white was indeed on his way to pay them a visit.


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## haiiro (Sep 24, 2004)

*A Very Brief Battle*

Per usual, the Follies scattered: Jaehn shifted his disguise into that of a one-armed, one-legged beggar; Tal started escorting a crazed Thissiken away from the entrance to the Row; De'lea and Tuggle stepped into nearby alleyways to await the man in white; and Vicktor blended into the background, pretending to be interested in a cinnamon stall.

Though no one took the time to express it, most of the Follies shared a moment of black humor: they were shy two party members, and three out of the five present were spellcasters who were all but out of spells.

There was, in short, some cause for worry.

As the figure in white passed by Vicktor, the pugilist caught a strong scent of sickly-sweet honeysuckle, easily detected even over the prevailing smell of cinnamon. As Tal tried to stay somewhat in view without being _too_ close (and used Thissiken as bait) the figure exited the Row entirely.

Seizing the moment, Jaehn hobbled out in front of him, arresting his progress. As the figure first flinched back and then loomed over him, Jaehn looked up at him with his ruined face and said, "Spare a copper, sir?"

The figure was shrouded in heavy white robes, and his face was almost entirely covered in folds of a gauzy material. As Jaehn jiggled his upraised palm pathetically, a small black cylinder emerged from the figure's robes at around chest height. Its tip flashed brightly at Jaehn, and the illusionist found himself feeling incredibly well disposed towards his new friend -- he had been _charmed_.

In a voice that was at once sonorous and grating, the figure spoke. "Take me to the gnome."

"Which gnome, sir?" croaked Jaehn.

In response, the figure described someone who sounded an awful lot like Algaer -- and when Jaehn told him he didn't know where this gnome was, the figure then described Thissiken. Pleased to be able to help his friend, Jaehn nodded enthusiastically and began hobbling in Thissiken's direction as fast as he could -- which wasn't very quickly at all, what with his one leg.

After following the beggar for a few of his long paces, the figure snarled, "Go _faster_."

No stranger to disguises, Jaehn knew that this was a bad idea: if he went faster, it'd be obvious that he wasn't _really_ a crippled beggar, and his disguise would be blown. As the figure kicked him to the ground, the cloud over Jaehn's judgment passed completely -- and in the same instant, the white figure spotted Thissiken through the crowd.

As he broke into a run, Tuggle scampered up behind the man in white, drawing Snakestrike and letting it hang loosely at his side. Vicktor (who was already in motion) charged past the white-robed figure at full-tilt and stopped about ten feet in front of him, blocking his way. Noticing this, Tal shouted at Thissiken to keep moving -- while casting _enlarge person_ on Vicktor.

The beast of Saerloon rapidly doubled in size, taking one corner of an awning up with him and knocking aside a startled pedestrian. Not knowing how or why this was happening to him, Vicktor was baffled -- but only for a heartbeat.

At that moment, the white figure stopped short, reared back, and then thrust his head in Vicktor's direction. The pugilist staggered back, feeling as though an explosion had just taken place inside his skull. His mind a blank, he was dazed and completely out of action.

The white figure's reaction was unexpected: he too staggered a bit, looking fatigued -- as if he had just placed himself under a great strain. Not one to miss a chance, Tuggle unleashed the fury of his family's ancient heirloom, Snakestrike (a sure sign that the tiny sorcerer was out of spells).

His mighty blow just managed to graze his foe, barely breaking skin -- and quite likely causing several of Tuggle's ancestors to spin in their graves.


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## haiiro (Sep 25, 2004)

Even down on the ground, Jaehn was a flurry of activity. Compartmentalizing his mind, he attempted to _daze_ the white figure, while simultaneously commanding Drake to seek out the music district and round up Cupric and Artemis. Perhaps because Drake began to argue with him (it's a big city, and he had _no_ idea where to look, and...) the spell passed harmlessly around its target. At that same moment, De'lea burst from concealment.

The fire of her faith at full roar, she brought her sword around in a great sweeping arc and _smote_ the figure in white. Brushing aside the flickering force of his _mage armor_, her blow cut him in two just above the elbows. There was a brief, pregnant pause -- and then he appeared to explode, showering everyone within ten feet with blood as he fell apart.

Wet and startled, Tuggle and Jaehn nonetheless wasted no time giving his corpse the once-over: while Jaehn patted down the bottom half, Tuggle searched the top half.

As De'lea stood over them, wiping her sword clean, Tuggle's search uncovered the figure's face -- and the gnome got a good look at his pale gray skin, elongated head, and tentacles. Although his features were otherwise mostly human, a slim and noisome tentacle protruded from just beneath each eye, and another pair emerged from the creature's jaw line.

Leaving the creature's hood open so others could see his true nature, Tuggle quickly directed a _recent occupant_ at him. While Tuggle learned that the being's name was Liddis Malzevent, and that he was a bel-illeth, Jaehn recovered the slim black wand that had been used to _charm_ him.

Noting that screams of panic and fear had started up -- and that the blood-soaked bystanders were beginning to come out of shock -- the pair then did their best to look innocuous. Jaehn used his hat to disguise away the blood and fade into the background, while Tuggle commenced wailing and pretending to be surprised by what had just taken place.

What followed was a few minutes of frenzied escaping, negotiating with guards, deception, stealth, and existential confusion (the latter, oddly enough, contributed by Vicktor).

First: the existential confusion. After a moment of _what the hell is going on around here_, ogre-sized Vicktor climbed the closest building and began clambering over the rooftops. When he reached a gap too wide to cross, he sat down to wait and see if he'd return to normal size, the whole time wishing he had some way to wash off all the blood.

Eventually he shrank, shrugged it off, and started walking back to the inn.

Second: the escaping, negotiating, and other trickery. Two squads of guards -- Calderro's Blades and Alseyn's Rangers -- also arrived in rapid succession. Though it would have been difficult for an observer to sort out, in a short period of time they: believed Tuggle's story about De'lea rescuing them; found out about Tuggle's Follies and their performance that night; got lambasted by Tal for failing to adequately guard the city; tried to detain several Follies (even going so far as to surround them with a spear circle); and wound up letting them all go, although only after Tuggle told the Blades their names.

In any case, a lot of bluffing was involved.

When all was said and done, it was the second time in the past few hours that the Follies had made their way back to Farry's Port in ones and twos -- only this time they had Thissiken in tow, riding piggyback on Talishmere.


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## Spider_Jerusalem (Sep 25, 2004)

Haiiro!

Great updates. I love those weird all-in-white villains. Not nearly enough of them... but imagine my skin-shivering joy when:


> Although his features were otherwise mostly human, a slim and noisome tentacle protruded from just beneath each eye, and another pair emerged from the creature's jaw line



Sounds promising, but what the jitterbugs is it?

Once again, your descriptions are spot on  - getting better with each post and it really makes the atmosphere tangible. Including all the senses is something sorely neglected, but maybe you have a mental checklist. I dunno. Keep it up.

Spider - off to reinstall the _Eye of the Beholder_ for the _n_th time.


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## haiiro (Sep 25, 2004)

Spider_Jerusalem said:
			
		

> Sounds promising, but what the jitterbugs is it?




I don't think they ever looked into it in detail, but the players are pretty sure Liddis was a half-illithid.

Incidentally, by the numbers he should have been a healthy challenge for the Follies (particularly short two PCs). He took 1 point of damage from Tuggle's ancestral hammer, and then one good swat from De'lea killed him. One of those classic moments every DM runs into from time to time.


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## haiiro (Sep 27, 2004)

*Thissiken's Font of Information*

Once everyone was back at Farry's Port and stories of recent events had been exchanged, the Follies settled in to pick Thissiken's brain -- and over the next candlemark or so, they learned quite a bit.

For starters, Thissiken was no simple drakesmith -- and being a drakesmith wasn't as simple as it sounded. After cautioning Tal not to jostle him the whole way back to the inn, Thissiken took up residence on the largest bed in the room and demanded pipeweed and tea. When Tal had grumpily fetched him both items, he commenced puffing like a chimney.

Surrounded by a pall of smoke, Thissiken asked, "Now. What do you want to know?"

The Follies began by asking him if he'd heard of some of the people -- and things -- that they'd encountered since they left his shop. He answered no to all but one: Liddis Malzevent.

"_Liddis_ Malzevent, I don't know -- but everyone knows Tarcas Malzevent. Have you seen the cables yet?"

Thissiken proceeded to describe the cables that the Follies had caught a glimpse of earlier on in the day. As he told it, there was a very tall tower in the High City from which three thick cables extended out over the river. These cables touched down at three different spots in the Market, and Tarcas Malzevent ran the cable buildings. Special casks slid down the cables into the Low City, and were winched back up into the High City -- bearing messages and other items, Thissiken guessed.

Selgaunters called Tarcas "the Low Prince," because although he was an important man he wasn't actually a prince. He was the chief enforcer for the Argent Rook vintners guild, and by all accounts he was also a nasty piece of work. Although Thissiken didn't have all of the details, he said that Tarcas was well known for being involved in a variety of shady business.

As it turned out, Thissiken wasn't such a stranger to that sort of thing himself. When he casually mentioned that he wasn't _always_ a drakesmith, the Follies pressed him on the issue.

He responded, "I was an...entrepreneur."

"You were a thief," said Cupric.

"More of a liberator of possessions," answered Thissiken. "My specialty was gems. I _love_ gems. That's how I was able to start up my shop -- it isn't cheap being in the dracotechnics business."

As conversation turned to the guard factions, the princes, and their various stances on open magic use, it became clear that Thissiken was more cagey than he seemed. He divided the factions four ways: the Skyclads, who cared the most about magic use and came down very hard on it; Davisson's Legion, who generally only cared if someone was around to _notice_ them caring; the Wheels, who couldn't care less; and everyone else, with their opinions on the subject varying over time and according to context.

Thissiken also supplied the Follies with the names of all nine merchant princes, as well as brief descriptions:

- Baric of Blacksedge, a dangerous man with connections to Saerloon.
- Calderro, a straightforward prince whose guards are primarily mercenaries.
- Dizerio of Thay, Selgaunt's newest prince.
- Eeras Davisson, also called the Merchant King; his Legion patrols the High City's walls and the outlying areas.
- Gurrom Lek, rumored to be part-orc, who spends most of his time on the docks or at sea.
- Morcia Alseyn, often out of the city, leaving her Rangers in charge of protecting the surrounding area.
- Sareene Shalligh, about whom little is known (save that her guards are rarely seen outside of the High City).
- Ursmeril, the most brutal prince, whose Skyclads are feared throughout Selgaunt.

On the subject of Gurrom Lek, Thissiken told the Follies that it was fairly widely rumored that the prince held gladiatorial combats in the High City, but he wasn't privy to more details. After demanding more pipeweed (to add to the cloud that was currently obscuring the entire ceiling), he also expressed his gratitude to them -- and made sure to get in a dig about the fact that they hadn't believed him when he said he thought he was in danger.

He also promised to provide them with the schedule of gate guards if they needed it, and hinted at the fact that he could have his contacts look into any areas they had questions about. When asked for a description of some of Selgaunt's major landmarks, he instead offered to have a map drawn up for the Follies that included those places -- and more.

By the time their lengthy conversation was over, there was barely a candlemark left to prepare for their performance. With a basic plan for the evening in place (perform; visit the Copper Cup with Thissiken; go to Pub to secure their new rooms, also with Thissiken), the Follies began their preparations.


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## haiiro (Sep 29, 2004)

*The Follies' Second Performance*

Over the course of the next hour, Frango visited the Follies' room to let them know that he'd taken three deliveries on wine for the evening, the Follies firmed up their act, and the common room downstairs began to fill up. By the time the Follies made their grand entrance and ascended the pair of stages, the house was truly packed -- and a small mob of people was already gathered outside.

Recalling the crowd's request for bawdy songs the night before, the Follies opened with a popular Rook's Night ballad, and then headed straight into a lewd little number. With Jaehn and his flute supporting Cupric's lute and amazing voice (earning them a nickname: the "ute" brothers), Artemis tumbling up and down the room (and _not_ doing feats of strength), and De'lea -- without her armor -- doing alluring dances and handing out more scarves, the response was tremendous. Off to one side, Thissiken sat between Vicktor and Tal, keeping time with his pipe and apparently enjoying himself immensely.

For the next couple of songs (including a rousing rendition of "A Wizard's Staff Has A Knob On The End"), the crowd continued to grow, as more and more people somehow managed to squeeze their way in. A small army of bartenders, including a beaming Frango, kept the wine flowing freely -- if not necessarily cheaply.

At that point, an unexpected guest crashed the party: a silver-furred bear shouldered its way through the front door on its hind legs, parting the crowd like water.

Although many of the revelers further away from the door simply didn't notice, the Follies did -- and they knew whose bear it was, too. Without missing a beat, Cupric employed one of his many bardic talents and _fascinated_ the bear.

It stood rooted to the floor, completely blocking the doorway, swaying slightly and with a glazed expression on its face. After a few moments, the crowd concluded that this must be part of the act, and one man even began dancing with the bear, taking its forepaws in his hands and doing a merry (if drunken) jig.

Knowing that his song would be over quickly -- freeing the bear to act on its own again -- Cupric tried to catch Vicktor's eye. While Vicktor just grinned back and raised his ale mug, Tal noticed the bear on his own and took action.

Acquiring a rack of lamb on a massive wooden platter from Frango, he shouldered his way to the front door. Setting down the lamb, he looked for a way past the bear -- and found the only one available. Getting down on all fours, the cleric began to force his way between the bear's legs. Naturally, this was precisely when Cupric's song ended, at which point the bear also dropped down to all fours.

As two tons of muscle and instinct began munching on the lamb, Tal found himself completely covered by bear. Inching his way out, he gave the platter a swift kick -- sending the lamb sliding out the open door, and the bear lumbering after it.

Having spotted two more bears outside (smaller and darker than the silver one), as well as the dwarf with the handlebar mustache and his three friends, Tal slammed the door, drew his greatsword, and stood fast in the entryway. Noting that all of the Follies were still downstairs -- and all but Artemis were still on or near the stages -- Tal waited a few minutes, then stepped outside. Having weaved his way through the crowd, Tuggle joined him.

The street in front of Farry's Port was full of people -- and the part of it right in front of the door was currently very full of bear.

Faced with three growling bears and their handlers, Tal was impassive and Tuggle was nonchalant. Between them, they conveyed to the mustached dwarf that under no circumstances would his troupe be coming inside until the Follies' performance was over. With dozens of onlookers, they convinced him to back down, and Tal told the handlers he'd let them in when he was ready.

Once back inside, Tal waited a good long while (ignoring the knocking on the door), giving the Follies plenty of time to play their final songs. When they began filing offstage -- to the sound of the whole crowd roaring their drunken approval -- Tuggle announced that the dancing bear troupe would be performing next, and Tal let them in.

With the exhausted Follies watching from various spots in the crowd, the troupe filed sullenly in -- amidst cheering and praise, though not as much as the Follies had received -- and made their way to the stages. They made no introductions, and simply began their act.

With no accompaniment, the three bears danced and gallivanted around the stages, and it wasn’t long before it became clear that no one was enjoying them as much as they used to. After continuing for a few more lackluster minutes, the troupe filed back out of the inn.

As he passed Tuggle, the dwarf glared at him and says, "This isn't over." Through great force of will, Tuggle kept his mouth shut, but like many of the other Follies, he was thinking something along the lines of, _Suuuure, suuuuure. Whatever you say..._

For the time being, however, it _was_ over. After being thanked profusely by Frango, the Follies retired to their rooms and the crowd began to disperse.


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## haiiro (Oct 2, 2004)

*Returning to the Copper Cup*

With a brief cooling-off period under their belts, Thissiken led the Follies to the Copper Cup by the most inconspicuous route possible: he hired a barge. Taking them down a short trail that led down from the near end of Davisson Bridge, he secured passage on one of the many small barges that were moored there.

As the dwarven bargeman poled them down the river, they were treated to an amazing view. The forest of masts they saw earlier in the day had receded to either side, and a wide swath of river lay clear before them. To one side were the vast marble walls of the High City, and to the other were the lights and sounds of the Market. Up ahead they could just make out the Sea of Fallen Stars, a vast expanse that glittered darkly in the starlight.

The bargeman let them off a little bit North of their destination, and from there Thissiken guided them through back streets until they arrived at the Cup. In addition to the fairly substantial number of dockworkers and city folk that would normally be in the area, there were also a large number of Gurrom's Wheels present. Most of them were pacing the docks, scanning the river, or otherwise looking away from the Cup itself -- allowing the Follies to approach it unobtrusively.

Not far from the inn's front door, the corpse of one of the giants could still be seen, covered by what looked like sailcloth. A group of dockworkers were sliding long poles under the creature's body, preparing to haul it away. A nearby patch of stained cobbles -- from which stretched a lengthy smear of blood -- was all that remained of the other giant, which must have been dragged away earlier.

Turning their attention to the Cup itself, the Follies were greeted by an altogether different sight. The entire front wall of the inn was now covered in a colorful mural of the dockside battle -- at least, in a manner of speaking. Enthusiastically (if not skillfully) depicted were squads of Wheels and Pikemen doing battle with several giants, while winged minotaurs descended from the heavens. To their relief, the Follies didn't appear in the mural at all.

Inside, the Cup was dark, crowded and noisy. After making sure that no Wheels were in evidence, the Follies split into two groups. One group ascertained that while there were a great many people getting drunk and swapping stories about the battle (all of which were wildly inaccurate), none of them were Algaer.

The other group discovered that for one silver piece, the harried barman would be happy to give them a key to Algaer's room.

"Remind me never to stay at the Copper Cup," muttered Tuggle.

After learning that Algaer had a room more or less permanently kept available for him, the 
Follies made their way down the hall in that direction. With Tal, De'lea and Vicktor posted at different points in the hallway, Artemis checked Algaer's door for traps and suspicious markings. Finding none, he opened the door and entered the room, with Thissiken and the other Follies not far behind.


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## haiiro (Oct 5, 2004)

*Algaer's Room*

By the light spilling in from the hall, they could just make out that Algaer's room was small, neat and empty. With the aid of _dancing lights_ from Cupric, they saw a hammock, a chair and two small tables. On the larger table were about a dozen small paintings, all propped against the wall. The hammock was unoccupied, as was the smaller table -- but it was what was on the chair that drew their attention.

Propped up on the seat was a most peculiar painting. The frame was made of some sort of quartz-like crystal, perhaps thirty inches long and half that in height. A small brass plate was affixed to the lower edge, and it read _The Promise of Darkness_. The canvas itself was largely black, but closer examination revealed dark blues and gray tones as well.

It showed a tunnel of some sort, which looked to be ankle-deep in water. The viewpoint was from somewhere in the vicinity of the ceiling, looking down the tunnel at an angle. In the foreground, staring up at the source of that viewpoint, was a wet, wild-eyed gnome -- and from his appearance, it was clearly Algaer. Approaching him from further down the tunnel were four dark forms, vaguely humanoid but otherwise impossible to identify. The whole work had an atmosphere of unsettling menace about it.

While Artemis and Tuggle determined that there was nothing else of real interest in the room, Jaehn and Cupric swapped theories about the nature of the painting. Based on his past experience with _portals_ -- and the fact that the painting radiated an aura of faint transmutation magic, just like an inactive _portal_ would -- Jaehn was fairly certain that the painting functioned as a gateway of some sort.

Cupric, on the other hand, had heard of a Sembian painter called Malionh, who was well known for using "Promise" in the titles of his paintings. His work was often done in a dark and brooding style, and it was possible that this painting was one of his.

After a short discussion about what to do with the painting -- take it, or leave it there -- the Follies decided to bring it with them. While it might turn out to be just a painting of Algaer, Thissiken was very agitated at the thought that his friend was somehow stuck _inside_ it -- and as he pointed out, if Algaer returned they could always give it back to him.

This decided, Jaehn took the _Promise_ and tucked it under one arm. In the blink of an eye, he was carrying a simple wooden platter, and shortly after that the Follies were on their way to Pub.


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## haiiro (Oct 9, 2004)

*Pub*

Pub was quite unlike any other building the Follies had seen since their arrival in Selgaunt.

For one thing, it was really two buildings in one: the main portion was a wide stone tower, two stories tall, and in front of that was a smallish plaster-and-timber house. The back of the house butted up against the tower, the base of which was large enough that the docks stopped on one side of it and picked up again on the other. A row of narrow windows (much like arrow loops) ran around the top of the tower, and its back half clearly stuck out into the river. On the whole, it looked as though it was once a harbor guard tower of some sort.

Thissiken knocked on the stout front door, and after a moment it was opened by a stocky figure at least three feet wide at the shoulders. In one hand he held a quarterstaff, just barely visible past the doorframe. His head was bald, and ran into his shoulders almost without interruption -- but it was his eyes that drew them in. The size of small oranges, they bulged out of his head, taking in every detail of the party arrayed before him.

Looking down, he said, "Ah, Thissiken," in a deep and unhurried voice.

Nodding, Thissiken produced a round wooden disc and passed it to him. He examined it for a moment, then intoned, "You may come in." As he said this, he stepped back and to one side, swinging inwards in the same manner as a heavy door.

"Safest place in Selgaunt," Thissiken reminded the Follies as he led them to their rooms.

Inside, Pub certainly looked the part: even the interior walls were a foot thick, and although it was sparsely decorated it felt warm and cozy inside. Padding softly over the straw that covered the floors, the Follies found themselves being led downstairs. Another thick door admitted them into a curved hallway below the waterline, and Thissiken stopped in front of the door to their first room.

As he handed over their keys, Thissiken mentioned that he had reserved a room for himself upstairs, just for the next two days. Although everyone was tired, the Follies tried to establish whether or not Thissiken had any plans for tomorrow. He hinted that he might go and visit some of his contacts, to see if he could help the Follies find out what was going on.

"Are you going to leave here on your own?" asked Tal.

"I might nip out, just for a little bit..." Thissiken replied. Seeing the 
expressions on the Follies' faces, he added, "...No, no, I don't think I'll be going 
out."

"Well, if you do, come get us first," said Cupric.

Somewhat cagily, Thissiken asked, "Can you give me another _feather token_?"

Of the four _tokens_ they were originally given by Agrafion, only two remained -- one had been used to contact Agrafion himself, when they first found Thissiken; the other they had given to Thissiken that morning, and he had expended it while being chased by Liddis.

"We only have two left," Cupric told the gnome, "but we're going to give you one. We'll have to see about getting some more of them."

With a hint of a sly smile, Thissiken took the _token_. As he tucked it away in his vest, he said, "I have a friend who makes these. His name is Quaal."


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## haiiro (Oct 12, 2004)

This is the longest we've gone without any comments -- five updates! My only conclusion is that either a) Freedom's Tolkien comment scared everyone off, or b) you've all been replaced with search engine robots, who crawl the thread and bump up the view count.


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## Hairy Minotaur (Oct 13, 2004)

must.. view.. thread....... programing protocal completed. 


Still reading and still enjoying.   

Keep up the great work.


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## Tony Vargas (Oct 14, 2004)

I don't generally post to story hours, just read them.  I quite enjoying this one.


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## haiiro (Oct 15, 2004)

*Mephiskaran (Session 4)*

_Thanks for the comments, guys!_

*And Then There Were Six*

During the night, Cupric was roused from his trance by De'lea's departure from the Follies' suite. After waiting for some time for her to return, the dreamborne padded out into Pub to look for her. He found her upstairs in one of the otherwise empty common rooms, sitting at a table -- almost motionless, as if deep in thought. Finding no obvious threats, Cupric left her alone.

Just before dawn, De'lea came back to the Follies' rooms -- pounding on the first door, then the second, before she burst in.

"I've been called back by my order," De'lea said to a room full of half-awake Follies. Within moments, it became a room full of completely awake Follies.

"There are precious few paladins in our faith, and they have need of me in Ordulin," she continued.

Tal asked, "Not to say that this isn't serious, but is it something others in your faith could handle?"

"They're not sure how much of the order to trust," De'lea responded, worry and grim resolve showing in her face.

Over the course of several minutes, the Follies established that De'lea was resolute in her belief that she must return to Sune's High Sanctuary in Ordulin -- on her own.

"I don't think you should travel alone," urged Tal.

"My faith will armor me."

"And your armor," quipped Tuggle.

Although unwilling to allow her companions to accompany her to Ordulin, De'lea gladly accepted their last _feather token_. For her to be called back in this manner meant that whatever corruption had been uncovered in Sune's church must run very deep indeed, but she promised to contact the Follies sometime in the future. She left it up to them whether or not to inform Agrafion, but made it clear that she still considered herself a Harper.

Having already gathered up her gear, she bade each Folly farewell in turn, clasping them in lusty hugs. This done, she departed without further delay.

There was a lengthy silence in the Follies' suite.

Then Tuggle said, "So...who here can fight, again?"


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## haiiro (Oct 20, 2004)

_(I've been uber-busy at work -- sorry for the delay!)_

*Planning*

With the silence broken, the moment passed. Though none of them wanted to lose De'lea in that fashion, there was a mutual understanding that she was doing what she had to do.

What ensued was a lengthy discussion of the Follies' role in Selgaunt, their need for a means to communicate over great distances, Thissiken's motives and goals, and the notion of breakfast. The remaining Follies were more or less in agreement on items one, two, and four (particularly four), but number three was the sticky one.

Various suspicions were broached -- notably, Cupric's theory that Thissiken was confirming his hunch about them being Harpers -- and options were considered, including a novel suggestion from Tuggle: the Follies could simply _charm_ Thissiken.

This is met with nearly universal disagreement, with Vicktor somewhat in favor of the idea.

Turning to the pugilist, Tal asked, "How would you feel if we had _charmed_ you to gather information?"

Sounding a bit uncertain, Vicktor asked, "Did you?"

This point was never completely resolved, but the Follies did agree that Thissiken was more than he seemed, and that their first goal was to get the gnome to arrange a meeting with Quaal. If Thissiken wasn't stretching the truth in that area, that should also help the party address their need for other forms of communication -- in particular, more _feather tokens_, as they had just run out.

*Breakfast*

After a time, the Follies made their way upstairs for breakfast. As before, they found Pub curiously empty -- not _completely_ empty, just more empty than one might otherwise expect. Not to be deterred, they approached a large door with an encouraging sign: "Kitchen," and under that in neat lettering, "Knock." They did so.

A thin dwarf with stringy grey hair poked his head out, looked around for a moment, and asked the Follies what they'd like to eat. When asked what's available, he said, "You want it, we have it. Rat testicles in bouillabaisse? We have it!"

The Follies requested ham, eggs and fresh fruit all around, and were most pleased when the dwarf told them to have a seat and wait for their meals. Even in a city like Selgaunt, it wasn't common to find fresh fruit readily available in an inn where you don't have to leave your weapons at the door.

One of the Follies nipped upstairs to Thissiken's room to see if he was up and about, and was informed that he'd be down when he damned well felt like it. Sounding somewhat tempted by the prospect of breakfast, however, the grumpy drakesmith said to have the cleric bring him a plate.

The Follies obliged, sending up a plate -- just a plate, with no food on it. Thissiken didn't seem amused, but it did the trick: a short while thereafter, he joined them at their table.

A lengthy discussion followed, during which time Thissiken seemed to switch between several states: tired, frantic, furtive, dedicated, and back to tired. The gnome was very insistent about finding Algaer, but his refusal to share any real information began to frustrate the Follies anew. Even as Thissiken agreed to set several things in motion -- drawing up a map of the city, compiling his list of which guards are on which gates, using his contacts to find out about the painting, and arranging a meeting with Quaal -- Vicktor's hands writhed as his distrust grew.

After a time, Cupric led Thissiken back up to his room for a private discussion. At this point, suspicions had been raised that he was a mage -- and the possibility that there might be other Harpers in Selgaunt had also been brought up. During his private talk with Thissiken, Cupric found out that Allekar -- the last Harper to pass through Selgaunt before the Follies -- spoke very highly of her associates, and by extension of the Follies themselves.

After disappearing for a short while, Thissiken told the Follies that Quaal himself was very busy -- but that he would be happy to send his representative, Quisk. He had arranged a meeting later in the morning with Quisk, and he told the Follies to be up on Pub's roof at that time.

With this in mind, the Follies spent about a candlemark engaged in a variety of activities. Artemis practiced his dancing, with the Follies' next performance in mind. Jaehn meditated, clearing his mind of external concerns and contemplating the nature of the Weave. Cupric wrote in his journal, perhaps looking back on his brief but tumultuous life to date. Tuggle socialized in one of the common rooms, while Vicktor brooded nearby.

A bit later on, both Cupric and Tal took advantage of Pub's excellent messenger service. Like most good inns in Selgaunt, Pub maintained a small army of messengers, runners and boatmen. Their standard fee was five gold Princes -- a kingly sum for most, but well within the reach of the average Pub patron.

Tal penned a letter to the city's temple of Torm, letting them know that he had arrived in town, intended to visit, and came with the blessings of Father Gedrik from his home temple. Presenting this to a messenger, he discovered that there were actually five temples of Torm in Selgaunt, laid out along the pattern of an upraised gauntlet. The central temple, or thumb, was in the High City -- easily accessible to the messenger, less so to Tal himself.

Not wishing to relive his lengthy and harrowing lute-buying expedition of the day before, Cupric employed the messenger service to round up quality lute parts in his stead. Armed with a promise of five Princes a day (plus costs) and a description of Sefin's shop in the Strings, the messenger promised to return with the items that Cupric needed.

Before too long, the hour of their meeting with Quisk arrived.


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## haiiro (Oct 23, 2004)

*Quisk*

Emerging onto the roof of Pub, the Follies found a wide, bare expanse that offered a remarkably good view of the city. While they took in the sights, Thissiken scampered over to one wall and began circling the rooftop in a methodical fashion. Arriving at particular spot, he told the Follies that this was where they should wait for Quisk. The Follies had time to bring up several chairs, and also to notice that there were no ravens on the roof -- in Selgaunt, a very unusual absence indeed.

Moments later, a single raven descended and touched down on the low wall, precisely where Thissiken had stopped a few minutes ago. The raven cocked its head and said, "Thissiken. So, these are the friends you have told me about."

There was a collective pause among the Follies, during which time Thissiken nodded and the raven said, "Caw."

Once they'd gotten over their initial surprise, the Follies discovered that Quisk was both personable and businesslike. The raven established what it was that they wanted -- namely, more _feather tokens_ -- and then informed them of a variety of other options. His master, he said, not only made the ubiquitous bird tokens, but a wide variety of other tokens as well.

Interspersed with casual jibes -- as when Tal commented that communication was very important, and Quisk responded, "That's the brightest thing you've said so far today" -- were descriptions of several compelling items.

One was a silver raven figurine that acted exactly as a _feather token_, but was reusable. Another was a _feather token_ that sent its message to several people at once, and the third was a token that sent a message, then waited and returned with the response.

When the Follies mentioned that they'd have to look into their finances, Quisk said, "Quaal would like to express his sincere appreciation for saving this useless little gnome. I think we'll be able to work something out for you."

At which point the raven sneezed loudly, and abruptly turned into a small white badger. The badger said, "Bugger."

After it had been established that he was alright, Quisk asked for some pepper. Tuggle stepped forward and mentioned that he could produce the same effect with a small spell, which he proceeded to describe. About three words into his description, Quisk interrupted: "Oh, _prestidigitation_. Fire away." Tuggle did so, and with another loud sneeze the badger transformed into a little brown gibbon.

This process was repeated often enough for Cupric and Jaehn to determine that it was not a spell, but something inherent in Quisk (although not inherent in the same sense as it would be for a doppelganger, or a druid). For his part, Quisk was nonchalant about it, remarking that he tried to make sure it didn't happen while he was flying.

After it became clear that he wasn't going to turn back into a raven -- or even something with wings -- right away, Quisk requested some entertainment. Having discreetly asked Thissiken if the raven was trustworthy (to which he responded, "He's very trustworthy, unless he's the weasel"), the Follies were quite comfortable around Quaal's emissary, and a Rook's Night song was shortly being sung by their resident bard.

After a few minutes, Quisk sneezed his way back into raven form, took the scrap of paper on which the Follies had written their communications wishlist, and departed. Before leaving, he told them to return to the rooftop just as night fell for a second meeting.


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## Tony Vargas (Oct 25, 2004)

The wizard who involuntarily shapeshifts is familiar, of course, but for some reason so is the sneeze triggering it... 

...OMG, that wasn't something from 'Bewitched' was it?


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## haiiro (Oct 26, 2004)

Tony Vargas said:
			
		

> The wizard who involuntarily shapeshifts is familiar, of course, but for some reason so is the sneeze triggering it...
> 
> ...OMG, that wasn't something from 'Bewitched' was it?




Wow, that would be embarassing.  Honestly, if the involuntary shapeshifting comes from somewhere, it's not somewhere that I remember. What are you thinking of, Tony (apart from Bewitched, of course...)?


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## haiiro (Oct 29, 2004)

*The Temple of Azuth*

Thissiken's research earlier had yielded a name: Mephiskaran, purported to be one of Selgaunt's only experts on _portals_. This notable resided at the temple of Azuth, which Jaehn had wanted to visit anyway -- so the Follies decided to make that their next goal. Since Thissiken was very worried that whoever destroyed Algaer's shop might destroy his shop next, they agreed to stop there after visiting the temple. What they did after that would just have to depend on what Mephiskaran could tell them.

With Thissiken's knowledge of quiet streets and backways keeping them unnoticed, it took the Follies the better part of a candlemark to reach the temple of Azuth. The temple itself consisted of one massive sandstone building that took up more room than anything else on the street. The sprawling temple appeared to be about three stories tall, with numerous windows that looked out onto the street.

As they approached the main entrance, several of the Follies noticed two things about the windows: one, that they were tinted pale blue, and two, that what was visible beyond them was not the interior of the temple. Behind each window the sandstone wall was unbroken, but painted with detailed scenes of libraries and wizards engaged in a range of activities. In actuality, there appeared to be only one real opening in the whole building: its enormous and imposing front door.

What greeted them when they open the door was something of a surprise: the entryway was swarming with dozens -- if not hundreds -- of tiny humanoids, each no more than a foot high.

*The Legion*

Stepping inside, the Follies found themselves in a high-ceilinged hallway. Several feet over their heads, small bridges, walkways and chutes criss-crossed the passage, running in and out of the walls, up to the next level, and down the length of the hall. These tiny byways were swarming with the same creatures that were even now gathering around the party, and all of them seemed bent on one task or another. Some carried tomes several times their size, others clutched smoking alembics or scrolls, and they all seemed quite busy.

Down at ground level, the creatures had completely surrounded the party, giving the Follies a chance to get a better look at them. The small beings were humanoid in shape, and looked as though they were made of melted brown wax. As the Follies stared, one of them stepped to the fore and welcomed the party to the temple in a high-pitched voice.

Jaehn introduced himself to the speaker, and related his name and purpose, being sure to mention that his patron was Azuth. At this, every single creature in the hallway -- by this point, perhaps numbering a few hundred -- bowed low.

"Welcome to the temple, all of you. We can certainly let you see Mephiskaran, he is very approachable, and we will need to know a bit more about you," said the leader. As the Follies introduced themselves, the creature seemed to sense that they were out of their element. Sounding a bit surprised, he asked, "Have you not heard of us?" When the Follies all shook their heads, he continued.

"We are the Legion." Then he turned to look at the assembled crowd, bobbed his head, and turned back to the Follies. In unison, all of the waxy men shouted, "And we are famous!"

The leader went on to explain that they were homunculi, or homun, managing to seem thrilled to have guests and very pleased with himself all at once. While Jaehn conducted some side business with the homun -- offering them several of his more unusual spells in exchange for copies of others that he was interested in -- Cupric extemporized a song about the Legion. They loved it, and shortly the crowd in the hallway had tripled in size, and many of them were singing along with the chorus.

While this was going on, Jaehn had successfully negotiated for several spells. The homun politely informed him that there might be a balance owed, as he was asking for a bit more than he was providing. When Jaehn agreed to this, the homun borrowed his spellbook to add the seven spells he had offered to their libraries -- and seven of them climbed onto his shoulders. Seeming quite content, they explained that they would serve as the deposit for his spellbook until he returned to retrieve it.

Now with seven homun on board -- and a great many more in tow -- the Follies were led through the temple's many halls to Mephiskaran's chamber.


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## Tony Vargas (Oct 29, 2004)

haiiro said:
			
		

> Wow, that would be embarassing.  Honestly, if the involuntary shapeshifting comes from somewhere, it's not somewhere that I remember. What are you thinking of, Tony (apart from Bewitched, of course...)?



  Well, Enas Yorl from the 'Thieves World' series in fiction (aside from the sneezing) was cursed to continuously change form, and I'm sure there's been involuntary shapeshifting in myth, too.  Not sure if it's ever been serial changes like this guy's dealing with, but greek and celtic myth is full of shapeshifting, including that granted as a curse.

The sneezing really reminded me of Bewitched, though... there was probably some episode where some witchy character was sneezing and stuff happened whenever she did... but it's been a /long/ time...


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## haiiro (Nov 1, 2004)

*Mephiskaran and Falmin*

In the doorway was an opaque sheet of what appeared to be falling smoke, completely filling the sandstone arch. The homunculi indicated that they had arrived, but none of them actually approached the archway. Instead, they formed a ring around it, with none of them getting closer than about three feet.

The Follies stepped through the doorway, and each of them had the same experience: the moment any part of them touched the smoke, they were simply _through_ it and inside the chamber beyond.

In approximately this order, they were greeted by intense cold, a bare and forbidding stone room, and the sight of the largest man any of them had ever laid eyes on.

Mephiskaran's chamber consisted of four stone walls, on which were several torches, a long trestle table (with one end pointed at the door), numerous high-backed chairs, and a sofa. The sofa was placed at the far end of the table, and seated on it was a truly enormous human -- literally several feet in diameter, with his braided hair and beard flowing over him and down onto the floor. He was wearing a plain blue robe, and seated on his shoulder was a peculiar creature that looked something like a homunculi -- only with gigantic eyes vastly out of proportion to its tiny head.

Between the Follies and Mephiskaran was a sumptuous feast covering about half of the table; apparently, a multi-course meal was in progress. As their eyes traveled over the food, the Follies also noticed that the thing on Mephiskaran's shoulder was carrying a miniscule bow with an arrow nocked, and it bore a small quiver of arrows on its back.

"You guys must be the ones who wanted to see me. I'm Mephiskaran. Come in and have a seat."

As the Follies introduced themselves and brought up the subject of their visit, Mephiskaran grilled them for background details. He seemed particularly interested when Jaehn related to him that he had studied on Evermeet under Archmage Larkin, in the great city of Leuthilspar. Once the introductions were out of the way, he urged them to get down to business (in between dollops of blancmange).

The Follies showed Mephiskaran the painting, and described some of the circumstances surrounding it. They also produced _Soriyo's Crop_, the wand they had taken from Liddis Malzevent's body -- and Mephiskaran identified it without any hesitation. When he had heard quite a bit of their tale -- the possible connection to the painter Malionh, the appearance of the shimmering man, and so forth -- he asked to hold the painting. With some reluctance, the Follies passed it over to him.

Placing it on the table before him, Mephiskaran sent a stream of sparkling motes cascading out of his forehead and down onto the _Promise of Darkness_.

"Well, it's definitely a _portal_," he said after a moment's concentration. "How much do you know about _portals_?" The Follies replied that they knew a little bit, but not all that much -- only Jaehn had had any significant contact with them.

Mephiskaran proceeded to give them a quick lesson in the basics: very expensive, fixed to one location, and a one-way trip unless you built a counterpart at the other end -- and Algaer was definitely in there. His best guess was that the painting showed the last thing that would have been seen through the _portal_ as it closed.

Turning his gaze back to the party, he said, "But I've never seen a _portal_ like this before, and I've seen a _lot_ of them in my day." His voice hungry with excitement, he added, "Who _are_ you guys? You've just shown me something I've never seen before, and told me about something else that I've never heard of." He said this with a note of surprise in his voice, as if it didn't happen very often.

Beginning to feel as though they'd just put all of their cards on the table without seeing what was in Mephiskaran's hand, the Follies clammed up. They told him that they wanted to find out how to operate the _portal_ -- and nothing more.

Leaning its misshapen head closer to them, the creature on Mephiskaran's shoulder said, "Yes, master, but who might want to know about _them_?" Its voice was languorous and unpleasant, and it turned towards Mephiskaran as it finished asking this question.

In the next few minutes, the decidedly uncomfortable Follies hashed out the basics of a deal with Mephiskaran: he would open the _portal_ for them in exchange for the information they'd already given him, as well as a report of what was on the other side. After establishing that they wouldn't sell him the painting outright, the enormous man focused on getting them to agree to tell him what was beyond the _portal_.

With surprising dexterity, Mephiskaran reached around into the back of his robe and produced a small leather pouch. Unwrapping it, he revealed an irregular piece of what looked like glass or crystal. Holding it up to the group, he asked, "Here, have you heard of _image crystals_?" When the Follies said no, he handed the _crystal_ to the thing on his shoulder -- referring to it as Falmin -- and motioned for the Follies to gather around him.

Falmin stepped carefully around the food on the table and turned to face the assembly -- the six Follies and Thissiken gathered around Mephiskaran's bulk, like moons around a planet. The creature held up the _crystal_ and muttered something under its breath, and the glass went completely dark, then lightened -- revealing a perfect picture of Mephiskaran and the Follies.

Taking the _crystal_ back from Falmin, Mephiskaran said, "See? I will give you several more of these, and you can make images of what's on the other side of the _portal_."

His eye on the _crystal_, Tal casually asked, "How do you erase them?"

"Oh, you can't erase them. You can break it, though -- it's just glass."

"We'd like to have that one, then," said Tuggle.

"No, I think I'll hang onto this," replied Mephiskaran, smiling broadly. Having returned to his shoulder, Falmin drew its lips back into a loathsome grin.

"We'd really like to break that one, then," said Tal. In response, Mephiskaran tucked the _crystal_ back into his robe.


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## BangBangChicken (Nov 4, 2004)

Great story reading Hairo - keep it up!  Love the whole smug portal guru character and the possibilties of portal pictures are endless.


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## haiiro (Nov 7, 2004)

*Impromptu Conference*

Indicating to Mephiskaran that they needed to speak amongst themselves, the Follies headed back out into the hallway. All but Tal were glad to escape the bitter cold -- the aasimar could barely feel it -- but Thissiken seemed more interested in the food and stayed behind.

Back in the hallway, the Follies made some quick decisions. They intended to acquire more _feather tokens_, and might wind up using them to seek guidance from the Harpers. Whether or not they consulted their patrons, they planned to go through the _portal_. They most definitely didn't want to leave the painting with Mephiskaran, and everyone -- but particularly Tuggle -- agreed that they need to get the _image crystal_ that held their portrait back.

During their discussion -- and while surrounded by a small army of homun -- Tuggle said, "We should let our Harper...sh*te."

After a brief pause, Cupric rallied with, "Yes, we _should_ let the harpist back at the inn know that we're going to be late." The other Follies leaped on this deception, and between them they thought that they might've carried it off. Since the walls -- or more accurately, the floor and ceiling -- had ears, they hoped they were right.

It crossed Jaehn's mind to see if the temple had any useful information on Shaundakul, and he asked the homun about this. Seeming almost offended, they told him that there were seventeen libraries in the building _just_ on Shaundakul. The quick-thinking mage asked them to give him a summary of Shaundakul's avatar appearances and traveling methods, and anything related to the "glowing green guy." On a whim, he also asked them to tell him more about _Soriyo's Crop_, including its uses and a list of its previous owners. The homun agreed to add this to the spells that they'd be bringing him later on.

Jaehn also gave everyone a brief rundown on the nature of the church of Azuth. As he described it, the church was composed of many factions, some of which were quite ruthless. He knew that they were mostly neutral on the topic of the Shadow Weave, but that many of them were incredibly zealous about gathering information -- sometimes at the expense of all other concerns. For the most part, however, the church stayed true to its aims: preserving knowledge, and advancing magic in the world.

Resolved to be more cagey in their negotiations, the Follies returned to Mephiskaran's chamber.

*An Impasse is Reached*

Seating themselves around Mephiskaran's table once more, the Follies made their terms clear. Mephiskaran handed over the painting without reluctance, his manner suggesting that he had not had any intention of holding onto it. The _crystal_, however, was a different matter.

The Follies started out by politely mentioning that they would rather others not know about them. Mephiskaran's unhurried reply -- "That kind of information can be very valuable" -- didn't help any, so they tried a different tack. The fact that they had told Mephiskaran several new pieces of information and received little in return was brought up, and Mephiskaran agreed that there was an imbalance there. Hoping this opening meant he might make returning the _crystal_ part of their bargain, the subject was raised again.

Smiling, Mephiskaran replied, "I like my pictures. I have a room full of them."

Now incensed, Tuggle told the giant man that if he wouldn't return the glass they would take their painting and leave. Period.

There was a brief, pregnant pause, during which Mephiskaran ate a dollop of blancmange.

Drawing Mephiskaran's attention to himself, Jaehn asked if perhaps he could confer with him privately. As he spoke, Jaehn noticed something for the first time: the seven homun on his shoulders had been remarkably still the entire time that they'd been in Mephiskaran's room.

Mephiskaran consented to a private conference, at which point Falmin leered at the homun seated on Jaehn and drew back its tiny bow. "You should go," it hissed at them -- and without a moment's hesitation they did so, leaping off of Jaehn and scampering out the door as fast as they could. The other Follies went after them, this time with Thissiken in tow.


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## haiiro (Nov 12, 2004)

*Questioning the Homun*

Out in the substantially warmer hallway, the Follies conferred among themselves. As no one but Thissiken and Mephiskaran had eaten any of the food, there was some speculation that Thissiken might be under some sort of magical influence. A few brief questions established that he seemed like his usual self, and Vicktor -- who had brought a piece of bread with him -- tried it and reported that he didn't feel any different either.

Noticing that the homun that formed Jaehn's "deposit" were seated against one wall, motionless and apparently quite afraid, Cupric tried to draw them out a bit. In no time, the charming bard had won their trust and was sharing in their secrets. The homun told him (and the other Follies, who by now were also listening) that Mephiskaran was rarely seen in the temple. As far as they knew, he spent most of his time in his chamber -- someplace they tried hard to avoid.

When asked about Falmin, they told the Follies that he was once a homun like them, but that Mephiskaran changed him. After explaining that most homun were scribes, librarians, catalog-keepers and so forth (and expressing surprise that the Follies couldn't tell them apart -- "See? He's more waxy, and he's more brownish..."), the one who had become their impromptu spokesman said of Falmin, "His talents lie in other areas."

Cupric asked, "What areas?"

"He's _very_ good at killing things," the little waxen figure said earnestly.

The homun were deathly afraid of Falmin, and they told the Follies that he was responsible for killing those that Mephiskaran didn't want around.

The Follies also quizzed Thissiken on what he and Mephiskaran had talked about the first time they were out of the room. Happily munching on some of their host's bread, he explained that he filled Mephiskaran in on Dracon Row, Algaer, and Algaer's disappearance. The Follies were a bit less than thrilled at this news.

*Two Deals are Struck*

While this was going on in the hall, Jaehn was working hard to convince Mephiskaran to give up the _image crystal_ containing their portrait. Finding that the other wizard was intrigued by the Shadow Weave, Jaehn hinted that he might be able to show him a _portal_ created using that Art. Explaining that he was going to call up a Shadow-infused creature, he got up from the table. Mephiskaran continued to eat his blancmange with gusto.

Falmin drew back his bow and got a bead on the point where Jaehn said the creature would arrive, and without further ado Jaehn summoned a shadowy celestial bee.

Running one hand through his massive beard, Mephiskaran told the elf that this wasn't _quite_ what he had in mind. Thinking fast, Jaehn told the wizard that he'd be willing to give him something made with the Shadow Weave in exchange for the breaking of the _crystal_. At once confident and modest, Jaehn expressed some concern that he might not be able to do this right away, and suggested a longer timeframe.

Seeming quite sincere, Mephiskaran agreed, and the first deal was struck: Jaehn would provide Mephiskaran with a Shadow-made object within one month, and in return the wizard would smash the _crystal_ on the spot. Jaehn also asked that the wizard not speak of him, as he would rather certain parties not hear about him. Mephiskaran agreed to this as well. The terms laid out, Falmin took one hand off his bow and held it out towards Jaehn.

"We must...shake on it."

Jaehn stepped forward and shook Falmin's hand, and then drew back. Mephiskaran removed the _crystal_ from his robe and passed it to Jaehn. Holding it parallel to the floor, Jaehn let it fall. At the moment of impact, it went dark again, then shattered into countless fragments.

Popping out of the room -- literally -- Jaehn told the other Follies that it was alright to come back in. When they were all inside, Jaehn explained that he has made a deal with Mephiskaran and destroyed the _image crystal_.

Cupric took the lead, proposing a second deal: if the Follies decided to go through the _portal_, they would take some of the wizard's _crystals_ and -- assuming they made it back -- tell him what was beyond the painting. Mentioning that he'd made this sort of deal in the past, and understood that many didn't make it back, Mephiskaran agreed to their terms.

At this, Falmin clambered off of his shoulder and picked his way across the table to Cupric. The homun held out his hand and smiled.

"Where I'm from, it is not customary to shake on things," Cupric said, thinking fast.

"We're not where you're from," replied Falmin. "We should shake. So much more...polite."

Thinking that perhaps a _geas_ was involved, Cupric continued to stall. After a moment, Vicktor stepped forward, brought his thumb and forefinger together, and shook Falmin's hand.

"See how easy? No fear, it's a little guy," Vicktor said, smiling broadly.

Looking pleased, Mephiskaran passed Vicktor two blank _image crystals_ -- his to keep whether the Follies decided to chance the _portal_ or not. After making sure that it was alright to send their answer by way of Drake, Jaehn's raven familiar, the Follies left Mephiskaran's chamber. On their way out of the temple, Jaehn retrieved his spellbook and confirmed that the spells and information he had requested would be sent to Pub as soon as they were ready.


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## haiiro (Dec 4, 2004)

I've been busy and stressed out for the past few weeks, and haven't felt like updating this. To those who read and enjoy it, I apologize.

If things settle down and I get excited about keeping up with this SH, I'll come back to it.


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## Spider_Jerusalem (May 8, 2005)

Where has this SH gone?

Write more Haiiro! I look to you for my illithid-fix...

Spider

______________________________________________________________________
The CR-never-applies Story Hour A Chronicle of Ice, Luck and Honour continues with Chapter 3: Doom's Doom... *Updated May 7th*.


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## freedoms_edge (May 8, 2005)

Umm, Haiiro? I know you thought that Tolkien comment scared people off, and i'm sorry, but PLEASE can you post some more??? Please? 




Pretty Please???


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## haiiro (May 23, 2005)

Wow -- I had no idea there was still interest in this story hour!

I ended the actual campaign yesterday (ironically enough), and just finished re-tooling my website to reflect that change. What I was doing to create the SH posts was taking my already-written campaign journals for each session and doing revisions to make them more engaging to read. As such, all of them are available online -- over 70,000 words of material! Only the first few sessions actually made it into SH form, so there will be a _lot_ of story that you haven't read yet. 

The only part I haven't written up is the stuff that happened after we went play-by-post, which is available in the form of text files. (At present, I have no plans to turn these into journals.)

If you're looking for the rest of More Charisma Than a Roomful of Nymphs (also know as the Selgaunt Campaign), here it is: http://3d6.org/selgaunt/journals/index.php

I guess assuming that this thread had died long ago was the wrong assumption to make, and I apologize for not posting this link once I had decided for sure not to continue the SH -- sorry about that! 

If you wind up actually reading any of it, I'd love to hear what you think -- feel free to drop me a line at *haiiro(at)3d6(dot)org*.


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