2005-09-11 Tarik's Journal

The walls of the city are black malachite with some streaks of white. Guards are checking badges of citizenship. Those without badges are charged one silver piece. I'd forgotten about that. A nuisance. Adrian has a badge, but also pays; a "donation" he says.

When the guards learn that we're with Adrian, they warn us that he's a bit of a crackpot. He's been a bit out of it since his son's disappearance. Sarcem of the temple of Cuthbert took him in.

Adrian says he'll be staying at the Drunken Morkoth Inn and we're welcome to join him. But first he wants to see Terseon Skellerang, the captain of the guard to ask about the disappearances, including into Adrian's son Deven. Apparently Cauldron has a "right of meeting"; once per week someone can demand to see the captain of the guard. Adrian is looking forward to his weekly meeting, this time with us supporting him.

Adrian leads us to the north east area of the city. We stay in the outermost circle of the city, the most wealthy part of the city. It's getting dark. Lamplighters are lighting the lamps.

The rest of the group righly wants to sit down with Adrian and discuss his plan. Adrian grows increasingly aggitated. He wants to rush off to face Skellerang. This seems dangerous, Adrian is losing control. Regretfully, I take a bit of mental control over Adrian, magically making him my friend. This seems to calm him down. We sit down and talk.

It turns out that more than 25 people have disappeared, but it's happened over the last two months. He chose to lie and tell us it was twelve months to make it more impressive. Strange decision, that many disappearances in two months seems more serious to me.

We learn that Deven was training to be a priest of St. Cuthbert. He was 18. Adrian was trained by Jenya Urikas, but wasn't good enough to be a priest. Adrian had been investigating for many weeks, even before Deven disappeared.

Adrian wants to approach Skellerang with us and suggest that we work with the guards. Apparently Cauldron is relatively friendly with adventuring parties. Adrian was planning on chartering us as an adventuring party. Interesting.

Adrian is eager to be helpful. Too helpful. We learn that he's estranged from his wife. Adrian hasn't seen her for years. Adrian tries to pay us, but I cannot accept it while he is charmed. I force him to keep his money.

City hall has is carved into the malachite of the wall. There are stained glass windows depicting Spellmason standing atop the mountain. It's an impressive work.

We pass a guard who looks a bit exhausted at Adrian as we pass. We head in just as a clerk behind the counter is closing up. He's not happy to see Adrian Whitebeard, but will get the captain for the right of meeting.

A tall imposing, well appointed man in formal armor strides in unhappily. He's more happy to see us, and is genuinely happy to hear Adrian's plan when I explain it. He gives us some special citizenry badges. Below the symbol of Cauldron is another symbol. It marks us a adventurers with limited citizenship.

Tomorrow morning we'll to fill out the paperwork, pay five silver each, and give a place of residence.

The captain tells us that people have been disappearing for the last 2 and a half months. People have disappeared in all parts of the city with not prejudge for race. Someone was taken two nights ago. it was a gnome, Jasper Drundlesput. 21 people have disappeared. Deven disappeared 10 nights ago. A problem wasn't recognized for about a month. Most of the first month was indigents and a pair of prostitutes. Gryffon Malek, a 33 year old human, was set to be wed, by all signs loved the woman he was to marry, disappeared 2 days before his wedding, a month and a half ago. He was the first sign of a serious pattern. He was to marry a bar wench by the bar wench Imelie of the Tip Tankard. Gryffon was a barkeep there.

Some have been taken from their homes, even as others were next door. No sounds were made. Most victims have been lower to middle class. No nobles have been taken. All kidnappings took place at night. Overcast nights and new moons are when most occur. The Last Laugh and Alleybashers are local gangs that have been investigated and surveilled without leads.

In all cases, it's believed locks were picked to enter and relocked on the way out. Small valuables were taken. The guards think somewhere between two to six people were involved based on footprints. The footprints include small prints and large prints, all barefoot. Perhaps halflings or gnomes are part of the group.

The captain doesn't seem bothered that none wore shoes. He claims it's normal forpeople to go barefoot given the clime. That doesn't match my recollection; most races go shod. Kyrin asks the captain about it and the captain brushes Kyrin off.

Aidan asks about his father's evacuation plan. The captain says he pased the plan on to the Mayor and that the Mayor promised to get back to him. The captain seems reasonably impressed with Aidan's father's plan. Evacuation? I wonder why.

Adrian is estatic at the news. He eagerly leads us off to the Drunken Morkoth Inn for a drink and to talk. It's in the poorer part of the town. The bar itself is large. There are about 35 people busy. The walls are covered with murals of a drunken morkoth in embarassing situations, including having intercourse with a sheep. Indeed.

Adrian gets us some drinks and tosses us a pouch with 150 gold pieces. We distribute the money. Kyrin asks where the money came from. Apparently Adrian has nothing left. He wasn't advancing in the church. His only care is for his son. So he's given us almost everything he has. I feel a bit bad for him.

Adrian is expecting us to leave. He just wanted us to face Skellerang. That was some expensive information. He's arranged us rooms at the Morkoth. He expects us to leave in the morning. He's happy that we're interested in staying. Apparently everyone else is interested in this opportunity. It can't be the money, since Adrian has no money. Perhaps everyone else wants to make name for themselves.

Adrian is going to head back to his home. It's next door to the Church of the Righteous Cudgel, the local temple to St. Cuthbert.

We consider the question of what name we'll charter under.

If we're going to adventure together, I suggest we should introduce ourselves a bit more fully. I explain that I'm from Hollowsky. Maeglin is from "the edge of the jungle, the sea, and the Hellfurnace Mountains." Apparently there is a small town there. I seem to recall there being an elf and human settlement.

Kyrin's last name is Brightglade. He's from Keoland to the northwest. He's spent the last ten years or so studying in Sasserine. Apparently there was a "mix up" in his assignment at his school. He was assigned to a province that was divided into three provinces and none would take him. Apparently he had nothing else to do for now, so he's touristing in the area. Odd.

Rassi's from the jungle. She's looking for a cousin. She gives a confused story about her cousin. It seems to involve his cousin turning into a pixie. I see. Her cousin was taken somewhere to restore his form. Apparently it is risky and may kill her cousin, Odfrey, so she is looking for him to rescue him. Okay. I see.

Aidan is third generation. His grandfather carved a shrine in the rock to worship and calm the volcano. His family apparently comes from a paraelemental plane. They were sent by thier sect to protect the city from the volcano. The sect is the Vesuvians.

Rassi asks if the city occasionally floods. Aidan says that it used to flood, but now there is a yearly festival of the floods where the local churchs create wands of water control to limit the damage.

Verana is Maeglin's sister. She came looking for Maeglin.

I suggest we honor Sundabar Spellmason's name and legacy and call ourselves Spellmason's Heirs. Aidan fundamentally objects; his family thinks Spellmason was a fool to build a city in a volcano. I point out how closed minded he's being, and that Spellmason wouldn't have built the city if it was unsafe. But Aidan won't budge. Blast.

Malachite Defenders is suggested. It's not a bad name, but Kyrin points out that there is a kingdom famous for a malachite throne. Apparently it's not a popular kingdom and may not be something we want to assocated with.

After much debate, Kyrin suggests "Tarik's Gang". How flattering. It gets adjusted to Tarik's Company. Everyone seems to agree. Excellent.

We call it a night.

16th of Ready'reat

As we're having breakfast, a young man bursts in shouting about someone being taken. He's waving sheets of paper. Apparently multiple people were taken. Maeglin buys a copy on the broadsheet, the Cauldron City Broadsheet.

According to the broadsheet, four children were taken from the Lantern Street Orphanage. It's on a side street. The kids are three humans and a dwarf; two boys and two girls. The names weren't given.

We head off to city hall to charter as an adventuring party. Children with broadstreets are shouting the news on corners. At city hall we register without problem. "Tarik's Company." I definately like the sound of that. I take a copy. The paperwork says we're chartered for one year. Kyrin gets a copy of the city's laws on adventuring.

Properly chartered, we head to the orphanage. Lantern Street is between the two innermost streets. It starts to rain.

The door is locked. I knock. A small window at chest level opens and older eyes peer out. The woman beyond asks who we are. I explain that we're an adventuring party commissioned to investigate. Once she's seen my badge she lets us in. The woman is an older halfing woman by the name of Gretchen. They also took the records for the children.

The watch was in earlier. Then another adventuring party came through, the Stormblades. She thinks they're a bunch of noblemen's children. Some elves from the Lord Mayor's office then visited. The elves were named Fellian and Fario.

The children were Terram a nine year old human boy, Lucinda an eight year old human girl, Evelyn a nine year old human girl Deakon, a twenty year old dwarven boy.

The orphanage has two large rooms on the second floor, segregated by sex. There are about fifteen beds in each room. The children were taken in the middle of the night from the common rooms. None of the other children reported anything. All were sleeping in beds near windows. There are seven other girls and eleven boys in the orphanage.

Verana examines the locks on the windows. She doesn't see any evidence of them being picked. Verana says she doesn't think she could pick the locks. Indeed. The pirate has some unusual skills. The locks are two years old and of high quality. They've were made by Keygan Ghelve, a popular locksmith in down.

Heading over to the girl's room. A half-orc teenager is rummaging under a bed. His name is Patch and he says he's the janitor. He pulls a hammer out; he says he was working on a creaky board. There is indeed a new nail. Rassi asks to look inside. Patch helpfully yanks the board up. Rassi feels around inside but doesn't find anything. Patch nails the board down again.

Through the windows we can see the kids playing in the yard.

Verana heads down with the matron to talk to some of the children.

Patch unlocks a window for Kyrin and I to investigate. The locks don't have keyholes on the outside, so it's not possible someone picked from the outside.

When Verana returns we learn that non of the children heard anything last night. The children apparently sleep hard. Each night Patch tells the kid a story.

Several of us agree that the locksmith may warrent investigation. A locksmith might have kept keys and have easy access to various homes without leaving any evidence of picking the lock. We head toward Adrian's home to ask who his locksmith is.

On the way, we hear a cry from an alley ahead of us. There are faint sounds of a skuffle, perhaps a punch.

We all rush around the corner. Two men in good leather armor are attacking someone in robes. The attackers faces are painted, half white, half black. The person in robes collapses. As Maeglin charges in, they fall back and draw blades. Drawing closer, the form on the ground is obviously Adrian. He's been badly beaten.

Rassi and Verana rushes around the building to trap the attackers. While the rest of the group entrap the attackers, I call for the city guards.

The group quickly cut down the painted attackers. Above, from the roof of the building to the right, a woman laughs. Her face is painted black and white as well. Kyrin shoots a magic missile at her, and she cries out. Maeglin drops his sword, quickly whips out his bow, and shoots the woman in one fluid motion. The shot is true, striking her across the face, possibly hitting her face. She falls back out of site.

From above we hear a shout, "Take the priest and go! Trust me, we'll meet again."

Moments later three guards come running. Maeglin magically stops the two men from dying. I see the woman leap from rooftop to rooftop. I shout and give chase, but the guards stop me. Blast.

The guards push us into the alley. The guards identify the two men as Tastus and Tuneer. The men are guards. The city guards who joined us are surprised to see their fellow guards wearing Last Laugh makeup.

I introduce ourselves to the guards. I explain what we saw. As the rain is picking up, the guards tell us to take Adrian to his temple. The guards will take the two attackers to their local station. We quickly decide to have Verana follow the guards to ensure that the attackers are jailed.

We haul Adrian to the Church of the Righteous Cudgel. The design of the temple mixes a house of worship and a keep. The inside is dominated by a large, high ceilinged main area. An acolyte rushes up. I explain that Adrian was attacked by brigands. The acolyte is shocked to hear of an attack on the streets in broad daylight, or at least rainy day. We're told to take Adrian farther in while Mistress Jenya Urikas is fetched.

Jenya proves to be an attractive human woman in her thirties. She has short brown hair with grey streaks. She wears a brown robe with gold trim. Unsurprisingly there is a golden symbol of St. Cuthbert around her neck. She thanks us from bringing Adrian in and casts a spell to heal him. Adrian springs to, briefly thinking he is still facing the gang members. Jenya wants to speak with him and leads him to another room.

While we wait, a soaking wet Verana rejoins us. She tells us that the attackers were taken to the guard house next to City Hall. A bit later the guard patrol headed back out to check out the alley.

A bit later Jenya returns. She thanks us for helping Adrian in recent events. She says that Adrian has been unstable since his wife left him several years ago. Deven has been Adrian's entire life since then. When Deven disappeared, Adrian snapped.

Apparently Adrian stole the money from the church's coffers. She doesn't ask for the money back, and is sympathetic to his actions.

With the kidnappings of the children, Jenya feels the church must become involved. Jenya has vowed in Sarkin's place to bring the kidnappers to justice. Jenya will offer our group 2,500 gold pieces and healing if we can recover the children promptly.

From her robes Jenya produces a piece of paper. The church has a relic, the Star of Justice. It has some divinatory powers. When asked, it responded with a cryptic statement. She reads us the statement and gives us a copy.

I introduce ourselves as Tarik's Company. At my pushing, we return the stolen gold we were paid with. Rassi isn't interested, so I repay the debt myself.

Asking about Adrian, we learn that his attackers told him, "Your kid's gone. Forget about him." I see.

As we head out, an acolyte gives each of us a potion of cure moderate wounds. The potions are labeled with the symbol of St. Cuthbert.

We briefly visit Adrian's house. Verana confirms that the lock on his house was crafted by the same man, Keygan Ghelve.

We head to Ghelve's. It's on Lava in the southwest of the city. The building is malachite and has a small turret. The windows are barred. A wooden sign advertises Ghelve's locks.

I'm a bit concerned that legally we can't just search Ghelve's place as we want. Kyrin has the bright idea to check the city laws on adventuring parties. Apparently there is a great deal of leeway; it looks like so long as the greater good is served, we have a lot of freedom.

We step in. The shop smells of tobacco. There is a wall of keys. A small fire burns in a fireplace. The counter is staffed by a gnome man on stilts. The gnome has a goatee, a mustache, and salt-and-pepper hair. The gnome walks comfortably on the stilts. The gnome is indeed Master Ghelve. I chat him up while the rest of the party pokes around. His best locks are imported from Festus in Sassarine. His own locks are good, but not as good as Festus's

Verana starts inching toward the curtain in the back, but Ghelve notices and asks her to step away.

After Ghelve's spiel, I ask about his locks. The wall of keys proves to be blanks. When I ask about his keeping copies of keys, he seems a touch off, but he seems sincere that he doesn't keep copies. I point out that his locks were in all of the homes that were broken into. He briefly is taken aback. The entire group becomes involved. Rassi asks how he might help someone who has lost their key. We learn that he keeps records of the imprints of the keys. Oh my.

Ghelve starts twitching his head, trying to indicate something above. There is a loft above. Is he being forced? Verana heads toward the front door, when there is a shuffling sound above. A figure in dark cloak leaps down from the loft in front of the door. Under the figure's cloak, the skin seems to slowly shift colors, like a chameleon.

Rassi leaps into action, with a primal shout she slams her sword into the cloaked figure. She splits the figure head to toe.

Ghelve profusely thanks us. Pulling aside the cloak is a male featured, but faintly andryogenous form. I recall that it's a "skulk." It's an underground dwelling creature with the ability to blend into its surrounding.

"Tall things" (skulks) and"short things" took Starbrow, his rat familiar, several months ago. The "short ones" has pale skin, large noses, and hooves. That sounds like "dark creepers." Another underdark humanoid. Both are in the group known as "dark ones." Ghelve's been studying magic as locksmithing bores him. He knows his familiar rat is in a dark place about a mile down. Ghelve tells us that Cauldron is built on the ruins of an ancient Gnomish city called Jzadirune. Ghelve thinks these things are living down there. Apparently Ghelve's shop, built by his father, has an exit down into Jzadirune. Several months ago dark ones kidnapped his familiar and demanded that Ghelve create a master key for all of his locks. It's a silver key. He gave it to one of the tall ones. Another tall one, the one Rassi slew, stayed behind to watch over Ghelve.

When Kyrin points out that the dark ones may be angry Ghelve panics again. I point out that we're likely going down and may be able to rescue his familiar.

The entrance to the undercity is poorly covered by a broken board behind his stairs up. Master Ghelve has an old map his father made. He gives it to us.

He mentions that the gnomes abandoned the city because of a magical disease called, The Vanishing. People were magically disappearing. He doesn't know anything else about it.

I scrawl a note to Captain Skellerang summarizing the situation. We send Ghelve to find a guard and demand an escort to the captain. He'll turn the note summarizing things to the Captain and hopefully reinforcements will be along soon.

We head down the concealed stairs. As we travel down, Kyrin tells us what he knows of the undercity. When Spellmason built the city, gnomes and dwarves helped. The gnome sorcerer Jzadirune was helping with construction. He got permission to build a small enclave for magical research. 75 years ago there was some event, probably The Vanishing, and everyone fled.

Verana has a bullseye lantern. She gives it to Maeglin to carry. Rassi carries one of Aidan's torches.

The passage is carved in grey stone. We descend on a square spiraling passage for some distance. We finally reach a corner beyond which we can heard birds chirping, leaves rustling, and giggling. An audible illusion?

At the bottom of the stairs is a square room. (1) There is an open passage ahead. Twelve copper masks of smiling gnomes are along the walls. To the left are two round wooden doors. The near door is ajar, light is visible inside. Through the near door are metal cogs or teeth around the inner frame. The strange sounds seem to purmeate the room.

On the further door is "J" and the near, ajar door "A", both in gnomish.

As Verana approaches the far passage, one of the masks giggles and speaks "Welcome to Jzadirune, behold the wonder." The voice continues in rhyme warning the visitor to not steal as there are traps.

Verana examines the A door. The door is wedged open with a piece of steel, perhaps remnants of a sword. The door has some sort of magical trap. It's inert at the moment. Door J has an active magical trap.

Beyond the open passageway is a hallway stretching left and right. (2) There are round doors on both sides along the hall. The doors are all labelled with a single letter in gnomish.

As Verana explores to the left, she fails to notice a pit trap and falls down. She joins a skeleton already there. The pit is ten feet deep. Wooden spikes line the bottom five feet. Verana throws a rope up to Aidan, but as she climbs she slips and falls back down.

Suddenly the pit recloses. The pit itself tilts to the side, slamming Verana into the spikes. Aidan has a burst of energy and grabs the pit's lid, yanking it open. Verana tries climbing again and this time succeeds. The door slams shut again.

Aidan prays and channels the energy to heal Verana.

CategoryTarik'sJournal

2005-09-11 Tarik's Journal (last edited 2006-09-04 20:30:39 by AlanDeSmet)