Session 10


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Continued from the last session...

Day 9 Mosholu and Linear and Wat? spent shopping in the market independently. Seika found a route to the roof of the hotel and meditated there. In the evening, they had dinner together and then went to meet Najif outside the Old Salt.

They cautiously scoped out the alley and then met him. He seemed haggard, a little wary. When he turned his head to the reflection of the street's light, they saw that he had a black eye. He expressed relief that he had been recently accepted into the Seaman's Assocation and would be able to ship out of Irawaddy soon. "I'll be able to get out of here finally. Yes, it's far from the desert, but I'm finding Irawaddy pretty hot right now! Anyways, the Seaman's almost hates El Wahafi as much as my people. They'd pay a lot to get one on him."

Mosholu asks if he has anyone they can contact at the Seaman's Association. Najif's only contact was Captain Billen, who was in charge of recruiting. They ask if they can help Najif in any way and he replies negatively, with the stoicism of the desert tribesman. Mosholu surreptitiously slips 5 gold pieces in his pocket.

They return to the hotel and find nothing untoward. They take careful watches, and encounter nothing. All get the rest and sleep that they need.

On the morning of Day 10, Mosholu drinks one of the potions that they found on Kelestriel the Bard. It allows him to change his appearance and he makes himself look like one of the merchants he had met the morning before at Al-Hadoun (see Mosholu's journal entry for more details). He walks to the main offices of the Seaman's Association. It's a large building with many entrances. Men of wealth and import come and go from the main stairs, as well as many seafaring types. Carriages are lined up along the sidewalk.

Mosholu asks for the recruiting office and is directed to a lower door around the side. A line of poor men winds to the back of the building. Each of them is trying to find their luck in a job at the sea, but it is not easy to gain membership at the Seaman's Assocation. Mosholu pushes his way to the front, causing grumbling in the line. He speaks to a receptionist who tells him to go to the end of the line. "I think Captain Billen will be interested to know that I have a book to present to him." She acquiesces and tells him to wait there. A few moments later and he is shown to an office where a large bald and jowled man sits behind a desk.

"This had better not be a ruse to get into my office. I can't tell you the schemes that have been tried."

Mosholu explains about the ledger book the party purloined in Westpit. Captain Billen takes him very seriously, telling him that he should say nothing more to him or anyone and that he was lucky to have come directly to him as there are many spies and informants in the Seaman's Association. He gives him an address on a scrap of paper to a house in Mont Rafiq. He also signs a prepared scroll that grants the carrier access to that exclusive part of town.

At the end of their meeting, Mosholu makes a slightly tactless remark about doing a desk job for the Seaman's Association. Captain Billen responds by lifting his right leg up from behind his desk. There is only a stump left.
"Shark?" asks Mosholu.
"Sailor." says the captain.

While Mosholu is at the Seaman's Association, Linear is wandering around Magic Way trying to find some information about the bracelet on his wrist. He sees a man come out of a low, magic shop. Before he puts his hood on, Linear spies the black skin and hairless face and head of what he understands to be a South Helion of the older line.

He follows this man and then approaches him, trying to appear peaceful. He first pretends that he knew him from somewhere and the South Helian is just puzzled. Then Linear goes on some vague tangents about magic and the woods. He gets the man's attention, but remains so vague and oblique that the South Helian finally loses all patience and trust and walks away.

Linear's next stop is a magic shop where he pays the proprietor to identify his bracelet. The wizard is immediately impressed when he sees the gold and ruby bracelet, sucking his breath in. "I can tell you that this is of a very pure and old form of Helian magic. We could easily get a payment in the thousands for it." He identifies it and says it is based on the magical school of divination, but that it's powers are manifold. "It seems to be recording the activities around it in some way that I can't fathom."

Swearing the magic user to secrecy, Linear leaves.

Mosholu returns to the Hotel Cabra and finds Seika meditating on the roof. He invites her to lunch, the lamb sandwich shop that was down the street from the Al-Hadoun. It was a bit more of a quick lunch spot, where most people took their food with them rather than eating there. Seika, being a vegetarian, ordered a spicy pepper sandwich, which she found quite delicious.

While they were leaning against the counter, a small old man came up to them and tugged on Seika's robe. "Where did you get this beautiful piece of clothing, young man?" he asked. Seika tried to remain vague, but the old man wasn't having it. "This is old Tal'Kora material, friend. You don't see items of this quality in Irawaddy these days. Where did you get it? Where did you come from?"

Seika and Mosholu said they came from the coast. "North or south of here? Well, you are going to remain cagey. That is the way of Irawaddy. I would certainly love to know where you got that robe. I'm a historian in my own way and there is a rich history to this land. So much of it is fading into time and I wish to gather as much as I can before it is all gone."

"Perhaps I can buy you a sandwich?" asks Mosholu. The old man accepts his offer and precedes to tell them of some of the bigger history of the land they are in. When he is done, Seika says "thanks Mr. Exposition man!" and they buy him a wrapped hard candy for desert.

Wat? spends the better part of the day back in the market. He returns back to the hotel in the early evening bearing a fancy new backpack.

They have dinner and get ready for a restful evening. Mosholu planned to meet Captain Billen the next day. The others are just weary from a day in the bustling city.

At this point, the party had paid for the whole floor and were alternating the rooms they were staying in. They also set their standard watch. When not on watch duty in their room, Seika sleep on the roof. Linear keeps up from 10 in the evening when the others sleep until 2 in the morning. During this period he thinks about his anxiety concerning the bracelet on his arm.

At 1:15 in the morning, Mosholu awakens from a dreamless slumber to the gentle pat of Bruno's paw on his cheek. He wakes up instantly to see Bruno looking at him. "Many men, all with the same patterned fur are gathering in the front of the house." At this same time, the sound of men intrudes upon Seika's meditation on the roof.

Immediately, Mosholu gets up and wakens Linear and Wat?. He casts invisibility on himself and Linear and them moves out into the hallway. Wat? thinks about putting his armor on but then realizes that it will take way too long and just grabs his olive mace and his standard mace and runs out the door.

On the roof, Seika sneaks to the front and peeks over. She sees four uniformed men waiting outside the front door of the Hotel Cabra. They are armed with light crossbows and scimitars. There is also a robed woman just starting to levitate straight up off the ground. She rises up to the level of the second floor window and peers in. Unfortunately, one of the guards sees Seika's head poking over from the roof. He alerts the others and they release a volley of bolts at her. One strikes her in the shoulder, pushing her back from the roof.

Downstairs, Mosholu runs by another uniformed guard, whom he narrowly avoids. Linear comes down the stairs right after him, avoiding the same guard who is now running up the stairs from the lobby.

On the roof, Seika doesn't hesitate. She leaps in the air, flipping feet over head to get some distance and lands right on top of the floating sorceroress. The two women sink down about five feet and then bob back up again and Seika lands a striking blow to her neck while holding on to her with the other hand.

On the top floor, Wat? comes barrelling out, seeing one of the guards checking the two front rooms. He hits him over the head with his mace, making him reel but not taking him down. Another guard who was already in the lobby below comes up the stairs, seeing the giant half-orc bashing his companion over the head. He runs to his assistance, attacking Wat? from behind.

Molsholu runs through the narrow hallway to the front door. His dexterity allows him to flatten himself up against the wall as another guard passes by. He recognizes the insignia on his tunic as the symbol of El Wahafi's Salt Guards. Linear does not have the same luck as the guard crashes into him and realizes that there is an invisible person in the room. He swings and misses, but Linear is forced to fight back, striking at him with his staff and dispelling the invisibility spell.

The Seeker is still clinging to the sorceroress, delivering as many blows as possible, until she finally is pushed off. She lands on the ground deftly, uninjured and immediately charges into the guards on the ground. Mosholu comes outside to join her, casting a color spray and then using repeated shots from his magic missile wand.

Still floating in the air, their opponent creates a sticky web that corners Seika and one of the guards against the building. Mosholu spun out of the way and avoided being trapped.

While this is going on, Wat? is trading blows with the two guards upstairs and taking only a little less damage than he is dealing out. His twin maces are mighty when he is angry, but these guards are tough and wily, keeping on opposite sides of him to ensure that at least one of them has him flanked. His sharpened teeth bare as he snarls at them, blood and spit and sweat dripping down his face.

Linear is not enjoying the combat with the guard downstairs in the same way. His staff is easily outclassed by the guard's scimitar and the rottweiler he summoned is having no effect on the guard's splint mail armor.

Fortunately for him, Wat?'s final crushing uppercut with the olive mace crushes his first opponents face and his combo kills the second one. He takes a moment to cast a healing spell on himself and then then runs downstairs and immediately goes to Linear's aid.

Mosholu finally takes down the sorceroress with his wand. The glowing dart appears in her gut, doubling her over and sending her crashing to the ground, dead. Seika has broken free from the web and knocked out the guard still stuck in it's sticky tendrils. They see four more guards come running from across the street and they jump out to engage them.

From down the street, they see another half-orc waving a huge driftwood club come running towards them. It's Garfer! And he's screaming "I just came to pick up my pots!" But he sees that his friends are in trouble and immediately runs to help them.

While Wat? is teaching the guard in the lobby the meaning of the word "bash", Linear runs out to the front of the hotel. He sees the robed body of the sorceroress and a little pouch hanging from her waist and is intrigued by what possessions she might have had. He kneels down and starts going through her stuff.

Suddenly, there is a whooshing sounds and a figure comes flying down from the roof across the street. His speed increases, not unlike a kestrel, until just before he hits the ground, right in front of Linear. The elf sees this man's grey, thin, vague face for an instant before he's swinging at him with two weapons, a wide-bladed short sword and a glowing scimitar. There is a deadly accuracy to his technique and suddenly, before he's even realized it, the scimitar has sliced cleanly through Linear's right arm.

It drops to ground and blood comes gushing out of his shoulder. Without hesitating, Linear, holding off shock, reaches down with his left arm and grabs his right arm, narrowly missing the short sword that swings over his head.

The rest of the party sees the attack and rush over to surround the Thin, Vague man (as he shall be known). Linear has just enough time to make a single move before the Thin, Vague man can begin his next attack. The druid knows that he is mortally wounded, probably not able to take a single blow. But if he makes a run for it, his opponent will get a free swing at him. Some tacticians later suggested that it would have made more sense for him to attack the Thin, Vague Man, distracting him enough that the others could get their strikes in.

But Linear's instincts told him to move. And he did, bolting into the hotel front door. The Thin Vague Man's scimitar came swishing at him, it's blade almost shaving the hair on the back of Linear's neck. But he missed and Linear made it into the hotel.

Immediately, Seika and Wat? rained their bare hands and maces on the Thin, Vague Man, nearly killing him before he could fly up into the air again. Linear, stumbling and losing blood, ran through the hotel and out into the courtyard in the back. On the way, he put his wrist against the snake bracelet on his chopped-off arm. As it had when it first left Miro's wrist and wrapped around Linear's, the bracelet became a small yellow and red snake and wound around Linear's left wrist.

Calling on his mother, the earth, the druid transformed himself into a small leafy tree. The change hardened his flesh and stopped the bleeding, stabilizing his system so that he wouldn't go into shock. The endless calm of the earth in summer enveloped his self and soul and he became a tree, his leaves swaying gently in the courtyard. His dismembered arm still had enough cellular memory to be included in the magic and it became a broken branch tangled in the arms of the tree.

Above, his attacker flew overhead, looking for the arm and its owner who had taken it away. He was seriously wounded from the attacks of the half-orc and the monk and he could not risk going back into the hotel. All he saw in the courtyard was the lines of laundry and some herbs in pots and a small tree. He flew a little lower and then flew away to the northeast in the direction of the main docks.

Mosholu and Garfer finished off the other guards. Mosholu's opponent was bleeding to death and Wat? lay hands on him, stopping him from dying. They went through the guards belongings, finding purses of coins. Wat? dragged the dead ones into a big pile in the alley and left the live ones to one side.

Homan came out, obviously in a tizzy about the damage to the rooms. In a quick negotiation, Wat? gave him 20 gold pieces when he had asked for 5 in exchange that there be no lingering hard feelings.

They ran to the back of the hotel and found the tree that had not been there before. They waited for Linear to revert to his human form. When he did so, he collapsed to the ground. Wat? immediately put a healing potion to his lips. The magic sealed up his upper arm stub and the rest of his wounds and cleared his head. Mosholu shot rays of frost at the severed arm, freezing it into a hard block that they wrapped in canvas and then put in Linear's bag.

"We've got to get out of here fast. Garfer, do you know where we can go?"

"The best place would be the Throat. It's a dangerous part of town, but full of criminals, escaped slaves and the poorest of Irawaddy. They will not be able to find us there."

Battle-weary and a bit stunned at the ferocity of their new enemies, the adventurers quickly gather the rest of their items and leave the Hotel Cabra and Rafiq's Seat for the tenuous safety of the Throat.



To be continued...