Interlude at Tower Cove
Bomilcar's narrative
Our group gathers some herbs from the slightly Chaos-affected ruins of the mad sorceror who cursed the Sternbrow line, and then resumes the journey to Ilmar. On the way, we are due to pass close by Tower Cove, where lies the hidden Melnibonean tower we discovered on a previous occasion. We still have unfinished business there; a powerful demon door was blocking the way to the upper floor of the tower, so we left it alone for the time being. Now, however, Destiny has started to achieve some abilities of her own, so we make a decision to deal with it.
"I am going to summon and bind a demon of protection into the fancy shield we found while we were inside Auquhol's memories," she says. "There is a special trick that can be played; it's called a 'Wardpact", and it costs a lot of potential power. However, it will give the shield a specific use against demon doors; effectively, I'll make a weak shield with very little power, but that ability will enable us to unbind the demon door and find out what's in there."
This sounds like so much gobbledygook to me, but I'm willing to bet that she knows her stuff. The others agree, so we proceed.
Destiny does her thing - "That was easy", she says - and the door is dispatched very quickly indeed. [Destiny's demon turned out be only POW 9 on 3D8. This is the bit that is rolled randomly, so that the summoner can never be certain of the demon's Power level. They are chaotic, after all.]
Inside is a large single room that takes up the entire top floor of the tower. Around the walls are bookcases, shelves, and a large tapestry that covers the entire wall directly facing us. Four pillars support the roof, and right in the middle of the room is a permanent chaos octagon, chiselled directly into the white floor. There are a very few signs of the earthquake that shook the area all those centuries ago, but the main one is a crack splitting one side of the octagon, leading to a rather large and powerful demonic creature that looks as though it has been here for a very long time. Scattered around the room are the bones of its summoner; he must have been right in the middle of raising it when the earthquake hit. It starts to shake itself to life, so we ready ourselves for an attack.
Destiny heads for something she sees glistening in the bones of the long dead Melnibonean lord, while the rest of us arrange ourselves in a defensive arc between two of the central pillars. The beast leaps at Marion, who jumps back out of its way. Jorthan interposes himself between the creature and Destiny, and Sir Blanque charges the demon. A single thrust of that Sternbrow sword of his pierces its chest and it falls, wounded to death. [Against Chaos things, the Virtuous sword automatically does its full possible 14 points of damage; the demon had a major wound level of 13.] Its body evaporates in a sulphurous stench. Destiny holds up a little silver figurine that looks exactly like the demon; it has an octagon etched into the bottom of its base. "Must have been its binding object," she mutters.
We search the room. The chest has protected some very fine shimmering Melnibonean robes; there are four sets in all, and they must be worth a small fortune. Destiny doesn't fit them, though; apparently she is rather short for a Melnibonean. We also find a potion (type unknown) and two scrolls. One is in Low Melnibonean and concerns plants and herbs; the other is, according to Destiny, a treatise on demonology in High Melnibonean. She looks pleased with this particular find. We also find a small book made of paper with a strange picture on its cover, but it is in a language none of us recognises. Destiny is intrigued because of the dragon wings. She really wants to find out about this book.
Marion is looking thoughtful. "This room doesn't seem quite right," she says. "It should be ...well...larger than this, going by the layout downstairs." [Successful Balance roll for spatial awareness]. She's right; behind the drapes is a concealed door, but this one opens by means of a puzzle lock. Destiny eventually figures it out and we find a storeroom; a light comes on when we enter - a fire elemental permanently bound into a sconce to look like a torch. Destiny appropriates it. Inside is a large chest with a serious amount of old Melnibonean treasure.
Destiny says that she thinks this tower would be a great place to live, if it could be repaired and rebuilt. She's probably related to the skeleton downstairs anyway...
We arrive in Ilmar with no further incident, and ready ourselves for the next phase of dealing with Jorthan's patrimony. The choice is between Aflitain in Shazaar on the western continent, or Raschil in Filkhar; the Nikorn trade empire has substantial holdings in both. We opt for the west (Marion's home town) and sail there reasonably quickly, thanks to help from water elementals.
Aflitain isn't especially large, but it has a suitably grubby docklands area that looks a bit rough. There is a city wall beyond that, with towers and a single main entry gate to the city proper. In terms of defences, this seems sensible. Destiny frowns; "I think I saw someone duck into an alleyway; he (or she!) was wearing a long hooded purple cape. It reminds me of the scene we saw in the scrying mirror in the hall belonging to Tizun Thane."
[Time for an old favourite of mine, a D&D scenario set in a town, with lots of political intrigue and skullduggery. It was quite unusual for the time it was published - 1984. I still have my original!]
As with Ilmiora, Shazaar is a civilised, Lawful kind of place; that means no bows or shields, but light armour (including our wooden sets) and side weapons are allowed. We leave the heavy gear on board the ship, and head towards the city gates. We need to say hello to the steward of the Nikorn holdings here, and that means staying at the family's town house.
As we pass through into the city proper, we hear a musical procession of sorts, a religious festival with bells and tunes. Marion says today is the annual festival of Lucor, the local hero against the Melniboneans during the great rebellion four centuries ago. Destiny doesn't seem bothered by this; apparently, her people left Aflitain without a fight because it wasn't worth holding onto the place. Our good natured needling comes to a halt at the same time as the procession - a couple of men have jumped out in front of it and started insulting the people leading the ritual. A hush settles over the crowd. The foremost priest is carrying a rod of office, and uses it to bash the taller of the two ruffians out of the way; it looks as though the shorter guy is about to start a fight, which would be a bad omen, to say the least. Sir Blanque runs in front and grabs the runt before he can do anything stupid, and is then supported by a couple of servants in green livery. Order is restored and the procession carries on its way.
The ruffians skulk off into a corner, and the two men in green introduce themselves as household members of the Vorloi, one of the three main families in Aflitain, under the Duke. Jorthan invites them to his house, and one comes with us while the other scurries off to tell his superiors about what has just happened. Marion fills us in on Aflitain's politics; "It's been a while for me, of course, but what I do remember is that the three most important mercantile houses here are the Vorloi, the Torenescu and the Radu. They don't always see eye to eye." Our new friend agrees; "Tensions have been rising recently, especially between the other houses. This year it was the turn of the Torenescu to lead the parade of Lucor, but it would seem that someone wanted to besmirch it while they were in charge; Sir Blanque's intervention stopped things getting out of hand."
We arrive at Jorthan's house, and much running around by flunkies ensues. The steward is pleased and relieved to see him; the news of his father's death had of course already arrived, and now the heir is here in person to arrange things to his satisfaction. Our Vorloi friend has a drink with us and then heads off back to his place.
In the middle of the night, Marion wakes me and the others. Destiny is already downstairs; apparently, she is convinced that she heard some sort of scrabbling and tapping noises coming from the basement of Jorthan's house. A trapdoor in the cellar floor leads to a sub-basement, a storage area for coal and things. Part of one corner of this has collapsed, and we can make out a series of freshly dug tunnels beyond; it goes both to our left and right, which is where the noise is coming from. Destiny and Jorthan head off to the left, with one of Destiny's fire elementals providing light; I follow Sir Blanque to the right. He can see in the dark, and I have some hunting skills, so between us we should be able to investigate. Marion stays behind at the trapdoor to guard the way back, and to go in either direction should help be needed.
Aflitain must be built on very solid earth; although it seems to be mostly clay, it is nevertheless reasonably firm down here. There is a comical moment as Sir Blanque goes into a space to our right, only to find out the hard way that it is a partially collapsed cesspit from an inn on the street above; he is going to have to wash his shoes when he gets home. We follow the sounds of digging and tapping, and then Sir Blanque stops. He whispers that there is a large chamber ahead, and that he can see two men dragging and half carrying a large bundle between them. He leaps forward and slashes at the bundle with his sword; the sack splits, and an arm flops out from inside, decked in jewels and wearing a rich green brocade dress. The thugs grunt and drop their burden, and Sir Blanque casts his flash bang special. Both men are knocked out completely. [This time, Thomas rolled a crucial 1 on a D20. So far he has used this special ability three times: two fumbles and a critical.] Three more men come running down a further corridor, fortunately carrying torches, and Sir Blanque easily dispatches the first of them by the simple expedient of hacking his right arm off at the shoulder; the man dies immediately from the shock of it. The others do a runner, but aren't as quick as us. Sir Blanque knocks out number two, and the third is easy as he tries to scrabble up the rungs of a ladder into a house basement, only to fall back down where were are waiting for him. All of the thugs are wearing those purple hoods and cloaks, and none of them was willing to surrender. Sir Blanque seems rather embarrassed at his prowess with that sword: he doesn't mind using it against demons and such, but he feels uncomfortable at the idea of killing other people. Me, I don't care; if they are coming at me with weapons, they get what they deserve. Sometimes people can just be a bit too civilised.
Marion runs up at this point, and fills us in on events elsewhere. Apparently Destiny and Jorthan have been looking around the other half of these tunnels, and stumbled onto an old collapsed house from above. "I heard them fighting something, so I ran to help. Destiny's fire elementals sent out a couple of blasts, and as I came around a corner Jorthan panicked and tried to hit me. So I jumped out of the way and then tried to bitch slap him!" [Jorthan fumbled his Listen roll and mistook Marion for another of the things he was fighting - three zombies had emerged from the floor to attack him and Destiny.] Never mind, though; no harm was done, and the others acquired some nice jewellery items from the ruin.
Now that we are all together again, we debate what to do about our four prisoners. We investigate the house from which the thugs came with their burden, and discover that it is a Vorloi townhouse. Sir Blanque goes off to alert the two guards, while we keep watch over our prisoners.
The night watch arrives, led by a Captain. He says we won't get much information out of these guys; they belong to a so-called 'Veiled Society' that has been terrorising Aflitain for the last six months or so. "Nobody know who they are, or who they are working for," he says. "What we do know is that the few we have captured refuse to talk; they must have some sort of code of honour amongst themselves. Either that, or their Society will kill them if they inform us.' He continues, "It looks as though you have uncovered a plot against the house of the Vorloi; this lady is a cousin of theirs, and they were obviously going to bury the body and then clean up after themselves. The disappearance of a noblewoman could only inflame matters in the city even more." He's right; there are signs of a struggle upstairs, and there is a substantial amount of the woman's blood on the floor of her house and on the robes the murderers are wearing. He takes the prisoners off for questioning, although he doesn't hold out much hope about getting any information from them. We all head off to bed except Sir Blanque, who really needs to clean his feet.
The next day, Destiny and Sir Blanque stay at Jorthan's house to start some reading, while I accompany Jorthan on his various business errands around the town - I am his bodyguard, after all. Marion comes with us because she wants to see her old home town again. We spend a day making various business calls, and then head home. We hear a growing commotion from a market square up ahead. A rabble rouser is standing on a box, haranguing the locals about the "horrible" Torenescu family, accusing them of all sorts of things - stinging rents, putting up prices, selling your daughters - whatever will get the locals going. Marion and I try to calm things down to no avail, and then we hear a mounted patrol arriving. This could get really nasty if we don't do something quickly. Somebody throws a rock at me, misses, and hits the orator square in the face instead. He goes down, to much raucous laughter, and the situation is resolved. [As umpire, I fumbled the thrown rock.]
We get back to Jorthan's house with no further incident, just in time to meet an urchin turning up with "A message for Marion." He hands over a nondescript bit of paper, that reads "Be at the Jade Sea on the docks at dawn tomorrow to escort a package." Marion just seems pleased that somebody remembers her.
We all troop off at dawn, and are agreeably surprised when the 'package' turns out to be the head of the Torenescu family. "You reputation is already impressive," he says to us. "I am on my way to a parley with the Vorloi, but I need outsiders such as yourselves to help me get there without harm. I don't trust any of the locals any more!" At this point, a good half a dozen beggars arrive to help; their leader mockingly bows and scrapes to the Torenescu, who has a good laugh and claps him on the back. The beggar leader turns to Marion; "Hi, Marion. It's good to see you again; we thought we'd lost you after you went into that tavern to rip off the guy from Ilmiora all those years ago." So those stories about how Marion met Nikorn are true after all.
We start to weave our way through the dockyard alleys towards the city gates; Torenescu wants to avoid being seen on the main thoroughfare. An arrow pings off a wall; there's a would-be assassin up ahead, already turning to run, wearing the obligatory purple cloak. Sir Blanque, Jorthan and I hare off after him, while Marion and Destiny look for alternative routes for our 'package'. Sir Blanque urges us to be careful even as we give chase - "He's probably leading us into a trap." This turns out to be correct; just as Sir Blanque catches up with the guy and sends him flying, two more archers loose at us, but miss in the confusion. We give chase to them, but they head off to our right and then dive into the waters of the docks.
At this point Marion jumps off a roof next to us. "I took a short cut to catch up with you," she explains. "And it's just as well I did; those two who jumped into the harbour were trying to distract you. While I was running along the rooftops, I saw a great big guy with a two-handed sword waiting in an alleyway a block or so up ahead. The beggars can look after Torenescu." At this point Destiny arrives as well.
Marion helps Sir Blanque onto a low roof; they'll go for the big guy from above while the rest of us head through the alleys towards him. Sir Blanque arrives first, and then Marion tries to get the guy from above. She misses, and practically crashes through a concealed doorway in the wall behind the giant guard, dropping her dagger at the same time. Fortunately for her, though, Sir Blanque downs the guard. He doesn't scream, because it turns out that he has no tongue. [Marion rolled three fumbles in a row; she was saved from the great sword by Sir Blanque's superior dexterity and speed.]
The rest of us arrive to see this happening, and then we all go through the door into what looks like some sort of antechamber. There are hooks with sets of those purple robes, and sounds of shouting coming from behind another door. It reveals a flight of stairs going downwards, and behind another door we can hear the sound of an orator haranguing his troops. They let out a great cheer, and then we can hear them leaving by another exit. There must be at least twenty of them in there.
We give them a minute or so to clear the place, and then move in to what turns out to be a large vaulted hall; it must be underneath the dockside. We see a large set of double doors, which is where the group of men must have gone. Sir Blanque leads the way, Sternbrow sword in hand, and he hears a separate door closing from off to our right behind some alcoves. He follows, thinking that must be the leader. He is right; we all hear a commotion as whoever it was encounters someone else at the top of some more stairs: "You've just killed my father! Your own brother!" Then a reply; "Yes, and you're next!". Sir Blanque charges up the stairs, and we hear another cry. We all pile in after him, and see Sir Blanque standing over a large, powerful man lying on the floor, his bloodied sword next to him and another body. A much younger man is there too, and all three bear a strong family resemblance. Sir Blanque's target has a large slash running down his left leg - our friend must have caught him off guard as he turned to kill the other guy. He obviously wasn't expecting someone to come through his own secret passageway.
Once everything calms down, it turns out that we have somehow managed to blunder our way to forestalling a coup of sorts. The Veiled Society was being lead by Cathar Radu, younger brother of the head of the family, and he was using them to stir up the city and cement their personal loyalty to his (unknown) leadership. He had just assassinated his brother and was about to do the same to his nephew when Sir Blanque caught him. [Successful Ambush attack.]
These civilised places are really dangerous!
Our group gathers some herbs from the slightly Chaos-affected ruins of the mad sorceror who cursed the Sternbrow line, and then resumes the journey to Ilmar. On the way, we are due to pass close by Tower Cove, where lies the hidden Melnibonean tower we discovered on a previous occasion. We still have unfinished business there; a powerful demon door was blocking the way to the upper floor of the tower, so we left it alone for the time being. Now, however, Destiny has started to achieve some abilities of her own, so we make a decision to deal with it.
"I am going to summon and bind a demon of protection into the fancy shield we found while we were inside Auquhol's memories," she says. "There is a special trick that can be played; it's called a 'Wardpact", and it costs a lot of potential power. However, it will give the shield a specific use against demon doors; effectively, I'll make a weak shield with very little power, but that ability will enable us to unbind the demon door and find out what's in there."
This sounds like so much gobbledygook to me, but I'm willing to bet that she knows her stuff. The others agree, so we proceed.
Destiny does her thing - "That was easy", she says - and the door is dispatched very quickly indeed. [Destiny's demon turned out be only POW 9 on 3D8. This is the bit that is rolled randomly, so that the summoner can never be certain of the demon's Power level. They are chaotic, after all.]
Inside is a large single room that takes up the entire top floor of the tower. Around the walls are bookcases, shelves, and a large tapestry that covers the entire wall directly facing us. Four pillars support the roof, and right in the middle of the room is a permanent chaos octagon, chiselled directly into the white floor. There are a very few signs of the earthquake that shook the area all those centuries ago, but the main one is a crack splitting one side of the octagon, leading to a rather large and powerful demonic creature that looks as though it has been here for a very long time. Scattered around the room are the bones of its summoner; he must have been right in the middle of raising it when the earthquake hit. It starts to shake itself to life, so we ready ourselves for an attack.
Evil demon thingy by Otherworld.
Destiny heads for something she sees glistening in the bones of the long dead Melnibonean lord, while the rest of us arrange ourselves in a defensive arc between two of the central pillars. The beast leaps at Marion, who jumps back out of its way. Jorthan interposes himself between the creature and Destiny, and Sir Blanque charges the demon. A single thrust of that Sternbrow sword of his pierces its chest and it falls, wounded to death. [Against Chaos things, the Virtuous sword automatically does its full possible 14 points of damage; the demon had a major wound level of 13.] Its body evaporates in a sulphurous stench. Destiny holds up a little silver figurine that looks exactly like the demon; it has an octagon etched into the bottom of its base. "Must have been its binding object," she mutters.
We search the room. The chest has protected some very fine shimmering Melnibonean robes; there are four sets in all, and they must be worth a small fortune. Destiny doesn't fit them, though; apparently she is rather short for a Melnibonean. We also find a potion (type unknown) and two scrolls. One is in Low Melnibonean and concerns plants and herbs; the other is, according to Destiny, a treatise on demonology in High Melnibonean. She looks pleased with this particular find. We also find a small book made of paper with a strange picture on its cover, but it is in a language none of us recognises. Destiny is intrigued because of the dragon wings. She really wants to find out about this book.
[This is an in-joke by the scenario designer in the first edition of the Stormbringer rules.]
Marion is looking thoughtful. "This room doesn't seem quite right," she says. "It should be ...well...larger than this, going by the layout downstairs." [Successful Balance roll for spatial awareness]. She's right; behind the drapes is a concealed door, but this one opens by means of a puzzle lock. Destiny eventually figures it out and we find a storeroom; a light comes on when we enter - a fire elemental permanently bound into a sconce to look like a torch. Destiny appropriates it. Inside is a large chest with a serious amount of old Melnibonean treasure.
Destiny says that she thinks this tower would be a great place to live, if it could be repaired and rebuilt. She's probably related to the skeleton downstairs anyway...
We arrive in Ilmar with no further incident, and ready ourselves for the next phase of dealing with Jorthan's patrimony. The choice is between Aflitain in Shazaar on the western continent, or Raschil in Filkhar; the Nikorn trade empire has substantial holdings in both. We opt for the west (Marion's home town) and sail there reasonably quickly, thanks to help from water elementals.
Aflitain isn't especially large, but it has a suitably grubby docklands area that looks a bit rough. There is a city wall beyond that, with towers and a single main entry gate to the city proper. In terms of defences, this seems sensible. Destiny frowns; "I think I saw someone duck into an alleyway; he (or she!) was wearing a long hooded purple cape. It reminds me of the scene we saw in the scrying mirror in the hall belonging to Tizun Thane."
As with Ilmiora, Shazaar is a civilised, Lawful kind of place; that means no bows or shields, but light armour (including our wooden sets) and side weapons are allowed. We leave the heavy gear on board the ship, and head towards the city gates. We need to say hello to the steward of the Nikorn holdings here, and that means staying at the family's town house.
As we pass through into the city proper, we hear a musical procession of sorts, a religious festival with bells and tunes. Marion says today is the annual festival of Lucor, the local hero against the Melniboneans during the great rebellion four centuries ago. Destiny doesn't seem bothered by this; apparently, her people left Aflitain without a fight because it wasn't worth holding onto the place. Our good natured needling comes to a halt at the same time as the procession - a couple of men have jumped out in front of it and started insulting the people leading the ritual. A hush settles over the crowd. The foremost priest is carrying a rod of office, and uses it to bash the taller of the two ruffians out of the way; it looks as though the shorter guy is about to start a fight, which would be a bad omen, to say the least. Sir Blanque runs in front and grabs the runt before he can do anything stupid, and is then supported by a couple of servants in green livery. Order is restored and the procession carries on its way.
The ruffians skulk off into a corner, and the two men in green introduce themselves as household members of the Vorloi, one of the three main families in Aflitain, under the Duke. Jorthan invites them to his house, and one comes with us while the other scurries off to tell his superiors about what has just happened. Marion fills us in on Aflitain's politics; "It's been a while for me, of course, but what I do remember is that the three most important mercantile houses here are the Vorloi, the Torenescu and the Radu. They don't always see eye to eye." Our new friend agrees; "Tensions have been rising recently, especially between the other houses. This year it was the turn of the Torenescu to lead the parade of Lucor, but it would seem that someone wanted to besmirch it while they were in charge; Sir Blanque's intervention stopped things getting out of hand."
We arrive at Jorthan's house, and much running around by flunkies ensues. The steward is pleased and relieved to see him; the news of his father's death had of course already arrived, and now the heir is here in person to arrange things to his satisfaction. Our Vorloi friend has a drink with us and then heads off back to his place.
In the middle of the night, Marion wakes me and the others. Destiny is already downstairs; apparently, she is convinced that she heard some sort of scrabbling and tapping noises coming from the basement of Jorthan's house. A trapdoor in the cellar floor leads to a sub-basement, a storage area for coal and things. Part of one corner of this has collapsed, and we can make out a series of freshly dug tunnels beyond; it goes both to our left and right, which is where the noise is coming from. Destiny and Jorthan head off to the left, with one of Destiny's fire elementals providing light; I follow Sir Blanque to the right. He can see in the dark, and I have some hunting skills, so between us we should be able to investigate. Marion stays behind at the trapdoor to guard the way back, and to go in either direction should help be needed.
Aflitain must be built on very solid earth; although it seems to be mostly clay, it is nevertheless reasonably firm down here. There is a comical moment as Sir Blanque goes into a space to our right, only to find out the hard way that it is a partially collapsed cesspit from an inn on the street above; he is going to have to wash his shoes when he gets home. We follow the sounds of digging and tapping, and then Sir Blanque stops. He whispers that there is a large chamber ahead, and that he can see two men dragging and half carrying a large bundle between them. He leaps forward and slashes at the bundle with his sword; the sack splits, and an arm flops out from inside, decked in jewels and wearing a rich green brocade dress. The thugs grunt and drop their burden, and Sir Blanque casts his flash bang special. Both men are knocked out completely. [This time, Thomas rolled a crucial 1 on a D20. So far he has used this special ability three times: two fumbles and a critical.] Three more men come running down a further corridor, fortunately carrying torches, and Sir Blanque easily dispatches the first of them by the simple expedient of hacking his right arm off at the shoulder; the man dies immediately from the shock of it. The others do a runner, but aren't as quick as us. Sir Blanque knocks out number two, and the third is easy as he tries to scrabble up the rungs of a ladder into a house basement, only to fall back down where were are waiting for him. All of the thugs are wearing those purple hoods and cloaks, and none of them was willing to surrender. Sir Blanque seems rather embarrassed at his prowess with that sword: he doesn't mind using it against demons and such, but he feels uncomfortable at the idea of killing other people. Me, I don't care; if they are coming at me with weapons, they get what they deserve. Sometimes people can just be a bit too civilised.
Marion runs up at this point, and fills us in on events elsewhere. Apparently Destiny and Jorthan have been looking around the other half of these tunnels, and stumbled onto an old collapsed house from above. "I heard them fighting something, so I ran to help. Destiny's fire elementals sent out a couple of blasts, and as I came around a corner Jorthan panicked and tried to hit me. So I jumped out of the way and then tried to bitch slap him!" [Jorthan fumbled his Listen roll and mistook Marion for another of the things he was fighting - three zombies had emerged from the floor to attack him and Destiny.] Never mind, though; no harm was done, and the others acquired some nice jewellery items from the ruin.
Now that we are all together again, we debate what to do about our four prisoners. We investigate the house from which the thugs came with their burden, and discover that it is a Vorloi townhouse. Sir Blanque goes off to alert the two guards, while we keep watch over our prisoners.
The night watch arrives, led by a Captain. He says we won't get much information out of these guys; they belong to a so-called 'Veiled Society' that has been terrorising Aflitain for the last six months or so. "Nobody know who they are, or who they are working for," he says. "What we do know is that the few we have captured refuse to talk; they must have some sort of code of honour amongst themselves. Either that, or their Society will kill them if they inform us.' He continues, "It looks as though you have uncovered a plot against the house of the Vorloi; this lady is a cousin of theirs, and they were obviously going to bury the body and then clean up after themselves. The disappearance of a noblewoman could only inflame matters in the city even more." He's right; there are signs of a struggle upstairs, and there is a substantial amount of the woman's blood on the floor of her house and on the robes the murderers are wearing. He takes the prisoners off for questioning, although he doesn't hold out much hope about getting any information from them. We all head off to bed except Sir Blanque, who really needs to clean his feet.
The next day, Destiny and Sir Blanque stay at Jorthan's house to start some reading, while I accompany Jorthan on his various business errands around the town - I am his bodyguard, after all. Marion comes with us because she wants to see her old home town again. We spend a day making various business calls, and then head home. We hear a growing commotion from a market square up ahead. A rabble rouser is standing on a box, haranguing the locals about the "horrible" Torenescu family, accusing them of all sorts of things - stinging rents, putting up prices, selling your daughters - whatever will get the locals going. Marion and I try to calm things down to no avail, and then we hear a mounted patrol arriving. This could get really nasty if we don't do something quickly. Somebody throws a rock at me, misses, and hits the orator square in the face instead. He goes down, to much raucous laughter, and the situation is resolved. [As umpire, I fumbled the thrown rock.]
We get back to Jorthan's house with no further incident, just in time to meet an urchin turning up with "A message for Marion." He hands over a nondescript bit of paper, that reads "Be at the Jade Sea on the docks at dawn tomorrow to escort a package." Marion just seems pleased that somebody remembers her.
We all troop off at dawn, and are agreeably surprised when the 'package' turns out to be the head of the Torenescu family. "You reputation is already impressive," he says to us. "I am on my way to a parley with the Vorloi, but I need outsiders such as yourselves to help me get there without harm. I don't trust any of the locals any more!" At this point, a good half a dozen beggars arrive to help; their leader mockingly bows and scrapes to the Torenescu, who has a good laugh and claps him on the back. The beggar leader turns to Marion; "Hi, Marion. It's good to see you again; we thought we'd lost you after you went into that tavern to rip off the guy from Ilmiora all those years ago." So those stories about how Marion met Nikorn are true after all.
We start to weave our way through the dockyard alleys towards the city gates; Torenescu wants to avoid being seen on the main thoroughfare. An arrow pings off a wall; there's a would-be assassin up ahead, already turning to run, wearing the obligatory purple cloak. Sir Blanque, Jorthan and I hare off after him, while Marion and Destiny look for alternative routes for our 'package'. Sir Blanque urges us to be careful even as we give chase - "He's probably leading us into a trap." This turns out to be correct; just as Sir Blanque catches up with the guy and sends him flying, two more archers loose at us, but miss in the confusion. We give chase to them, but they head off to our right and then dive into the waters of the docks.
At this point Marion jumps off a roof next to us. "I took a short cut to catch up with you," she explains. "And it's just as well I did; those two who jumped into the harbour were trying to distract you. While I was running along the rooftops, I saw a great big guy with a two-handed sword waiting in an alleyway a block or so up ahead. The beggars can look after Torenescu." At this point Destiny arrives as well.
Marion helps Sir Blanque onto a low roof; they'll go for the big guy from above while the rest of us head through the alleys towards him. Sir Blanque arrives first, and then Marion tries to get the guy from above. She misses, and practically crashes through a concealed doorway in the wall behind the giant guard, dropping her dagger at the same time. Fortunately for her, though, Sir Blanque downs the guard. He doesn't scream, because it turns out that he has no tongue. [Marion rolled three fumbles in a row; she was saved from the great sword by Sir Blanque's superior dexterity and speed.]
The rest of us arrive to see this happening, and then we all go through the door into what looks like some sort of antechamber. There are hooks with sets of those purple robes, and sounds of shouting coming from behind another door. It reveals a flight of stairs going downwards, and behind another door we can hear the sound of an orator haranguing his troops. They let out a great cheer, and then we can hear them leaving by another exit. There must be at least twenty of them in there.
We give them a minute or so to clear the place, and then move in to what turns out to be a large vaulted hall; it must be underneath the dockside. We see a large set of double doors, which is where the group of men must have gone. Sir Blanque leads the way, Sternbrow sword in hand, and he hears a separate door closing from off to our right behind some alcoves. He follows, thinking that must be the leader. He is right; we all hear a commotion as whoever it was encounters someone else at the top of some more stairs: "You've just killed my father! Your own brother!" Then a reply; "Yes, and you're next!". Sir Blanque charges up the stairs, and we hear another cry. We all pile in after him, and see Sir Blanque standing over a large, powerful man lying on the floor, his bloodied sword next to him and another body. A much younger man is there too, and all three bear a strong family resemblance. Sir Blanque's target has a large slash running down his left leg - our friend must have caught him off guard as he turned to kill the other guy. He obviously wasn't expecting someone to come through his own secret passageway.
Once everything calms down, it turns out that we have somehow managed to blunder our way to forestalling a coup of sorts. The Veiled Society was being lead by Cathar Radu, younger brother of the head of the family, and he was using them to stir up the city and cement their personal loyalty to his (unknown) leadership. He had just assassinated his brother and was about to do the same to his nephew when Sir Blanque caught him. [Successful Ambush attack.]
These civilised places are really dangerous!
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