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The World of Georic 1989-Present

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Ballad of the Pigeon God #18: (Talislanta) Scent of the Beast Part Two

11th of Phandir 150 N.A. - Tordan, Sindar, The Seven Kingdoms
The land ark Ardan arrived at the base of Tordan, which was atop a sixty-foot mesa.
Rolf Wolfsblood:  Bald-headed barbarian from the Plains of Galmar.
Ashe - highly skilled elven ranger, enjoying the fact that hated elves in Crosedes have pointed ears, just like all the races of men in Talislanta.
Kane - monk of eastern mysticism with an odd elemental control of water.
Babette - urban street thief swept up with the party when they teleported to Talislanta.

After waiting for the pulley system to lift them into town, they met a Sarista gypsy named Alexi who claimed to be an associate of Abn Qua. He called them out by name and inquired as to the fate of the missing Maloran.
Alexi!
Aware of the missing medallions arriving back in the Seven Kingdoms, they immediately attempted a full press investigation.  Alexi and Babette got details filled in regarding the black market trade on the borders of the Seven Kingdoms (which they are scant miles from), while the rest got a chance to crash.

Rolf ultimately got lured into an alley and attacked by a number of  dirty assassins, assisted by an Earth Wizard.  The other four arrived just in time to save Rolf, and together they slew all of the attackers, save one filthy assassin from Arim.

They took the Arimite through the back streets to their inn and snuck him up to one of their rooms. Alexi robbed him of his belongings (and pants!) and let Babbette interrogate him.  After Kane healed his wounds, Rolf came in from the other room and was even more violent towards the Arimite.  He broke the assassin's arm in two places, and shattered his collarbone before their captor passed out.  Alexi and Kane dumped the body directly out their second story window into the back alley, but by a streak of horrible luck, caught the attention of a Sindarin patrol.  They probably would not have immediately connected the group had the monk not stared at them directly before diving out of sight.  His silhouette (complete with giant Chinese straw hat) in the window attracted the patrol more the crash in the alley.

The party quickly vacated the inn before the patrol even had a chance to get inside.  They hid out overnight and the following morning, got brand new clothing for the peculiar Kane.
Who knew Kane liked the shirtless vest look... when not wearing plate mail?
12th of Phandir 150 N.A. - Tordan, Sindar, The Seven Kingdoms
Following up their leads and the interrogation of the Arimite Assassin, they sought out a merchant from the distant desert kingdoms named Bey Alera.   Bey told them the Arimites worked with some mysterious figure to move weapons out into the Wilderlands in return for any treasure the Beast-Man can accumulate.  Some sort of action was going on in the Dragon's Head, an ancient ruin some ways outside the cliff-town.

13th of Phandir 150 N.A. - Tordan, Sindar, The Seven Kingdoms
The group staked out the ruins and interupted a exchange by a Tanasian (like Kannex!) and his bodyguards withsome sub-men: a wrinkled and contorted Za Bandit, and a number of beastmen.
Wagons of goods were about to be exchanged.  The party swooped down and ended the meeting with maximum casualties to the enemy.  It appeared that the Tanasian was trading swords and armor to the Za for an assortment of trade goods, spoils of war, and some coins.

The group hid the wagons within the ruins, cut off the heads of the Tanasian and Za and returned to Tordan.

23rd of Phandir 150 N.A. - City-State of Cymril, Seven Kingdoms
The Ardan returned to Cymril.  The party delivered a few particular trinkets as evidence, and the heads of the collaborators.  Abn Qua was please, shocked, and greatly amused by their effectiveness. He handed them a few hundred gold lumens and instructed them to sit tight while he found the items that Kannex requested.

7th of Talisandre 150 N.A. - The Pleasure House of Duane Alberhold, Cymril, Seven Kingdoms
An agent of Abn Qua finally came by the brothel.  He was quite please with the location of the stash they left outside of Tordan and eliminating such a threat courted much favor for the merchant.   Components of Kannex's ritual to send them home had been discovered in the Kingdom of Durne, home of the gnome-kin.

"Gnome-Kin.  Sounds cute." - Kane

DM Notes:  Scent of the Beast was supposed to be the first module of the over-arcing Sub-Men Uprising storyline for Talislanta 3rd Edition.  Unfortunately, some game called Magic: The Gathering distracted Wizard of the Coast from publishing much else in the storyline.  It was a solid module to test the ability of the group, and allowed me to better adjust future encounters.

Alexi is the replacement character for Maloran's player.  Half-gypsy, half-greek, wholly high-energy annoying, the group found him more personable than their fallen friend.    Plus he had the social skills the rest of the group were lacking, particularly in this strange world.

NEXT #19 - The Underground Highway

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