Previously: Richard and Hazzad teamed up, for some bizarre reason, and attempted to flush out some weird cultists currently operating in the swamps south of the city of Punjar. They managed to enter outer keep and disrupt a sacrificial ceremony, despite the odds being against them. They rescued an Elven princess from a terrible fate but wisely decided to return to the city and rustle up some more suckers brave party members for a future adventure and put an end to those blasphemous cultists once and for all!
Richard and Hazzad have returned to Punjar and have decided to continue their business relationship, although the Half-orc rogue and Dwarven cleric don't seem to see eye to eye on many things. (Perhaps one of them will give us a write up of the exact nature of their unusual relationship...) After last month's adventure, they figured that if they could hook up with some other adventuring types, they could gain some prestige and experience, as well as money and treasure for future endeavors.
One fine evening (or as fine as it can be, what with the thick smog and rotting smell of sewage) Richard and Hazzad enter the inexplicably named Tavern "The Lord's Matron". Nothing resembling a lordly or matronly presence in the place, however it was a lively atmosphere and Richard offered to buy everyone in the bar a pint of the barman's most frugally priced ale. Once he had the patrons' attention he directed them towards Hazzad, who was sitting at a table with a crudely drawn sign, looking for adventurers and promises of gold and "good fites".
Richard returned to their table and was fastidiously attempting to clean the layers of dirt and slop left over from prior customers when a woman of indeterminate age shows up at the table. She was covered in layers of scarves over wrapped woolen shawls, obscuring her face, so it was impossible to tell what she was, but seemingly human. She introduced herself as Zorya Soothsayer, a reknowned seer and while she does not normally offer her fortunes to the likes of scum of this tavern, she sees greatness in their cause and would be willing to read the futures of them and any member of their party that chooses to join them. For the ridiculously low price of a silver each. She hobbles back to her table in the corner. Richard and Hazzad somewhat doubt that she is as great an oracle as she purports to be, however they do get the sense that she has a bit of the old magic about her and for a few silvers it may be a good investment. Both Hazzad and Richard ponied up a silver each and were satisfied with what they heard.
Richard's speech had perked up a few ears. First to the table was a human druid. A bit sketchy on background and personal history - his name is "Shade" after all - Richard liked the way he drank his ale and Hazzad felt he would be far more amenable to some of his less desirable traits. They shook hands and sent him over to the seer for a reading.
Then their table appeared to be engulfed in darkness, but it turned out to be the lovely figure of Loodra, a minotaur fighter. They complimented her on her cowlike figure, and really who is going to say no to a minotaur! Off to the seer she went, while they negotiated with the last volunteer, Gothmog, a dragonborn sorcerer. Not so bright, but who needs intelligence when you've got charisma? Satisfied with the balance of their party they got down to the business at hand.
read Zorya's fortunes here: Download Zorya_soothsayer
The group of adventurers have assembled and Hazzad and Richard explain their plan. They know that in the heart of the slum district known as "Smoke", there exists a self-titled "Beggar-King". Normally, the activities of beggars are tolerated by thieves and mostly ignored by the watch, except when those activities threaten the livelihood of others. The Thieves' Guild, in particular, is rather upset with the Beggar King and his ilk, who have taken up robbing merchants and working extortion scams, areas that are by defination part of the theiving trade. The Guild is hopping mad and offering a reward. Other rumours exist that certain other factions in the city would like the Beggar-King and his minions routed. All of the factions are offering rewards and the party agrees that if they are going to do the work, they may as well profit from as many sources as possible. They split up to investigate potential rewards.
Hazzad hies off to the Theives' Guild and learns that for a substantial sum of 100pp all he needs to do is return with the Beggar-King's head. Hazzad will also get a special recognition from the guild upon his return which could be very valuable for future roguish adventures in Punjar...
Richard visits with the soldiers of Plague Gate, who have been ordered to investigate the strange black fog hovering over the Beggar King's domain. They'd rather not, and would gladly pay their gambling winnings if someone would do the dirty work for them. And, they'd certainly be willing to help out the party in any official business with the watch or the magistrate should they run into any ..problems. Richard is not sure how much money they'll be able to collect from their gambling, but after watch one of them beat a pair of aces with three aces, and another one roll 3 pairs of sixes in a row, he is sufficiently satisfied that the soldiers are an extremely lucky bunch of lads.
The new party members, Loodra, Shade and Gothmog, follow up some rumours in the magic-user community of an ancient entity named "the Sisters". They've been around in one form or another since the earliest inception of the city of Punjar, alternately appearing as a withered hag or a maiden beauty. They meet up with a representative who informs them that the Sisters seek the death of the Beggar-King and his "pet". In return, the Sisters will give them a map to a dragon's horde of treasure. The group is able to discern that they are telling the truth about the treasure, but that there are other 'strings attached' to the deal. Shade figures that they'll deal with that part later.
The next morning, at the early hour of noon or slightly after, the party regroups at the head of the alleyway that leads to the Beggar-king's domain. It's locked by a gate that is rather imposing and the lock is located inside the maw of a particularily nasty looking demon decoration. The top of the gate is studded with spikes and gargoyles and other unwelcome sights. There is one ladder around the back that will give the party access to the roof, but Loodra was not certain she could keep her 320 lb frame from crashing through the roof (although she's quite svelte for a minotaur). Hazzad takes out his lockpick kit and attempts to unlock the lock. He's successful, which is a good thing, as he would have discovered (had he attempted to detect traps), that he needed an extremely high score to open that lock otherwise the maw would snap shut and trap his hand within, while it injected some very nasty poison into his veins. Lucky bastard.
Hazzad climbs onto the roof and a few others with high perception scores managed to spot some hidden sentries lurking atop a ledge. The sentries normally have good stealthiness, but the new guy tripped or something and that allowed a few of the party to get in a surprise round. Shade was particularily nasty, throwing around some burst powers that managed to knock a few right off the ledge for additional damage. On their turn, one sentry ran out the alley and right into the Minotaur! Boy, he was surprised! It didn't take long to disable the sentries, although one round longer and that swarm of shadowy bats may have caught Hazzad on the rooftops.Now those are nasty creatures!
The party walked to the end of the alley where an old fountain is located. They managed to determine that it is an artifact from the beginnings of Punjar and erected by the long ago coterie of warlocks, hoping to curry the favour of infernal and shadowy patrons. Scraping the filth and mould away reveals that it is a statue of Orcus. There are rubies in the place of the demon's eyes and are easily pried out. Too easy, some might say. However, Shade and Hazzad shrug off Richard's warnings (he's a dwarf and a cleric, after all) and pocket the rubies. Hazzad feels no immediate effect, other than smelling a little brimstone-y. Shade is convinced that there is something about the rubies, but since Hazzad wasn't struck down in a bolt of lightening, or turned into a newt, it probably isn't anything they can't deal with later.
The party tries to determine what to do next as they have been lingering in the alleyway much too long and don't want to attract any more attention, not just yet. There are a few doors and windows that open up into the alleyway. The windows on the second floors reveal some toughs and some extra large weapons, so the party decides to leave them for later. They enter the first door into a place they've heard rumours of but had to see to believe it - the bazaar of the bizarre - a room holding thousands of items that the beggars have been hording over the years. Mostly junk, there does seem to be some items of value hidden in the piles if one were perceptive enough and took enough time to look. While looking, though, two toughs come out and attempt to impede their entry into the bazaar, however the rogue and druid are just too quick off the mark and the party quickly dispatches them. The party spends about 30 or 40 minutes pocking around the room and collect quite a unique haul of treasures.
They find a large garbage dump behind a curtained off doorway, and a quick peek reveals that there is some jeweled and expensive looking stuff dumped in there. But before that room could be explored, a sneaky looking roguish figure pops out of another room. "Hey, what do you think you..." but before he could finish his sentence his receives a vicious beating from Richard, who was just waiting for someone to come out of that room. The rogue manages to cause a wee bit of pain for Richard, but then runs back into his hiding hole. Before he can be pursued, two more Toughs appear and start dealing out some serious damage. The party has some difficulty dispatching these guys, and even more so when a third Tough appears at the door. They took some lumps, but were ultimately successful. Someone mentioned that it appeared Shade turned into a duck at some point in the melee, but it was all happening so fast, no one really got a good look.
The party went after the roguish fellow in his secret hiding hole where they discovered him stuffing copper pennies into a sack, obviously planning a quick getaway. The party learns that his name is Arthuro, and he's the guy in charge of fencing the beggar's goods. He wants no trouble (he's got enough with what's been going on lately from within the beggar ranks!) He bargains his life for the coin purse later counted to 200cp, and flees leaving behind his papers and other accoutrements.
The party flips through his papers and manage to decipher a few interesting entries, although they don't appear to make much sense.
At this time, the party decides to take a rest before searching the rest of Arthuros room and his secret hiding spot.
