When we last left our ummm... "heroes" they were going into the basement of an abandoned keep occupied by bandits, in an attempt to find a young paladin who had gone missing trying to deal with them, and bring said bandits to justice.
The paladin was not in the basement, though they did find a monk who had been captured by the bandits. Once again, reactions varied from "let's free him, he can help us" to "Are you a paladin? No? This is a waste of time, let's go." In the end, however, it took less time to free him than to convince the others it was a waste of time.
And so the party added Spazed, the human monk to their number. Hey, I don't come up with these names.
The newly strengthened party made their way up to the second floor of the keep, and found a large contingent of bandits awaiting them. Despite the inclusion of a rogue, a ranger and a monk in the party, they weren't exactly stealthy about it, and as they were fighting his underlings, the bandit leader slew the paladin, before emerging to join the fray.
They did find another hostage though: a half-elf woman, Lela who was covered in her fellow captive's blood. After cutting loose her bonds, she went to retrieve her belongings, and then prepared to set out for the village. Half the party was hitting on her, insisting that they be allowed to escort her back to the village. She was distraught by the scene of the paladin's death, and her own captivity, and simply wished to be gone from the castle as soon as possible.
Avier was having none of this, and he attempted to prevent her exit, as he believed this was extremely suspicious behavior, and that she may have been in league with the bandits. As he attempted to grab her, though, she kneed him straight in the testicles, leaving him rolling on the floor, as she stormed out of the castle.
After he recovered, Avier, now angry as well as suspicious, rushed out of the castle in an attempt to track her down. As she was not covering her tracks, it was very easy for him to locate them, even in the failing light of dusk. As he approached, however, she spotted him, and told him to fuck off. When he didn't listen, she fired a warning arrow with her short bow. He attempted to get into cover and hide again, but the dwarf was being clumsy this evening, and she still spotted him, foolishly rolling around in the dirt.
She took aim, intending to hit him this time, but he got the jump on her, drawing his bow and rapidly loosing two arrows, one of which struck her in the eye, killing her instantly. Avier then proceeded to bury her, though not before relieving her corpse of anything valuable, which was not much, and then made his way back to the castle, covered in dirt and blood, claiming that he couldn't manage to track her down. Not that anyone really payed attention.
In the morning Aeon placed his arcane mark in the now vacant castle, claiming it for himself, and then the group proceeded back to town, where Captain Endion was grateful to learn of the bandits demise, though grim at that of the paladin's. Arjhan took the paladin's corpse to the local monastery, where a monk gratefully accepted it and thanked him for returning Thurson to them, despite his condition.
The group moved on down the road towards Erash, and found themselves at the border fort of Fortas Cael, where a tax collector, Benlum Ignimir, questioned them on their purpose for traveling to Caelverda. After answering one or two questions, Roxy whipped out her scroll and showed it to him. He read the message, to him just a statement that the bearer acts on the authority of the king and should be allowed passage, and let them through, with the advice that those in the opposite border fort would not be swayed by that, and in fact would probably detain them if they saw it.
They arrived at the Verdan borderfort a few days later, and were confronted by one Lieutenant Chelius Epitaro, who explained the customary fee. Roxy made a nuisance of herself however, so he charged them extra, which Aeon quickly paid, in order to get them through the check point without any further inflation.
After about another week of travel through the hills, they finally arrived at the city of Erash, cresting over the hill to see the magnificent Redstone Spire, at the center of the city, home of the wizard Lord Obidyr. The bustling little city, with its three circular walls, four if you count the wall around the tower itself, was subject to some strange laws.
No king rules in Caelverda, and similarly, no lord rules in Erash. Erash is ruled by coin, he who has it has the Band of the Red Hand, and he who holds the hand makes the law. For the time being that is Obidyr who, rumor has it, has gone insane.
When they approach the gate through the first wall, a guard halts them, and looks them over, before apologizing and sending a runner to bring a wizard out from the guard house. The wizard is someone Aeon recognizes, a fellow apprentice of Obidyr, Adelphes, who recognizes Aeon at once. They converse, Aeon questioning him about affairs in the city, and Adelphes answering to the best of his ability, and apologizing for the order which has come down. Adelphes then uses detect magic and examines the party.
He examines some of their items, and lets them know that they may not enter the first district with any items of the evocation or illusion school of magic. He also makes them aware that the mercenaries will store those items which they cannot take with them in the guardhouse, for a fee of two hundred gold. Holly releases his wand of magic missile and scroll of flaming sphere to the guards, along with one hundred gold, the rest to be paid upon their return.
Roxy is wearing a headband with an aura of illusion magic, and refuses to remove it, and thusly is barred from entrance to the city, and she resolves to sneak over the wall after nightfall. Adelphes informs them that items of transmutation and divination will not be allowed beyond the second wall, and no magic items, not even a spell book, will be allowed past the third.
This, along with Roxy being barred from the city due to her own stubbornness, required Aeon to adjust his plans. Since he's lived in the city before the group seemingly deferred to his leadership, at least for now. He instructed Avier to remain in the first quarter, gather what information he can, and hold the items they can't take with them into the second quarter, meeting up back at the first gate. The group removed their boots of striding a springing and rings of sustenance, and then proceeded, sans Avier and Roxy, to the second checkpoint.
They passed the second checkpoint uneventfully, and Aeon instructed Holly and Arjhan to see what information they could gather in the Merchant's District, whilst he would proceed with Spazed into the Nobles' District, inside the third wall. Before they did that, Aeon hid his spellbook and bag of holding in the attic of the Bloody Hand, the inn at which Arjhan is staying, using gaseous form to ensure only he could reach it.
Before they approached the third gatehouse, Aeon paused, and almost gleefully explained to Spazed how they will be getting him, dirty and poor as he looks, through the check point. He will be posing as Aeon's slave, and to complete the disguise, Aeon brought out the pair of manacles that they found Spazed imprisoned in. After a brief argument as to whether the manacles are necessary they proceed, monk manacled, to the checkpoint.
They are greeted immediately by a wizard this time, another acquaintance of Aeon's, and another apprentice of Obidyr's Telino Aethomai. Telino is a rival of Aeon's, as opposed to an admirer like Adelphes, and is near his equal in power. He used a wand of detect magic to look them over, and smirked at Aeon's lack of spell book. He allowed them to pass through, hinting that he might be attempting to locate Aeon's "lost" spell book.
The party then proceeds to gather information through the night, each using their own methods: Roxy asks cutpurses, beggars and thugs; Avier finds himself a lively bar, though his first attempt is a bust; Arjhan queries the officers of the Red Hand; and Holly mines the local bards for information.
Aeon, of course, has his own method. He sends for a prostitute, one upon whom he has called before, and asks her for information. She agrees, for the price of one hundred gold and a favor, to which he acquiesces.
She informs him that the wizard lord went mad about a month ago, and that another of his apprentices, Agnismosko older and more experienced, though less talented than Aeon, disappeared a short while before that, followed by rumors that he'd stolen something from Obidyr. One of her regulars in House Kavanara has stopped calling on her, and she believes it may be to hide Agnismosko. There have also been a rash of killings lately, and the Bands believe that a gang of vampires is to blame.
After recieving the information, Aeon pays her another one hundred gold to keep quiet, and says any left over can go to slave. She let's Spazed know that that's only fifteen minutes, but he's fine with that.
The rest of the group comes by similar information with varying levels of detail. Meanwhile, Roxy has been observing the wall, watching the guards movements and habits. She finds a weak spot in the guard, waits for the right moment, just around midnight, and then scales the wall undetected, leaping down the other side and rolling to her feet, dashing away from the wall and into the city. She remains in the Foreign district for the remainder of the night.
The next morning, Aeon awoke, and made his way towards the appointed meeting place with a very satisfied, though still shackled, monk. As they approached the gate, mercenaries came out to meet them, and informed Aeon that this morning, Obidyr ordered him to be arrested, and taken to the Spire. After asking if he could retrieve his belongings, to which the answer was no, he cast invisibility on himself, and began to flee. The guards called the sorcerer over, and he cast see invisibility and directed the guards towards Aeon's location. They still missed him when they attempted to hit, and the sorcerer attempted to give Aeon a suggestion, but Aeon resisted the spells effects, and used a baleful transposition to switch places with the sorcerer and allow him to sneak through the gate.
Stripped of the protection of his "master", Spazed was thrown out of the Noble's District and into the Merchant's. Aeon used alter self to take the forme of a gnome, and made his way back towards the Bloody Hand, where his spellbook was hidden. Spazed spent a few minutes and quite a bit of effort to slip out of the manacles, and then made his way to the inn as well.
Arjhan was confused that a gnome was attempting to gain entry to his room, but Aeon gave a perfunctory explanation, retrieved his spellbook, and instructed them to find the others and bring them to this room, as he could no longer move about freely. He then used rope trick to open a pocket dimension for him to hide in while they retrieved the others.
Arjhan found Holly quickly enough, and they headed for the gate back to the Foreign District, where Avier was located. They were warned by the guard that upon their return to the Merchant's District, their weapons and armor would be confiscated. They went back to the inn and stashed their gear, before proceeding out to the Foreign District.
At around the same time, Roxy was observing the gate, and saw the precautions that were being used. Not wanting to be caught scaling the wall, she decided to disguise herself. She laid in wait, until a relatively well off merchant woman unwisely decide to take a shortcut through the back alleys. She used a sneak attack to knock the woman out, then stole her clothes and slit her throat. Finally, she stashed her gear, including her headband, reverting to her natural appearance, that of a drow.
She made her way through the gate without incident, and then pretended to shop while waiting for the others to show up so she could tail them to where they were staying. After a while Arjhan and Holly returned, sans Avier, who'd been unwilling to part ways with his weapons, and chose to remain in the foreign quarter.
The party, except for Aeon, were all surprised to find this drow claiming to be their friend. Aeon complimented Roxy on her "disguise" and laid out the information he'd gathered, suggesting that the rest of the group should now attempt to find information on House Kavanara.
Whew, that's it, see you next week.
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