Part Six of The Tale Of The Band Of The Icky Hand. Or Glen/Glenda?
With Dave busy and Anders feeling ill it was down to Val (Tina), Cadmus (Kristi) and Zagan (Soren) to explore Teziir and discover what was happening with the Mask.
The party travelled through the country side, their speed demon ancient driver at the helm. In contrast to their previous journeys this one went peacefully, including a night spent camping in the woods. Cadmus was able to heal up the rest of Zagan's injuries and restore him to full health. The next day they reached Teziir and were pleasantly surprised to find no tax collectors waiting to take money off them (the city taxes merchants based on profits, not the value of what they transport through the city here). Immediently finding a tavern to set up a temporary base in, the party decided to avoid the local branch of 'The Rumpled Bedding' which as it turns out is a chain of brothels across the region and instead went to a place called 'The Longhouse'. Well named for its size, the Longhouse was converted to an inn from two warehouses. It is frequented by moderately wealthy merchants and lesser nobility, but gold speaks its own language and when the party were offered the choice between the common room, a standard room or one of the exclusive theme rooms, each one of which were promised to make the occupant feel like they were transported to a different and unique far off land, they decided to splash out some money and go for the theme rooms.
As it turned out, each of the theme rooms had a different style of carpet in them, although since this is the first time anyone in the group has actually encountered a carpet, it was still impressive.
Plans were made and despite the best attempts of the party to intervene, Zolis hit the alcohol early and hard. When he was persuaded to go up stairs he stopped at the bar for a midnight snack (and by snack I mean drink) to take up with him.
In the morning the group split up (oh, if only I was running a horror themed game). Cadmus went to the local temple of Lathander, Zagan wanted to go looking for a shop he could sell the Ioun Stone they'd found and Val wanted to sound out the local thieves guild for some extra training. Zolis was staying in his room to sleep off his hangover and do some identifying of magical items.
Zagan found a shop called 'Mervins Magnificent Magical Merchandise', and going inside found the proprieter to be an ancient old man who was rather excitable when confronted with magical items. After some haggling they settled on a price. Haggling would feature a lot this game, sometimes going the parties way, and sometimes not so much. This time they got a pretty reasonable price for the item, but Zagan had to wait an hour or so while the old man checked the item was what he claimed it to be.
Cadmus meanwhile, took his letter of introduction to the temple of Lathander and found to his surprise a rather grim and dark looking edifice rather than the white temples he is used to for his god. One of the clerics explained to him the local rock was a dark granite and most buildings were made of it. The enterence was also rather dark and foreboding, but on entering the main hall, he found it was fully lit through a magnificent stained glass window and painted a soft yellow, the colour of morning sunshine. Showing the letter to one of the clerics, Cadmus was taken through the temple to the back, where once more everything was made from dark gray stone. They went upstairs several flights of stairs before reaching the rooms of the local First Dawnbringer (not sure if I have mentioned this or not, but as Kristi's god Lathander is the god of the Morning and his priests are referred to as Dawnbringers. I decided that the local head of each temple would be known as the First Dawnbringer). This it turned out was a very cantankerous old man who first accused Cadmus of being an assassin sent by (as he called them), "those buggers downstairs", who ever always out to poison him. Remaining polite he showed his letter of introduction to the old man (who he learned was called First Dawnbringer Maleon). He read it and with much "Hrumpf"ing was told in no uncertain terms that just because some young pup thought she could command the entire resources of Lathander just because she wrote a letter didn't mean it was going to happen. Cadmus told him the reason why he had to consult the Book of Skelos. Maleon told him that he'd speak to the one who guarded the book, but it wasn't something decent people should have any truck with and in 30 years its keeper hadn't once agreed to let anyone see it so he (Cadmus) was just wasting his time and more importantly that of Maleons. After explaining to Maleon why they needed to consult the book (basically everything that happened in the first episode), Maleon told Cadmus he'd pass it on to the keeper. He was then told to bugger off, and warned not to drink the water in the temple as the young buggers downstairs poisoned it to try kill him off so they could get his job. He was told to return the next morning for his answer. Which would be no.
When Cadmus spoke to Maleon, this started a timeline of events ticking off in the background. The consequences of this will affect the party in the future, although they won't know this. I just thought I'd y'know give you some behind the scenes info.
While all this was going on Valeria wandered around town until she started seeing symbols carved into stone buildings that she recognised as thieves signs. Eventually she found one that marked it as a reliable shop to fence stolen goods to. She sold the masterwork daggers the group had been gifted from the Monastery following the battle with the goblins, but found the shopkeeper had an interesting way of haggling. He offered 65 gold each for the daggers. When she tried to haggle him up he then offered 64 gold, then 63 and told her he'd keep going downwards the more she tried. Prying for some additional information she was able to get the location of one of the local thieves guilds safehouses, although she had to pay well for the information.
Finding her way deep into the slum like docks area by the river she found an unassuming building with many dock workers loading goods onto barges. She noticed several however were watching her carefully and doing very little work. She knocked on the door and was able to talk her way inside. Walking in she had a bright light shining in her face, but could see the outline of several people, one of whom demanded to know why she was there and more importantly how she had found out to come here.
She well and truely dropped the fence in it. He is going to find himself hanging upside down in the docks nailed to a wooden post and waiting for the tide to come in and drown him before the sun rises on the next day.
Anyway, Val said she wanted to join the local guild and get some training. They said they'd think about it and she should return the next day. She didn't notice she was being followed all the way home though.
Cadmus managed to track down Zagan just as the old man was finishing his incantations. The pair of them headed back to the inn, where they met up with Sillas, and Val. Zolis was still up in his room. Sillas had been checking up on him regularly and mostly Zolis had been throwing up, but he had been at work identifying the magical items they had collected. He was only able to investigate three items each day before he ran out of spells however, so it would take him a couple of days to get through everything.
The group decided to go up and visit Zolis. When they knocked on his door he yelled (as quietly as possible given his fragile state) that he wanted to be left alone. When the group persisted he finally opened the door up and after being nagged a lot by a very persistant Zagan he admitted he had researched some of the items they had found. The gem performed a variety of functions all based on it emitting light in various ways. It could be used as a lantern or an offensive weapon, with different uses draining different levels of power from it (three different words of command would power the gem, Illuminate, Potato and Kitten). The leather belt was a Belt of Dwarven Strength, which would make the wearer stronger. It also had some other property, but other than it was from the transmutation school Zolis had not been able to find out exactly what it did and finally the ring that Zolis had put on would increase the wearers ability to climb.
Zagan decided to try on the belt. Immediently his muscles started to swell up, but also his hair started to grow long, and the armour he was wearing was suddenly feeling very cramped in the chest area. His course features became softer and more femanine while when he asked what was going on, he found his voice had increased in pitch somewhat.
Pulling off his very restrictive armour, he now found (s)he possessed a fairly large pair of breasts. Looking down her trousers Zagan found while he had gained something upstairs, he was now missing something down below. Having to reroll his charisma Zagan found he was now a very attractive woman. Not quite super model material, but still pretty hot looking.
Ah, the joys of cursed items. Especially ones that switch your gender.
Standing in the corridor half naked, Zagan paniced for a few moments and tried to remove the belt, only to find it wouldn't budge before thinking "Actually, this isn't so bad. This has definite possibilites here." The rest of the party was trying to find ways of getting the belt off while Zagan protested "Hey, wait a sec. I am not so sure I want this belt removed." He was immediately carted off back off to Mervins Magnificent Magical Merchandise. Well ok, they got downstairs before the shocked reactions of the other customers reminded Zagan she was topless, and being female this was not a socially acceptable thing. She ran back upstairs to her room, got dressed and then went to the shop.
Being wolf whistled at all the way the group made it to Mervins. The party told the old man they needed the belt on Zagan (or Zagena as the others started to refering to her as), but not why. If they had it might have changed to old mans reply. They kept telling him to examine Zagan's belt so his eyes would drop down. Then Zagan/Zagena would say, no eyes slightly higher, then when she realised what he'd now be staring at told her to look at the belt. This cycled through a couple of times, the old mans eyes going up and down Zagan's form until someone started asking him for a price. Mervin offered to take Zagan through his back room and examine the problem a bit more closely. She went through and enquired what it would cost. When she was told either a couple of hundred gold or 45 minutes of her time upstairs. Zagan briefly contemplated flashing her breasts at him (which would have meant a Fortitude for the old guy not to suddenly have a heart attack and die), before deciding to run out of the shop insisting the others follow her and he was happy to live with being a woman for the moment.
(Men playing women in my games do get a slightly harder time from male non player characters, just to give them an idea of how difficult life can be for women sometimes. Plus its funny to hear men try and deal with these situations).
Zagan decided to spend some of the cash the group had managed to earn and found himself a new Great Sword, its cross hilt inlaid with ebony, while the two foot long ivory hilt seemed made for his grasp. Everyone then headed back to the Longhouse for some food, although on the way Cadmus did pick up and attractive red dress for Zagan. I figure Zagan wearing it would pretty much look like Tracy Helfer in the remake of Battlestar Galactica.
Zolis finally surfaced coming down and heading straight to the bar for more alcohol. He joined the rest with a tray filled with drinks The others decided to try and stop him getting drunk and knocked his alcohol over, but Zolis tried to drink the spillage anyway. Since Zolis wasn't aware of what had happened to Zagan, when she tried to persuade him to go up stairs back to him room Zolis misunderstood somewhat. He agreed and headed up to his room picking up two bottles of wine on the way.
Sighing, Val followed after a few seconds and knocked on Zolis's door. Assuming it was the attractive lady in the red dress he told her to enter, Val did only to be shocked when she saw the wizard with an already half empty bottle of wine dancing around drunkenly. Giving up, she left the room and shortly after the others found him passed out on his bed.
The rest of the night passed pretty much peacefully, although the party was starting to worry that the Mask was affecting Zolis's behaviour. Zagan promised to keep the noise down and in the morning the group decided it was ready to face the day. Val went back to her underground contacts while Zagan decided to accompany Cadmus to the temple of Lathander. A very hungover Zolis would again be watched over by poor Sillas.
In the lair of the local thieves guild, Val was told if she wanted to join them she'd need to prove her worth. A merchant by the name of Xzavros who lived in a hideously pink coloured mansion had recently purchased a ruby of unusual size and splendor. If she could retrieve the gem from him she would be allowed into the guild. She took a stroll past his house casually checking it out and looking around the local area. Some of the large houses had guards standing outside (including the one belonging to Xzavros), however the equally large house facing onto the back of her target appaered to have no visable security beyond a locked iron gate. She decided however that she would complete this job on her own, not believing the rest of the group would be willing to engage in thievery.
Cadmus and Zagan entered the temple and found Maleon waiting for them. He seemed rather put out that whoever guarded the Book of Skelos had agreed to see them once he had heard of the masks. Taking them deep underground below the temple he explained they kept old books and documents down here to preserve them, as well as other more esoteric items. They were also warned not to wander off and the area had many magical wards and other protections and anyone exploring might find the meaning of the phrase "curiosity killed the cat". Of course this was peppered with many "Bugger it"s and so on.
Several heavy doors were unlocked and Maleon explained that the locks had to all be done in a certain order or the corridor would explode and collapse as he led them down a dank corridor, barely lit by the flicker from a torch carried by Zagan.
Their guide unlocked a final dark oak door, reinforced with iron studs and offered the group one last chance to stop being silly buggers and go upstairs. Nervously, they decided to continue. He warned them not to take anything from the occupant, not to give him anything and not to touch anything he had touched.
After being told again they were daft buggers, he pulled open the door with a loud creak. As the door opened, the dark corridor was flooded with a soft golden light spilling out from the room. A gentle and cultured voice called out inviting them to enter.
Whatever the pair had been expecting, this wasn't it.
Entering the room, they found a well furnished room, comfortable chairs around a table with a bowl filled with fruit. A man dressed in long yellow silken robes (if you are thinking the king in yellow here, don't. Its not something Lovecraftian) that covered his body other than his hands and face. White gloves however covered his hands and his face was hidden behind a smooth ivory mask marked only by two slits for his eyes. He sat down opposite the party, telling Maleon to sit on a stool over by the door and then lowered his voice to prevent the old priest from overhearing them. He politely enquired about what it was the group wanted to know about. Cadmus recited the story of how they had found the Mask (basically the events of episode one, and mentioned about the bounty hunter who had been chasing them). He agreed that Cadmus could attempt to read the book, but his companion would have to leave the room and await them outside. He also revealled that he had previously been a companion of the man they found hung at the farmhouse. Thirty years before they had been fellow adventurers. With a warning that the book was not like other books and would test anyone trying to read it first. Indeed, just as someone would read it, the book would read the person.
Cadmus approached the book and opened its heavy beaten iron cover.
The world swam before his eyes and faded. Cadmus found himself... floating isn't quite the word but somehow existing in a realm of nothingness. Not even darkness. A dry voice from everywhere and nowhere spoke to her, while it felt like something was probing roughly through his thoughts. If he wanted to read them the voice said, he would have to prove he was strong enough to face the challanges he would face ahead. It would test him with his memories. Possibly something that had happened in his past, or future. The voice from the book told Cadmus it did not understand this thing called time. Suddenly daylight flooded the room and Cadmus found himself staring up at a clear sky while lying on some wet grass. And in a tremendous amount of pain. Looking down he had a large hole in his belly and plenty of blood was running out of it. All around him lay men dead and dying. In the distance an army of undead let by a cowled figure was approaching, killing all those who were just wounded. Cadmus could feel he had enough power for one last healing spell and as he was about to heal himself he heard a wail of pain. A young boy was crawling towards him, his legs horribly mangled.
Cadmus could either heal himself and escape the advancing skeletons or heal the boy.
As he tried to decide which course of action to take, all the while the undead were getting closer and closer.
Finally with the undead just about to reach them he filled himself with divine power and healed his own wound just as the nearest skeleton reached the young boy and plunged its sword into his back. The hooded figure uncovered his face, and just as Cadmus recognised the man controlling the army of undead his vision swam again.
The world returned to nothingness and a voice told him he had proven he had the strength to do what was needed and could read the book.
Had he healed the young boy, he'd have failed the test and had to sit two others. Of course this would also potentially given him some clues as to what would happen in some future encounters, but for the moment he is going to have to be content with a warning about an army of undead...
He was back in the chamber with the man in yellow and Maleon. The strange characters on the book moved and changed forming words that answered Cadmus's questions. It told him that the Masks were made from fragments of a long dead god, and when one put on a Mask he or she could absorb a portion of that gods power. Put enough Masks on and you become a god.
Of course being an ancient tome, it told that story a long more longwindedly. But what you got is the highlights. Besides, only Cadmus knows the full details of what he saw in his test and what he read in that damned book.
After he had finished reading he was reunited with Zagan and the pair left the temple. Maleon was much quieter afterwards than he had before. The group silently went back up the oppresive stairs to the main hall and then out into the sunlight beyond.
Why do these things take so long to write out? I need a scribe to take notes for me. In fact if someone is going to take notes for me, they might as well just type out everything for me.
Everyone headed back to the inn once more. Zolis remained holed up in his room, and was only seen to hand over the items he had identified during the day, then return to hiding. The rapier was a magical item which would improve the wielders chances of hitting his target and increase the damage they did. While no one was watching, Val quietly picked this item up without saying anything to anyone. Kano's mail shirt also proved to be magical increasing the protection given to the wearer which the party debated about and decided to give to Zagan. The final item they group had looked at was the box Kano had used. It allowed the user once per week to track the closest Mask. An additional enchantment on it also allowed the creater to always know where said item was located should they wish to know. A quick discussion decided that this item was then useless to the group as it would always point to Zolis.
I guess no one ever thought that if Zolis gets drunk and wanders off, or gets kidnapped it would be a handy way to help track him down.
The next day much time passed while spending some more gold and upgrading weapons to newer shinier versions (masterwork items generally), then dropping the box off at the temple of Lathander and asking them if they would give it to the man in yellow. Maleon totally refused reminding the party that he had told them they could not give him anything, take anything from him or touch anything he had touched. Although the group tried their best to persuade him otherwise the old man would not budge on this. He did say he could have the box stored underground with various other things best kept out of the publics knowledge. Eventually the group reluctantly agreed to this as a second best option.
After this, everyone headed back towards the Longhouse. The sun was starting to go down by now and long shadows were being cast over the streets. A couple of crashed wagons and a very large crowd of bystanders stood around this watching the drivers shout and argue with each other. Val took the opportunity to lighten someone of their coin purse before the group turned down a narrow alleyway to get to the next street down. At one point the alleyway widened up into a large square with one other exit from it.
Looking around Val noticed there were a lot of figures hiding in the shadows around this square. One man stepped out to block the way on. He told the group they were attracting a lot of interest with where they were going and who they were seeing. Important people in the city wanted to know what they were doing and they could either be friends and tell him what they were up to, or they could not be friends and they'd find out what the group were up to in less pleasant ways.
Zagan flexed his (sorry, her) muscles and stepped up to the stranger. Putting on his most intimidating voice he suggested the man get out his way before something very unpleasant happened to him. Cowed by this woman with a huge sword the thug backed down and backed off. At speed.
I can't believe the group managed to dodge a fight with some basic thugs. Oh well, it just means should they come up against this gang again later on they will have more people to fight later.
With that we ended the adventure for the night.
I think tonights adventure was much more fun than the previous one to run. Not only with a drunken wizard causing havock or Zagan and his belt, but just in general. Last week I had to improvise a lot of what happened and I always feel the game suffers then compared to one where I have enough time to write everything in advance and I know pretty much what the group is going to do. This is the first session so far where no combat has taken place (although I did prepare for up to three combat situations depending on how things went).
The group is showing a definite bias towards not sharing information with each other which has surprised me in several sessions so far. It may even have caused them to miss a few things. Nothing major so far, but it will be interesting to see how this develops.