Crag Conquered
We were busy congratulating ourselves on avoiding the no doubt fearsome gauntlet of traps and so didn’t notice the cunningly concealed pits containing seven thieves who attacked us from behind. I was badly injured and fell, back stabbed and the others were in desperate combat with the ambushers.
We would have gained the upper hand quickly but seven more attacked from a doorway, catching Saladin from behind and seriously wounding him too. I fired a magic missile finishing off one attacker and Prenell and Barakor were doing well too. Roscoe began the looting even as Saladin and Barakor pressed home the attack into the enemy lair whilst the others finished off the sole survivor of the trapdoor thieves.
Despite being seriously wounded, Saladin unwisely advanced confidently but opened himself to multiple opponents in doing so. He fell unconscious just as I fired in my sleep spell dropping the five remaining attackers. Barakor saved Saladin and all our healing spells were expended restoring us to something approaching full health. Roscoe, Barakor and Eldras cut the throats of the sleepers and the spellcasters amongst us called for rest. Roscoe and Eldras spent some minutes picking over a bonanza of assorted thieves tools and equipment, upgrading their kit with the choicest pickings, we also gathered up a fair number of coins.
Whilst we rested, an argument broke out between the now recovered and sometimes irritating Prince and our sometimes irritating halfling. The prince it seemed was calling for retribution against the thief as he was upset that Roscoe had begun searching the bodies before our opponents had been finished off; for her part, Holly reminded his royal indignantnous that Roscoe had pursued Trinner earlier single handed when Saladin was nowhere to be seen.
At this point there was a further distraction, as I woke to find myself the victim of some attempted thievery on the part of Eldras the treacherous rogue. Holly acted as the conciliator and was instrumental in smoothing things over, but I told him some home truths I can tell you and I’ll be keeping a special eye on him in future. He will regret the day he messed with a mage of my ability.
With Saladin calling for revenge against Roscoe, the halfling pointed out that surely Eldras’ crime was more heinous and we were left feeling somewhat disunited. As if to prove the point we split up once spells were recovered, the disgraced Eldras slinking off down the corridor followed after a while by Roscoe, no doubt trying to keep clear of the big easterner.
The rest of us found a torture chamber off the thieves’ quarters featuring a goodly amount of the latest high tech equipment for those with dual hobbies of secret discovering and grievous bodily harm. Saladin and Holly looted some of the equipment, let’s hope they can explain it if they’re ever captured, but hey, I’m sure they’ll be fine, after all when are we ever captured? The room was a dead end so we followed the others to a large pillared chamber containing some very eye catching* tapestries if you’re into that sort of thing.**
*In several there were some girls who looked in severe danger of getting something in their eyes anyway
**Acts depicted are thought to be illegal in all 50 states with the possible exception of Arkansas.
Of our errant scouts though, there was no sign. Typical. Ah well, divide and conquer as they say.* We split up again, Holly, Prenell and Saladin headed west to some double doors, the rest of us headed south discovering a complex of cells. One cell contained a corpse staked to the floor, another a sleeping young woman, a third an unknown man and two others our missing party members, sleeping naked as the day they were born.
*GM Note: Kravaine may have misunderstood this saying, and the party would be well advised to consider its true meaning in future!
We freed the prisoners, meanwhile the others had found a sumptuous bedroom, but as they spread out to search it they were attacked by an ogre mage which had been lying in wait in gaseous form. It injured Prenell, but she and Saladin killed it. Game over! Unfortunately they didn’t realise that it could regenerate and it rose again and struck them with a cone of cold, killing Prenell instantly. Saladin dived aside from the main blast but was still left unconscious.
Fortunately for Holly, the badly injured Ogre flew away having shot its main bolts and she saved Saladin with a healing potion. We realised that the ogre mage had captured our two scouts unwisely out of contact with our main force, using a simple sleep spell. Hoist by our own petard! Reunited again, the party searched extensively eventually finding a secret chamber where they witnessed a chest teleporting away. Thwarted, we searched further, finally discovering a cache under the floor of around ten potions, a magic arrow, some scrolls and a hoard of jewellery gems and platinum worth some 1800 gold pieces.
Further laborious searching at last revealed a secret exit, storage area containing the effects of our thieves and a lot plus a transmat device. We returned again to Krim where the Mage identified the magic items and a number of us spent time shopping. In particular Barakor and Saladin bought plate armour though for somewhat different prices, Saladin having received an inflated estimate after bragging about how rich and powerful he was to the armourer.*
*Although he did have it nicely engraved with a lot of flowery Kettitte crests and mottos that will no doubt live long in the memory of those who have occasion to be describing their attacker to the watch…
When Saladin realised he returned to have it out with the armourer, demanding a reduction of some 700 gold pieces on the price he had negotiated, unsuccessfully as it turned out having decided that a scene with the armourer’s guards was perhaps unwise.* Eldras also bought armour and a dog; with some training it might prove useful to the party. The dog might come in handy too.**
*Sensible decision for once by the Kettite Klutz
**Satire thy name is Kravaine
Saladin also announced and presented a non aggression pact between Krim and Ket to a slightly bemused Mage. This is probably because:
a) Saladin’s status as representative of the great potentate will no doubt come as quite a surprise when the Kettite ambassador hears of it.
b) Krim is one of the large number of states around the delta of the Mira river: These are sometimes called the Sea Baronies by distant foreigners who then don’t need to know their individual names, or the treaty states. The latter because the territory of each is guaranteed by distant Mirath, the powerful city state that controls trade across the whole of western Abendor. Without this guarantee, there would be little to prevent wars in the region on the whim of one of the many minor rulers in the area, but with it, peace is assured as no one would mess with Mirath and their even more powerful ally, the United Provinces far to the west, and Mirath’s trade route south is secure.*
*Guaranteeing the status quo of course not only keeps the peace, it prevents any conqueror uniting the whole area creating a great power on the south coast commanding Mirath’s main trade artery. Bit of a win win for Mirath.
c) The Mage is probably more of a threat to the Ket Empire than the other way around.
Having sold a number of the potions to the Mage and one of wraith control to the local temple of death, we had raised some considerable funds, none more than Saladin who had disposed of his transmat key, however, Eldras, Barakor, Zionestes and Saladin have all gone up a level and will have sore need of considerable finance.
Saladin’s training at the local fighter’s guild will cost him 30000 gold pieces, 3 weeks hard sparring and weapons training that will leave him tougher and more resilient. The thieves’ guild will charge Eldras 18000 gold pieces for extensive training in all the thiefly arts which clearly he desperately needs if he has further ambitions on any of my possessions.
Zionestes will need 32000 gold to learn his extra spells and anti undead techniques, plus there is an emphasis on the martial arts for a cleric at this stage in their career, adding sweat and bruises to his usually more academic testing experience. Barakor needs to find 19000 gold if he is to progress with his extra learning.
Kravaine
Spell Use Area 21/22 400
Treasure 750
Mission completion 500
Argument with Eldras 40
Freeing prisoners 25
Scroll 200
Total 1915
Eldras
Characterisation and Roleplay 40
Thieves 21/22 100
Treasure 800
Mission completion 500
Argument with Kravaine 40
Total 1480
Barakor
Characterisation and Roleplay 40
Healing 50
Use of Find Traps 20
Thieves 21/22 200
Treasure 750
Mission completion 500
Freeing prisoners 25
Armourer negotiation 40
Scroll 200
Saving Saladin 200
Total 2025
Holly
Characterisation & Roleplay 40
Thieves 21/22 100
Dispute intervention 200
Treasure 750
Mission completion 500
Search coordination 150
Defeating Taamus 250
Saving Saladin 200
Total 2190
Saladin
Characterisation and Roleplay 40
Mapping 10
Thieves 21/22 100
Treasure 750
Mission completion 500
Argument with Roscoe 40
Defeating Taamus 250
Arrow 200
Getting rid of thumbscrews 10
Total 1940
Roscoe
Thieves 21/22 100
Treasure 750
Mission completion 500
Argument with Saladin 40
Total 1390
Zionestes
Healing 50
Thieves 21/22 100
Treasure 750
Mission completion 500
Freeing prisoners 25
Total 1425
Name Class 2nd Class B/F Cumulative Target Current Level
Kravaine MU*
2107 5743 7850 10000
(4) 3
Eldras T*
1628 4205 5833 10000
(5) 4
Barakor F*
1114 C*
1114 5749/
5749 6863/
6863 8000/
13000
(4/5) 3/4
Holly M
2190 5715 7905 10000
(4) 3
Saladin F*
2134 5875 8009 18000
(5) 4
Roscoe T*
1529 6065 7594 10000
(5) 4
Zionestes C*
1568 5030 6598 13000
(4) 4
*EP Bonus applied
7.9.13
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