The group welcomed Dhran back into the active fold. He had felt empty after the sacrifice of the demonic knife that had come to mean so much to him over the week leading up to the attempt by the Dark to take Iralun before reading to the rest of the world.
Over the last few weeks, the Temple of Ghalmerha had done what they could to soothe Dhran, help him focus on his long held goals and dreams, such as the helmet he had had crafted for him in this city, the first implement of his chosen profession of war to be made for him and him alone, as a way of diminishing the artificial desire that the knife had seemingly put him under.
He joined the group as they returned to “The Tower’s Base” with the spoils of the search of Ihradel’s former accommodation. They sought out the giver of the earrings, Dahlgik Mahrn, an actor heading into slightly past his prime, dreaming of his youth and trying to persuade people that he is still in it. He was unable to add much to what they already knew, but he did give a slight character sketch of Ihradel, as someone who would pursue an interest for a short time, then dump it for another, short lived all consuming interest.
(Aside, this is a character trait that the players found themselves constitutionally incapable of understanding.)
Later that night, the group asked Azadah to use her magical powers to see if she could trace Ihradel from the golden earrings. Trying to trace her from them proved fruitless, as the earrings did not have much association for Ihradel. The stars did give the advice “”talk to the soldiers””
There was one soldier that they had recently encountered, Rahki, the one who had to be thrown out of the club. Jose recognised his insignia as being from the East Gate garrison. Irulan has three types of troops. The regular guard, mostly concerned with gate duty and the streets near the walls. The militia, where the folk of the city take their turn on watch. The third category are Temple troops, who are the best but concerned either with the defence of the temple or seeking out bandits and ne’er do wells that threaten the wellbeing and trade of the city.
They rested that night, and after a good breakfast at the Temple of Ghalmerha, including Eggs Benedict and a Sausage Bar, the they headed to the gate and the Lieutenant of the Guard, Siargana Aghontana, listened to them.
She explained that Rakhi, a formerly exemplary soldier had been in trouble over Ihradel, with an act of violence involved, but not one that they could track down enough to charge him. If they could get the truth from him, then she would be grateful.
Rakhi was monosyllabic and confused. Azadah tried to gain some sense of his aura, but the emotions from the stones of the keep overrode anything she might have got from him, and Jose’s empathy could only confirm the confusion.
Farshad tried charming him using the power of non-livestock related song, and that seemed to break a flood dam in Rahkni
“Oh, why could I not remember. Ihradel sought my help. Andilaz had been threatening her, demanding her favours, and talking about forcing her away with him. She begged me to free her from him, I tried just to tell him to leave her alone, I don’t know why I killed him. What happened after? I still have no idea, I seemed to awake at the barracks, bloody and unable to account for myself”
Dhran, no stranger to being the victim of supernatural effects, recalled stories that told of those forced to do things against their nature and afterwords the brain choosing to forget so that they did not even know themselves.
Siargana has no choice but to charge Rakhi with murder, but she has a statement witnessed by the group as to Rahki’s testimony, which she hopes will clear him of the act of being a victim of magic,
The divination specified soldiers in the plural, and Siargana thought that another prisoner could provide information related to it. Another soldier had been charged with horse theft. His story was that, as the Colonel of the Gates, a Colonel Rhombus, was inspecting the East Gate, he was standing holding the Colonel’s horse, when a young lady walked up, asked him for the horse and he gave it to her. He watched her take the East Road, which goes into the mountains and over them into Qomeri ruled Quulbar.
They reported back to Elisim, who provided kedgeree for lunch as he heard fo the progress to date. Being excited to hear of actual leads and information, he provided fast horses (a pony for Farshad) and supplies for a few days.
Although starting later in the day, they reached the caravanserai that was a day’s travel from the city for a caravan. There they met Levan Galthian, another seeming victim of Ihradel’s magic, who had wasted his money drinking and waiting for her to return, calling her a “southern princess” who had travelled “north to get permission to wed from her parents” and not seeing the contradiction in this. He begged for funds to stay at the caravanserai and wait for her return.
Levan was annoying, and tried to assault Jalabu, so a quick use of the sap later and Levan was put out of action, a ring that he claimed was hers, an antique with the Deorsin family crest, removed from his grasp.
The group did not spend any time investigating what had occurred here, the pattern seemed familiar from other incidents. There was some excitement as a cleaver armed Shevam rushed at Farshad. Farshad neatly jumped out of the way and it proved that the Shevam, Pernim, lonely for the company of his kind, was excited to hear of another in the place. He dragged Farshad off for along chat
The chat went well as they discussed travels, found some mutual acquaintances in distant lands and common interests. All was well until Farshad, by some horrible chance, sang a ribald and insulting story about an old Shevam family which, unfortunately Pernim was a member of, and Farshade was unceremoniously ejected
After rest, and as they got ready to set off, they did enquire of the caravaners, laughing at the incompetence of the nephew of the caravan master to do the job himself if there was any sign of Ihradel on the road, and they said yes, she was on a horse about a day head of them on the road, they had seen her two days previously.
Something I forgot to mention at the time, the horse was limping.
And there we left it
Humour of the night
As Chris rejoined us, we described one facet of Dhran’s therapy, focusising instead on the armour piece made for him as “polishing his helmet” (*)
Other therapy techniques included hitting a simian doll, the “spanking the monkey technique”, and releasing his fury at dioscesan authority by “bashing the bishop”
Lucky he was kept out of the caravanserai kitchen before he could “choke the chicken”
(*) It should be said that the wrench of choosing that knife against the character goal of the helmet as the most precious object was great play, and proved that the knife was the right choice
I had chosen this, in part, as a relatively combat free change from the last adventure set up, which was a very combat heavy scenario, even if we downplayed it.
However structurally it is too similar to Irilian, this “peeling the onion skin of mystery” idea, which I did not appreciate at the start, so not the best for a change and contrast
Also the message seems to be, that the party miss violence. Next time should give an opportunity for that and the end of the adventure, depending how it goes.
This will probably be the last adventure of the year, and next year, if we continue, I will try and give you a scenario filled with hyperviolence