House Arrest
4.2To the extreme upset of the party, the train guards of House Orien insisted on arresting someone for the fight which led to the derailment of the train: by virtue of being the only survivors of the fight, this had to be the party. After some debate, the party went without resistance if not cheerily. Escorted under guard to Sharn, they were immediately released upon arrival when their sponsor, Dakkath d'Tharashk, vouched for them. He promptly made it clear to them that they needed to a) get out of Sharn and b) raise some money to appease the higher-ups in House Tharashk who were having to pay damages to House Orien. This was considered to eminently reasonable.
The party now split in two. Vespa and Ulmo sought out Auntine Pidrasso to return the book and (Vespa hoped) to convince him he needed guards for his own protection. The latter failed, but Pidrasso suggested that they seek out the laboratory described in the rear of the book, hinting that there might be many exotic magical goods therein as well as information on the magical box. The lab is supposed to be found in the Demon Wastes, a rich source of valuable Khyber dragonshards.
Lawful Zoe, however, took Ristiik along on a more direct approach: she went to her home temple of Dol Arrah and asked for a quest. After some debate, the bishop a) suggested they seek out the lost Toenail of St Apothecary, to be found somewhere near Greywall in Droaam (a nation of monsters ruled by a triumverate of hags), and b) baptised Ristiik as Hungry Edward. More research suggested that the relic was either still in the abandoned village (a former Brelish colony overrun 15 years ago in a border war between Breland and Droaam), or had been taken by the Hags of Droaam as a bargaining chip.
The plan was eventually decided (I think) that the party would sail up the River Dagger and then travel overland to Ardev, posing as merchants selling women's underthings (for the wives of the nobles and soldiers posted at the nearby Castle Arakhain) and pornography (for the soldiers). From there, they would try to negotiate access to Droaam, collect the relic, and then head north to the Demon Wastes to investigate the laboratory.
Having sorted all this out, and negotiated a contract to guard Hamel of Galethspyre as he delivered a cart to Castle Arakhain, the party were setting out when they were accosted by a tiefling named Lividus, who Ristiik had met earlier in the day. He asked the party to hand over the book, and with some apparent reluctance, attacked them (joined by the warforged artificer from the attack on the train) when they refused. The battle was extremely difficult, and in the end Lividus escaped, teleporting away to another level of Sharn. Vespa, however, chased down the warforged artificer, who committed suicide rather than be taken.
Content by Bjorn Christianson
Bjorn Christianson (06/11/2011 15:23:41)
Forgot to mention, we're going to use a modified version of the rarity rules. Common items can be purchased anywhere; Uncommon items can only be found in major commerical centres. Rare items are not generally available for sale at all; check with me if there's one you'd really like.
Since you've just come from Sharn, you can assume you have had free access to all common and uncommon items.
Richard Fisher
Bjorn Christianson (06/11/2011 09:35:28)
Everyone has now gained enough experience to get to level 4. In addition to the 200 gp you were payed by House Tharashk, the loot you took from the duergar forge was worth 550 gp. You found only one magical item not cursed or malfunctioning, and that was a pair of Forgemaster's Gloves.