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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 2944369" data-attributes="member: 9626">Opening the Gate: The Sinister Caravan“So, what do we do now?”  That question lingered on everyone’s minds for several minutes, without an answer among the party.    Finally, Lorren came to his senses.  “We get out of here.  If that man really was a lookout, they know we’re here now.  I don’t necessarily think Guillermo’s right about this Egg, but we can’t risk endangering it if he is.”    “Wait,” Anastacia protested.  “We can’t just leave.  We have 3,000 gold ready for us tomorrow, and we’re injured from the fight.”    “Very well,” Grim said.  “We leave this house immediately and spend a day at the town’s inn, and then we head back to Fra Dane as soon as possible.”    “What about Guillermo’s body, though?” Luke asked.  “It seems wrong to just let it rot here.”    “We could burn it,” Elvis suggested.    “No,” Enrique said angrily.  “He wouldn’t have wanted that.”  All eyes turned to the devastated rogue, as they knew this must be his choice.  Finally, with an agonized look in eyes, Enrique made his decision.  “We have to leave him here.  We may not even have the time to dig a grave, and we can’t let the townspeople know what happened without getting ourselves involved.”    The party left the home, as Enrique turned to the body of his dead uncle.  “I’m sorry, Guillermo.  I’ll do my best to fulfill your dying wish.”    The day at the inn was otherwise uneventful, and the party spent much of the next day planning their next mission, what they will tell the Operatives, and preparing to leave by purchasing superior weapons and items.  The services of Kanatash and Cyra were again utilized, and this time, the trip home was uneventful.  At Fra Dane, the party was met at the edge of the city’s shantytown outside of the walls by Ik, who happily met again with her friends.      Before leaving town, the party decided it would be wise to meet up with Operative Vel again and update him on the success of their mission so far.  Of course, the problem was exactly how much they wanted to tell him.    “We have to give him something,” Luke insisted.  “Otherwise, he might take us off the investigation, or worse, start his own investigation and find it leads right to us.  Besides, you still need those pardons.”    “Well, we should definitely avoid any information about the Egg itself,” Anastacia nervously proposed.  “But what about the rods?”    “Let’s just give him information about Eff-Eflu Vicar…”  Luke started, sheepishly.    “Effervo Vesica,” Lorren sharply corrected.    “Right, we’ll talk about them,” Luke replied.  “And we have to mention the Hivekeepers to at least explain what was so special about Guillermo.  But if that’s enough, we can avoid revealing anything about the rods for now.”    With the information prepared, Ik and Luke entered the city, since the rest of the party was still unable to legally enter it.  They soon met up with Vel, where they explained the situation.    “So, tell us exactly what you found out about Guillermo,” Vel prompted.    “Well, we did learn that he belonged to a secret society called the Hivekeepers, but he wasn’t responsible for the theft.”    “Oh, who was?” Vel prodded.    “We learned of another group, known as…” Luke quickly looked at a note Ik handed him, “Effervo Vesica.  They were the ones who stole the rod.”    “Really?  How did you learn that?  Did Guillermo tell you?”    “Unfortunately, he was already dead when we got there.”    “Then how did you learn all this?”    “Well,” Luke hesitated.  He’d rather not spread information about the note the party found, or even imply that it existed.  “We talked to the owner of the curio shop.  She told us some of this.”    “I see,” Vel replied.  He carefully adjusted some papers in a way that somehow unnerved Luke immensely.  “Well, that is very helpful, but we’d like some information about what this Effervo Vesica organization’s ultimate goals are, or what the purpose of the rod is.  You truly have nothing else for us?”    Luke gulped, “No, but we want to investigate the Gate of Madness next.  We might learn more about Effe…the thieves from there.”    Vel nodded.  “Excellent news.  We actually can help you with that objective.  We are aware of a Hensen and Children expedition headed in that general direction.  We can ‘persuade’ them to take a slight detour and delay their departure long enough for you to join them, and we are even willing to pay for their services.  They should be able to get you to the destination in only nine days or so; much faster than an ordinary travel service.”  Vel then ended the briefing by sliding a pouch containing a thousand gold pieces and the dearly desired pardons.      As Luke and Ik gratefully left to tell their fellow party members what happened and prepare for their journey with the Hensen caravan, Vel summoned some of his fellow Operatives.  “Make preparations for a strike force,” he instructed.  “We need to learn more about this knowledgeable curio shop owner.”    “These are very strange carriages,” Grim commented as the party located the caravan’s departure point.    “You mean, besides the fact they aren’t attached to any mounts?” Elvis asked.  “Do you think they pull themselves?”    Grim shook his head.  “No, they have harnesses, but they’re very strange.”  He demonstrated by holding one of the harnesses up.  “Look how much they can be moved.  They look like they can go all the way above the carriages themselves.”    “And the sides of the carriage are very wide as well,” Lorren noted.  “Maybe they can float?”    “Hey, look back here!” Enrique called.  “I found a carriage with animals!”    The party dashed the rearmost of the twenty five cars of the massive caravan, where they saw it was being pulled by strange, gray lions with paler manes.  “Oh, I know what those are!” Lorren commented.  “Those are Leoni.  They’re a sort of magical lions.  They can be transformed briefly by supernatural magical pressure points.  But that doesn’t explain why they’re used for this wagon and not the others.”    Their answer came later that day, when first the other passengers and then the “animals” joined the caravan.  The passengers were for the most part the children of affluent nobles, though they were an unusual lot.  Most were dressed strangely and were adorned with skulls, demonic imagery, and other dark clothing.  At first, the party was worried that they had somehow been surrounded by an evil cult, but further investigations revealed the truth.    “So, where are all of you going?” Ik asked her fellow carriage, a young human woman.    “Oh, we’re going to see the Shrill Harper!” the woman, who introduced herself as Rilliana but insisted that everyone call her Rumor, explained.    Upon seeing Ik’s confused face, Rumor pulled out a paper explaining further.You know Her!  You Love HER!  And now, Shrill harper is coming to ulgurtha!Her fans have called her passionate, spirited, terrifying and yet wondrous.  Fiends and mortals alike have been charmed by her wit and power.  She defies the performer’s guild, the common superstitions about morality, and the pointless conflict of nature itself.  Her songs have motivated love, hate, death, rage, and all the primal emotions.  She is shrill harper, and Ulrich Bludwright is honored to have this woman, who represents all that Ulgurtha holds dear, perform for as long as her fans demand!  Born of a mortal harpy and a fiend and raised in the bleakest realms of the Gate of madness, she has crawled out of that dark place to bring the musical world of the surface to its knees!  Come, all fans of music, to share in the magic!    Ik looked shocked.  “You’re going to a city inhabited by demons and devils to hear the music of a fiendish harpy?”    Rumor shook her head.  “I know how that sounds, but she’s not like that.  She struggled out of her horrible fiendish nature out the pure desire to sing!  It’s the noblest thing a person could do!  She inspires me!”    Ever the bard, Ik was intrigued.  “Could you sing some of her songs?”    Rumor struggled with an answer.  “I’ll try, but I’m not nearly as good as she is.”  Ik soon learned that Rumor was putting it mildly, and her journey just felt a lot longer.    But the rest of the party was more impressed with the creatures pulling their carriages.  After the crew first checked that nobody was traveling with any natural animals, a series of bizarre creatures were fastened to the wagons.  Each seemingly had no permanent features; one moment one would have the head of a goat, and the next, it would be more like that of a great cat.    “What the hell are those?” Grim asked with shock and not a little disgust.    Aware of the pattern at this point, all heads turned to Lorren.  Sensing their expectations, the young genius sighed and said, “I think those are called Environs.  One of the Hensen’s children discovered the creatures recently, which catapulted them to the position of dominant transportation service on Mesion.  Apparently, they can cross any terrain without difficulty, because their bodies always adjust to that of the ideal animal.  They can even climb steep cliffs, swim across the surface of a body of water, or fly!  They just have some issues with normal animals.  Apparently, animals get spooked by their presence.  I bet that’s what the Leoni carriage is for.  If we did have any animals, they’re magical creatures, so they could transport the animals.”    Grim, however, said nothing.  He remembered the forest earlier where the animals were all seemingly driven insane, and he was a little suspicious that these unnatural things had some relation.    As the days turned into over a week, the party soon met more of their fellow passengers and drivers.  Luke made friends with Avale Zherri, a paladin of Pelor and a member of Zoridel’s chosen.  She and several other clerics and paladins from both Zoridel and Fra Dane were sent to investigate the concert for possible sinister purposes beyond simple musical expression.  Even a paladin and a cleric from Luke’s own church of Ehlonna were participating!  Meanwhile, Ik (when not trying to charm the nobles with her own music,) made friends with Pellene Stirring, a bard traveling to Ulgurtha as an expert for the Performer’s Guild.  He seemed pretty depressed during much of the journey, however, possibly as a result of the presence of Guild representative Trish Bline.  From what she learned, the Guild’s use of Pellene as an expert meant that he hasn’t been hired to actually perform, making it against Guild rules for him to sing in public!      “What are you planning on this trip?” A naturally suspicious Ik asked the Guild official.    Trish smiled.  “Well, we want a professional critique of the Shrill Harper, of course.  If she’s as competent as we’re hoping, we’re considering persuading her to enter the Guild.  We could get her to perform in Fra Dane and other cities that aren’t as inherently dangerous or such a long a distance away from more humanoid-populated lands.”    “Yes, I’m sure that’ll be a big success for you,” Ik muttered, now sick of the Guild’s general attitude towards music.    Unaware of Ik’s intent, Trish merely nodded.  “Oh, I’m sure it will change the world.”    Ik, understandably, spent much of the rest of the trip avoiding Trish and playing for the nobles and the more traditional merchants, who Enrique was more interested in charming as possible connections later.  Elvis and Grim were more interested in studying the strange creatures and conversing with the caravan’s crew, Lorren took an interest in the caravan’s wizard advisor, Advisor Bathail Malph, and Anastacia hobnobbed with the rebellious children of Fra Dane.    The caravan was a bumpy but uneventful trip for the first eight days, but that changed midway through the eighth day when the caravan abruptly stopped, seemingly for no reason.  Curious, the party disembarked to investigate and found themselves on the top of a tall cliff, where Callis Torrand, the caravan’s leader, was observing something.  The party moved in to look as well and saw that in the jungle below, a strange building rose above the canopy of trees.  It was hemispherical, seemingly made entirely of metal, and though it was hard to tell from the distance, it seemed to be slowly rotating!      “What’s that?” Anastasia asked.    Bathail frowned.  “That appears to be a modron enclave.  They’re strange, semi-mechanical creatures that represent pure law.  This is most disturbing; they haven’t been seen on Mesion for hundreds of years.”    Callis turned to his advisor and issues his command.  “We need more information about these creatures.  Contact the nearest towns and see if they know anything about this, and then we’ll speak with command about this.”    A few hours later, Callis gathered both the rest of the crew and the increasingly anxious passengers to share his plan.  “Bathail spoke to the local villages magically, and he learned that this enclave has interfered with the local villages lately, and they pose a threat to the area.”    “Interfered?  How?” a skeptical Grim asked.    Bathail hesitated, as if he didn’t expect an interruption so soon, but he replied.  “They have attacked local hunters.  They haven’t killed anyone yet, but they have been willing to use lethal force.”    “So, that sounds like they’re just defending their territory,” Grim pressed.    “And they have been expanding that territory,” Callis finished.  “So we have been authorized to destroy the enclave and collect a bounty offered by the villages.  We have been given permission to seek assistance from any combat-minded passengers in exchange for a share of the bounty, but we can’t promise your protection if you agree to this plan.”    The party agreed, though Grim did so with extreme reluctance and Luke seemed uncomfortable about the whole thing.  Also joining the raid were Avale Zherri and the other paladins and clerics, Rumor and several other noble children with some training or special powers, and, after hours of arguments with Trish, Pellene himself.  Callis split the entire assembled group into four wings, with Callis, Bathail, and Pellene leading the attack into the enclave’s core.  The other three groups were to guard the other three exits and defeat and modrons that attacked from that side.    Before long, the environs had dropped the party off, and they carefully made their way to their interception point.  As the shouts of combat rose up all around them, they charged their own entrance as a small army of spherical, flat rectangular, and triangular metal creatures poured out.  They engaged the party with teeth, claw, and even simple weapons like spears, but it was clear that they were simple-minded foes, and soon the battle was over.  As the party recovered from their wounds, a victorious raiding party, including Pellene at the happiest the party’s ever seen him, returned, dragging a five-legged metal starfish with them.  The party returned to the carriages to count their earnings and confirm that the egg was safe (they left it with Ik during the fight, as she planned on staying in the back and assisting the party with her magic,) but as they left, Grim noticed something.  Bathail had a tear in his robes as a result of the fight, and Grim noticed he had a tattoo on the small of his back of two dragons attacking and eating each other.  For a moment, he could barely control himself; that same symbol was on the same attackers that killed his parents.  For a barbarian, though, Grim was unusually known for his ability to keep his cool.  He decided that it would be suicide to do anything about this now; Bathail was wounded, but he was still a highly respected wizard within a powerful organization.  He might be able to destroy Grim in an instant, and even if Grim got the upper hand, Callis and the rest of the Hensen staff would attack him.  He would, however, make a note of this.  This was the first hint about the death of his parents that he received so far, and he intended to do something about it sooner or later.    OOC Notes:  This was actually only the first half of this session.  The numerous role-playing opportunities and background information takes generally produces more story in less time than the average fight.  The modron fight was slightly more difficult than it seemed here, but not too fascinating.  Low-level modrons really disappointed me from their lack of abilities; bring on the screaming bushes and face-peeling cats in my opinion!  Nonetheless, like nearly everything that happened so far, it gave the party some clues about future events or potential leads.  Very little has been accidental so far…    You might have noticed some edits in earlier entries.  I gave the party the option to change some features about their characters now that they know them a little better, and Luke decided to opt for a slightly less lawful character and the deity of Ehlonna instead of Bha-Ael.  This still puts him at or near the moral center of the party, though, so it didn’t change things too much, yet.</blockquote>

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