Silver Moon
Adventurer
Game #13 - 4/27/03
Chapter 41, “The first target, and it’s one of us”, July 10th, 1019, 12:15 A.M.
Blip arrives at the Black Sun Abbey and circumnavigates around the building. It is a small rectangular shaped two-story building, approximately 30 by 50 feet in size, with a pitched roof. All windows and shutters are currently closed. The entrance faces east and slightly south to the main road. Above the door is the sign “Black Sun Abbey”, and painted onto the building above that is a depiction of a black sun. The streets are quiet, and she does not notice any activity in this neighborhood. She flies back to the Magical Stone Inn.
She invisibly enters room #506, seeing Aradyn and Cassie asleep in one of the two beds. Aradyn’s player comments “Of course we’re in the same bed. We’re not Lucy and Ricky Ricardo.” She decides to give the couple some privacy, and exits the room via the front door. The movement of the door is seen by Cassie’s owl Deanna, who immediately wakes her master. Cassie wakes Aradyn, alerting him that “Somebody invisible came into the room.” Meanwhile, Blip heads down to room #406, and is unable to pick the lock. She then heads down to #306, which she is able to pick. She sees Darrius and Lono asleep on the only bed in that room, and reconsiders the empty bed back in the first room.
Flying into the fifth floor hallway she sees a now dressed Cassie standing alert in the doorway, and Aradyn with his bow out and looking down the hallway. Blip flies back down the stairs, turns visible, the walks back up. Cassie “You’re the one who opened the door.” Blip answers “Sorry guys, didn’t mean to wake you.” Cassie replies “Didn’t it occur to you that my owl would see the door move?” Aradyn tells the gnome “You need to be more careful. I could have shot you.” The three rerun to the room, Cassie instructing Deanna to wake her at false dawn.
They awaken at the first hint of light on the horizon. Charen, Darrius and Lono are told to go up to the roof to look towards the real sun “just in case”. Aradyn, Cassie and Mark get into the Bag of Holding, and Blip flies them back to the Black Sun Abbey. Her original plan was to land atop a roof across the street from the building, but finds that they are all taken by several assassin teams who had the same idea. She also sees a several more people down on the street, including several vagabonds who were not there the night before. She decides to just stay aloft.
As the first light of dawn comes over the horizon, and falls across the painted black sun picture, a hammer-like object appears fastened to it. She flies in for a closer look, determining that it is a wooden mallet like those used to conduct a meeting. She decides to retreat when she hears the sound of invisible individuals climbing the building to also get a closer look.
The team reassembles back at the Magical Stone Inn. They brainstorm about how this clue probably means that a politician or judge in the city is probably a target, as they would be the ones who use a gavel. Cassie writes out a note for the other team, and has Deanna fly it down the street to the auction house. Serita receives the note, and her team then speculate about it. It is pointed out that it wouldn’t be a Judge, as Kindor’s predecessor had executed all judges, barristers and attorneys, and Kindor decided not to reinstate a judicial system, instead using military tribunals for any trials.
It suddenly occurs to Lannon “Hey, it’s a gavel!” “Yeah, so?” Serita states. He replies “We’re here for an auction! The target is the auctioneer.” The group decides that he has hit upon the right answer. (And the DM wonders why it took over half-an-hour for anyone to figure this out, having thought the clue was rather obvious). “Isn’t Kindor running the auction?” Timothy asks. “No, our party member Hiroshi is,” Vincenzo comments. Narg exclaims “Hiroshi? He’s the nicest guy in the world. Why would anyone want to kill him?” Serita says “Well, his mother wasn’t happy about him leaving their family estate. Maybe she hired the ILA to kill him.” “That sounds a bit extreme,” comments Timothy. Lannon suggests “Maybe this is a plan to either rig the auction or just get access to all the stuff.” Serita states “They must be planning to replace him with an imposter.” Narg says “Okay, that makes sense.” “We need to warn him,” Lannon interjects. Vincenzo reminds them “He’s coming over here this morning with Kindor and Melito.”
They arrive mid-way through the morning. Hiroshi is shocked when he hears this news, commenting “Those people are trying to kill me?” Narg asks “Well, how many people have you ticked off?” The 71-year-old replies “Well, I have lived a long life. Quite a few I guess. Maybe it would be a good idea if I just stay here today instead of leaving and coming back later.” Kindor points out that it isn’t public knowledge yet that Hiroshi will be the auctioneer. “But everyone will find out tonight at the Bidder’s dinner,” the oriental wizard comments, muttering again, “People are trying to kill me?” Narg interjects “You’ll get used to it. We all have.”
The party decides to increase security further, suggesting that Kindor double the number of troops he had planned to have outside. The party also decides to combine the Bidder’s Dinner with the Bidder’s Preview that had been planned for the following day. They discuss the option of “not inviting” two guest groups to the dinner that could be potential trouble, namely the group from the desert kingdom and a group comprised of an orc warlord and his party who had arrived the previous night through one of the west gates while the army was tied up at the east gates.
They ask about these orcs. Kindor says what little he knows, that the head orc is a chieftain named Hargash, and that he has with him a half-ogre and a dozen orc followers. They stopped by the Lordholder’s castle early in the morning to drop off their 8.000 gold piece auction fee and register four names. They are from a land known as Blackdirge, and belong to the Throat Ripper clan. “Damn!” Lannon yells, as that was not the name of the orc tribe he is seeking revenge against. Still, the dwarf asks “Can I go great this group? Please?” Hiroshi adds “Somebody probably should. I don’t know who they are, I certainly didn’t invite them.” The party decides that they should probably send some of their human party members. Fiona says “Fine, just don’t say anything about the dinner. We can tell them the auction rules later if we decide to let them attend.”
Kindor announces the results of the prior nights arrests at the east city gates, stating that a total of 50 foreigners were arrested, and that they have all now been moved to his military fortress in the northern part of the inner city. He says that while many of these people are probably innocent, and were just coming into the city at that time, they have in custody at least 16 who have been positively identified as having attended the ceremony following the Moorhead funeral.
Kindor says that “Three others were also killed trying to escape arrest. We used Speak with Dead on them, and determined that they were the assassination team from the city of Tallarn. We also found out where they were staying and I retrieved a pouch with around 150,000 gold worth of diamonds that they had brought as their ILA dues.”
Melito then says “I want to talk to you about Lady Darlene.” Serita interjects “Hey, I didn’t kill her…although I sure thought about it.” Narg says “Hey, beating up on evil monks is one way to keep us from getting bored.” Mojo says “Yeah, that’s your philosophy Narg. We really should find you a different hobby. Do you realize how many people would still be alive on this continent if you just learned how to read?”
Melito says that “She has actually agreed to freely tell us what her primary mission is, under one condition.” The group throws out assorted guesses “That we agree to let her go”; “That we offer her political asylum” “That we cure her”. Melito replies “No, none of those. Her only condition is that King Matthan be present when we question her. Serita says “Absolutely not. I don’t trust either one of them. I’d rather not know what her mission is than agree to that.” The rest of the party discuss the advantages and disadvantages, but Serita is adamant that “I don’t want those two together.” The party discusses the option of polymorphing someone to look like Matthan, but decide that it probably would not work. Melito says “I guess I can try to get the information from her on my own, but she is a rather powerful monk and quite resistant to pain. Plus, her deity is the Mistress of Pain so she may actually enjoy being tortured.”
Lastly they discuss contingencies in case it is discovered that they only have replica items at the preview. Lannon states “We don’t say anything unless somebody else does.” Serita says “If that happens we just state they are replicas and that the real ones won’t be put out until the auction for security reasons. We have the power here, they have to play the game by our rules.” Mojo interjects “Yeah, we’ll just says that we didn’t want any dirt bag foreigners touching our stuff.” Fiona comments “We really need to make sure that we don’t let Mojo talk.”
Chapter 41, “The first target, and it’s one of us”, July 10th, 1019, 12:15 A.M.
Blip arrives at the Black Sun Abbey and circumnavigates around the building. It is a small rectangular shaped two-story building, approximately 30 by 50 feet in size, with a pitched roof. All windows and shutters are currently closed. The entrance faces east and slightly south to the main road. Above the door is the sign “Black Sun Abbey”, and painted onto the building above that is a depiction of a black sun. The streets are quiet, and she does not notice any activity in this neighborhood. She flies back to the Magical Stone Inn.
She invisibly enters room #506, seeing Aradyn and Cassie asleep in one of the two beds. Aradyn’s player comments “Of course we’re in the same bed. We’re not Lucy and Ricky Ricardo.” She decides to give the couple some privacy, and exits the room via the front door. The movement of the door is seen by Cassie’s owl Deanna, who immediately wakes her master. Cassie wakes Aradyn, alerting him that “Somebody invisible came into the room.” Meanwhile, Blip heads down to room #406, and is unable to pick the lock. She then heads down to #306, which she is able to pick. She sees Darrius and Lono asleep on the only bed in that room, and reconsiders the empty bed back in the first room.
Flying into the fifth floor hallway she sees a now dressed Cassie standing alert in the doorway, and Aradyn with his bow out and looking down the hallway. Blip flies back down the stairs, turns visible, the walks back up. Cassie “You’re the one who opened the door.” Blip answers “Sorry guys, didn’t mean to wake you.” Cassie replies “Didn’t it occur to you that my owl would see the door move?” Aradyn tells the gnome “You need to be more careful. I could have shot you.” The three rerun to the room, Cassie instructing Deanna to wake her at false dawn.
They awaken at the first hint of light on the horizon. Charen, Darrius and Lono are told to go up to the roof to look towards the real sun “just in case”. Aradyn, Cassie and Mark get into the Bag of Holding, and Blip flies them back to the Black Sun Abbey. Her original plan was to land atop a roof across the street from the building, but finds that they are all taken by several assassin teams who had the same idea. She also sees a several more people down on the street, including several vagabonds who were not there the night before. She decides to just stay aloft.
As the first light of dawn comes over the horizon, and falls across the painted black sun picture, a hammer-like object appears fastened to it. She flies in for a closer look, determining that it is a wooden mallet like those used to conduct a meeting. She decides to retreat when she hears the sound of invisible individuals climbing the building to also get a closer look.
The team reassembles back at the Magical Stone Inn. They brainstorm about how this clue probably means that a politician or judge in the city is probably a target, as they would be the ones who use a gavel. Cassie writes out a note for the other team, and has Deanna fly it down the street to the auction house. Serita receives the note, and her team then speculate about it. It is pointed out that it wouldn’t be a Judge, as Kindor’s predecessor had executed all judges, barristers and attorneys, and Kindor decided not to reinstate a judicial system, instead using military tribunals for any trials.
It suddenly occurs to Lannon “Hey, it’s a gavel!” “Yeah, so?” Serita states. He replies “We’re here for an auction! The target is the auctioneer.” The group decides that he has hit upon the right answer. (And the DM wonders why it took over half-an-hour for anyone to figure this out, having thought the clue was rather obvious). “Isn’t Kindor running the auction?” Timothy asks. “No, our party member Hiroshi is,” Vincenzo comments. Narg exclaims “Hiroshi? He’s the nicest guy in the world. Why would anyone want to kill him?” Serita says “Well, his mother wasn’t happy about him leaving their family estate. Maybe she hired the ILA to kill him.” “That sounds a bit extreme,” comments Timothy. Lannon suggests “Maybe this is a plan to either rig the auction or just get access to all the stuff.” Serita states “They must be planning to replace him with an imposter.” Narg says “Okay, that makes sense.” “We need to warn him,” Lannon interjects. Vincenzo reminds them “He’s coming over here this morning with Kindor and Melito.”
They arrive mid-way through the morning. Hiroshi is shocked when he hears this news, commenting “Those people are trying to kill me?” Narg asks “Well, how many people have you ticked off?” The 71-year-old replies “Well, I have lived a long life. Quite a few I guess. Maybe it would be a good idea if I just stay here today instead of leaving and coming back later.” Kindor points out that it isn’t public knowledge yet that Hiroshi will be the auctioneer. “But everyone will find out tonight at the Bidder’s dinner,” the oriental wizard comments, muttering again, “People are trying to kill me?” Narg interjects “You’ll get used to it. We all have.”
The party decides to increase security further, suggesting that Kindor double the number of troops he had planned to have outside. The party also decides to combine the Bidder’s Dinner with the Bidder’s Preview that had been planned for the following day. They discuss the option of “not inviting” two guest groups to the dinner that could be potential trouble, namely the group from the desert kingdom and a group comprised of an orc warlord and his party who had arrived the previous night through one of the west gates while the army was tied up at the east gates.
They ask about these orcs. Kindor says what little he knows, that the head orc is a chieftain named Hargash, and that he has with him a half-ogre and a dozen orc followers. They stopped by the Lordholder’s castle early in the morning to drop off their 8.000 gold piece auction fee and register four names. They are from a land known as Blackdirge, and belong to the Throat Ripper clan. “Damn!” Lannon yells, as that was not the name of the orc tribe he is seeking revenge against. Still, the dwarf asks “Can I go great this group? Please?” Hiroshi adds “Somebody probably should. I don’t know who they are, I certainly didn’t invite them.” The party decides that they should probably send some of their human party members. Fiona says “Fine, just don’t say anything about the dinner. We can tell them the auction rules later if we decide to let them attend.”
Kindor announces the results of the prior nights arrests at the east city gates, stating that a total of 50 foreigners were arrested, and that they have all now been moved to his military fortress in the northern part of the inner city. He says that while many of these people are probably innocent, and were just coming into the city at that time, they have in custody at least 16 who have been positively identified as having attended the ceremony following the Moorhead funeral.
Kindor says that “Three others were also killed trying to escape arrest. We used Speak with Dead on them, and determined that they were the assassination team from the city of Tallarn. We also found out where they were staying and I retrieved a pouch with around 150,000 gold worth of diamonds that they had brought as their ILA dues.”
Melito then says “I want to talk to you about Lady Darlene.” Serita interjects “Hey, I didn’t kill her…although I sure thought about it.” Narg says “Hey, beating up on evil monks is one way to keep us from getting bored.” Mojo says “Yeah, that’s your philosophy Narg. We really should find you a different hobby. Do you realize how many people would still be alive on this continent if you just learned how to read?”
Melito says that “She has actually agreed to freely tell us what her primary mission is, under one condition.” The group throws out assorted guesses “That we agree to let her go”; “That we offer her political asylum” “That we cure her”. Melito replies “No, none of those. Her only condition is that King Matthan be present when we question her. Serita says “Absolutely not. I don’t trust either one of them. I’d rather not know what her mission is than agree to that.” The rest of the party discuss the advantages and disadvantages, but Serita is adamant that “I don’t want those two together.” The party discusses the option of polymorphing someone to look like Matthan, but decide that it probably would not work. Melito says “I guess I can try to get the information from her on my own, but she is a rather powerful monk and quite resistant to pain. Plus, her deity is the Mistress of Pain so she may actually enjoy being tortured.”
Lastly they discuss contingencies in case it is discovered that they only have replica items at the preview. Lannon states “We don’t say anything unless somebody else does.” Serita says “If that happens we just state they are replicas and that the real ones won’t be put out until the auction for security reasons. We have the power here, they have to play the game by our rules.” Mojo interjects “Yeah, we’ll just says that we didn’t want any dirt bag foreigners touching our stuff.” Fiona comments “We really need to make sure that we don’t let Mojo talk.”