Author: Antony Nicklin

Session 143

2pm, 1st Day of the Council of the Marks’ Great Fayre

Chuq sends Socrates to surveil the valley, and so, whilst we wait, we take the oppurtunity to scan it ourselves with the spyglass. Little is apparent however, the trees and foliage hiding much, and we can learn nothing. Socrates returns and reports much the same, citing his continued inability to move in further than the valley’s rim.

He also hasn’t had chance to meet up with his spidery friend in the forest, a woman named Emilia. Ronan keeps his eye out for her as we walk however, and at his urging Socrates continues to watch from his perch atop Sturloc’s head.

We throw up a scrap of white cloth on a pole. much as Jagger’s bodyguards did previously, and head down into the valley. It’s roughly a mile straight shot to the tower, lengthened by the switchbacks leading down. At the gatehouse we meet Jagger’s guardsmen. They’re quite happy to see us return, especially with the Thessalhydra’s gland in tow, and allow us the promised freedom of movement throughout Jagger’s land. They warn us of the dangerous creatures within the forest, and urge we stick to the path where his gnomish master’s power can keep us safe.

We move into Jagger’s land, now within the shadows cast by the jungle’s canopy. It’s dark enough in the fading daylight to require needing light, but the path is worn and wide enough for us to walk four abreast. The walk is quiet, with no strange half-human creatures coming to assault us. A while in however, Socrates hops up and pecks at Chuq. The invisible avian has heard something, and claims he can hear Emilia’s voice.

Chuq alerts Ronan to follow him, and the thief quickly passes several questions about the strange woman through to the owl. Apparently, she can speak to the owl, and once lived with a druid and loves animals. Ronan chooses to simply shout out the woman’s name and that we’re the ‘owl’s friends’. He calls for her to approach, but she replies that she doesn’t think she can reach or even see the path, and artifact of Jagger’s magic.

Ronan steps off of the path, betwen the trees. She still cannnot see him however, but from the shouts it seems she’s a ways off. Ronan steps forward but after ten feet he completely disappears in the eyes of the rest of the party. The instant he talks however, Emilia responds from extremely close, and Ronan looks up to see a naked woman with the bottom half of a spider.

He explains a little to her about Socrates. Axel’s shouts eventually reach him, so he tries having Emilia follow him as he backs up, retracing his previous steps. There’s another sudden transition as she disappears to his eyes and the rest of the party sees him return. Then he returns to Emilia again. She isn’t friendly with any other entity in the forest, and doesn’t even know Jagger. After a little bit of experimentation, he is able to bring her through by holding onto the hand.

The spiderwoman responds to the sudden company by timidly trying to hide her lower body. Chuq steps forward in a friendly fashion, asking several questions and introducing ourselves. She remembers the time before, her house and husband, Canis. She was taken whilst out gathering food and brought north, though any other memories are gone until she found herself in the forest. She is unaware she is even still on Curmidden, and reveals that other victims like her are vastly more animalistic and dangerous. Leaving seems impossible, as the otherside of the valley seems to be endless jungle.

We offer her Axel’s spare cloak to cover her modesty better, which she gleefully accepts. Latching onto the name Canis, they ask a little more about her life, but refrain from revealing we know him. For the time, we tell her we must leave her in the jungle whilst we continue onto Jagger, and with luck we can retrieve her on our exit. We leave her with Ronan’s dagger and mark the spot where we met her.

The rest of the journey is uneventful as we count paces to measure the distance, roughly 1200 in total and perhaps little more than a half mile. Eventually we come up to a rather large curtain wall with numerous towers, perhaps octagonal in shape. Behind it are the sounds of settlement, people and animals. In the centre of it all is what must be Jagger’s tower, a collection of five small spires around a central taller one. As we approach, the gates begin to open, revealing a small welcoming party of mercenaries.

The path beyond the gate leads directly to the doors of the tower itself, moving between numerous buildings. Everything within is decorated with garlands and other festival-like things, and several other people we can see are drinking and revelling.

One of the mercenaries, Philipot, greets us jovially no behalf of ‘Master Jagger’, extending thanks for our slaying of the monster, and invites us in, leading us to our rooms before our dinner with the Master. We are led to the right, to a set of rooms near the gardens, witnessing forges and preparations for a great feast along the way. We are also invited to join the master within the theatre, where some entertainment is to be put on for a party from Xenilum’Khel, some actors and scholars from Barada Khel. Thorfus and Axel recognise that as one of the most prestigious groups from home, performing clans way above either of thier family’s stations.

The whole thing seems odd in Axel’s eyes, at least by what we know of the Jagger by legend, and if the looks and actions of the rest of the party were any indication, they felt that way too. Chuq’s mental probe doesn’t seem to turn up anything out of the ordinary however.

Still, the seem willing to house, feed, bathe, and even clothe those of us they can, and hand over the keys to some small rooms in the garden area, which are overlooked by a balcony and large window some four stories up the central tower. After this, the man leaves, with several doting servants turning up to bring hot water.

At our request, whilst waiting for Philipot to return to lead us to Jagger, a troop arrives with platters of food and drink to our lodgings for our hirelings. The group is made up of another group of mercernaries that will be heading out to collect supplies from the river in the morning, who wish to thank us for making safe their route through the jungle. Rona gifts the leader one of the scales, and we promise to tell them the story over drinks. Apparently the supplies come from one of Vargen’s guilds, with no effect from the Midmark embargo thus far.

We leave the broochy-talky with Sturloc and depart with instuctions for Sturloc to dig into the obvious affluence of the settlement. Hopefully the flowing drinks and revellry will be enough to loosen a few tongues.

After what is obviously a show-off tour of the community, we are brought back to the doors to the tower where Philipot leaves us in the hands of a houseservant. Edan notes wards upon the walls, some unfamiliar, but many obviously defensive. As we step through the door, some booming voice announces our names, except for those three wearing ESP=blocking jewellry, Chuq’s name being followed by an odd pause however.

The corridor beyond is guarded with arrowslits and decorated with statues of a gnomish spellcaster of somekind. The outstetched arms of two arch the path, above which the ceiling is decorated with an animated mural depicted scenes of battle and the creation of a tower, images of a gnome prominent amongst them, notably once manipulating a double helix. Clearing his throat, a small man announces himself as Wymark, and that he will lead us to the master.

Passing beneath the statues causes our magical equipment to glow momentarily, clearly being detected. When Axel steps through however, a gong sounds, Wymark telling him that it is responding to poison he is carrying. At the hoseservants request, the dwarf leaves behind his paralysis poison and drow-crafted bolts.

We’re led upstairs, passed several more mercenaries and into a large dining room, already occupied by an large number of finely dressed dwarfs. On entering, another small fellow stands up, fingers encrusted with rings and amazingly sporting a small lavender stone circling his head. He greets us and welcomes us to his home. Jagger.

He questions if we’d ever been to Xen’Khel, asking after if we knew Idony and requesting us to tell the story of a battle with the Thessalhydra. One of the dwarfs strikes up conversation with Axel and Thorfus, asking about our families. We are evasive, but he recognises Thorfus’ clan name, and tells us that the clan the Ironhands had supplanted, Vogelsange, brought slanderous accusations against them that caused Ironhand to be demoted again.

The feast begins, rich and plentiful. Several dishes have quite clearly come from larger than normal creatures, including what was apparently a giant lizard. Jagger and Edan briefly discuss magic, the gnome even offering access to his library.

On regaling our tale of killing the Thessalhydra, Jagger is quick to ask after hiring us. He mentions ‘cloning’, that on the otherside of the Mikhel Peaks, there is a tribe of ‘facestealers’ who supposedly capture and kill travellers, before using some method to recreate the slain and use them for their own means. He wonders if it is some leftover Dwarven technology, and is interested in use of it himself, that it could be of benefit to all. It seems he would pay well for confirmation and evidence of such, and ideally retrieval of whatever means these clones are created. Aside from that, he is interested in news from the south, which we provide a little of.

Eventually, he asks why we were here at all, wondering if we perhaps had a message from Idony. Chuq reveals we are looking for lost companion, the elderly wizard Finkleshmear, but Jagger knows nothing of him. The conversation gets turned to riches, and Jagger reveals it took ‘a dragonhoard or two’ to build is current affluence. When Chuq presses on the subject of dragons, he says he has a dragon neighbour, and even saw Myrientaxus flying above just yesterday, returning to his lair from near an old mine.

Jagger also warns us off of heading west, to Glavnone. He had let through an army of Islanders that caused some trouble with the giants there some weeks ago.

Ronan asks about the land between the tower and the outer gatehouse, which Jagger says is both a safey buffer and game preserve, to give jungle creatures a free-reign. Chuq presses a little on bioforging, and Jagger reveals that he learned from Information Cubes, alongside a machine he liberated from a rebellion, and has been practicing the art for nearly thirty years. He does reveal that bioforging is not without risk, and any boon can have tradeoffs, up to and including death in some cases. He is also able to remove changes, though with similar risks. Dwarves seemingly have some greater resistance to ill-effects however.

Edan naturally latches onto the fact that Jagger must be powering the machine somehow, which the gnome replies cagily to, although it seems he has some recepticle to channel magical power into energy.

Whilst we wait for the play to begin, Ronan broaches the subject of Emilia to Jagger. The gnome posits some excuses of impaired-judgement and extenuating circumstances, but seems intruiged and willing to restore her. It seems that he thought her a lost cause, but aware of who we are talking about and genuinely surprised she has regained her mind. The hybridisation experiment was one of going beyond natural species limitations, and arachnids was the test Emilia was a part of.

We watch the show put on by Barada Khel in Jagger’s private theatre, after having being led through an expansive, clearly magically enlarged library which is one of five, and a gallery of animated statues. The play is full of exaggeration and speculative facts, but enjoyable and educational nonetheless. The title is Kalena’Khel, or Fortress Days, and is divided into two parts:

Part One: Ancient Dwarven Engineers finish construction of the Crystal Tower, contacting Xen’Teler who commands them to conquer the world. There is debate in the Conclave, but the god’s command is accepted. Warriors, led by Marshals and Magi, sweep across the world with their mechanical abominations and defeat all resistance within a year. Once all opposition is crushed, a week-long thanksgiving celebration honoring Xen’Teler is instituted to mark this total victory on a yearly basis and remind the dwarves’ subjects of their place.

Part Two: The Ancient Dwarves fall into debauchery and mysticism, treating their subjects terribly and angering Xen’Teler. The god inspires the leaders of the rebellion to strike during the celebration and destroy the Crystal Tower, after which the empire quickly crumbles. The victorious rebels claim the holiday to remember their great victory; the dwarves continue to celebrate it to remember their hubris and praise Xen’Teler for teaching them humility.

After this, we can retire to our lodgings in good spirits, with Jagger promising Edan can come see his bioforging equipment in the morning. He seems genuinely thankful for our presence, and detours our exit to another statue gallery which sing the songs of famour singers, harmonising with each other. Ronan presses after further magical items that could be rewarded to us, of which Jagger reportedly had large number, incluing weapons, armour and even Bracers of Defence and a set of Enchanted Elfin Chain.

We decide to return tomorrow to finish discussion of rewards and see the machinery.