Session Log – 2 February 2009
Characters
Doldrum Deepthraot (Henry)
Cormin Fellblade (Mike)
Pali (Zac)
Taryn Go’vena (James)
Doldrum Deepthroat, a trollkin fell caller of kith Gordon in the Bydand kriel of the Vescheneg Headlands on the coast of Khador, arrived in Five Fingers. He checked in with Olvemir Crenichko of the Greylords Covenant, his contact in Five Fingers, then walked to the Kithgrav Bourg on Hospice Island to meet Heath Bluetongue.
Cormin Fellblade, a gun mage of Cygnar, arrived and went to Bull Island to meet his contact, Ambassador Lord Dardan Wyatt. Wyatt sent Cormin to a hotel on Captain’s Isle.
Pali, a gobber cleric of Dhunia from the wilds of Ord, walked into Five Fingers and crossed the bridge to Bull Island. His contact, Belchor Degrata, offered him a room in his brownstone.
Taryn Go’vena, monk of the Order of the Fist and mother of tree, arrived and found the small Temple of Menoth on Doleth Island. Larkin Kaddock, priest of the temple, welcomed her and told her where she could find lodging.
On 8 Solesh, 606 AR, Bastian Lattimore summoned the party to the Cutting Board restaurant of the Rivergrav District on Captain’s Isle. They met in a private room in the rear of the restaurant.
Bastian relayed the information he had available:
- Zakar Ginari, merchant of arcane, mechanikal, and Orgoth antiques with a shop in Crucible Alley on Doleth Island, had begun flooding the market with Orgoth antiques in the months before the Cryx invasion. During the invasion, Ginari’s shop on Crucible Alley had been gutted.
- Since the invasion, Ginari had not been seen in Five Fingers–but he had been seen under Five Fingers, in the company of High Captain Velter Waernuk at one of Waernuk’s Death Pits. And other merchants with links to Waernuk have been selling small Orgoth items since the invasion.
- There was another Death Pit event coming up.
Which meant that the party need to find out:
- What the Cryx had taken.
- Where they had taken it.
Thus, the first step was for the party to find Zakar Ginari. And to do that, they needed to find the date and location of the next Death Pit event. Bastian explained that deep within the Orgoth ruins below Five Fingers, Waernuk’s Death Pits take pit fighting to new levels of violence. The main event at each Death Pit features no limits on the betting, and no limits on the bloodshed.
To help get a lead on the Death Pit, Bastian told them, “There’s a gun mage I’m aware of who has done bodyguard work for some of Five Fingers’s pit fighters, though not at a Death Pit. His name is Devlin Darkmantle. Look for him at the Laden Galleon on Captain’s Isle. He’s there most nights.”
The party decided to check out Ginari’s wrecked shop, then find Devlin Darkmantle.
At Ginari’s shop Doldrum and Cormin explored the wreckage. Doldrum saw evidence that the shop had been searched recently, within the past few days. Cormin found a very well-hidden secret compartment in the floor at the rear. The compartment had a crate and a heavy book, both of them sporting complicated mechanikal locks.
Taryn talked to the owner of the shop next door, a gobber named Silk of Silk’s Dusts and Powders. Silk told her that he had seen Genari only once since the invasion. That been 6 weeks ago, in the first days after the Cryx forces had withdrawn. Genari had gone in with a box but came out empty-handed. Silk expressed his own interest in finding Genari, so he could take over the space Genari had seemingly abandoned.
Taryn and Pali waited for Cormin and Doldrum on the street across from the shop. Taryn spotted a gobber watching them and went up into the Rigs to chase the gobber down. The gobber used a smoke grenade to make his escape. Down in the street, Pali made Silk very nervous by waving fire about.
Taryn and Pali also noticed that a sausage-on-a-bun vender seemed to be interested in what they were saying to each other.
Cormin made the crate invisible so that Doldrum could carry it out of the shop without attracting attention.
After some starts and stops and lots of discussion tinged with sarcasm and tension, the party went back to the Cutting Board. There Taryn used a couple of Pali’s extra accumulators to open the locks on both the crate and the book. The crate contained a spherical metal object covered with Dodrum identified as Orgoth runes. The object had protoburances and depressions, and a flat gauge on one side. The gauge seemed to function like a compass, always pointing in a south-by-southwesterly direction, even when the gauge was held so that it was vertical.
The book proved to be a spell book and mechanikal schematic book of Genari’s.
Night became to fall, and the party considered its next move.