KK-01 The Wilders

[Kenneth New]

Introduction

The Amateur Games have ended and there are two weeks before the start of the Spell Duelling Competition. Winter break ends in a few days and students have begun streaming back into town for the start of the Spring Semester at the University of Karthis. Snow covers the streets. People scurry quickly about their business, anxious not to be too long in the blustery weather. A new year begins in the City of Gates.

The current date: 5th day of First Month, 3175 of the 4th Cycle.

Notes:

School begins on the 2nd day of the first full week after Midwinter Day. In the year 3175, this is the 9th day of First Month.

[John Niska]

The Wilders

Noted Names:
• Kathen Mellander (2nd year student, friend of Alana)
• Mirial Frastovan (mother of Alana)
• Alana Karrister (2nd year student)
• Alric Tanniver (Alana’s boyfriend)
• Elmera Fallon (student of Illusion, Alana’s roommate)
• Melina Numorian (Alric’s old girlfriend)
• Rowena Cutler (Liberal Arts student, friend of Alana)
• Cordelia Fallon (Engineering student, friend of Alana)
• Black Suede (musical group playing at the Pussywillow)
• Ferris Brax (guitarist of Black Suede, boyfriend of Elmera)
• The Kierally’s (brother and sister, flute and violin players of Black Suede)
• Ganelorn Romilar (Highly ranked in Karthian Syndicate.)
• Delaster (Extremely powerful mage, went on planar expedition, never returned.)
• Kelvis (man trapped for six years in Orb of the Maze)

Noted Locations:
• Bung Stop Tavern (student hang-out)
• Pussywillow Tavern (has a dance floor)
• Weasel’s Lair Tavern
• Red Wyvern House (college social house)
• Silver Lion House (college social house)
• Romilar Estate (crimelord’s domicile)

The story starts in the Bung Stop Tavern, a popular hang-out for poor students. An older woman is arguing with a college student. The woman, Mirial Frastovan, is very pregnant. The student says he hasn’t seen her since the end of quarter. She says here next stop is the investigators. After she leaves, the student, Kathen Mellander, tells us that the woman is looking for her daughter, Alana Karrister. She hasn’t been seen since the end of last quarter and she did not go home.

A sorcerer named Istivan and a bard a named Ladro, convinced the woman that we could find her daughter for a reward of 1000sp. The rest of our group are gathered together to investigate. After some time asking around, it seems the group of Alana, Rowena, Cordelia, and Elmera were into some trouble. It seems they had some extra money as Alana gave a very nice piece of jewelry to Alric and Elmera bought masterwork instruments for the Black Suede musicians. After a little more footwork, we discovered that Elmera had been asking around about Ganelorn Romilar of the Syndicate. Romilar is very wealthy and very dangerous but he and his family as well as a bunch of his men are out of Karthis for the winter. We surmised Alana and her friends were performing some burglaries and decided to try Romilar’s place. As they were all missing, they may have been caught and either executed or held prisoner in Romilar’s place.

We decided to break in and see if we could find them. We were lucky and managed to get to the lower level of the place which included an office and a vault. We ransacked the office and then headed into the shielded vault. We found many works of art as well as a bag of tools. There was an orb on a pedestal and as we studied it, we discovered it was magical. Examining the orb, it was determined that it was one of the legendary orbs of Delaster (a powerful mage). It was the Orb of the Maze and we surmised the women must be trapped within the deadly orb. The Orb held a demi-plane of a massive, multi-level maze. We knew that there must be a way in and a way out.

We figured out how to enter the Orb of the Maze and started to find the missing women. After an encounter or two with rats, we found a man named Kelvis. He had been imprisoned in the orb six years ago. He agreed to help us as he had found the way out but he could not get past the door. Eventually, we found the body of one of the women. Shortly after that, we found two of the group still alive but badly wounded. We managed to keep them alive and then we bedded down for the night.

In the morning, we continued making our way to the large fungal garden, as Kelvis told us it was the only way to get to the exit. Barely surviving a fungal attack, we descended the shaft to the exit. There was a puzzle on the exit that had to do with the golden spiral which someone remembered as they had studied engineering in school.

We reappeared in the vault and started to make our way out. Kelvis took the lead and he knocked out any servant we came across and killed any criminal he met. We forgot to grab the orb in our haste to escape the crimelord’s estate but we did bring some of the stolen artwork out of the vault and concealed it on the grounds so it could be detected by the authorities. We went to a temple for healing, wishing we had insurance. After the healing, we went to the authorities to report the incident. We also slapped ourselves in the head as there was a reward for the recovery of the orb. The bureaucrat informed us that we should register as ‘mercenary adventurers’, which we did. The next stop was Alana’s mother to collect our reward. We were completely addle-pated as we didn’t take advantage of telling the story to Ms. Frastovan, as she may have increased our reward due to the difficulty of the rescue.