Post by hubertbartels on Jan 18, 2020 14:50:17 GMT -5
The party left Kuratown behind, headed north for Starfall. The weather was cool but clear, the snow from the blizzard melting into mud. A day later, they ran into a caravan also headed for Starfall. The caravan was eight large wagons filled with beer and wheat, run by Boros, a human and Fattail, an overweight ratfolk. Fattail recognized the various members of the party though their descriptions from Redtooth in Scrapwall so he invited them to travel with the wagons.
Each night was clear, cold and with thousands of stars glittering in the sky, The party saw none of it because they retired each night to their Magnificent Mansion.
A week or so later, the caravan arrived at Starfall. Armed with advice from Boros and Fattail, they took protections before entering the city. They hid their technological items in a bag of holding and then hid the magical aura of the bag with a mystical aura. In this way, the party was able to avoid the Technic League’s seizing of their items.
The Street of Lights was Starfall’s main road, running from the city gates to Starfall’s other gate – the one leading to Silvermount. To the right of the garishly bright street was Sovereign’s Reach, with its homes of the wealthy and the hill on which were placed the Palace of the Fallen Star and the Technic League headquarters. On the left were the poorer quarters that made up Killbox.
The Street of Lights was very crowded with people, wagons and Technic League patrols. Bars, brothels and drug dens competed for customers. It was a good place to begin the search for information,
In an expensive bar called the Jeweled Cup, the party heard various rumors – that the Mockery was the resistance movement in Starfall, that since Ozmyn Zaidow’s taken control of the Technic League, he been pushing them to do more research and things have gotten worse, that the Black Sovereign – Kevoth-Kul- no longer leads Numeria but he’s a drug-addled wastrel that hangs out in the Palace of the Fallen Stars.
In response to an inquiry, the bartender at the Jeweled Cup loudly replies he knows nothing. Eramus notes the sudden interest of two gentlemen in the back and returns to the party’s table. A waitress arrives with a fresh round of drinks and slips a piece of paper to the bard. Carefully unwrapping the paper, he reads, ‘Scalehouse Court, Killbox’.
The party decides to leave the Street of Light and head into Killbox. The streets are dirty and narrow. The buildings are small and run-down. But by asking questions, they ended up in a 5-way crossing of streets that had a substantial building at one end with a wagon scale in front of it. Around it were various storefronts and a single bar – the Worksman’s Rest. Here, they entered, bought beer and waited.
After an hour, the party started to leave. At the exit, a young girl ran up to Istovar and whispered into his ear, “Weaver’s End – the Sleazy Goat” before disappearing down a narrow alley.
After more searching and questioning, the party found themselves standing in front of a shack at the far end of Killbox. Inside, there were a few drunkards, quickly sliding into a alcohol coma and a tall dark sitting on a broken barrel, nursing a drink. The party sat on various broken boxes and waited.
The dark man finally stood up and told them his name was Drak-Mok and he could get them a meeting with the Mockery if they wished.
When they agreed, Drak-Mok took them on another bewildering route of buildings, alleyways and doors to a tenement building. When they had entered a room at the back, he turned to them. “Welcome to the hideout of the Mockery – and I, the Mockery, greet you.”
He explained that rumors of the things that they had done in Scrapwall had reached them and he had wanted to make contact. The round-about route they took was to shake off trackers. Drak-Mok needs their help.
His tribal leader – Kevoth-Kul – conquered Starfall and the Technic League years ago. But the mages of the Technic League got him addicted to various distilled fluids from the wrecked space ship. Now he’s stoned most of the time and his tribe in Starfall have grown complacent. The Technic League keeps the Black Sovereign drugged while they run the country.
Drak-Mol wants his chief freed from his addiction – and he thinks he knows how to do it. If the drugs the League has been getting from a local druglord could be diluted or rendered harmless, Kevoth-Kul would go into withdrawal and start shaking off the effects. Then Kevoth-Kul would become aware of how the Technic League has been leading him and take action.
Since Ozmyn Zaidow has taken over, they’ve been getting the drugs from a druglord at the Red Reaver drug den. Drak-Mok had two men watching the place but they recently died in a freakish accident – perhaps caused by the Black Seers. The Black Seers are a group of Zyphus worshippers up at the palace.
He needs help getting into the Red Reaver and neutralizing the drugs bound for Kevoth-Kul. The party agrees. They approached the building in mid-morning when they knew the place would be almost empty. Turning invisible, they followed a fat businessman inside. The Red Reaver was divided into a front lobby, a long hallway bordered by small rooms where customers partook of the drugs and a back door. A young Tian woman greeted the businessman, gave him a laced pipe and showed him into a curtained room. She took his money and put it into a locked drawer, using a key tied around her neck.
Eramus tried to cut the key from her neck. She noticed it, screamed and ran to the front door, locking it.
Amelina had gone to the back door, opened it and found it opened to a cybernetics lab. A second door revealed an alchemical lab where a thin, discolored Forsaken elf was preparing a box for shipment. Istovar was called over and when the elf had left the room, cast ‘Purify Food and Drink’ on the box, removing any effect that drugs might have had. Calling everyone together, Istovar then cast ‘Word of Recall’ to bring everyone back to the Mockery’s safehouse.
Back at the Mockery’s Headquarters, Drak-Mok had a solution for another of the party’s problems. They had a fair of technological items to sell and the official Technical League buyers would only give them a pittance. By approaching a acquaintance of Drak-Mok’s, they might be able to sell their items quietly at a ‘Night Market’, an underground market to buy and sell technological items.
To get to ‘Baron’ Drund’s house, the party had to leave Killbox, cross the Street of Lights and wander up into the Sovereign’s Reach quarter. This was a much nicer district. At the house, the party was shown upstairs into Drund’s office. He told them that next Night Market was tonight and they were welcome to bring their stuff. He was also selling – including a rare item that would be very expensive. Baron Drund also sold them a number of ‘carrier badges’ that would allow them to carry technological items openly in the streets.
That night, they set their booth in the courtyard along with the other vendors – and sold all their surplus stuff. Baron Drund unveiled his expensive item – and Amelina and Astrovel were horrified to find out it was a man-portable Extinction Wave Device. A quick examination of the device shown that it could kill everything sentient within a 1000 to 4000 feet radius. It could be triggered by using the remote trigger.
As the party were discussing what to do. ‘The Shade’ and several Technic League soldiers showed up. 'The Shade' was a Technic League Captain who was interested in the device but balked at the 123,000 gp price tag. She tried to persuade Baron Drund to gift it to her and when that failed, she had her soldiers open fire.
Eramus caught most of them in a Prismatic Spray, greatly weakening them, blinding a few, and restraining 'The Shade' and several of her soldiers. The battle continued a little longer but they were unable to shake the initial effects of the first spell.
From a street, sounds came of more people approaching. Taking advantage of the shock of the violence, the party quickly stuffed the Extinction Wave Device and the body of 'The Shade' into a bag of holding. Amelina, who had gone out to see who was coming, reported back that a tall woman with skin of a blue color was coming.
A quick ‘Word of Recall’ and the party was back in the Mockery’s safehouse. While looking at the Extinction Wave Device, a communicator on 'The Shade'’s rang.
A voice asked who they were – and said the device they had was very dangerous and needed to be destroyed. When the party said they would try to dismantle it – the voice said she hoped they would do it far away from Starfall in case something went wrong. She gave her name as Zernebeth, another Technic League Captain and told the party, she would be leaving some items in a cache in a part of Killbox – someone there could cast a spell from a scroll right? She would be in contact with them again.
Upon discovering the cache that Zernebeth left, the party found a scroll of ‘Disintegrate’ and an encrypted communicator set to her frequencies among the other useful items. Astrovel used the chance to add it to his spellbook.
Each night was clear, cold and with thousands of stars glittering in the sky, The party saw none of it because they retired each night to their Magnificent Mansion.
A week or so later, the caravan arrived at Starfall. Armed with advice from Boros and Fattail, they took protections before entering the city. They hid their technological items in a bag of holding and then hid the magical aura of the bag with a mystical aura. In this way, the party was able to avoid the Technic League’s seizing of their items.
The Street of Lights was Starfall’s main road, running from the city gates to Starfall’s other gate – the one leading to Silvermount. To the right of the garishly bright street was Sovereign’s Reach, with its homes of the wealthy and the hill on which were placed the Palace of the Fallen Star and the Technic League headquarters. On the left were the poorer quarters that made up Killbox.
The Street of Lights was very crowded with people, wagons and Technic League patrols. Bars, brothels and drug dens competed for customers. It was a good place to begin the search for information,
In an expensive bar called the Jeweled Cup, the party heard various rumors – that the Mockery was the resistance movement in Starfall, that since Ozmyn Zaidow’s taken control of the Technic League, he been pushing them to do more research and things have gotten worse, that the Black Sovereign – Kevoth-Kul- no longer leads Numeria but he’s a drug-addled wastrel that hangs out in the Palace of the Fallen Stars.
In response to an inquiry, the bartender at the Jeweled Cup loudly replies he knows nothing. Eramus notes the sudden interest of two gentlemen in the back and returns to the party’s table. A waitress arrives with a fresh round of drinks and slips a piece of paper to the bard. Carefully unwrapping the paper, he reads, ‘Scalehouse Court, Killbox’.
The party decides to leave the Street of Light and head into Killbox. The streets are dirty and narrow. The buildings are small and run-down. But by asking questions, they ended up in a 5-way crossing of streets that had a substantial building at one end with a wagon scale in front of it. Around it were various storefronts and a single bar – the Worksman’s Rest. Here, they entered, bought beer and waited.
After an hour, the party started to leave. At the exit, a young girl ran up to Istovar and whispered into his ear, “Weaver’s End – the Sleazy Goat” before disappearing down a narrow alley.
After more searching and questioning, the party found themselves standing in front of a shack at the far end of Killbox. Inside, there were a few drunkards, quickly sliding into a alcohol coma and a tall dark sitting on a broken barrel, nursing a drink. The party sat on various broken boxes and waited.
The dark man finally stood up and told them his name was Drak-Mok and he could get them a meeting with the Mockery if they wished.
When they agreed, Drak-Mok took them on another bewildering route of buildings, alleyways and doors to a tenement building. When they had entered a room at the back, he turned to them. “Welcome to the hideout of the Mockery – and I, the Mockery, greet you.”
He explained that rumors of the things that they had done in Scrapwall had reached them and he had wanted to make contact. The round-about route they took was to shake off trackers. Drak-Mok needs their help.
His tribal leader – Kevoth-Kul – conquered Starfall and the Technic League years ago. But the mages of the Technic League got him addicted to various distilled fluids from the wrecked space ship. Now he’s stoned most of the time and his tribe in Starfall have grown complacent. The Technic League keeps the Black Sovereign drugged while they run the country.
Drak-Mol wants his chief freed from his addiction – and he thinks he knows how to do it. If the drugs the League has been getting from a local druglord could be diluted or rendered harmless, Kevoth-Kul would go into withdrawal and start shaking off the effects. Then Kevoth-Kul would become aware of how the Technic League has been leading him and take action.
Since Ozmyn Zaidow has taken over, they’ve been getting the drugs from a druglord at the Red Reaver drug den. Drak-Mok had two men watching the place but they recently died in a freakish accident – perhaps caused by the Black Seers. The Black Seers are a group of Zyphus worshippers up at the palace.
He needs help getting into the Red Reaver and neutralizing the drugs bound for Kevoth-Kul. The party agrees. They approached the building in mid-morning when they knew the place would be almost empty. Turning invisible, they followed a fat businessman inside. The Red Reaver was divided into a front lobby, a long hallway bordered by small rooms where customers partook of the drugs and a back door. A young Tian woman greeted the businessman, gave him a laced pipe and showed him into a curtained room. She took his money and put it into a locked drawer, using a key tied around her neck.
Eramus tried to cut the key from her neck. She noticed it, screamed and ran to the front door, locking it.
Amelina had gone to the back door, opened it and found it opened to a cybernetics lab. A second door revealed an alchemical lab where a thin, discolored Forsaken elf was preparing a box for shipment. Istovar was called over and when the elf had left the room, cast ‘Purify Food and Drink’ on the box, removing any effect that drugs might have had. Calling everyone together, Istovar then cast ‘Word of Recall’ to bring everyone back to the Mockery’s safehouse.
Back at the Mockery’s Headquarters, Drak-Mok had a solution for another of the party’s problems. They had a fair of technological items to sell and the official Technical League buyers would only give them a pittance. By approaching a acquaintance of Drak-Mok’s, they might be able to sell their items quietly at a ‘Night Market’, an underground market to buy and sell technological items.
To get to ‘Baron’ Drund’s house, the party had to leave Killbox, cross the Street of Lights and wander up into the Sovereign’s Reach quarter. This was a much nicer district. At the house, the party was shown upstairs into Drund’s office. He told them that next Night Market was tonight and they were welcome to bring their stuff. He was also selling – including a rare item that would be very expensive. Baron Drund also sold them a number of ‘carrier badges’ that would allow them to carry technological items openly in the streets.
That night, they set their booth in the courtyard along with the other vendors – and sold all their surplus stuff. Baron Drund unveiled his expensive item – and Amelina and Astrovel were horrified to find out it was a man-portable Extinction Wave Device. A quick examination of the device shown that it could kill everything sentient within a 1000 to 4000 feet radius. It could be triggered by using the remote trigger.
As the party were discussing what to do. ‘The Shade’ and several Technic League soldiers showed up. 'The Shade' was a Technic League Captain who was interested in the device but balked at the 123,000 gp price tag. She tried to persuade Baron Drund to gift it to her and when that failed, she had her soldiers open fire.
Eramus caught most of them in a Prismatic Spray, greatly weakening them, blinding a few, and restraining 'The Shade' and several of her soldiers. The battle continued a little longer but they were unable to shake the initial effects of the first spell.
From a street, sounds came of more people approaching. Taking advantage of the shock of the violence, the party quickly stuffed the Extinction Wave Device and the body of 'The Shade' into a bag of holding. Amelina, who had gone out to see who was coming, reported back that a tall woman with skin of a blue color was coming.
A quick ‘Word of Recall’ and the party was back in the Mockery’s safehouse. While looking at the Extinction Wave Device, a communicator on 'The Shade'’s rang.
A voice asked who they were – and said the device they had was very dangerous and needed to be destroyed. When the party said they would try to dismantle it – the voice said she hoped they would do it far away from Starfall in case something went wrong. She gave her name as Zernebeth, another Technic League Captain and told the party, she would be leaving some items in a cache in a part of Killbox – someone there could cast a spell from a scroll right? She would be in contact with them again.
Upon discovering the cache that Zernebeth left, the party found a scroll of ‘Disintegrate’ and an encrypted communicator set to her frequencies among the other useful items. Astrovel used the chance to add it to his spellbook.