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Meanwhile, Blunt has spent the last few hours in the south side of the city, hunting for clues to the whereabouts of Andrik and the sword. Unfortunately, no-one seems to know anything in the south side. Getting tired of this, he returns to the Palace of Shadows. He asks the Elite Guardsman at the gate whether the others have returned. The guard says that they haven't, but allows Blunt to enter.
He finds a slaves, who kow-tows. He kicks her, then gives her a message to give to Zeal - 'he hasn't found anything and is going into no-mans land, to the old College of Astrologers, to look for the others; Zeal should leave a message with the slave, or see him later'. The slaves repeats the message back several times, but not word perfect. Blunt decides this will have to do, and leaves.
Just after Lyle and Virgil have rendezvoused with Zeal in an alley by the old College of Astrologers, Zeal sees Blunt arriving. Blunt spots Lyle and Virgil lurking there, and comes over. The plan is explained to Blunt, who persuades Lyle that they really need some more weapons, guns, explosives and similar items. Blunts favourite idea is simply to blow down the observatory tower.
Zeal stays to watch the College while Blunt, Lyle and Virgil jog off to the Great Bazaar to shop for what they want.
The three of them arrive at the Bazaar, passing through the slave market as they do. Fortunately the place is starting to wake up now as dawn nears. Thinking of picking up some more muscle power, they peruse the various gladiatorial slave merchants as they go. Outside a merchant whose sign reads 'Tharsan Slavers' they see a striking looking slave sweeping up. Him being the first slave they've seen so far, the three demand he takes them in to see the master. He does so. Inside a tented pavilion the master, Tharsan, is being fed breakfast by an attractive female slave. He is a muscular, thick-set man in his fifties, with close cropped iron-grey hair and beard.
The group explain their needs. Tharsan says that only this slave can be sold at the moment; all the others he has have been reserved by the slave masters of several nobles houses for their gladiatorial teams. He seems quite keen to get rid of this slave The slave suggests he could demonstrate his skill with the sword, and is kicked by Tharsan for his trouble, then told to demonstrate. He does so, and seems to actually be not too bad. Virgil pays two Chetrun for the slave, whose name, it turns out, is Mako Lynx. He's grossly overcharged However, Mako is now his, along with his manacles, attached to make him ready for travel.
The four, as they now are, leave Tharsan Slavers and head deeper into the Bazaar. Before very long, they have reached Armourers Street, lined with shops and stall selling all kinds of weapons and armour. They shop around. Blunt buys three grenades - small barrels of gunpowder laced with nails and shrapnel, and some extra fuse cord, just in case. He also buys blunderbuss ammunition and some extra balls and powder. Virgil buys a rapier for Mako (even though this is a highly illegal act; arming slaves is very highly frowned upon), and two daggers for himself, plus leather jerkin armour for himself and Mako. Lyle gets a shield and some pistol rounds. They are somewhat overcharged for everything, as they just don't have time to haggle. Mako is given most of the stuff to carry, but after a bit some of it is taken by the others as he is showing signs of exhaustion.
There is only about 25 minutes left until dawn, so they hurry off back into no-mans land. En route they promise Mako that if he fights well now they will give him his freedom - an almost unheard-of act. Blunt threatens that bad things will happen to him if he is cowardly.
As they jog down the filthy alleyways, Mako finds a broken beaker by the side of an alley, and fills if with filth from the open sewer down its centre. For the sake of practicality, Virgil removes his shackles.
They arrive back at Zeal's hidey hole. Nothing has happened while they've been away.
They decide to try and find the weak points of the observatory tower, and sneak over to the college wall, through one of the many gaps in it and round the rubble-strewn courtyard to the observatory tower, which abuts onto a large hall whose roof has long since fallen in, keeping to the shadows all the way. Once inside it is quickly discovered that the tower is really too big to blow up with the gunpowder they have - it is about 10 metres in diameter at the base, and nine stories tall - by far the tallest building in the area. They decide to sneak in and up instead.
The ground floor has a vaulted roof with a central pillar, and an open stone staircase running around the curve of one wall. They decide to go up. Zeal goes first to check for hazards (such as Skirion cultists).
The diameter of the tower gets smaller the higher up they go. All the floors are similar to ground floor, and seem to have been comprehensively cleared of all items. Zeal notices that although there is dust, dried leaves and other debris in the tower, having blown in through its slit windows, there is much less on the stairs than would be expected
They reach the penultimate floor without incident. Here the staircase goes up to a trapdoor, through which faint chanting can be heard. Zeal disappears down the stairs. Virgil, Blunt and Lyle plant the three barrels of gunpowder right under the trapdoor. Blunt attaches a really long fuse and they retire. However, none of them are really at all familiar with explosives, so when Blunt lights the fuse from cover, it fizzles out. Lyle peeks back up and sees this. He decides to shoot the barrels instead. He does so, and they explode violently. Lyle takes a little bit of damage from the blast, but piles up the stairs anyway, his ears ringing, followed by Blunt, Virgil and Mako.
The top two stairs have just gone, as has the trapdoor. Lyle leaps through. Up above, it seems to be the roof of the observatory tower, which is considerably wider than the floor below. It shows the remains of a dome, but is otherwise open to the sky. There are five Skirion cultists up there, all with their swords drawn, plus an altar decked out to the sun god, and a number of large candlesticks. One of the cultists is holding the Sword of Skirion. Lyle focuses on him.
"Go back," demands the man with the Sword. Blunt fires his blunderbuss towards him, using the top of the stairs for cover, but he dodges the direct blast, being only winged by its edge, along with another cultist.
Mako acrobatically slips past Blunt and up onto the roof (spilling quiet a lot of his cup of filth as he does so, some over Blunt), then launches himself at one of the cultists.
Lyle and the cultist with the Sword of Skirion swing at one another. Lyle manages to deflect the blow with his shield (which is cut deeply by the Sword), but the cultist is cut down; the Sword skitters off across the roof. Lyle goes to grab it.
Mako attacks the cultist. He misses, but the cultist slashes him. Fortunately his leather jerkin protects him from harm.
Blunt comes up onto the roof and goes over to the altar. He sees that it is only a trestle table (presumably because it had to be carried up nine floors!), so grabs it and up-ends it, hitting one cultist.
Virgil shoots at one of the cultists, but misses.
The Sword of Skirion lands at the feet of another cultist. Lyle drops his sword, draws his pistol but unfortunately doesn't have time to shoot at the cultist. The cultist picks up the Sword and leaps at Lyle. Lyle's shield takes another severe beating as the Sword cuts deeply into it.
Blunt attacks the cultist who was hit by the altar with his dagger, stabbing him deeply in the belly. He staggers back seriously wounded but strikes back at Blunt with his sword. Blunt is hit badly across the face just below the eyes, and falls over unconscious.
Mako attacks his cultist again, misses again, and is hit again. His armour protects him again, but is now damaged sufficiently that it no longer provides any protection.
Virgil shoots again, and misses again.
Lyle shoots at the cultist with the Sword, but misses. The cultist swings at him, into his shield, and cuts into his arm.
Blunt bleeds a lot.
Virgil shoots yet again, and misses yet again.
Mako throws the remains of the beaker of sewage at his opponent, momentarily covering his eyes and causing a scratch on his head from the sharp broken edges of the beaker. Mako screams at the cultist and attacks, slashing across his upper arm.
Lyle attempts to grapple the Sword of Skirion from his opponent, and succeeds; the cultist seems much weaker than him. The Sword feels good in his hand.
Mako attacks the cultist with the belly wound from behind, stabbing him in the back.
The cultist Virgil has been shooting at comes for him, sword at the ready. Virgil shoots again, this time hitting him in the throat; the cultist falls down, instantly dead.
Lyle tells the cultists to surrender. The refuse, so he attacks another of them, slashing him across the chest.
Mako attacks the wounded cultist in the back again. He falls over unconscious.
Lyle dodges the repeated attacks of one of the cultists, then attacks back. The cultist falls to the floor, unconscious. The last cultist leaps at him and misses. Virgil shoots him, but the cultist is still standing, so Lyle grabs him and knocks him out with the hilt of his sword.
Silence descends. The sun starts to peek over the horizon.
Zeal reappears from below, and picks up some rags from the floor; they look like the ones the Sword was wrapped in previously. She tells Lyle to cover the Sword before the sun hits it, but too late. The first rays of the sun strike the sword, and it seems to glow with golden fire for an instant before it is covered up. Its glow fades
The group takes stock of the situation. Three of the cultists are unconscious. Blunt is vary badly hurt, and Lyle has taken a bad wound to the abdomen. Two of the surviving cultists are sacrificed to heal Blunt, who comes round. Before Blunt can stop him, Virgil sacrifices the last to heal Lyle. Blunt lambastes him for throwing away such a potentially valuable source of information, the searches the bodies of the cultists.
They have weapons, the tiny red-enamelled gold discs of Skirion, and bags of cash. One wears a signet ring of House Sable, one of the noble houses of Umbra. All the items are taken.
The group leaves the college and head quickly back to the Great Bazaar. They quickly hail a 4-wheeled cab, directing the driver to take them to a side gate of the Palace of Shadows. En route, with the cab pushing its way through the crowded streets, Virgil heals the last of Blunt's wounds using Mako's life force. Mako looks unwell, but at least he's not dead.
Once this is done Virgil signs Mako's papers, and gives them to him. Mako is now a free man. However, he does still have a slave mark on his cheek.
Eventually the cab reaches the Palace. They show their identification to the Elite Guards on duty, and are let in. A passing slave is kicked by Mako (revelling in his freedom), then ordered to escort them to Lord Avran; he does so.
On the way they run into the Master of Slaves. He asks if the group was successful in their endeavours; they show the head of Andrik, and mention that they did successfully recover the Sword. He asks of there is anything else he can do to assist, but the group politely decline. The Master of Slaves asks about Mako, and is very surprised when he learns that he has been freed - "I cannot remember such a thing happening in my lifetime," he exclaims.
The group say their farewells, and carry on. After a little while they arrive at the ante-room with many corridors opening onto it outside Lord Avran's rooms, where they waited previously. They wait again while the slave who escorted them here knocks on the iron inner door.
The same scantily clad female servant as before opens the door; this time she is also wearing a wide choker about her neck. The two slaves whisper together and the female slave bows and ducks back inside. The door closes. A few minutes later she returns and asks the group to enter. Lyle suggests that Mako waits, but the female slave says he is to go in also. They all enter Avrans rooms.
As before they are led into the huge, dark office with the empty fireplace. Lord Avran stands behind the desk, and asks the group to sit. There are three armchairs, one stool, and one low stool. Hey sit. Mako takes the lowest stool. Lord Avran asks to whom the slave belongs. Virgil tells him that he is now a free man. Like the Master of Slaves, Lord Avran seems very surprised and taken aback by this revelation.
Lord Avran asks if the group was successful. They pull the heads of Andrik and the member of House Sable they killed at the observatory tower from their sacks, and Lyle goes to give the Sword to Avran. Avran tells him to put it on the desk, and unwrap it. Lyle does so. Avran examines it, and looks satisfied, then tells Lyle to re-wrap it. Lyle does this, too.
Virgil describes what happened. Avran asks that the bodies of all the people killed are recovered, then requests that we assist in returning the sword to its place in the Hall of Trophies. He leads the group through the halls of the Palace and to the Hall of Trophies. Lyle carries the Sword. Lanterns are lit, and he leads the group to the Sword's case. Lyle replaces the Sword there, and Avran closes and locks the case. They leave.
As they go, Zeal, looking back, notices the Sword glowing very faintly in the darkness. Oh course, she doesn't know whether it did that before...
The group borrow a meat wagon from the Palace and collect the bodies of Andrik and the Skirion cultists, then return to the Palace.
Avran meets them upon their return, and thanks them for their actions. He says that their assorted debts to him are now completely cleared. Mako is simply told to keep quiet about the whole affair. He agrees to do so (sensibly!).
Lord Avran turns and strides off into the darkness of the Palace of Shadows, leaving the group there in the corridor
The World of Dran | Feel of the World | History | Inhabitants of Dran | Larger Universe | Magic
Personalities | Science and Technology | Society of Dran | Spirit World | Home
Game Notes 1 | Game Notes 2 | Game Notes 3
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Copyright © Tony Jones, 2007.
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