Still The 26th Of Bloom
I take Taevel and Seanus to the market to buy some store-clerk style clothes. Not being much into shopping, Tharn and Charnoth interview bodyguards for the shop while Archinemus and Calista run the store. Customers don’t seem to trust us as much as they did Myraeth – I guess these things take a while. Goldshield agents arrive to explain that the city pays them to watch out for magic-using thieves (those who would enter the shop invisibly and charm the clerk into giving away merchandise).
27th Of Bloom
Today it’s my turn to guard the shop while the litorians interview more bodyguard candidates. Tharn and Charnoth both seem to be in love with an applicant named Dessa, a tough litorian monk. However, they instead come back with Jora Deepblade as our store’s new dwarf bodyguard. She’s impressive. But Tharn is pining for Dessa – maybe she’ll join us on our search for the kidnapped litorians.
Some bruisers and a scary scaly guy in a cape (a troglodyte, I later learn) come in and claim that Myraeth made a deal with Kevris Killraven, which meant we owed protection money. What a racket! We learn from Myraeth himself that he never made any such deal with the Killraven Crime League. Instead, he set things up with the Sisterhood of Silence to keep criminals away. They keep tabs on all magic items owned in the city, it seems. (There’s a big job!) Although the Mother Superior is spiteful, difficult, and hateful, he encourages us to renew his deal with her, for the good of the store. That means meeting with her and allowing her to investigate us. Feeling a little intimidated, we send a message to the Mother Superior at the Priory of Introspection.
Interlude
The undead of the Blood Pool in Cordaris are apparently vanquished, the Dream of Death killer is safely incarcerated, and the Slave City is once again free. Myraeth’s Oddities is under new management, and it’s even staffed with new employees.
Now, we turn our attention to the dark elf wizard Shilukar, hiding somewhere in the city. A large bounty rests upon his head for burglaries and other unpleasantness, but we know he also holds the key to freeing Lord Abbercombe from his magical stasis, a task the lords of Castle Shard are most interested to see accomplished. That magical stasis, you’ll remember, is the result of some item that Shilukar used, based on divinations performed after we liberated Lord Abbercombe.
We also know that Shilukar has a personal relationship with Biesta, the half-elf sister of Linech, a distasteful drug smuggler with a very messed-up family. She’s a well-known gadabout in the local taverns and, from what we’ve seen, probably a shivvel addict. Apparently, Shilukar gave Lord Abbercombe to Linech, who in turn let the golden lord fall into our hands without a struggle.
We have heard rumors that Shilukar has – perhaps in disguise as a Shoal elf – been asking around about strange types of technology. Is he using all the gold gained from his robberies, aided apparently by a number of gnolls (infrequent visitors to Ptolus, to say the least), for some other scheme? We know that he has sold many of his ill-gotten gains through a human fence named Ammel Dar.
Kanagi the forlaran apparently knows a few dark elves in the city and after we helped her escape from her would-be slayer, she has agreed to take us to one named Esaer (which sounds like a false name to our ears – too Elvish).
27th Of Bloom
Today we go to Marin’s, a bar in the Guildsman District, to find Kanagi. Not the most savory place I’ve ever been in, that’s for sure. We find her surrounded by admirers and plan to meet her the next day at noon at the Mane to go see her dark elf acquaintance. While at the bar, we see another litorian, one by the name of Maroth. Charnoth doesn’t get to chat with him, though, as he’s off in the forest outside of town mediating. He really doesn’t seem to like it here too much.
28th Of Bloom
We meet Kanagi so she can take us to Esaer. We enter the Warrens, the worst part of town, and make our way to a two-story building. Esaer is a dark elf with burn scars all over his hands. He wants to know who we are, but all we tell him is that we need help finding Shilukar. Not a friendly character, but I think he’ll help us – for one hundred gold coins. He takes us up to meet Ielenna, a matron who wants Shilukar dead (apparently, Shilukar’s from House Vrama, but betrayed even them). Ielenna is of House Yurganth. Three years ago, she said, the fortress of House Vrama (Ul-Drakkan) was destroyed, but Shilukar sifted through the rubble and found magic items galore, and something called chaositech too. He now seeks even more for some scheme of his own. He found an idol of Ravvan the Beast-God, which may be a conduit to Ravvan’s realm. These items make him extra powerful. The idol was likely there to appease the dark elves’ bugbear and gnoll servants.
She said Shilukar lives in the Guildsman District near Delver’s Hole. She said we must traverse the interior of the hole almost to the bottom to find his lair. She warns us that he has many guardians – mostly gnolls, but also some critters that he’s created. Ielenna offers to show us a secret way in. What does she want in return? Shilukar’s head. We agree.
Back at the shop, Killraven’s troglodyte agent returns to threaten us again. What a nasty, smelly guy! He claims that his friends will put us out of business unless we pay up. Somehow, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of him.
After dark falls, a sneaky guy in ash-grey robes approaches the shop with hell hounds, a wizard, and two archers. They wound us and even manage to poison us with those damn arrows, but we haven’t spent all that time down in Cordaris for nothing. We send them packing. However, we will need to heal up for a little while before we go after Shilukar.
I never would have thought that shopkeeping could be as dangerous as adventuring!
