Episode 24: "Swing and a Miss"

Date Played: January 13, 2016

Quest Information

 * "The Library at Selihm"
 * 4 Araḫ Tišritum roughly mid-september. High 87F, low 77F. Dry season, 1% chance for light rain.
 * Kassithe, hex 0707 (Salihm in Jow-Hadan)
 * Level 5-6

Primary Cast

 * Craganor, battle cleric of Innara
 * Daric, camel merchant
 * Gimble, gnome evoker
 * Ket-Ramat, soldier-scout
 * Samman ibn Shakhs, professional pit fighter

Secondary Cast

 * Sutanku, Priest of The Way
 * Mentew, Monk of the Open Hand

Summary
Craganor wipes off his sword. "Those lizardmen are right nasty buggers". Daric, tending the battle cleric's wounds, agrees.

"Much tougher than the ones back home," says Ket. He is helping the gnome, Gimble, bandage his own abrasions.

"Hurry it up, gentlemen," Samman orders. The professional gladiator is clearly anxious. "That bald-headed sonofabitch retreated down those stairs. I'm sure he's warning whatever master he serves".

"Agreed, let's ... ", begins Ket. He does not finish his sentence, for a thin stream of flame sails forth from the stairwell, culminating in an explosion of magical fire erupting just behind the Ag-Rakade militiamen. His hair singes and his ears ring, but he manages to dodge the full brunt of it.

"I think the master has found us." booms Craganor. "Good. Hunting them down is a waste of time, let them come to us!" Raising his sword, he readies for battle.

From behind the subsiding ball of flame rushes four more Perskebethi monks, in traditional robes and topknots. Two of the martial artists surround Craganor. The speed and agility of the bald monks prove difficult for the direct, confrontational style of the cleric of Inanna. Two more try to flank Ket, but he's no slouch when it comes to agility himself, and has a better time of it.

Behind the monks comes a beautiful, well-tanned Perskebethi woman. Wearing a shirt of fine Perskebethi chain mail, and the cloak and accoutrements of a noble, she seems to be shunning her traditional sickle-swords in favor of a giant hammer. "Entauch zebin essek noor!" shouts Samman, using the Perskebethi tongue to demand an explanation for her presence in Selihm. She responds by swinging the unwieldy hammer with uncharacteristically amazing strength, narrowly missing Samman and leaving a giant divot in the stone wall. "So much for peaceful negotiations", he says as he prepares a counterattack with his own war hammer.

Daric, in customary fashion, slinks off into the shadows. Gimble follows suit, trying not to attract attention to himself, keeping an eye out for an ideal opportunity to use one of his few remaining spells. Moments later, a man in yellow robes, embroidered with mystical symbols, enters the room from the stairwell. After quickly surveying the battle, he mutters a few words of magic and hits Craganor, Ket, and Samman with rays of scorching flame.

"Argh!" Sam howls in pain. "Heflegan dir ginfle bek naswin!" "stand still you pompous bitch!" Samman cries in vain as he tries to strike a hit against the Perskebethi battle master. She continues to wield her maul with a miraculous, clearly magical, super strength. Fortunately, she's not successfully landing a blow. If she did, Samman's gladiatorial career would end right here.

Craganore and Ket have better luck. They've fought together ever since they faced the undead abomination in the abandoned city. Using oft-used tactics, they manage to take down three of the monks. At that moment, they hear a cry of pain to the left: Sam's own warhammer strikes true, knocking the warrior-woman to the ground. The fourth monk rushes to her aid.

From the stairwell, comes another figure. Wizened and old, he wears find purple robes and carries a staff. Gimble spots the newcomer, surveys the battlefield, and decides to act. "There's another wizard!" he exclaims, and uses the last of his magical power to drop a thunderwave in the midst of the battle, using his rare talent to shape the effect to spare his allies from damage. His spell misses the yellow-robed mage, but the monk is stunned unconscious, the old man is shoved into a pile of broken bookshelves, and the noblewoman is knocked to the ground. Quickly, the party surrounds her. "Vail trey nishkala!" "You must surrender", shouts Samman ibn Shakhs.

Daric draws a bead on the yellow-robed wizard with his bow, but before he can loose his arrow, the wizard casts another fireball right on top of his master! This blast was devastating to that edge of the room, mortally wounding the noblewoman, her monk ally and Craganore, Sam and Gimble. The offending wizard turns to run. Daric releases his arrow, wounding the wizard. Ket manages to catch up to the escaping mage, trying to engage in hand-to-hand combat. He is suddenly singed by scorching fire: the mage is surrounded by a magical fire shield! Frustrated, exasperated, and tired, Ket takes three steps backwards, grabs a dagger, and throws it ... straight into the mage's neck. The wizard clutches at his throat, gurgles up some blood, and falls dead to the ground. "That is enough of that," mutters the scout, before he drops to his knees in exhaustion.

-

Craganore opens his eyes. The blurry figure hovering over him comes into focus ... it is the old Perskebethi cleric. Craganore lets out a shout and reaches for his sword. The cleric opens his hands and arms (a universal, non-confrontational posture). "Relax, Crag" says Sam. "It appears he's on our side."

"Who are you, and why are you helping us, old man?" asks Ket.

"My name is Sutanku, a follower of Ptah, the Creator. As to why I am helping you, well, after you defeated my master and the wizard, Teth-nan, I saw no reason to continue. Plus, I think we are allies in a way."

"How so?"

Sutanku shoots the surviving monk a look, takes a deep breath, and explains. "My masters and their wizards are making a terrible mistake, and will likely doom us all."

"What do you mean" asks Samman.

"They threaten the Planar Boundary, and with that, the entire world."

At that, Gimble the gnome perks up. "The Perskebethi know about the Planar Boundary?"

"It is a new development. The Planar Boundary has been part of the hidden lore of Ptah from the beginning, but we were never shown the secrets. Ptah tells us this world is our world, and the gods protected it by wrapping it in the Boundary. This prevents the gods from interfering directly in our affairs. Instead, they guide it through the preachings of the faithful. Since the dawn of time, that is exactly what we did. But recently, a couple of noble Houses -- including Kir-Matad, the house of my lady Anki-nu-Esketh, whose corpse lies at your feet -- began searching for this hidden knowledge."

"If you are opposed to this, then why are you looting the library?"

The old man lets out a sigh. "When our order discovered these Houses were seeking the secret, we decided to follow along, in order to find the truth. The nobles are too pompous and self-absorbed to concern themselves with such things, and, honestly, Perskebethi mages are not wise enough to discern the secrets themselves. Someone must be behind this, a hidden influence who convinced the nobles to pursue this dangerous path. So the secret mission of the followers of Ptah is to watch, and wait, and serve, and see if we could find the real power behind this movement."

"So why do they need Eku-Zakir?"

Sutanku continues. "The wizard is famous in wizarding circles for having supposedly 'cracked' the Planar Boundary. I believe he did it entirely by accident, but to the nobles, he is the key to it all. So the lovely Lady Anki-nu Esketh was tasked with this mission to capture the wizard. She set up this slave raid as a masquerade, to send the citizenry into a panic while we snuck ashore on our own mission. We were successful, he was taken over an hour ago (and without much of a fight, I might add). He was more concerned for his fellow sages (although you can see how little those brutish lizardfolk respected that)."

"So if the wizard has already been taken, why are you still here?" asks Samman.

"Come, I'll show you." The Perskebethi cleric leads the party down the stairs at the back of the library. This room is supposedly a storage locker, but all the shelves and supplies are crudely shoved back to the walls. Along the back wall, there's a depression that looks like a door without a handle. On either side of the door is a handprint. "We think those are the handprints of Eku-Zakir. It must be his own private laboratory. We foolishly let the lizardfolk lead the wizard away, and then we discovered this room. We've been trying to break in ever since. Teth-nan tried a few spells, but this type of thing is not in his skill set. I pretended to cast a few divinations, which obviously failed to provide an answer. Finally, Lady Anki-Nu slapped on a poultice of giant strength and tried to bash down the door. Nothing works, a fact for which I am eternally grateful."

The party stand for a moment, then Ket speaks up. "OK, so what do we do now?"

Craganor: "Well, we need to find the wizard."

Daric: "It's not going to be easy. He's been taken somewhere, and apparently even this old mystic doesn't know where."

Samman says nothing, instead he stares intently at the floor, clearly deep in thought. He then stares at the old Perskebethi cleric, raises an eyebrow, and smiles. "I think I know how we're going to Eku-Zakir. We're going to sail right in, and ask them."

Outcome
The party defeats the Perskebethi noblewoman and her party. The cleric of Ptah and one of the monks survived the attack, and appear to be allied with the party. The party does feel helpless against the hordes of lizardfolk and (apparently) sahuagin, and have decided to rest and regain their strength before venturing out into the city again.

Rewards
Each party member received 5000 xp. This is enough to raise Craganor, Daric, Ebo, Gimble, Lugal, and Samman up to 6th level.

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