Christmas in Culdin
A month after the adventure of Condros and the Copper Dragon in Boruth, Eltana felt Blade hungering for some coastal fish. So, she set off for Culdin. Erannar and Dreneil, meanwhile, had taken up residence in the Elftown district of Culdin. Erannar was entrusted with the care of an eagle, and Dreneil tamed a cougar and rescued it from its destination at the circus.
Meanwhile, Starq was approached by a fellow-sorcerer, Tupman Hoarhollow, and asked to officiate at a sorcerers’ duel that afternoon. Starq went to Elftown to recruit Dreneil as the second officer. Over lunch and between rescuing the neighbor’s chickens from the cougar, Starlight, Dreneil invited Erannar along as well.
Down at the docks with Blade, Eltana ran into a fair-haired Halfling distressed over the loss of her theater ticket. Eltana helped her look for it but they couldn’t find it. The woman, Merilee, thanked her for her trouble, and continued to lament that her boyfriend was also fighting a magic duel that afternoon and would probably be late for the show. Eltana expressed interest in the duel, so Merilee told her how to get to the dueling field.
Despite taking a few wrong turns, Dreneil and Erannar finally found the sorcerers’ dueling field, behind The Wandrous Inn and Bar. There they found their friends Starq and Eltana and an outrageously garbed Halfling. Tupman was wearing aqua striped pants, and explaining the proceedings to Starq. During the greetings, the other contender silently arrived: a black-eyed, black-haired Halfling with two similar looking officers. Being asked what the offence was, Tupman explained that in the Inn last night, Koru’s (the other Halfling’s) lizard familiar had shocked and injured his own cat familiar, making his cat sulk and refuse to leave the house to come visit his girlfriend. He was also a little nervous because he’d had to spend one of his most powerful spells finding their theater tickets.
Starq read the rules for the duel. The main point of them was that only raw magical talent was to be used, and no kind of weapon or magical device. The duel began with a flourish of colors from Tupman, avoided by the carefully preparing Koru. Spells flung back and forth, but the casters were nimbler than their spells, and nobody gained an edge. Finally, Tupman struck with a ray of fire. Koru, his face unreadable, again left Tupman unharmed. Tupman grew to twice his size, but then seemed suddenly afraid. Koru advanced on him and shocked him with electricity. Tupman reacted in surprise – “How do you know that spell?” – and stepped back. Koru shocked him again, and this time Tupman crumpled. Koru declared himself the winner, and Eltana rushed forward to revive Tupman.
Through all this, Starq and Dreneil saw that all the moves were fair; yet, Starq was suspicious enough to ask Koru how he had learned that spell. Koru convinced Starq that it was granted by his familiar, which also had electrical powers.
The party was unsatisfied, but turned to Tupman. They took him to the inn and healed him a bit. Tupman woke up and told them that Koru had been cheating and very surreptitiously using a wand during the last two rounds of the duel. They left him to the innkeeper’s ample care (Tupman was a good customer).
They went to Koru’s house, near the sorcerer’s School, and knocked on the door. Koru asked them what they wanted. They challenged him with the use of the wand; he told them the time for challenges was past and the duel had been decided.
The party eventually decided to ask Condros what to do. Condros told them to ask the chief Diviner at the school for adjudication, giving them his own opinion of duels in the meantime. They went to school and got in a long line for the Diviner’s Information Desk. While in the line, they felt themselves being jostled and noticed the two Koru-looking officers from the duel. Indignant, Eltana through a tanglefoot bag at the archer, which stuck her to the ground, and Erannar shot the swordsman. The swordsman started raising a cry for help, which was seconded by Koru, who was standing on the other side of the party. Dreneil tied up the archer, but the School enforcers came to break up the fight. The archer tried to convince the guards that she had tripped and bumped into the line by accident, but they didn’t believe her. They took the two off to a room for questioning, but not before the archer had claimed it was all Koru’s fault, so they took him in too.
Erannar and Eltana went with the enforcers to investigate; when they explained the situation with the duel, the enforcers sent them all to Oshi, the duel diviner and adjudicator. Starq and Dreneil stayed in line, and the Diviner directed them to Oshi as well. Oshi determined that the duel’s honor had, in fact, been breached, and sentenced Koru to five days in jail. Koru was searched, and was revealed to have 20 gold pieces, a house key, and a note on him. The note said “Note to self: wear your hat inside.” The enforcers gave the key to the party, telling them they were only too happy to let someone else search a sorcerer’s house – they tended to have more nasty magical traps than they were worth.
The party finally decided that they would try to get into the play Tupman and Merilee were watching. Nothing seemed to be making much sense, so they figured the play might be important. Varen, Starq’s familiar, was sent to watch Tupman at the play. The others were too late to get into the building, so they went to a short Vaudeville show instead. Erannar and Eltana were so completely entranced by the performance that they hummed the songs for several days afterward. Varen, too, enjoyed the performance, but noted nothing unusual. The party caught up with Tupman as he was leaving the play; he was only too happy to hear that Koru had been jailed, and told the party to go ahead and search the house, and to let him get on with his evening.
They went to Koru’s house, looking for lizards along the way. Erannar spied one running up the outside wall, and got Starq’s iron pot and Spider Climb spell for catching it. He caught it eventually, and it rather frightenedly told him (under the influence of Speak with Animals) that it hated cats and was not anyone’s familiar. They let it go.
The party went inside, carefully looking for traps on the first floor (which contained a dining room and a kitchen) and down to the basement. They went through the basement door, carefully determining that it could be opened with the house key even though it locked after them. In the basement, Erannar took out his everburning torch, and they surveyed a long shelf, a puddle, and some mushrooms. A loud clicking noise filled the air.
Dreneil went under the stairs to investigate, and found herself mildly shocked for her trouble. A good-sized lizard, crackling with angry blue sparks, faced them. Wanting to question it more than kill it, the party endured more of its electricity while trying to catch it with the pot. Eventually they did, and it electrified the whole pot, but settled down under it. The party retrieved another key from under the stairs, and discovered that the ceiling contained a trap door from the first floor.
Heading upstairs to the second floor, the party discovered a room for magical experiments and two bedrooms, and no traps. In the large closet of the second bedroom they found gray clothes, and gloves, and a hat. Eltana put on the gloves and took the hat. Then Starq climbed a ladder in the experiment room to the attic, where he was immediately burned by a spray of acid. He fell back down the ladder.
Erannar put the hat on and climbed the ladder again. This time, nothing happened. He saw a box with a keyhole on a small shelf on the opposite side of the room. He was about to take the box when the floor fell out underneath him. He jumped lightly to one side, and jumped over a swinging beam. Convinced that the room was going to stop being dangerous, he reached over from the side and took the box, and went back down the ladder.
The box contained 80 silver coins and a velvet bag with 5 pretty objects: a fish-shaped coral pendant, a piece of amber with a downy feather trapped in it, an aquamarine marble, and two jade bookends with the initials SLK on the bottoms.
The party went back downstairs to talk to the shocker lizard. It told them that they shouldn’t take Koru’s things, and that it had attacked the cat because the cat was ugly and did not deserve to live. It agreed to come with them and leave them alone if they promised to put Koru’s things back eventually.
They all trouped over to Tupman’s house; Tupman was annoyed at being interrupted this late at night. He said that “SLK” had nothing to do with either him or Merilee, but Merilee said that she had lost a piece of amber when she was visiting Tupman once. Tupman said Koru would have had no occasion to be in Tupman’s house.
So, they all went back to the School, and the Diviner was still up, for some reason, and claimed the bookends as his (“Soshi Li Kan”) and got Koru sentenced for a bit longer for petty larceny.
Enriched, and certainly ready for bed, the party went away, leaving Soshi the Diviner happily repossessed of his jade bookends.
Experience:
The Duel: 300
The School Brawl: 300
Resolving the Duel: 1,200
Entertainment: 100
The Shocker Lizard: 600
Acid Trap: 1,200
Dumbwaiter Trap: 600
Detective Work: 300
Total: 4,600
Per Player: 1,150
Meanwhile, Starq was approached by a fellow-sorcerer, Tupman Hoarhollow, and asked to officiate at a sorcerers’ duel that afternoon. Starq went to Elftown to recruit Dreneil as the second officer. Over lunch and between rescuing the neighbor’s chickens from the cougar, Starlight, Dreneil invited Erannar along as well.
Down at the docks with Blade, Eltana ran into a fair-haired Halfling distressed over the loss of her theater ticket. Eltana helped her look for it but they couldn’t find it. The woman, Merilee, thanked her for her trouble, and continued to lament that her boyfriend was also fighting a magic duel that afternoon and would probably be late for the show. Eltana expressed interest in the duel, so Merilee told her how to get to the dueling field.
Despite taking a few wrong turns, Dreneil and Erannar finally found the sorcerers’ dueling field, behind The Wandrous Inn and Bar. There they found their friends Starq and Eltana and an outrageously garbed Halfling. Tupman was wearing aqua striped pants, and explaining the proceedings to Starq. During the greetings, the other contender silently arrived: a black-eyed, black-haired Halfling with two similar looking officers. Being asked what the offence was, Tupman explained that in the Inn last night, Koru’s (the other Halfling’s) lizard familiar had shocked and injured his own cat familiar, making his cat sulk and refuse to leave the house to come visit his girlfriend. He was also a little nervous because he’d had to spend one of his most powerful spells finding their theater tickets.
Starq read the rules for the duel. The main point of them was that only raw magical talent was to be used, and no kind of weapon or magical device. The duel began with a flourish of colors from Tupman, avoided by the carefully preparing Koru. Spells flung back and forth, but the casters were nimbler than their spells, and nobody gained an edge. Finally, Tupman struck with a ray of fire. Koru, his face unreadable, again left Tupman unharmed. Tupman grew to twice his size, but then seemed suddenly afraid. Koru advanced on him and shocked him with electricity. Tupman reacted in surprise – “How do you know that spell?” – and stepped back. Koru shocked him again, and this time Tupman crumpled. Koru declared himself the winner, and Eltana rushed forward to revive Tupman.
Through all this, Starq and Dreneil saw that all the moves were fair; yet, Starq was suspicious enough to ask Koru how he had learned that spell. Koru convinced Starq that it was granted by his familiar, which also had electrical powers.
The party was unsatisfied, but turned to Tupman. They took him to the inn and healed him a bit. Tupman woke up and told them that Koru had been cheating and very surreptitiously using a wand during the last two rounds of the duel. They left him to the innkeeper’s ample care (Tupman was a good customer).
They went to Koru’s house, near the sorcerer’s School, and knocked on the door. Koru asked them what they wanted. They challenged him with the use of the wand; he told them the time for challenges was past and the duel had been decided.
The party eventually decided to ask Condros what to do. Condros told them to ask the chief Diviner at the school for adjudication, giving them his own opinion of duels in the meantime. They went to school and got in a long line for the Diviner’s Information Desk. While in the line, they felt themselves being jostled and noticed the two Koru-looking officers from the duel. Indignant, Eltana through a tanglefoot bag at the archer, which stuck her to the ground, and Erannar shot the swordsman. The swordsman started raising a cry for help, which was seconded by Koru, who was standing on the other side of the party. Dreneil tied up the archer, but the School enforcers came to break up the fight. The archer tried to convince the guards that she had tripped and bumped into the line by accident, but they didn’t believe her. They took the two off to a room for questioning, but not before the archer had claimed it was all Koru’s fault, so they took him in too.
Erannar and Eltana went with the enforcers to investigate; when they explained the situation with the duel, the enforcers sent them all to Oshi, the duel diviner and adjudicator. Starq and Dreneil stayed in line, and the Diviner directed them to Oshi as well. Oshi determined that the duel’s honor had, in fact, been breached, and sentenced Koru to five days in jail. Koru was searched, and was revealed to have 20 gold pieces, a house key, and a note on him. The note said “Note to self: wear your hat inside.” The enforcers gave the key to the party, telling them they were only too happy to let someone else search a sorcerer’s house – they tended to have more nasty magical traps than they were worth.
The party finally decided that they would try to get into the play Tupman and Merilee were watching. Nothing seemed to be making much sense, so they figured the play might be important. Varen, Starq’s familiar, was sent to watch Tupman at the play. The others were too late to get into the building, so they went to a short Vaudeville show instead. Erannar and Eltana were so completely entranced by the performance that they hummed the songs for several days afterward. Varen, too, enjoyed the performance, but noted nothing unusual. The party caught up with Tupman as he was leaving the play; he was only too happy to hear that Koru had been jailed, and told the party to go ahead and search the house, and to let him get on with his evening.
They went to Koru’s house, looking for lizards along the way. Erannar spied one running up the outside wall, and got Starq’s iron pot and Spider Climb spell for catching it. He caught it eventually, and it rather frightenedly told him (under the influence of Speak with Animals) that it hated cats and was not anyone’s familiar. They let it go.
The party went inside, carefully looking for traps on the first floor (which contained a dining room and a kitchen) and down to the basement. They went through the basement door, carefully determining that it could be opened with the house key even though it locked after them. In the basement, Erannar took out his everburning torch, and they surveyed a long shelf, a puddle, and some mushrooms. A loud clicking noise filled the air.
Dreneil went under the stairs to investigate, and found herself mildly shocked for her trouble. A good-sized lizard, crackling with angry blue sparks, faced them. Wanting to question it more than kill it, the party endured more of its electricity while trying to catch it with the pot. Eventually they did, and it electrified the whole pot, but settled down under it. The party retrieved another key from under the stairs, and discovered that the ceiling contained a trap door from the first floor.
Heading upstairs to the second floor, the party discovered a room for magical experiments and two bedrooms, and no traps. In the large closet of the second bedroom they found gray clothes, and gloves, and a hat. Eltana put on the gloves and took the hat. Then Starq climbed a ladder in the experiment room to the attic, where he was immediately burned by a spray of acid. He fell back down the ladder.
Erannar put the hat on and climbed the ladder again. This time, nothing happened. He saw a box with a keyhole on a small shelf on the opposite side of the room. He was about to take the box when the floor fell out underneath him. He jumped lightly to one side, and jumped over a swinging beam. Convinced that the room was going to stop being dangerous, he reached over from the side and took the box, and went back down the ladder.
The box contained 80 silver coins and a velvet bag with 5 pretty objects: a fish-shaped coral pendant, a piece of amber with a downy feather trapped in it, an aquamarine marble, and two jade bookends with the initials SLK on the bottoms.
The party went back downstairs to talk to the shocker lizard. It told them that they shouldn’t take Koru’s things, and that it had attacked the cat because the cat was ugly and did not deserve to live. It agreed to come with them and leave them alone if they promised to put Koru’s things back eventually.
They all trouped over to Tupman’s house; Tupman was annoyed at being interrupted this late at night. He said that “SLK” had nothing to do with either him or Merilee, but Merilee said that she had lost a piece of amber when she was visiting Tupman once. Tupman said Koru would have had no occasion to be in Tupman’s house.
So, they all went back to the School, and the Diviner was still up, for some reason, and claimed the bookends as his (“Soshi Li Kan”) and got Koru sentenced for a bit longer for petty larceny.
Enriched, and certainly ready for bed, the party went away, leaving Soshi the Diviner happily repossessed of his jade bookends.
Experience:
The Duel: 300
The School Brawl: 300
Resolving the Duel: 1,200
Entertainment: 100
The Shocker Lizard: 600
Acid Trap: 1,200
Dumbwaiter Trap: 600
Detective Work: 300
Total: 4,600
Per Player: 1,150
posted by Captain Shar | 6:58 PM
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