Fun on Bral I (6-7 Brewfest 586 OY, 10/10/98 RL) Arriving on Bral in the wee hours of the morning, the PCs join in the Brewfest party. They eat pancakes at the Happy Flea. At the Blood Blossom, they watch dancing girls, including Chandella, a blond hobbit with Superb looks. They visit the Thieves' Market, which is packed with revelers. Mojo is again frustrated when, after meeting a superb looking hobbit courtesan (GM comment: what can I say, the dice were hot!), he realizes he is broke and must decline her offer. Elmarth and Camen are mistaken for pirates by some dwarves and assaulted. Camen has his fortune told by Madame Belarus, but no record remains of what she forecast. Eventually they stumble out into a better neighborhood where a watchman gives them a choice, stay the night at the Honest Barrister, an excellent inn run by a friend of his, or stay the night in the jail. They take the Barrister.

The next morning they set off for a day of exciting research. First question: what is the magic on the sword, shield, potions, and girdle from the tomb? At the temple of Celestian, Halard directs them to visit Brother Erpa at the Pantheist College. Erpa identifies the runes on the sword as being the ancient Suel language. They say who made it, and that the sword's name translates as "Tentacle Bane". Erpa believes the sword predates the Rain of Colorless Fire and Invoked Devastation. For magical analysis, he directs them to a wizard named Avila the Grey.

They visit Avila, but her price to cast Identify is too high for them. Outside Avila's, a street urchin calling himself Gip offers to take them to someone who can do it cheaper. They accept and Gip leads them into Bral's undercity. In a long underground gallery lined with shops, he shows them to Mordev's place of business. But Mordev's cut-rate magic is still too expensive for the broke PCs. They give up on identifying their prizes: Elmarth takes the sword and ruby, Camen takes the shield, Oolsen takes the girdle, and the potions are mostly forgotten. Across the gallery, Camen visits Kohler's music shop. Kohler has several Aldo's and is working on another, made of silver, for a bard named Lorenzo to play before Prince Andru of Bral the following week.

Out on the docks, the dwarven citadel ship Lion has docked and is selling weapons at a discount. While the PCs are shopping, they spot a shifty-looking human tailing them. He is quickly dubbed "Shifty." They pursue him into the undercity, but he loses them in a room dominated by a blazing brazier. During their stake-out of the brazier room, they see numerous humanoids but no Shifty.

The next day they go in search of a ship to take them to the map location on Kule. Elmarth swings a deal with Capt. Hound of the Hagfish. For a discount charter price (125 g.p./month), the party will help Hound to hunt the "Great White Kindori" after visiting Kule. The party goes to wander around in the undercity. There they are harassed by a group of drow females, watch a zombie labor gang at work, and are mugged. Two of the would be muggers suffer messy deaths while "Izzy" and his goblin partner are beaten up, given stern warnings, and relieved of their pocket change.

In the evening Elmarth is invited to a meeting at Utnapishtim's Hollow Leg Cafe. Mojo and Camen go along too. There they meeting Exedar, a big and ugly but well dressed guy with numerous rough-looking types at his beck and call. Somehow he knows about the Cuthbert ruby, and offers many hundreds of gold pieces for it. Surprised, Elmarth stalls, saying he has to think about it. The PCs go off to find some Cuthberites to talk to. They track down a small shrine in an apartment near the temple district and rouse Sister Werla. She is only a junior priestess of Cuthbert and knows little of the ruby, but says her brother who knows more should be back on Bral in a few weeks.

On their way back to their inn, Mojo strolls into the Elven grove to gather some herbs. The others are stopped by a casual but firm elven guard on the grove's edge until Mojo returns.
 
Last modified: Wed Jul 21 17:03:54 MDT