S.P.E.

Scribe Notes

The adventure takes place (Insert link to Wiki pages for area the adventure will take place)

Summary

Adventure: S.P.E.
GM:Gordon Lewis
Session: Summer 808
Night: Wednesday
Level: High
Location:Chez McEntee

Party

This adventure is full.

Dramus (GM Info), A Fae Prince and Necromancer played by Mandos Party Leader

1. Logan - A Male E&E Mage played by Neil (Human)
   
2. Kilroy, A Rune Mage played by Dean
3. Kern, An Elven Earth Mage played by Chris C Military Leader
4. Haann Uberreich, A happy-go-lucky pacted Death Aspected Mind/Necro/Star Celestial Satyr played by Ben Taberner
5. Pennlucien - Republican Healer/Namer played by Lisa. Scribe
6. Mortimer, a Mechanician - Played by Martin Dickson

Employer

Grarven, adventurer and owner of the Pub of the Golden Ingot in Seagate The Royal Brewers Guild of Brightrock

Mission

• Take the bound gold nugget (from the pub of similar name) for Da,King of The Bright to see.
• There is a problem with the new batch of beer - try and find out COVERTLY what is going on.
• A side commission - carrying a box of itemised warvel beasts (weasel lizards) to be delivered to Angus McBright's associates Primo or Secondo.

Pay

• Mission 1 - Da will see us right for travelling expenses and so on.
• Mission 2 - Shaping, teachers
• Mission 3 - 10,000SP (50% deposit)

Additional Meeting Details

We meet up in the Guild Meeting Room and are offered whiskey, which turns out to be "Storytelling Brew" which is a drink which lets us communicate empathically. Normally they make beer which does this. "They" are the dwarves from the Kingdom of the Bright. They are represented here by Grarven who is an adventurer, prince of the Bright and pub owner here in Seagate. Grarven would like us to take a bound gold ingot (which came from a bound gold ingot castle!!!!) up to the Bright for the King of the Bright - Da - to look at.

Next, we meet Uncle John who runs the Bright Trading Post in Seagate. He has a covert mishun for us. There is a problem with the new batch of beer - it is to effective. People have died (6) and only some have been able to be resurrected. They make a lot of different beers - Breakfast, Social, Festival, Battle, Story telling and others. These are only for use up in the Bright. We need to figure out Who, What and Why. It is really important that we DO NOT TELL DA! Our local contacts are Brody Bellhaven, Master Brewer and Luff Aberfeldie, Master Distiller. We need to get this sorted out before the festival, because that's where they normally drink the beer!!!

Our Mishun Begins...

2nd Meadow

We travel by Dramus Portal to Simba. We talk to the locals for the evening and sort out what trade goods they'd like. They want sheep and will trade minerals.

3rd Meadow to 8th Meadow

• We travel by coach to the Kingdom of Bright. Some of us prefer to ride.
• We meet the King and Queen. They want to know about Grarven and as none of us know him at all, Mortimer tells the Queen that he was clean and tidy. She seems happy with this.
• We tell stories about gold stuff.
• We drink lots of beer and have a big feast. We are pleased that some of us are good at carousing and that some of us are healers!
• This is a huge trading city.

We go to our rooms using an elevator - a metal cage which goes up vertically. Our rooms are really amazing. e have a barracks for the bodyguards, rooms for our nobles and satyrs. Features include a Frolicarium for the Satyr - grass, bas reliefs etc; a self heating bath and air which dries you; security viewing of the nobles' rooms and transport directly through the walls from the barracks.

We set our party up as follows:

• 2 x Nobs - Dramus and Logan
• 1 x advisor to the Nobs - Mortimer
• 1 x board boy/ fey - Haarn
• 3 x bodyguards - Kern, Penni and Kilroy - requirements to be a bodyguard in this party are ambidextrous, can DA, can cook and are herbalists.

8 Meadow, cont...

We visit the market to get a fish clock. We observe some thieving. Dramus orders boots to assist with the elevator problem. Logan investigates armourers. We buy a fish. We take a tour of a brewery and learn some interesting facts about vermin in the brewing process.

The porters ask us to join them for dinner. We go drinking at the Drinking Hall with them. We have dinner and drink there. It is very nice. There are lots of tradishuns though. There is a toast to the Master Brewer and Distiller (which refers to them as "consummate porters") and then they do ritualistic thanks after the mull course.

We DA all the porters. Our DA questions are: Kern - last nefarious magic to impact. Penni - overriding emotion/ intent at this point in time. Kilroy - hoopiest magical ability. Mortimer will save his DA for other areas as need be.

Dramus approaches the masters and introduces himself. After they leave, they call us in for coffee and we learn lots of interesting stuff!

The Master Brewer tells us to call him Brodie (this surprises the Master Distiller, who tells us to call him Aberfeldie). They detected the bad brew at the Quality assurance part of the process. The story told was "Adventure in the Mines". Two of the porters died by what seemed like physical injury - crushed chests as if rocks had fallen on them. These two were able to be resurrected. Some died from heart failure and 1 just died. These were not able to be resurrected. The bodies were handed over to their families. Two were interred (that kind of means buried) in their family mausoleums. Two were burned. We are able to see the story Teller and the two who survived.

There were three bad brews, and these were easily detected by DA after the first bad brew was found.When we DA, we can see that the bad brew has a stripe of gold through it's aura. Dramus does a taste test and says it tastes better, as if it was made by a better brewer. The DA's show that it is a magical effect causing the bad brew, or an ingredient replacing another, but definitely magical. The three brews came from three different breweries, made at three different times.

We give Brodie both types of beer out of Dramus's cup. he says that the good beer is fantastic. When he drinks the bad beer, he says its amazing, then his eyes start to glaze over and he nearly passes out. When he comes back to himself, he has forgotten the last 8 hours and can't remember any of us.

9 Meadow - when good beer goes bad, uncivilised nobles and civilised luncheon

He tells us:

In the beginning there was the thirst, and the thirst was good...

There are many traditional stories, some of which have been altered (sanitised?) - some altered by him even. He tells us of an evil brewer in times gone by - Red Goldenbright - a royal master brewer who used a magical effect to overproof the beer. He fortified the beer, making it closer to a spirit than a beer. This happened about 380 years ago when Brodie and Aberfeldie were lads. Red Goldenbright was sent on a Quest of Redemption across the seas (aka the get rid of him quest). He did not, as far as anyone is aware, return from this quest.

We return to our sweet at around 0430. We are alarmed by the presence of a small plant outside our door. It is an AURIC NUT - a gift with an invite for lunch with our neighbours down the hall.

We drink some Scunge beer (a dark wheat beer, good for late night conversations) and breakfast, and mostly go to bed. While we sleep, another invite is delivered for dinner with Angus McBright, tonight. We write a calendar up on the wall in the anteroom to make sure we don't miss any engagements.

We head out for lunch. The bodyguard at the door is an elf, Mind Mage and is very bemused and entertained by us. Think he might think we're completely incompetent. The layout of their apartments is the same. D'harianna is very pretty. She has many kind greetings and welcomes in a slushy fashion. She fauns over our royalty. They haven't seen King Da yet, but are here for the exhibition. The bodyguards are all like Guild members - Mind, Earth, Illusion, Wicca, E&E and they're all colleged.

Their statue is very pretty. It has a magical aura, something to do with learning and memory magic. I divinate it while we eat lunch...there's some protection magics on it, alarms and a linking life force where something happened to draw the group around this.

9 Meadow (Evening) Ten Brides for two brothers

We head WAY underground. We hope that dinner will be a little less challenging than lunch was. We arrive in an underground dwarven village. We are about 50 levels down. It is very quiet - too quiet. We are greeted by Ridducgh, an apprentice to Angus McBright, and guide for the Warvel Beast Ambasaddor, Primo. Primo is riding on his shoulder. We have not previously encountered these beasts, but they look a bit like lizards and a bit like something furry (a weasel perhaps?). They have scales, sharp teeth, patches of fur, long claws and are definitely carnivorous. Apparently some of their babies are born from eggs, some live births. And speaking of babies...what we have brought are itemised WIVES for Primo and Secondo. These ahave been purchased from Arabi for approximately 300,000 silvers!!! McBright knows nothing about it and is not happy. They were ordered by Riducgh under instruction from the Warvel beasts (Secondo has some ability to communicate mind-to-mind. Primo's ability is to Blend - that may be blend like Kree, as opposed to standing still and being camoflarged). They paid for them with a bag of gems, and it's best not to enquire too closely as to where those came from!

We are served dinner by Connaucgh, and then we are taken to see the Hall Of Memories I. There is a number II and it is currently located in the Dark Circle region, where it was installed during the war. It collects undead. Number II was a bit of a rush job, so it is working, but could do with some enhancements. Number I is 30' high, about 40' square and has a dome on the top. We go in through the main doors, into a corridor which has doors leading off it. We are taken into a work room, where carpentry projects and similar are undertaken. There is also a magical preparation room, which has lots of signs saying either "Press Here" or "Do not Press here" = we're not quite sure which, but remember our manners. There is a barracks as well, and a room which has animal noises coming out of it. We go into a magic corridor between two rooms into a pocket dimension on the 150th level where works are working on new accommodations. McBright gets bored not long after this, but he has found out for us that there is a dwarven undead stored here He is a Bane Rock - a dwarf who has gone bad and become an undead. Not dissimilar to a Ban Shee apart from the screaming issue. Connaucgh looks after him.

We immediately track down Connaucgh and start DAing him and discover he is being controlled by something. Kilroy can see a thread going from him back into the Hall of Memories. He leads us to the Bane Rocks room and shows us inside, then he screams and the door slams shut!!!! Oops, party nomination for stupidest adventurers coming right up...

A fight ensues. The Bane Rock attempts escape, but is thwarted. DAs on him show:

Greater Undead, Greatest weakness is natural love, and there is no counterspell to banish him. Kilroy severs the connection between him and Connaucgh, but we think we've found our culprit. As we're locked in the cell with him, and there is apparently no door, we have time to sit down and find out why...

Basically, he's bored, and creating mischif!!!!He changed the ritual - that is what he can do. He can get into your head and mess with what's already there, making it better. He says that Connaucgh had HUGE potential and he just released it. The altered ritual made stronger beer so that Connaucgh's potential could be shown and he would do something with his life.

Bane Rock is about the right age to be Red Goldenbright, surprise, surprise.

An Ancient Divination on the Bane Rock reveals that he is under a subdue undead magic. About a year ago, he was hit with a big whammy subdue undead. He is a type of greater undead, a distant cousin of the Ban Shee.

He agrees that divination is a boring ritual and offers to help make it more exciting and interesting and effective. He does tell us that we need a wee rock to get out of the room - the wee rock is like a key. He also reports that Connaucgh carried out 6 rituals.

We notice that there are deer coming in, so we summon one and write messages on its side. We put Haarn on its back, put him to sleep and send them off to walk through the wall. It doesn't work. Haarn falls off, there's a flash of light and a bang! Then a void wolf spirit arrives and tries to attack. It wants to eat the hairy goat - I mean Satyr! Possibly not just because he's hairy and looks like a goat, more likely because he was its most recent captor. Eventually, we subdue it too.

Kilroy writes runes on the wall and we get out! We climb out of the book which records the occupants of the Hall of Memories. We find a wee rock and Kilroy does more runes. We get out - yippee!!! We find McBright who tells us we may have broken the room - oops. We find Connaucgh's body and he's not resurrectable. We discuss putting Dramus's air mage spirit into Connaucgh's body, but decide to hold fire for the moment.

When we arrive back at our rooms, there is a package for me with the seal of the porter's guild on it. Some clothes, wrapped in silk. Really nice clothes and they are 3 armour points!!! I didn't order any clothes, and there's an invoice for 6 guineas with it! The invoice says "Thank you for your custom. You have a most ingenious servant." We decide to go to the market to talk to the person who made the clothes. We also need to visit the Aberfeldies. We also need to try Weasel beer.

10-11 Meadow Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll, a Cautionary Tale

We all have a sleep, then go to the market. At the tailor's, they tell me that my 'servant' apparently looks just like me, but glows slightly!! We think this is some weird kind of elven game and suspect our neighbours from MMHS.

The weasel beer is great!!! It increases stamina, vitality and natural armour. It's incredibly strong. We all have 1 pint, and some have much more! We dance, we sing, we make the pub a whole lot of fun. We stagger home. Actually, we conga home. When we get there we find about 8 people in the frolicarium. There is more dancing, singing, drinking and quite a lot of sex (Dramus confirms that we are not on the mission at this point).

18 Hours later...

It all ends in tears as people start dying. Yes, Haarn has shagged people to death!! What a guy! 2 humans, 2 dwarves and an elf are affected, and so is Haarn. We can resurrect those who have died and do so. Haarn takes a Waters of Healing and it stops the dying, but he still has the Essence of Death inside him. Ozma's tears stop the essence of death. Two of the others are still affected nut not yet dead. We call for a Noble Mage and Bryan Boru appears. He has a look at the two who are still alive. He makes a cup out of mana and sucks out the Essence of Death. He leaves us with one of these. Not sure what we can do with it - apparently Prince Garrick might like it - he is a gloomy bastard waiting at the end of the world. Mortimer watches and everyone else sleeps. I ancient divinate the Essence of Death and have a chat with it. It's really a weird thing. We need to check the bad weasel beer.

We wake up when Brodie arrives to help with the testing of the beer. We feel a big fuggy headed, but otherwise OK. 26 barrels of weasel beer. 20 of them are bad and from the same batch. 3 are still missing from this batch. The missing barrels are found on a raid (we go with the Brewer's Guild guards to hic! help find them).

Someone's bright idea - check the Hall of Memories for a new spirit - it is a spirit catcher, perhaps Connaucght's spirit is still there and he can be resurrected. McBright finds a glimmer of a spirit in the halls, and we think that the Bane Rock may have the rest. We are told that the Bane Rock will suck on souls and damn itself the more it eats...we decide that the best thing to do is stab it with a soul sucking dagger. We're not sure which is COnnaucght's soul though, so we take all of them (that's 11 souls in little globes in total).

The Bane Rock gets pissed and casts. 3 of his dwarf guards go down. Kern tunnels under him and the Bane Rock, Dramus, all 6 guards and their weapons fall. Dramus gets a nasty chest wound. Logan levitates him again. Eventually, Mortimer curses the Bane Rock to sleep for 100 years.

We take our soul globes and identify which one is Connaucgh. We go to find his body. I resurrect him while being watched by The Aberfeldie and her daughters. I wonder if it is that the women are the Matriarch's of the Clans or if they are the secret power. Connaucgh wakes up screaming, but seems OK. The Aberfeldie gives me a silver hammer of quieting undead. We are now Life Guests of the Aberfeldies. There is lots of food and drink as the wake has now turned to a party!

12 Meadow

We return to our rooms eventually. Heal Dramus for about 10 hours. We get more gifts delivered - clothes for Kern, marble eating wear for me. Kilroy does a dream ritual with Bane Rock . There are two more brews - Battle Beer and Morning Dew Whiskey. We have a nasty thought that the Morning Dew is what Aberfeldie and Bellhaven have a drop of each morning.

Check on Connaucgh. He is doing well, but has no memory of what he did while under the Bane Rock's control. Haarn hypnotises him and unfuddles his memory. We manage to get the times and dates of the bad brews from him. Note that he has been to Auld Bright. We report to Brodie, and are given a keg of Battle Beer for testing purposes.

13 Meadow A Game of Statues

We hypothesis that the statue owned by our neighbours from MMHS was observing us as we observed it. And then we hypothesis that it can make a simalcrum and will make copies of, say, the King or someone else in power. The next present arrives and it's for Dramus - a set of beautiful mithril goblets. We go to see the traders. They say that Dramus and his servant came in and ordered them.

We pick up a 'Glogari" and follow it - we think it is the statue doing its thing. There is no spirit, but magic - it creates a simalcrum, from nothing. It is looking like Logan this time! Logan confronts it and it steps into him. They merge and there is only 1 Logan left.

After some debate, we send a note to Bellhaven. We are concerned the statue may masquerade as us and do something bad. We get an invite to the Bellhaven residence. It is very large and there is a brewing theme - stone casks etc. It is built on various levels. The Bellhavens are as hospitable as the Aberfeldies. We get beer. We get lunch. Then we get Smudge beer!! We let Bellhaven and his cronies know our concerns about the item. We honour their hospitality for a little longer and then roll back to our rooms. We decide to sort out the stored souls, then get access to the Auld Bright.

We visit McBright. Dramus talks to dead to the 10 souls we still have. I ancient divinate Dramus's amulet. It is a combo of a soul jar built into a compulsion/ domination. Allows owner to pull certain types of magic out. There is an air spirit which is more powerful than the bit of it that is in the item. There is a built-in release condition - the owner can activate the amulet instead of dying himself. The item and the soul will be destroyed in this case. It is not impenetrable. The Holder has a little hole in it for the magic to get out.

The result of talking to the souls is that 6 just want to be released. 2 want to go into metal golems, 1 into a stone golem. 1 wants to be put into a human female body.

We return to our rooms and sleep.

14 Meadow Down, Down, Down, Down

We have an early appointment with the Chamberlain. He is very to the point. He says it's nasty down in the Auld Bright - magical beasts and demons. We have to bring McBright out alive. The last lot (Guild members) that went down came back with a chest of high mana. The Royals would rather like one for themselves.

We go down to the Auld Bright. There are rivers, some spelunking involved. One of those old cities carved out of rock - seems to be more on one level than New Bright is, and is flatter generally. The tunnels and dwellings are carved out of rock - very old rock according to Kern. We see big batwings a mile away - a manticore. More of them live in the cliff at the top. McBright would quite like a manticore.

We see a ragged humanoid - undead (vampire). It's extremely fast and he's not alone!!!! We fight. We win. The nasty vampire explodes - horrid gobby bits and bones, and flesh and generally ick!!! The female vampire also explodes, causing a force of nature to occur - lighting strikes and thunderclaps causing Mortimer and McBright to go blind and be concussed.

We decide to get to the High Mana place that McBright knows of. Unfortunately, there are more undead between us and there. McBright guides us to the Council Chamber. This is a large room, 100' x 40' with a number of doors. We try and cast Rune Ward and Walls of Stone but these crumble almost as soon as they are cast. Dramus summons his tower, which unfortunately causes armies of golems to arrive. We leave via the Tower. Do healing for a couple of days.

16 Meadow Is it polite to say "I told you so" to royalty?

We park briefly in Oz and then move to Asheth, a fairy plane. McBright says the mana chests are made of bits of fairy - eugghh! We tower to the small town near Bright, then portal into Auld Bright from the hotel. No sooner have we set foot in the Auld Bright than a message arrives for McBright from the Queen. We wants him NOW! We get appropriately dressed and and head to court. AT the Council Chambers, we are told that we stole nearly all the artefacts. We are forced to say "We told you so" but it seems that the Brewers Guild did not pass the message on. They are missing the gold brick, a drinking horn and a faery sphere. We are proved to be ourselves, and so the Queen lets us go after the stuff. When we return we are to use the code word "Shezmae" to identify ourselves.

The MMHS party left 2.5 days ago. Logan manages to locate the items. Our plan is simple - we locate the ship, land, agony, collect the items and go. We find the ship and put Wicca counterspells on all of us. It is flying McBright's colours and heading to Destiny.

Mortimer and Kilroy (in parrot form!!) land on the ship and attempt diplomacy (that means talk first, hit later, except if you're an assassin in which case it means the opposite), Diplomacy fails. A fight ensues. Kilroy steals a rapier (by forming into Kilroy around it!) but his shadows and the awesome Mortimer subdue the bad guy! A hole appears in the floor. The bad guy goes through the hole, has is throat cut by one of his chums and is itemised. The rest of us arrive in various ways and through various entrances. Kern does more rapier damage to Kilroy! I go down the hole and and chase bad guys through the hold. Dramus comes in from the front of the boat and restrains the sailors. We have split up into several groups, and this is possibly a bad idea...

After some fighting and chasing we win. However, the woman gets away through a magic mirror. A divinate shows that the the magic mirrors transport you to different places but the woman has booby trapped it. The last place it was set to was a very special room somewhere. The room is full of McBright's gadgets.

On the way back, we work on changing my divinate ritual to incorporate some physical actions - a kata type thing. The philosophers form a committee - bah! Mortimer has some useful suggestions though. Kilroy reckons it needs to be done sky clad!! Mortimer also examines the cannons on the boat. They are magical rather than mechanical and he loses interest, but Kilro and logan are more interested!

30 Meadow - A Victory Party

We arrive at Bright-On-Sea. We are met by McBright who is spitting mad about the theft of his ship, and rahter intrigued about the mirror booby trapping.

King Da sees us and is pleased we have brought artefacts back. He is also REALLY pleased that we're not asking for money! He is very happy to give us stuff.

We are told that Dramus's tower has left a permanent door/ link - uh o!

We have a victory piss up with the King. There's some pole dancing and Haarn frolics.

Everything ends happily, we split the treasure and help with the festival before going home. Haarn has an especially good time as he now has an extremely good reputation as a satyr of note!!!

Questions we need to ask/ Avenues we need to follow

These are questions we need to remember to get answers for!

• What has happened to the souls of those who died? Use Ask Dead and see spirits DONE
• Why sabotage the beer? To destabilise or discredit guilds?
• Has someone been refused mastership or been retired early? Disgruntled employee.
• Are quality testers randomly assigned? Is the story teller randomly assigned? YES ALL RANDOM
• Need retelling of the Renewal Story which is told at Festival.
• The Brewing Process itself - divinate good and bad brews to determine difference in process. DONE
• Further investigations into the longevity (that means long life) of the Master Brewer and Distiller.
• Security of both the breweries and the bad brews. DONE
• Divinate both good and bad brews and see if we can see at what point in the process the badness happens. DONE

Some thoughts and assumptions from Dramus that not all of us agree with:

1. We are in a place where one of the most powerful nobles after the King has access to investigatory Magic's and 240+ years of in-depth knowledge on the brewing process. As such I do not feel we should investigate the brewing process as realistically the Master Brewer should be able to do a better job than we can in this aspect of the investigation.
2. They have the resources to quietly follow up mundane leads as well such as the Disgruntled Employee and brewery security issues.
3. There is the taint of death linking Old, Olde and New Bright together infused in the brew.

Result

The guild is generally called in for the weird, the magical and the highly dangerous. With the mundane aspects of this case more than adequately achievable by the Brewer (despite him not letting us know much about their results) we should look into the esoteric, dangerous area's not easily investigated by the Brewer discreetly. Ie the Old Bright.

Results of our magical investigations

Speak with Dead

• There is the influence of an angry spirit in the bad beer.
• Something to do with retribution.
• a general feeling of getting ones' own back and punishment.

The dead in the beer is influence rather than spirit but it is strong enough for you to question.

It is sort of chatty in an intoxicated way...

It turns out that there is a loose connection to the Olde and the Old Bright with a link to the New Brightrock. No one was sacrificed to make this happen but there is a feeling of 'reckoning'. It does not know about cleansing but certainly hopes not.

Ancient Divination: Bad Brew

There are 7 rituals which make up the brewing process. These all went well. The rituals relate to the 7 parts of the story. The beer itself is a story - the story of the beer.

The portion of the process which was wrong was the Death of Rats Ritual. It sends a chill down this divinator's spine - there is something extra creepy and macabre at this point in the process.

A 1-hour divination confirms that the 'blip' is at the 4th step back, which concurs with the Death of Rats ritual.

Ancient Divination: Good Brew

The process is the same, but the vibe/ feeling surrounding the Death of Rats Ritual is not the same. It is much less macabre.

Conclusion

A malevolent spirit has tweaked the ritual in some way. Our guess, as per Dramus's suppositions, is that someone is located in Old or Auld Bright.

The Kingdom of Bright

A huge trading city. We hear about both "Old" and "Auld" Bright. Huge cataclysm thingy happened here. There are manticores who live in Old Bright underneath the current Bright location. Has a King and Queen. They have Noble Mages, but ordinary ones too.

The Kingdom uses magic in an ostentatious and gratuitous fashion which alarms Mortimer. For instance, it appears that our suite of rooms were "built" to accomodate us specially. There are things like the bath, which fills with cold water and then you 'think' at it to warm the water. Then when you get out of the bath, there is warm air to dry you off. Meanwhile the bottom of the bath slides away and the water drains down a tube to somewhere. There are little figurines in some of the bedrooms (those for the Nobs and the satyr) which when you rub them, summon courtesans. There is a similar small figure to summon a porter. There is a LOT of magic here!

Mortimer: Not offends, more surprises and concerns. Ostentatious and gratuitous use of magic is unusual to observe in Dwarven culture, and while Dwarves are no strangers to the use of magic in the creation of their wondrous underground cities, the abundance and style of magic in use at the Bright has worrying decadent undertones; a tone I associate specifically with Elven culture immediately before the War of Tears. To see such, in a society known to have already experienced their own internal strifes, raises concern in my mind that we could be looking at the twilight of the current kingdom and that it will not be too long before these folk are looking for a New New Bright.

Guilds

There are a number of guilds here in the Bright. Things we have noted about them are as follows:

Thieves Guild

Operating in the market area. Mortimer observes that there are possibly 2 groups operating. Once they have stolen, they seem to assess what they have and either return it to the mark or they pass it on. Seems very organised.

Porters Guild

There is no 'Porter's Guild' head/ master. The head of the Porters Guild became King. Now the Master Brewer and Master Distiller run the Porter's Guild.

Brewer's Guild

Responsible for controlling and regulating the production of all beer in the Bright, especially the special brews. Arrange quality assurance testing of all beers. Seem to be heads of the Porter's Gulid. Head is Brodie Bellhaven, the Master Brewer.

Distiller's Guild

Much like the Brewer's Guild, but with regard to whiskey instead. Head is Luff Aberfeldie, the Master Distiller.

Notes on the Brewing Process

• Only 7 breweries do the 'special' brews. This is regulated by the Brewer's Build.
• The most unusual step in the process is the addition of dead rats. These are plumptuous rats, specifically bred for the beer. The Guild have made the use of rats in the special brews mandatory (that means you must put it in or face the consequences). The rats get magic put on them first, then they are killed by a magic shock of some sort to the head. After that they are steeped or infused into the beer.
• The brewing process involves a ritualistic/ magical component.
• All beer is quality tested before release. This involves a group of 6 randomly assigned porters, and a randomly assigned Story Teller (for the story telling brew). They have a number of standard stories they use for the quality assurance process, and these are randomly chosen on the day.
• There are 20 different brewers at high enough rank to complete the Death of Rats Ritual as part of the beer making process.

Interesting People We Have Met...

Angus McBright, Master Shaper

Over 600 years old - registers as long lived sentient on a DA. Remembers the nasty affair of Red Goldenbright. A Master Shaper with a particular interest in trapping undead. Warning - VERY LOW BOREDOM THRESHOLD!!!

DA Questions:

Intent: curiousity Strong magical talent or ability: Shaping

Brodie Bellhaven, Master Brewer

Is turning 400 years old. Note, this is an extremely old age for a dwarf but in my medical opinion, he is in extremely good health. We theorise that this is because he has a dram and a brew every morning, or possibly it's part of the rituals that they do to make the beer.

DA Questions:

Intent - currently negotiating College - alchemy Strongest magical ability - Taste Last nefarious magic cast on him - no answer

Connaucgh

Looks like a young Aberfeldie! Works with Angus McBright and Ridducgh. Is a shaper. Wears a porter's uniform underneath leather armour which is anti-burn armour. He works with his hands, and is not a very graceful server of food. He has the responsibility of looking after some of the trapped undead, including the Bane Rock. He has been possessed, dominated, mind linked, enhanced and STORY TOLD over the last 10 weeks.

DA Questions: Has he been under the effects of a control magic? YES Is he still being controlled? YES Last magic he tried to resist? LIFE DRAIN

D'harianna Bittersky

A lady of MMHS representing a syndicate of business elves. She has been accomodated in the same area as the party.

Courtiers with correct knowledge will connect her to a Crime syndicate of well to do elves. While there are no known noble members – there are a few respectable names in the list of suspects.

She has also brought an item for the exhibition. It is a figurine in true silver the piece is wearing a necklace with a pendant in the shape of the figurine done in 'star metal'. It is only three inches high and perfect.

DA questions: Intent/ overriding emotion - entertainment Nefarious magic - no answer Hoopiest magical ability - Healing.

Lady Sarah

An adult female dwarf. She doesn't have a college as we know them. She has Magic. She comments that we limit ourselves by cutting up magic colleges. She is called a Noble Mage, which means that she can use magic from, various different colleges.

Noble Mages: do not indeed identify with a college of any sort. Faith once said of them that they practice Whim Magic. Mortimer made the astute observation that it is the kind of magic best performed in high mana zones and maybe normal and low mana would make it impossible.

Luff Aberfeldie, Master Distiller

Didn't know about the problems with the special beer before the meeting we had with him and Brodie. He was surprised when Brodie suggested we call him by his first name, and told us to address him as Aberfeldie He is also extremely old - he and Brodie were boys together.

DA Questions:

Intent - curiousity

Ridducgh, Apprentice Shaper

Apprentice to Angus McBright. Is guide for the Warvel Beast Ambassador.

Quotable Quotes

"Yes, yes, the faerie prince comes out of the closet... heard it before" - Dramus

Putting rats in your beer adds body - Kern

I want to know who came up with the GREAT idea of putting a rat in the beer - Kilroy, sincerely!

On passing Dramus's name and title on for introductions, Haarn said "Lord Dramus, Fey Prince of Asheth and general swell guy."

Penni: "What's ritual of true form?" Mortimer: "A binder WOULD be a lot quicker then!"

Mortimer (with scorn) to Kern: "Does your college have an entrance exam?"

Mortimer to Kern: "Did you get into the Earth College on a sports scholarship?"

Dramus: "I'm not running anywhere, not in these heels!"