Bad Oysters

Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure Bad Oysters
GM Ian
Season Winter 824 WK
Night One Day (6 Jul)
Location Bird Lands
Area Orcland Plane
Level Medium

Party

1. Remel - Human (m) Water Mage and Cook by Terry MS
2. Lady Arcadia - Elven(f) Celestial (Star) Fighter and La Luna the Celestial Wolf played by Kita
3. Dart - Halfling Bard played by Alex
4. Cally - Human (f) Bard played by Helen
5. Spigot - Halfling (m) Barbarian (and chaos goblin) played by Sam
6. Zardoz - Halflynge (m) Celestial (Shadow) played by Martin Scribe (self-appointed)

Employer

Big Smoke Friendly Society via the Guild Astrologers.

Mission

A senior healer has been taken. Retrieve him.

Payment

Cash from the Big Smoke Healers.

Scribe Notes

Th'rsday 10th Frost

I have had more unusual days, but they've generally involved alcohol.

Heading into the Guild for some weapons training Dart and I found ourselves rounded up along with some other available bodies and hustled into the presence of a senior astrologer to help solve the astrology department’s current crisis. A number of the junior members were feverish, apparently from the ingestion of bad oysters purchased at the Old Seagate docks.

(Who buys shellfish from the old Seagate docks other than those with a death wish!?)

Strangely, the delirious novices were making some sense, unusual for astrologers, or at the least their delusions were shared, and they continued to mutter that orcs were everywhere, that’s a big dog, F is for friendly, Lavinia was doing it, a soup recipe featuring mushrooms, and something to do with the fart of a ferret.

The senior astrologer had managed to make some sense of these ramblings, concluded that the referenced fart actually referred to a goblin of that name associated with Guild member Aaron De Ferret, and that these rantings and ravings referred to the Big Smoke Friendly Healers Society in Orcland, and that the soup recipe featuring goblin sourced magical mushrooms.

Once the ingredients arrived Remel cooked up a batch of the soup while being convinced not to improve on the recipe (though he did create a second soup without the magic mushrooms but with his preferred ingredients). Spigot immediately downed his bowls and disappeared and the rest of us hurried to follow while Remel complained that we were not taking time to appreciate the nuances off his work.

We appeared in the presence a giant dog, and an orc who we took to be Lavinia. Remel rambled an explanation while Livinia remained very patient. She explained that someone had done something very stupid and abducted a senior healer of the Friendly Society. Lavinia provided us papers of employment so that we non-orcs would not be subject to impressment into slavery and provided directions to the headquarters of the healing Guild.

Heading there we got our first look at Big Smoke, a truly enormous city with huge walls, heavy defences, and a heaving population most of whom are orcs. (Estimates provided were 1.5 million orcs, 300,000 non-orcs, plus uncounted goblins.)

At the healers, Hakeem, a senior of the Guild, provided us with Guild tags indicating that we were working for the Friendly Society and provided additional information. One of the senior healers, Gerald de Razor, had been abducted from his residence. Hakeem stated that this behaviour was entirely unacceptable and that we were being employed to recover Gerald, preferably alive (else in large enough parts that he might be resurrected) and that we were to chastise the foolish people who had abducted him.

It was suggested that we should keep it reasonably low-key. Spigot asked whether this meant fewer than 100 deaths, much to Remel’s discomfort.

At Gerald’s residence we determined that he had been gone for two days. Dart’s Recitation ritual revealed that five people had entered his building but six had left, one of them bleeding. Blood on the floor showed only that it was from an Orc suffering some liver dysfunction. After considerable searching we discovered a discarded flyer for happy hour at the Booze Barn in the Lower West End and a notebook written in elven which indicated concerns about a gang of demon worshippers who might be called the Gryphon Riders.

Returning to the healers with this information we determined that the Booze Barn was not a location that Gerald might be expected to visit, suggesting that the flyer may have been dropped by one of his abductors. We began to head downtown, taking over two hours to navigate the crowded metropolis but taking the opportunity to sample the wares of street food vendors enroute. It appears that the Orcs have a fondness for highly spiced food, generally good though.

Arriving at the Booze Barn I was struck by its similarity to the infamous F & F Tavern of Seagate writ large, and even at this early evening hour it was crowded with loud drunk patrons (again mostly orcs). We discussed how we might the identify Gerald's abductors should they be present. Dart made use of his bardic abilities to both project and alter his voice and selecting a particularly loud and drunk orc had “him” yell across the Booze Barn in a manner clearly heard in neighbouring establishments expletives regarding the Gryphon Riders. A certain tension entered the air, and many weapons were drawn and placed on tables.

A group drinking in a booth bridled, stood up and stalked across the room towards Dart’s hapless patsy. The apparent leader of the angry group stabbed the loud patron with a blade enchanted with necrosis, downing him immediately, while his companions beat down other drinkers who may have been associates of the victim. (A DA revealed the bearer of the blade as pacted to the Duke of Thrones.) The group then left the Booze Barn at some speed. Fights had been breaking out throughout the time we were there but were bare knuckle affairs despite the amount of weaponry being carried by the patrons. Having escalated this to weapons it appears that the group had broken some kind of compact and though they were clearly dangerous they were also heavily outnumbered and decided it was time to leave.

While Remel and most of our group (tagged as healers) saved the life of the stabbing victim, Spigot and I followed the attackers out of the Booze Barn and around behind it where they entered a run-down 10 story building. We followed them up to the top floor and observed them enter into what I took to be a gang hideout, the entire floor of small apartments being used as though it were a single domicile. We made use of Remel’s messaging stones to give the party directions to us and met them at the foot of the building. We used the stairs in an adjacent building of similar height and reached the roof before slinging ropes across to our target building and crossing to that roof.

We could hear raised voices from the floor below and Remel used Waters of Vision to peer into the space where a group of six orcs were arguing, while at a nearby table in front of windows an orc matching Gerald’s description and an elf sat cowed. Additional uses of the waters were able to expand his view to reveal a total of 12 orcs inhabiting the top floor.

We considered bursting in, but then decided to lower ropes next to the open windows adjacent to the abductees and use a messaging stone to arrange an escape with Gerald. At a signal Gerald and the elf grabbed ropes and were hauled up to the roof by most of the party. It took some seconds for the arguing orcs to realise that their erstwhile captives had disappeared, and Dart took the opportunity of the waters and a sending stone to mock the leader, needling him that he was such a bad leader that he didn't realise his captives had escaped to the roof.

This led the group charging towards the stairs, up to the roof access, into the thick fog Remel had created, directly onto our waiting blades, darts, axes, javelin, staff and wolf. The ensuing fight went poorly for the orcs. Luna wrestled the orc leader to the ground and prevented him from carrying out whatever nefarious schemes he had in mind, though a noxious vapours did go off, possibly from a magical trap dropped by one of the orcs.

One orc escaped to the stairway. We returned to the roof, gathered up Gerald and the elf, and departed with haste moments before a large, winged shape arrived, most likely to collect the soul of its agent who had died in the fight after D'Artagnan skewered him. (From the downed orcs we retrieved the necromantic blade along with some amulets, not all of which I recognised.)

We returned to the local healer’s house from which using Remel’s stones Gerald summoned a heavily armed escort squad from headquarters. We accompanied these back Uptown desirous of not meeting an annoyed Duke of Thrones. Discussing issues with the elf, an investigator whose notebook we had found, he had been looking into this new gang who he considered very brash and not at all suitable for long term viability in Big Smoke. The healers offered a generous settlement for returning Gerald with an option to trade this for specialised healing supplies.

After Th'rsday

Arrangements were made with Lavinia to return the party to Seagate. Lady Arcadia wished to visit Yowza and Dang, while some of the others also remained briefly for reasons of shopping. Remel remained with the healers for a week making Waters of Healing. I remained as well, in part unwilling to have Remel remain by himself and also from interest in getting a better understanding of this vast urban area. (Oddly I noted that a lone halfling on the street was given something of a wide berth though I'm not entirely sure why.)

The Big Smoke will surely be an interesting location to return to.

Calendar

Winter: Frost 824 (7)
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
		Samhain	1	Guild Meeting Seagate	2		3		4		5		6
	7		8		9		10		11		12		13
	14		15		16		17		18		19		10
	21		22		23		24		25		26		27
	28		29		30		1		2		3		4
Winter: Snow 823 (8)
	5		6		7		8		9		10		11
	12		13		14		15	Solstice	16		17	The Duke of Carzala's Winter Ball	18	Yuletide
	19	Days of Chaos	20	DoC2	21	DoC3	22	DoC4	23	DoC5	24	DoC6	25	DoC7
	26	DoC8	27	DoC9	28	DoC10	29	DoC11	30	Twelfth Night	1		2
Winter: Ice 823 (9)
	3		4		5		6	First Plough	7		8		9
	10		11		12		13		14		15		16
	17		18		19		20		21		22		23
	24		25		26		27		28		29		30