The Hunt for Kontalie

Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure: The Hunt for Kontalie
GM: Phil
Season: Spring 797 WK

Party

• Saydar, Necromancer Orc Male (Mil Sci)
• Red Brian, Non-mage Dwarf Male (Leader)
• Liessa, Mind Human Female
• Adam-Jones, Earth Giant Male
• Flamis, Fire Human Female
• Basalic, Earth Human Male (Scribe)

Time on adventure

1st Thaw to 29th Thaw 797 WK

Employer

Marcus - from the InterBarony Bank

Mission

To find Kontalie and present him with a writ for monies owed to the Bank.

Plane

Andara/Drommick/Feret

Places visited

Andara

Tanth

Urjil's castle

Centrade in the Peric Plains

A fort to the east of the Peric Plains

Erint City

Fingerscop

Vinescop

Drommick

Hills with planer gates

Feret

Herif

Kontalie's cave

Major NPCs encountered

Urjil - a vampiric arms dealer

Captain Ferris - captain of the eastern fort

Rhy'el - Planer mage at Vinescop

Malloc - Devil and Guardian of the planer portal keys

John Little - sheriff of Herif

Kontalie - red dragon and Mind Mage.

Original Scribe Notes

Media:Snsp9702.zip

Scribe Notes

1 Thaw '97 The party employer for this mission was Marcus, an employee of the InterBarony Bank in the country of West Tantric on the Plane of Andara. A customer of theirs, one Kontalie, owed the bank over 1.6 million silver pennies (including penalties) and the loan had been outstanding for 99 years and 9 months. The Loans department wanted the matter cleared up before the 100 year mark, otherwise the Bank may be forced to write the money off. As Marcus explained, that would not be good for the bank's profits or their reputation. The debtor in question turned out to be a red dragon/shapeshifter/mind mage. He had often hired himself out during human conflicts and the last known job was the Erint/Peric Plains conflict. One of his known contacts was a vampire arms dealer known as Urjil. According to the bank records Kontalie had taken out a 100,000sp loan but had only paid back 50,000sp before disappearing, seventy years ago. An investigating party had gone to his cavern in Mt Aspiring, located in the Erint Mountains, but he wasn't there and there was no sign of a forwarding address. Twenty years later, a mercenary team went looking for him but were killed while checking out underground contacts in Orctown, part of the city of Tanth. The next, and final, mercenary team went searching thirty years ago. They had found out about the last job and the employer, Yettal Dirent, who they questioned. I thought it more than coincidental that his year of death was the same as the year that the mercenary team were talking to him. Was Kontalie trying to ensure that anyone who knew of his whereabouts was silenced - permanently. The last that the bank had heard of that team was that they were in Vinescop and that they were going off-plane to a plane called Drommick, to further their investigations. We would arrive on their plane somewhere outside the city of Tanth, where the bank's Head Office is located. Marcus also mentioned it was illegal to cast magic in town without a license. The penalty would forced labour on the mana pumps which supply mana to the city. Just about everyone is a mage and there is a very strong Mages Guild. Also a Planer Mage would be at our disposal. To get to the plane we would be Summoned with a fixed duration spell, something of the order of about three months according to Mike, after which we would automatically return to Alusia. Twelve charges of invested Planer Counterspells would be provided as well as a signalling device so we can be recalled. Marcus explained that we would be acting as freelance contractors to the bank which prompted Saydar to ask if we should do other debt collections as well. Our payment would be up to 15,000sp if we could recover the funds. The bank is prepared to wipe out the 5.3 thousand sp penalty. If we only locate him that would be 10,000sp. Once Marcus left, we introduced ourselves to each other. Saydar - a 5'6" tall orc with black plate armour. His left eye was jet-black obsidian with blood oozing from the sides. He carried a large staff which also had blood oozing from it. He's a Necromancer, Military Scientist, Healer and Ranger. Red Brian - a dwarf with red hair and red plate mail. He told us he was a member of the College of War, which only had one spell. His main weapon was the Great Axe and he was also a Military Scientist, Healer, and Ranger. Liessa - Tall human female with red hair and blue eyes. She is a Mind Mage, mainly a troubadour, some Healer skills and is pacted to an extra-planer entity. Adam-Jones - 12'4" giant. His cloak and tabard is coloured purple. He was also wearing thick armour. Vines were growing on the armour and on him. He told us not to look him in the eye for too long as Death stares out of his eyes. Main weapons is a giant spear and shield. He's an Earth Mage with high ranks in Strength of Stone and Armour of Earth. Flamis - Medium height, short blond hair, and wearing her favorite one-piece orange/red skirted outfit which served as magical armour. She's a fire mage, my wife, and the present incarnation of the Eternal Consort. Basalic - That's me. Tall, reasonably muscular, and wearing leather armour. I'm an Earth Mage as well as a caverns ranger and amateur philosopher in rocks. Recently I've been learning about different sorts of weapons and military tactics. After some discussion, Red Brian became the party leader, Saydar the Military Scientist, and I was the scribe. It was decided that we weren't leaving until the 4th as there were some things that we wanted to try here. Red Brian tried out Starflower's Lost and Found service, but drew a blank, which according to her suggested that either our information was inaccurate, or Kontalie was not to be found on the map we had been provided with. Meanwhile I purchased three 20pt Healing potions. That night some of us went down to Newhaven to the Skull Tavern which Saydar owns, presumably for a strategy discussion over a few beers. It was felt like a pleasant place and the beer was good so I was loathe to leave. I soon found out that playing drinking games with a dwarf is not a good idea. 2 Thaw Went back to the farm for last minute arrangements before returning to the Guild. .2. Later on I found out that both Saydar and Flamis had obtained astrology readings. They turned out to be the following: What is Drommick like? No feet or hooves inhabit this plain, No one 'twas here does now remain, They've all gone to a better place, They've all gone with unseemly haste, The eyes that watch, the eyes that see, The eyes may put an end to thee, A traveller's rest this plain is not, A path to truth, a realm forgot. What dangers await in our quest for Kontalie? Dragon's Eyes, Dragon's Friends, Dragon's Breath, Dragon Cunning, Dragon's Lair, Dragon's Circle. Who would know where the dragon Kontalie is? She is as omniscient as your prey itself. She is as thicker than life itself. She is as one with the air itself. She is as loyal as death itself. Where shall we go to find the dragon Kontalie? You seek him there you seek him here He hides with excessive care The stars above and spirits below Will not reveal him to his foe Over clever he may be But then again we'll wait and see. What is the plane of Drommick like? A blasted place where death awaits To tarry long may be your doom. Where shall we go to get to the plane of Drommick What grasps the Cup? One is the leader of four. What's in the Cup? One to lay down many. Where is the One? Ones in the Cup. Ones in the Pig. The Cup and the Pig are in the One Who is the planer mage who knows of Drommick? Hole Crossed, Star Crossed, Bloods Red, Minds Red, Age Great, Power Great, He's One, Only One. Urji the Vampire, how is he involved? Dwarfs delight is his desire Profiting from each sides fire, Caring not whom gets what, Only interested in his pot, Dealing wheeling, men beware, Who pays the most he does not care. 4 Thaw It was time to go. That morning we met with our employer. He wanted to know how long we wanted the duration of the Summoning to be. We finally decided on a three month duration before we were yanked back to Alusia. So we wandered down the road, out of Seagate, for about five minutes, where a peasant farmer was waiting. Marcus handed him some money and he left. Marcus explained that he was marking the transfer spot before extracting a small wand and twisting the top off it. A few minutes later we found ourselves elsewhere, in farmlands near a walled city. Standing nearby was a guy dressed in black robes and reminded us of a wraith. Marcus told us that was the planer mage. After Brian received the recall device, another of those wands, we headed towards the town. We had to pass through an arch in the gateway which had lights flashing on it as we went under it. A man sat there making notes in a big ledger book. Must have been some sort of detect aura device. Tanth proved to be a very large city. Saydar was of the opinion that the Planer Mage we were looking for had a heraldic symbol that had the standard stars and hole of the College but also contained a cross and had red in the symbol - a nonstandard colour. So we stopped off at a heraldic shop to make enquiries. The old guy there hadn't heard of such a symbol but promised to make enquiries and do research. While we waited, we went to a nearby pub called the 'Happy Landings'. The ales served there were quite nice, and so was the food they served up. Flamis decided to try this drink that was served inside a large, hollowed out, yellow fruit. I remembered Aqualina showing us one of these, she called it a 'pineapple'. Flamis said it was rather sweet and very delicious. I suspected it was also rather potent. When I asked, the innkeeper told me it was a 'pina-colada'. After a while, the herald himself found us. No he hadn't found anything definite but our description had been rather vague to begin with. Certainly there was nothing matching it in the immediate vicinity. However there was a possibility that it may be in the Eastern regions. After he left, we discussed the possibilities. Had the planar mage been disbarred from the Guild and created his own crest? Marcus told us that there were dragons in the eastern areas, mostly in the Vale. Instead of being solitary like Alusian dragons, they were organised into groups called 'flights'. Maybe one of them would know. The dragons in the Vale also co-existed with the elves there. Saydar believed that contacting the vampire Urjil may shed some light on the whereabouts of Kontalie. The other possibility was to retrace the other mercenary groups steps and try to obtain the same information that they did. Red Brian pointed out that Urjil's castle was on the way to Centrade so it finally decided to do both. So we headed out of town and prepared to fly. Two fireflight hops later we could see the castle ahead so we landed on a nearby riverbank and proceeded on foot. We had to hack our way through bush from the river for a while until we reached a path. The path led us to a small hill. On top of the hill was the castle. Around the bottom of the hill was a fence. Between the fence and the castle was a grassed area, providing no cover whatsoever. A gate allowed access up the path. As we progressed, both Adam and I could tell that the grassed area was completely covered in rather lethal wards. Only the path was safe and we could see watchers in the castle above. As we got further up the path, two people came out and approached us, one elf, the other human. Adam soon determined that the elf was a mind mage and the human was a namer. When they wanted to know what we wanted, Saydar told them we had stuff to sell and that we needed to speak to Urjil. Finally we were conducted inside and told to wait. After a while it got dark. A short while later, Urjil and another person that Brian identified as an Air mage arrived in. Saydar told him that we were looking for Kontalie in order to employ him. Finally, after some negotiation, Urjil agreed to use his resources to investigate the possibility of finding the missing dragon. During those negotiations we discovered that Urjil was attempting to duplicate Guild healing potions. We talked a bit more about the possibility of obtaining various weapons such as lightweight glaives for a short time later before leaving. We ended up making a camp down by the river.