Session10


 * 3-22-13**
 * Arrival in Thay**

The pirate ship of The Nine Hells pulls into the harbor of Bezantur, a port city of Thay. A large walled city with a towering black citadel at it’s center. Destitute shacks are built around the outside of the wall… tens of thousands of people living in filth and ruin. The harbor is walled off separate from the city. 30 – 40 boats line the docks. Scaled fish-men ride on giant sharks (bigger than the ships) patrolling the harbor. 7’ tall furred gnolls, dressed as city guards, patrol the docks.

Kinu Shadowfall arranged for a contact here from a contact in Lyrabar. Bellana Tellmister. A woman who has a common interest in our plans. Dressed like a gypsy, with her elven ears covered behind a scarf, Bellana boards our ship. She tells us she’s from Algeron, a country between Impiltur and Thay. She had been enslaved, but made her escape. Her brother, Belltra, was not so lucky, and was taken. She fears he is dead or worse.

She tells us that the main trades are lumber, slaves, and fruit. There are 7 Zulkirs of Thay, 1 for each school of magic. They all fight for power, and thankfully to the rest of the world, its usually with each other. Tharchian, a governor put into place by the red wizards to run the political workings while the wizards are busy with more important plannings.

The city is made up of mainly humans, gnolls, and orcs. Most of the people are dark complected. Shaved heads is a status symbol. Slaves have very long hair. Aznarth Thruul, the Zulkir of Evocation, resides in the black citadel here in Bezantur. He’s human.

The destitute area outside of the city is known as shanty town. Scum, riff-raff, and the ones too poor to live within the city reside there, starving and hopeless.

Thay also has a Gryphon Legion. Gryphon riders in the skies.

It will take us a week to travel to the middle of the country to Szass Tam’s summer estate. A home where he entertains his guests. No one is allowed into his actual home. The country is tense with Szass Tam’s disappearance, the other zulkirs fight for the power that he isn’t there to claim.

We will need a story to get through the country. Our best option is to disguise as a group of slavers and slaves heading to Thay’s capital city of Eltabar, the capital of slave trade. Azarius and Axton shave their heads with Thorn already shaved short to pose as slavers. Posy, Uther, and Ursus pose as guards for the group. Erevin, Kale, Crowe, Kinu, Yuki, and Wren pose as slaves, with their armor and weapons hidden in the straw of our wagon. Mali is seasick from the trip, and Ursus looks after her.

We travel through the city, Azarius posing as the lead slaver with a great and dark presence. He bluffs our way through without difficulty. We travel along the road, watched by the hopeless eyes of the poverty-stricken. After two days travel, we come to a Cliffside that runs for miles, the earth has been raised 500 feet high. Large wooden platforms run on ropes and boulders and slave power is the only way up…

Midway in the air, the three platforms line up along the cliff as they travel variously up and down… Gnolls and humans travel on either side of our middle platform. We hear, “Get the elves!” as they begin leaping onto our platform to attack! Protected from view from above and below the Cliffside, we grab our weapons from the wagon and everyone fights them off. Yuki is grabbed from the wagon and thrown to a Gnoll on another platform, who is most displeased that she is not an elf. “You grab wrong one!” Uther and Thorn move to that platform to help Yuki. Chaos is all over our platform as we fend off our attackers. The platforms continue to move farther apart as we battle. Gnolls and humans are thrown off the platforms to die horribly at the bottom. Two are webbed and burned alive as they travel down on another platform. Having thrown off and massacred our attackers, we mend the ropes of our platform and gather together, back in full roles of our story to reach the top. Coins are exchanged by bets placed, and there seems to be some respect to our group of slavers. We move on without further encounter.

Days of travel through barren wastelands. After a week’s traveling we see Eltabar, the capital city of Thay. Its water canals seem to be carved into one giant water rune. Dozens of black towers reach into the sky. We turn off the road, heading into a dark barren land where the spotty plant life is sickly and figures shuffle in the distance. No longer in need of our disguise, we gear up. Axton places a dozen powerful scrolls into Yuki’s possession. 4 – Hide From Undead (each hides 9 people for 6 hours) 2 – Dispel Magic 2 – Lesser Restoration 2 – Remove Disease 1 – Daylight 1 – Word of Recall (written by Helena – transports the user and 2 others back to the Temple of Sune)

We pass by an orchard of orange trees that seem to be protected from whatever blight plagues these lands. Clean, white skeletons pick the oranges without rest, putting them into the baskets and barrels carried away by shuffling zombies.

The summer estate feels alive. It feels like it’s watching us. Shadowy forms flit past the windows. Thorn clears the door and we step inside. Luxurious and rich with paintings hung on the walls and display cases. The furniture has been covered with sheets. A person frozen in the room, who only seems to be able to blink their eyes is posed as a mannequin to display jewelry. Thorn slips off a couple of rings, much to Azarius’s dismay. “Uh… those are probably cursed.” They light up with a powerful magic as he looks at them. Thorn carefully slips the rings back on to the figure… Crowe steps forward to say something, but it’s too late. Bright white light surrounds us!

Teleported and separated, only Thorn, Azarius, Erevin, Posy, Yuki, and Wren are together in a room of a watery pool with stone bridge walkways. A red-robed wizard stands by the only door out… he says something about trying to catch him while he’s down and an ominous threat before he vanishes.

We move slowly across the stone bridge walkway to the door. Thorn goes first to clear the way, with Erevin moving out to the middle crossroad to watch everyone else… As Wren moves in next… A serpentine naga woman comes up from the water, blowing air across the walkway and nearly knocking off Wren and Erevin who manage to hold on after they fall. Thorn continues to clear the walkway and work on the door out while we wage battle with the naga and her whirlpool water elemental… take a horrible beating! Wren is beat ragged within the whirlpool of water, Azarius is melting to sprays of acid, Erevin is taking direct hits from the naga. Posey slashes at the water elemental head on while Yuki struggles to keep everyone alive and get Wren out of the water. Erevin uses his sword to form ice in the pool to stand on. Finally the water is still and Erevin notices something shiny at the bottom, diving down he finds that there are bodies and a red robe… magical chainmail, 1000 gold, a staff, and a dagger.