Adanflaen Nights

The staff we are seeking is the holy symbol of Huntrev, the 'chief' god of the Tarchan'it pantheon.

Pat goes out to try to sell our cotton, so that we have easy capital for our escape. He takes Sam, with Terry and Cholly as guards. Alas, he has trouble. A “merchant” first offers him a paltry 12,000 sistern, and then tries to mug them, leading them into a trap. Four people rush into the room but are efficiently dispatched by Pat, Sam, Terry, and Cholly. The party heads inside to find the merchant who set this ambush. He's not there, but they eventually lead an invisible Pat to the Boss' house. The trail dead-ends there, and they give up. Pat keeps searching, and eventually finds a real merchant, trading our cotton for 18,000 sistern.

Meanwhile, Alex and Bev explore the city, scouting for access routes, escape routes, guards, and so on.

The temples have small troops of specialised guards; nothing like the paladins of Gwedrick, for example. There is a city guard, also small. Normally major issues are dealt with by the army, but they all left the island recently… The temples are large buildings in wide open squared and grassy areas; no back alleys or other cover. They're large; some multiple stories and some open and airy.

The temple “quarter” backs onto the city wall. There are roads on each side of the wall, but beyond the road on the outside of the wall are crowded buildings, many of which are taller than the wall itself and look over it. Alex thinks there might be an escape route there, in a pinch.

The main temple of Huntrev is shaped like a large 'plus' sign (see the map). The entrance is at the north end. There is a high altar at south end, with smaller altars in the east and west wings. Most of the grounds around the temple are fenced off, closed to the public. They are easily accessible by walking around the portico on the outside of the main temple, though (as long as you can get past the guards :-). There is a small entrance door at the south end of the temple proper, used by the priests to enter.

We scan the temple and seminary with Locate Object spells, but don't find the staff anywhere; we assume that it is shielded from magical detection. Terry, however, tries to detect magically “blank” areas with his Detect Undead spell. He doesn't find any, but does find one undead creature, at the back of the Seminary (in the high priest's apartments)!. We conjecture that the staff is “alive”…

Terry and Bev follow a couple of the temple accolytes to a local pub. They approach them with the ruse of becoming guards at the temple, to see if they can get some names and/or routine information. We learn that the acolytes sometimes sneak women into the seminary, as long as they're careful (and quiet!). We get a (memory blurred) image of the High Priest's office, and learn that the entire east wing of the seminary (all three floors) are his “apartments”, which are guarded at night (but not during the day). Unfortunately, Terry makes an inappropriate comment about Bev's sister, and Bev attacks him; a bar brawl ensues?

The High Priest does meet with merchants, but only high class types (he rattles off some names of prominent merchants). It is unlikely that Pat would get an audience. He is imposing and strict. The staff's location is a deep, dark secret.

Bev and Alex decide to get their side mission out of the way, and attempt to contact the local Guild contact. They discover that he is already dead! He apparently suddenly sickened and died about 3 weeks ago, passing in only two days (at the end he was bleeding through his pores, a sure sign of poison). We leave, and Alex thinks about opening the package. She finds a coded letter, and a small amulet (???)

The party attends a ritual at the temple that is presided over by the High Priest. Pat Studies the High Priest's face, so that he can later disguise himself if necessary. During the ceremony, Terry scans for undead again, and finds it on the second floor of the apartments this time.

Presuming that the staff is in the high-priest's apartments, and that if we sneak in we'll alert the guard and be unable to get in a second time, we decide to make all of our escape preparations and then just “go for it”, during the next ritual that requires the High Priest (about 3 days from now). In theory it'll be easier to sneak in when many priests and accolytes are busy over at the temple…

Posted by harald in Campaign Notes Edit this page