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Arkhan (Session #6)
After defeating second grell, the party returned the boy's body to his family then continued through the cavern to make sure that no more of the beasts would be able to attack the family. There was one more grell and after a quick battle it was defeated. The group left the trading center with a bad taste in their mouth since they were unable to save the boy.
A couple of hours later, the group caught up to the dwarven caravan and were informed by the dwarves that an odd wizard on a flying carpet flew by and dropped a couple of fireballs in the dwarves' vicinity. He was apparently trying to scare the caravan away, since he didn't hit the dwarves with his spells. A dwarven scout came back to the caravan and explained that they had seen the wizard retreat to a tower not too far away. Wanting to ask the wizard about his erratic behavior, the companions rode to the tower.
As they approached the tower the wizard was screaming for them to go away. The characters diffused the situation by telling the wizard that they weren't coming to get him. He seemed to be kind of paranoid, but the group was able to endear themselves to the obviously unstable man. Whistler, being a wizard himself, was able to get the man to talk to the group. He introduced himself as Thaddeus Rummell a wizard of some renown in Arkhan. Unfortunately, he believes that his father is sending assassins after him because of his progressive thinking on some political issues. Whether or not this is true, Thaddeus was a font of information. He explained the basic setup of the city, the political factions consisting of twelve families of wizards, and he was able to identify the amulet that we took from the yuan-ti halfblood's body. Apparently there is a thieves' guild in Arkhan known as the Red Fang and they use those amulets as their guild symbol. Thaddeus extended his hospitality to the group for the night and then they continued their travels toward the city in the morning.
Three uneventful days later, the group arrived in Arkhan. Leading up to the city is a long, relatively narrow walkway flanked on either side by marshes as far as the eye can see. Ahead the group could see dozens of spires rising up into the air like stone fingers reaching for the clouds. While the caravan was traveling towards the city, a group of riders in black banded mail approached and asked the group for their names and business. Cassandra told the guardsmen that we were from the White Circle and we were here to build our headquarters. The guardsman in charge seemed irritated and explained that he and his men would be watching the group very closely. The guardsmen led the caravan into the city and showed the group the site where they were to build the headquarters.
Cassandra and Kerzog made their way to an upper class inn in the northern end of the city while Grundel and Whistler decide to stay with the dwarves on the construction site.
A couple of days passed, and while Cassandra built a bit of a public persona for herself in the north end.
Grudel oversaw the construction.
Kerzog avoided Cassandra since, while Carokk was traveling back to Elf Friend to let the church of Oldarin know about the deaths of the priests, Cassandra had been bossing Kerzog around like a servant.
Whistler wandered the city to acclimate himself to the layout and important equipment shops.
One evening while Cassandra was taking a break from an evening performance, she was approached by a man in a dark cloak that told her to meet him in an inn known as "The Cellar" at around midnight. He mentioned that it was business for the White Circle.
Cassandra finished her set, told Kerzog about the rendezvous, and hurried to the site to get Grundel and Whistler for the meeting. The group met at the Cellar just before midnight. shortly afterward, three men in dark cloaks entered and the one that Cassandra had met motioned the group towards a back room. The group followed and the man introduced himself as William. William explained that the local thieves' guild, the Red Fang, was shaking down some of the local establishments. One of the establishments, the Five Feathers Inn, refused to pay and was in danger of going out of business. He asked us to look into fixing the situation for the innkeeper.
The next evening, the group arrived at the Five Feathers, sat at the bar, and ordered some drinks. While Whistler was drinking his wine he was using his speak without sound ability to speak to the innkeeper about his problem. He explained that generally two thugs from the Red Fang would enter and demand their cut. When he refuses, they fly into a rage and rough up the customers, attempting to drive him out of business. Whistler told him that the White Circle was around just for these kind of things.
Around midnight, two men entered the Five Feathers and asked for their money. Kerzog stepped up to them and told them to leave before they have to be carried out. Grundel cast a command spell to attempt to drive one of the men out of the bar, but he resisted the spell. They drew their scimitars and attacked. One stepped up to Whistler to attack, so Whistler touched him to send an electrical shock through him. The spell fizzled as Whistler touched him, the rogue was resistant to magic! Cassandra sang a rousing battle song which filled the group with vigor and Grundel made his way around the room so he could pick a good attack point. Whistler stepped under a table to give himself some cover from the rogue and cast a magic missile spell, which also fizzled. At this point Kerzog was sorely pressed between the two rogues when Grundel picked his spot and stabbed his shortsword deep into the closest rogue. Cassandra stopped singing and drew her sword to aid more directly in the battle. Whistler then used a summoning spell to call for a celestial dog to attack the rogues. At this point, the rogues were overwhelmed by the party. After their defeat, the group searched their bodies and found that these "men" were actually yuan-ti purebloods. The group cleaned up the mess and disposed of the snake-men's bodies in the sewer grate in the alley behind the Five Feathers.