21 December 2009

Chapter The First: Deeds at the Duelist, Too Many Rats, and a Dog NamedGrey

In this first installment of our tale two unrelated brothers met, a mad halfling sorceror one Ulmo the Lucky and Tyrian Morgankin. Ulmo had but recently been banned from the Tunnelwebs of the Dwarves and forcibly evicted into the sordid gem that is New Roeblini City. Meanwhile Tyrian the last survivor of an ill fated sea raiding party sought out his distant uncle, Morgrin, within the city's limits. Ulmo eager to earn coin and challenge fate sought out the Duelist Inn, a decapitated tower some distance from the city's central waters, where the brave battled the foolish for wagers of gold. Coincidentally, this was also the frequent haunt of Morgrin. On the skiff ride to the brawling bar the fateful meeting of the two heroes occurred.
At the bar Tyrian met the voluptuous Lucinda who guided him to his uncle, meanwhile Ulmo watched one strange dueling pair after the other before offering challenge to the intimidating Fairsal, a great lizard man who's might sinews were backed by a tissue-like will. Ulmo was declared the winner by nervous breakdown. Meanwhile as Tyrian spoke to his uncle, he learned that Morgrin on of the Seafarer faction of the House of Heros was in political stalemate, his smallest political machination undone before he could implement it. He suspected a spy but could not root him out, perhaps Tyrian and his new friend could help. Ulmo then faced Squinteye Eik, a gnomish lurker, who he defeated. When it was found that Eik had welshed on his side of the bet, the Roeblini made ready to gut him as was their fashion, Tyrian defended him saying that a man or gnome's life was worth more than a few gold sails. Uncle Morgrin, aghast at such a statement from a Roeblini raider's son, dueled him with wooden swords, but was impressed with the martial might of his distant nephew, publicly proclaiming one of Morgrin's men. Squinteye Eik was stripped naked and cast into Roeblini's murky waters, his possessions given to Ulmo. The gnome was seen swimming for the city proper, but never made landfall, yet another victim to that which prowls the depths.
Morgrin took them aboard his gondola, briefly showing them the cityscape: the Whores and Harlots Street, the Bazaar, the Chieftan's Tower, and the Halls of Heroes and Merchants. Morgrin took them to the Seafarer faction's offices, an ornate if rundown shamble a short walking distance from the deserted and even more disheveled Hall of Heroes. At the door they found a sleeping guard, Byl, surprised to see his patron returned. Inside they met Morgrin's servant scribe, S'sabis, before being ushered into Morgrin's sprawling office a collection of decades of adventure, war, monster killing, political infighting, maps, and discarded tankards. Here Ulmo thought he noticed something skittering into the shadows, but Morgrin dismissed his concerns regarding rats stating that they were a fact of life in the city. The three discussed their plans and eventually decided to enter Avandra's Run, a race run by carrying a compatriot through the streets from the Beach Gate to the Temple of Avandra at the opposite end of the city. Ulmo and Tyrian would use preparation for the race as cover to investigate the spy within Uncle Morgrin's midst.
The mismatched pair were surprised at the Roeblini rats, larger and capable of using complex tools Tyrian and Ulmo suspected that these might actually be the spies. They sought out the freelance but permanently hired animal monster control specialist, Sutton. The scarred ranger admitted that the rodents here were certainly larger and more intelligent than rats elsewhere but he refused to help them. He gave them dire warnings about an Undercity thought to be a myth by most.
Seeking a way to track the rats the partners sought out the Magic Shoppe. Here they met the mighty Arcus, a wizard apparently caught within a beautiful gold statue of a man. The articulate edifice summoned a celestial rat terrier named Grey, so named for his silver flecked coat. Tyrian dispatched Grey to follow the rats and find a way for them to follow the mutated rodents.
As Grey prowled the sewer tubes chasing the rats, Tyrian and Ulmo competed in Avandra's Run. Ulmo was loaned some goggles to improve his vision, Tyrian was armed with the blade Neverlost and a stout cudgel. They soon found themselves in fourth place behind a dragonborn mounted kobold, two humans, and two warforged. Behind them many other competitors stretched including a massive, drooling dwarf and his human jockey. They caught the warforged who both began to pummel our heroes. Tyrian placed a strategic blow to the legs of the running automaton who fell in a tangle. They ran until up ahead they saw the two human runners slain by arrow crossfire. Deciding to avoid this death trap they cut into the alleyways, closely followed by the ravened dwarf. Ulmo picked off the berserk dwarf's rider after he shot Tyrian with a poisoned dart he was able to shrug off. As the dwarf closed, Grey threw himself at the dwarf's feet, tripping him. Tyrian burst into the street behind the dragonborn. Ulmo used his magic and noticed the kobold was unaffected, suspecting a mirage, Ulmo saw through the illusion. As Tyrian drew even with the saurian, they were both tackled by the exhausted dragonborn. As they fell they noticed a ringer sprint past them, two racers that they had not seen earlier at the start of the race. Tyrian sprinted after the runners, passing them just before the finish line. Tyrian and Ulmo had won Avandra's Run.
A few days after the race, Grey returned to the adventurer's apartments with a belt attached to which were four small vials of liquids. Grey had been unable to find a normal sized entrance but had seen some mansized humanoids consume the vials to shrink down and traverse the drain tubes. Tyrian and Ulmo planned to go to the drain nearest the mansized tunnels and follow Grey. They shrank themselves and climbed down the rough hewn drain pipe to a smooth 10" diameter tube of an ancient and more refined architecture. Grey led them unerringly through the foul tubes until they encountered some of Roeblini's odd rats. A fierce battle commenced in the tight passageways, three rats relatively the size of horses were left as cold corpses. After the battle Tyrian noticed that the passageway was shrinking as the effects of the vials wore off. The party hurried through the tunnels running more and more hunched. Finally they were engaged by more rats, Tyrian and Ulmo drank their second and final potions returning to their shrunken size, then slew the rapacious rats.
They exited into a the ruins of an old street, both sides bracketed by what appeared to be demolished barracks. The ceiling appeared to be the aftereffect of rapidly frozen lava. The floor was dusty cobblestones, large heavy booted foot prints surrounded by thousands of rat prints and droppings. Some distance to the north the passageway was collapsed, so the party followed the prints to the south coming upon a lit cross tunnel.
This cross passage opened into an oval room filled with sketches, maps, and notes regarding key players of the New Roeblini City. Tyrian suspected that this was written in an ancient form of draconic as he could recognize but not decipher the words as he and Ulmo collected key items of evidence. They also retrieved two more vials of the mysterious shrinking potion. They inspected the three rooms attached to the oval room, one a store room, the second a treasury with gemstones and many gold sails, and the last a sleeping room with three pallets. As they finished their search, Tyrian and Ulmo heard approaching bootsteps. They quickly hid in the storeroom as two dragonborn spies Coldfang and Warscale entered speaking in draconic about the low output of viable intelligence in the last few weeks. As they argued they were joined by Captain Blackfang who told them they had new orders from central command. Suddenly the captain noticed the missing items and the three dragonborn drew their weapons, the captain then searched the hallway realizing that the party was trapped within the underground encampment.
As the two groups had a silent stalemate, Captain Blackfang hurled flaming oil into the treasury, only to be blasted by Ulmo's arcane might. As he made ready to do the same into the store room where the heroes were hiding. Knowing what was to come next Tyrian followed by Grey exploded from the side passage, engaging Coldfang and Warscale, as large bottle off flaming oil was hurled into Ulmo's midst who sprang out the door only to fall prone at Blackfang's feet. The captain engaged the halfling trying to prod him back into the flames, and by the greatest stroke of luck, the saurian slipped and stumbling over the halfling nearly fell into inferno. With mighty sword strokes Tyrian hewed Coldfang to the floor as Grey worried the throat of Warscale. Blackfang regained the room engaging our intrepid heroes. As both Ulmo and Tyrian became bloodied and wounded from the mighty spymaster's onslaught, Grey attempted to grab hold of Blackfang and dispel himself back to his home plane (or nearest adjacent demiplane). The celestial terrier and the dragonborn vanished. The battered heroes consumed their final potions and slipped back to the surface.
They were met by a wet Grey at Morgrin's office who said that his return to the celestial plane had been hampered and he had lost the dragonborn only to reappear in the Magic Shoppe. He had swum back to the city proper to rejoin his master.
Who were the spies working for? Was that ruined street under sewers part of a greater Undercity as Sutton's dark mutterings implied? Was the dragonborn in Avandra's Run part of the conspiracy?

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