A new tower, new problems, new conflict and a place to fight.

(November 2003) 

We had been asked by the Master Alchemist Vetzlar of Wolfhold to travel to the Open Gauntlet Waystation to attend a sale of some powerful magical items with a view to placing a successful bid. We were to do all we could to make sure OUR bid was successful.

We were: Devin Amber (nominated leader by Vetzlar), Thumper, Xaria, Runt, Montezuma, Alabrion, Gutrot, Taran, Melieth, Phoenix, Wifred, Tersius, Nethris, Luke and Tsika.

We set off in the direction of the Open Gauntlet( aReader Waystation recently purchased by that collector of waystations, Alberto Cerulean). We were beset by some towerless and a group of Kalid Earthwarp before we met a fish like creature being pursued by other fishlike creatures. Inevitably we rescued the underdog who it turned out was a Thissessin, and his pursuers were Sahaugin-lizard like creatures strong in magic. The Thissessin showed his gratitude by taking us to his cave where we were introduced to Gekko, his leader who offered us free accommodation for our help. He also asked us to take some herbs to a Thissessin Seer the following day. After a short rest we were told a group of Dymwan had been spotted outside. We slew them and discovered one was carrying a bid for the Auction we were due to attend. This was for 250 gests and a years worth of guard duties around the dymwan area.

The following morning we set off to The Open Gauntlet intending to drop the herbs off on the way. First we stumbled upon the dead bodies of 3 members of The Celestial Beauracracy one of which had a bid in his pouch-350 gests. They must have been killed by a group of Towerless whom we later encountered.

The Thissessin Seer agreed to provide us with a vision relating to the auction in return for his herbs.

We were also attacked by a group of mindless towerless who appeared to have been controlled by someone or something. We had no explanation for this at the time.

At the Open Gauntlet we were greeted by the mistress of the waystation and also angry Celestial Beauracracy and Dymwan representatives who accused us of nobbling their bids. Devin skillfully talked his way out of this situation with the help of some palm greasing.

Later bids were received from House Gurthel and The Wizard s Concilium. Given the size of the bids we had seen we placed our bid at 500 gests which we felt would be sufficient to win.

On Saturday evenings at the open Gauntlet an event known as fight circle takes place. This is the form of a knockout fighting competition which takes place in a circle approx. 20 feet across. Clearly not a fight for mages or priests and unsurprisingly it was the warriors who did best. After a mighty performance the first prize of 160 gests was won by Thumper of The Iron Guard. Following this was the Royal Rumble which required a bit more skill, ingenuity and underhandedness to win…I won.

A decent profit was made by placing side bets on the outcome of the fights. The bookmaker incidentally was the associate of Wenzel Harber Falkington’s who fled after the fights. Unfortunately there was little we could do to apprehend him as he was under the protection of the Reader to whom he apparently owed a substantial sum.

During the course of the evening we noticed 2 people apparently Reader guards engaged in a game of chess. I feel this has some significance although exactly what it is escapes me.

Sunday morning started far too early as too many of our group were early risers who had no thought for those with sore heads. Nevertheless at the appointed time we made our way to see the Thissessin Seer who had agreed to have our vision ready. This suggested that the Dymwan were to make the successful bid. The second part of the vision showed those carrying the items being ambushed..We had assumed that this was a foretelling of our probable ambush of the aforementioned.

We returned to the Waystation planning our ambush but overheard a fight. It transpires that a group of the mind controlled towerless had ambushed the Reader merchants carrying the items to the waystation in readiness for the announcement of the bid. At the Waystation we were met by a dour Duergar who refused to identify himself before advising the Reader of the theft of their items. They were naturally rather upset.

We sent out patrols to try and spot the thieves and eventually spotted a group of the mind controlled Towerless in the company of the dour Duergar and his sidekick. It was no surprise that they had a box which contained the items. After a mighty battle we slew the Duergar and recovered the items. We recovered from his body the symbol of a silver arm holding a hammer-doubtless his Tower symbol.

We legged it back to Wolfhold.

CONCLUSION

There is a feud between the Sahaugin and the Thissessin. The Thissessin have been helpful to us.

A new probably hostile Tower has been unearthed containing duergar who are mighty warriors with psionic powers.

What was the significance of the chess players-have they been seen before?

Alabrion
That nice chap from the VAT
Earth Wizard.