Zarantyr 23, 998 YK
Having returned to their usual plane of existence, we pick up our adventurers headed back to Goodman’s Grogshop where they will try to cash in on Ziago’s Drunk Lunk sighting a few days ago.
Ziago and Dalavash head into Goodman’s, while Sal and Elros decide to check out the back alley. It only took two sentences for the party to split up, we’ll see how it turns out this time.
Outside, as Sal and Elros turn the corner into the alley, they surprise a group of four thugs who appear to have just crawled out of the back room window. Perhaps unsettled by Sal’s eagerness to make their acquaintance, the thugs yell some nonsense about the “Boromar Clan’s turf” and take off in a sprint towards a waiting sky car. By the time the initial surprise and sprint was over, Sal had subdued one of the thugs, lets call him Biggie, Elros had pulled one of them, we’ll call him Tupac, off of the sky car with a lightning lure and two had made it onto the sky car. In the next instant, Sal leaps for the departing sky car barely managing to grab onto the side.
Meanwhile, back in the bar, the always observant Ziago sees the commotion through the window and blames the window. From his seat at the bar, Ziago runs straight through the window, down the alley, and leaps just far enough to match Sal hanging from the opposite side of the sky car. While this is going on, Dalavash mind links with Goodman to suggest that he go see what the commotion is all about. Then, taking advantage of the distraction and the vacated bar, Dalavash clumsily leaps over the bar and starts bashing on the door to the backroom. Despite the stereotype, the cleric did not sample very much wine during that maneuver, any missing wine is due strictly to clumsiness.
Outside on the sky car, one of the thugs is playing whack-a-mole with Sal’s hands as Tupac makes a futile leap for the car, only to be saved from imminent death by his feather fall token. Elros lights up the other unnamed thug near Ziago with a few Magic Missiles allowing Ziago to knock him out with the butt of his rapier.
In the back room of the Grogshop Dalavash finds Drunk Link only mostly dead and stabilizes him, pleasing and placating Goodman.
Outside again, Elros definitely is the one who kills Tupac with a volley of Magic missiles, Ziago convinces the driver to park the car, and Sal proves that a living thug thrown overboard without feather fall is just as dead as a feather-falling thug corpse.
The two remaining unconscious thugs, the driver, and Drunk Lunk are lined up along the alley wall and the interrogation begins, after a quick search of course.
The quartet tied up in the alley has in their possession 23 silver pieces, three feather fall tokens, and one interesting note with the message “Get the information from Drunk Lunk and take scrupulous notes on the artifact’s location. You will be rewarded richly. — The Banker.”
A combination of a Friend spell and intimidation also reveals that there are a couple of things going on here. First, Drunk Lunk is a dream-lily courier for the Boromar clan. A wealthy merchant’s daughter has overdosed and Drunk Lunk is being set up to take the fall to ease the pressure from the city watch. Second, Drunk Lunk has been researching some valuable artifact for some Banker, and that Banker wants results.
The remaining two thugs and driver are released to go meet their friends down below as fast as gravity and wind resistance will allow and the guys continue to question Lunk. In exchange for his life, Lunk provides the location and a description of the relic, which turns out to be a black Khyber Dragonshard located in the basement of a building in Trade Faire.
Our inquisitors then turn Lunk in for the 250 Gallifar reward and sell the driverless sky car to a chop shop for 150 gold. Quite a nice pay day, but the day is not over yet, there is still a valuable relic out there.
The building where the relic is supposedly stored just happens to be the same building where Dalavash’s connection Ryran does business, so the group starts by asking Ryran about the location. Ryran doesn’t have much to add so the next stop is at the landowner’s office downstairs, where Elros pretends to be interested in renting out the basement, but despite greasing his palms, the owner, Taggert, is of little help.
After unsuccessfully trying the locked basement door, Ziago has the idea to lure Taggert out of his office so that the rest of the party can grab the keys to unlock the basement door. Ziago disguises himself as a haughty elf and talks Taggert into giving him a tour of the upper floors. Meanwhile, the rest of the guys find a key ring, unlock the basement, and return it before Taggert returns with the “haughty elf.”
The party regroups and heads down into the basement where they encounter a menacing shadow creature.