Orhan 4 Day 60 TE 6061

We return from Karilon:

Arisia gives Oathar a pair of giant life sized paintings one, as normal, and one in pirate costume based on sketches Kyrik made when Oathar needed to wear an eyepatch for a while while his eye was recovering.

Alynna pays a social call on "good brother"'s girlfriend, and discovers that she is pregnant.

Orhan 4 Day 62 TE 6061

Imre and company start their journey!

• Go to Ardania and report in its doings. (Imre) 1st

The story begins as Mark arrives to serve under Imre. He's quite a big guy, 10 feet tall. He's only got one eye (the other is covered in horrible scars).

The Shar the half elf shows up and introduces himself. He doesn't do traps.

Next arrive the rustic mixed men. Kef and Marian, one who creates and one who destroys. Very pesky. (Hooray for low leverl casters.)

Imre breaks the ice. He starts the little dance of introducing everyone to each other.

Imre briefs people on the mission a little bit and invites them all to spend the evening here and set out in the morning. Then once people are separated, he goes around and interviews each person as to their overall motive. His interviews give him insights into the doom that awaits them.

Shar sneaks out for a night cap and then returns in the early AM.

Orhan 5 Day 7 TE 6061

We sail to Ardania! Yay!

We stop off in Nomar Tol. There we are instructed quite firmly to not leave town or be hunted.

We set sail again. One day, one of the sails rips. Most people blame Miriam. After a couple of days a storm comes in. The tiny ship is tossed!

People are sitting around down below and suddenly a crack opens in the side of the ship and water starts flooding in! Miriam protests her innocence. Imre get her to start destroying water while people patch the hole.

We finally arrive at Ardania, and face the fairly stiff entry fee of 1 silver per person. Imre buys several written copies of the laws of Ardania. The penalty for most crimes seems to be death or hard labor (for things like littering).

Ministry of permits: Shar gets a permit for Lord Imre and all of his household to cast magic.

We're directed towards the king's district to find a fancy inn. It sure is upscale. We pass up the "Arms and Armor" "the Lance" and the "White Lion" and check into the "Mount of Votania". We get two high quality suites and are introduced to Alfred the head butler, who assures us all will be well. Each suite has two bedrooms and a private bath. The servants for each room help us unpack. We get complimentary wine bottles. Sauna and all. Goodness. We expect we'll be paying something like 20 gold a night.

Imre asks the servants to get us tickets to astounding events and such. Apparently the winter festival starts in three days, followed by the beer festival.

Once we're settled in, Imre gives us our final briefing. We plan to attend the winter festival and explore the other parts of town.

Mark, Kef, and Imre all go to the museum and find it all realist school with a heavy dose of propaganda thrown in. After the museum, they head toward the lower class district. It's sort of small and there are soldiers on each corner. Imre takes his group into the market to mingle. There are dark rumors that "Fred got taken away last week", and a shabby looking guy is dragged of by soldiers. It's all very creepy.

There seems to be no middle class, you either get rich or go broke and are taken away. Very strange.

Meanwhile, Miriam and Shar check out the holy district. There's a temple of Zanar. It's very confusing to them who this Zanar.is, so we leave it and go to the tavern. They find out that there was this revolt against law and order, so the festivals were created to channel the badness. The guy is here to make his fortune and then head home. Miriam gets her cobbler to promise her a new pair of shoes. Shar's girl is a scribe in the government copying documents and the like. Her name is Darla. She's hoping for more money some days.

Imre gets an anonymous letter at dinner, "Meet me at the King's Grace at noon."

Shar goes out dancing with Darla and find a competing suitor. They enter into seduction combat for Darla's affections. He seems strangely good. Shar is stunned by his initial onslaughts, but rallys and Darla is his. They go to her place. Fade to black...

Orhan 5 Day 8 TE 6061

Most people disguise and follow Imre to his secret meeting. A guy shows up and looks around nervously. Then he slowly approaches Imre. He approaches Imre and says "Are you the contact? Everything is set." He slips Imre a package. Imre says, "You bring the money, everything else will be set." Then he leaves.

Inside the package is a list of illegal drugs. How strange. It has a total price at the bottom saying 5000 orlini. Shar follow shim out. He goes to the docks and works.

Then an old woman walks up to Imre and sits down at his table. "You may not recognize me, but we last met in Sel-kai." She gives him a slip of paper. "Meet me at this address and we will chat."

Thirdly a merchant shows up and seems to be expecting someone, but no one shows so he leaves. Shar follows him. He goes to worldwide shipping and export. We flee.

Imre examines the list of drugs and finds that it was written by Travis Gugulon. Darn those Gugulons.