In the end they decide to brazen it out. It's a cold day, wind whipping off the sea and blowing salt into their faces. As soon as he sees them the duck hails them and calls an alert. Keldo calls out that they are here to see Zugat and that it's none of the duck's business. They continue down the path and along the rocky beach. Eventually a voice booms out from the cave somewhere. Zugat wants to know who they are and why they are here. At this point they don't really have a plan.
Keldo shouts that they're here for the sorcerer. He has stolen something. Zugat knows this full well and asks what they're willing to pay. Jezat squeaks his outrage at this turn of events from somewhere inside. The party are still moving cautiously towards the entrance. After a bit more flannelling from Keldo, Zugat shouts that she'll accept 2000 Gold Ducats for the treasure. Larad counts his remaining silvers and looks somewhat grim. Aslander tries the "we all hate the wyrm friends so why not give us a discount" line of argument. At this point Jezat shouts that the strangers are servants of Delecti and can't be trusted.
This leads to a "wtf" moment from the party. Which then leads, as most things do, to a charge.
Keldo makes a bee line for the duck hoping to catch it by surprise. It looses off its quarrel but the shot goes high and Keldo barrels into it, grappling and rolling on the floor. The remainder charge up the scree slope to the cave entrance. Aslander is alert enough to be wary of an ugly, squat statue while Larad and Cormalin try to shelter from a hail of sling stones. Zugat can be heard muttering spells and getting her armour on. Aslander swings his axe at the statue which ducks surprisingly nimble and rakes him with terrible claws in return. Larad and Cormalin try to flank it but get outmanoeuvred when it starts to fly. Meanwhile various trollkin can be seen in the cave.
Back at the beach, Keldo and his duck are wrestling. It's a slippery customer.
Zugat shouts for them all to leave if they value their lives and Jezat lets loose fire magic. He's weak and tired though so the spell splutters feebly. The gargoyle has taken several blows and Aslander finally finishes it off however their advance into the cave is halted by some sort of darkness magic. Rather unpleasantly, the trollkin can see right through and the party, start being bombarded with sling stones and Disruptions. They can hear Zugat muttering a chant.
Back at the beach, Keldo and his duck are wrestling. It's a really slippery customer though has a lost a few feathers now.
The rest take a deep breath and attempt to charge through the darkness. Bursting out the other side they see Jezat who hurls another useless firedart and some trollkin poking them with spears. They also see a rather odd trollkin with some sort of barrel strapped to its back. Then the darkness moves again and they can see no more.
Back at the beach, Keldo and his duck are wrestling. It's more slippery than Slippy McSlip, the five times winner of best eel impersonator in all of Safelster. Mostly they're tusselling over a dagger.
Back in the cave, there's more charging through darkness. Cormalin thinks he saw a side tunnel and heads back for that. Rather strangely the trollkin appear to be aiming disruptions at the trollkin with the barrel while said trollkin is running towards party. Drawing upon powers of mystic intuition, they decide that this must be dangerous and scatter. The disruptions don't bite though.
Back on the beach, Keldo has finally out-wrestled the duck for the dagger and proceeds to stab it once in the chest and twice in the abdomen until it stops moving.
Now Cormalin has found the exit to the side tunnel into a large cave area just in time to come face to face with Jezat trying to take the same tunnel out of there. Another failed firedart later, Jezat is running away and Cormalin is chasing after him. Zugat has now come to the party because the trollkin can't hold back Larad and Aslander. She takes a heavy blow from Aslander but retaliates by knocking Larad clean across the cave with her giant hammer. Bleeding badly, Larad slumps to the floor. Aslander spots the opening and shrugs off a trollkin's attempt to grab onto him with another ferocious attack against Zugat. She's now reeling and desperately tries to cast a healing spell while the rest of the trollkin try and rush the axeman. This simply causes her to lose her guard and with a final blow, Aslander puts her down.
Meanwhile Keldo is charging up the slope. Cormalin has now got into a Benny Hill routine as he chases Jezat through the various corridors. The extra duck in the caves is staying hidden away waiting to see where the profit lies and Larad can see a grief-stricken trollkin with a barrel on its back. Larad shouts a warning, Aslander dives out of the way, the trollkin goes boom and Larad spends the last of his hero points to roll slightly behind Zugat for shelter.
It's messy. Really messy. I don't think Larad ends up with any positive hit points in any locations and even Aslander looks rather blackened and stained by various trollkin bits. After that, however, things resolve quite quickly, Jezat is run down by Cormalin and bargains for his life. The other duck negotiates safe passage and bites its tongue when it discovers that its nest mate has been stabbed to death and left on the rocks. When he gets back and is able to exchange stories at Billhook Farm, Dhrek will turn against the Orlanthi. The players have an ongoing weakness in that they're not able to manage the side-effects of their actions, something that is storing up problems for later.
Back above the cave area, however, Jezat has led the party to the bowl and is bargaining for his life. For now, each takes a turn to hold and admire this plain relic that has brought them so far. Keldo and especially Cormalin feel thrilled by its presence yet Larad finds something disquieting while Aslander finds it almost blasphemous. Each finds themselves wishing Griffith with his insight was there because they're beginning to wonder just what the myths of the Howling wolves actually are. Now though, they have pressing matters to attend. It'll be dark soon and they've been invited to watch the formal alliance between the EWF and the Laughing River. Perhaps there'll be a chance to stop it. On the other hand, they've all got an inkling that they've seen this before in Sunvale.
So, with Jezat safely roped up in the inn and their best court clothes on (Larad brushed his winter cloak especially for the event) the fab four return to Aledred's Hall. Solthmouth is drinking and dancing but they're on the alert and start noticing who is armed and who is not. Aslander and Keldo feel naked without their axes but there's not much they can do about it. Keldo attempts to drink various local bigwigs under various tables while the rest remain tense. Finally, after an interminable wait, Aeldred gets up to speak and then Maralis makes an entrance. If you want to know the details, you;ll have to buy the book but suffice it to say that the fleet goes boom and a war starts. Aslander's never been happier. They've rescued the bowl, caught the sorcerer and helped start a rebellion against the EWF. Sometimes life is sweet.
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As you can see the foreshadowing in Sunvale was perhaps a little too heavy as I'm pretty sure the players had the events figured out from the first meeting. The mystery behind Arkat wasn't so easy and I don't think they figured that one out.
One odd feature of this session though is that the author seems to have had something of a fumble of his Uz Lore. Zugat in the book has a greatsword and fireblade. Impressive, yes but trollish, not. Given her role as a dealer I retconned her into an Argan Argar initiate and gave her a hammer and a movable darkwall. I get the impression that the players dread that spell to this day now.
That said, she's not exactly a combat monster and Jezat's Firedarts were useless the whole session. The only one that hit did no more than some minor singeing. Mind you, it seemed to me that he would be weakened by his journey so he was lacking in HPs and only regenerating MPs very slowly.
I also ended up retconning something else. The exploding trollkin was meant to be a big hint. There's a mostali barman who seems to know a lot, a troll dealer in exotic magics and a dozen ships that go boom. After all, where does Maralis get the boom powder from? What's more, is she going to be less than pleased when she finds that her best source for weapons has just been compromised. Where now can she get the weapons she needs?
Anogther issue is why on earth does Jezat claim they're agents of Delecti? Thing is, how does jezat know he's being chased? The answer is, he doesn't. He assumes that Rsadi may be after him but he's hoping he got to Solthmouth before the murders at the Eyrie are discovered. However, he's had a couple of reports that a person fitting Cadamil's description is in Solthmouth. He's also been attacked by one of Delecti's horrors. He also knows that Rsadi has had dealings with Delecti in the past. He puts 2+2 together when he sees the rag-tag barbarians and gets 5. He has no idea that the barbarians are after him so he figures Delecti has put a bounty on him.
Finally, I had to bump up the value of the bowl. Lets face it, Jezat wouldn't put his life in this much risk for 20 Gold. That said, even he doesn't realise what he could get for it. Zugat has been doing some research since her first contact with Jezat nearly two seasons ago. She knows that the EWF and God learners would pay almost anything for it and once she gets in contact with Maralis and starts figuring out what's going on there, Zugat sees the chance to make a killing in more ways than one.
Now though the railroad has ended and the players are going to need to take a lot more of the initiative. There's a war to fight after all.
