Ran Jelal's Estate tonight. Took the whole session! They nearly all died, but got their revenge. Tghe only thing that saved them from massive casualties was rotating in fresh troops to the front lines and some bad rolls on my part (not that I didn't roll like the devil himself the rest of the time, but they got very lucky in all the right places---the Hand of Ishtar caresses them once more!).
They delivered the head ofGombuk and his temple plans to Baltaj, who paid them off and got them out of the city. It was only several days later when they started eating the provisions he had generously supplied, that they realized they had been poisoned! :twisted:
They killed everyone in the estate, except for Jelal's two infant sons, one of the three handmaidens and the steward (who locked themselves in their rooms). They managed to massacre most of Jelal's guards before the could get their mail hauberks on. :wink:
They were so afraid of being killed (most only had 1-5 hp at this time) in a double-cross, that they paid a messenger 10 sp to deliver the paymaster's books to the Stygian nobles rather than go to the meeting as arranged. They only went to see Baltaj because he was meeting them close to the gate with provisions and they didn't have much choice if they were going to get out of the city.
Yes, the Stygians wuld have ambushed and killed them. :twisted: However, the party got a fake set of books (the real ones were hidden under the treasure chest they found the forgeries in). They were so messed up from fighting Jelal and his retainers that they forgot to search Jelal's room! The real books were hidden in the floor, under the chest. :wink: Boy, those Stygians are going to be mad!!! They will think the party has kept the real books for themselves, and gone on to deliver them to Yezdigerd in Aghrapur, most likely. However, the Stygians would at least get rid of the Satrap of Zamboula if the PCs did this, so it's not a terrible loss for them, though they had hoped to blackmail the current Satrap with the books. Oh, well.
The PCs had it in mind to run for the Stygian border, the one place no one in their right mind would run to, but gave that up as madness. They wanted to run home to Eruk in Shem, but that was the most likely place their enemies woud think to look for them, so now they are high-tailing it toward Zamora, giving Turan a wide berth for obvious reasons. They hate Turanians now after only a month in Zamboula, hahaha!
Next session will open with them being poisoned. Perhaps I will have Baltaj's men ambush them shortly thereafter, and stake them out in the desert for a certain pair of Stygian sorcerers to find, LOL. I feel a little guilty, because they really have gotten a lot of treasure (mostly the useful wearing, wielding, or riding kind), and worked hard for it. If I railroad them and take it away, they will probably be upset. They all have mail hauberks now, turanian desert warhorses, a coffer full of jewels, and hundreds of silver each, all eleven of them (2 PCs and 9 NPCs). They just made third level (9 meadow shemite soldiers, 2 hyrkanian nomads).