A8

By the middle of August, the party (Avan, Ignatius, Jack, and Nemo along with Jilt) reached Verta, a major city in Tethyr and Jilt�s hometown. A city standing out atop a bluff on the edge of a dark lake, its many spires, towers, and grand cathedrals reached for the sky. Mazelike villages clustered around its ill made walls. Inside could be glimpsed 4-story wood buildings packed together like sardines, grey-slated roofs matching the various stone structures.
     As the party drew closer they could see four different flags waft in the breeze each higher than the one before: crossed staves on brown, the Guild; a white eagle on red clutching a sword, the seal of Lord Armand; a gold coin on blue, the gambling house of Santiago Aznar; and a silver moon crossed by a sword on black, the standard of the Dark Master. Before the gates were the gallows, the corpses of criminals rocking in the breeze, overseen by heavily armored riders in pure black.
     The party, after departing Jilt for good, tried to get lodgings at the Cathedral of Automita, which served as the clock tower of the city. Avan managed to get a room for himself, but the others decided to try their luck at the upscale hotel referred to as the Eagle. The Double Eagle was directly on the seashore near the gambling ship (actually more of a fortress on water) of Santiago Aznar. They entered the luxurious inn after Ignatius was able to get some better clothes. The servants at the inn treated Ignatius as a noble and his friends as his servants. After discovering that the price was within their means and telling Avan where they were, the party split up to see the town.
     Nemo went to a moneychanger who charged too much for his liking. As he left, a man stumbled out of an alley and approached him. When he got close he attempted to give Nemo an iron box before dying from the arrows in his side. After making sure no one saw this he took the box and hurried back to the others.
Ignatius and Jack in the mean time wandered down the waterfront, learning about the town as they went. Jack learned that the Guild, which ran the nation of Tethyr, was the area�s former thieves guild that became the government. He also learned there was a new thieves guild, the Blades, who did the Guild�s dirty work. Santiago Aznar was the Dark Master�s envoy in this area. Finally the Dark Master, Lothar Noctus, was a powerful sorcerer who had taken over the nation by sheer personal might. Eventually by avoid the grimier parts of town, the two found themselves at large walled park, the local enclave of elves.
     As they paid their respects to the shrine of Corellian, Ignatius talked to the Magnate Morgan Gaile. Morgan was an important if arrogant merchant lord interested in the court intrigues of Velen, the elven isle. From him, Ignatius learned he was part of the most powerful noble house of Velen, second only to the royal house. Morgan and Ignatius talked for several hours about Velen and the affairs of the court, while Jack chatted with several elves including the high druid of the area, Kessa, an obsessive gardener. Politely declining an invitation to stay a night, Ignatius and Jack returned to the Eagle.
     Once back together, the party investigated the box. It was a sturdy iron box, with an amazing lock built into it and two levels of protection. The box seemed more or less impervious to their assaults. Leaving Jack to study the problem, Nemo left for a night on the town. He noticed some suspicious strangers hiding nearby but quickly moved on.
     As Jack studied the box, he heard a bang at his shuttered window. Quickly he rushed into Ignatius�s room as the window crashed in and an well equipped warrior burst in. The warrior, wearing the symbol of Erythnul, charged into the room demanding the box. As Jack and Ignatius desperately attempted to stave him off they could hear the inn�s guards being tossed around like rag dolls outside their room. Jack successfully managed to get the powerful warrior to dropped his guard twice with his fumbling with the box but his blows had little effect. With the deadly fighter distracted, Jack rushed to the window opening it only to find a half-orc priest of Erythnul trying to get in.
     At this point the barbarian in the hall came in to help Maxwell, the warrior. While Maxwell leapt into the street, the barbarian attempted to grapple the PCs. They managed to escape and hurried out the door. Once out they hurried to the street to recover the box, leaving the barbarian entrapped in a web.
     In the street, the two used every resource to entangle and harmed the leader, Maxwell, in order to retrieve the box. Finally the barbarian freed himself with some fire and tossed a burning pillow down to free the others below. The fight turned against them, a final blow was struck against them by the last hidden member of the group, a sorceress who used magic to send them fleeing back into the building to hide.
     But at this point, Nemo who heard Jack�s gunshots and Avan summoned by Ignatius�s hawk (well informed due to a clairvoyance spell) arrived. Avan again made good use of sound burst and Nemo went toe to toe with the leader, who by this point had taken an incredible amount of damage (mostly healed by his attending clerics). The barbarian decided to grapple with Avan and a well placed ray of enfeeblement by the sorceress looked like it would finish him, but he managed to hold person him while grappling.
     Then the with the fear effect wearing off, the other PCs rejoined the battle. The leader finally fell from massive damage (approximately 180 points dealt to a 6th level character), the barbarian was coup de graced by Nemo (thus beheaded), and the priests defeated (one saved for questioning). The sorceress fled and the authorities soon arrived to clean up the mess. Retrieving their box, the party vacated the inn and took Magnate Morgan on his offer of a place to stay for the night.
      After a while the party notice some strangers at the entrance to Elven Grove. The party talked with these men, representatives of the Church of Nyssa, Goddess of Secrets. They claimed that the box was stolen from their church and tried to convince the PCs to give it to them. The party agreed to meet them in the menagerie at noon the next day.
     Avan set out for the Church of Technology, after reading some thoughts of the men. As he got close, the sorceress returned, blinding him before he was able to escape. His horse charged on through the night, maddened by the acid arrow in its flank. Eventually he found himself by the docks. Two men approached him, planning to relieve him of his wealth. As they got close though one of them recognized him and went to ask the boss. Thus Avan was captured by the Blades, the local thieves guild, having accidentally ridden to their headquarters.
     Back at the grove, the party tried to get the box open. Convincing the druid of the grove to dispel the magic, they tried to bust it open to no avail. Finally by promising to let the druid to have final say on what happened to the box and to do her gardening all day, they got her to open the box. After clearing away the rust and taking out a nasty insect guardian, they found they had a manual of iron golem creation. After realizing that anyone with sufficient funds could use this to build an unstoppable monster, the druid told the party not to give it to anyone.
     It was at this time that an elven member of the Blades informed them that Avan was captured and to give them the book or else. Agreeing to meet him at dusk, they then made sure they could get out of town via Morgan�s ships before that time. They planned to use the bracelet of friends to free Avan and then escape with the book. Of course things are never that simple.

The Box (Part I)