Session XXXVIII - True Name (2002-08-13)

On the sixth day of leading Bridgefort, the party came to Viodora which apparently housed a school of wizardry. That was the only school of wizardry they had heard of, which was why they headed there first. And besides, it was only one day away from the big city.

The party spent the first day gathering information. Burd was able to locate someone he had met earlier in one of his Cursed Lands crossings, and learned that the name of the school headmaster was Dionysious. They were able to locate the school as well.

Next day as they were walking down the Spice Street towards the school of wizardry, they heard some kind skirmish starting in an alley. Hadnir rushed in despite Gronthar's objections, just in time to see four ruffians beating down a rich looking man and his companion. The party followed, and was able to kill two of the attackers and forcing the remaining two to withdraw; they were able to espace by jumping from a high window, evading Hadnir and Zig Zag. Burd stopped the bleeding wounds which gave Jobric enough time to come and heal them by magic.

Legionaries came a few minutes later to investigate, but the two men they had saved were able to talk for them and the legionaries posed no obstacles this time, except as usual: Zig Zag got dragged by the legionaries to their headquarters for "questioning".

The rich man intruduced himself as Tartolian Talius, and named his companion Frodegard. Tartolian believed the thigs were after his trading contracts, which he now found missing. The party agreed to meet with him later in hopes of helping him after finishing their business with the school of wizardry.

At the school they had to wait for several hours for Dionysious. He was busy with his summoning spells. Hadnir had a strong suscipion he was summoning demons, but it was not the time, nor place, to go charging in and accusing a powerful order of meddling with demonology. Finally they were ushered to the headmaster's chambers. They learned that there had been a weak student at the school who was always getting into trouble with his friend Gaius Julius, and that his name was Primus Talius, whose father was a spice merchant! They had already found Radagast's father without knowing it! Before leaving, Hadnir was able to spot that several books in the headmasters chamber were written in Abyssal and Infernal. There was also something strange about the headmaster: he did not appear to be an evil man, yet he was involved with something evil, possibly even without realizing it himself. The party thanked for the information and left to meet Radagast's father.

Tartolian took the news rather well. He explained he had always believed his son would face such an end if he went on adventuring against his parents' wishes. He was gladdened to to retrieve such a great sum of money and treasure from his son, and he was also impressed by the party for doing such a deed.

That settled, the party probed Tartolian regarding the thievery of the trading contracts. Tartolian explained that Gerard, one of his employees, was sent to meet some people but he never returned. Gerard was trying to meet Silus of Great Calagan (?) to find caravan guards. Gerard had had part of the trading contract with him. Having some clues now, the party decided to go meet Dionysius again in the hopes that he would be able to locate Gerard or give them some further clues.

It turned out Dionysius was not gifted in divination, but he referred them to his apprentice (?) Mantalus. Before relying on him the party did some old fashioned detective work first: they were able to pick Gerard's trail, and learned that he had left the Silent Siren tavern with a prostitute. The party was able to find a friend of the woman with whom Gerard had left. They learned the woman had also gone missing at the same time Gerard did. Her name was Zinni Dip, and she had dark colored skin (which was why it was easy for the party to track down where she lived). Hadnir asked for some cover from the party while he kneeled down and produced some strange looking tools which he used to pick the lock on the door.

In the room, the interesting items they found were a platinum brooch that could be used as a pen, and a diary. From the diary they learned that "Gill" had hired Zinni to meet Gerard, and that she had met this Gill several times during the last month, and that Gill had given her the brooch.

The party went to meet Mantalus next. He appeared to be rich, living in a large house with gates and everything. The windows had stained glass, and there was lots of vegetation around. Burd was pretty sure he could even smell something from the Cursed Lands but he could not place what it was. Looking at the vegetation assassin vines wouldn't surpise anyone, though. Zig Zag, being the dimwit, tried climbing the wall just to find there was poisoned shards of glass at the top. Zig Zag did not seem to be too bad after the incident, and so the party knocked on the door. Everyone else went in except Zig Zag.

Mantalus was a short man with scraggy looks. The party showed Gerard's favorite mug, and the platinum brooch, in the hopes that Mantalus could scry the location of the persons who used to own them. He seemed to be taken by surpise by the brooch, but he quickly composed himself. Mantalus said it was a difficult and expensive task, and that he could not guarantee success. The party paid the two hundred gold they got from Radagast's father for expenses. he also mentioned the brooch looked somewhat similar to the symbol of the scribes guild.

The party then went on to the scribes guild on Smith Street, and agreed to come back to Mantalus the following day. Burd fabricated a story about gambling debt at the scribes, but they were still unable to learn anything about Gerard or Gill, or the brooch.

Next day at Mantalus they faced another defeat. The scrying did not appear to be succesfull. Mantalus said he was able to see vast expanse of blackness, but could not explain what it was. Perhaps Gerard was on another plane, dead, in a dark room, or something...

Investigating the brooch some more, they learned the manufacturer: Maximilian Thrace. They went to his place and he remembered the man who had ordered it: tall for a Capernian, funny accent, and had ordered the brooch three weeks ago.

Trying to gather information about that man did not produce the expected results. However, they did meet a fortune teller who said things that seemed to click in place: "a wizard in the shadow of another wizard", living in a place that could be Spice Street at Smith Street, and that "things grow in shadow". It matched Mantalus. The party decided to pay a visit to Mantalus in the morning.

The End?