Thug Muggers in the City 10/28/23
Table Talk:
Last time i assumed that Nymbus left tZulèe in the room at the Nort Gate, but going forward i will need Cypress to help me keep track of where his familiar is. I’ll try to get a token made for it so we can keep track on the board (that was a huge help when we started doing it with Akris). I also got a familiar card made for tZulèe, and gave that to Nymbus so he has its stats.
I also made two full companion sheets for Akris and tZulèe when they level up. I gotta say, i am super excited for that! I gave each of them a slew of special stats and abilities that i think everyone will dig.
Reminder to players (and readers) to click on and check out the town maps at the end of these summaries. There are lots of hidden easter eggs and details as you zoom in and pan around. Most of the streets have names now and about every week i come up with a new business or guild to find a home and include. I think now there are more named buildings than unnamed, so it’s filling up fast. It also gives a bit of an insight into my DM brain and how i piece the world together and how i think it all makes sense. So take some time to zoom in and look around.
This past week i spent a bunch of time working on the sewer maps and getting the next sections updated to correspond with everyone leveling up, as well as getting them ready to print so we’re set to play when we get to new territory.
The players are essentially entering “Act II” now. This puts me at an awkward place as a DM where things are beginning to reveal themselves, but at the same time I want to pace things and not reveal everything at once. So please be patient and bear with me as i find that Goldielocks zone.
Lastly, i made a magic Item card for Cypress’s new Darkvision Tattoo. It explains how the tattoo works and gives some little details. The important point to the gameplay is this. The Tattoo needs to collect Darkness to work. So it starts granting Darkvision after it’s been in darkness for a Long Rest. Then it continues to perpetually grant Darkvision. Once you return to a lighted area the effect remains until the next Long Rest when it will no longer be able to grant Darkvision (until a Long Rest in darkness again, etc.). Because the tattoo involves the eye, Cypress now has one blurry eye and has disadvantage on perception checks.
Oh and because Rae’s tattoo was linked to her Ki system (which i envision a bit like chakras in Naruto), getting her tattoo means she is down 2 Ki points for today.
“It’s pricey to get here and expensive as hell to live here. But a city can’t just be rich tourists and eccentric billionaires. It needs working-class people too. You don’t expect J. Worthalot Richbastard III to clean his own toilet, do you?”
-Jasmine "Jazz" Bashara —Andy Weir, “Artemis: Chapter 1”
🎲🗡️🔔✨🌿
Chapter 15: Shopping Montage (cont.)
🎲🗡️🔔✨🌿 Chapter 15: Shopping Montage (cont.)
It's dusk in the city of Nibiru on the 10th of Mirtul. The craftspeople of Ironton are lighting lanterns and covered braziers for extra light to clean by (not wanting any pen flames that might leave soot on the ceiling).
In the Greater Square a group of traveling clowns is being booed off stage, and a few lucky grocers are getting good money for half rotted fruits they’d been able to move all day.
Down south of the Post in the weird things called “The Bins” something goes crunch and everyone looks away.
In the back of the Theatre a bunch of carpenters breathe a sigh of relief as the last of the foot dogs is wedged into place. The last bit of dressing is done now, and just in time, so they can finally relax.
Nearby in the infamous “bard's corner” at the edge of the Arena Plaza, three minstrels are yelling up at an open window of the Merchant’s Guild “Suck to your meeting mister, it's prime time for tips!” one yells, and the onlookers laugh. A moment later the merchant drops an ornate chair out the window and the juggle barely manages to dodge in time. Then with a nod, she starts pitching leather balls to the lutenist who swings the sturdy instrument like a bat. The balls hit the angry merchant in the face and the crowd erupts in a cheer. This isn’t part of the show, but these arguments are becoming more common as the bards in this little corner dig in their heels and refuse to give in to the Merchant’s demands to go somewhere, anywhere not right next to their windows.
It’s in this same city setting, where Cypress and Rae stand up from reclining chairs facing each other and grin at each other. The Tattoos didn’t hurt as much as they thought, and though Cypress's eye is a bit blurry and Rae is still trying to feel the inside of her fingers again, it's been a cool day, and this promises to be a big improvement to their adventures.
Sorin is kicking grass by the sewer grate in Ink Alley and debating just going to the Dark market even with Ari there.
But we’ll start with Ari, on the verge of tears, pleading with Akris just not to make a scene as she walks up to the dark market.
With a 10 to 8 roll, Ari finally narrowly persuades Akris to stay still and on her shoulder, and NOT to cause any problems as she goes into the Dark Market.
A few blocks away Sorin ducks into the small gap between the Bard’s Guild, and the technical workshops for the theater. He squeezes around the corner, and when he’s out of sight from either street he casts Disguise Self.
His ears elongate and his chin descends. His cheap student robes sparkle and change as he walks, and when he emerges in the Alley of Shadows across from Mrs. Likette’s Bakery, Sorin is the spitting image of a high society high elf.
His memory is a bit off though and rather than the robes of an aristocrat or an ambassador, his finery leaves him looking as an underling, perhaps a butler on a mission of importances from and a baron or a duke.
Cypress heads to the church of Glorious Gods.
Rae follows Cypress but hesitates at the door as she overhears the Dwarf at the counter.
“Yeah, we were talking about druid magic tattoos and it reminded me of those guys that always lurk by the gates and bring monster parts to the Foragers.”
‘Foragers’ she thinks to herself, ‘that might be worth looking into!’
The inside of the Dark Market is packed, well not packed, but much more populated then last time Ari was here.
It’s nearing the end of the day now so several vendors are looking around with paranoid glances as they cover up cages, lock up boxes and close their trench cloaks full of illicit watches.
Ari can see a merchant with one eye, one leg and a hook for a hand standing in front of a line of weapons where every edge glows electric sparking green. There are a few people crowding him as he shows off an ax with barbed spikes along its face.
Another seller is nervously checking a glowing tattoo on the back of her hand as she explains a collection of heavy earthenware jars to a few buyers.
In the very back under one of the fallen columns of this dead church a gnome, short even by gnome standards, is showing something small and glittery to a dwarf in a wooden mask.
In the center ring of pews a tired looking man in sweaty clothes is mopping up the lines of blood sprays while his boss sits and counts a stack of coins.
Not happy with my pre-written description, Ari looks around for more.
She looks to her right to see a gigantic half troll cooing and feeding a cage. Rather than slats or bars, this cage just has a few clusters of holes edged with silver and blue markings. Inside Ari can make out teeth and scales and bloody fur and claws and scales. She looks away when a golden eye looks out towards her.
Leaning against a column to her left, Ari sees a wizard. They have a thick wizard’s staff and a pointy hat with stars and moons. Their long flowing white beard is clearly held on with string though and doesn’t manage to hide the very buxom hourglass figure of the attractive young woman wearing this obvious disguise. She winks and waves to Ari.
“What’s with the staff?” Ari asks, approaching this ‘wizard’ and noticing that her staff is much thicker than average.
“Oh this little thing?” The ‘wizard’ says in a reedy-Bob-Dylan-voice, “it’s where I hide my goods!” She bangs the staff on the ground and instantly nine panels open up along it. Three levels of three slots swing open to reveal magic wands nestled in little secret compartments. “I deal … in illicit wands.”
While Ari is looking at an old man’s stick, Sorin walks into the Dark Market and fails a stealth check. On Ari’s shoulder, Akris senses him, turns around, waves, and loudly announces, “Hellllooooo Ssssorin!”
Sorin facepalms.
In the Church of Glorious Gods there are a group of goblins in presine white robes arguing with the cleric at the desk. We can hear some words about “fairness” and “rites” and “blood drains clogging”. The cleric they’re talking to has huge gray bags under his eyes and his hands keep from placating gestures as he talks.
As we walk towards the rough stone carving of Sheela, a familiar dwarf with a bread in a fist sized knot, comes down the spiral satire “escorting” a nervous looking elf.
“I was just trying to-”
“I suspect I know what you were trying to,” the dwarf interrupts as they hike the elf’s hand further up its back and push them out the front door.
From outside we can hear the elves faint protesting as the dwarf lets go of them and points them away from the building.
Once in front of the statue, we feel that old familiar calm settle over us.
Cypress kneels in the wet grass at the goddess’s feet, and with a nervous heart, he prays.
His connection to the divine is strong. When he feels Sheela’s light grow within him he breathes out a sigh of relief.
While Cypress prays, Rae goes over to the help desk not being yelled at about blood cleansing rituals dripping up walls. “Excuse me,” she asks nervously, “you help, like, newcomers to town sometimes, right?”
“Hello, oh traveler of the ground and dirt.” The priestess says, and bows, lifting her hands over a large ornate headdress with blue sequins and down feathers. “Yes, of course, it is one of our primary duties.”
“Uh, Cool.” Rae stares blankly, “Can you tell me about the Foragers? I heard some people talking about them and it got me curious.”
“Yessss….” The priestess bows her head again and this time her forearms are pressed together and turned slightly. Her hands are clasped together in a joint fist. Her blue feather bracelets blend in with the headdress leaving her pale arms and hand resembling an “i” in front of the blue circle of her headdress.
“The Foragers, sometimes incorrectly called the Guild of Foragers, are a loose company of three buildings each located near the town gates. They have chosen these buildings for a reason, as many of their sales clientele prefer the outside world and wish to stay within the confines of the city walls only as long as is necessary for their business. These clients bring them goods, gems and herbs and rare bobbles that are only found in the wild country.
“The heart of a Hydra, the teeth of a Wyrm, the tales of the Naked Skin Caterpillar for instance. Or the Sun Grasses of the Lee Tang Meadows, the roots of a Caprici Flower, the bark of the Acacia tree cut from the height of an elk three nights after the full moon. The granite seam of a Rock Giants turd, a hollow stone ring carved by the wind atop a mountain, or the metal spines of the Knight’s Lance Cactus found only on mountain plateaus where a devout soul has been slain by a beast.
(Awe yeah i still got that fantasy bullshit touch)
“These wanderers bring their findings to the buildings of the Forages here in the city. The Foragers pay the wanders and then they oversee the sale and distribution of these rare goods.
“An apothecary if all well and good, but you don’t expect the little men in their fine trim hats to collect their own Crawler Mucus, and Water Elemental Droplets do you? Yet every one of them has Oil of Slipperiness on their shelves. A Blacksmith might need the SpikeWorm’s horn or a fang from a Great Ape for some powerful sword. An Artificer may need the eyes of a Giant Eagle for a mask of True Sight, the list goes on and on…
“So it is that the Foragers collect all that is brought to them. And, when an artisan needs something they send a caller to the company and the company sends out one of their runners with the bundled order.
“They do a great favor to the city with this, as many a young lady owes her start in life to a job carrying bushels of marsh grass to the Tanners. And many an old fellow owes his meals to the work provided by carrying flasks of Naga tears to the stairs of the Wizard tower.”
The priestess lowers her hands and looks up with a self satisfied smile, “Have I answered your question, oh traveler of the ground and dirt?”
“Yeah, thanks, that was great!” Rae says and waves heading back to Cypress.
Ari rolls high enough to determine that the wand seller does have a Ray of Frost wand, but when she picks it up to examine it, she sees the wand is almost completely an icicle now. It only has about three uses left before it freezes completely (on the quality roll Ari got a 12 the the merchant’s 15). Ari asks the hot lady in the fake beard about it, but walks away when she finds out it’s 60 Gp.
Sorin looks around for anyone selling potions, and hopefully, poisons. After a 11 / 19 roll in his favor, he sees a figure by an upturned and open steamer trunk full of little bottles on shelves. The drow is clearly tall, but hunching over to obscure his height.
Sorin approaches and asks “Do you have any, uh, ANTI health potions, on offer?” and winks.
The drow’s laugh is husky and good natured, shaking his coat. When he speaks his voice is a quiet seductive rasp, drawing the listener in closer and closer. “Anti health potions, yes, yes I like that very much. I have,” a meaningful pause, “a few things in that variety.”
Sorin nods and the poisoner asks, “But what,” he eyes Sorin-the-high-elf-butler’s robes, “kind sir, is your master's target?”
“How do you mean?”
“Are you after a pois-potion for a Creature? Or a monster? A pestful vermin? … Or a person?” He asks, raising a meaningful eyebrow.
“Perhaps, just perhaps, it is not a vermin, nor a creature or monster.” Sorin says with a meaningful nod as his inner monologue shouts in his head, ‘this is so cool, I’m doing so good, this is awesome!’
“Ah yeeaass…” The posoner hisses, drawing out the word to have a hard “E” sound, “And to what effect does the master seek this potion for?”
“The effect…” Sorin says hesitating.
The drow quickly and quietly hisses “Death, sickness, pain, mental collapse, or torture?” with a glance around to make sure that his softly spoken words aren’t picked up by eavesdropping ears.
With none of the other Thug muggers there to act as his enforced conscience, Sorin grins at the poisoner. “Torture.” he whispers with an evil glint in his eye.
The drow nods and reaches a hand over the edge of the trunk. He slides out a drawer and places it on top of the trunk. Inside are three bottles with the tags ‘Salt 55 Gold’, ‘The Bleeding Eye 120 Gold’, and the ominous label ‘Inside-Out 350 Gold’.
Sorin reaches for the last one, but hesitates at the price. He asks, “Salt? That’s all? What does it do?”
“Awe a classic. It is a simple… but effective atni-medicine,” the poisoner chuckles in the darkness, “Wherever a drop is on this skin, it gives the sensation of salt being poured in an open wound.”
Meanwhile in church, Cypress is communing with their god and asking for guidance. With a roll that i forgot to write down, but i think was over 20, he is granted three visions. Each one has that dream feeling where the logic doesn’t line up, but it kinda makes sense. Like, it doesn’t look like your childhood home, and this one has a pool which you never had growing up, but you still know it’s your childhood house. That kind of feeling.
In the first vision, there is a knock on the door of their room at the inn. When Cypress answers it Bostra is there, but his face keeps shifting to look like Captain Gaibon.
In the middle vision, Cypress is in a cheap burlap sack being carried over a farmer's shoulder.
And, in the last scene, all four of the Thug Muggers are sitting around a campfire, it’s pit ringed with a circle of golden stones, and they’re having a very serious conversation… with a blueberry bush.
Rae decides to head back to the inn, and as soon as Cypress’s eyes open she gestures that she’s leaving, he nods, and she passes out of the Church of Glorious Gods.
Ari is looking around for someone to sell her -1 dagger to, when her brain has a conversation with itself that goes like this:
“Why would anyone want to buy a -1 dagger?”
“Well yeah, but here…”
“Okay, but why here?”
“Well, they’re criminals right?”
“And!?”
“So they could, like, lie and sell it somewhere else saying it's an awesome +1 dagger.”
“...”
“What!? They could? You don’t know!”
“THEY could lie?”
“Yeah, they’re criminals.”
“And you aren’t?”
“Well…”
“So you can’t lie?”
“What? Oh… Ooooh!”
“There it is.”
“I could lie and sell the dagger like that myself!”
So after two minutes staring at an empty patch of wall, Ari leaves the building feeling like a genius.
Sorin is disappointed, but gets the feeling that walking away from this man after taking up so much of his time might be a bad idea.
He buys the Salt Poison, just as Akris flies up.
“Sssorin, whatss are you buying?”
In a flash Soin produces an extra gold coin and holds it up to the drow. “1 gold for your silence!”
The drow poison snatches the coin, and casually kicks his trunk closed in a single fluid practiced movement, leaning against the wall, “Buying? Buying from where? Not from me? I have nothing to sell.'' Then he starts whistling innocently as Sorin grabs the familiar demon-snake and leaves the Dark Market.
Cypress is looking around for the clerics that he first met here and who have helped the Thug Muggers on this adventure. He can only find one, and of course, they’re at the desk, and they’re busy being yelled at about “the right color of blood” and “at the temperature the soul isn’t ready for harvesting”.
He stands there for a minute then, seeing that this isn’t letting up any time soon, he snatches a scrap of paper and writes.
“Cypress Witchazel
‘rat’ investigator
The tile suite - Nort Gate Inn”
Then leaves it in an obvious spot on the desk, and heads out to the street.
Walking back to the inn, Rae decides to check in with the other two Thug Muggers. She touches her Sending Stone and asks, “Sorin and Ari, where’re you guys at? I’m headed back to the Nort Gate.”
Ari replies with, “Sorin is at the Dark Market, I assume buying poison.”
Right as Sorin hurriedly jumps in, “I’m uh, notattheDarkMarket, ah dammit.”
Rae shakes her head as she walks into the Nort Gate Inn and decides to do some more looking around to find out more about the city. After a some poking around she finds a bulletin board in the public room and looks over the flyers there.
Open Mike night! Come down to the Bard’s House behind the Printers on Block End and Talk to Mike to make a performance debut!
New Beer!!! SALE!!! The First Draft Brewery between The Arena and Shadow Alley is sitting tasters for a new beer!!!
Hepl WanteD at Printers. Ask Aboot Editoers Postetion for HiRe!
!OPEN ENTRY! The ARENA is looking for new fighters!!
150 GOLD A WEEK!!!
SHOW UP AND SURVIVE THE ENTRY TRIAL TO BE CONSIDERED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rae spends a few minutes eyeing the flier advertising for Arena fighters before sighing heavily and walking away.
Over in the Greater Square, Ari is trying her hand at barking.
“Dagger, Dagger for sale! Battle tested! It doesn’t break and won’t give out in the middle of a fight!”
After repeating this a few times, a pale man with a widow’s peak and an opera cloak approaches her. “Hmmm, Battle Tested you say… Und has thees daggir tasted… Blooood?” he asks in an unsettling, yet familiar accent. Then hurriedly and without any prompting, “Not vhat I- or uh anyvon has tasted blood!”
“Battle tested and adventurer approved!” Ari says with a Con-artist smile.
Give me a deception roll. 1. A nat’ 1.
“Battle Tested!? Vat do you think I am, some kind of Sucker!? - Not that I vould ever be eh Suucker!”
He moves to slap Ari…. and he rolls a nat’ one. When she grabs his hand his instinct takes over and he moves to bite her neck!
She catches his hand and points the dagger at him, “Listen, just walk away before I bury this dagger in you!” But, she fails her intimidation and the man keeps coming at her.
“You’re mine now! You vill serve my children of the night!”
Ari slashes at the man’s shoulder but misses, as he lunges at her. The dagger moves into his chest. It sinks into him with no resistance and when he looks down, he sees the wooden handle as it pierces his chest.
“Oh no, VAT have you done!”
Then the man turns into a bat and flies away.
Happy Halloween everyone.
Ari, Cypress and Sorin all meet back with Rae in their room at the Nort Gate. She’s brought up room service for everyone to eat and they talk about their days and the things they found over the big pot of Lobster and Blueberry bisque. It’s a strange combination for a soup, but the buttery salty flavors of the sea-spider actually pair pretty well with the slightly tart sweetness of the berries.
It’s late evening and our heroes are going through the evening routine of bathing and checking their gear, and Rae is rubbing her teeth down with a bamboo brush and some baking soda.
We hear a knock at the door.
Ari stands up and steps quickly from the tub and steps into her pants and shirt, her wet skin makes them stick to her but it's better than just being wrapped in a towel if something goes wrong.
Sorin looks up from his notes and sigils, closing his spell book, but not setting it down.
Cypress stands up his crouch in front of the gargoyle and motions it to the corner.
Ari readies a spell of Poison Spray, then nodding at Rae, opens the door.
The guard standing at the door looks bored, but unmovable. He gives off the clear impression of someone who is very good at simple tasks like ‘knock on the door until they answer’ or ‘bring them here regardless of what they say’.
He stares blankly at you as the next thought comes to him.
He points to his sword. “Regulation sword from the City of Nibiru Armory.”
It’s not quite what Gaibon said to Sorin yesterday, but i get the feeling that exact verbiage is probably a challenge for this man.
“You’re sus-post to come with me. The captain wants a word with you lot.” he barks out, pronouncing ‘you lot’ like ‘presumed criminals’.
“Oh, of course,” Ari says, hastily dispelling the Poison Spray, “just give us one minute to get our things!”
“Okay!”
When Ari politely closes the door, we can hear counting from the other side.
“One. Two. Three. Four. Five.” The muffled counting continues until he reaches 10 when there is a soft knock followed by “Ten One. Ten Two.”
Rae looks at Ari, “What are the odds he actually knows how many seconds are in a minute?”
Ari opens the door as the policeman counts, “One Hundred Two Three. One Hundred Two Four. One Hundred Two Five. Are you ready?”
Then our party is escorted out of the building and down the North Road.
We walk Down North Road to the Main way, and over Main Way to the South Road, turning at the Constabulary Tower… But then we keep going.
South of the Constabulary past the intersection of Arena Row and Turret Street. Our heroes are getting nervous when their lumbering guard turns onto River Road and marches them east.
Even though it's dark, Sorin recognizes where we’re going. The street is very familiar.
Just a little ways down is the Shane’s apple tree, and the lot where the McEgor’s used to grow cabbages by the river before the street got too busy.
We see where the city stream joins the river south of the palace, and we can see a small boulder with a berry bush. It’s a familiar spot where a little boy used to skip rocks and take notes.
We walk past the inns and past the huge Farm Warehouse with its large open cart doors where people of all kinds and colors move heave barrels baskets and sacks up and down ladders. Carters stand soothing mules and ponies as their carts thud from bushels getting dropped on them, and other drivers work with the dying light to unhitch knots and lever out crates.
We pass this great big building moving east to a smaller nondescript house.
A house? But who would live next to such a noisy place?
Sorin tries to think about whose place this is, and to remember if he’s even seen this building before. Everytime he tries to focus on it, his thoughts slide away, unable to concentrate on the little shack.
We round the little house and turn onto Merrybridge Road following the river, but instead of going around the warehouse and over to the farmer’s bridge, the guard stops and knocks at the back of this little shack. Our heroes keep trying to imagine what could be inside this subtle nondescript hutch, but whenever they try to imagine something, they can’t help but … just think of something else.
After a minute, a little old lady’s voice comes from behind the door. “It’s unlocked deary, let yourself in.”
Our brutish police escort opens the door for us, and with obvious apprehension, the Thug Muggers walk inside.
The door shuts behind us and when we turn, our escort is gone. We look around the room. It's a simple empty entrance way. Simple wooden floors, simple wooden walls, and a simple wooden rocking chair with a stuffed scarecrow in old lady clothes.
“Uh… that’s.”
The far wall slides to the side and Captain Gaibon is standing there. He nods to the Thug Muggers and waves us into this hidden room.
This new room is more like a small barn, with hay all around the edges and even a few hanging cots along the walls. There is an old beat up cart in one corner and a rack of weapons in the other. There is another guard sitting on a stool and smoking, and there is a gnome on a pair of mechanical stilts wearing some kind of apron full of pockets and tools that look like torture implements. She has a colorful hairdo and is standing behind a chair in the shape of a broken barrel holding a mirror.
“Right, I don’t care who’s first, but someone, sit in the chair.” Gaibon orders.
All the Thug Muggers hesitate, not sure what’s going on, they’re leery of sitting down in front of strangers or cops.
All, except Sorin, who is so desperate and needy to have Gaibon like him. He sits in the chair like a good little school boy, and then the stilted gnome is hovering in front of him.
She lowers a monocle with an eagle beak over her left eye and sets to work, mushing paste over Sorin’s nose and dusting him with powders.
After some quiet minutes, the Gnome stilt-walks back, “Alright, out of the chair, who’s next?”
Sorin stands up and the others are taken aback. Young eager student Sorin’s face has been replaced with the face of a grizzled old bar-fighter. Patchy facial hair and a broken nose that never healed right.
“Ooooh,” Cypress says with a sigh of relief. It’s make-up!” They're the next to climb in the chair. They get a long scar down their blurry eye, and burn marks covering the other half of his face.
Ari is next, and she coughs as layers of powder are added to her skin turning her naturally purplish demon hyde into a paler blue-pink pastel that almost glitters in the light of the chandelier. The gnome artist helps her out of the chair with the super helpful advice, “Just try not to sweat.”
Rae is the last into the chair and the make-up artist gives her a sad look. “Sorry, hunny.”
She pulls out a blonde wig and fits it over Rae’s close cut hair. Then gives her cheeks a pink glow and her lips some glittery bright lipstick.
While Gaibon gets made up into a street tough, similar to Sorin, Cypress rolls an insight into what is going on. After all, why not use magic to have a near perfect disguise. Then it clicks, whatever this is, we must be heading somewhere where people can detect magic and will know if they have on a magical disguise.
After Gaibon is made up he points everyone to a peg rack on the wall, there are a bunch of cloaks in simple grays and browns with holes and patches. Everyone puts one of these on, except Cypress who can’t find one small enough.
“Sorry, Cypress, yours is gonna be a bit different. Try not to take offense.”
“What?”
Gaibon goes up to the wall where the other guard has been casually smoking, “Listen up, in a minute where gonna run through this wall, I’ll tell you all where to go, just act like farmers and let me do any talking. I know you’re confused, but I promise this will make sense very soon. Ready?” He asks this last question to the smoking guard, who nods and takes a long drag from his pipe. A long drag. Very long. In fact he's still going, sucking in the smoke. How is he-
Gaibon grabs the pegs on this wall, and then shoves the whole wall to the side. The guard breathes out, and a wall of smoke fills the opening, obscuring everything.
Gaibon waves us through, and on the other side, Sorin realizes we’re in the Farm Warehouse. Not the regular front we saw a few minutes ago with all the storage, but in the back where they rent out shelves for aging and curing.
While he’s looking around, Gaibon grabs his shoulder and pushes him towards a two person pull cart parked there. “Quickly, all of you. Cypress, climb in the back and lay down. Rae, on the buck board and try to look pretty. Sorin, grab one of the front bars. Ari you walk behind.”
We hear the wall slide back as the smoke disperses.
When he climbs into the back of the cart, Cypress hears a grunted, “Sorry,” and then a sack is pulled over his head. He’s about to lash out and attack, sick of all this deception, when he’s reminded of his vision. He lays down in the cart next to a barrel, apprehensive, but trusting in Sheela.
The Captain grabs his handle and turns to Sorin, “Pull the cart, just pull Sorin, let me steer, I know where we’re going.”
“Yes sir.”
“Don’t call me sir right now…”
Together they pull the cart out of the warehouse and east along the River Road.
Once they're passed the people and are out into the late dusk of the almost empty street, Rae whisper hisses from behind the captain, “So what is all this? Where are you taking us!?”
“Relax, you aren't being coerced or detained. We’re just . . . going for a little stroll . . . to find a good place to talk.
It’s a few quiet minutes later, when we follow the curve of the river and head north, that Sorin realizes where we’re going, and he starts to shake. He almost drops the cart handle as he looks up at the big bronze walls that surround the palace.
When he does there is a thunk from inside the barrel next to Cypress.
“We’re not… we’re not…. You’re not… but that’s… you’re taking us to the palace!?” Sorin stammers and almost shrieks.
Then a familiar muffled voice comes from inside the barrel, and Bostra says, “Calm down and get a grip on yourself Sorin, or you’re gonna ruin the whole thing.”
At the table everybody cheered for Bostra’s return.
Sorin and Gaibon pull the cart up the castle bridge where a royal guard wearing a bird mask (maybe an owl or an eagle) shakes his head. “Last cart. Sun’s down now-”
Before he can push the subject, Gaibon nods eagerly and in a cockney accent replies, “Yes’ir aye lass’ne, lass’ne,” and he pulls hard so they make it over the lips of the bridge before the guard has time to halt them.
The royal guard grunts something about “old dirt farmers” and spits but doesn’t make a move.
The Royal Palace of Nibiru is sometimes called The Glorious, or The Golden Sphere. And for an obvious reason. The entire structure is a round globe that blends into the outer keep walls halfway up. The first floor is a small point where the circle meets the ground, then the building swells to the higher floors. At various places, little balconies protrude with their own half circle jutting out of the larger sphere.
As the last rays of sunlight die, Gaibon hurries us into a cart door at the base of the sphere right before the guards in the bird masks close it.
The only person inside is a young adult gnome in fine working clothing. A tunic and a doublet with dust and dirt on them, but still of a high quality with fine golden embroidery. They stand up from their stool and Gaibon kneels, then stands and takes off his farmer's cloak, “Scion Lo, thank you for meeting us so late.”
The courtly Gnome nods and closes their book.
Gaibon steps quickly to the back of the cart. He opens the Barrel, and unties Cypress’s sack. Bostra and Cypress both step off the back of the cart, and walk around to the front with Ari to join the others.
As soon as Bostra steps forward, the fancy gnome’s stern face breaks in a genuine and charming grin.
“Uncle Bostra, welcome back.”
“Look at the chicken, the Baron thought. I am surrounded by such useless clods. If I scattered sand before this creature and told him it was grain, he’d peck at it.”
-Barron Vladimir Harkonnen —Frank Herbert, “Dune: Chapter 26”
Table talk:
“UNCLE!!!” as you can imagine the table erupted at this, and there was much celebrating and rejoicing… followed by lots of questions. If you are not caught up, i would suggest looking at Bostra’s page on this blog.
Just a side note, when Cypress prayed and asked for guidance, he also got a special situational Inspiration, that i’m calling “Berry inspiration”. None of the players know what it is yet, but i promise it will be very helpful soon!
And lastly, a very important question, for the players and the reader to consider: “Vhat ever happened, to my Transilvania Twist!?”
