El Burro Volador

I thought today might be an excellent day not to write about current events in the Ross house (though you can rest assured that I’m working on ways to improve our lot).  Just about the farthest I can get, mentally speaking, from our current turmoil is fantasy saga currently being spun out by my gaming group.  I thought I would recount how the first session of our “Shackled City” campaign played out.

I decided to give each session a title, just like an episode of a tv show.  The title I picked for this first episode was “Vanishing Acts”.

The night began with the formation of our band of heroes at the Inn of the Lucky Monkey.  They had all been brought together by an enigmatic old drifter and traveling bard known (for the moment at least) as Ridpath Wanderer.  Their ostensible purpose was to journey to the city of Cauldron and recover the Moontryst Clan’s book of ancient techniques for using shadow magic, lost for many years.  While Ezekiel’s character, Trellan Moontryst was keen to reclaim his family’s legacy, the other two members of the band had their own motives for tagging along.

The band easily completed the journey to the nearby city of Cauldron, and were amazed by the strange beauty of this city nestled in the caldera of a dormant volcano.  Once they had passed through the city gates, however, they soon found it to be a surprisingly typical city, bustling with commerce and abuzz with rumours, especially concerning a string of disappearances which had baffled the town guard.  As it was late in the day when they arrived, their first stop was on the seamy side of town, where they located cheap lodgings at Minuta’s Board, a rather dodgy flophouse with prominently posted notices absolving the ownership of responsibility for lost or stolen articles.

When they woke up the next morning, however, the only thing missing was Ridpath, who had checked out and apparently left upon an errand of his own.  Deciding to follow up on their most likely lead, an antique dealer Ridpath had mentioned, the trio were crossing town that evening whe they heard a cry for help from a nearby alley.  Being heroic types at heart, they investigated, and discovered a young priest of St. Cuthbert being roughed up by some local toughs.  Jon’s character, Erasthmus, was able to frighten off the thugs by pulling back the cowl of his cloak to reveal his uncanny eyes, crimson save for the pupil.  Ironically, Erasthmus’ eyes, the most noticeable trace of his otherworldy bloodline, had made him the object of considerable religious animosity from the worshippers of St. Cuthbert when he was a child.

While walking the shaken acolyte back to his temple, the group discovered that the attack was a deliberate attempt to keep the Church of St. Cuthbert from investigating the local orphanage, from which four children had vanished in the most recent of the disappearances plaguing the town.  When they reached the church, the three were soon introduced to the (acting) high priest of St. Cuthbert, a woman called Jenya Urikas.  Jenya asked the players to help find the missing orphans, and despite the dislike two of the three felt for the church, they accepted.

Jenya then revealed that she had used the most cherished of the temple’s relics, the “Star of Justice” to petition her deity for aid, and had received the following cryptic response:

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“The locks are the key to finding them.

Look beyond the curtain below the cauldron.

Beware the door with teeth.

Descend into the malachite hold where precious life is bought with gold.

Half a dwarf binds them, but not for long.”

Our protagonists quickly decided that the first line most likely indicated the locks at the orphanage from which the children disappeared, and went to investigate.  While at the Lantern Street Orphanage, they discovered that the locks were made by Keygan Ghelve, a gnomish locksmith who makes most of the locks in town.  Meanwhile, Dylan’s character Kaerdin, a shifty character in his own right, discovered that the janitor had been paid by the local thieves’ guild to keep an eye on one of the children for the past month – sure enough, his charge was among the missing.

After some other investigative work, the trio were able to confront Keygan Ghelve in his shop.  Although he denied any involvement, he seemed very nervous and evasive.  Eventually, he managed indicate with subtle gestures that he was not alone in the shop, whereupon a sudden rush into the back room on the part of Erasthmus resulted in a brief fight with one of the kidnappers, a strange being with pale white skin that shifted to match the coloration of any surface he pressed against.  Although this enabled him to get the drop on Erasthmus the foe was soon subdued and the session ended with our heroes well on their way to unraveling the mystery.