Standing outside the door to Guldar Heel’s tower, the party gazed out across a bridge over a moat filled with a liquid which emitted a dull, red glow (similar to the pools in the basement of the tower?) in the late afternoon light. As they scanned the bridge a gate in the curtain wall on the far side creaked open. The party crossed the bridge and this external door closed securely behind them. Even the repeated application of Gonchar’s skull could not cause it to shatter or re-open.

The northern wall of Farthis was straight ahead. Looking westward (?) the party saw the tops of several buildings, some with flags and pennants flying from their towers. The sound of rushing water accompanied the smell of roasting meat drifting on the wind from this direction. This seemed to be a small village of smaller dwellings surrounding a much taller building in the center. It was easy to see the village from Guldar’s tower though it was well-nigh invisible from Farthis. The party headed toward this newly discovered village.

The largest building (in the center of the village) is made of stone and is apparently an inn. Flying many golden flags, this building has been built near the edge of a gorge through which runs a fast-moving stream. On the edge of this gorge a watch tower has been constructed. Manned by gnomes, this tower is heavily defended. Gnomes patrol the stream as well.

While there are some human-sized buildings surrounding the tower, most are built in the gnomish fashion. Small, gnomish cattle roam through the free space between the buildings.

The Friendly Arm Inn#

Gonchar approached one of the gnomes and began speaking to him in their guttural native tongue. The gnome told him the central building was called The Friendly Arm Inn and that it is more of a keep than in inn. He also told Gonchar (something indecipherable about a horse pond???). All told there are 4-5 human dwellings and 8-9 of the gnomish sort. The Inn was clearly not built by the gnomes. There is also a long, low building which appears to be a temple to Garl Glittergold.

Out of a mixture of thirst, fatigue and curiosity the party approached the Inn. Near the entry is a sign that reads, simply:

There seem to be runes carved everywhere. Some none can read, none some can read. In spite of this pervasive inscrutability the party entered The Friendly Arm Inn. A gnome sat behind a desk just inside. According to a plaque on the desk:

Bentley Mirrorshade
Proprietor

The going rate is 1 gp per person per room per night. The party decided to stay at the inn for 7 days. 15 gp for the whole party, for the week. Gonchar offered 17 gp, for some reason, and Mr. Mirrorshade accepted. Arkadios declined to stay at the Inn, stating that he “will see us in a week and a day”.

Bentley asked Menka if he was there “to meet the High Priest of Thoth, Anu Sekar”. Bonus! Menka replied that while he had no idea the High Priest was present he would very much like to meet him. Bentley stated that there are catacombs below the Inn. There is an entrance to the catacombs in the Inn and a person named Grokkis can escort us to this entrance at any time. There is also an entrance to these catacombs in the gorge near the Inn. (No context is provided in the notes for this information or why it was given.)

The party was shown to a large room on the 3rd floor of the Inn. The room was large enough for the whole party to rest in relative ease. Gonchar, Menka and Flint left the room to explore the Inn while Lycovyne and Kyril remained behind on guard duty to recuperate.

Heading downstairs to the entrance the three internal itinerants found a different gnome sitting at the reception desk. Menka asked this new gnome for information on Anu Sekar and where in the Inn he may be found. Within seconds a half-orc appeared (Grokkis?) and asked, “who is looking for Anu?”. Menka presented himself as a Curate of Thoth and was told by the half-orc that he “smells better than the last man who came looking for Anu, who reeked of wine”. Flint inquired, obliquely, at the desk about a local high-level thief to “meet with” (aka level up). He was told that a member of the local thieves’ guild is holding a meeting in the morning. Apparently, he has other work to attend to at night. As a side note apparently a lot of the Friendly Arm waitresses are iron golems.

The half-orc led Menka, Gonchar and Flint toward the main room on the first floor. There are 3 doors next to each other. One lead into the main room and the other two lead downward. Menka and the half-orc entered the main room while Gonchar and Flint “went down” to find a dwarf ordering an ale at yet another bar1. (This may be a discontinuity in the notes as Gonchar did not “head down” until several paragraphs later.) The party would later find that one door leads down to a dwarven bar and the other leads down to a goblin bar.

Father Hadrigan, I Presume#

There were several persons of interest in the main room on the first floor:

• Father Melios Hadrigan is present.
• Antonia Krell, Initiate of the 9th Circle.
• Anu Sekar, High Priest of Thoth.
• Malechi O’Malley, Initiate of Dagda, the Dozen King.
• Gellana Mirrorshade, High Priestess of Garl Glittergold and lawful wife of Bentley.

Apparently, around this time, a first-level party went down on Gonchar. Also, apparently, around this time, Kyril and Lycovyne wandered downstairs to the main room, grabbed a chair and pulled up a glass. Hearing of her presence, Kyril inquired after Antonia Krell but failed to find her as she had left the room, having been offended (and very likely disgusted) by the drunken advances of Fr. Melios. While Kyril, Lycovyne, Gonchar and Flint are sitting at a table together Melios bought the bar a drink and then stumbled away toward one of the doors leading to stairs down, apparently the location of a dwarven bar.

The party (minus Menka who left the room earlier, seeking Anu Sekar) decided to follow Melios downstairs to the dwarven bar. Gonchar asked the barkeep in the main room about Melios and was told “where he’s went, don’t draw”. Gonchar then handed his axe to Kyril. Receiving yet another cautionary word from the barkeep, Gonchar headed downstairs after Melios alone (see note on discontinuity above).

While the rest of the party went off seeking Melios, Menka went in search of His Holiness Anu Sekar, seeking an audience to relate his experience and new-gained knowledge. The High Priest was very interested in the connection between Guldar Heel and Patriarch Kelmiore (as detailed in Session the Fourth) and suggested Menka investigate the matter further. This knowledge also made up for the considerable shortcomings in Menka’s fortune (in gp) and allowed him to attain Level 5, praise Thoth! Anu Sekar also provided Menka with 3 new spells: Stumble, Detect Curse and Beckon (see Spells Provided By Anu Sekar below).

Kyril walked downstairs through the third door to check out the Goblin bar. No Melios, nothing of interest at that time. Heading back upstairs, Kyril joined with Lycovyne and Flint and journeyed to the dwarven bar to find Gonchar (and possibly Melios).

Upon entering the dwarven bar they saw Melios speaking with a bunch of drow near 3 ogres sitting around a table. A dangerous place indeed! Gonchar offered to buy Melios a drink. Melios accepted and the two grabbed chairs and pulled up glasses with Kyril and Lycovyne.

Melios spun quite a tale about his adventures under Guldar Heel’s tower. Apparently, he bedded Alu- Alethra and then fell in love with her. Whether he was charmed or not is unknown. Being a demon, after all, she spurned him and somehow switched his personality with the little blue creature that we met in the catacombs under the tower. Melios threw himself on a sword (as the little blue creature) to put an end to this condition and (apparently) return to his human self. Melios stated that while he is certainly still smitten with this demon wench he has no desire whatsoever to return to the catacombs under the tower.

Melios also stated that the passage to von Hraelock’s tomb (and treasure) is located under the bed of Alu-Alethra and that 3 groups of humanoids hold the keys to her “home” - goblins, hobgoblins and wet-trolls. These keys allow passage through the wizard-locked door the party had so much trouble with in Session the Third and, better yet, allow passage through that door without alerting Alu- Alethra of your presence!

At about this time Kyril left the table to return to the party’s room and get Menka so that he could join the conversation. Menka asked Melios for the password to the Hadrigan brooch - “hadrigan” , unsurprisingly. On the subject of that same family heirloom Fr. Melios was dismissive at best. Apparently, he gave it to Alu-Alethra as a sort of carnal bribe - “good luck dealing with that in HER hands, but I didn’t have a use for it, I’m good enough at that kind of thing on my own, and she thought it was pretty, the damned temptress.” He followed this with some ribald descriptions of her physical assets, accompanied by disappointed sighs and a few shots of strong, foul-looking liquids, followed by a shrug and “fuggin life goes on, right?”

He then changed gears completely and began a spirited description of a group of working ladies he’d spent some time with in the far east and their various skills, one of which involved the brewing of a wretched-tasting but gloriously potent rice-based liqueur “that invoked hallucinations and occasional blackouts, even in large, stupid barbarians.”

After the interview ended the party returned to their room and rested (everyone +3 hp).

The next morning, having met the leader of the local thieves’ guild, with his own 167 personal gp plus an additional 33 from Gonchar, Flint went up one level to become a Burglar.

Kyril, with help from Menka and Anu Sekar, was finally able to meet with Antonia Krell and Malechi. During this interview (details?) Kyril found out that a druid in the North was in trouble and accepted a quest to look into the matter (with the party’s help). Kyril was able to solve this problem without party involvement.

A Lake And Its Pearls#

Being on leave for a few days the party decided to inventory and identify all of the loot gained thus far. The first (of two) problems with this plan lay in the fact that the resident magic user had for some reason neglected to choose identify as one of his original spells. This being the case Kyril, Lycovyne and Menka decided to visit the Kleb and purchase a scroll of identify for Lycovyne to memorize. Menka cast an augury to see if this was a prudent plan of action and received an ok, praise Thoth! Some spellcasters come prepared….

Given the, er, hasty and unfortunate exit the party made from the town of Farthis previously Kyril cast fog to cover the journey to the Kleb’s abode while Menka cast bless just in case. The party made it to the Kleb’s house in one piece. The Kleb was happy to sell the party a scroll of identify for the unconscionable price of 498 gp plus 2 gems from the clay golem hoard. The party, being in no real position to argue the price, agreed. Lycovyne would have plenty of time to learn this spell and remember it, again and again, in the days ahead.

The second problem with this plan lay in the material components of the identify spell - namely the material spell component - a pearl. Luckily we were able to waive the swallowing of the live miniature carp for each casting… Questioning the Kleb, the location of a lake was determined to be some 30 miles inland (1 day’s travel, 1 way, lightly encumbered). Kyril, Menka, Flint and Lycovyne traveled to this lake in search of pearls. For some reason Kyril used animal friendship on a red deer on the way to the lake (why? was he lonely?).

The journey proved otherwise uneventful and the party reached the lake safely. The plan was simple and effective: Menka would cast locate object at the shoreline which, at 4th level, would allow him to locate pearls out to about 100’. Once located, Kyril would cast water breathing and the pair would shed their armor and wander out into the murky depths in search of the pearls. At 4th level Kyril’s spell would give them about 6 hours of amphibious time.

“If I drown I’m coming back to life as a squirrel and running right up your pants leg!” – Menka

Kyril used animal friendship twice while under water to keep pike from attacking the pair. Luckily glug-glug-glug is sufficient for the verbal spell component when being cast on fish! In this manner Kyril and Menka were able to find and secure 10 pearls their first time under water. The pair returned to shore and the party returned to The Friendly Arm.

Menka and Kyril would return to the lake 2 more times, netting 13 and 14 pearls each time. On one such journey Menka was attacked by a wildcat and took 3 hp of damage. He then smote the beast with his flail for 7 hp of damage and the beast fled, praise Thoth!

The Loot Index on the last page very desperately needs to be updated. Not all casts were successful; indeed, Menka began casting bless and chanting during the process to increase the chances of successful identification. In the end, all items except one potion (in Kyril’s possession) were successfully identified. Lycovyne cast read magic to inventory all the scrolls in the party’s possession.

Notes:

• None of Arkadios’ gear was identified as he was absent
• By my tally the party is currently in possession of 278 pieces of gold
• Party has been at the Friendly Arm Inn for 5 days (including pearl diving trips)
• The Loot Index contains a simple list of scrolls as who-got-which-one was not well described in the notes
• The party has 14 pearls remaining for future identify castings