Yellow-Robed Mage in Threshold ============================== ** 1029/11/21 ** Tarras goes back to Sukiskyn. Tess and Stephan leave Rifflian to Threshold. They depart via riverboat, traveling in the open on the river northwards. The name of the riverboat is the Mudlark, which has 10 people on board, who are loggers and the crew. Fare is 2gp each. During the day, Tess spots a person on horseback trying to hide and follow the river boat. The riverboat stops at night on the side of the river. The night passes uneventfully. During the next day, some people fly past on a flying carpet in the distance - no one we recognise. We arrive at Threshold. Threshold is a small, dirty town, without a sewer. It is a typical walled medieval town, with temples in the middle, and farms surrounding it. The river passes through Threshold, and there is an island in the middle of the river, with bridges connecting to the island from main part of town. Our vessel and cargo are inspected. The sergeant sends us to the wharf, We give our names to the watchman there. The watchman unrolls a bit of paper without looking at it, giving an introduction to Threshold. The only weapons people are permitted to carry are daggers, swords and staves. Other weapons must be surrendered, and arcane spells may not be cast in town. Tess asks about the slave traders down near Rifflian. The slave traders are members of the Iron Ring, and the watchman asked to be informed if we find any of them. Tess leaves his bow and they take Stephan's crossbow - these can be retrieved at the townhall when we leave. Tess and Stephan head to a low quality inn. Someone bumps into Stephan, and then yells thief at Stephan. Guards approach and demand to be shown our belongings and pad us down to check that we didn't steal the purse. Tess is glad that he turned over the bow, and explains briefly why he is carrying a sap in his haversack. When we head into the inn, Stephan spots the guy's purse inside, where the patron had dropped it by the bar. The purse is returned and the man apologizes for the mistake. The night passes uneventfully. ** 1029/11/22 ** The next day Tess and Stephan look for maps and information. There is a huge band of aggressive Gnolls in the region. There are occasionally more dangerous creatures, such as dragons. About five years ago, an army of giants came down and laid seige to a keep up the road. They were "defeated" by the head of the school of magecraft, who agreed to teach the giants magic. The mountains are dangerous - people in the town don't go there. Adventurers do head off that way sometimes, and don't come back. The lower peaks of the mountains are not so dangerous. As we head from one inn to another, Tess sees a horse drawn cart about to run over an old woman. Tess helps her out of the way. She offers to tell Tess' fortune. Tess notices that her hands are clearly the hands of someone much younger. She tells Tess' fortune, "I see a tall man ... he has yellow robes ... he is here ... he is in Threshold ... and he searches for something ... he is outside a building - a sign bearing two-crossed swords near the river." She leaves and Tess shadows her, using his Hat of Diguise periodically to change appearance. She tries to hide her path as she heads off through side streets, and strides more forcefully once she thinks she is out of sight. Tess evades a chamberpot from above at one stage. She crosses a bridge to the island in the middle. Very few people cross the bridge, and it would not be possible for Tess to cross the bridge unnoticed. Tess releases Aldara to watch where the woman goes. Tess crosses further down, by drinking a potion of Jump then running across out onto a large ship and jumping to the other side. Aldara heads down towards Tess and Tess sees his quarry disappear out of view. Aldara reports that the woman went up to a dock area, where a bunch of rough looking people, who were unloading a boat slowly. The woman passed over some money. The boat was being unloaded outside a building with two- crossed swords. The woman went into an alleyway and didn't come out the other end. Tess isn't sure which building she went into. This whole island is dingy, darker and doesn't seem as nice as the rest of town. Tess catches up with Stephan in the main part of town and explains what happened. Tess and Stephan have a drink at the Hook and Hatchet, where there are lots of guards there drinking. Tess finds the sergeant who met the riverboat as it arrived in Threshold. From what we are told, there are hard drinking fisherman on the island. It is an unfriendly place. They don't like outsiders. The island is called Fogor Isle. They say the Patriarch should do something about it. A group of watchmen tried to arrest someone over there and didn't make it back. The Patriarch is at a keep to the north of town about a mile away. Stephan also finds out that valuables can be left at the Town Hall. There are quite a few clerics in the temple in Threshold, and there is a flying carpet service for transport. Fogor Isle is not too dangerous during the day. Tess and Stephan go to the Keep, and Tess arranges to talk with the Chief Magistrate. Tess explains about the yellow robed mage and the slave traders. We can get an escort to Fogor Isle from the watch. The local thieve's guild controls there and there are also the local rowdy fishermen. The magistrate could hire some men-at-arms to help us. We get a 100gp to hire some help. There will be a watch party near the island. "Consider yourself deputised," says the magistrate, happy to have someone else dealing with the problem. Back in town, Tess hires four 5th level adventurers, agreeing to pay them 5gp each and a share in proportion to those killed. Tess arranges for the adventurers to head across first in the evening, then we will join them 20 minutes later. It turns out that the run down "two-crossed swords" inn didn't have anybody there. Our four hires are loitering around outside waiting for us, pretending not to notice the lookout who is hiding watching them. The door of the inn has a hefty padlock on it. When Tess and Stephan arrives, the lookout heads off. Tess casts a Suggestion spell on the lookout to get him to tell them that we have arrived and spring the ambush. Tess takes a look around and casts Detect Thoughts. 2 out of 6 people resisted, and the other 4 are just thinking daily life stuff. The adventurers climb in through a window to take a look in the inn. As Tess looks around in the direction the lookout went, he sees a guy in yellow robes with about ten or so thugs heading his way. Tess teleports back to the bar. There is a growl from the inn's kitchen. The adventurers are about to jump back out the windows of the inn having seen the growling troll in the kitchen. Tess tells them to set up defensive positions, and he will deal with the troll. The troll in the kitchen is wearing armor and has a large axe. Tess kills the troll swiftly, after it hits him once. The Elf amongst the hired adventurers casts Fog Cloud just outside the bar, obscuring our defensive positions inside. Tess picks up the troll's weapon and casts Invisibility. Tess heads out into the main room, seeing that it is fogged up outside. Thugs with swords are trying to climb in the windows, as our guys attack them. One of them has unlocked the padlock and is coming through the front door. Tess positions himself at the front door and kills the guy coming through the door. Another bad guy got through the window and wasn't harmed by one of the adventurer's swords. Tess swaps position and takes out the guy with damage resistance after a couple of rounds using Power Attack. The adventurers take out two thugs. Tess kills another guy coming through the window, and the Elf casts a ray of frost spell or something similar at another guy. The yellow robed mage dispels the Fog Cloud. Outside there are left 6 people: 4 thugs, the tall dark woman, and the yellow-robed mage. The mage with the yellow robes has a buckle in the format of two linked manacles. The woman is about 30, has short dark hair and bright blue eyes, and is wearing chainmail, shield and shortsword. There is a brief impasse. Tess sends two of our guys to coup de grace the troll with a torch. The yellow-robed mage yells out for us to give him the tapestry, and we refuse. Tess pretends to look more wounded than he is as he crosses in front of a window, asking Stephan to help bandage him. Tess then silently casts Silent Image to leave an image of himself leaning against the wall. Tess drinks a Potion of Invisibility and sneaks around. One of the thugs spots Tess moving invisibly, and yells a warning. The yellow robed mage casts See Invisibility, and another thug swings wildly missing the position where Tess has sneaked to. Tess then steps out and power attacks the ellow-robed mage and kills him outright. Seeing this, the woman and four other guys turn tail and run.