Episode I: Origins - Act II "Rekkenmark"

Scene I - 6th of Olarune (afternoon)

Gerard, Esan and Morgan reached the outskirts of Rekkenmark at about midday - the city's domain is marked about an hour's walk away from Rekkenmark itself by a pair of of border stones flanking a footbridge over a small stream. In winter, this stream is typically frozen solid, and so it was when the heroes approached. There is also a toll station at this footbridge. When the party crossed the bridge, they got a clear view of the toll station, and discovered the door broken down. Esan indicated that he wished to investigate on his own. He crept up to the station and surveyed a grisly scene. Someone - or something - had torn the place apart, leaving only smears of blood on the floor and wall, and scattered papers most likely belonging to the missing guard. As he stepped out to look for signs of the perpetrator, a fountain of snow burst up to his right and a large insect-like creature came forward. Morgan and Gerard rushed to Esan's aid as the creature (Morgan identified it as a Frostfell ankheg) tried to drag him away.

While Morgan placed an enchantment on Gerard's blade, Esan revitalized himself through sheer force of will. He then pried the creature's mandibles open and somersaulted away, drawing his longspear as he did so. Gerard rushed into the gap, sword in hand. Morgan then stepped into the creature's view and conjured up a terrifying visage to its eye. It screeched and fled across the frozen stream, losing its balance as it did so and skidding to a halt on its belly on the other side. Gerard pursued once again, sliding across the ice with ease even with his bulky armor hindering him. As he landed a useless blow against the ankheg's tough chitinous armor, Morgan fired another of his force missiles at it. Esan used another psionic power against it, encasing it in ectoplasmic goo. The ankheg snapped at Gerard and stepped back out of the reach of Esan's longspear, forcing the monk to cross the ice as well. As Esan contemplated his crossing, Gerard cried out to the Silver Flame for strength right before delivering a fell blow on the giant insect, hacking away one of its limbs and sundering its carapace. Esan ran across the stream, ready to exploit the creature’s new weakness. He stumbled and fell, but as he slid across the ice he put all of his momentum into a horizontal kick that landed on the ankheg’s head, snapping its neck.

While Gerard prayed over Esan’s wounds, Morgan returned to the toll booth and searched it. He found a sack full of gold, silver and copper, presumably toll money. Morgan immediately claimed it as spoils of victory, but Gerard and Esan balked at this, saying that the money rightfully belonged to the throne of Karrnath. After considerable debate, Morgan took his share of the coin and gave the rest to Gerard and Esan to do with as they pleased. They found the body of the toll guard in the hole the ankheg had sprung out of to attack Esan. His sword was bloodied, indicating that he had managed to get a lucky blow on the creature before being slaughtered. The travelers continued to Rekkenmark.

Scene II – 6th of Olarune (evening)

They reached the city an hour or so before dusk, and immediately made their way to the Draco Hill district. Morgan and Gerard both had a mutual contact (though from different sources) in a tavern called Wynarn’s Retreat. An information broker named Fergus apparently owned the establishment. The tavern was not very crowded yet, as it wasn’t quite evening. There was a circular bar in the center of the room, and tables scattered around it. A smoky haze concealed the edges of the room from view, making it a good place for private conversations. They could hear a musician playing a dulcimer somewhere.

When they sat down, Morgan immediately asked one of the barkeeps where Fergus was. Esan and Gerard looked around for any possible watchers while Morgan and the barkeep talked. Gerard noticed a shabby man deep in his drink sitting at the bar almost right next to him. Esan saw three Karrnathi soldiers at a corner table, talking quietly. Morgan learned that Fergus was not available at the moment. The barkeep said that the man had several other establishments in town, and only came to Wynarn’s Retreat to check up on things every now and then. He seemed to be trying to tell Morgan something, but whatever it was got lost in translation. Morgan wrote down his name on a piece of parchment and handed it to the barkeep along with a spare piece and a quill. The barkeep offered to jot down the names of the other places Fergus owned and frequented if they wanted to try to track him down. But when the barkeep handed him the parchment and quill, all it said was ‘When you leave, go instead through the door on the left’.

Esan pointed out the Karrnathi soldiers to Morgan, who recognized their heraldry (a snake coiled around a longsword) immediately – they were soldiers of Talovar ir’Mandar. Esan decided to test his social skills against them. He got up and went over to their table while Morgan watched. When he arrived, the soldiers did not appear interested in talking, but the situation escalated rapidly as Esan spoke. He did not seem to think he was being rude or bold, but the soldiers became increasingly angry as he made his unsolicited inquiries (questions such as ‘Where are the ambassadors who are going to the meeting staying?’), and at one point threatened to arrest him if he wouldn’t go away. They discovered much more about Esan than he did about them – they demanded his identification papers, and then asked him several questions about his status in Breland. Frustrated, Esan returned to the bar without any answers.

Morgan explained to Esan the basics of diplomacy with soldiers, which seemed to involve buying lots of alchohol. He noticed that the soldiers were watching Esan and writing something down on parchment, and decided to demonstrate the proper method to the aescetic. Morgan returned to the soldiers’ table with three tankards full of Nightwood ale, and smoothed things over in a matter of seconds. He even managed to leave without showing his own identification.

During all of this, Gerard noticed the drunkard become suddenly alert for a moment when Esan was provoking the soldiers. He bought the man a drink to try and elicit some sort of response, but the man did not seem talkative. The travelers left, and Gerard and Esan were surprised when Morgan led them through the left door on their way out. They entered what appeared to be a small conference room with a table, some chairs and some lit candles. When Morgan closed the door behind him, the ambient sound of the tavern was completely shut out. He began examining the door for strange markings, but before he could discern its nature it opened again and the ‘drunkard’ came through, no longer looking drunk at all. He named himself Fergus, and asked them to be seated.

Fergus and the party talked at length. Morgan mentioned that Fixer had sent him, which seemed to perk Fergus’ interest a bit. They got to the point of the meeting quickly – they needed information about the Order of the Emerald Claw and Talovar ir’Mandar, and why they might be related. Fergus told them that he had a very good contact for their purposes, but that a meeting would be expensive to set up. The exact figure came up to a thousand gold...each. When the three explained to Fergus that they didn’t have that sort of money, he pondered for a moment, and decided that he would set up the meeting for a hundred each, and a favor that they would owe him later. They agreed to this, but he wanted some sort of collateral to make sure they would be honest with him. When he asked for a bit of fingernail or a hair from each of them, Gerard got up to leave. He did not seem interested in giving up flesh of any sort to a complete stranger. Fergus left the room to allow them to confer among themselves.

After considerable debate, Gerard relented. Fergus got his money and his collateral, promising to give the fingernails and hair back when the favor was returned. He seemed to note that Gerard was seething, so he gave up some free information to placate him. Udengar Prathos, a dwarf who had served the Mandars for several hundred years, had recently been fired, and was quite angry about it. Fergus implied that Udengar might just be mad enough to tell complete strangers anything that he knew about Talovar ir’Mandar. The group thanked him for the information and got up to leave. Fergus asked them where they would be staying so that he could send a runner to find them when the meeting with Sigo Karlach was arranged. They said they didn’t know, but that they would relay this information to the barkeep. They ended up deciding on the Proud Tower, a four story inn in the same district, not too far away from Wynarn’s Retreat.

Scene III – 7th of Olarune (morning)

The party woke up early in the morning and set out to their various tasks for the day. They went to the Tax Collector’s Office on the outskirts of town first, to turn in the (Morgan’s share-free) toll money they had found the previous afternoon. The clerk at the office was stunned at their honesty, and his supervisor told him that the coin had already been filed as ‘lost’. The clerk explained just how annoying it would be to redo the paperwork already filed on the lost toll money. He gave them the bag back, which Esan and Gerard split between them. After a short amount of deliberation, they decided to go to Udengar Prathos’ residence next, in the Lamar Crossing residential district.

Udengar Prathos’ house would have been considered middle class in any industrial city, but in the prestigious town of Rekkenmark it was solidly working class. The dwarf opened the door when they knocked, and invited them in when they mentioned Fergus’ name. When they explained their purpose, he immediately began indulging them with everything he knew about Talovar ir’Mandar. Some of the topics he covered:

*The timing of Ermana Kessler’s arrival coincided with a purge of the Mandar guards that seemed to include all of the ‘royalists’, that is, people more loyal to Kaius III than Talovar.

*Kessler arrived six months ago. Though Udengar did not survive her coming long, he did learn that she was not staying at the Mandar Keep or Mandar Rath (the surrounding town), but she still seemed to be around a bit too often for someone traveling from the next nearest town.

*Dashokoya Nurabo, a Reidran woman, arrived about nine months ago in Talovar's court with a trade agreement between Karrnath and Reidra that supplied grain and other goods to Karrnath. She is one of many Reidrans assigned to diplomatic duties in Khorvaire. She has also helped oversee the distribution of the emergency grain shipments that arrived last month in response to the destructive blizzard. She is well-liked in this region.

*Some of the royalists who were fired during the purging refused to leave. Those ones disappeared. Udengar is the only royalist fired from the Mandar estates who hasn't left the Rekkenmark region of Karrnath altogether (as far as he knows).

*The stairs leading down to the dungeon of Mandar Keep are hidden behind a tapestry in a store room on the first floor.

*Talovar was scheduled to deliver a short public speech at the Rekkenmark Academy in the North Wing Auditorium that evening.

Udengar also promised to draw up a map of the Mandar Keep and surrounding region. He told them to return in the morning and he'd have something for them. They thanked him, and tried to pay him for his help, but he refused, saying that any trouble they caused Talovar ir'Mandar was payment enough for him. They left for Rekkenmark Academy.

Scene IV - 7th of Olarune (evening)

After Esan and Morgan visited a tailor for some less conspicuous clothing, the three companions set off for the Rekkenmark Academy. They arrived well before dusk, when Talovar was supposed to make his speech. Esan surveyed the auditorium and found some seating in a balcony where they could see clearly without being seen in return. They all visited the military museum, and noticed that the Galifar Era wing was closed off entirely, leaving only several rooms full of Karrnathi relics and depictions of great victories available to see. Morgan and Gerard both thought this odd.

They returned in the evening to the Auditorium and found the seats that Esan had recommended still empty. Morgan noticed a gnome woman with a Korranberg Chronicle insignia on her cloak, getting a note pad ready. Esan retrieved a note pad as well. Talovar arrived with his entourage to cheers from the lower seats, which were largely filled with Karrns (the foreigners, a much smaller crowd, seemed to be congregating in the balconies for protection). Thirty Mandar guards surrounded the stage, polearms, swords and bows at the ready as Talovar got up to the podium. Esan and Gerard both noticed a woman in a gray cloak with the hood up to hide her face slipping into the crowd from Talovar's entourage. Gerard thought it might be Ermana Kessler.

Talovar's speech was short and to the point - he was angry with Karrns who complained about martial law. His speech was full of jingoistic rhetoric about the Treaty of Thronehold being a farce, and Karrnath being surrounded on all sides by implaccable enemies (whatever Kaius III thought). He urged his countrymen to turn in any potential dissidents to the Royal Swords, because 'spies are everywhere'. He also outright told the crowd that the trade agreements of the Barrakas Summit were excluding Karrnath, a tell-tale sign of things to come. The Karrnath crowd ate it up, though the folks in the balcony were strangely silent. All in all, the speech lasted barely ten minutes. The three gathered up their things and left for the Proud Tower, a bit more knowledgable about the man they had heard so much about.

Scene V - 8th of Olarune (early morning)

The companions rested peacefully through much of the night, intent on getting up early once again to go see Udengar. But they all woke with a start when a man clutching a leather parchment case in one hand crashed through Gerard's glass window. Before Gerard could do anything, the man (who looked pannicked, and had gashes on his face as if he had just escaped a knife fight) opened Gerard's door and stepped out into the hallway. He did not get far; two shuriken flew through the window after him, and Gerard heard him stumble. Gerard rolled out of bed, unsheating his sword as he did so, and landed on the floor in a defensive stance. Another man, this one dressed all in black cloth from head to toe and masked besides, jumped through Gerard's window. He seemed to step quite lightly, and he had a short sword in one hand and another strapped to his back. He ordered Gerard to stand aside, warning him that it 'wasn't his affair', but Gerard refused to look on while the other murdered a defenseless man. Without another word, the black-clothed man drew his other sword and disappeared entirely.

Meanwhile, Esan stepped out of his window onto a narrow ledge and began making his way across to Gerard's room. He spotted a man dressed in black clothing from head to toe getting ready to jump across the street from another roof to the Proud Tower floor that they were all on. Morgan grabbed his cloak and stepped out of his room to see what all the commotion was and saw a dead man in the hallway next to Gerard's open door, two shuriken sticking out of his back...


....TO BE CONTINUED