LOST TRAILS 5: Sembia

[ewancummins]

THE WAREHOUSE

Sir Clive

The lack of excitement doesn't really bother him, with the peace and quiet comes the opportunity to read and relax. The dutiful knight knows better than to drop his guard, his patrols of the warehouse are anything but static.

Clive has finished two rounds, and is on a break, reading a really good bit in the book when he notices motion out of the corner of his eye.

Standing slowly, he scans side to side in a wide arc, paying special attention to the dimmer zone between the two hemispheres of light.

He didn't hear any break-in.

Peering, the swordsman spots a swift-moving (and silent) hooded figure before it passes out of view behind stacked crates in the middle of the big room.

Sneaking that way (his armor remains magically stored) Sir Clive spots one burglar prying open a chest while another lurks near an open window.
He grabs a loose cargo net and hurls it at the man by the open shutters. The thief falls, tangled and cursing loudly.
The nearer man lifts his pry bar and stands.
''You'd better--''
Mercy appears in Sir Clive's hands!
The burglar drops the iron bar and bolts for the open window.
Sir Clive leaps after him and brings the flat of the great-sword down on his skull.
The man crashes, stunned, into his mate who has just now freed himself from the net but not cast it aside.

The burglar at the bottom of the two-man-and-one-net pile yelps-
''We give up!''

[ewancummins]

LATER...



Inquiries about the Orb of Savras and about Phlan yield some information:

 The Orb is a crystal ball that was, legend has it, once owned by the arch-wizard Savras before his apotheosis. Savras is a minor, obscure demigod associated with seers and diviners, an ally of the forces of cosmic Law against Chaos. The Orb was brought here to Selgaunt this summer by adventurers who sold it to agents of the Cadorna merchant house of Hillsfar and Phlan.

 Over a century past, Phlan disappeared from the far shore of the Moonsea, transported to another plane, and then sometime later it returned.
Other settlements vanished at the same time. The exact causes of these happenings remain murky but all the sources agree evil forces were at work—some say the god Bane. After Phlan’s return, heroes cleared the ruined parts of the city of evil monsters and in time the settlement prospered and grew, regaining its position as a trade hub on the north shore of the Moonsea. But in recent years Phlan has suffered much from faction wars and monster incursions.
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Sir Clive’s employer, pleased with the knight’s capture of the burglars, gives him a big clay jug of wine.


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Klokulf concludes his deal with the gnomes, gaining the agreed-upon price in Zhentish coins and specified trade goods. Old boots and a drab cloak, gratis.

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While asking questions of sages and priests and concluding business deals, the party has time to enjoy the High-harvestide festival: religious processions sponsored by the aristocratic houses and temples and guilds, heavily marked down booze at the public houses, music and puppet shows in the plazas.

Mother Falchett gives each one of her guests a fat wedge of blackberry pie and a leathern jack of nut-brown ale.

The Leirans do not contact the party during the festival nor in the day that follows—unless their method is so subtle no-one in the party notices and comprehends it.


END OF CHAPTER