D&D 3.5 - Planescape 2010 - In Cold Blood - Chapter One

To the background of dimly lit coloured lanterns and soft harp music performed by a street musician skilled enough to grace the League of Gentlemen Explorers clubhouse. Three of you sit around a well polished arboean blue-oak table, reclining in snuggishly comfortable highbacked chairs and sipping on a variety of Celestine brandies.

The dinner went well with tales of foreign and exotic places happily shared and discussed between the various members present. Your own tales in Merresentian a reasonable hit, yet were shadowed by a prestious human member called Azzar Tiim and the humourous exploits of his nightmarish bureacratic escape from Mechanus.

The three of you had the misfortunte to be joined at your table in the dining hall by Mung Daal and Jonas Osterude. Between the watering strong aroma from lude Zombie and the voracious appetite of the huge blue Slaadi dinner was hard to enjoy and even harder to actually eat.

Emra who welcomed the three of you warmly into the gentlemen's club this evening was mysteriously absent during dinner. However after retiring, still peckish, to the smokey bar, Emra was seated with a gracefully beautiful lady with a slight golden complexion.

Mung Daal and Jonas have retired to their own table, apparently Jonas requires legal help after mistakenly groping an offduty Harmonium sergant. Although currently Mung Daal is doing nothing but consuming nick-nacks whilst Jonas sits staring at the golden-skinned beauty making gestures that can only be deemed inapprioriate.

Across the room Azzar Tiim sits with the devilishly beautiful lady who's name none of you still know. The pair seemed engaged happily in conversation.

As the harpist finishes the first piece of his set, Emra stands with the golden-skinned lady. The pair then walk out of the bar still quietly chatting. A minute or so later Emra, dressed well in a suit with smoking jacket, appears back in the doorway of the smokey den.

Emra looks perplexed and thoughtful for a moment as he looks across the bar at those gathered at individual tables, before starting across the bar towards Azzar Tiim and the devil-tailed beauty. Emra speaks to them for a moment yet stops when Azzar Tiim holds up a hand politely and shakes his head. Emra looks up again looking across the room to Mung Daal pouring an entire plate of quail eggs into his slabbering maw and Jonas making pelvic thrusting motions whilst excitedly talking about something. The weather no doubt.

Emra then turns his attention to the three of you, relaxing away and approaches your table.

"Good evening to you all. How was dinner?" Emra asks, before motioning to a chair, then taking the liberty of sitting down with you all anyway.

"Actually, something has just come up" he says before anyone can actually get a word in, "The woman I was just with is a handmaiden of Lady da'Afbourne, she has just informed me that Master Kella da'Afbourne, the only son of the noble family has been kidnapped and gone missing through the Portal of Random Precision" he says in a troubled tone as if you should all know why.

"The da'Afbournes are naturally extremely worried and have offered a substantial reward for anyone that can return Master da'Afbourne to them, forty thousand gold coins to be precise."

"Are you all available and more importantly, interested? Time is of the essence." Emra asks before sitting back and pouring himself a Celestine brandy.



---

Velenur. You are Tza'rok's guest tonight at the League of Gentlemen Explorers. You have otherwise been mixing around with Tza'rok and Korr. Yourself and Korr are staying at the same bar in the Lower Ward, it's smokey and hot, but cheap with plentiful ale and entertainment. Naturally you know where to find Korr.

Tza'rok. You have been entertaining yourself around Sigil and spending a lot of time at the festhall. Along with sharing your time between Velenur, Mung Daal and Jonas on various occasions and are quite relaxed.

Elvanshalee. I know nothing about your PC or what she does. Background please.

It's been two months since you all left Merresentian. Lifestyle costs are as follows.

Low -- 3 gold per week. 24 gold total.
Medium -- 15 gold per week. 120 gold total.
High -- 40 gold per week. 320 gold total.

Please note what lifestyle your characters have been leading at the bottom of your first post so I can record it for later use and extra information. Being in Sigil, you can have got your hands on any equipment you wish to a degree. So you can do shopping on your own, just send me the shopping list so I can approve it. However you can save that and do any shopping you need during my session (and you may need specific equipment for my session).

As a last note. This adventure I am writing is book-adventure calibre and thus both complex and dangerous. You have been warned.

Elvanshalee sits, ever looking like some kind of representative of an evil empire, and cradles a bowl of writhing small black beetles which she is crunching as an after dinner snack.

'That is a significant amount of jink. I don't suppose you know any more about what cutters scragged this boy and where he might be?'

'But, at the price I would have to say I am quite interested...'

Elvanshalee pops another beetle into her mouth, and crunches it, sucking out the juices with a look of pure pleasure on her face.

"Yes and no" Emra replies, sipping the brandy and holding the glass to the light for examination as he swallows.

"As I have been informed, young Master da'Afbourne fled through the Portal of Random Precision in the hive during the attack, the Powers only know what a young master would be doing in the hive, the powers and the one surviving manservant that is.

"The young handmaiden, Teila, has informed me that Elrigde, the surviving manservant witnessed the entire event, alas she was merely sent here to put forward the work to our prestious guild, trust you know?"

"She has informed me that those we put forward to the task are welcome to head to House da'Afbourne, although you may not be permitted entrance because of what has happened, you will be able to speak to some people that can give greater insight into this appalling mess"

"She didn't tell me much else about the attack or the circumstances, I would imagine they are trying to keep as much information from the public eye as possible and I do not blame them!"

Emra pauses for a moment, looking over your expression as he sips his brandy, he then puts the glass down and clears his throat.

"The Portal of Random Precision is a permanent gateway in the Hive, it's a very well known location, I'm surprised none of you have ever heard of it. Every minute and at some times, every moment, the portal changes it's destination, yet it seems to reset every three days and repeats the process, so the portal will lead to the same location at exactly twelve noon every third day, amazing I should say. Most of course do not venture within because who knows where it will lead."

"It seems a certain someone that the Handmaiden Teila could, or would, not mention had made an appearence at House da'Afbourne, but was turnt away, apparently he offered information, but they, even in their current distress, did not wish to work with someone of his calibre? I'm not sure whom, but I believe someone there will be able to help you."

"Now, I have spoken much and not given many others a chance, forty thousand coins is a lot, I must inform you that because the bounty comes from the guild, the guild would be taking five percentage, but that still leaves plenty for you all, however I have a bad feeling about the whole situation and would like to inform you that, whilst you're free to hire whom you please, I do have a small shortlist of powerful cutters that we were looking to offer invitation into the guild, if you were to take them on, you maybe able to get a lower fee because the guild would happily offer them full membership should they help and you all conclude this business for the better."

Emra whistles briefly, exhaling, before smiling very briefly for a moment, before picking his Celestine brandy back up and taking a small sip.

"Not bad bub, eh?"

Throughout the entire dissertation, Tza'rok has been acting slightly strangely, staring with glazed eyes, it seems, straight past Emra and into apparently thin air. He opens his mouth as if to speak, then closes it again and holds up a single finger as if requesting a moment.

His hand dives into a pocket and for a moment he sorts through a selection of bags of powder, before selecting one, tipping a little onto a small hand mirror and with a small blade racking it out into a line, which he swiftly snorts through a metal tube.

Tza'rok blinks and his eyes clear somewhat, as he returns the selection of packets and paraphernalia to various pockets. "That is indeed an awful lot of jink." He sniffs deeply. "Sigil is getting rather old again, one can only take so much decadence before it becomes singularly dull, however... there must be easier ways to entertain oneself and make a little jink than tearing across the multiverse in search of some rich kid who could be absolutely anywhere. That amount of money says 'extreme danger of death' if you ask me and the limited information says 'and we know more than we are letting on about how dangerous it is'. A massive pile of money isn't any use if you don't get to spend it."

"Why didn't he want the job?" Asks Tza'rok, indicating the human Azzar Tiim. "Clearly we're only the second best, or perhaps only remaining choice. Not sure what I make of that, either."

Velenur has been sitting listening but not really paying attention. As always he lets his mind drift off to other things like his parents or how cheap the local booze is, and allows the finer details to be ironed out by his fellow travellers. He raises his mug to his lips and takes a sip of the quite foul, yet very very cheap ale.

"I don't like it.." He says sharply. "That's alot of money for something we know very little about. If more details were forward to us then i'd feel alot safer but alas, I'll go where my fellows go." He looks towards Emra with tired, intoxicated eyes "I don't decide what we do anyway. I go because i have no-where else to go."

Once more he returns the mug to his lips, sipping. He lets his mind wander again to things more dear to him.

((Lived the low priced lifestyle. Suits my character more.

Emra sits and listens, looking at the powerdy mirror from time to time with a raised eyebrow, after a while he holds up a hand and sits forward more-so in his chair, placing his brandy on the table.

"Azzar didn't like the idea of the Portal of Random Precision and also thought that a contract of this profile would be better suited to others. Regardless, Azzar is already a well established and respected name here in the guild, so really that's his prerogative"

"I'm not going to sit here very long trying to convince anyone. It's my opinion however that most members should jump at a chance like this, especially those who have nothing of a track record apart from a completed initiation and a little gander at a digsite which amounted to nothing"

"However I am certain there is little to be suspicious of in regards to House da'Afbourne, they are nobles of celestial bloodline. One of the reasons they turnt away the source of information I mentioned earlier, not wishing to disregard their morals even in the face of great loss and all that. If you asked me, I would suggest the amount of coinage relates to the importance of the person lost to the da'Afbournes, not tempting payment for some form of suicide mission."

"Anyway, if you're not happy Tza'rok and would perhaps prefer to spend your time... perhaps snorting powder up your nose... then you're welcome to do so. Elvanshalee, if you remain interested, then that is perfect and I will hand the contract soley to yourself and you may assemble whatever team you require to return Master Kella da'Afbourne to his family."

"I have several names as I said earlier that we were planning on running through an initiation course in due time, powerful cutters like yourselves, if you would be willing to take them along, we could use some real first hand judgement of their eligibility."

"So, anything else or are we satisified?"

Emra sits back, glancing again at the mirror, then looks back at you Tza'rok, "Also, be a good chap and get rid of that garbage will you, this isn't your sordid festhall here, this is a respectable gentlemen's club"

Emra then looks to Velenur and smiles briefly, "Hard being new, isn't it?"

Standing, Emra looks towards Mung Daal and Jonas Osterude, before looking back to the three of you, "Tell you what, I'll give you all a little bit of time, whilst I go and speak to Mung and Jonas about this bit of work here and I'll pop back to you shortly"

"Oh and Tza'rok, don't let me catching you snorting that drek here again, okay?"

Emra then smiles politely, before picking up his drink and heading over to Mung Daal and Jonas Osterude, he speaks briefly with them, then sits down.

"For a society which is supposed to be interested in exploring the multiverse it's not terribly enlightened. One vice frowned down on..." Tza'rok slips his mirror into a pocket "...whilst another is positively encouraged." Tza'rok raises his glass. "I have to wonder how many bubbers lying unconscious in some filthy pile o'blek in the hive started on Celestine brandy... sordid festhall indeed, doesn't know what he's missing."

The gith considers a moment. "On the other hand, it was Zerthimon himself who said Focus and discipline are the key to strength; diversion is the key to weakness. Right now the festhall is little more than endless diversion. To be honest, they are giving me the yawn in there. Some of those berks want to get out more and they might find there's more to experience than every kind of bub or even pandemonium powders. I suppose it can't hurt to take a trip up to that house... whatever it was... quick skeg and find out what the dark is."

Elvanshalee watches the interchange with quiet interest, and with a smile at Emra as he departs she places down the beetle bowl and begins to speak.

'It may sound like a lot of jink, but when you think about it once divided it comes to little more than enough to buy some item of minor enchantment... If we have ambitions to progress in this incarnation of our souls this is the kind of task that we will have to accept.'

She begins to tap her nails on some very white teeth, looking thoughtful for a few moments.

'There does seem to be some chance of a knight of the post somewhere in this deal though so it will do us well to be peery of any chant we hear during our investigations. I am also interested in meeting some of these cutters Emra has suggested as well, I see no reason not to look into bolstering our numbers ahead of a potentially dangerous task.'

'And, Tza'rok, that powder habit of yours must generate expenses, no?. I have attended a few orgies where it has been used, and the prices were significant...'

She picks up her brandy and gives it a sniff with narrowed eyes before taking a taste and remarking offhandedly,

'Smells much like the poison that killed my sister...hmmmmm...'

Velenur looks towards Elvanshalee with a slight look of disgust on his face. He picks up his mug once more.
"So now we're not enough?. After all that we've done we can't be trusted to do things as we are?"
He sips his ale and keeps his gaze apon her, dismissing everyone else at the table.

Elvanshalee returns the look without any trace of emotion.

'Human, your enthusiasm is touching but it wont keep me alive when we hit the blinds. We are light at least one warrior, if we are to be thought of as a war-band.'