The Tiger and the Mouse

Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure: The Tiger and the Mouse
GM: Jon McSpadden
Season: Autumn 808 wk
Day: Friday
Level: Medium

Party

• Sabastian Renaissance Hobbit. Scribe and Party Leader
• Dalran Super mage. Military Scientist
• Vapour Fabulous, just ask him.
• Tegan Vapour groupie
• Pru Vapour fan.

Employer

Gadget "Mouse" Hackwrench

Mission

Gadget Hackwrench of Calder City is seeking a group of hardy individuals to act as her bodyguards and assist in an arcane investigation.

The ideal applicant will have:

• Extra-planar experience.
• High skills in smithing and mechanician.
• A magical college.
• Skills in the philosophy of magic and magical materials.

Aspirants should present themselves at the Black (with purple spots) Tower of Calder in Brandenburg by 3 Fruit 808.

Guild Security addendum: SAG relations with Count Varrek Azzur Calder are strained at best. We have not had time to investigate this Gadget Hackwrench and cannot recommend this mission.

Pay

To be arranged.

Scribe Notes

30 Breeze - 1 Day before guild meeting

Following a long night out with Ishamael, I spotted an ad on the guild notice board. Gadget Hackwrench of Calder City was looking for an experienced group to assist with body guarding and investigating some suspicious events. I picked up more party companions throughout the day as at some point I ran into Dalran and Vapour, who agreed to join me. I have no idea how I organised it, but I'm sure my friend Rip, a fabulous watermage that sails the Sweetwater, had agreed to take us to Calder. He had recommended his new apprentice, Prudence, to join us as well.

1 Fruit - Day of Guild meeting

I wasn't feeling the best, but I dragged myself out of bed and made it to the Riptides barge on time. I could tell, from the horde of ladies at on the docks, that Vapour had beaten me there, in fact everyone had made it there before me, including Tegan, who was looking for some work .

As I was sharing amusing anecdotes with our merry band, a guild security member appeared from nowhere ('how did they do that?') and reminded us about the guild contract. I was the natural leader of this intrepid band and recorder of daring events. Dalran, a very experienced adventurer would provide any military direction. I made a point of passing my card to the ladies on the dock and inviting them to apply to my modelling agency.

Riptide was as reliable as ever and got us to Calder safely in just a few hours. Once alighted in Calder, a few hefty Ogre dock guards insisted on a fee, which we paid - I'd rather not argue with someone almost three hobbits tall over a few silvers. The guards at the large Black Tower (in Calder city) were kind enough to direct us to the correct tower and even provided escorts. Half an hour later and 5 miles southwest along the coast, we found the correct tower. The guards don't say a word, even to each other, and were covered head to toe in armour with not a gap - all very odd. I think they were spooky.

This Black Tower of Calder did indeed have purple spots. We were shown inside and introduced to Gadget, a giant mouse who is two hobbits tall and wearing a tool belt around her waist. I've seen things like that after a long night out, but I was stone cold sober at this point. I cast my knowing eye around and spotted a number of intriguing inventions. Gadget fed us a wonderful tea, made by a magnificent device, and then explained that a dead body had been found in Netherford and the Calder guard had brought this to Gadget and assigned her the investigation into the man's death. She took us to the cellar and showed us the body (Human, Male, 5'10", dead for 32 hours). The arm was burnt off by fire, the body frozen and it was stripped of anything valuable.

Gadget explained that the plan was to use the Opterion, a large fantastic device she had created that channelled chaos and mana together, to send us back a number of days to observe the event of the man's death. I spent some time with her as she explained the workings of the Opterion and even as a master mechanician, the device amazed me. In the meantime Dalran searched the body, but was unable to reveal anything else, but he did make drawings of the corpse's face.

We set off later in the day, after using a crane and Dalran's levitation magic to safely move the Opterion onto the back of the cart and then set off for Netherford. Gadget warned us of the bursts of Chaos that erupted from the device and before too long the discharges has impacted the party and horses. Tegan had the head of a dog, Vapour's feet turned into hooves, the first horse has had it's head sink into its body and the second lost all of its skin.

As night fell, we found ourselves at a small village halfway to Netherford. We stayed in a small inn, with the cart discreetly parked behind it, well as discreet and you can be with something that fires Chaos bolts. We set a guard and by the morning a few more changes were evident as Prudence grew fangs as well as her nose and eyes changing. I didn't say anything, but she was pretty damn ugly, but that didn't stop Vapour.

2 Fruit - 1 day after guild meeting

Following the chaos interrupted evening we set off and made it to Netherford by midday, but not without incident. Prudence had spots all over her body and Vapour became hairy - very hairy, as well as growing a tail. The horses were not in a good state, not at all.

The inhabitants of Netherford were a tough looking bunch but we were tougher. We moved to the site near where the body was located and Gadget used some powerful magic to quickly build a roofless building to enclose the cart and our party. Things then got very exciting as Gadget activated the Opterion and the days went backwards at a high rate of minutes!

As the day reversed and we observed the walls disappear; we saw the cart and party walk backwards out of the city. We watched time roll backwards and eventually observed the Calder guard drop a body on the road and thieves put items back on the body. The body then stood up as an explosion occurred (in the form of a 'dark sphere'), the body then walked off backward towards the west and was carrying a Dark Orb of some sort. Time continued to reverse. Eventually the reversing stopped and we found ourselves in the same place, with the cart and walls gone. Gadget explained it was now over three days ago. Gadget suspected that the 'Dark orb' was Octiron, an element that can polarity and absorb spells, but it releases magical radiation that is rather hazardous.

29 Breeze - 2 Days before guild meeting

Since Dalran had seen enough detail of the stranger he was able to locate him and we flew off Westwards to find him, which we did a little while later along a road from a ragged hilly area to the west.

The two most experienced (and least deformed of us) approached and parlayed with the stranger. He was friendly enough, and warned us about the dangers of the forest/hills nearby. He was doing his best, but failing to hide the Octiron. We bid him goodbye and he departed to his fate in Netherford. After short discussion we backtracked his path into the hills and found an almost invisible rift that was a portal to 'Tuman'. Strange and mysterious portals are one of my favorite things to experiment with and so we proceed though!

We find ourselves in the alley of a city and so we have a look around and everything in the city, including the people, are ghostly and we think we are out of phase with the plane. We wander and locate a prominent building that may be a large mechanical workshop and appears to contain a large vault. The area before the vault is filled with concerned people who we assume have been recently burgled by out mysterious friend. We experiment and with some effort we are able to slightly move objects, but little else can be done.

Following some discussions Dalran displays some amazing magical prowess and allows us to become ghosts (or makes the ghosts solid, I wasn't sure) through his use of temporal magic and we have a chat to the somewhat surprised locals. After some confused talking with the guy in charge (who speaks an archaic common) it is revealed that as the War of Tears began (some 31,000 years ago) they wanted to avoid all the death and bloodshed about to start and so they cast a powerful ritual to phase shift their city out of time. Two inhabitants, Trefus and Lirdrium, stayed behind and wore powerful amulets that would keep them alive; once the amulets were joined the city would then return. This clearly hasn't happened! We agree to see what we can do to find these people and 'rescue' this lost city. It turns out that they've being living the same day over and over again, for thousands of years.

We high tail it out of the city and discuss what to do. Dalran, the all knowing, recommends a tour of the prominent libraries and we start by flying to Brandenburg. Dalran can fly himself by changing into an angel. When I grow up I want to be like Dalran! We discover that the chief librarian in Brandenburg is a Weasel, but big like Gadget! Vapour is pretty upset about the hair, as the girls don't appreciate his new hairy look!

As the Weasel spends time hunting through the library we then fly to the Shrivers that Gadget knows in Northern Brandenburg, and have the various party members mutations drained. It's a pretty painful process, so Dalran and I make sketches of the process so they various party members know what happen. Prudence screams a lot, but looks much prettier when they finish with her.

30 Breeze - 1 Day before guild meeting

We check back in with Weasel the librarian and they have some history, but not much else. On Dalran's advice we fly to Freetown and have some discussions with the librarian/researcher in the Philosophers Guild named Yanes de Gomera. There we hit the jackpot as they find some information about the Amulet of Tuman relating to the Seagate Guild a number of years ago. Well worth the 600sp we paid for the research!

We hasten our way to Seagate and discover in the scribe notes that Lirdrium is a Storm Mages and known by Erzabet, a guild member. A quick visit to her obtains us an introduction! More paydirt.

Realising our unique position and store of knowledge we place a quiet bet on the local horse race to cover out expenses to date.

We portal to Grobbenbonk's tower in Brandenburg, and follow an amusing exchange with his Orc guards, fly to Lirdrium's estates that are located just south of Brandenburg city across the hills to the south (about 15miles). Lirdrium is a giant Storm mage, and pretty top chap! His companion Trefus went bad and is causing all sorts of grief. Trefus stole his amulet a while ago but a SAG party recently recovered it in 806. Lirdrium knows that Trefus lives on the plane of Legend, so we plan to retrieve it, it will be dangerous but we consider that we are just the people for the job!

We plan for a few days, and return to Netherford to recover the Opterion. It's discharged itself, so no more chaos changes.

3 Fruit - 2 day after guild meeting

Gadget negotiates a midday departure for our intrepid party and we depart Alusia on Lord Azzur's plane travelling ship, 'The Face of Chaos'. Captain Sandokan takes us into mists, and we find that it is now nighttime and we're now on the plane of Legend. Dalran managed to locate the item and Lirdrium explained that Trefus will be aware of him if he goes close to Trefus and things will become heated, so we decide to head in ourselves.

Lirdrium tells us that Trefus resides in an enormous castle on a mountaintop, surrounded by clouds shooting lightning and has a number of powerful Ice Demons in residence along with assorted other beings we should try not to encounter. Lirdrium casts a spell that allows us to walk on the air (if we chose to) as we leave the ship and we make our way to the Castle. Closer to the castle we spot Trefus (via Dalran's Crystal of Vision) through an open window in his study. I bravely volunteered to sneak in and steal the amulet - naturally, Prudence swoons and Vapour congratulates me on my bravery. Dalran, as always, advises me that we will be here to help if I get into trouble but I assure him that with my skills and expertise (trouble is my middle name) I will be fine.

We have discovered that if we were to fly through the clouds the lightning will hit us so I decide to walk in (using Lirdrium's air walking magic) and once close then climb the castle wall. Quietly and carefully I make it to the open window, but Trefus hears something and becomes more alert. Thank god for Dalran's invisibility! Trefus approaches the window, unsure of what alerted him, and I, with amazing skill, remove the amulet from around his neck without him noticing as Dalran casts a Storm Magic counter-spell underneath him. I make a hasty retreat from Trefus and run through the air to get away. The clouds erupt with lightning, which hurts a lot, but I get clear of the castle and once clear we manage to escape with amulet, with Trefus appearing to be none the wiser. We rendezvous with the ship and Lirdrium in a remarkable city built on a bridge across a vast chasm over a maelstrom of water below. We then return home to Alusia after thanking Captain Sandokan for his assistance.

Upon our return to Alusia, Lirdrium joins the amulets together to return Tuman to our world. Celebrations then ensue, and the people of Tuman reward us with an amount of Octiron. Following some investigation with Gadget, I determine that I can shape this into weapons, there is enough to make one for every party member.

We arrive back in Seagate on the 8th Fruit.

Appendix

A - Individuals Met or Heard About

• Gadget "Mouse" Hackwrench - Fantastic mechanician living in Caulder.
• Lirdrium Arkayz - A Storm Mage living south of Brandenburg city and East of Netherford. Ancient from Tuman.
• Trefus Izkurant - A storm mage, and nasty guy. Ancient from Tuman.
• Weasel - the chief librarian in Brandenburg City
• Captain Sandokan - Captain of the Face of Chaos

B - Locations Visited

The Black Tower with Purple Spots

This tower is some 5 miles SW of the port of Calder and appears to be a tower made of black stones covered in purple spots.

Netherford

A less than friendly village some 15 miles south of Calder.

Tuman

Ancient city, phased out from the plane. (fixed)

C - Things

• Opterion; a device that channels chaos and mana and can move people through time.
• Octiron; a powerful material used by shapers.

E - Awards

Money: 2700sp (3000sp before tax)
Experience:

1. Sabastian 4620 (+420 if these scribe notes get filled in :D)
2. Dalran 4200
3. Tegan 4200
4. Prudence 4200
5. Vapour 4200