Into A Strange Land

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Summary

Adventure: Into A Strange Land
GM: Struan

Party

• Arwen
• Starflower
• Hagan
• Rowan
• Vychan

Time on adventure

tbc 826 WK to tbc 826 WK

Employer

someone rich

Mission

Hired to do a job

Pay

Lots

Scribe Notes

I (being Arwen Valenta a druidic earth mage and troubadour) attended the Guild meeting on the 1st of Fruit 800. A mission of interesting scope was made known. The state of Flugelheim had not been trading or communicating with anyone East of them for the last two years. Absolutely no information was coming in the direction of Seagate. Also as the Duchy needed more supplies of grain and Flugelheim was a major grain producer the Duke indicated that this situation needed to be investigated. The conditions of the contract are such that payment is in the form of cash on delivery of information and would be paid out on a “per piece of information” basis. Needless to say, as this is the type of mission I’d enjoy I signed on.

After the general meeting I proceeded to the briefing room for this assignment. The other guild members participating in the mission were as follows, Starflower (a female Elf and Mind mage), Hagan (a male Human and Dilettante), Rowan (a female Elven and Binder) and Adam (male Giant and Druidic earth mage). Of these, I have only ever been out on assignment with Starflower before. After some discussion it was agreed that Starflower would act as military scientist for the party and myself as scribe. Though, as it will be explained, my job will not be carried out quite how it usually is due to the circumstances of the mission.

The information available to us initially is very sketchy. In fact, the only information we have available is that a guild party helped place what we believe to be the current royal family in power. They may not still be in power. We have no information. Indeed, the last information the guild received from there was that the state had agreed to sell it’s fleet to Destiny in return for Destiny carrying it’s grain produce to it ‘s customers. This was done under the old Destinian regime. And we may have to deal with holdouts in Flugelheim in the area. Not a pleasant thought. Adam has the ability to ask questions of the earth. As to how this works. I don’t know. But the following questions were asked with the following answers.

Questions asked of the Earth:
1. Is there a magical reason for no information coming out of Flugelheim? Yes
2. Are the King and Queen still in power? No answer
3. Are there any restrictions on magic within the city of Flugelheim? No answer
4. Has the harvest been good in Flugelheim? No answer
5. Has there been an increased number of troop movements, other then those due to the harvest? No answer
6. Are Artzdorf and Flugelheim still united? No answer
7. Are there any Calimar in Flugelheim? No answer
8. Was less then 80% of the harvest brought in last year? No answer
9. Are normal scrying magics possible in the Kingdom of Flugelheim? Yes
10. Has there been a major step up in the mining activities of Flugelheim? No answer
Note: No answer actually takes the form of. ‘You are not allowed to know the answer’ rather then the usual, no answer received.

These answers quickly suggested that there was some sort of magical blockade stopping information about Flugelheim crossing its borders. For questions can be asked of the edge of the boundary…. Such as question 1. But not of the interior of Flugelheim, such as most of the rest of the questions.

A sailor from a ship that had recently passed through Flugelheim was bribed to come up to the Guild and a divination of his state of being was carried out. This sailor had passed through the area of Flugelheim three times in the last 3 months. This resulted in three separate magical effects on him from the magical boundary. It was however quickly ascertained that this was not an overt magical effect however. From questioning him, it was ascertained that that he could not remember anything out of the ordinary. In fact, the more specific the question asked of a victim of this effect, the more vague the recollection of the event asked of. All memories of experiences in Flugelheim are of an extremely mundane nature. As there are memories, but no significant ones it does raise the question of how does it distinguish between trivial and significant memories. The only other thing found out from the divination was that the effect has something to do with the College of Dimensional Weaving or something very close to it.

Starflower checked to see if the sailor had suffered any significant injuries beyond what would be expected of a sailor during the sailor’s period inside Flugelheim. But there were not any evident. Starflower then proceeded to use her ‘finding’ spell, a form of dowsing, and using a coin from Flugelheim found in the Guild treasury and minted just before all information out of Flugelheim stopped coming our way. The result was that she felt magic impact. Luckily she was under the effects of a Dimensional Weaving Counter spell at the time, and so she resisted the attack. But the dowsing still didn’t work. She was just not affected by the attack herself.

these DAs is as follows.
Question:
1. Was magic in effect on the coin, Yes
2. Name of the last magic to impact, excluding finding, No Answer
3. College of magic in effect on coin, other then Mind College, officially ‘No answer’
4. Duration of magic in effect Permanent.
5. Name of the oldest piece of magic to affect this coin that I’m allowed to know the answer to. “Golden needle of  Fire” (translation into common) this was in an extremely obscure part of the coins aura. The original language was draconic or something like that.
Nothing useful was obtained from DAing Starflower.

Starflower was then divinated by a Guild namer. And the following information was obtained. There was a feedback resonance. The magical field around the boundary tries to de-activate the diviner / item used to scry on part of the area. And the further away from the magical field the less the retaliation effect of the anti-scrying mechanism.

Lastly the coin was divinated. The following information was obtained. Nothing besides what had just happened to it had affected it in the last 24 weeks. There was a trace of magic from the Draconic age.

There was speculation that perhaps the situation in Flugelheim was due to the Calimar. Or possibly due to the government finding some old treasure horde dating back to the Draconic age. And perhaps some item from this horde has caused this situation in Flugelheim.

On the 7th of Fruit we set sail for Flugelheim. Note the following, The Guild astrologer had a dream the night before we left. And we were told that we would need the coin from Flugelheim that Starflower tried to use ‘finding’ with. Also, Adam is going by ‘package tour’ (literally) namely a cargo container outfitted as a bed for the voyage. He will thus hopefully remain out of sight of the crew. As we are claiming to be carrying a cargo of wild monsters for a travelling ‘carnival’ show as it were. The 2nd officer also informed us that our travel arrangements left it open to us as to whether we are to be dropped off at Port Arts or Flugelheim (city). So this is something the party must come to a decision about over the next few days.

The ship that is to carry us is a Destinian coastal trader, of reasonable size. Not that Adam or I are looking forward to this trip, irrespective of the size). The three ladies of our party have been quartered together in one cabin. While Hagan has been given quarters with one of the ship’s officers. Adam’s quarters have already been ‘arranged’, as stated earlier. We are claiming to be merchants of a more adventurous nature then most, (to explain the amount of weaponry we carry). As the officers of the ship viewed it likely that we would like conduct weapons training and the like, we were informed that only the fore deck would be available for such use.

The ship’s officers were comprised of a Captain (a non-mage) by the name of Gerald dela Rosa who was related to the family that owned the vessel, and 1st through 4th officers. The 1st and 3rd officers were Water mages and the 2nd officer was an Air mage. This is not unusual for a Destinian ship. What is unusual for a Destinian was the fact that the ship’s captain was a non-mage. Usually only mages or those in training to be mages (as in the case of the 4th officer) can hold rank above petty officer level.

There were two other groups of passengers travelling on the ship, both of a mercantile nature. Each group comprised of a merchant, an advisor and two apprentices, plus Four to Five porters, guards, and general dogs bodies. One group was relatively unremarkable, but the other was found to contain mages. This mercantile party’s advisor was a Mind mage and one of the apprentices was a Rune mage. A quiet discussion between the merchant of this group and Starflower resulted in some information of a general nature. The main bit of information from our point of view was that the merchant had not had much to do with Flugelheim recently. As both parties involved were ‘very diplomatic’, no one was giving much away. Starflower did however put her foot in it a bit. Oh well. The merchant, while a long time resident of Destiny was not native to that land. And Starflower deduced that he was in the mid to high levels of competency in the merchant profession.

The rest of that day was spent by me receiving training from Starflower in the use of the Tulwar (this is all too familiar) and me instructing those others interested in the basics of the merchant trade. As we are posing as merchants. (Like that’s going to work).

Night of the 7th of Fruit

Adam and Starflower both had a disturbed sleep. Starflower also experienced some sort of nightmare.

8th of Fruit

We continue the training. Not much else happens.

Night of the 8th of Fruit

Adam (again), Hagan and myself all suffer a disturbed nights sleep. In the early hours of the 9th the Mind mage from the merchant party visited Adam in his container. The mind mage asked him if he was a prisoner, and did he wish for help. Adam replied, “They think I am”. Satisfied with this answer the mage let him be.

9th of Fruit

Adam mentions what happened the night before regarding the Destinian mind mage so Starflower goes to have a discussion with him. She does learn that he has some means of making Mind Cloak potions cheaply and efficiently. And that the Mind mages boss is under the effects of these potions at all times. This is very interesting news. But Starflower gave our mission away to him in the process (surprise, surprise).

Adam also sent word that there was a very interesting chest in the hold. An overly elaborately protected chest, especially of a magical nature. Rowan made the chest see through so we could examine the contents without breaking in. There were found to be four different types of silk within the chest. A barrage of DA questions was sent at these silks. With the following results.

Silks:
1st Colour: Blue, made from some type of insect husk, nature of magic – heat protection
2nd Colour: Green, sort of creature involved in the making of this silk? – Worm
Nature of the magic – Breathing, Generic True Name of the creature it comes from?
Parachute worm.
3rd Colour: Blood Red, What is the source of the colour of this fabric? – The fabric is this colour
Nature of the magic? – Dryness
4th Colour: ‘yellow’ Gold, Living plant, Generic True Name? Sunfibre. Age since harvesting?
No answer.

Training continues in Tulwar and Merchant.

Starflower casts another Telepathy.

Night of the 9th of Fruit

As I am solar aspected I am able to determine that whatever is effecting us at night happens exactly at midnight. And only effects us if we are asleep at the stroke of midnight (ok, within 5 seconds either side of midnight).

10th of Fruit

Training continues in Tulwar and Merchant. And Adam runs out of wool for the socks he was knitting for himself (to keep him sane). So he decides to unpick what he has knitted and start again from scratch to keep himself amused. Due to the fact we now know the origin of our disturbed sleep is not natural. Some DA’s of party members were carried out by Hagan. On Starflower the question was: Name of the last magic to impact, other then self-only spells. The current answer was intra-dimensional retribution. On Adam the question from Hagan was. ‘Name of last magic to impact other then Earth or Mind magics’. With the current answer of ‘Hypnotism’. This being a namer magic, as everyone knows? News to me. I thought it was a Mind College magic. We live and learn.

Starflower had further discussions with the Mind mage from the merchant party. She was able to determine that the merchant parties were not experiencing disturbed sleep. The only semi useful bit of information she was able to obtain besides this was that he would not give out his, or his employer’s name. At about the same time Hagan pulled out a box containing cream buns with which to bribe the sailors. He asks them about their sleeping patterns, and determined that, like the merchants, they are sleeping fine. At this point a ship’s officer grabs Hagan, and ‘invited’ him and his cream buns to the senior officer’s mess for lunch.

At the officer’s lunch Hagan gets to meet the ship’s captain, senior officers. He inquires into their sleeping patterns, and is informed that they too are having restful sleeps. This leads into him mentioning that magic appears to be affecting the ability of information to come out of Flugelheim. This appears to make the Captain very unhappy and the rest of the officers uncomfortable. Also during this discussion Hagan is able to meet and DA the ship’s blacksmith (and cook) and the ship’s Master at Arms. Both of whom had not been seen previously. The Blacksmith was found to be a mage of some sort, but not fully colleged, and the Master of Arms was found to be a Namer.

During the lunch the ship’s officers discuss what each has been up to but they avoid asking what the Master of Arms has been doing however. A spy for the Destinian regime, perhaps? Hagan inquires politely, as to the possibility of having the Master at Arms divinate him. The Master at Arms agrees and they proceed to his cabin for the divination after the lunch had concluded. Starflower kept Hagan amused with stories over mind speech while he waited for the divination to be completed.

The results of the divination are as follows: The effect is not overtly magical in nature. But it is in effect. It is more in the nature of a quasi – magical effect, and is a symptom of us knowing something we are not supposed to know. The result is that we are in violation of a prophecy? Or the twist in a paradox that is trying to resolve itself. Also, there are those who have known all along what is happening in Flugelheim. Hagan thanks the Master of Arms and rejoins the rest of the party.

After informing the rest of the party, Starflower decided to approach the Master of Arms herself. As in all likelihood he is a master spy for the New Destinian Regime, and she has a ring that may be able to get more information or other forms of aid from him. After overcoming some initial difficulties she is able to get in contact with the Master of Arms.

Showing him her ring caused him to be more approachable, and the following information was obtained:
1st Information is going west. But not as much as the new Destinian regime (i.e. Astoria dela Vaga and the powers
that be in MMH (Her brother Don Diego) would like.
2nd The old Destinian regime appears to be very much in power in Flugelheim. Not necessarily officially, but a major
power.
3rd He suggested that the ring be left outside the borders of Flugelheim as there were those in Flugelheim who would
love to get their hands on the one who wore it. As this is not feasible Starflower intends to hide it. As do I when it
comes to a certain Baron’s boots.
4th He does not think there are Calimar within the borders of Flugelheim, but admits it is not impossible. (I do hope
there aren’t any)
5th A magic boundary device was discovered and taken there. And it is this, which has caused what has happened.
6th The Captain is not the most politically expedient person to be trusted. (Starflower’s difficulties in getting in touch
with the Master of Arms involved the 2nd officer thankfully).
7th He suffers from the same problem of no information leaving Flugelheim to a lesser extent then most people,
because he was in Flugelheim when the boundary was put in place.

Discussion between Starflower and the Master of Arms would suggest that, if you know something already people could talk about it with you. And hence he could effectively learn new information (because he knew it but was denied access to it). He could not however either confirm, or deny this. The “golden needle of fire” is in some way linked to the item causing the barrier around Flugelheim. The Master of Arms literally laughed to learn that the ‘Beast’ in the container we brought onboard is in fact a giant and guild party member.

Night of the 10th

We avoid sleeping over the period of midnight. The night passes peacefully.

11th of Fruit

There is a storm today. Caused be the ship’s mages to speed up the ship’s progress. As a result, no Tulwar training occurs today. The lessons I have been giving in the profession of the Merchant have continued however.

Starflower obtains one of the ship’s ballast stones. Rowan uses her binder skills to re-shape this stone to include Starflower’s ring, as a means of hiding it. It is re-shaped into the form of a pestle, as this it a reasonable object for Starflower to be carrying about with her. It was just after this was completed that one of the cabin boys came in with a message from the Master of Arms. The message stated “We would be crossing an invisible barrier sometime before dinner.” An aside, Hagan has noted that one of the able seamen is nearly a water mage.

Starflower hypnotised me to forget why we were on this mission. As it was hoped this might protect one of us from the effects of the Barrier. It didn’t appear to work, but was a logical idea to try. This ‘barrier’ is invisible and so clearly seen by witchsight. Hagan DA’d the wall as it approached him across the deck of the ship. The question he asked was “How can a sentient minimise the effect of this wall on them.” The answer he got was “Destroy the source.” Adam, likewise DA’d the approaching wall with the following question. “Direction to the source”. He was given an arrow pointing in the direction of the source. Note – Both Hagan and Adam tried to impart this information to the rest of the party who where still on the other side of the barrier, via Mindspeech. They could understand each other. But their messages to the rest of the party came across as gibberish. Rowan in turn used her DE and obtained the following information. 1st, the source is mobile, and 2nd, the field is created by an item. Starflower wrote a note that was readable after going into the field. Note into only, we did not get the chance to try it in the opposite direction. Finally, I crossed the barrier, and felt magic impact, as though I had nearly but not quite resisted the effect of some magic.

Night of the 11th of Fruit

We all had a good nights sleep. There was no Midnight effect anymore.

12th of Fruit

Today we sailed around and through the narrow headland and across the bar into Flugelsump bay against which Flugelheim city is built. On the northern headland there stood a lighthouse and on the southern headland a small fortification of some sort. Signals could be seen flashing from this fortification to some other point, unknown. In Flugelsump bay, there were five merchant vessels, two coastguard/raider type vessels and a ship of the line at anchor. What was very unusual was that not a single vessel was flying a flag of any sort. And I do mean any sort.

It was only after we crossed the bar that the pilot vessel came out to the ship. Customs officials came aboard at this point and questioned the ship’s crew and passengers. After some haggling it was agreed that we owed 1 gold piece a head for landing fees and residence for the next quarter and a further 5 gold pieces for the cargo. For a total of 9 gold pieces. A further ten-percent transaction fee was to be owed on the cargo if it was sold for more then forty gold pieces. As Adam is the cargo we had no intention of selling it. So this shouldn’t be a problem. We also learnt that all mages would have to report to the Mages Collegium for a licence to cast spells. This licence costs one gold piece a quarter for all mages except Necromancers, Mind mages, Bards and Illusionists. The costs of licences for these colleges are higher.

What exactly we don’t know as yet. Also learnt from the customs officials was the fact that each market town holds a fair at harvest time. This will hopefully help us in our cover.

Note – The Flugelheim colours are a crown over a sheaf of wheat, both in gold against a grass green background. After landing we went to the business establishment of a person called Roland who was suggested to us by one of the customs officials (he is the husband of the customs officer’s wife’s sister…. I think). After some discussion it was agreed that a price of thirty silver pennies for the week would cover the storing of the cargo and a handler (Hagan). This included food for Hagan, but not for the cargo. That would be our responsibility. We really could do with someone with animal handling abilities. If we are going to be carting Adam around inside this box.

We next found accommodation for the rest of the party at an inn nearby. After negotiations this came out to 2 gold pieces for the week for a single room for the three of us, including cold breakfasts. The night past uneventfully.

13th of Fruit

The party made contact with the Flugelheim association of Guilds today. A mercantile licence was obtained for myself and entertainer’s licences were obtained for all of us. Last, but not least, we all (except Hagan) obtained mage licences for a total cost of 4 gold pieces. The guilds having been having problems in the way of trade. They are not happy with the situation in Flugelheim, as the device ‘protecting’ it is bad for business. So a possible means of us gaining additional employment is in the offering.

We learn about the Flugelheim Guild of Porters.

Night of the 13th of Fruit

Hagan awoke during the night to find a female hobbit breaking into Adam’s and his section of the warehouse. During the resulting scuffle, Adam and he captured the hobbit. She turned out to be an E&E and pregnant. At this point they came under attack from someone casting spells at them. They both soon fell asleep. (Damn those E&E’s).

When they awake on the next morning they found themselves underdressed and in their beds. Also, their gear had been neatly folded and stacked at the foot of their beds. Hagan found a message with his items “Fair’s fair, I only took your money. Thanks for not killing her.”

There was a second message for Adam, “Nice ring, but I figured you would have more use for it then me.” Both Adam and Hagan had been relieved of a few small, minor items and a fair bit of their ‘excess’ cash. Each message was signed with a sigil, the sigil being comprised of 2 parts. One being the Guild involved and the other the personal signature of the thief.

14th of Fruit

First off today we obtained a cart for our expedition into the interior of Flugelheim. This was obtained at a cost of 75sp and a 425sp bond, which we would get back on safe return of the cart. We also decided to make a map of the City of Flugelheim. So after Hagan leaves a note on the roof of the warehouse saying “The ‘price of’ an introduction was suitable. And could a meeting be arranged.” We spend the rest of the day in teams wandering the city and taking notes for this map. (as everyone in this party has the Ranger skills).

15th of Fruit

We continued to wander the City of Flugelheim for the purposes of making this map.

16th of Fruit

We continued to wander the City of Flugelheim for the purposes of making this map.

Hagan has a note left for him, which said the following. “Information sharing would be useful. How about I drop in, announced this time. Say, just before the closing time for the inns.” The map of Flugelheim is completed. It clearly shows the extent of Flugelheim, including the major thoroughfares. The high and low classes areas are displayed, as well as the position of the horse markets. Also on the map are the positions and relative sizes of the two river islands. One is the royal private residence, as opposed to the ‘official’ residence in Flugelheim proper. The other is a naval base with construction facilities. There was a ship in the dockyard under construction, flying a Destinian flag dating from about one hundred to one hundred and fifty years ago. The flag was red and gold (halved) with the symbol of a ship on it. Starflower tries to locate the female hobbit we had captured briefly, using the map of the City of Flugelheim. But it didn’t work.

That night we were visited by the author of the notes to Hagan and Adam. The following information was obtained:
#1, The thieves’ guild is being leased by the old regime Destinians. This arrangement was reached after they had tried
to asassinate the Master of the Thieves Guild several times but to no avail. The Master of the thieves’ guild is not happy
about the situation, but is going with it for the time being.
#2, The old regime Destinian’s have their fingers in most of the ‘pies’ of Flugelheim.
#3, The person we meet does not believe the ‘device’ we seek is in Flugelheim city itself. But he doubts it would be far
from it though.
#4, The Destinians have not been very active outside the City of Flugelheim itself. And what activity they have been
carrying out has mainly been through agents, rather then in person.
#5, The money from the grain shipments which are still being sent is not reaching the new regime of Destiny.
#6, The Merchant guild and middle levels of the administration have been highly infiltrated.
#7, A couple of Calimar agents had passed through Flugelheim two years ago.
#8, The Royal Landing Archives would contain a lot of useful information, but it has been highly infiltrated by the old
regime Destinians.

Hagan speculates on the timing of the Calimar agents being in Flugelheim and the device appearing inside Flugelheim. These two occurrences occurred about the same time. Six months before Carlos’s death.

While this discussion was taking place, Starflower noticed two people on telepathy. A man and a woman. The woman killed the man using poison. Before moving away. Starflower obtained enough of a fix on her so we could find her again if we needed to.

The night passed uneventfully.

17th of Fruit

Today we obtained two draft horses from the horse markets, for our wagon. A mare and her gelded brother of the same age. We were able to obtain them at reduced cost (700sp) because of the trouble they had been causing the horse trader, due to their belief that they were to be separated. Once we had reassured them we would not be separating them they were not a problem.

Notes on the horses of Flugelheim and Artzdorf. Only one stud farm is in Flugelheim. The rest of them are on the Artzdorf plateau. The one in Flugelheim is considered the ‘black sheep’ of the trade and specialises in farm horses. It also breeds hobbit-sized horses. The horses of Flugelheim and Artzdorf are of the highest quality, and studs are highly protected. Indeed, horse stealing is one of the most highly punished offences in Flugelheim or Artsdorff.

Supplies for the trip into the interior were purchased and we were politely informed that if we continued to hang around the city proper we would be ‘invited’ to a royal audience, as it were.

We are intending to use the harvest fairs of the rural market towns as our cover. These start in Teranheim on the 1st of Fruit, the fair lasts in Teranheim for three weeks. The next is in Mennerville, which starts on the 15th of Fruit and runs to the 28th of Fruit. The third is in Mariksville and starts on the 22nd of Fruit and runs through to the 5th of Harvest. Then is Rigelheim, which starts on the 29th of Fruit and runs to the 19th of Harvest. The fair circuit then moves on to several lesser market towns following the same pattern before returning to finish in Terinheim again for about three weeks.

The decision is made to head for Mariksville to arrive there just in time for the beginning for the Mariksville fair. The marquee we had ordered to be attached to our wagon during performances was delivered at a cost of 150sp. It is big enough to hold twenty-five paying customers at a time.