Session 3 (August 14th, 2015)
Day 3 in New Sarnath (Predawn)
Successful delivery
The party returns to Drebin's place of business, carrying the still unconscious Javik. Inside they find a few people who weren't there before sitting in a corner talking quietly. Those people ignore the party, so the party does the same. No sight of Kira or Drebin though.
One of the bouncers leads the party into the storeroom behind the bar and the other takes the party's burden and walks down some stairs to the basement. Javik will surely have a pleasant rest of his life. The bouncer who remained knocks on the other door in the storeroom and a minute later Drebin comes out, buttoning his pants.
Presumably Kira was in the room with him. Braggor is not pleased by this development, but Drebin is pleased with the return of the traitor Javik and throws a pouch of gold to Thanus. The party has done well, so perhaps there is other business to discuss now.
Tense payments
Braggor interrupts Drebin at this point and says that business is not done and moves toward the door Drebin emerged from; Kira still owes a debt. Drebin intercepts him and tells him that the Hellfire Syndicate will get their money from her at a later time, a time that does not include waking her up in the middle of the night after a traumatic day.
About that... Braggor is unsympathetic and again moves toward the door and it is that this point that Drebin gives him a dangerous look and the one bouncer who had been idly watching the exchange gets a firm grasp of his greatclub. It can wait, Drebin insists.
Braggor is again unimpressed and politely tells Drebin to fuck himself as Braggor is getting what is owed to the party. Now. The bouncer stands up straight now, ready to start bashing heads. Drebin and Braggor stare each other down.
Eventually Drebin makes a decision. He pulls out another pouch and throws this one to Elmsworth; should cover what Kira owes them. Now Braggor can get the fuck out of his establishment and wait in the alley while he and the the rest of the party discuss business. Braggor got what he wanted in a roundabout way, so he agrees to the terms and walks out.
Back to business
With the Braggor gone, Drebin calms down and gets back to business. He explains that he may have some more work in the future if the party is interested, but in the mean time he can give them the name of a contact of his inside the barricade, a mid-level man named Marcus. If the party ever wants to make some extra money in a less than legal fashion, the contact can help them out.
That aside, Drebin already explained a bit about his information business. Drebin explains he knows of a way to the larger undercity of Doomed Sarnath, the the vast majority of it untouched. There is a lot of ground down there so the Hellfire Syndicate wouldn't be the only group he'd sold this particular entrance location to, but there is more than enough down there to go around.
Drebin is a business man of course so he can't give that information away for free, but as a thank you to the party for putting a quick end to this whole Javik affair he can definitely give it at a steeply discounted price. The party agrees and pays.
The party now has the location of their next dungeon crawl!
Business is concluded and Drebin tells the party they can stay in the front room for the rest of the night as it would definitely be safer than being outdoors at this time. He even lets Braggor come back inside. The party takes up his offer and finally rests after a rather grueling adventure day.
The party awakes sometime later and heads back to New Sarnath via the main gate they left from. They pay their taxes on the way in like good citizens and then they go their separate ways. Time for downtime!
During the next seven days
Thanus
Thanus spends some time selling off the loot and gives the University of Mt. Doyle their cut. The University is pleased by the large return of the first expedition. Beyond that, Thanus spends much of his time crafting.
Braggor
Braggor finally makes his introductions with a manager at the Miner's Guild and gets their blessing to open his forge (after paying several months guild dues in advance of course). He pays the start up costs for needed materials to get it up and running and in a couple weeks time he should be good to go.
He hires some of the squatters he threw out as laborers to get his shop up and running and some as guards too; he makes it clear that if anyone tries to steal from him he will break bones. They believe him.
"Elmsworth"
Evening Shadow Reflected On The Water temporarily sheds his Elmsworth identity and creates a new disguise, that of a scholar from the old Imperial capital of Nantes. Getting connected with the academic circles of New Sarnath could be useful in his mission.
He decides on passing himself off as a member of the University of Mt. Doyle as they are less likely to have the resources to actually investigate if he is who he says he is. He forges (poorly) a letter of introduction from the university's main branch and he heads in. The place looks much the same as when Thanus first arrived as that was only a few days before.
The opium addicted scholar sits at his window perch staring at nothing and both Thanus and Hadrian are away. Esrotw, now looking like a middle aged overweight scholar looks around for someone of importance to talk to, but seeing no one, settles for the addict.
The addict awakes from his reverie and approaches, smiling a rather dazed smile.
"Ah, a new scholar, one reflected in the evening shadows! We've been expecting another one. Do you have a letter?"
One bit there got Esrotw's attention, but he keeps his poker face. The man is clearly off his head on something and is just babbling some nonsense.
Seemingly unconcerned, the scholar takes the letter of introduction and reads it. As he does, Esrotw explains that he was pretty much sent here as a punishment as he got on the wrong side of a certain faculty head, but alas, he will make the best of it.
The addict takes him at his word and notes that the faculty head he mentioned must have been really mad, mad enough to misspell his own name even. Yay, single digit forgery checks! Luckily for Esrotw, the stoned scholar does not seem to draw the conclusion that all the obvious errors in the letter make it a forgery.
He finishes reading it and then hands it back to Esrotw; it's probably for the best if Hadrian doesn't see that letter, he explains. Hadrian tends to get bent out of shape about poor grammar and such. Anyway, welcome to the university, shadows on water (again that awfully specific babbling). Help yourself to a room.
Day 10 in New Sarnath
The party gets ready to go back to their adventuring business when they get a pleasant surprise. A letter and sizable quantity of gold are left at the University of Mt. Doyle, addressed to the Hellfire Syndicate; it is from Kira!
In her letter she explains she liquidated the assets for the Silverstriders, splitting it among herself and the families of the slain members. As promised, here is the party's cut for saving her life. After what had happened, Kira has decided to retire from the scavenging business but she has a house in town by the docks.
The party is free to stop by anytime if they need any information about the city or any of its scavenging crews. The party made a new ally!
End of session. Ding! Party is now level 5.
