Alternate Games in 2010

I'm starting this as a list to keep track of games that folks have expressed an interest in running/playing in this year. There are quite a few already, and I figure we'll be adding more, so we can edit this post when we do. I'll put down the general details below, and if I know when someone's planning on running, how many sessions, who's playing, etc. I'll put that as well. If you're interested in playing in one of these games, drop a line in the comments!

1. Western Cthulhu - May?
A Cthulhu horror game set in the Wild West
GM: Nate Southard
Players: Randy, Chris, Dan, Jason Jones, Jamie, Paul
System: Savage Worlds
Time/Date: Uncertain

2. D&D Dark Sun Game - September
Definitely want to run (or play in) a new game in this post-apocalyptic fantasy world when WOTC re-releases it this summer.
GM: Randy
Players: Nate, Ben, Chris, Dan, Paul
System: D&D 4.0
Time/Date: Probably run as an alternate Friday or Saturday game, open for up to 5 players, probably the first module released for Dark Sun

3. Pulp Superhero Sequel - Undecided
Sequel to the Shadow of the Spectres! game, featuring the return of some characters and a couple new ones, taking a Flash Gordon approach as they head off to save an alien planet
GM: Randy
Players: Nick, Ben, Jason Jones, Paul
System: Savage Worlds
Time/Date: Probably a Saturday game, one-shot

4. Deadlands Sequel? - October
GM: Randy & Ben
Players: Chris, Dave L., Jamie, Jason M., Nate, Jason Jones, Paul
System: Deadlands
Time/Date: TBD, but probably a one-shot game on the Friday or Saturday nearest Halloween

Game Schedule January - February

January 1st - Wandering Wolves: Gala Opening of the Wolves Reward (Randy, Chris, Jason, Ben, Nate, Paul)
January 8th - Wandering Wolves: Scars of Karrnath Part 1 (Randy, Chris, Jason, Ben, Nate, Paul)
January 15th - D&D Circle of Love (Randy, Dan, Max, Ben, Joe & Jamie)
January 22nd - Wandering Wolves: Scars of Karrnath Part 2 (Randy, Chris, Jason, Ben, Nate, Paul)
January 29th - D&D Circle of Love (Randy, Dan, Max, Ben, Joe & Jamie)

February 5th - Wandering Wolves: Scars of Karrnath Part 3 (Randy, Chris, Jason, Ben, Nate, Paul)
February 12th - D&D Circle of Love (Randy, Dan, Max, Ben, Joe & Jamie)
February 19th - Wandering Wolves: Scars of Karrnath Part 4 (Randy, Chris, Jason, Ben, Nate, Paul)
February 26th - D&D Circle of Love (Randy, Dan, Max, Ben, Joe & Jamie)

No crazy schedule stuff for me, at least for a little while. Anybody else have scheduling issues for the next couple months?

Two Months Pass

Sypheros 18, YK 999 - Vult 26, YK 999

The Layout of the Wolves' Reward:
The Wolves' Reward grand opening is planned for the eve of the new millennium, the night before Zarantyr 1, YK 1000. The opening will include a gala party event and the first performance in the theater. The facilities are open to a limited guest list starting in the last two weeks of Vult, to make sure everything is up and running smoothly, but it's not open to the general public until New Year's Eve.

The ambassadorial city above The Wolves' Reward is named Galifar's Hope, and is due to be finished in the middle of 1000 YK. However, it will be open at the beginning of the year, still under construction but functional enough to house ambassadors and their staff.

House Orien and House Deneith create an island in the center of Silver Lake where linked portals in Sharn (Breland), Passage (Aundair), Flamekeep (Thrane), Trolanport (Zilargo) and Korth (Karrnath) can be reached. Arrival is in a heavily secured area, to prevent anyone from using the linked portals to assault Wolves' Reward or Galifar's Hope. Ferries run by House Lyrandar are used to transport from the island to the casino's dock.

The basic layout of the Wolves Reward is as follows:
The ground floor is made up largely of two casino floors, separated in the middle by the House Ghallanda restaurant, which has a large common area and several private dining rooms, one of which is permanently reserved for the Wolves. The House Phiarlan theater is connected off one of the casino floors, and the other casino floor connects to the House Kundarak bank and the House Orien office. A series of 200 standard rooms surround the casino, with access to the casino floors. The House Deneith barracks for the Protectors security detail surrounds those, and makes up the defensible exterior of the casino.

Upstairs, on the second floor, is the House Jorasco hospital and the new Gareth's Gear, and 100 more standard rooms.

Third level has 100 deluxe rooms, each the size of two standard rooms.

Fourth level has 25 deluxe suites, each the size of five standard rooms.

Fifth level has 25 private rooms and offices for permanent residents of the casino (the Casino Manager, Head of Security, etc.)

Sixth level has 10 private rooms (the size of ten standard rooms), one for each of the Wolves and five extras for any of their guests.

Seventh level is the House Lyrandar docking tower, with stairs descending through the center of the hotel, with exits on levels one through four. A separate emergency staircase is accessible on the fifth and sixth levels, and only exits on the first level.

The ability to construct so high comes from enchantments based on the elemental plane of air, influenced by the construction in Sharn and on Arcanix, and drawing on the same magic that keeps Galifar's Hope aloft.

Underground, accessible by secret doors in the Wolves' personal chambers, is the Wolves' War Room. The key installation here is the Teleportation Disk that the Wolves found in Count Orlok's lair, transported and installed by a few trusted House Orien magewrights.

The Houses at The Wolves' Reward:
Ghallanda-approved restaurant. Phiarlan-approved theater. A House Sivis Message Station & Notary, linked with a House Kundarak bank. House Jorasco hospital. House Lyrandar docking tower. House Orien has an office here, staffed with security and magewrights for the linked portals.

Gareth's Gear opens in the Wolves' Reward, with Tock as its in-house artificer, now a full-fledged member of House Cannith thanks to Lord Kor and Lady Elaydren. The new Gareth's Gear is part of the Fabricators Guild & Tinkers Guild of House Cannith, and has two dragonmarked heirs and several non-dragonmarked operatives of the House employed there as well. "Gareth" is "revealed" to have been a longstanding member of House Cannith as well, this also set up through Lord Kor and Lady Elaydren (both of whom will have to know the truth about Gareth for this to work.)

Josilian Kan d'Tiarlan is a gnome who runs the House Sivis office at the casino. Luggoth met him once, at the opening ceremony for the Golden Dragon. He's a somewhat arrogant, but very sharp, lawyer and translator. He isn't dragonmarked, but is obviously well-respected and powerful in the House, and has two dragonmarked associates.

Rochus d'Kundarak is put in charge of security and operations for House Kundarak at the Wolves' Reward. He doesn't actually run the bank day-to-day, but everyone there ultimately answers to him. He's also responsible for the security systems throughout the casino and in Galifar's Hope. He is the guy who knows every secret passage and every trap in both locations.

The head of the theater at the Wolves' Reward is appointed, a male Brelish dragonmarked elf named Hannet d'Phiarlan. He trained with the Demesne of Shadow, and he is a skilled actor, orator and illusionist, as well as a secret member of the Serpentine Table. He asks Lysander to help create the opening performances, particularly in the realm of music. He has three department heads below him: Glennara d'Phiarlan (Aundarian female elf from the Demesne of Memory, a writer), Colle d'Phiarlan (Brelish female elf from the Demesne of Motion, a dancer/acrobat and another spy), and Byron d'Phiarlan (Thranish male elf, a composer from the Demesne of Music). Each of these departments has a staff of a half-dozen performers or writers, and they will also bring in other Phiarlan performers from time to time for specific performances.

Security by the Deneith Protectors Guild, who have posted fifty trained soldiers at the disposal of the Head of Security for the casino. This is in addition to the private security personnel who work for the ambassadors and House officials.

Galifar's Hope:
The ambassadorial city above The Wolves' Reward is named Galifar's Hope, and is due to be finished in the middle of 1000 YK. However, it will be open at the beginning of the year, still under construction but functional enough to house ambassadors and their staff.

As expected, six nations have assigned ambassadors to Galifar's Hope.
Breland's ambassador is Cersi Kemble, a female half-elf (and Pel knows she is secretly a King's Dark Lantern).
Karrnath's ambassador is Sedge Avadarrn, a male human that the Wolves met on the Golden Dragon, and his skeletal bodyguard Skarad is with him.
Thrane's ambassador is Prince Valtar ir'Wynarn, a male human who is a cousin to the Queen of Thrane.
Aundair's ambassador is Neya ir'Krell, a female human that the Wolves met in Zilargo while chasing Lucan, and both Pel and Lysander suspect she is secretly one of the Royal Eyes of Aundair.
The Mror Holds have assigned Moris ir'Mroranon, a male dwarf who was the father of Jalis ir'Mroranon, who ran Gareth's gear until she was murdered, and the Wolves (especially William) pick up some mild hostility from Moris as a result.
The Eldeen Reaches have appointed Arden Thea, a female half-orc druid. And Zilargo has sent Borton Malek, a male gnome career politician.

There are four other ambassadors in Galifar's Hope as well.
The Lhazaar Principalities have sent Lady Damia Valisa, a female human who dresses and acts more like a pirate captain than an ambassador.
Though not officially recognized, Cyre has sent an "observer" to look out for their destroyed nation's interests, a successful artist and jeweler named Medyev Celian.
The biggest surprise is that one of the dragons of Argonessen has sent an ambassador at the Galifar's Hope - Maechen Eyre, former member of the Wolves, with Muroni, another ally, as his bodyguard and aide.
In addition, rumor has it that Droaam will have a permanent ambassador attached, although no one knows who it is yet.

Events in the last two months:
Rumors surface of an assassination attempt against the Daughters of Sora Kell, and of secret meetings between the Daughters and ambassadors from the Sigilstar Alliance (brokered through Aundarian ambassador Neya ir'Krell from Zilargo). The result is a truce, with a more formal agreement to end the war in the works at a summit to be held during the first of the year.

Of course, the assassination was a setup, part of the deal between Breland and the Daughters, as suggested by Pel, William and Lysander to Lord Kor. Best not to ask who the assassins were and how they had earned their death at the hands of Sora Maenya when their "attempt" failed. In addition, the Wolves are officially asked, in the name of peace, not to mention anything relating to Crezyan Rrac, Neshar or any of their activities in Droaam. Officially, none of it happened, because if it did, they would have to explain that Breland was considering an assassination attempt against the Hags.

William:
Some political capital burned for William due to the death of Vadis. William's inability to capture a dangerous fugitive has not helped him in his goal to become a Sentinel Marshal. However, William's stronger ties to the House continue to help him, as he visits Karrnath frequently to connect with members of the House.

Luggoth:
Savannah and her brother want to stay permanently at the Wolves' Reward. Savannah can work as a waitress or hostess. In addition, Savannah has been praying daily to the Flame for guidance about what Luggoth has told her. She has told him every day that the dragons are liars and manipulators, that she doesn't believe he could ever hurt Jaela, and asks him for permission to talk to Prophecy scholars in the church about their interpretation of Luggoth's destiny. But it's his private business, so she won't do that unless he tells her it's okay.

Brand:
Brand visits the Eldeen Reaches frequently during this time, visiting his mother, but his father is nowhere to be found. He will occasionally send messages via Brand's mother, cryptic puzzles that Brand has to decipher before he can read them. It seems clear that he's no longer in the Reaches, Xen'drik or the Shadow Marches, and that he's planning some kind of gambit to discredit Aeromus and restore himself to the House. He doesn't tell Brand exactly what it is, but always closes the messages with a reminder to "Be ready. What we've waited for for so long is almost prepared."

Pel:
Pel also lost a bit of political capital with the death of Vadis. Pel was supposed to bring in Vadis for information and to give Breland a potential patsy for their gambit with the Daughters of Sora Kell.

Kalibar Jenks makes frequent visits to the casino under construction with his elven bard companions. When he does, he always spends some time talking to Pel, passing along information to Viorr. The Boromar Clan has consolidated its hold on the council now that the Tyrants are in a bit of disarray, and they have more political influence than ever. The Daask were also a bit shattered by Vadis's plot to destroy them, and by being cutoff from Droaamish reinforcements by the war. They've been laying low, and the Boromars more or less have the run of Sharn as far as organized crime goes right now. The bad news is, they're more powerful than ever. The good news is, without rivals and gang wars to speak of, they're more of a corrupt political force than a criminal gang at the moment.

The Tyrant Council has fallen under the temporary leadership of a woman, quite probably Yelena, one of Vadis's former lovers and someone who Pel did not have a great relationship with. She has spread the word that Pel is no longer to be trusted. He is more or less out as a member of the Tyrants. Not that it really matters, as he now has eyes inside the organization and more power than even being head of the Tyrants would have given him. At any rate, the Tyrants, deeply affected by Vadis's failed ambitions, have cut back their operations to more contained prostitution, blackmail and information-brokering, rather than trying to start and maintain dangerous gang wars.

Questions:
1. Given the Wolves' adventuring natures, they're going to need a head of operations that they trust for the casino. Someone who knows how to run the place, someone that they trust. They might be able to get someone appointed by folks they trust, maybe someone from House Deneith or House Phiarlan, although they might have secondary agendas you don't know about.

Looking over the various folks you know, the obvious choice is Chance, who runs a casino in Sharn and might be convinced to come run The Wolves' Reward instead. He's a known loyal quantity, and the only secondary loyalty he has is to the Traveler, which is probably a net positive for Pel but might not be so welcome to William.

Other suggestions?

2. Along similar lines, you're going to need a Chief of Security, who will have to be from House Deneith. The obvious possibility here (a recommendation from William's mother) would be Diarmand d'Deneith, William's swashbuckling cousin. He's more light-hearted than most Karrnathi, which would suit someone running security for a casino.

3. Name of the Theater? The Restaurant?

4. What does Pel tell Captain Vron, his superior in the King's Citadel, about what happened with Vadis? Keeping in mind that if he wants to substitute a new Vadis in with the Tyrants, Vron is going to have to know about it.

If there are layout changes or things you'd like to have in the casino that I haven't enumerated above, add them in the comments. The Wolves had input into Cannith's building of the casino, so you can definitely change things if you want to move them around. Also, y'all might want to look through Adventurers' Vault 2, pages 79-82, for magic Lair items, next time we get together.

Wandering Wolves: Pursuit of the All-Seeing Eye (3)

Sypheros 13 - Sypheros 18, YK 999

The Wolves decided to do some digging around to find out what they could about Vadis's operative in Rhukaan Draal before going through with the drop. While doing this, there was also some debate about whether they'd be using Nock for the bait, or if Pel would be taking her place. Nock was fairly adamant that it needed to be her, while Pel resisted the idea.

William, Lysander and Pel did some digging using their various skills and managed to find out that the operative they were looking for was named Bant, that he was a hobgoblin, and that he could often be found scoping out the various slave markets in the area.

With that information, the whole group went to the slave market. They assumed that Bant was actually a changeling, and that Pel would have the best chance of spotting him, and they were correct, as Pel pinned him down, although William moved up and shifted Pel out of the way right before Bant would have looked back and "made" him.

Given that Bant was an operative of Pel's father, the Wolves reasoned that he might have some way of spotting Pel, so they set Brand on Bant's trail, with Pel following Brand.

The rest of the Wolves returned to the Deneith enclave, and Luggoth had a heart-to-heart with Savannah about the Prophecy and what he'd been told. She told him that she was certain that it didn't mean what he thought, and asked him to put his faith in the Flame, which he made a half-hearted promise to consider. William spent his time networking with Deneith House members, while Lysander collected stories from the same.

A few hours later, having learned all they could about Bant's movements, Brand and Pel returned. Brand spent some time honing his combat skills in training with the Blademarks, while Pel went to have a talk with his mother, Nock. She was very convinced that he wasn't up to confronting Vadis, and that she was, and all but ordered Pel to let her go to the meet. Unfortunately for Nock, Pel wasn't taking orders from her, and whether it was concern for his mother, a desire to confront his father or something else, he decided to go on the mission.

Lysander disguised himself as the male assassin and dropped "Nock" off at the pre-arranged rendezvous spot in The Bloody Market. Brand waited nearby, and he followed Bant as he picked up the bundled-up "Nock" and began walking. Pel struggled slightly, trying to slow Bant down, which worked better than he had hoped. Bant put him down and fed him a dose of dreamlily, which he managed to vomit up, but then he decided to remain more still for the rest of the journey.

The journey was longer than the Wolves expected, as Bant headed out into the wilderness of Darguun. The rest of the Wolves followed Brand at a safe distance, as Brand used his ranger training and spotting help from Whitehearth to keep Bant in view without him realizing he was being followed.

After a somewhat tiring journey of about three and a half days, the Wolves reached a grove of scrawny trees in sight of the Seawall Mountains. In the distance, they could see a ruined fortress, with strange metal rods jutting up into the sky from what used to be the highest towers.

Bant left "Nock" on the ground, muttering to her that "it will all be over soon" and then he headed back toward Rhukaan Draal. The Wolves debated over whether or not to attack him, and ultimately decided it could blow their cover if they did.

The Wolves waited and watched for hours, camping overnight, and on the next day, Pel finally decided to climb out of the bag he had been transported in, still wearing the form of Nock, and head into the ruined fortress. The others followed him at a distance.

They descended down a long stairway, heading towards a flickering light, and soon found out what the light was coming from. An enormous entry chamber stood before them with eight batteries on the wall firing lightning across the room at each other, at metal statues in the middle of the room and at a giant set of adamantine doors in the back. Standing in the middle of these were two flesh golems who seemed rejuvenated each time the lightning struck them, and they moved up to attack.

William, Luggoth and Brand battled the golems while Pel and Lysander did their best to move in and try to disable the electrical grid without getting fried.

The first golem dropped after Luggoth hit it with a brutal howling strike, followed by a strike from William and a finish by Brand and Whitehearth. About that time, Lysander first got struck by the lightning trying to disable the trap.

With Pel having more luck turning off the electrical field, Lysander switched to healing William and assisting in the fight, and Luggoth was able to finish off the other golem that he'd been attacking along with Brand and William.

As Lysander and Pel began working on deciphering the arcane lock on the adamantine doors, William looked around and saw that while the original design was Dhakaani, a lot of the fortress had been retrofitted in a style that was Karrnathi, including the metal statues of famous necromancers and generals of the Last War era.

When the doors were opened, the Wolves saw that they led to a large gear-driven elevator, and after checking to make certain it wasn't a trap, they activated the gears and descended into the depths of the dungeon, which was clearly the only surviving part of the fortress.

At the bottom, they found another pair of arcane-locked adamantine doors, and thanks to the keen senses of Luggoth and Brand, they realized that there was an enormous amount of water pushing through from the other side. Several of the Wolves climbed to the top of the elevator while Brand followed Pel's instructions to open the doors.

The doors opened and a flood of dank water came spilling in, starting to fill the elevator almost immediately. In the nearly-flooded hallway beyond, they saw two Karrnathi skeletons and two Karrnathi zombies, who yelled that they wouldn't get into "Count Orlok's laboratory" before attacking.

They hear the water, try to decide what to do, Brand climbs to top of the elevator

The Wolves slid down ropes into the room and began attacking, but the zombies and skeletons put up a brutal fight, knocking Brand down and slashing into Luggoth as the water rose around them. William responded with a powerful attack that nearly cut one of the skeletons in half, and Lysander spotted inoperative pumps around the room which he began activating, causing the flow of water to slow down.

The skeletons were fast-moving and deadly, and the zombies protective and brutal, reminiscent of the fighting styles of Brand and William respectively. However, the Wolves worked together very effectively, and Pel finished the one that William had attacked almost immediately.

William dealt out damage to all the zombies and skeletons, and Luggoth shifted into his more bestial form to engage the other skeleton. As Lysander turned on the other pumps, causing the water to drain from the room, William finished off the other skeleton and then Brand and Pel struck the final blows to kill the remaining zombies.

After a brief rest, the Wolves cracked open the next set of doors to find that it opened into an enormous laboratory, clearly one that had belonged to Count Orlok, judging from the electrical machinery, the blood-stained cage, the brains in jars and the Karrnathi art throughout the room. Perhaps most notably, there was some sort of machine at the back that looked like it might be used for some kind of brain-swapping operation.

Standing at a large table was Vadis. He confirmed that his plan had been to use the device to steal Nock's knowledge and replace her, becoming effectively a House Medani agent, which would have served his masters well.

Vadis tried to convince the Wolves to join him, hinting broadly that he worked for the Lords of Dust and that they could provide temporary wealth and power, for a price that would be paid by, at best, their long-future descendants. He also revealed several tidbits of information, from the identity of Pel's mother to the fact that Xain was one of Pel's brothers, and offered up bribes of influence to Brand, Pel and William in turn.

Lysander tried to bluff that the Wolves were considering the offer, but Vadis saw through it. He did allow the Wolves to come in, though, and when they were close, he drew his rapier with a sigh and started the fight by stabbing Pel.

Brand dimensional bonded with Vadis immediately to keep him from getting away, and Pel responded to his father's attack by stabbing him deep in the heart, leaving him pouring blood that would make him easier to trail. Each attack on Vadis earned a response with his blade, and he was quite good with it.

Vadis very nearly killed Pel with his attacks, but Pel stepped back to recuperate and yelled to his father, "I've gained a few things you don't have, father. I've gained friends... and I've gained faith!" He blasted him with daunting light, but Vadis dodged out of the way and turned invisible, avoiding a few attacks from the Wolves before Brand used dimensional bond to teleport to him and attack, which caused Vadis to reveal himself with a counter-attack.

Seeing that the tide was turning, Vadis tried to bargain with the Wolves, offering up valuable information about Count Orlok and other tidbits if they would agree to let him surrender rather than die. Pel responded that they were going to use Orlok's machine to draw the memories out of his corpse.

He downed a potion to heal and then continued his attacks on Pel and Brand, as Luggoth flew into a rage and struck, allowing both Brand and Pel to follow up, including Pel stabbing Vadis in the thigh to slow him down.

Summoning reserves of strength, Vadis ran to the other side of the room despite his wound, drawing attacks from three of the Wolves that further injured him. He slashed the wires and destroyed the brain-reading device, and confidently said, "I suppose now you have to take me alive."

Luggoth and William immediately charged, serving notice to Vadis that surrender wasn't an option, and Pel, with encouragement from the two warriors, called down a flame strike on the three of them.

Vadis, growing weary from blood loss, tried to defend himself against the Wolves as they all moved in with melee weapons, but finally Pel was able to flank with William and stab his father again in the heart, causing him to fall.

The Wolves debated what to do with Vadis, as they could tell that he wasn't dead yet. The general consensus was that he was too dangerous to live, but they also realized that he had vital knowledge of a great many things. In addition, he was Pel's father, after all.

After much consideration, Pel made the decision, saying that he was too dangerous to live, and with a final rapier strike to the throat, the threat of Vadis was ended.

Uploaded new Luggoth

Level 11. To the Wandering Wolves GoogleWikiSiteThing.

Wandering Wolfish on December 11?

Circle of Love is off on 12/4 and 12/11 due to Randy/Joe/Jamie being lameasses. And Paul is out on 12/4. But the Wolves minus Randy could play on 12/11. You guys want to do a one-shot something? I was thinking about a one-off 4th Ed. game, knowing me probably in the Realms. Probably low-level to keep things moving along. Who's with me?

Wandering Wolves: Pursuit of the All-Seeing Eye Interlude

Sypheros 11 - Sypheros 13, YK 999

Though they didn't reveal themselves, Lysander was fairly certain that the two lead assassins, the unnamed male and Hellena, were with House Tarkanan, and that the others were local hirelings. They told the Wolves that they had been hired to kidnap Nock (who they referred to by name) and bring her back to a specific place in the Bloody Market at Rhukaan Draal and leave her there, alive but unconscious. The person that hired them (a hobgoblin, but they are fairly sure it was actually a changeling) was very specific on that point, and also very specific that if he spotted anyone but Nock, they would not receive their money, and would be dead before the day ended. They believed it. Their suspicion is that their contact, and whoever he works for (probably Vadis) are working for a powerful benefactor, one that engenders a fanatical loyalty. It is clear that Vadis has deeper connections than those of the Tyrants.

After letting the assassins go, the Wolves made their way back to Wyvernskull, and found Pus One-Eye, who took them to the two shifter children he had been hiding, per "Canker's" request. Pel and Lysander made sure to find a captain of a ship they could trust who was going to Korranberg in Zilargo and paid him 150 gold to take the former slaves there, so that they could contact their loved ones and go back to their lives.

Upon Luggoth's insistence, after they had checked in with Failin d'Orien to make sure he was still waiting for them, The Wolves spent a day in Wyvernskull asking questions and trying to find the Emerald Claw that had purchased Savannah and the others. They were able to track down rumors of a group of shifters being smuggled to the Shadow Marches aboard a slave galleon, and they tracked it down before it could leave. The Emerald Claw put up a brave resistance, but they were no match for the Wolves, and Luggoth was reunited with Savannah. Stories of what exactly Cavoletta had done with them, or why she had sold them to the Eel, would have to wait for another day, but Savannah and the others did reveal that they had heard that the Claw was selling them to be used in experiments by someone named Count Werner Orlok.

This name struck a chord in William's memory. When he was a boy, he had heard tales from his aunt, a Sentinel Marshal named Hannah d'Deneith, of a Karrnathi Count Werner Orlok, who was a war criminal and member of the Emerald Claw who performed hideous experiments on enemy soldiers involving undeath. In fact, his experiments coming to light were no small part of the reason that Regent Moranna turned on and banished the Emerald Claw from service in the Karrnathi military.

Orlok had fled the country, but Hannah tracked him down and was forced to kill him some 15 years ago. His body was stolen by agents of the Emerald Claw, however, and every now and then rumors would arise that Orlok was somehow alive (or undead) once more, still performing experiments at the behest of the Emerald Claw and his own sick whims. Hannah disappeared five years ago while tracking a fugitive in the Shadow Marches, and many believe that she died at the hands of her resurrected foe there, although no one has ever been able to find her body.

The Wolves, along with Savannah, traveled with Failin back to Rhukaan Draal. They have two days' journey in which to decide what to do next. Nock has recovered somewhat from the effects of the Dreamlily, although she has taken enough that she has earned an addiction to it, one more powerful than the brief one that Pel and Luggoth had. She can maintain a waking (albeit unnaturally fearless and somewhat dazed) state by taking a dose of Dreamlily, or she can begin the process of recovery, but doing so will render her completely useless for at least a week.

Nock suggests that she feign unconsciousness and go with Vadis's contact in the Bloody Market, and that the Wolves can track them back to his lair. Interrogating Vadis's agent will do them no good, she tells them. This close to him, his agents will have a fanatical, possibly suicidal, loyalty, and if the agent manages to kill himself, they lose their only lead to Vadis.

She is also willing to let Pel impersonate her, and she will stay at the Deneith enclave in Rhukaan Draal and try to recover from her addiction and salvage what intelligence she can from her operation with the Eel, which is pretty much destroyed now that the slaver and his crew, as well as his Orien assistant, are all dead.

Either way, Nock suggests that they do some careful digging and asking around in Rhukaan Draal to see if they can find out the name of Vadis's contact, and maybe get a line on him or her before they hand Nock (or her carefully crafted replacement) over.

Everyone notices that Nock is a bit cold and methodical, and she very much seems to believe that this is now her operation. There's definitely a personal grudge against Vadis and a desire to bring him in, and a ruthlessness underlying her character that makes it easy enough to see how she could have spent months inside a slavery operation without her conscience gnawing at her.

Important Questions:
1. Is the party OK with spending 150 gold to send the slaves back to their loved ones? It will definitely add to your heroic rep, as 21 people spreading the word of their rescue at the hands of the Wolves will turn into a lot more. Also, do you want to give them any traveling money, or are they on their own once they get to Korranberg? Another 50-100 gold to the group would probably let them buy lightning rail passage to wherever they needed to go, or at least send Sivis messages to loved ones.

2. I presume everyone is OK with raiding the Emerald Claw's slave galleon on Luggoth's behalf? They don't have any useful information to offer other than what I gave you above, the destination (Shadow Marches) and the buyer (Count Orlok).

3. Is Luggoth OK with leaving Savannah and Borgath at the Deneith enclave? It seems a fairly safe place, and is entirely surrounded by soldiers. (Metagaming: Cavoletta will not sneak in and kidnap them again.)

4. And most importantly, what's the plan for finding Vadis? Interrogating his agent will almost certainly not work. The main question is whether you want to use Nock or use Pel impersonating Nock, but if you have other ideas/schemes you want to put into action, I'm of course willing to let you try them.

Wandering Wolves: Pursuit of the All-Seeing Eye (2)

Sypheros 10 - Sypheros 11, YK 999

As the Wolves continued to plan and rest, and dusk fell, Brand appeared from the brush to join his fellows. The Wolves were somewhat suspicious at first, thinking he might be a changeling agent of even Vadis himself, but Brand demonstrated his dragonmark and offered up some choice bits of information to confirm his identity.

He told them that when his business in the Shadow Marches concluded, he used a scroll of Shadow Walk to walk back through Dolurrh and get back to a linked portal in the Eldeen Reaches in only a day. He took the portal back to Sharn, found a note from the Wolves at the Drunken Dragon telling him where they were going and why, took the teleport circle offered to Rhukaan Draal, followed stories of the Wolves going to a sleazy bar to find the goblin known as Canker, who pointed him to Pus One-Eye, who pointed him into the jungle. From there, he followed the trail of the Wolves, came upon some freshly dead giants and an ettin, then followed their trail to catch up to them. He didn't see the shifter children on his way, but they probably wouldn't have passed him, as he was keeping to the deeper woods to avoid any confrontation.

They brought Brand up to speed while eating some journeybread, and as the plans began to take firmer shape over the course of several hours, it began to rain. It was a light sprinkle at first, but began pouring harder, with lightning and thunder joining in, and William reasoned that they might want to use the rain, along with the darkness, as cover.

Pel shifted form into one of the Hobgoblin soldiers and moved toward the two guards at the front as the rest of the Wolves awaited the other three on patrol on the other side of the camp. As Pel moved in and killed one of the guards, taking his form, Luggoth and Brand rushed out and killed the patrol without a sound, save Luggoth's howl, which any hobgoblin would have mistaken for a wolf, if they even heard it above the sound of the rain.

Pel, now wearing the other hobgoblin's form, turned his dynamic rapier into the shape of the fallen guard's longsword and moved up to stab his friend. Unfortunately, the other guard turned at the last moment, causing Pel to miss. He offered up a quick "I was just testing you" bluff, which confused the hobgoblin long enough for Pel to slide the rapier through his throat.

The other Wolves moved up, and Lysander used his veil spell to make them all appear as hobgoblin guards. Luggoth and Lysander moved in together, while Brand and Pel moved in separately. William came in, misjudged where everyone was in the heavy rain, and made his way over to the smallest tent in the camp.

Pel moved into one of the tents to kill three sleeping hobgoblins, but as he was doing so, William startled the human inside the smaller tent, causing him to teleport out and begin using his dragonmark of passage, in full view of Brand. Luggoth, meanwhile, was spotted by the hobgoblin patrol inside the walls, and they charged, along with the Umber Hulk.

As Brand engaged the Hand of Orien that William had attacked, knocking him unconscious with the flat of his blade, William moved to engage the Umber Hulk, and Luggoth and Lysander engaged the hobgoblin patrol.

The Eel came out of his tent to aide the hobgoblins, revealing himself to be not a mind flayer but a neogi, a slave race that both Brand and Pel were somewhat familiar with.

Brand and Pel continued killing hobgoblins with abandon while Luggoth, Lysander and William fought with the Umber Hulk and the Neogi. About 30 seconds later, they had killed the Neogi and destroyed the Umber Hulk as it tried to flee into the rainforest.

After a quick rest, the Wolves freed the slaves from the pens, and Luggoth discovered that one of them was Borgath, the younger brother of his girlfriend Savannah, last seen in the clutches of werewolf Cavoletta. He revealed that she had sold them to the Eel several weeks ago, but that Savannah, along with several other shifters, was taken to the market in Wyvernskull to be sold, so he had heard, to the Emerald Claw.

Brand and Lysander interrogated the Hand of Orien, named Nilh, to find out that he was working for Aeromus and that he was liasing with several slaving operations in the area, making sure their wagons and such worked and providing transportation help. Brand destroyed the papers in the cook fire to make sure nothing could be linked back to Orien, then they left him to be interrogated by Luggoth. When Luggoth realized that Nilh had nothing useful to offer about Savannah, he snapped the Orien slaver's neck.

The slaves gathered in the cage wagons, while Pel put Nock on Nilh's cot in the back of the supply wagon. He surrounded her with five of the most capable looking slaves, giving them the hobgoblin weapons and armor, to protect her.

They traveled on into the night, but they were stopped by a pair of archers, a human warrior with an axe and a dragonborn who looked like he might have been a gladiator.

"Halt! I am Cera Tak, and my men and I will not let you slavers pass so easily! Let your slaves go or face us in battle!"

The Wolves explained what was going on, and Cera Tak and his companion moved to talk to the slaves to confirm this. As they did, however, Pel and William heard the sound of combat coming from the supply wagon. When they burst in, they found that three of the armed slaves were dead, and they were under attack by a pair of assassins. Cera and his allies proved to be in on the ambush, and the fight was on!

The foes were formidable, and one of the assassins, named Hellena, was a vampire, as William quickly discerned. However, the Wolves focused their attacks on the male assassin, and he yelled out "Hellena! Too much resistance! Flee!"

The assassins began to break for the forest, but Brand teleported over to intercept the male assassin and Pel launched a flame strike that nearly killed him, and he yelled out "Stop! Stand down, promise to let us go, and we'll tell you who hired us and why! We're the only ones who know!"

The Wolves, sensing that a victory over the assassins might mean one of their deaths, as only the male assassin was really wounded at all, took the easy win and information, and accepted this conditional surrender.

Question

anyone on here played the Spycraft card game? Impressions?

The Plan, proposed.

1. While Pel sneaks into a barracks tent to murder hobogoblins in their sleep, the others kill an exterior patrol, fairly near the entrance and then scramble in.

2. As they start in, a large illusory flying creature comes over the wall from a different direction, getting everyone's attention. can Lysander manage this?

3. We then move around the interior periphery, using the tents as cover, and make our way over to the cages and wagons. we'll probably encounter one of the interior patrols which we'll then need to kill.

4. Free the slaves. Kill the bad guys.

5. ?????

6. Profit.

any questions?

Wandering Wolves: Pursuit of the All-Seeing Eye (1)

Sypheros 8 - Sypheros 10, YK 999

Enough circumstantial evidence had been gathered to charge Tyrant One with the attempted regicide of King Boranel, Lord Kor and the successful murder of Viorr Maelak. As a result, The King's Citadel raided the Tyrants and rounded up the council, all of whom disguised themselves as Tyrant One. House Deneith blademarks under the command of Erich d'Deneith were hired to guard the Tyrant Council while the King's Citadel, with help from Medani sentry Gaina d'Medani, interrogated them one by one. When the count came, they were short one changeling, and they found Erich's body alongside that of the Erich d'Deneith. Vadis had replaced him, used his identity to take a House Orien teleport circle to Rhukaan Draal, where House Deneith has an enclave and, more importantly, Brelish law will have a difficult time finding him.

Medani, Deneith and the King's Dark Lanterns all needed agents to go and find Vadis, whom they have confirmed as Tyrant One. The Wandering Wolves, minus Brand (who is in The Shadow Marches) and Pel (who told the Wolves he had a different meeting), were summoned once again to Viorr, who hired them under the auspices of House Deneith, House Medani and The Crown of Breland to bring in Vadis, who had committed numerous crimes against all three. He gave them what information he had, offered an operating budget of 4,000 gold, and told them that Gaina d'Medani would meet them at the Drunken Dragon to brief them further.

He never let on that he was in fact Pel, trying out his new identity with his closest friends to see if they could penetrate it. Even Lysander was fooled.

Gaina d'Medani met the Wolves, now joined by Pel, at the Drunken Dragon. She told them that House Medani suspected that the reason Vadis fled to Darguun, in addition to it making perfect sense for a Deneith heir to go there, was that they have an agent in the area. Nock, an agent of House Medani, has been operating in Darguun for some time, and Medani believes she can identify Vadis.

The reasons for these are two-fold: One, she's one of Medani's best operatives. Two, she's Pel's mother. It was during one of her earliest assignments that she met Vadis, then a young up-and-comer in the Tyrants, and she used him as her informant. Or so she thought. In fact, Vadis was using her to eliminate rivals and smooth his way into power. He seduced her before she could see this, and the two of them had a torrid, short-lived and ill-considered romantic relationship that resulted in Nock becoming pregnant. She gave up her child to stay with the House.

Medani believes that Vadis intends to kill Nock while he is there, and then disappear into a safe haven. They can't send a message to Nock, because she is undercover in a slaving/kidnapping ring that has been kidnapping dragonmarked heirs from Khorvaire and Xen'drik and selling them into slavery or ransoming them back to their house.

Gaina d'Medani gave the Wolves a dossier on the slavers that Nock was infiltrating. Their boss is called "The Eel." They trade heavily in "exotics" like dragonmarked individuals, shifters, goliaths, changelings, etc. They use local hobgoblin muscle, but the boss and his enforcer come from "somewhere else." Rumor has it they have dragonmarked operatives amongst their crew. They're mobile, but they have a base of operations in the jungle outside of Wyvernskull, the port city that gives Darguun access to the Thunder Sea.

After a brief shopping trip at The Dragon's Hoard to buy a Deep Pocket Cloak for Lysander, the Wolves took the teleport circle provided by Viorr to Rhukaan Draal. There, they wasted no time in tracking down Failin d'Orien and hiring his land cart again, just as they had on their first adventure outside of Sharn. They bartered him to a reasonable 130 gold to drive them to Wyvernskull and wait for two days.

It took two days to get to Wyvernskull, the hub of slavery in Darguun. Following information from the Medani dossier, the Wolves went to a goblin bar called the Ugly Bastard, bypassing the gimpy hobgoblin prostitute outside to step into the bar. It was filled with goblins who got very nervous when "big 'uns" like the Wolves stepped in, and watching Luggoth down their foul-smelling green drinks didn't do anything to make them feel welcoming.

They made their way to Canker, a goblin wearing a colorful ascot, whom they had heard was a contact for slavers in the area. He offered up some information about the Eel, nothing too specific, but a general direction to their camp in the Darguun rainforest. He asked 200 gold for this service, but was quickly bargained down to "5 gold and you get to keep your head" by William, Pel and Lysander.

He sent them to meet his scout, a one-eyed goblin with an empty eye-socket filled with pus (The Wolves appropriately, if not affectionately, named him "Pus One-Eye"). They gave One-Eye a piece of parchment marked with Canker's scrawl, and he told them that he had seen hobgoblins and slaves headed off into the rainforest and pointed out the direction. It was relatively easy for Pel to find the trail, and just as easy for Luggoth to track it.

At mid-day, tracking through the jungle, the group came upon an Ettin Spirit-Talker and two Hill Giants who had a pair of frightened shifter teens on a spit over an as-yet unlit campfire. They were arguing about who was going to get the largest portions when Luggoth charged out of the woods.

William moved up, stepped into his reign of steel stance, and kept the Hill Giants and Ettin as focused on him as he could. He was doing massive damage to the beasts with his axe Terminus, and then Luggoth joined in as well. Pel moved in to focus on the Ettin along with Lysander, and before long they had slain it, with Pel delivering the killing blow.

The other two Hill Giants, one bloodied and the other one mostly unwounded, tried to make a run for it, but Luggoth put on a burst of speed to chase them down, killing one of them immediately and then, with the help of the rest of the Wolves, putting the other one down as well.

The Wolves cut down the teens, who identified themselves as Savenn and Reryar, and told them that they had escaped from a slaver camp. They also gave them some information about what they had seen, including that the camp had about two dozen captives, and that it was mostly hobgoblins, but there was an umber hulk and a bearded human there as well.

Savenn and Reryar were unwilling to return to the camp, even under the protection of the Wolves, so William gave them his bow and a dagger, and then gave them Canker's mark and instructions to go to Pus One-Eye and tell him that Canker wanted them hidden until he came for them.

It took two hours for the Wolves to reach the camp. When they got there, they saw that it was surrounded by wooden walls and well-guarded, with the hobgoblins sending out patrols of five men at a time and circling the camp, and another five patrolling inside. They didn't see any sign of the Eel himself, but they guessed, from what they knew of Umber Hulks, that he might be a mind flayer.

With night falling soon, they continued to plan, trying to decide when the best time would be to launch their attack, and how exactly to do it.

Game Schedule November - January

November 6th- D&D Circle of Love (Randy, Dan, Max, Ben, Joe & Jamie)
November 13th - Eberron: Pursuit of the All-Seeing Eye Part Two (Randy, Chris, Jason, Ben, Nate, Paul)
November 20th - Eberron: Pursuit of the All-Seeing Eye Part Three (Randy, Chris, Jason, Ben, Nate, Paul)
November 27th - Thanksgiving - Gaming Off

December 4th- Randy & Jamie out - Gaming Off
December 11th - Randy & Jamie out - Gaming Off
December 18th - D&D Circle of Love (Dan, Max, Ben, Joe & Jamie)
December 25th - Christmas - Gaming Off

January 1st - D&D Circle of Love (Randy, Dan, Max, Ben, Joe & Jamie)
January 8th - Eberron: Wandering Wolves (Randy, Chris, Jason, Ben, Nate, Paul)
January 15th - D&D Circle of Love (Randy, Dan, Max, Ben, Joe & Jamie)
January 22nd - Eberron: Wandering Wolves (Randy, Chris, Jason, Ben, Nate, Paul)
January 29th - D&D Circle of Love (Randy, Dan, Max, Ben, Joe & Jamie)

So Jamie and I have been talking at various times, and I'm definitely out on the 11th (in Dallas for my sister's wedding) and Jamie probably will be too, so it's probably best to cancel our Circle of Love game for December. Which leaves only one week for gaming in December, and given how schedules fluctuate in that month, I think we'd be crazy to try and schedule a regular game.

So I propose this: Whoever can show on December 18th, we get together and play boardgames, Rock Band, etc. and just generally have a casual party with friends. We can do this at my place if anyone is interested. Alternatively, we can just skip gaming entirely in December. Or maybe do a one-off game for whoever wants to come from either group, and Ben and I can do the co-GM thing again. Chime in with thoughts on this in the comments.

January, obviously, is speculative at this point. I figure any New Year's Day hangovers should have passed by the 2nd, so I didn't put that as a non-gaming day. Everyone chime in with schedule stuff that you know of, though.

Deadlands: Coffin Rock Recap

Prologue:

ANTOINETTE
You're not sure how Denton found you all the way in New Orleans, but he did. You were following rumors of zombie labor on the railroads when a messenger came to you, spoke your name in perfect French and then handed you an envelope. Inside were a few train tickets and a short letter:

"Antoinette,

You'll find that passage has been paid for you to get to Denver, I reckon it'll take you about five days if you get started now, and since I've got folks planning to meet you in Denver at the Gallup & Stanbury Saloon in six, you'd better get on those rails. I know you have your own business you're conducting, but remember that you owe me for that protection spell that kept the spirits off you. I imagine it's getting thin, and you're starting to hear the voices again... could be after you help me I can cast a fresh one on you.

Best,

Denton"

You were unhappy to have to give up your promising lead, but you had learned from brief experience that where Denton sent you, supernatural strangeness was sure to follow, and whatever you were supposed to be investigating for him was sure to be helpful for your research. Plus, the voices in your head have been getting especially loud lately, and you think another ward to protect you from spirits might be just the thing. So you packed up from the cottage in the swamps where you'd been staying, put a couple pounds of Ghost Rock, strapped on your gun belt and Colt Peacemaker and headed back West.

You suspect that Denton is a member of The Agency, the Union's secret agency for investigating the supernatural in the West. You heard about them, and their Confederate counterparts the Texas Rangers, about the same time you heard of The Reckoning, something that happened in July 1863, involving some kind of dark "gods" that returned magic and monsters to the world. You've met a few of those monsters in your time, including the Voodoo Houngan who cursed you in the first place.


COOTER
Another day, another busted claim. Of late, you'd been working with Hiram Duster IV, a former Union scout whose habits of drinking too much and talking about the war were easy to deal with, given your own love of whiskey and your dynamite-blasted hearing, which kept you from hearing more than one out of every five disgruntled words. You'd managed to get all the copper you could out of a claim in the Colorado Rockies when you had a visitor.

He looked familiar, a tall, muscular black man in a dark black suit and duster, flipping absent-mindedly through a deck of cards as he walked up. He had one milky eye with a scar running through the skin around it, and his hands and face showed signs of scarring as well. At his side, you spotted his pistol, one of those unusual new-fangled contraptions, and you remembered: Denton. You'd seen him fire gouts of lead from that weird pistol of his, and spin tricks of all kinds out of that deck of cards, when he had saved your life after some horrible thing collapsed your mine around you and ate everybody else working on the claim. He'd said to you then that he'd ask you for a favor in return someday, but that was... what? Ten years ago?

"Favor's come due, Aloiysus. You do remember me, right?"

You nodded, lit up your pipe and muttered "Not likely to forget, no matter how much I try."

A grim smile crossed Denton's face. "Need you to take your wagon to Denver. Give it about three days from now, you'll meet up there with some other folks at the Gallup & Stanbury Saloon, one of them's a traveling preacher, and he'll have the rest of your instructions. Maybe bring that fella Hiram with you, too, once he's done pointing his Winchester at my head."

You weren't sure how Denton knew who Hiram was, or where he was, or that he was indeed aiming at his head just in case he was trouble, but you waved him off and then waved him down. Denton walked away, and you went to explaining what was going on and asking if Hiram was interested in staying with you for a mite longer.

HIRAM
Serving as bodyguard and scout for a crotchety prospector like Cooter McGee wasn't what you'd had in mind after the war ended, but the old man listened to your talk about the North and the South without complaint, paid every day and the two of you shared a love of whiskey. Plus, it was pretty easy, nobody really threated Cooter or tried to jump his claims.

Until yesterday, when you saw a a tall, muscular black man in a dark black suit and duster walk up to Cooter as if he was a member of his family. You saw that he had some kind of weird pistol in his holster, and you drew out your Winchester and took a bead, just in case.

The two men talked for a few minutes, and you relaxed a little when Cooter lit up his pipe. Then you saw the black man turn and fix his one good eye on you, from at least forty yards away. You weren't sure how, but you were sure he'd seen you, and maybe he knew you were there the whole time. He walked away, and you saw Cooter wave you off from shooting at him, and then wave for you to come down.

"Well, it seems I got a job to pay back an old favor. Not sure how the pay will be, and I'm guessing it might be a bit more dangerous than guarding ratty claims, but I could sure use your rifle to help me out. What do you say?"

What could you say? You're a loyal friend, and if Cooter was going to do this man's favor, reckon it was your job to make sure he didn't get kilt doing it.

ZHANG
You'd been following rumors of creatures in the Rockies for weeks now, but all you had to show for it was saddle sores from riding, a crick in your back from sleeping under the stars and not a single glimpse of anything weird. You were thinking of maybe taking on some work for the local rail lines when Denton walked right into your camp.

You remembered Denton. Tall, muscular black man in a dark black suit and duster, constantly flipping through that deck of cards of his. One milky eye with a scar running through the skin around it, and you'd seen that that was hardly the only scar he carried. He also carried that weird pistol of his, something the mad scientists whipped up. He hadn't used it when he had pulled you out and away from the thing that killed all of your co-workers and destroyed the rail lines you'd been laying. He had only said one thing that day: "Run!"

Later that day, he'd told you his name was Denton and that you owed him a favor. "There's a lot of things like that in the West, and men like you and me need to stand tall against them, or else they'll surely kill everything and everyone that we love. If I need your help, can I count on it?"

You nodded, and then he left. That was a couple years ago, but you'd been waiting for this return visit.

"Hello there Zhang. Got me a little bit of a situation in a town called Coffin Rock, thought you might want to join a posse I'm putting together to investigate it. If so, you can meet them in Denver in the Gallup & Stanbury Saloon in two days."

EFRAIM
You'd been having a pretty good run of things in Colorado. Talking in various towns, spreading the gospel, warning folks that the Devil himself walked the land, and that he'd laid his seeds all throughout the territories, monsters and demons sprouting up all around. Keep the Good Lord close and you needn't fear what walks in the night, you'd say. Folks treated you kindly, let you stay in local homes or in the chapel, brought you meals, you'd been doing pretty good.

Of course, children still shied away from your blackened arm, and women and men alike crossed the street to avoid getting too close to you, but when you were preaching, you felt like you were doing some good.

It's been nearly a year since you nearly lost your arm to that Sandworm. Nearly a year since Denton had used some kind of witchcraft to drive it back, to heal you from the brink of death, to explain that "The world needs people like you, Father. Your faith is a weapon, and don't you forget it."

He made you nervous, this Tall, muscular black man with the scarred, milky left eye and strange-looking pistol. You'd seen him use that deck of cards he was constantly fidgeting with to blast away at the critter and to heal your wounds, and you knew what that made him: Huckster. You'd heard of them, men and women who used cards to summon power. Some said it was good, and certainly Denton used it for good ends, but still... it seemed like devil magic to you.

While you healed up, Denton talked to you about The Agency. Asked if you'd heard of it, and you had. The Union's secret monster-hunting spies, you'd heard. Keeping folks safe and keeping them from knowing how unsafe they were. You'd guess Denton and his ilk weren't too keen on you preaching the truth of what was out there. But you got the sense that Denton wanted more than just the promise of the favor he extracted from you for saving his life.

When he thought you were asleep, you'd catch him coughing, sometimes two, three minutes at a time. A lunger, for sure. Or maybe his traffic with Satan had earned him an early ticket to the boneyard. One thing's for sure, you thought, this cuss may not live long enough to get this favor. He asked if you knew how to shoot a gun, and when you said no, he suggested you oughta learn. Soon. Also tried to get you to crack open some law books he had lying around in the hideout, but you didn't have much interest in that neither. Denton stopped short of saying it, but you got the sense he was looking for a replacement, and he hoped that man would be you.

After a week, you healed up enough to leave on your own, and you did just that. It was almost a year since that when Denton showed up again. He sat in the back for your sermon, listening and nodding, and came up after your preaching.

"You've still got it, Father. Given any more thought to some target practice and study?" He waited a second for the answer he knew he'd get, then shook his head and smiled ruefully. "Alright, alright. Listen, I need to call in that favor. Something strange is going on in a town called Coffin Rock, up in the northern part of the state, and I'd like you to lead a posse up out of Denver to look into it."

"I'm not sure what exactly is going on in Coffin Rock. Some kind of supernatural trouble, I expect. Just heard from my sources that it needed checking out, so I'm calling in a few favors. If you could make sure everybody gets there, do your best to keep the investigation on track, I'd sure appreciate it. This is a good bunch of folks. Couple ex-soldiers for muscle, a rail worker and a scientist who have both had some of the same experience with the supernatural as you and a miner named McGee. McGee might seem an odd fit at first, but Coffin Rock's a mining town, and if there's trouble in the mines, I expect he'll be able to help you there."

"Anyhow, you meet these folks at the Gallup & Stanbury Saloon in Denver in three days, and take them on up to Coffin Rock, see what you can find out. Some bad things are going to happen out there, unless you good folks can stop it. Hope I can count on you."


SILAS
You'd been doing some security work onboard the Denver-Pacific lines, dealing with would-be train robbers and Rail Wars alike. On your last trip, headed back into Denver, you were making a pass through the cart when someone said your name. Soft, quiet, but certain, confident.

"Silas Call."

The man who said it looked familiar. Tall, muscular black man with a scarred, milky left eye, shuffling cards faster than your eyes could follow. You remembered him now... he had met you on that bloody job in Kansas, when the man you were working for turned out to be possessed by some kind of demon.

"Denton."

"It's time for me to call in my favor, Silas. I'm putting together a posse to investigate some trouble, and they could use your particular talents. So when you get back to Denver tomorrow, maybe you could stop in at the Gallup & Stanbury Saloon."

You nodded, then went back to your patrols. You didn't have any other jobs waiting for you in Denver, and getting clear of a debt is always a good thing.

The Adventure:
Entry. Mid-day. Idea: going to tavern.

BARBERSHOP
----------
Passed by the brothel, resisted temptation. Passing by school, notice mirror in barber shop. Entered (abandoned) shop.

- Breaking and Entering, barber shop (Efraim)
- Theft (aftershave), barbershop (Cooter)
- Destruction of property, barber shop mirror (Efraim)

Saw a figure on top of the bluff staring down at them in the reflection. Efraim broke the mirror. Deputy showed up, demanded $2 for the mirror, got it from Efraim. He asked if they were staying, told them to go to the Crystal River Hotel.
---

TAVERN
------
They went to the tavern instead. In the tavern: Barkeep, piano player, poker players, Lizzie, mayor Wilford Hambley, assayer Ike Turnbull, a couple of deputies.

Zhang spoke to piano player and asked what happened to his arm. "Dr Osgood removed a canker from my arm."

Antoinette and Efraim both talked to Lizzie. She didn't take much of a liking to either. Needs a more sympathetic face to open up to.

Cooter went and talked to the miners.

---

HOTEL
-----
Hired four rooms for a night at the Crystal River. Carl told Cooter and Antoinette that the Marshal hasn't been good for business, and directed them to Deacon Plume or Mayor Hambley for more information about the trouble.

CHURCH
------
In the meantime, the other members of the posse went to talk to Deacon Plume, and took a copy of their Bible.

HOTEL
-----
Investigating the Church's "Bible," it seems to promise mortal eternal life.

CEMETERY
--------
Zhang and Silas investigate Daly's burned-down mansion, then went and busted into Daly's mausoleum (where they found his corpse).

---

JEWEL
-----
Next morning. Fix their own breakfast. Antoinette wants to go to the Jewel for breakfast. They go afterward instead. Two of the girls try to get Silas drunk, but he resists.

HILLS
-----
Antoinette defeated Blood Man with voodoo. Efraim attempted to heal Shelly after the fight, but was unsuccessful. The party talked to her and got her lowdown.

Heard bell: Lizzie has been sliced up by the doctor at her "complexion" appointment.

---

BLUFF
-----
Climb the cliff; meet with Laughs at Darkness. They all get high and pass out. They wake up in the evening, hear two bells. Inspecting the town through a spyglass, Hyram sees a miner flee the Six Feet Under and get gunned down -- and the bell tolls again. The posse heads to the mine (bell again) and enters, seeing an elevator.

MINE
----
Discovered initial elevator trap, and disarmed it. Encountered ghosts of miners, and Zhang engaged them in conversations. In the end, Efraim and Antoinette both agreed to possession by the ghosts.

After a long fight, the mine begins to collapse and squishes the last blood man, and the party flees to the portal.

---

CHURCH
------
Hiram kills Cheval in one shot immediately upon entering the church. Zhang destroys several more (including Dr. Osgood in a Lizzie-suit) with a stick of dynamite. Efraim manages to talk all but one out of their delusion (but that one goes apeshit on him).

Epilogue:

Efraim's sermon reduced the Fear Level in town to a more manageable level, and outlaw Shelly Pearl returned to town to run for Mayor of Coffin Rock, the city her father had founded.

Efraim decided to stay and minister to the flock that Cheval had corrupted and betrayed, as well as the rest of the town.

Hiram signed on as marshal after Marshal Bryce and his deputies fled town during the bloody craziness inspired by Cheval's ceremonies.

Cooter staked a claim on the Cooked Earth Mine, which, like all the other mines in the area, had begun producing again.

Antoinette vanished, along with one of the blood man corpses in the hills.

Silas and Zhang left to seek out more trouble in the Weird West.

Exonerated & Two Weeks Pass

Rhaan 22 - Sypheros 7, YK 999

A story was published on Rhaan 21 on the front page of the Korranberg Chronicle with the headline "Assassination Prevented in Trolanport." It detailed the events at the Platinum Theater, most notably that the real Wandering Wolves battled a group of doppelgangers who had attempted to impersonate them, and that Lord Kor himself had issued a pardon for the Wolves for the initial assassination attempt against the King. When asked how this affected the war between the Sigilstar Alliance and Droaam, Lord Kor indicated that they still weren't certain that the hags of Droaam weren't involved, given that one of the assassins at the Platinum Theater was a Briar Hag, but he did indicate that there would be a full investigation.

And so, after close to five months of being hunted as fugitives, The Wandering Wolves returned to Sharn by means of House Orien teleport circle. Though they had been exonerated, Lord Kor asked if they would keep a relatively low profile for a couple of weeks until they could get various things sorted. He also gave each member of the Wolves a letter of credit for transportation with either House Orien or House Lyrandar, allowing a round-trip ticket to anywhere in the Five Nations.

As promised by Lord Kor, the Wolves will be granted an expanse of land in the northern reaches of Breland, and promised help from Brelish industry to build a casino and base of operations named "The Wolves' Reward." He told them that come the next week in Wroat, The Wolves would meet with the King and be given their official pardon and grant of land, but agreed to give each a week of personal time first. Well, except for Pel, but more on that below.

Luggoth:
Luggoth returned to his apartment in Hareth's Folly and found it occupied. The door was unlocked, but there was no sign of vandalism or theft. When he saw who was waiting for him, a grouchy Luggoth muttered "I wish you were thieves instead. At least then I could beat you with a clear conscience."

The paladin Muroni and dragon prophet Maechen, representatives of the silver dragon Vuulaytherus, waited for Luggoth in his apartment. They explained that Vuulaytherus had sent them to Sharn about a month ago to come and find him, and they had been expecting him sometime in the autumn. So they had set up shop in his apartment until he returned.

"War is coming, Luggoth. You and the Wolves are going to play a key part in it, if our master is interpreting the Prophecy correctly. Our master has sent us to Khorvaire to do what we can to prevent it. We'll be looking for clues to the Prophecy throughout the continent, and we'll let you know if we find anything related to you."

With that, they prepared to leave, but Maechen stayed behind to "catch up what was going on with his former comrades-in-arms." After Muroni left, Maechen quietly informed Luggoth of one piece of information that Vuulaytherus hadn't wanted him to share.

"There was a vision that Vuulaytherus shared with us, but told us not to tell you. One of the oracles saw you with your hands around the throat of Jaela Daran, the Keeper of the Flame. He doesn't know when, or even where, or what it means. But if the Silver Flame learns of this, nowhere will be safe for you. Some of the members of The Chamber think you're an unwitting pawn of the Lords of Dust, and that you need to be watched carefully, and eliminated if necessary. I know that despite your anger, you wouldn't hurt that little girl, she's one of the purest forces of good in this world. So I think the vision isn't what it seems. But you have a lot of very nervous, very powerful people watching you."

As he left, he imparted one last warning. "William d'Deneith was a part of the Prophecy when he had his dragonmark. Now he exists outside of it. The Chamber doesn't know what this means, but they don't like it. William's role in The Prophecy has been changed by powerful, ancient magic, and he could easily lead you down the wrong path. Be careful around him."

After that, Luggoth can spend some of his time searching for Savannah and Borgath, or go with Lysander to see if he can find Arenydee and figure out what information she has.

Brand:
After checking in with Markus d'Orien to get himself reinstated in House Orien, Brand and Whitehearth returned to the Eldeen Reaches to see his mother and visit with Rorsa and her pack. His mother told Brand that she had gotten a message for him, passed along by a shifter from elsewhere in the Reaches.

"I know that last time, it turned out to be a trick by our Uncle, so this time I asked for proof. Your father must have expected that, because the shifter told me things that only your father and I knew. I believe this message is from him."

She handed Brand the message, a simple scroll, and added "I didn't read it. I felt it would be a violation of your privacy. But when you see your father... tell him I'd like to see him. Things can't be the same between us, it's been too long and I'm with someone else, but... well, I'd like to see him."

The message read:

"Hello, son. If you're receiving this message, it means you've come to visit your mother, and I'm assuming that means you've cleared your name. If that's not the case, don't follow the rest of these instructions, you'll only bring danger to yourself, your mother and me. One of us being a fugitive is enough trouble.

I've had discussions with some of the people I know and trust at Orien. They've assured me that my crimes, even if they were real, have been forgotten in the ensuing decades, and that if I can bring them something valuable, those crimes will be forgiven. That's enough for me, because once I'm back in at the House, we can work within it to bring down your Uncle.

What I'm asking of you might take a few weeks, but I hope you can spare the time, as I haven't had time to build up the same resources I had in Xen'drik. The shifter who brought this to your mother left some tracks. Most wouldn't be able to find them, but I'm confident that you can. Follow those tracks and you'll find me."

Brand and Whitehearth set off following the tracks, and they found them leading to a very carefully concealed teleport circle. When they stepped through, they found themselves standing in the middle of a swamp.

"There you are! I was starting to think you weren't coming!"

Brand's father, The Native, was concealed in a tree waiting for them.

"Welcome to the Shadow Marches. Ready to go dragonshard hunting?"

"I suppose a new field of dragonshards under House Orien control would be an excellent way to buy credibility for your return to the house," Brand said. "I wonder, will the Native's identity be maintained by your crew while he's out of Xen'drik? A secret identity of sorts? Or is it best to go public and thus avoid potential for blackmail?"

Traega mutters darkly that "it's a little late to worry about Aeromus blackmailing us, unfortunately" but does agree that his past in Xen'drik could be potentially troublesome, if there's any kind of trial related to him returning to the House. However, he also doesn't believe he could keep it a secret, and so his intent is to disclose everything when he returns to the House.

For the time being, the Native is a ghost, with his band of smugglers and information brokers operating as if he's still in charge, but in fact Medrea is now giving orders according to prophecy, with Saia, Yanesh and Tworock acting as the visible face of the operation. They are scaling back operations, and Traega confides that his plan is to bring them to Khorvaire when he is reinstated in the House to serve as his operatives on the continent. He hasn't run this by them yet, and he's not honestly sure if all of them will want to come to Khorvaire, as they all had their reasons for staying in Xen'drik.

Traega also tells you that his contacts in the House inform him that things have changed in the last twenty years, and that the House is much more open to marriage and relationships outside the House, believing that it brings new blood into the operation. "It's too late for me and your mother," he says, "But perhaps you and Saia will have a chance at what we never had."

While hunting for dragonshards, Traega and Brand train and fight together. Brand is sorry to miss the ceremony in Wroat, but he is sure that by the time he rejoins the other Wandering Wolves, he's sure to have new skills at his command and a stronger connection to his dragonmark.

Sheryn Wayfinder, Brand's mother, sends an animal messenger to a druid in Sharn, who passes the message along to the Clifftop Adventurers' Guild, and thus to the Wolves. It reads "Brand unavoidably delayed, wishes you well in Wroat and will rejoin you as soon as possible."

William:
William d'Deneith was met at the teleport circle in Sentinel Tower in Karrlakton, Karrnath by his mother, Sharri d'Deneith, who surprised him by warmly embracing him. She then took him on a walk around the fortress so that the two of them could talk.

Sharri told William that she had never intended to send him away, that she had wanted to keep him from meeting the same fate as her husband and her other son. She understands now that all she did was make him more determined to seek out danger, and that if she had kept him in Karrnath, surrounded by other Blademarks, he might never have suffered the ordeal he did. She offers him heartfelt apologies for what he went through, and expressed regret for the way she behaved toward his friends, The Wandering Wolves, especially in light of what they did to restore him to life.

She also told him that she would do her best to help him get a position within the Blademarks, Protectors Guild or Sentinel Marshals, but that some in the House didn't trust him, since his dragonmark had faded away. She asked if he would consider visiting with a cousin of hers, a man named Doren d'Deneith who is a healer assigned to the Protectors Guild, and someone with an interest in Draconic Prophecy. Doren believed that if he examined William, he might be able to figure out what happened with his dragonmark, and at the very least assuage the worries of some within the House.

Sharri warned William to be careful around the enclave, because there were those who had already decided that he was a danger, and if they had the chance, they might quietly disappear him. For the time being, she asked that he try to always stay within sight of her, Doren or a handful of attendants that she trusts.

William also found out that his Uncle Maresh is working on a job in the Mror Holds, overseeing security for a mining operation. Sharri assures him that while she was angry at Maresh, just as she was at the Wandering Wolves, she has gotten over it, and as soon as his uncle returns from the Mror Holds, he'll be ecstatic to see William again.

William is well pleased by his return to Karrlakton, his mother's reception and his (at least in his eyes) vindication. In response to his mother's apology for what he went through, however, William believes that if there is any blame to be laid for it, it belongs to himself. He fought recklessly and without regard for his father's Blademark legacy -- had he honored his training, he would never have fallen. As for the Claw's retrieval of his body, he and Pel have made peace on that score.

He will accept her apology for her treatment of the Wolves, however, and will bring that apology back to them when he returns.

William is trying to grow up: to take responsibility for his actions, to develop core moral beliefs, and to promote a personal code of honor.

He looks forward to reuniting with Maresh when that is possible. In the meantime, he works hard during his time with the healer Doren. Despite his fear, William descends into the dark and horrible memories trapped in his mind, reliving some of the events that occurred during his undeath. It will be some time before William can come to terms with all he has done (for he firmly believes that his actions can be blamed on no one else). However, perhaps as a result of his slowly returning inner peace, aided by Doren's magic and wisdom, William's Mark of the Sentinel resurfaces -- to his mother's vast relief. Doren trains William in the Eye of Alarm and Magic Circle rituals, and William feels some of his dragonmark's new power.

William returns to his mother and asks a boon: that he might join the Sentinel Marshals. He is driven to serve his House, but he believes he can best do so alongside the Wolves: the pack is always stronger than the individual. William believes that the travel and contacts he will make as a member of the Wolves will prove valuable to the Marshals.

William's visit to Karrlakton lasts for seven days, and the return of his dragonmark eases things considerably, so that by the end of his visit, he is walking the compound freely, meeting other members of the House and learning a little about the politics at the center of House Deneith.

Just before he is due to take the teleport circle back to Sharn, his mother comes to him with disappointing news. Her petition to have him instated as one of the Sentinel Marshals was denied. The acting council that promoted Sentinel Marshals pointed out that all who have become Sentinel Marshals have served for years as Blademarks, Protectors or often both, and have proven themselves valued and trusted assets of the House. William has not, as of yet, distinguished himself yet. Instead, they have made him a member of the Protectors guild, reporting to the Sharn enclave.

However, Sharri d'Deneith does offer two things that she hopes will ease the sting of disappointment. First is that she received a Sivis message from Baron Elvinor of House Phiarlan, who specifically requested that William be assigned to duty with Lysander d'Phiarlan. In effect, he will be getting paid to work with the Wandering Wolves, at least so long as nothing happens to Lysander. Also, she knows Lalia d'Deneith, one of the twins who serves as the leading Sentinel Marshals in Sharn, and she has gotten Lalia to agree to review William's case in six months. If he can prove himself an asset to the House, as well as give them reason to believe that he would excel at tracking down and bringing in fugitivies, in that time, Sharri believes William has an excellent chance of "jumping the line" to become a Sentinel Marshal in months instead of years.

Sharri suggests that William accompany the Wolves on their adventures, keep Lysander safe from harm and keep a journal of his accomplishments. Sharri believes that the Wolves are moving up in the world, and if William can contribute to and share in their reputation and accomplishments, she believes he can earn the promotion he seeks.

William also suspects that part of this is a test by the House leadership to see if he's willing to follow orders, and that the period of "training" may be even shorter than they are letting on.

Lysander:
While for many of the Wolves, the Wolves' Reward is either a theoretical place for the future or not really a concern, for Lysander it has been the focus of his days and nights since returning to Sharn. House Phiarlan was quick to sign on to the idea of a casino which could also host a theater and serve as a convenient place for various clandestine meetings of people from all nations.

Lysander has spent roughly two days in meetings with Baron Elvinor to figure out the role that the Demesne of Shadow can play in this new home, and another two days traveling by lightning rail up to Wroat (a 5 hour journey) to meet with those in the Demesne of Motion, to discuss dance and other physical arts, as well as to confer with agents of the Serpentine Table about their role. He then traveled by Orien teleport circle to Flamekeep in Thrane to meet for a day with the Demesne of Music. Throughout all of this, he has been meeting with Phiarlan architects who have notions for how to design the new theater, in conjunction with House Cannith, who will no doubt be doing much of the actual construction.

In addition, as Lysander always does on these travels, he hears a lot of information that has been making its way through the Phiarlan network. Of particular note are rumors that two of the Wolves' previous foes, the Emerald Claw and the Lord of Blades, have been especially quiet of late, with only a few smaller operations happening close to their homes in Karrnath and the Mournland. He also hears that House Thuranni and House Tarkannan are getting more employment of late, as political assassinations seem to be on the rise, and there are rumors that House Orien's little-known smuggling arm is involved in some shady business in Xen'drik and Droaam. No one knows the name Aeromus d'Orien when Lysander asks.

Lysander does get to spend one day with Arenydee, who stops in to see him during his stay in Flamekeep. She unfortunately does not have any further information about Cavoletta's whereabouts, but she is following up on leads in the Talenta Plains, Darguun and the Lhazaar Principalities in the next few weeks.

Lysander remembers that before the recent troubles and the resulting drain on their bank accounts, the Wolves had a personal banker assigned to them, Rochus d'Kundarak. He speaks with Rochus, who is in fact a security expert for Kundarak, and he gets approval from his House to take the lead on doing security work in establishing the Wolves' Reward, in exchange for considerations for House Kundarak. Details can be worked out later, but for now, the Wolves have a strong ally in Kundarak who expresses interest in helping them build a good, secure base of operations.

Pel:
Pel has seen little of the Wolves in the last week. Immediately upon his return, he was whisked to the crime scene where Viorr had been murdered, the tower garden where he had first met Viorr so long ago. Kalibar Jenks and Lord Kor were there as well, and since Pel is unable to cast rituals, they brought in Kalibar's priest, a halfling worshiper of the Sovereign Host named Delanna Moon, to cast the Speak with Dead ritual.

They learned that Viorr had been murdered by a changeling, who had come to his garden disguised as one of his agents. When the murderer had Viorr in a vulnerable spot, he shifted form into his natural changeling state, told him "Councilor Pel sends you to Dolurrh!" and stabbed him to death with a dagger. Viorr's spirit believes he was murdered because he had his agents, including Kalibar, looking into the "Wolves" assassination and attempting to figure out who was behind it. He explains that whoever was really behind it (and he suspects it was Tyrant One), they did him a favor, because he was dying of a curse inflicted upon him years earlier, and he was already facing a most painful death, which no healer he had found could cure. He asks not to be returned to life, and approves of Lord Kor's plan to have Pel take his place. He tells Pel where to find a key and a safe elsewhere in the city where Viorr kept all of his notes on his operations, and reveals the names of his five agents in Sharn.

With all the circumstantial evidence pointing towards the current Tyrant One as behind the attempted regicide of the King and Lord Kor, not to mention the assassination of Viorr, most likely Councilwoman Sava Kharisa and who knows what else, Lord Kor issues a royal decree on the spot that the Tyrant Council be brought in and interrogated. He also issues a warrant for the arrest of Councilor Pel, declaring in it quite clearly that the councilor is an impostor, a changeling who took the identity of the real Pel, a half-elven member of the Wandering Wolves. He leaves that in Pel's hands and says that he needs to head back to the King's Citadel in Wroat, and asks that Pel and the rest of the Wolves meet him there on Mol (the first day) of the next week to officially receive their pardon and the grant of land that they have asked for as a reward.

Kalibar Jenks remains to fill in Pel on the various duties, responsibilities and powers of his new role. Viorr is a lieutenant in the King's Dark Lanterns, although publicly he is known merely as a retired gardener who used to work in Brelish military intelligence. Kalibar knew him quite well, and will coach Pel on mannerisms and habits that will let him pass with his agents and others who didn't know him quite as well. Kalibar suggests that he play up Viorr's illness now that they know about it, staying secluded and only speaking with operatives.

Viorr is one of five lieutenants in Sharn, and he answers to Captain Vron in Wroat, who is also a changeling. Kalibar suspects that Pel will meet Captain Vron and tell him the truth of the situation next week. Kalibar doesn't know any of Viorr's other operatives were, but he knows that like him, each of them ran other operatives and freelancers who knew nothing of Viorr's involvement. Viorr's responsibilities are mostly making sure that none of the criminal organizations or individual threats in Sharn pose a threat to the crown. He didn't deal as much with sedition from The Swords of Liberty, terrorism by The Emerald Claw or any "cold war" activities by The Royal Eyes of Aundair, but focused most of his efforts on The Tyrants, The Daask and a few monsters in the Cogs. Kalibar was and is his inside man with the Boromar Clan, and he maintains a cover as a Boromar thief, which is the cover he was using when the Wolves first met him aboard the Golden Dragon.

Viorr has an expense account with House Orien and House Vadalis that he can use to provide travel to any city in the Five Nations, whether by lightning rail, horses or caravan. His account with House Orien also allows him to use their teleport circles up to three times per month without charge (and without record), and he has an account with House Lyrandar that lets him charter an airship without charge (and with minimal records) anywhere in Khorvaire. He can call upon the Watch freely by ordering them to provide troops, and if he needs something more elite, he can talk to Lieutenant Meira or Molin Kaine, the two lieutenants of the Redcloak Battalion in Sharn. He does not outrank them, so he must ask for their help rather than command it, but Kalibar suggests that both are loyal servants of the crown. Meira has a distaste for the Thranes and longs to be back in the field, so Kalibar suggests using her when the situation calls for action, while Molin has crossed paths with House Tarkannan and enjoys his posting in Sharn, so he is best used on quieter assignments.

Viorr also has accounts with House Kundarak (money), House Sivis (secure communication), House Deneith (mercenaries and bodyguards), House Jorasco (healing) and House Tharashk (finders). There are limits to what he can ask for, but in general, he can get any of these services free or at a highly discounted rate, and more discreetly than others who hire the Houses.

Kalibar suggests that, to fulfill Kor's orders to round up the council and Councilor Pel, they call in Lieutenant Meira and some House Deneith blademarks and make a plan, using Pel's knowledge of the Tyrants organization and hideouts for planning.

"Well, well, well. This is very interesting." says Pel, stroking his chin.

While speaking with the deceased Viorr, he has a few questions of his own.

1. Which agent was the changeling posing as? He might be compromised.

It was posing as Ghanis Taek, a half-orc in my employ within the Daask. His codename is Scar, and you'll find his dossier with information on when to make information drops and requests for meetings there. Much of it is in code, and we don't have time for me to impart that to you, but I'm sure you'll be able to figure much of it out. I should have been suspicious when Scar dropped in without a prior meeting arranged, but he was acting as if there was important info from the Daask, and given their involvement with Droaam and the war, I just got sloppy.

2. Get as close a description of the assassin as possible - admittedly a difficult task - but pay particular attention to the footwear and weapons used. Even the best spies often neglect to change these details.

Viorr describes the changeling, which is, as you'd guess, not terribly useful. He believes it to have been a male, but that's always fluid, and he had pale lavender eyes, white hair and white skin. The assassin was wearing dark brown leather armor that matched very closely that of Ghanis Taek and wielding a plain, average dagger, a not uncommon weapon for changeling assassins. The weapon was probably dropped in The Hilt and swept out into the Thunder Sea on the night of Viorr's murder.

3. Did Viorr have any personal relationships Pel should be aware of? Friends, family, lovers. These would need to be the most delicately handled, obviously.

Fortunately for Pel, but unfortuantely for Viorr, he didn't really have a lot of close friends. His wife and child died of illness while he was away fighting in The Last War, and he's taken no lovers since her death. In his role as a gardener, he knows a few people who bought flowers and bushes and other such things from him, but none of them know him better than his agents, who are trained to notice mannerisms. With Kalibar instructing him, Pel should be able to mimic Viorr closely enough to fool anyone he's going to meet.

Once the priest leaves, but before the body is removed, Pel takes the dead man's form, with Kalibar there to coach and critique.

He changed into Viorr's clothes and put on some bandages where Viorr was wounded, to help excuse any behavioral missteps and, in case someone's watching, make it look like the murder was indeed attempted but failed.

He'll spend some time in Viorr's abode, getting the feel of the place and the man that lived there.

Pel quickly gets his hands on Viorr's notes and files, and get to reading (and practicing Viorr's handwriting). His code is not unsophisticated, and no one, not even Kalibar or likely any of his other agents, knows what it means. Pel will have to spend some time deciphering them. The names of his agents are: Ghanis Taek, codename Scar (Daask), Kalibar Jenks - codename Wraith - (Boromar), Milos - codename Displacer (Changeling inside the Tyrants), Eranis De, codename Dragon (Half-elf inside House Tarkanan) and Jace Bartholoh, codename Basilisk (Gnome, operates as an independent bard, information broker and fixer in the Cogs). He has three information and equipment drops, one primary, one secondary and one emergency, for each of them.

Highlights, at least those that Pel can work out in only a few days, are that the Daask-Tyrant war appears to have been negotiated to a truce after the shake-up in the Tyrant council, that there's a new Tyrant One and an almost entirely new Tyrant council, a variety of jobs that House Tarkanan has hired for in Sharn and Breland, and a handful of names and places of criminal activity in the Cogs. Information on the Boromars is somewhat sketchy, as Kalibar has been spending most of his time helping the Wolves.

Kalibar gets one of his men in the Boromars to put a tail on "Councilor Pel," but unfortunately, he gets a quick report back that the Councilor had some sort of urgent business and left town two days ago, just after Viorr was murdered. No one has seen him since.

As detailed in the Sharn Inquisitive and by a report from Displacer, "Pel's" political career has been noteworthy in two aspects. One is that he pushed hard for the crackdown on the Daask, consistent with the work of Councilor Kharisa, but oddly enough, after the war with Droaam began, he started cataloging overzealous attacks on the Daask by the Watch, and, along with activists for "monster rights," was successful in revoking the "Kill on sight" order for Daask operatives and in doing some diplomatic outreach to the organization to try and ease some of their activities in his district.

Two is that he was a close ally of "The Boromar Block" of Bestan ir'Tonn (Upper Tavick's Landing), Thurik Davandi (Upper Menthis) and Ilyra Boromar (Lower Dura), which was in direct contradiction to the general voting of Councilor Kharisa. He was also an ally of Kilk (Lower Tavick's Landing), which doesn't surprise Pel at all, given that Kilk is the Tyrants' operative on the council, and is in fact a rotating identity used by various Tyrant members. His enemies on the Council included the plain-spoken Dalaina Ironhand (Middle Tavick's Landing), brothel owner and vocal disparager of the Tyrants and the Boromar Savia Potellas (Lower Menthis).

He was quite successful in his short run with his somewhat limited agenda. It's possible that there were more layers to his plans, but that would require a more detailed and long-term analysis of everything he voted on, argued for and against.

More related to the Tyrants, contact with Displacer indicates that he can get Viorr a time and place where the Tyrant Council is holding a meeting. Ever since the change in the Council, they've been meeting once a month, and the next meeting should be taking place sometime in the next month. Kalibar and Basilisk both suggest that a precision strike by the Watch with Redcloak support could capture the entire Tyrant leadership in one fell swoop, at which point they could interrogate them and hopefully get one of them to flip on Tyrant One for political advantage within the organization.

What's Next:
After a week of time off, with little if any contact between one another, The Wolves met up for lunch at the Drunken Dragon on the afternoon of Sypheros 1. Lysander was first to arrive, early enough to get in a little performance time with Beless, the bard from Elias Volan's adventuring group, which had taken on the name "The Young Wolves" and had a few adventures of their own in the past few months. The Dragon was crowded with well-wishers, all of whom assured Lysander that "they never believed those rumors." He was fairly certain that at least half of them weren't lying.

As Lysander finished a rousing, bawdy duet of "The Lovers from Fairhaven" with Beless that brought the house down, he spotted Luggoth walk in, go straight to the bar and order an ale. Luggoth lifted the glass to Lysander, who gave a bow and then leaped from the stage to go and sit with his friend.

The two of them found a table and sat, nodding and offering polite hellos the welcoming crowd of the Dragon. Mira d'Ghallanda came over, put a plate of cheese, meat and bread on the table along with a pitcher of wine and a pitcher of water, and then headed back to the bar, over which the Silver Holy Symbol of Vulkoor that the Wolves had gifted to her still hung. She also left a note on the table, which read "Brand unavoidably delayed, wishes you well in Wroat and will rejoin you as soon as possible - Sheryn Wayfinder," explaining that a druid had brought it in a couple of days ago, and said that any messages to be conveyed to Brand should be left with Mira to be given to the druid when he checked back in.

William entered a few minutes later, newly adorned with the regalia of his House, with his dragonmark once again shining brightly on his skin. He yelled out, "No! Fuck! Off!" to a scabby half-orc who was begging him for change, then he sat down at the table, grabbing a hunk of bread and a goblet of wine. "I swear that little piece of shit has been following me since I got back into town this morning. I gave him a copper to get rid of him, and now he keeps asking if I can spare a few more! By Kol Korran's belt, he's actually followed me in here?!"

The Wolves turned to see the half-orc beggar sidling into the bar, nervously looking around and then, possibly cowed by William's glare, going to bother another table across the way. William turned back to the table and told the other Wolves what had occurred in Karrnath, and they in turn shared news of their doings in Sharn and elsewhere. After a few minutes, Lysander remarked that it was odd for Pel to be late.

"I'm not late," Pel said, walking out from a nearby crowd as if from out of nowhere and stepping up to the table. "I came in with William. Here's your copper back." As Lysander laughed and applauded Pel's showmanship, William and Luggoth looked a little displeased at Pel's little trick.

"I'm working on slipping in and out of identities," Pel said. "I'll tell you why some other time, but suffice to say, if I could slip one past William, who knows me better than many, that was a good sign."

With that, the Wolves were more or less assembled, and they shared some conversation about the last week, including lots of information from Lysander about the Wolves' Reward, and then headed out to get aboard the private lightning rail coach Lord Kor had booked to bring them to Wroat.

The journey was a quick five hours, passed in luxury and comfort, and without a single delay or disruption, which earned William a bit of coin against Lysander, who had bet on some kind of trouble on the road. "Last time we rode this line, fire elementals and a fiend attacked us."

Upon arrival, The Wolves found themselves greeted by Aanna Ebinor, a beautiful young woman who introduced herself as their personal concierge for the duration of their stay in Wroat. She guided them to a horse-drawn carriage that took them through the beautiful city, over the bridge and into Brokenblade Castle. From there, they were taken to the Great Hall, and found themselves standing before King Boranel, who sat upon the massive stone-and-wood throne of Breland. He was surrounded by his court, which included his two magebred ghost tigers, his brother Lord Kor and his warforged bodyguard Three, who looked very tense, and had his hand on his weapon. There was a great deal of tension in the room, and the assembled court and onlookers seemed to be holding their breath.

It was the aged Lord Boranel himself who broke the tension. "You're not going to try to assassinate me again, are you?" There was a gasp from young Haydith ir'Wynarn, 17-year-old Karrnathi ward of the King, before Boranel's face broke out into a huge grin, and then a laugh. The laugh spread throughout the room, and the King motioned to the Wolves to approach. He handed a scroll of parchment over to an attendant, who walked down and put it into the hands of Lysander.

"Let it be known, by all present, that I, King Boranel ir'Wynarn, do hereby grant a full pardon to the adventuring company known as The Wandering Wolves for the charges called against them previously. These heroes, though slandered by vicious and clever adversaries and indeed hunted by Breland itself due to the cleverness of these lies, did not become bitter towards their land and their king. Instead, they sought to protect Breland's royalty and citizenry, to face dangerous foes and untangle a web of lies, all in service not to their own glory, but to the welfare of Breland and indeed, the rest of the Five Nations. In so doing, they not only foiled a conspiracy against the kingdom, but saved the life of my own brother, Lord Kor ir'Wynarn."

"My thanks for their deeds cannot be measured in mere words or gifts, but as some small token of appreciation, I have granted them a parcel of land in the northern part of Breland. This land belongs to them, and to their heirs. I expect that some of you have read in the Korranberg Chronicle rumors of what they plan to do with it, and if those rumors are true, rest assured, the King and his court will be spending some time at this new establishment, burning through some of the Brelish treasury."

This earns a hearty chuckle from the crowd, although both Pel and Lysander note that Prime Minister Ruken ir'Clarn and several other members of the Brelish Parliament seem less than amused by the notion of gambling with the nation's riches.

"Adventurers have little time for pomp and ceremony, and I confess that I grow weary of it as well, so let me once again express my gratitude for all to hear, and then we can begin the feast in celebration of these heroes!"

With that, a small army of waiters, cooks and attendants, including House Ghallanda spellcasters, produce a series of massive tables laden with foods, wines and decorations, and the Wolves are seated at the King's table, along with Boranel, his sons and daughters, his ward, Lord Kor and a few others. The conversation is lively, talk about what this means for the war with Droaam and anything the Wolves wish to share about the Wolves' Reward or anything else. Shortly after the meal begins, a comely half-elven woman approaches Pel and says "Milord, I would speak with you in the kitchen about a matter of urgency regarding Viorr?"

Pel, recognizing the code phrase, excuses himself and steps into the kitchen with the half-elven maid, who leads him out, around the castle and into the King's Citadel. The half-elven maid doesn't speak, not to Pel or to the various guards that they pass, but they all seem to recognize her, letting her pass without issue. Finally, they reach an office in a higher level of the tower, she motions for Pel to sit, and then her form shifts into that of a male changeling.

"Well, well. You're my new Lieutenant Viorr, hmm? My name is Captain Vron, and I'll be your superior officer in that role, which is of course now the most important role in your life. I thought we should take some time to talk about how you're going to be running your operation in Sharn."

After a long night of celebration, food and, in Pel's case, painstaking discussions about agents, budgets, operations and other intelligence work, the Wolves retire to The Golden Pear, a very expensive inn near the castle where they have been booked into private suites. Throughout the rest of the week, operating from there, the agreements surrounding The Wolves' Reward begin to take shape.

The property agreement is fairly simple, and fairly powerful. The Wolves are granted a parcel of land in the northeastern reaches of Breland, on the shores of the Silver Lake, about 50 miles from Orcbone fortress on the west and 50 miles from the House Vadalis village of Shavalant on the east. They're nearly a hundred miles from the nearest trade road, and over 300 miles from the nearest lightning rail station in Wroat. The grant provides that each of the Wolves (Lysander, William, Brand, Luggoth and Pel) has a 20% ownership in the property, and that they may transfer their share in its entirety (no splitting it up) to a designated heir by blood or legal adoption, or to one of the other Wolves listed in the initial contract, upon their death. If no heir is named, their share reverts back to Breland. The land cannot be sold or given to anyone else, although the contract stipulates that any of the Wolves who wishes to relinquish his stake may sell it back to the Brelish Parliament for a fee of 200 platinum (20,000 gold).

The agreements that take place for The Wolves' Reward are more complex. Over the course of a week, the Wolves receive visitors from many of the dragonmarked Houses. Lady Elaydren and her husband come to visit you, express House Cannith's support for this new venture, and to announce that they are expecting their first child in the early part of the new year. Cannith's Tinker's Guild will help build the casino and various other parts of it, and also enter into a contract to supply the new Gareth's Gear with the finest wholesale merchandise for sale.

Chervina the Architect from House Ghallanda comes and expresses her House's offer to help build the facility and maintain its hospitality aspects at a cut-rate price that shocks the Wolves, and leads Pel and Lysander to suspect some kind of ulterior motive or plan. Chervina also says that she believes she can get House Jorasco to build a healing house on the site.

Rochus d'Kundarak and several others express House Kundarak's financial support of the new venture (with generous loan terms), as well as a presence for the Banking Guild, Warding Guild and the Golden Door and Iron Gate to build a secure facility. He also promises the support of House Sivis, as Kundarak has a hard time operating without them.

Saal d'Orien and Gersi d'Lyrandar (both from Sharn) offer their House's support of the project. In exchange for monetary compensation, they will build and maintain teleportation circles to several cities as well as an airship tower.

Sitting down with Rochus a couple of days later, The Wolves see that the project will be costly but effective, and they could turn a profit on the casino in as early as two years. The money will always have to be split with the 8 Houses involved (Orien, Lyrandar, Kundarak, Sivis, Ghallanda, Jorasco, Cannith and Phiarlan), but in a few years, possibly when the Wolves have slowed down on adventuring, they'll be able to live off the income of the casino alone.

However, they also receive visits from ambassadors from various nations, including familiar faces like Aundarian Ambassador Neya ir'Krell, Karrnathi Ambassador Sedge Avadarrn and Mror Holds Ambassador Moris ir'Mroranon (father of Jalis, who ran Gareth's Gear for you). This seems odd at first, until they are presented with a proposal from King Boranel.

Given that the war with Droaam is going to have to end, and that the way it is ending, not to mention the way it began, is going to cause friction amongst the civilized (and not-so-civilized) nations of Khorvaire, King Boranel would like to ask the Wolves a boon. In exchange for donations from the member nations involved, he would like to build a floating embassy city above the Wolves' Reward, using the same magics that has kept the Aundarian city of Arcanix floating for over a thousand years. This embassy city would be occupied by, at first, an ambassador and staff from Breland, Aundair, Thrane, Karrnath, Zilargo, The Eldeen Reaches and The Mror Holds. Boranel hopes that it will welcome ambassadors from Droaam, to try to smooth out tensions from the war, as well as, eventually, ambassadors from Aerenal, Sarlona and maybe even Argonnessen. His notion, crafted with Brelish Parliament, is to create a place where the sparks that might ignite into a new war can be extinguished rather than fanned.

In practical terms, there are several reasons to do this. The first is the money. In addition to paying for all of the costs of creating this floating city, each nation sending an ambassador would chip in part of the fees to build the Wolves' Reward, which would serve food, entertainment and more casual meeting needs for the ambassadors. Which brings up the second reason, guaranteed clientele. Ambassadors and their staff need to entertain guests, and that means expense accounts flowing right into the Reward's coffers. Then there's the third reason, expressed to Pel through Captain Vron: Information. Ambassador almost always translates to spy, and that would mean a chance for the Reward to become a major hub for information-trading and covert meetings.

Given their neutrality, House Deneith would be asked to assign Blademarks and Protectors as the guards of the city and, if the Wolves wish, the Reward. The contract for these services would be shared by the member nations.

Rochus re-works the money with this new ambassador city overhead and tells the Wolves that if this works, the casino would be profitable in months, not years. In a few years, he suggests, you'd be "airship rich." When asked to explain this term, he says with a grin, "Rich enough to buy and crash airships as frequently as the Wolves would like."

So, the questions:

1) Does Luggoth tell the Wolves what he was told? Does he tell them he was visited by Maechen and/or Muroni?

2) What does Pel tell the Wolves, keeping in mind that Lord Kor specifically ordered him *not* to tell them that he was now Viorr?

3) Does Pel take Kalibar's advice and order the raid on the Tyrant council? If so, will he offer up his own insights into the Tyrants to make it go smoothly, or try to warn the Tyrants that it's coming? And if not, what alternative does he offer?

3) Does William accept his new assignment within the House, and if so, does he tell Lysander that he's now his bodyguard?

4) Anything you want to say or ask of the various ambassadors and House personages you speak to?

5) Perhaps most importantly - Do you accept the King's request for an ambassadorial city above the Wolves' Rest? Metagaming, I will promise you that I will not crash the city down on your heads - if Arcanix has floated for 1,000 years, you can reasonably and safely assume this new city would do the same.

6) Anything else that needs covering before Friday?