Abode of the Anaxar
Darrowmar
In which the party meets a necrobind, babysits a guardless Doran, and pays their respects to the local warlord. A fire cult is jealous of Ramach, Ramach postures right back at 'em, setting up good times ahead.
As the party gets closer to the tall mesa on which rests the small fortress where the Anaxar of Darrowmar holds his rule, they note that the people off the road are fleeing into their houses as they walk by, and that the road is oddly clear. A long road crawls straight up a gentle slope of the mesa, and it too is clear, with one person sitting on a low boulder about half way up.
As they approach, the man stands to address them, and the party notes the armor of a warrior and his pale skin. His features seem to hold shadows a bit more deeply than they should, under his eyes and cheekbones and under his chin. Doran whispers a word under his breath that sounds like "necrobind."
The man greets them and asks if they are the clan who obliterated the Viprathi. The party admits it, and starts to explain why, but the man interrupts and tells them that the Anaxar gets nervous when a new clan moves so fast to violently eliminate another and then comes to his hold. The party assures the man that they have come to pay their respects. The man then says that they must either challenge or pay the blood price. The party asks who they are expected to challenge, and the man answers, "The Anaxar. You have three days. Bring your answer to the challengers gate." He then turns to go.
The party tries to ask him questions as he walks away up the hill. What's a blood price? What does it mean to challenge? And the man says over his shoulder, "You have three days to find out."
Luckily, the party doesn't need to look too far. Doran speaks up and says he was made to study some ways of the clans of Darrowmar before he was sent on his quest.
He first says that the necrobinds are made or recruited or somehow supported by one of the magic-using clans on Darrowmar, the Mordrin. Necrobinds are also known as the Servile and the Returned, and are typically puissant warriors in thrall to the Mordrin. The clan is currently in favor with the Anaxar, and their head sorcerer (known as The Mordrin) is the Anaxar's primary sorceress advisor. The other clan, the Forazze, work with fire and are currently out of favor.
He then says that a challenge to single combat is a common way to resolve disputes between clans, and that a challenge to the Anaxar is typically a bid to assume the powers of the warlord of Darrowmar. The blood price is a tithe that every leal clan pays to the Anaxar. Payment protects the clan from direct attack from the Anaxar's own warriors and from unprovoked attack from other clans who have paid a blood price. The catch is that any clan can pay another clan's blood price to the Anaxar in order to gain permission to attack them directly. By demanding either a challenge or a blood price, the Anaxar is demanding that the Alshekal either fight him immediately or become a loyal sub-clan in Darrowmar culture.
The party enters the small village outside the walls of the Anaxar's hilltop fortress, finds some cheap rooms, and begins to canvass the drinking halls and markets for information about their predecessors. Koros and Ramach ask around, and Orosh and Akissi go with Doran, who wants to get out and ask his own questions. A "weaponsmoot" is afoot, where smiths and weapon-wrights from other islands come to sell their wares in the brief period Darrowmar is open to the Core Islands. Clans are in from all over the Islands, and it is a rich environment in which to ask questions.
Koros learns that their predecessors came through the Gate two years ago, started a beef with the Droxar clan, and then came to the Anaxar to pay a blood price. They called themselves the Lakesla clan, and set their blood price at over ten thousand gold. They left to pay a visit to the Droxar's home village - more of a fort really - and destroyed it, and took it as their own. Many clans went at them to test themselves, and the Lakesla did a lot of fighting. They were known to be a small but deeply scary clan.
At the other end of Darrowmar's orbit away from the Core Islands, there is a Gate opening to an extensive mountaintop holding on the surface. One year ago, rumor has it the Lakesla stepped through that Gate. They did not return. The party knows that this is about the same time that their coins stopped glowing. Koros asked about their hill, and how to get there. He is told that no one really goes there anymore, as it is known to be haunted.
Doran wanders around and, remarkably, gets very similar answers to his questions. He is asking after a kinsman of his called Morran, and Orosh and Akissi now know that they are looking for the same person. The party keeps Doran in the dark, but offers to escort him to the Lakesla hill, and Doran accepts.
Answers in hand, the party approaches the challenge gate (Doran has requested to stay behind) and tells the guards that they have come to pay the blood price. They are made to give up their weapons and wait a while, and then escorted onto the floor of an arena surrounded by representatives of various clans. The Anaxar, a grizzled older man holding a giant sword, is accompanied by The Mordrin, a younger looking woman flanked by two necrobinds. As they approach, The Mordin is whispering furiously into the ear of the Anaxar, and the party hears her say, "I can't _see_ them, just like the last ones!" The Anaxar asks what they offer as a blood price, and when Koros answers 500gp there is laughter from around the arena. The Anaxar says flatly that 500 is a low offer, and easily matched. Koros insists that this is what they will pay, and that they do not plan on staying long. The Anaxar says that he knows they seek after the Lakesla, who also came to Darrowmar and immediately eliminated a clan, and then stayed a year. Koros assures him that they plan to leave. The Anaxar them accepts their offering, and asks their name. They tell him they would also like to be called the Lekesla. He dismisses them.
The party is not halfway back across the arena when the Anaxar asks them to stop. They turn around to find a trio of men in tattered orange robes in conversation with the Anaxar. He yells out that the Forazze clan has paid the blood price of the Lekesla, and challenges their fire mage to single combat in the arena. As the party discusses, a chatty guard escort tells them that the Forraze are down on their luck and do not like competition, and tales of Ramach's incinerations of most of the Viprathi clan are making the rounds. Ramach asks what will happen if he refuses, and the Anaxar says the Forazze will be free to attack them whenever, wherever. Ramach refuses the challenge, to gasps from the crowd. He turns to leave, but then spins about and asks the Anaxar what the Forraze's blood price us. The crowd goes silent. The Anaxar says 5000 gold. Ramach says nothing, and the party walks out of the arena.
The collect their weapons, and then collect Doran, and leave the mesa immediately. They walk several hours until dark and make camp off the road, keeping an eye out and sleeping at least 40 ft apart.