A Warm Welcome
Darrowmar
In which the party mixes it up with a gang in the Traverton of Darrowmar. Orosh makes a frenemy. Ramach does some cooking.
The Nade gate to Darrowmar, the last known location of the party's Alshekal predecessors, is open but will close soon. Darromar only comes to the Core Islands every 2.1 years, so the opportunity to find out what happened to the party's relatives and special friends is about to close for a while. On this cycle Darromar will also open to Morayel (in 31 days) and to Kasan (in 67 days), so there is time to explore and get back to the Core Islands. And if they miss the window, the party now has the Gate Compass and Ramach has two chances to read a high level scroll correctly.
Things the party knows about the last known activities of their Alshekal predecessors:
- They had heard that the infamous surface explorers Tinker and Grimley had long ago settled on Darrowmar, and had started selling an awful lot of Ancient Race bones on the black market.
- A little over two years ago, they went to Darrowmar to investigate.
- They thought it was dangerous enough to leave Spirits of Intellect on some of their unfinished quests hidden in the Alshekal safe houses.
- They purportedly stayed on Darrowmar when it left the Core Islands on a 2.1 year cycle.
- It has been about a year since the coins stopped glowing.
The party gathers their gear, packs their bags, and at the end of a long day walks to the Nade Gate plaza to take the Gate to Darromar in the last hours that it will be open from Nade. An Arcanist standing before the Gate asks them if they know where they are going. It's a dangerous place after all. The party assures him that they are aware and step though the Gate, on a quest to find out what happened to their predecessors, those who gave then the coins.
The Traverton of Darrowmar is a small town contained inside a large chamber within a larger mountain-column of rock that is typical of Darromar's geography. It is lit by a large hole near the ceiling, and by an ambient red-tinged light with no obvious source. The party finds themselves in a large plaza and getting curious looks from many directions.
They bee-line for a group of Arcanists keeping an eye on things from near a guarded compound off to their right. The young Arcanist on duty is somewhat alarmed to find them coming through the Gate so close to closing, and wants them that although the Arcanists keep violence to a minimum during the Gate openings, after the Gate closes the Traverton is in the hands of the local clans. The party assures him that they are just here for a bit, and passes by, making their way around the outside wall of the chamber seeking a tunnel to the surface.
The first tunnel is sealed by a building and guarded, and so they pass on, but soon notice that they are being followed by a hungry looking group of locals. The party ducks into an ally and sets up an ambush. Koros and Paetro scramble up to opposite rooves (Paetro chases off some other locals who are apparently just having a drink), Orosh sets up in the ally, and Ramach and Akissi wait at the far end. They note that the following group splits up, with some going around the building to the other side.
The lead group runs into Orosh, and proclaims that they are with the Viprathi clan, and for safe passage through the Traverton they demand a fee of 100 gold from each newcomer. Orosh begs to differ, and then one boasts that it'll be the fee or it'll be death. Orosh, noting that who's death wasn't specified, chooses death and advances on the group. The fight is swift and brutal, as the opponents prove to be little more than young teenagers, junior members of the Viprathi assigned to shake down new fish and who took on a little more than they could handle. Akissi tries to heal the ones she can while Orosh chases down the mouthier of the fleeing kids and beats him to unconsciousness at the edge of the Traverton and in front of a growing crowd. Two more kids flee down a nearby tunnel.
As the party regroups near the pulped child Orosh is laughing over, many footsteps echo back up that tunnel, and the crowd begins to grow excited, and pull back. Out of the mouth of the tunnel comes a group of 20 or so young (but older than the kids) toughs surrounding a giant of a man wearing little more than breeches and a leather harness. The man addresses the party in a booming voice, asking why they set upon his young charges, and why they didn't pay the Viprathi's reasonable fee. When Orosh and Koros offer a much lower fee, the man laughs and says that the blood price just went up, not down, and offers some kind of challenge. The party us unfamiliar with the lingo he is using but seems to understand that he is offering to resolve this in some kind of ritual combat. Before they know it they have somehow accepted, and the huge man advances on Orosh.
Orosh and the man trade blows. His technique seems to consist of nothing more than grabbing his opponents by the front of their shirts and pummeling them straight in the face with a giant fist. No one else advances or fights, seemingly content to watch their leader or champion or whatever fight this halberd wielding barbarian. The man is grinning like a loon, and Orosh also seems to be enjoying himself. After a few rounds, the man man is bloodied but gets the better of Orosh, and knocks his bruised and split face to the ground. He stands over Orosh and smiles....at which point Koros (fearing that they will just try to kill the party anyway) shoots him with an arrow from a near rooftop.
The man looks up, annoyed. If he wasn't going to try to slaughter the party before, he is now. He signals to the crowd of his followers, saying, "Kill them all."
Ramach, seeking to end the real fight before it begins, casts a fireball on the assembled Viprathi fighters. A 40 foot ball of intense flame engulfs them all and then dissipates, leaving behind 20 or so slowly toppling columns of charred and immolated flesh. The watching crowd goes silent, and then quickly hurries away. The huge man looks at Ramach with real anger, points at him, and then flees himself back down the tunnel.
Akissi heals Orosh back to consciousness, and not knowing if there is retribution incoming the party quickly follows the fleeing crowd into the Traverton and finds a small tavern in which to hole up and regroup. The few other patrons clear out, and the nervous barkeep shares information with the party with the clear intent that they leave as soon as possible. Ramach orders and downs several shots of the local rotgut, seemingly shaken by hos own actions. The barkeep says that there are four local clans that inhabit the spire and often fight for territory; the Viprathi, Droxar, Kaistorok, and Rathos Arcosh. While the Gate is open the Arcanists assert a forced truce in the Traverton, but otherwise its a rough place. The four local clans control the four main tunnels from the Traverton to the rest of the spire, and down to the outside. The barkeep says that the last time a group came through the Gate and engaged in a big fight in the Traverton was two years ago, when a group called the Lakesla came through and fought their way through the Droxar to gain exit to the outside and the wider Island. This time, the Viprathi are likely to retaliate, and the Arcanists themselves might get involved. The party asks if the Viprathi has enemies, and he says they and the Rathos Arcosh are often fighting. He is able to point the party towards the tunnel that is claimed by the Rathis Arcosh, and is visibly relived as they leave the tavern.
At the fortified building in front of the Rathos Arcosh tunnel, the party negotiates passage for a far more reasonable fee and with some cautiously pleased clan members. They ar e escorted through the tunnels to the base of the spire, and the outside. It is night, and just before they leave their Rathos guide thanks them for putting a dent in the Viprathi, and lets them know that they'd be well advised to visit and pay their respects to the Anaxar before doing anything else on Darrowmar. So advised, the party walks a ways from the Spire and camps off the road until dawn. Paetro hears the sound of many feet on the road in the middle of the night, but the party is undisturbed.