Session #16: The Monkeys' Paws

 New adventurers continue to be drawn to Cothon-Gadeed, Mother of Cities, lured by the call of the great wealth rumored to lie within the depths of the ancient Tel al Safina for those bold enough to risk its dangers.

So another handful of newcomers appear on the scene: Althis and Zet Frin, a pair of magic-users from another land, and their sometime companion, a nameless fighting-person who didn't always seem completely present.

Asking around for rumors of the Tel, the two also set about hiring to themselves a pair from among the ne'er-do-wells who lurk throughout the taverns, waiting for just such an opportunity to make a little extra gold. Zet Frin hired Slith Sly, who has appeared once before in these chronicles, and oft-hired Warda the Rose, flush with the excitement of returning from a successful expedition only the day before.

Fortunately, Warda was able to provide more direct intelligence of the Tel, offering the location of a large "colony" of chnelh, the ape-men whose hands are bountied at 5 gold per hand by the Herm & Stone tavern. Given her first-hand experience, it was decided to pursue that avenue to lucre, and thus the party set out through the Gate of Mourners to follow the road south and east, past the ruins of Tsurr al Qadim, and around the valley of the Colossian Temenos, seeking the Weirding Caverns:

• Zet Frin (magic-user 1)
  accompanied by Slith Sly (Sakkra 1)
• Althis (magic-user 1)
  accompanied by Warda the Rose (likely lass)
• a nameless warrior (fighter 1)

The small party returned through the gate bearing two bloody sacks and a third filled with something else. At the Old Herm & Stone they sold off one sackful of bloodied chnelh hands for a not-unreasonable sum, sold off a sackful of fungal sagh at Cothon-Under-Star for more, and then, not yet established as associates of any of the Four Taverns, gathered at one of the lesser drinking-holes to count out their shares.

Collecting their shares, neither hireling can afford to paint the town red, but Warda does relate something of the adventure over a krater of wine: following her memory, she led her employers into the Weirding Caves, behind a striking stone formation within one of the caverns, and ultimately they discovered the self-same colony of chnelh as she had seen the day before, still engaged in their strange ritualistic orgy. A judicious use of stealth and shadows allowed her and her employers to come out victorious against the host of ape-men and their strange human leaders ...

The Lucre

• a sackful of sagh (250 gp)
• a sackful of chnelh hands x56 (280 gp)
• another bloody sack (yet to be revealed)
• 4 gems (570 gp; 2x10, 1x50, 1x500)
• an assortment of crystal trinkets of no obvious value
• 3000 copper pieces, 129 silver, 27 electrum
• two sets of linothorax armor, one masterfully crafted
• a set of scrolls, clearly containing a magic-user's abstruse code for his own arcane formulae--the use of read magic would be required to parse the formulae
• a small metallic sphere, with an iris on one side and a stud opposite
• a small strange metallic box

(any character who wishes may retain a "dose" of sagh without altering the monetary result, or "buy out" more, or any of the gems, by reducing an equivalent amount from their take of liquid cash)

The Experience

• 1156 xp for treasure
• 321 xp for "cult leaders" x2 (150 + hp ea.)
• 1521 xp for chnelh x28 (50 + hp ea.)

The Cut

• 345 gold to each player-character
• 86 gold to Slith Sly, 35 gold to Warda
• 999 xp to each player-character
• the masterful linothorax
• the set of scrolls
• the odd sphere-device
• the strange metal box

Written, drawn, etc. play reports, or something representing what occurred during this expedition sent to me will earn the relevant player-character 100 xp per level, and will be posted to the blog for others to read