Troubles in Alanya; The Story So Far
9/10 - - Alanya City - - The Red Victory - - Session 0
A minotaur, an owlin, and a dragon descendant walk into a bar. Well, Sephie, the minotaur, clomps in on her hooves, and has to hunch over to clear a doorway that was never intended for someone so tall, especially with her horns.
The patrons stare at this trio with open mouths. Few have seen anything like any of its members. And three like this together, never. Even those who have seen an owlin before are startled by Mavinda, all of whose feathers have been burned off; she reminds some of a roast goose. Valosbalandra, the dragon descendant, is superficially the least unusual. But behind her eyes is a crimson pool of ambition and acquisitiveness that is as deep as her name is long.
The patrons' stares aren't hostile, however. This is the Red Victory Pub. All are welcome as long as they cheer for the Red chariot team, and don't cause too much breakage. The trio faces their own mystery. They had heard that muscle looking for a job might find one here. But they have no idea how to go about it; they stand near the door, confused.
They are saved by the approach of Sapphira, a human woman, whose Community of Healers brooch proclaims her a valued member of society. She points to a charismatic young man in the far corner, Endem, who she had been talking with, and says that he has a job that the trio might just be the people for. Mavinda asks what the job is, and Sapphira pauses for a moment, turns, and walks back to Endem.
The trio follow, and Endem asks them if they can follow instructions and keep a secret. When they all say "yes", he says that he has a job from the Security Service. It's dirty and smelly, and it might be dangerous. But it will only take an evening, and it pays 10 drachma each. Endem says that he will only give details once the party agrees. Mavinda asks if this job is shady, and Endem assures him that this job would be a service to society; it is from the Security Service after all. The party agrees, and follows Endem to the teamsters headquarters, where he blindfolds them, and leads them inside a building.
There he removes their blindfolds, and explains that a trader from the East is trying to smuggle goods into Alanya City without paying the tariffs. This is a threat to the social order, since honest, law abiding merchants won't be able to compete. The trader is somewhere in the city sewers, and the party's job is to descend into the sewers, find the trader, and confiscate their goods. But the party is not to kill anybody, if at all possible. Alanya needs trade to continue, and they want this trader and their hirelings to participate. They just want them to learn that smuggling doesn't pay.
That is why Sapphira is along, to heal any adversaries that the party gets too enthusiastic about attacking. Endem had asked the Community of Healers to lend a healer with experience with ugly situations, and they said that Sapphira was just the person for the job. What experience she might have is left unsaid. Sapphira is also welcome to patch up the party, if she feels like it.
Endem opens a trap door in the floor, and a passageway leads downward, smelling of rot and filth. Sephie, in the lead, has to hunch to get through the passageway. This minotaur does not like this labyrinth.
Eventually, the passageway reaches the sewer proper, where there is a sluggish flow of a most unappealing liquid. But there is a walkway along it on the far side, and the party jumps over to it, without trouble. Upstream looks to lead under the majority of Alanya City, so the party heads that way. After a short time, Sephie decides she has had enough of being in the lead in this terrible place, and muscles Valosbalandra to be in front of her.
Eventually, the party finds a passageway that seems like it might lead up to a good place to hide some loot. Mavinda heads up it, to check it out. He soon hears a voice from a nearby alcove in the passage saying, "You better go back if you know what's good for you!" So Mavinda does. A whispered discussion among the party leads to the hypothesis that this passageway is probably the way to the smuggled goods.
Sapphira heads up the passageway, and gets an "I told you to go back", to which she replies that it wasn't her who was told to go back. She asks why she can't proceed. Her interlocutor says that they value their privacy. She says that the party just wants to investigate what is up the passage, to make sure there are no smuggled goods. She says it so persuasively, that her interlocutor, who turns out to be a teamster thug, comes out of his alcove and whispers to her that the smuggled goods are up the passageway, but that he and his fellow thugs are charged with keeping everyone else out.
Sapphira retreats for another whispered party conference. The consensus is that the party is going to have to fight. So Mavinda says that the party should shoot first, which he does. But it's a pathetic attempt that only serves to put the teamster guards on notice. Valosbalandra shows Mavinda how it's done with a perfect fire missile at a teamster's foot, enough to put him on notice without hurting him too much. (The GM made a mistake here. Since Valosbalandra does innate casting, a critical hit, like she got, doesn't increase her spell's effect.) Mavinda is rattled, as that fire makes her flashback to when she was burned. But she nonetheless manages to shoot an arrow right into the sword hand of the other teamster, who drops their sword, and won't be wielding one for a while. Sapphira gives Mavinda some protection from weapons. (The GM made two mistakes here. First, Protection from Weapons costs 3 EP, but the GM had incorrectly marked it on her character sheet as needing just 1 EP. Second, Sapphira should have had to pray to her deity, Asclepius, for the protection; the gods are fickle, and don't always answer.) Sephie is freaked out, perhaps due to the lack of internet down here, and runs by the front of the tunnel entrance, yelling at the top of her voice; maybe that will make the teamsters as terrified as she is.
The party hears a high, musical voice shout encouragement to the teamsters, from somewhere beyond the far end of the tunnel. And up at the far end of the tunnel, yet another teamster bowls a big round rock down the tunnel at the three party members clustered at the bottom. He gets a strike! The rock hits all three of them, a big hit on Valosbalandra, and decent hits on the other two. It's not so much that the teamster is a great bowler as that two of these three aren't a lot better at dodging than is your average bowling pin. (Sephie has the best defense of the party, but she's out of action right now.) Valosbalandra uses epic mojo to reduce some of the damage from the hit on her. The two nearby teamsters duck into their alcoves, out of view of the party.
Mavinda has an epic answer to that move. She guesses the location of the teamster who can still fight, shoots an arrow, and uses her epic power to make it bend around the corner, into the alcove, to hit him. He falls unconscious. Valosbalandra rushes in, and stands above him in his alcove, while gesturing threateningly at the disarmed teamster in the opposite alcove. Sapphira runs in to magically patch up the unconscious teamster before he dies.
Another encouraging shout comes from beyond the far end of the tunnel, and the disarmed teamster flees up the tunnel, toward the shout. The party has so far made it halfway up the tunnel, and it looks like this fight isn't over yet.
