Session 24 – I Am The Way Into The City Of Woe

Written by KoshcheiBessmertnyi

General Summary

With two younger mongrels in their custody, the party awaits the warren father. The two mongrels appear to be female, and are nervous. Glitterstem attempts to entertain them, and they relax a little. In about an hour, the warren father arrives in the company of a half-dozen other mongrelfolk. Though cloaked and hooded, he is obviously hunchbacked, with one hoof and a partly reptilian face, and he walks with a limp. He introduces himself in elvish dialect as Meriadar, and his two young relatives as Betra and Lissende. Then he bows to Miletus, and asks how he can be of service. As the parlay begins, the party releases the two females as a gesture of goodwill. Theobald then explains the situation – that the party (which he eventually admits is made up of surface-dwellers) needs to sneak into the city, as Enkidu’s brother is held captive there. In exchange, the party is prepared to offer him whatever he wants – a gold piece, an owlbear hide, and Theobald’s dagger are offered, in succession. Meriadar complements the items, but politely explains that what the party is asking him to do involves his people risking their lives, and asks what the party is prepared to do to cover this potential loss of life, such that the mongrelfolk would prosper if some died in the process. Theobald asks how they could help them redeem a life, and Meriadar responds that his wife Marte is very ill, and her loss would constitute an irreparable loss to the community. Glitterstem offers (through Theobald) that he will undertake to help her, if Meriadar would conduct them to their abode. Surrounded by cloaked mongrelfolk to prevent detection – a city gate is within eyeshot, perhaps a mile away, the group proceeds to Meriadar’s home.
Upon arrival, the adventurers find a series of low mounds turned into earthen dugouts. The entire area smells terribly – here, the mongrelfolk dispose of Xibalba’s refuse (and possibly, some sort of malodorous industry is located here as well). Inside Meriadar’s compound, his sick wife lies on a straw-like mat. The dugout is filled with other mongrels, and is obviously unsanitary. The old woman is weak, and is spitting up blood. Glitterstem attempts to cure her, but a lengthy investigation reveals that it is only a temporary solution - she is clearly consumptive, and one of the children present has dysentery. He promises to help, but needs to spend the night in order to regain strength after the long cave trek. Meanwhile, he sets the mongrels to work on trying to clean up the dugout, and even the noble-born Theobald pitches in to help. Suddenly, one of the smaller mongrels runs in and breathlessly informs Meriadar of something in the Underdark patois. Meriadar moves a mat, opens a trap door in the floor, and asks the party to descend, follow one of his young relatives down, and to stay down there until called back. Below the dugout is a series of tunnels. The party and their guide move down a few tunnels, and then sit and wait for about an hour. It is later explained that they connect the mounds together. When the adventurers return to the dugout, Meriadar says that a patrol of auxiliaries from Xibalba was looking for a party of invading orcs, but was eventually convinced they weren’t here, and then moved to search other parts of the cave. The party breathes a sigh of relief – Enkidu’s plan of making it look like the Brotherhood of Baghtru struck the tower seems to have worked; and yet, the fact that search parties are patrolling the area makes them nervous. The party is asked to sleep in the tunnels.
After a fairly restless night – some loud roaring was heard outside the mongrel compound - Glitterstem goes to work. He successfully heals Marte, and a child sick with dysentery, purifies the mongrelfolks’ well, and cleanses part of their food supply. He also wants to locate healing mushrooms to help the mongrelfolk deal with other health-related issues as they arise. But they are reticent to search in the direction the party came from (because of the roaring), and the gnome doesn’t locate any in that direction anyway. He does, however, sense one in one of the pyramids, though he and his companions conclude that is out of reach now.
Meriadar appears more than satisfied with the aid his people have been provided, and makes a promise to help the adventurers as best he can (though he does ask for supplies of maize to be brought from the city to help feed his people). First, he outlines several options – sneaking the party past the gates by placing each member in a refuse bin, or following one of two underground tunnels that leads toward the city. One leads in the direction of the gate nearest the lake, but it requires somehow crossing the moat, possibly underwater, to access the city. In addition, it leads to the territory of fish-people, who disturbingly worship the Watcher – some sort of monster that lives in the lake. Alternatively, another tunnel leads past the refuse dumping grounds, and reaches deep under the moat before emerging into the city itself. This route has the advantage of leading directly into the orcish quarter. However, no one has travelled this way for decades, and a monster with three feet and tentacles, as ancient as the Watcher, is reputed to guard this route.
The party is faced with a dilemma. The route with the fish-people interests no one. Enkidu presses for the underground route. If the monster is deadly, perhaps the group can run past him, or run away, and try again later. The direct route, past the guards, appears more dangerous, as the gate is guarded by something the mongrelfolk refer to as Death Dogs. Being inside refuse bins also limits the adventurers’ potential for a quick response. Glitterstem initially leans toward the tunnel, but is finally persuaded by Theobald and Meriadar to go through the gate. If he has another night’s rest, Theobald can make the foursome invisible, and being concealed in refuse bins will make its scent hard to pick up. Meriadar also assures the group that his people enter the city to pick up refuse regularly, and will probably attract little attention. He says that their sledge can go directly to the Builders’ Gate (also known as the Dump Gate), beyond which the orcish quarter is located, and once through, his refuse-collectors can take the party directly to its destination. His team will come back to the location exactly one day later to give the party a chance to leave the city the same way it arrived. He is somewhat puzzled by Enkidu’s request to take them to the Temple of Baghtru, offering that there is no such temple in the Builders’ quarter. The main temple is a Temple of Luthic, the orcish fertility goddess. Enkidu is somewhat offended by this, thinking it means females are in charge among the Xibalba orcs. But it seems that this is the place to go – the center of the community, where they are likely to encounter or contact the warden elder, and to carry their search forward.
Meriadar also offers a brief overview of the gates, districts, and denizens of the Outer Circle. They are, going from the extreme right (close to where the party is currently located) to the extreme left: the fisher’s gate (fish-people), builder’s gate (orcs), mushroom gate (mushroom people and assorted others), crystal-workers gate (deep goblins), orichalk gate (hobgoblins and other goblinoids), pastoral gate (gnolls, herders of a creature called the rothe), silkworkers’ gate (goblins), and graveyard gate (kobolds). Beyond the graveyard gate is another settlement of the mongrelfolk. The orichalk appears to be the main metal mined here – a reddish-gold ore identical to that used in Gierek’s ingot, but used mostly to light the crystals that illuminate the city. In response to Glitterstem’s question as to whether he has ever seen one of his kind before, Meriadar responds in the negative; he has also never seen a human like Theobald.
The next morning, Enkidu says good-bye to Goltur. He is staying with the mongrelfolk, who have been told to take care of him while his master is away, and instructed in great detail as to his virtues and his taste (though they have been asked not to eat him). Theobald then turns all four adventurers invisible, while Glitterstem helps make the sledge as unobtrusive as possible. The party members then climb into refuse bins (including a particularly large one for Enkidu), and Meriadar’s young kinsman Buxanas leads a team of refuse collectors and their sledge to the Builders’ Gate. To the great relief of the party, the sledge appears to be waved through the gate with no inspection. A few nervous minutes pass as the mongrels struggle to push the heavy sledge uphill, but soon thereafter, Buxanas informs the hidden adventurers that they have arrived at the Temple of Luthic.
The invisible four struggle out of the refuse bins. They find themselves in an improbable valley with terraced hillsides, and small adobe-style houses at the bottom. Larger, multistory towers rise from the hills behind them. Wood and rope contraptions next to them seem to be cranes, and sand, and stones scattered throughout the valley floor suggest that this is a busy construction site. Poles, apparently fashioned of orichalk, are crowned with large crystals glowing with a silver light – thus the whole place is illumined. There is currently no one out and about on the street.
The temple appears to be a simple adobe building with a roughly circular addition built onto the back, and attached to the main building by a corridor. The party proceeds into the adobe, finding the door open. The area is modestly decorated with rugs, wicker furniture, and candelabra. Two ladders built of pods, perhaps, lead to lofts overlooking the main room. The area is empty, but there is screaming coming from the back room. Listening to the sounds, the female screams are punctuated by other voices, one also female, one indeterminate, encouraging the woman, in orcish, to push. Concluding that they are obviously witnessing a childbirth, Enkidu leads the group up into a loft, to wait for the process to end. After a short while, the effects of the invisibility have worn off, but the sounds of an infant crying suggest that a successful childbirth has taken place. Disturbingly, the other two people sound aghast at what has just taken place. In short order, they appear in the main room, splattered with blood: one – a doughty looking, middle aged orcish woman, the other, shockingly, Enkidu’s younger brother Agni…

Report Date

20 Feb 2016