Bandaluthia Session 43

Bandaluthia: Session 43

The next three days seemed to fly by for the Monterey bound Animals. Firstly Jacob and Shaniqua had to escort a humble Anastasia to the council chambers for her to resign and thus leave Monterey. After this, Jacob had found Carly and rumours of Antoine. The Animals had a meeting with Carly and offered her a position within their district. Carly was to unite the ‘working girls’ of Monterey under the Guild banner. Carly had been working as a barmaid in The Titan’s Maul which was renowned as a Guard establishment. Carly used her charms to get all the pimps from Monterey arrested and the Animals then provided the protection for them. The rumours of Antoine had to be placed upon the back burner for now at least. So within three days, Carly had the prostitution within the district boundaries all sown up.

Meanwhile, the Animals looked to the protection of Monterey. A business spokesman met with the Animals and a fair and mutually beneficial agreement was made. The Animals then sent Ti Ying to the markets and he sorted a deal with the traders, which made them work protection for themselves, but had Guild back up and supervision. The Animals used the Guild numbers of thieves and fighter types to enforce the changes and oversee a smooth transition.

In the Guild numbers was the Pit fighting champion from The Pony. He called himself Orc Stormdrain and he was a brute. He offered his services to the Guild, but Ratsel saw some potential in the huge warrior, and marked him for protection a little closer to home. Another of these Guild figures was an elf who called himself “Barry the Bard” and he was an entertainer of some standing. The Animals warmed to the cheeky womaniser, and kept him close by too. The other higher level members were sent to protect the Guild pubs within Monterey, The Satyr & Sickle, The Pony and the Seacat. Protection of the Guild and Monterey seemed to be in place. Time will tell of the success of the failure of this particular venture from the young and inexperienced Guild Heads for Monterey.

After the three days of seemingly endless meetings, the Animals grew restless. They wanted to please Genara, and thus set out to rob the house of the former Ruhlberg Guild wizard, Sho’Dara-Khanan. With the rest of the Animals back from their success in Jonger, the Animals who stayed home in Monterey went on the rob. Ratsel, Elodee, Jacob, Shaniqua and Ti Ying were joined by Coolio (who had rested up enough and wanted to practice his burglars skills) and also Barry. Sho’Dara-Khanan’s house was just a cottage. It was literally five small rooms and a large, fully enclosed garden. After a brief discussion about tactics, it was deemed to be ultra classy to steal, not just the things of worth, but every last item. Not just books, but the bookshelves themselves. Not just the silver and crockery, but the cutlery and flooring rugs. The Animals had access to several bags of holding, and they took the lot, dust and all.

Interestingly, the rug in the kitchen hid a trap door. The trap door revealed a five foot square shaft going down, beyond vision. Barry jumped at the chance to excel, and dropped dancing lights into the hole. Some fifty feet down, the saw the floor. The floor was made of the same materials as the sides of the shaft, obsidian. The obsidian sparkled with magic within the light spell. A rope was tied and then dropped into the hole, but Jacob, the first to go down, seemed to miss the rope and fell. The crunch at the bottom was sickening, and Jacob had to push back several ribs and hold himself together until Coolio had made it to him. Coolio did bother to use the rope and he then healed Jacob back to where the pain was bearable.

Everyone else made down the hole except for Ratsel and Elodee who stayed topside. The chamber they were in was heptagon. It was about twenty five foot across, and in the middle of each side was a door. Each door had a gem in it, about eye level. Jacob tried to open a door, but could not find the way, so he then tried to prise the sapphire out. The consequential electric shock shot him back several feet, and caused more damage than Coolio had just healed. The halfling admonished him accordingly. They door remained shut. Ratsel decided that they should all leave the hole, and let him fireball the chamber. So everyone got out, and he went in. It was then that everyone heard the gate, the footsteps toward the door and everyone tried to hide (in an empty house…please guys!) Sho’Dara-Khanan had returned. Everyone went on the offensive as she entered, but nothing seemed to connect, until she suggested that everyone go down the hole. Everyone obeyed, except for a slightly taken aback Elodee. She did not feel compelled to obey. The wizard told Elodee that she should in fact do has requested, and feeling somewhat vulnerable, the Enchantress did as required. Sho’Dara-Khanan then floated down as well. As she touched down on the floor, the doors opened up revealing seven rooms with walls made out of the gemstone on the door. Indeed the sapphire door, which Jacob had tried to brutalise, opened to show a triangular room, with a rounded pointed end, and the domed ceiling was sapphire too. The room was about fifteen foot long, and when all seven doors where open, the room resembled a huge seven pointed star. There other six rooms showed diamond, ruby, emerald, amethyst, topaz and amber. In each room a small two foot high pedestal. An item hovered above each bathed in a light of similar colour to the room. So, the Diamond room held a ring, the ruby a book, the emerald a dagger. The room made from Sapphire had a ring within a bowl of water. The amethyst had a gem, the topaz a scroll but the amber room had nothing. Sho’Dara-Khanan offered Ratsel an item. The tiefling wizard spied her with some suspicion, but his, now legendary, thirst for magic saw him bolt for the book within the ruby room. Elodee took the ring from the diamond room. Jacob took the bowl of water with the ring from the room that nearly killed him. Shaniqua took the Amethyst’s gem, which was a fist sized amethyst. Coolio wasted no time in securing the dagger from the emerald chamber. Ti Ying entered the Amber room with his arms folded as a show of defiance, perhaps suggesting he could not be bought with trinkets. Barry breathed an audible sigh of relief which suggested he would take the scroll from the topaz room. Unfortunately for the bard, he was not offered the chance. Whether Ti Ying’s slight upset Sho’Dara-Khanan we shall not know. The witch instructed the rest to join Ti Ying and all obeyed. The amber rooms’ door shut. The light grew intense, and then each Animal, and Barry, felt their stomachs seemingly turn inside out, but the feeling was fleet. The light dimmed but the room had gone. The seven would-be robbers found themselves in a forest. Where they had left at midnight, they found themselves in late afternoon. Some knowledge nature had the trees to be wrong. The trees were native to Kalasyria, not Kalasandran where the Animals should be. They had been lead into a trap.

A small logging community was found a mile or so away, and the Animals holed up there for the night. Barry entertained the whole of the population of the village. Around fifty people turned up to see the only visitors these folk had had for years. Barry was so good, he had his pick of the ladies, and whilst his performance still held the imagination of the village, Barry had sex with the most attractive female member of the audience. It was a night that the greasy blonde haired, bucked tooth, spotty but voluptuous woman barely out of her teens would never forget. Unfortunately the morning saw the father of Barry’s conquest recover from the musically wonderful charming performance. He, his brothers and the girls’ fiancé were all a little mad. Perhaps it was time to exit the logging village. The Animals had spoken of trying to find a wizard to teleport them back to Bandaluthia. The only problem was the nearest big city was about eight miles away, and the nearest city over a thousand.

Whilst Barry and his nights entertainment played, the other animals tried to discern what the magic was. Coolio’s new dagger had spoken to him. It called itself “Jaademes” and went on to identify the ring Elodee had. The ring was an Enchanters Ring, and a ring of wizardry. Ratsel’s dagger told the tiefling that his book was The History of Red Dragons, and a very powerful spell book. Some of the other items were identified, but it was here that Barry’s night of passion held more of a threat than the Animals could ignore.

So, what will the Animals do eight thousand miles from Palanthia?
How will the Animals in Monterey cope with out leadership?