Jammers:Turn 18, Chapter 6 Summary pt 1

The Ongoing adventures of my Spelljammer PBEM game.

Here's the Jammers web address:

http://jammers.s5.com/

Comments, questions always welcome:)

----------- = Meanwhile, elsewhere...
*********** = Later...

IC:

After the company battles the scavver, Talus and Grigree leave to
make the rounds of the taverns looking for information. Talus
requested Grigree come along. "Just as a precaution."

They stop at several dives, where Talus generally buys a drink for
one or two folks and listens to them talk for a few moments. Finally,
as the evening wears on Talus leads Grigree to a place called The
Sign of the Black Bull, a prosperous looking tavern on the corner of
Squid and Galleon. It's close enough to the Middle City that the
streets are actually clean.

Inside the decor is martial with antique weapons, shields, and
banners lining the walls. The place is quiet, with fewer then a dozen
patrons though it could easily hold thrice that many. A harpist, an
old looking elf, sits on a balcony and strums lightly, just enough of
a background song to keep table conversations in the tavern common
hall private. The room radiates comfort and calm.

Only two folks in the room catch their attention. Talus sighs when he
sees the first, "I thought so."

It's a man with dark hair worn loose over his shoulders wearing
leather armor and bearing a large battle axe. He's speaking with the
one-eyed dwarven bartender. Both Talus and Grigree immediately
recognize Radick.

The other individual doesn't spark Talus' interest, but catches
Grigree's right away. It's a hadozee, sitting in a corner booth near
the fire. His fur at one time was obviously black, but it has grown
somewhat grey with age, and his mane is now fully white. He's wearing
an equipment harness of finely made leather, and two scabbarded
longswords lean against the wall within his easy reach. Though
obviously aged he looks calm, competent, and confident. Only the
neogi slave tattoo on his left shoulder detracts from his appearance.

"Rrr, I think we should talk to him. May have better lrrr, luck in
person," Grigree says quietly to Talus.

Radick smiles bitterly as the two of them walk up. "Well, at least I
know you two won't mind rape me like Kain did. Come to offer Kain's
apologies?"

Grigree's brow furrows at the mention of Kain's intrusion. "No. No
apologies.  Hrr, he's young and inexperienced.  Didn't know what he
was doing."  Grigree glances at the empty barstools nearby.  "So, can
we sit and talk business?"

Radick nods and motions to two bar stools as he takes a third.

Grigree lowers himself into the chair opposite Radick. "Holland would
lrrr, like to meet with you," Grigree says to the human. "We need
someone of your expertise."

Radick nods, "I'm interested, if the price is right."

Grigree asks, "When could you come to the ship?"

"I don't. After that brain invasion I'm staying far from Kain.
Holland wants to talk, he can meet me here. How about tommorrow eve?"
Radick answers.

"Heh, Kain found you before," Grigree replies, "he could find you
here. But this place will, lrrr, be fine." Grigree pauses for a bit.
"Well, lrrr, see you tomorrow," the hadozee says as he gets up to go.
"Won't waste more of your time." With a small nod, Grigree walks away
from the table with Talus.

When they get out of Radick's earshot, Grigree says to Talus, "Talus,
I, rrrr, need to talk to someone.  I shouldn't be too lrrr, long. Can
you wait for me?"

Talus nods, looking thoughtful. "Of course." he moves to an
unobtrusive corner and fades unnoticed into tavern's shadows.

"Good, thanks," Grigree says with a small nod and heads off to talk
to the old hadozee.

Grigree slowely approaches the old hadozee's table.  "Rrr, excuse
me," he says, "are you Guraugh?"

The grizzled old hadozee, grunts, "That's me. Who  grr, are you?"

"I'm Grigree of clan Ragroo.  I'd lrr, like to buy you a drink," Grigree says.

The old hadozee looks around the room carefully for a moment, then
shrugs. "Why in the Abyss not. Sit."

"Thank you," Grigree says and signals a serving girl. Turning back to
Grugragh, he slips into a chair at the table. "I never thought I'd
get to meet you.  What, rrr, brings you to the Rock?"

"RRresting, for now." the older hadozee growls. "You?"

Grigree and the grizzled older hadozee continue talking for a short
while, and then Grigree and Talus continue tavern hopping for
information.

--------------------

As the watch changes Leera returns to the ship, escorted by Elrohir's
first mate, Blinggood. He leaves her at the gangplank and turns to
walk back down towards his own ship.

Date/Time: Evening 6th day of the 8th Month, 5049 OC

*****************
Date/Time: 7th day of the 8th Month, 5049 OC

Rising fairly early, Kain breaks his fast and begins making
preparations to venture into Bral proper.  "I'd. ahhh. thought on
restocking our larders and such, as Billy noticed we are getting down
to the bottom of the..err.barrels," he says in passing as he crams
down what remains of his repast.

"I.. uhh.. also have to pick up some.err.. things and.. stuff.. in
one of the markets if anyone would like to go with me," the young man
adds.

Holland replies, "Make sure to hit the House Moune grocers for our
foodstuffs.  We get the best prices from them."

Shortly thereafter, Kain, and  Seguld set off. They turn a few
corners and are soon out of view of the ship. they return a few hours
later having arranged for supplies and shopped.

---------------

Talus and Grigree find Holland  and fill him in on what happened in
their meeting with Radick. "...and he agreed to a meeting," Grigree
finishes, "but not on the ship. He doesn't want to be near Kain.
Lrrr, like distance matters a mindwalker. He wants to meet tomorrow
evening at the Black Bull."

Holland says, "Tomorrow? That sounds fine, would you and Talus please join me?"

Grigree nods affirmative.  "Of course."

After his shift, on his way to the Mage's Guild, Holland stops by the
SWORD to keep his appointment with Elrohir. They speak for a short
while and Holland asks Elrohir to watch out for Dodinas and Anson.

---------------

In the evening of 7th, Holland, Grigree and Talus enter the Sign of
the Black Bull. Holland looks around the tavern before spotting
Radick. Heading over to his table, Holland sits down and says, "Well
met Radick. You are looking well."

Radick gives Holland a sour look. "What do you want, Holland? Because
having that money-grubbing mind-bender poking in my head was not a
good way to get my attention. You have a job for me?"

Holland replies, "Didn't mean any offense. Yes, I have a job for you.
I need to locate two individuals. What is the going rate for finding
people?

Radick snorts, "Yeah. No offense. Well, rates depend on who I'm
finding, why, and how long it takes. Want to spell it out for me?"

Holland watches Radick closely as he says, "I am looking for Anson, a sailor
from Pirtel; and Dodinas, a cook from Greatspace; both late of the THOR's
HAMMER."

Radick nods, but shows no other reaction to the names. "Two men, from
the same ship. That should make it a bit easier. Can you tell me
anything about the ship, or what you want from these men? Where were
they last seen?"

Holland replies, "The ship was a hammership captained by Rory
Barbarossa and home-ported at Bral. As for these two men, they each
have something I wish to purchase."  Holland pauses and then
carefully says, "I will also pay a bonus if you give me any
information you find out before you give the information to...
other... parties."

Radick stands and snorts, "It's obvious you know I was looking for
Anson. I have another employer." Radick stands, "If I find anything,
I'll contact you and _then_ we can talk price. Expect to pay a lot."

Without another word Radick leaves the tavern.

Date/Time: 7th day of the 8th Month, 5049 OC

Date/Time: 8th day of the 8th Month, 5049 OC

In the morning of the 8th day, Raken spends a few minutes studying
the flow charts before asking Holland to accompany him to the Temple
of Celestian to see if they have any information about the spheres
discussed earlier. "I wish to see if my fellow Celestians know
anything about any of the places we considered earlier.  Perchance
one may have visited said spheres would provide us a unique insight
as to what to expect."

Taking a well-travelled route, Raken & Holland head up to the Temple.
Once there, Raken begins chatting with the priests, seeing if anyone
had visited Refuge, Greatspace, Grommspace, Krynnspace and Pirtel
Space. If they had, he asks if they would be so kind as to tell of
their travels in the sphere in question. He listens carefully to
their tales and thanks them for their time and patience.

After they get back to the ship, Raken gathers anyone that's
interested into the helmroom to retell what he learned from his
fellow Celestians.

"It seems," he begins, "that Pirtel is a small, backwater sphere. A
couple of planets and asteroid belts. The planet that would interest
us is some ocean-world with some island chains and a couple of
islands that are big enough to rightly be considered continents.  It
has a city in orbit, called Skyport I believe, that is not unlike
Bral, if much smaller.  It's run by one of the groundling cultures
that tried to extend their reach into wildspace."

He continues, "The priests were helpful in providing some information
about Refuge as well.  It's an Arcane-run sphere, pretty small but on
a lot of major trade routes.  The Arcane protect it fiercely as one
of their main ports of call, catering to travellers of all sorts.
Only neogi are banned; every other race is welcomed to come, trade,
and buy the expensive wares the Arcane have to offer."

Raken says, "You know, I've been thinking. Scavver attacks on the
docks is virtually unheard of.  Not unless they are... encouraged,
shall we say, perhaps by means of training or by sorcery.  Our...
good friends... might be moving
against us..."

Holland asks, "Can one control a creature like that?"

Raken nods. "It would require one that is more skilled in the art of
spellcasting than you or I, but it is not entirely unheard of for
scavvers to be used as attack dogs in wildspace. We should consider
ourselves lucky that only one was sent."

Holland replies with a smile, "Or we are just being paranoid. In any
case, it is a good point to think on."

Raken raises an eyebrow at Holland's comment. "Paranoid?
Perhaps...though I fear we are not being paranoid enough. It is my
duty to keep this crew in reasonably
good health, so its my job to be paranoid." Raken says. He still
appears worried.

Holland agrees, "We need to remain vigilant. I think we have been
almost too long on Bral. The longer we stay in one place, the longer
our enemies have to plan their attacks. Maybe this scavver attack was
just the first; maybe it was a probe, to see how well we responded.
The damn thing almost killed one of us."

"As I said, we were lucky there was but one," Raken responds.  "More
would cause us greater harm, or distract our attention from
elsewhere."

Holland says, "I am almost finished with my spell research. I think,
if we do not get any other leads before then, that once I finish we
should head off to Pirtel and look for our wayward soul. Get away
from Bral for a while." Holland looks over at Raken, "What do you
think?"

Raken nods.  "That would be good.  Though let us not declare our
destination; head towards Grommspace first, or maybe Krynnspace. Once
we're in deep space, we can adjust our course.  It will be good to
get the dust of this worldlet off our boots and find new spheres
again," Raken mutters.

Raken further adds "it may be wise to gain something of value to
trade.  I doubt our 'wayward soul' will be willing to part with his
tale freely; we need to be ready to give him compensation."

Holland says, "Maybe we offer to take him with us and cut him a share.."

Raken nods negative.  "I doubt it.  If they wanted to return and
claim the treasure, they would have done so already.  Most likely
they are terrified of the place, and only held onto the log and map
so that they could sell them to the highest bidder."

Holland shrugs, "You may have a point, but it is academic until we find them."

A loud knock followed by Ive's large head enters the helm room.
"Raken my good fellow Billy mentioned that you checked out some leads
on Pirtel with your fellow Celestians what! Quick thought rattled
through my head when Billy mentioned that, why bother going to
Pirtel, its well mapped and has several natural openings, or at least
our charts indicate so.  Don't meant to rattle on and on of course
what, but if we are planning on making a jaunt of Bral we really
should go to Bucca's Deep."  Ives booms out in a loud voice.

Raken raises an eyebrow.  "I had forgotten about Bucca's Deep."

"Bucca's Deep was where the three surviors first made port, and a
little luck might have tounges willing to wag eh, though some liberal
lubricating of ale and gold might be needed what!" Ives replies.

"We probably should," Raken replies, "we can always head to Pirtel if
the Deeps don't pan out."

Holland asks, "What and where is Bucca's Deep?"

Raken thinks for a moment, then adds "I don't know much about Bucca;
probably an another asteroid colony that this sphere has an abundance
of."

Holland asks, "Raken, could you check on what exactly is there?
Whoever sees Seguld first, ask him to look into possible cargoes for
the Deep as well."

"I'll go ask him right now what!  He's on watch right now. After I'll
start plotting a course for Bucca's Deep and see how long a round
trip will take us." Ives replies before pulling his head out of the
door and the tromping of his boots echoing down the hallway.

Raken sighs after Ives leaves.  "Giff are such...lively folk, are
they not?  I hope our deck floors don't give out on our voyages."

End Part 1
--
"We sleep safely in our beds, only because rough men stand guard in
the night, ready to visit violence upon those who would do us harm."
H.G. Wells.

Paul Westermeyer,  westermeyer.3@???.edu
Phd Candidate, History, Ohio State University
Instructor, Humanities, Columbus State Community College