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Present: Mika, Anne, Gardan, Markku, Tommi & Jani

Interrogating the assassin

Bahir, the party's camel thief, travelled to the city along with a caravan, since he had heard rumours of his long lost brother. Cousins, now united, shared the stories of their journeys and adventures. None of the stories were really believed, but most did agree that Bahir's story was very entertaining.

Once the stories had been shared, the party turned its attention toward the captured assassin. Direct inquiries and threats resulted only in scorn on the assassin's behalf, and torture didn't seem like a reasonable thing to do in such a public place. Fortunately for some, less so for one, the assassin's arms had become badly infected during the night. An agreement was reached that if the party would heal the assassin's wounds, he would reveal what he knew. Lamya took on the task of healing the killer's wounds, but could do little. Or so it seemed at first. Efrael continued the healing process but his magic seemed to work a lot faster than was usual. Nonetheless, the assassin was happy with it and agreed to describe his employer, a sheik who could be the Sah game's owner, sheik Ipecac. Efrael then proceeded to heal the other arm in his more usual manner, sending forth black mists. Having been healed, the assassin was put in a sack, and taken to the city guards.

The grand scheme starts unveiling

Late in the morning the meeting took place in the sheik's estate. After a long wait the sheik walked brashly in and asked what the riff-raff of the desert wanted. Lamya told the sheik that they had found his sha game, but they sheik appeared totally uninterested in this. After a few insults Lamya decided to lead the party out. Just outside the conference room they managed to hear the sheik's cousing cursing him for having let the party go after having lost most of his team.

Outside the estate Bahir decided to lead the party to the back door, and everybody took hiding. A man stormed out, who had similar facial features with the sheik, and the party followed him into a bar in the middle of the slum. In the bar Bahir acted as if he didn't know the party, and approached the man they had followed, and asked to join his gang. After having shown the man that he's an apt thief by stealing two gold coins, Bahir was officially part of the local thieves' guild. His first assignment was to steal the gold Lamya was carrying with her. Bahir agreed to take on this task.

Bahir approached the party in the bar still pretending he didn't know them, and started acting as if he was hitting on Lamya. Lamya played along, while Bahir explained the status. They agreed to let Bahir take the gold to the guild leader.

After some giggling and soft talk Bahir left the others and took the gold to the guild thieves' leader. The leader wasn't satisfied with the loot, and claimed that there was at least five times as much gold. He suggested that the gang would ambush our heroes outside the city when they were leaving.

Preparations for the battle

Bahir sought up the rest of the party and tells them about the ambush plans. He also suggested that they'd organize a counter ambush for the thieves. Efrael suggested that they'd use the ghost illusion creating skeleton and the exploding ruby in aid of the ambush, and thus another expedition to the skeleton's dungeon is embarked.

The skeleton and the ruby were still where they were left, and the party went in deeper. In the room to the right, which stank of stale alcohol, they found a scarred chest that contained a lot of coins in a sack, a scrollcase and a well-wrapped faranji (a curved longsword), and table covered by papers describing some architectural plans. Efrael scooped these plans into the scrollcase, that was recently found, and Bahir grabbed the fine but filthy silken sheets from the bed. The room across the hall had a chest that was both locked and trapped. Shamir opened the lock and dodged the trap's dart with ease, but at that point a plate armor that was resting further in the room stood up and attacked Ali with an axe. The battle that ensued was rather short, even though the animated armor was tough and required numerous blows. Ali was seriously wounded in the leg in the battle, but Bahir patched it quickly and efficiently. The chest contained a sturdy chain mail a book labeled The Traps and Wards of Balabar-Dar, which was immediately given to Efrael to study. In the room was also found a staff of reddish wood. The end of the corridor was blocked by a lage chest that was found (by the healp of an axe) to contain only rocks.

The dungeon itself ended into a private apartment. After a short discussion the party decided to leave the apartment alone and lock the door behind them. Now having the skeleton and the ruby in their possession, the party formed a plan...

Stench of the storm in the morning

In the morning Shamir began by healing Mua'Dib's wounds with his magic. After a couple of minutes(!) of focusing of forces, a team of 1cm tall little men came forth, and tinkered and fixed many of Mua'Dib's wounds. Efrael recognized the faranji as magical weapon, and the staff as a spell holding item.

Bahir told the thieves that the party was going to leave at noon next day. Bahir was alos introduced to another Ayten, who was his brother, Saadi. Saadi kept his mouth shut and acted as if the two of them didn't know each other. At the same time Efrael and Lamya moved the skeleton and the ruby to the ambush site. The party moved to a safe spot outside the city to stay the night there.

Just at the crack of dawn Bahir went to the city gates and joined the guild leader with his six thugs, one of which was Saadi. About the same time Efrael animated the skeleton and gave it the ability to fly. Once Bahir came out of the city gates with the thieves' guild leader and his six thugs, the skeleton placed the ruby on the road and flew behind the group of thugs. Bahir stayed a bit behind with his brother, while the rest of the group advanced unknowing of the trap ahead of them. Talking eagerly about different possible ambush sites they walked straight into the trap, and the ruby flared. Soon the stench of burning human skin and flesh filled the air, and all but one thug fell. And even that last one was soon killed by arrows from Bahir and Shamir, and a crossbow bolt from Mua'Dib. Bahir jumped on his brother and forced him to cool down.

It turned out that the leader had survived the blast even though he had suffered severely, and was slowly losing his life. Suddenly the party noticed a group of soldiers approaching. Ignoring this at first, the party tried to desperately save the leader's life. Once the soldiers started to get close, Efrael guided the skeleton to hide carrying the ruby among the rocks near the road. The three Archers unstrung their bows. The soldiers ended the leader's sufferings and took the party in.

Tying up the loose ends

The party was led into a waitingroom and waited for a while and then a man who introduced him self as Faal Balabar entered the room. He thanked the group for cleaning the city of the bandits. He also invited the group to stay in the palace for as long as they wanted. Faal invited the group the banquet that evening.

While Efrael and Ali went to hide the skeleton, Bahir and Mua'Dib wen to get their mounts from the caravan hall. Bahir had promised Saadi his job in the caravan, for Saadi wanted to move on to some other place. He introduced Saadi to the caravan master, and promised that Saadi is a good boy. As Bahir walked away he heard the caravan master's first orders "Here, Boy take this shovel, and clean that dung..."

Continued here