May 02, 2009

Hook

Your contact “one –leg Willie” at the old portal farm has a job for you. Pay Willie 10 sp and go to the Grey Wine Shoppe just outside of Little Lentri.

Plot Synopsis

The players arrived at the Grey Wine Shoppe one at time. “Farmer Joe” , an incredibly large fat guy, arrived quite early and was served wine by an elven nomad woman for a couple hours. There were several other patrons one of which read the same article in the paper for the whole hour.
The remainder of the party came in around 6 pm with Musang doing the requisite adventurer casing of the Shoppe. Everyone was asked their business and served some wine, although Hon Key also ordered a beer. Upon entry, Musang recognized the elven woman as the nomad who had captured and interrogated him ~1 year earlier. The woman after reciprocating Musang’s recognition identified herself as “Gregor”. The party was ushered into an extra large coach (thanks to a forewarning from Willie) and taken to the hide out. The party was given bunks to sleep in and told the details of the mission would be explained in the morning. Musang noted that there were several guards armed with bows and one high placed sniper with a rifle (from Dena’s).

Gregor explained in the morning that the group she represented wished to re-establish old extra-planar contacts. In particular, there was one member who had been stranded by the plane shift that was the go between for a lot of the groups dealings. She offered 500 sp + 100sp/week with a minimum of 5 weeks work. She suggested that the players could either use the CGoW portal or look into rumors of a secret portal in the old Portal Farm. She then gave them a letter for Kaelin and a small puzzle box with a button, which she claimed was an “escape device” which would teleport everyone in 5’ of the box back to the warehouse.

The players opted (to the GM’s surprise) to take the CI portal. They went through the portal to the alpha site where they noticed several details. All the Jaernian portals (save portal 0) are labeled using trejon numbers (like roman numerals). They also noticed several tents which appeared to be shops selling adventuring gear, although it was noted that the prices were roughly twice the going rate. They proceeded to the portal to the mapping point, which was located in a tent. They were promptly interviewed and questioned as to where they were going and what they were doing. They claimed to be visiting off-world relatives. Detailed notes as to their appearance, a transcript of the interview, and the exact time period they were interviewed for.

The party went to the mapping point which was a forested world. The encampment was enclosed by wood fortifications and it was noted that there were a few guards around with scoped rifles wearing a patch reminiscent of Centralia. The party wandered around a bit until Hon Key found a drunk. After bribing the drunk with silver and alcohol, they determined the location of a plane adjacent to terminal 3. After some casing of the tent the party simply walked in and bluffed their way through the portal, saying they were on a mission for CGoW. They were given the usual warning and allowed to pass.
Once through the portal the explored a pseudo-jaernian trade city, and eventually found an inn. The party came up with a plan to ingratiate themselves with the locals involving an arm-wrestling contest between Angela and Musang with the loser buying drinks for the house. A few rounds later and the locals were more than happy to point them in the direction of the terminal 3 portal.

The party then tromped off through the terminal 3 portal and to their final planar destination which turned out to be a city similar to early 19th century London. They went to the location they were given, a club called “Mauggie’s” where they inquired about Kaelin. They had a sitdown in one of the private booths in the upper balcony with the owner and a couple of his thugs. The owner threatened and then attacked (or had his thugs attack) the party for not revealing Kaelins location or turning over what they were carrying for him. The party promptly kicked their ass and ran off with the owner, who was quickly coerced into revealing that he didn’t know where Kaelin was but that he had a shack in the woods.

The party then went out into the woods and set up camp. Kaelin (using a ring of likeness that was a “shadowy form”) stalked the camp at night, but promptly ran off after it was clear the party was on to his presence. (most notably is when Hon Key tried to paralyze him with his portable eyeball) Kaelin realized they were Jaernian and decided that we would continue to follow them, albeit at a safer distance. The party set off in the morning, tracking Kaelin to a game trail which they followed. “Farmer Joe” (among others) suspected that they were being watched and “accidently” dropped a joined coin. About a ¼ met later “he” (using the other coin) noticed the coin moved. “Farmer Joe” then removed his bracelet, revealing himself to Dena, and activated a spell. She then ran the ¼ met in a round and tackled Kaelin who was dressed in a guille suite and had just realized the significance of the coin. Some minor tree chasing ensued until the party positively identified Kaelin and handed over the letter and box. Kaelin read the letter, and told the party “Thanks, now shove off”. The party then shoved off.

Upon returning through the mapping portal, Dena disguised the party as Tanis, Claude and one other famous adventurer who were promptly let through the portal. They then returned to the Wine Shoppe and were paid.

Rulings made-anyone can determine the location of a joined item, not just the caster. Technically the spell says he in reference to the caster, but I had always thought it worked for anyone.
Incants memlocs regain their mapping once they are back in the old space.
Cannon established:
The old Portal Farm was devastated when magic went away. Stores quickly dried up and there were food riots which had to be forcefully put down. Some Barrios (like little lentri) shut themselves off for the duration. After the portals were re-established some normalcy returned.
Currently there are portals to all the old locations on Jaern, all through the alpha site.
There is a secret portal to the old planes in the old portal farm. One group managed (somehow) get an otherworld cast. They are currently using their position to leverage themselves as the only provider of off-world items, which the claim comes from a pre-existing stock. They are also using their economic position to issue script instead of trading with silver.

Noteworthy Postgame Events