The following morning, you are all present in the front room of Grat's Packets.  The townsfolk have gone back to their jobs.  And the passersby who had been present at the festival have started to move along.

But not the two merchants who seem to be working for this slave ring.  They are still in town.  And going about, as if looking for something they've lost.

The lot of you are meeting with Keps.  She finishes basically saying the same thing she told Cassandre, Skeeter, and Jack earlier.

There is a gnomish slave ring.  They have a client who may be slightly a lich.  Keps wants to free the slaves who were sold to said lich, but doesn't have the coins or firepower to do so.

So she wants to find this tomb the lich is searching for and liberate whatever it is the lich is after.  Then use the dohickey to trade for the slaves. Or any of them who are still alive.

"So that's the gist of it," Keps explains to you Kamatar, Bellinha, and Breya.  "What I need to ask your help with is stealing the book GREAT STORIES OF COURAGEOUS TURTLES from the merchants.  Figuring out what information about the tomb contained in the book.  And then going and raiding the tomb.  Sound fun?"

Breya cracked her knuckles.  "Look you had me at breaking slavetraders.  Though this whole thing seems a bit convoluted.  Then again what else is new."

When Keps had dropped the info that the "client" was a Lich, Skeeter's brain had suffered the equivalent of a lute string snapping in the middle of a finely played tune. He had only mostly recovered by the time they made it back to Grat's Packets to bring the issue to the rest of the group.

"I'm still a bit hesitant to con a Lich. What is it that she's looking for anyway? I can't imagine it's a wand of puppies and kittens. It's likely incredibly dangerous." Skeeter scratches at his chin. "Unless maybe it's her fuckfactory? The thing that keeps her ticking?"

You've been waiting your whole roleplaying life to use that joke, weren't you Skeets?

I say that because I'm mostly jealous.

Keps seems puzzled.  "I don't know nothin' about the lich lady's sex life.  All I know is it's some kinda necklace.  Or something like that.  It has something to do with a neck.  I was kind of hoping the book would have more information."

Bellinha listened to Keps make her pitch, her hands folded and cupping her chin in a thoughtful countenance.  "There are a lot of moving parts here, variables, to be considered."  She said.  "How certain are you that the lich will bargain for whatever we find in that tomb for the lives of the gnomes?  And if we need that book from the merchants, please do not think me bloodthirsty for saying this, why do we not just attack them and take it?"

 Cassandre seemed already on board, whether to put an end to slave trafficking, or annoy an all powerful undead, or to expand her book collection, she was not sure yet.

“There’s maybe a way to spin the story so we don’t get too far on the bad side of the lich… we can think about that later.”

“The greater point though is the book itself…”

“It was written a dozen generations ago, based on a conversation between the wizard Atol Shubtil, and the great Dragon Turtle Smelly… it contains great truths about the world, and just being able to read it is worth an adventure!”

Jack thinks about what Cassandre just said and it's his turn to ask a question.  "How quickly do you think you could make a copy of the book, Cassandre".  He says it with a grin, the sort of grin that makes vampires want to take up sunbathing and makes Githyanki wet their beds.

Jack, you see, has just had an idea.

"As long as we are making requests, I have one of my own. I was gifted arrows that are reported to be magical, I would appreciate it if someone, Cassandre, who knows magic could examine them and tell me more about them." Kamatar said while looking pointedly at Cassandre.

Cass, I'll assume you detect magic

Cassandre, the arrows seem to have some kind of conjuration magic placed on them.  And a fairly high level type too.  You'd need to noodle on them i.e. make me a roll to figure out anything more.

Keps looks rather sheepishly at you Bellinha.  "Well.  Really.  I don't know that.  But I need to do somethin'.  And it's not like I can take on a lich.  I figured this was my only chance."


She looks rather crestfallen but then shakes her head.  "Well.  You're right about one thing.  We need to get the book first.  I'd...I'd rather not kill anybody though.  Is that the only way to do it?"

"No."  Bellinha replied.  She was full immersed in the planning of this caper, running various options through her head.  "It's our last option, but it could be an option.  I'd rather not kill anybody if I could help it either, but these do not sound like nice people.  In that case, what do you know about these merchants?  Do they know the value of the book that they are carrying?  I need to know how they perceive the value of the thing if we are going to take it from them.  How hard they are going to fight will be an issue.  Ideally, I'd like to offer them something in trade, if they are open to such a thing."

"If we cannot trade for it, then we'll have to steal it.  That is not really my skill set, so I would have to defer to the more skilled of our companions for that."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:56, Tue 12 Mar.