7.1 What a Day It's Been

Met with a contact in Urithiru who said there was a bounty on the head of the leader of the Ivory Throne who was believed to be located at the Hanging Tree Tavern just outside of Urithiru's walls. After meeting Freya there, we gathered a bit more information and went and grabbed Thrahn and Renaldine. We told them what was going on and that we had an interest in claiming this bounty. We explained to them that we were told that just last week this same contact had sent another group to claim the bounty, but they never returned. We agreed to do what we could to rescue them as part of our mission if the worst hadn't happened to them already. Having traveled with these guys before, I make a quick trip to a nearby shop to grab some thieves' tools just in case we need them. I'm not the most adept at picking locks, but I've seen it done before. How hard can it be?
 
We set out on the quick journey to the tavern. We were able to locate it easily enough, though it was off the beaten path a bit. For a tavern, this place is quite odd. There aren't any windows at all, and the doors are solid wood only lit by torchlight. If it weren't for that, we'd think perhaps nobody was home. I listened through the doors and could hear some chatter behind them so I advised the group to enter with care, though I don't hear anything that puts me on alert.
 
I carefully open one of the doors and take a quick peek inside. Seeing nothing obviously dangerous, I step inside. I'm immediately met by a guard. I'm not the type who frequents such social spots, but I'd wager a guess that this isn't ordinarily who I'd expect to meet me at the entrance of a tavern. I'd expect bouncers, but not necessarily an armed and armored guard. We must be at the right spot given the intel we received from our contact back home. I strike up a quick conversation about why a tavern would be so heavily guarded. They tell us that not but a week ago some misfits came in a nearly caused a riot to break out after an attack. He suggests we talk with the owner of the bar for more information. So we do so.
 
So far the story checks out. Nothing really seems amiss or shady just yet.
 
We walk up to the bar and ask the barkeep for a good drink. He suggests a dwarven stout, which I happily take. Talking with the barkeep/owner, he gives us a bit more detail on what happened. During our conversation, he makes note of our garb and equipment and rightly determines that we aren't just your typical adventuring party. We're more "put together" and capable than that. Trying not to tip him off to our true intent, I tell him we were on our way out into the Westmarches on a job but decided to stop in for a quick bit of refreshment before heading back out. He gestures to a nearby table as if to request that we take a seat and he'd be with us shortly. We oblige.
 
The barkeep, who, after realizing our potential, reveals to us his true name of Raskovar, and briefly explains the group he leads and a bit of insight into who they are and how they go about their work. He tells us he has a job for us. At this point, we know we're here to claim the bounty on this guy's head and to attempt to rescue the members of the other adventuring party who were presumably captured. But, this could be our "in" without tipping our hand. We decide to hear him out on his offer. He invites us to stay for a couple more hours while he "does his business", and that he'll come back to gather us after the tavern has closed. Again, we oblige.
 
We take that time to make chit chat with each other. As the we begin to get into discussions about our strategy once he returns, I feel a bit uneasy about the two people nearest us sitting at the bar, one of which appears to be a bouncer. I dismiss myself from the table and attempt to make myself appear drunk. In my "drunken" stupor, I clamber over to the bar and sit in the seat nearest those two. I start loudly ordering some food and drink, describing in detail exactly how I'd like the order. Hopefully I'm loud and distracting enough to give my friends time to talk some strategy without the others being able to listen closely enough to hear the conversation. It seems to work beautifully. They're totally buying the performance. I've never considered myself an actor, but maybe there's a future in it for me after ridding myself of this abysmal curse.
 
Soon enough, the lights dim, denoting close of business. Patrons begin filing out. Raskovar comes back to gather us just as he said he would. He takes us past the heavily guarded orcs and behind the rear wall and moves aside a tapestry, revealing a secret portal in the wall. He walks through and beckons us to follow. At this point, we kind of have to go through with it, so we carefully step through the portal.
 
Suddenly, this seemingly small, windowless, yet cozy, tavern has become FAR larger than any of us expected. And more sinister. Immediately Renaldine notices the vast array of sharp weaponry, including axes, swords and daggers, plastered all over the ceiling of the stairwell we now find ourselves standing on. She recommends we step carefully as she feels this place is trapped at every turn. At the bottom of the stairs, we see Raskovar sitting at a large table along with a dozen or so others who seem to be preoccupied with a card game. He dismisses some of them to the lower levels to make room for us at the table.
 
Raskovar elaborates on the job he has for us. To make a long story short, he wants to send us on a quest to find a single egg from a creature known as a Scyza, a gargantuan lizard-like creature, so that he and his family can continue their lives without worrying about sustenance or something. I have to admit I tuned out a bit at his request to send just the four of us on a surely deadly mission to find and defeat a creature the size of which, as he said in his own words, could carry 30 of his people on its back at once. Then he has the gall to offer us ONLY 300g each and a favor on completion.
 
At this time, Thrahn excuses himself from the table, asking if he could take us aside to converse amongst ourselves whether we want to take this job, to which Raskovar obliges. We move into the stairwell in which we entered. We discussed why we were truly here. Freya suggested she could just throw a quick fireball around the corner right now and catch them all off guard, but we felt Raskovar was already getting suspicious of us thanks to the absolutely ridiculously insulting offer of such a seemingly dangerous job. I suggest we hear him out and see if completing this quest could gain us some leverage. We can try to gather the egg and then hold it ransom. He can pay up for it, or fight us for it. Thrahn seemed to have mixed feelings about both approaches, but Renaldine made it known in no uncertain terms that she thought going through with his job offer was asinine. She convinced me, but then I guess she had a change of heart. We ultimately decided to go back to the table and demand a far larger sum of payment, and he'd still owe us a favor.
 
After telling Raskovar about our demands, he actually thanks us for seeing our own worth. He used his low offer as a sort of test to gauge our level of experience and sense of self worth. He seemed all too keen to pay more, and was happy that we approached him with our concerns. He told us he'd be right back after writing up a contract for the job, and dismissed himself. We watched as he walked down another set of stairs next to those we came in on.
 
After waiting for a decent while, he never showed back up. I got impatient and walked over to those stairs, looking to see if I could find him. I saw nothing but the flicker of flame coming from a torch around the corner. I gestured for the group to come with me. I used the excuse that all the ale I drank earlier was making me have to use the bathroom. The other orcs in the room told me I could go to the outhouse out back, but I just told them I wouldn't make it and disregarded their advice.
 
We headed downstairs and found ourselves at the end of a hallway. There were two sets of doors that we could see. The first was a pair of locked doors. I passed them up as I wanted to appear to be looking for a bathroom. In my experience, such facilities are not typically behind double doors. I move to the single door just past this pair and open it. It opens into a large room which appears to host a few creatures I couldn't quite get a good look at during my quick peek. The creatures were standing at the center of what looked like a circular feeding trough. One of the creatures exclaimed something about one of the critters escaping. Inside the circular trough itself were several mole-like creatures running around. That's about all I could glean from the quick look inside. I quickly shut the door and made a quick surprised statement about my mistake in opening a door to a room which clearly was not the bathroom I was looking for. I made sure to say it loudly enough such that anyone down here wouldn't think I was trying to be sneaky, and was simply looking for a bathroom in which to relieve myself. No one seemed to care.
 
I went back to the double doors just in case this place had a bathroom the likes of which I'd never seen. These doors were locked, however. I quickly attempted to pick the lock, and, to my own surprise, I was able to do so quite easily. I did the same thing here, opening the door quickly just to peek inside, hoping to find Raskovar to ask what was taking him so long. But all I saw was a run-down storage room with a lone creature inside. The creature looked just like those mole-looking things from the previous room. It looked up at me. I quickly grabbed one of my rations so as not to intimidate it, but rather in hopes to make friends with it. It charged toward me, but only chomped at the rations, cheekily chewing on some cheap chow. As it seemed content with us, I left the doors open. Perhaps if it knows we're friendly, it may join us should we need help? Who knows. I can only hope!
 
We continue down the hallway. At the end, it opens into a larger chamber featuring a large domed fountain in the center. Past the fountain are two giant, elegantly embellished ivory doors guarded by two orc rampart guards. With my party behind me, I approach, asking if there are bathrooms behind those doors that I could quickly use. They tell us to use the outhouse, just like the others from before did, but I said I just couldn't make it. I mimed like I was going to relieve myself in the fountain and stuck my hand into the water as if to wash my hands. Nothing seems amiss about the water. It feels nice. As I do so, the guards stop me before I could investigate further, warning me I shouldn't do that. Not wanting to make trouble, I stop.
 
We ask if they've seen Raskovar, to which they affirm they had. We ask what's taking him so long. On hearing this, Renaldine snaps having heard enough, and takes a swing at one of the guards. It's on now. Freya casts a quick Silence spell in hopes of preventing any sounds of combat from alerting anyone, but one of the guards reaches for something, causing all the torches in the compound to begin glowing with a red light. Welp. If no one was suspicious before, they certainly are now. Just about then, out from within the fountain I was told not to look further into comes an electrified orc. It takes aim at Freya before attempting to run down the hallway. Thrahn just about takes out one of the guards single-handedly. That was impressive to say the least. Eventually we are able to take out the guards easily enough.
 
We quickly attempt to open the large ivory doors, but they're locked. Once again, Renaldine checks if they're trapped. She finds none, so I quickly get to work trying to pick the lock. I find this one tougher and break a lockpick, but I kept at it and was able to get through on my next attempt. These thieves' tools sure are proving their worth. Great purchase. I'll have to submit a review later when I'm a little less busy.
 
Freya makes sure nothing else is going to come out of the fountain. In doing so, she finds a Decanter of Endless Water. As soon as she removes it from the fountain, the fountain dries up as the water drains away. This must've been the source. It's nice to have an endless amount of refreshing, clean water. Great find, Freya!
 
We open the left door and peek around the corner. Nothing appears to be amiss, so we continue. Down the stairs, we come up to another pair of doors, albeit smaller, much like those we found at the storage room with our mole-pig friend. They're locked as well, so as usual, we check for traps before attempting to pick the locks. These tools are great. They work a treat on these doors and I open them and peek inside.
 
Looks like we've found Raskovar's room. The room is full of orcs. Raskovar greets us, sitting in his throne of ivory. Behind him are two closed large iron doors. This room is a near identical tavern room, bar and all. I'd swear we were back upstairs if it weren't for the prominent throne and doors at the opposite end of the room.
 
He welcomes us into his "Dohmain". I see what he did there. Another long story short, we all know the jig is up, and he knows he's not getting any eggs, and that we're here to claim his bounty. He yells to his comrades "KILL THEM!" and the fight is on. It's a long, grueling battle. Freya fires a fierce fireball at our foes, felling many fiends in a fearsome fiery furnace. Raskovar makes his presence known by casting a spell, catching Renaldine and myself in its wake, causing us to fear him for some time. Renaldine is able to quickly shake off its effects, but I remain terrified throughout our battle. He then summons dozens more lackeys to assist him, but they're quickly taken care of by more fireballs. Goodness gracious! It was about this moment that Raskovar decides to show us what's behind the large doors behind his throne. As he opens the large iron doors, we hear a terrifying roar. Looks like we don't have to go far to find any Scyza eggs as we stare down a gargantuan T-Rex-looking creature. I did NOT have going to a bar to fight a giant dinosaur on my Bingo card today, but here we are. We do what we can to withstand the onslaught of seemingly endless backup as the rest of his posse in the Ivory Throne come to Raskovar's aid. Somehow we are able to withstand it all as we finally whittle away at their numbers and Raskovar's vitality.
 
Just before we take our aim to put Raskovar out once and for all, he screams in agony and defeat as he pleads for his life. We take but a moment to consider his plea before Freya launches her final assault. It misses, but sends a clear signal to him that we are not here to give up, but rather see this through to the end. He picks his axe back up and takes a couple more swings with it at me. But before he's able to do much more harm, we're able to finish everyone off, including the Scyza. The fight is finally over. We were far more successful and capable than even we gave ourselves credit for.
 
With the adrenaline coursing through my body, I don't remember every last detail past this point. I remember scouring the compound for loot. In amongst that which we find is the deed to a house, some keys, a bronze skull that screams when you look at it, some nice weapons and a pair of psi lenses. I take the lenses as they can assist in getting out of sticky situations. Amazing finds all around!
 
We are able to find the captive party easily enough and heal them up enough to get them out under their own power. We were ambushed by a lone assassin and a powerful mimic that disguised itself as a key (whoa!) before making our way out and back to Urithiru to claim our payment and some much needed rest.
 
What a day it's been.