Session 2

We follow the map Hendryk gave us, heading into the cartways looking for the Black Market and Radu Underhill. I don't want to get lost, so while I don't entirely trust Hendryk, I'm more than willing to stick to the path he's drawn - the map doesn't have more than stubs marking intersecting passageways, and there's no telling how they all interconnect.

At one point, a collection of purple fungus mostly blocks our path. It's easy enough to avoid them, although for a moment I'm afraid Farlin will disturb them. He manages to catch his balance, so we don't see if these things are as dangerous as they look.

Upon reaching the Market, there's a crowd of people, including many races not seen in the city - drow, duergar, darakhul (survivors of Darakhul fever who retained their mind/sanity), kobolds. It's not super crowded - there's plenty of room to move without touching anybody - but it's still a lot of strange people in an enclosed space. If I didn't think the boys needed more supervision, I wouldn't have come down here at all.

Farlin approaches a halfling hawking his wares, asking if he's Underhill. The confused vendor says his name is Theran Flowerheart, and inquires if Farlin would be interested in the poisons he has for sale. Farlin looks like he's tempted, but declines, asking if Flowerheart can direct us to Underhill. We learn that Underhill does business in one of the larger buildings toward the center of the square, so after thanking the poison-vendor that's where we head.

As we make our way toward where Underhill can be found, we witness a Kobold tinker on a boar run into the cart of a duergar. I'm inclined to ignore the incident, even when the duergar drags the kobold off the boar and starts beating him, especially as the crowd seems to think this is acceptable behavior. Kriv'n, however, decides it's gone too far; Harbek joins in. The crowd goes from indifferent to nervous, and I have a bad feeling about the whole thing.

The boys attack the duergar, who retaliates, seriously wounding Kriv'n. We (I) take down the duergar from behind a tent; Harbek makes sure he doesn't bleed out. The kobold gives us a potion - we saved his life, and while he doesn't have much to give, he feels the need to give us something as a token of appreciation. The crowd was ok with the violence, even petty theft, but the kobold informs us that the armor (high-quality scale mail just about the right size for Harbek) is off-limits. The boys walk away with the duergar's javelins and war pick.

Radu Underhill's place is guarded by a pair of darakhul. They don't want to let us in ... Harbek tries to bluff his way in, but the guards aren't buying it. Farlin politely says we're friends of Hendryk, and when we show them the map they reluctantly let us in.

Underhill himself finds it interesting that we're there on behalf of Grigori. He wants a meeting with Lady Marak (head of the Blue House) in return for giving us Ilyana's location. His plan is for us to arrange the meeting using the black book as bait. We agree to Underhill's terms: as long as we don't destroy the book he doesn't care what we do with it. Underhill informs us that Ilyana is hiding in plain sight at the Old Strass Bath House, where he knows someone. I think he knows someone just about everywhere.

On the way back out of the cartways, we're attacked by the duergar we didn't kill and two of his friends. The kobold we rescued, however, shows up with four of his friends to help us out. The duergar don't survive. Clan Firefist is definitely a good friend to have, it seems.

We need a night's rest. Leaving the cartways, we sneak out of the first inn we come to and on to another inn. We're not that sneaky - Kriv'n in particular can't seem to understand the concept of stealth - but I don't think we're followed.