MAL Ep. 21

Whew. Sorry guys, that game went way, way slower than I was expecting.

The recap is consequently a lot shorter than usual:

1) The party went to the metal warehouse of the King of Clocks. They knocked on the door, planning to parlay with the clockworkers, but when no one answered, they went inside to have a peek around. Aler found a note from the King of Clocks mentioning Harasket offering him help with some unknown situation in the kingdom of Averdale which has apparently been going on for 19 years. No beds, food, or any other indications of anyone with a human life cycle living here were found.

2) Before the party could investigate more, Adriel pulled up the stakes on a leather tarp on the floor, triggering a mechanical dragon of very large size to spring up out of the floor and start attacking. The party decided to flee, grabbing a peculiar enchanted metal box on the way out.

3) The party used Tanya's Crawling Eye invocation and Jon's reluctant Clairvoyance spell to look down the shaft the dragon had emerged from. They saw the dragon's holding chamber and two small adjoining rooms, still no sign of human life. Aler's dancing lights reawakened the dragon, and the party decided to stay away from it and go back to town.

4) After a long discussion about who was going to go where when, the party finally decided to go talk to Kalima the bard. On their way to the Hall of Lyra, they passed the Church of Tallian where Father Saxon was reading a proclamation against necromancy by the Church and the Duke.

5) Kalima introduced Jon to a dapper halfling called Fingers Clayton, who she later identified as the owner of the Ruastin casino. Clayton had pieced together the party's search for Seven and told Jon the cult of Corrigar, an affiliate of the gang called Malice, were allied with illithids and he could find the girl he's looking for if he confronted them.

6) Red then tried scrying the priest of Sesharet again. This time she got through, and witnessed the priest conversing with a drow who called him "Mr. Ander" and wanted to know "what is in this for me." The priest then noticed the scry and told the drow, who started casting something. Red broke off the scry.

7) Adriel got an anonymous note from a Malice member telling her that the Red Hand is lying and Malice is NOT allied with the illithids--except for Skenebrax, who is now gone--and that the King of Clocks, a Red Hand ally, is the real associate of the League of Snakes.

8) Finally, the party talked to Beyond Jessery, first establishing some friendly relations by discussing the necromantic ban and Piper's situation with her, then revealing Seven's kidnapping and confronting her with Dayant Arakin's letter. Jessery seemed confused and claimed not to know Dayant Arakin or Chavalk, saying that the letter must have been meant for a different Beyonder. Detect Thoughts failed but Sense Motive suggested she was flustered but telling the truth when she claimed never to have met Dayant Arakin. Overall, the party concluded that this letter was most likely another example of Chavalk's deceit, though they couldn't rule out Jessery being involved with the League in some way.

And that's where we broke off. Hopefully we will have time to get together again next Wednesday night to finally meet these elusive illithids....