This session dealt primarily with the results of killing the Murderer of Brandolyn, and then devolved into something resembling the discussion of an X-files episode.

Relatively immediately after the death of the psychopathic orc, Rusteen decided to see if he could track the criminal back to his lair, and thus possibly discover more information. Leaving half the party behind to guard the corpse just in case it decided to dissolve, walk away, or otherwise disappear, Rusteen began tracking the orc, accompanied by Shazarr, Jack, and Que. The tracks led back to a nearby sewer pipe. Undeterred, the self-proclaimed woodsman unerringly led the quartet through the winding sewers of Brandolyn.

Unerringly, that is, until the group arrived in a large chamber that served as a central holding basin of sorts. Six other passages led out of the chamber, requiring Rusteen to attempt to find which pipe held the actual trail. A brief encounter with a single alligator disturbed the muck enough so that the woodsman was unable to determine where the orc had come from. So, although not finding a lair, Jack and Rusteen did end up with a pair of new alligator boots.

However, while those four PCs were mucking about, Dr. Fever, Twig, Zin, and Ginaea weren't just sitting around. After the previously agreed upon one hour had passed, this quartet took the body of the murderer and proceeded to find a "public place" in which to declare their being heroes in having slain the villain. The nearest public place, as picked by Twig was - naturally - a bar. Their presentation did cause the desired commotion, but unfortunately it also resulted in the City Guard being called. A squad soon arrived to take the quartet into custody for questioning.

The other four characters arrived just in time to follow the mob to the City Jail. At the gates, Jack and Shazarr gained entrance by claiming to be friends of the accused vigilantes, while Rusteen got inside claiming to a witness to the event. Que, perhaps most wisely, turned invisible and simply snuck inside. Although the entire party was inside the Jail together, they were split up into three seperate rooms. Rusteen in one, Shazarr and Jack in a second, with the rest in a third. Each group was questioned by members of the city's new elite guards - a task force created to specifically deal with the recent crime wave. (The members of which wear leather armor that is dyed a red that suspiciously appears identical in hue to that used by the Mercykillers faction.)

Rusteen merely attempted to portray the party in a good light, playing on their rescue of a little girl in his version of events. He managed to keep the exact reason as to how and why the party came to town secret. In the end, he was released, but told he was under suspicion and asked not to leave town for a few days. Rusteen then immediately began talking to the crowd outside the Jail, trying to both support the image of the party as heroes, and the guards as incompetent (and thus possibly plant the seeds of a revoloution).

Shazarr and Jack did much the same thing as Rusteen in their questioning. They related the facts of killing of the orc, while keeping vague on everything else. Jack did continually call the guards' effectiveness into question. In the end, they too were released and asked to stick around.

This left the remaining PCs. As they were the ones to actually bring in the body, they were questioned by the head of the elite guards, a female orc named Ving. She didn't seem particularly interested in the party's motivations, merely in their actions - obviously seeking where a law had been broken. In the end, she was rather completely confused as she had to deal with Ginaea's obvious mental flaws (amnesia), Dr. Fever's oddly intelligent yet useless answers (recall that he is still polymorphed into a female ogre at this point), and Twig's relation of more or less the whole truth of the matter. Yep, Twig declared that the whole party was only here to help Rusteen, and they had all met each other in the city of Sigil which could only be reached by magical means. Seeing as how none of the latter appeared to make any sense to the orc, Ving eventually let them all go - again warning them not to leave town for a few days. As the guards left, Twig decided to taunt them with some thinly veiled references to the Mercykillers faction. Again, the orc ignored the comments.

Once released from jail, the party actually decided to stay in town and dig up more info on the robberies. As part of this, Dr. Fever decided to return to Sigil to stop being an ogre. It was at this point in time that he discovered that it appeared to only be Rusteen that could moon the portal to get it to open. So, the polymorphed modron kidnapped the woodsman and used the apparent portal key. Shazarr decided to tag along and slip in Sigil with the other two PCs. In Sigil, Dr. Fever was restored to his normal form and declared that he had no desire to be anything other than himself for the immediate future. This forced Rusteen to come up with some vague cover story that might or might not explain the presence of a walking box to an uneducated Prime world.

Also while in Sigil, Rusteen and Dr. Fever attempted to determine the origins of a brand found on the slain orc. They checked at the Gatehouse, HQ of the Bleak Cabal, to see if they were missing a barmy. The Bleakers claimed that the brand wasn't one of theirs, but it resembled the common heraldry for "criminally and incurably insane". They also suggested that it might be of Prime in origin. Shazarr, meanwhile, found out that he had been beaten to the punch on stealing a work of art. (The portrait back on Bytopia.)

Soon enough, these three returned to Brandolyn. There, they guessed at what might be a pattern of sorts for the robberies, and proceeded to stake out the four possible next targets. Sure enough, one of the targets was hit - the one being watched by Rusteen and Ginaea. While watching the house, a cloaked figure suddenly appeared next to a window and peered inside the house. Almost immediately thereafter, it disappeared. The two PCs waited, and after a few minutes, breaking glass could be heard inside the house. The front door opened, and the cloaked figure ran out of the building. As Rusteen began to chase after the figure, Ginaea attempted to reach out and grab the fugitive with her mind, hoping to stop it dead in its tracks. She found that not only was the target's will strong enough to resist her power, the target was also rather "slippery" in her mental grasp. The figure seemed to be fully aware of what had almost happened, and disappeared after a quick look around. (The vanishing act appeared to be accomplished by the figure turning 90 degrees to everything at exactly the same time.)

After this encounter, Ginaea was rather worried, as was the rest of the party once she told them what she'd seen. The target's apparent knowledge of psionics, combined with the fact that the way the figure moved reminded her of Zin, led the party to guess that the burglar was psionic - specifically a githzerai. Zin hazarded a guess that the thief might actually be a githyanki, the hated racial foe of the 'zerai. (This was based on the description of the figure being tall and slim, yet with broad shoulders - possibly indicating armor under the cloak, and 'yanki are known for their elaborate armor and weapons.)

After this, the game devolved into a discussion of conspiracy theories. Part of the discussion dealt with the probable existance of another planar portal through which all the foes and such came. Part dealt with the motivations of the mastermind behind all the crime (despite having no evidence of a mastermind); there was some speculation into ancient artifacts or rare minerals. Finally, there was dicussion of exactly who would profit from the chaos, whether or not it was a cover for something else. (A lot of people pointed fingers at the new mayor.)

The party now has two paths open to it. One, try to find the burglar and see if it truly is a member of a planar race. Two, defy the orders of the City Guard and leave town to confront the bandits at the Silver Death Mine.

Authored by: Ken Lipka E-mail me: krlipka@yahoo.com

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