Sundered Lands 22.2

The Sundered Lands of Palladium

Session 22.2
July 17-19, 2016

Watching the Street

Saturday October 28

Water Street

Fortis watches the front of the Taxidermist Hall from his positions across Water Street on the top corner of the Rope and Sail-makers Guildhouse. A very interesting weathervane spins loudly at the peak of the roof, its arrow jumping back and forth from between north and northwest. Fortis feels the chill on the air and knows that winter is coming. Back behind the Rope and Sail-makers Guildhall, he can see several wide barges trying to maneuver past each other in one of the wider areas of the canal. The pilots on both vessels are arguing with each other. Past the two barges he can see and hear a gondola pilot yelling at both of the other boats for blocking his way with paying customers!

Meanwhile, Seeker slips quietly from the water and pulls himself up onto a pier that sticks out from behind a building. He trusts that a confrontation behind him on the canal between two barge pilots and a gondola taxi driver will draw attention away from him as he climbs out of the canal. He makes his way around and over large piles of ripped and worn sail canvas. He catches the eye of an old man sitting inside an open doorway. The man is shoving a stout needle through the coarse sail fabric. He grumbles and starts to get up when he realizes that what he is looking at is a 9 foot tall wet Wolfen with greatsword strapped to his back. The old man looks back down and continues to stitch his sail. Seeker sees a narrow alley filled with what looks like stacks of wooden slats 5-6 feet tall leaning up against one building or the other that should lead him back out to the street and provide him with a concealed view of the Taxidermist Hall.

Fortis considers his next move. Well, I could wait until here until something interesting happens… That could take quite a while.  I wonder what they are doing in there. And where did Seeker and Moonscar disappear to I wonder? Probably off doing some canine thing. Best leave that supposition unexplored, I can’t scrub some of those images out of my brain. I think that weathervane needs to be oiled… I wonder if I can make a weathervane… it looks like a simple joint, and the expanse of the structure would act as a wing, but vertical. Yeah, I could make one, but could it be even better? Could it be a weathervane AND a sundial? I’ll bet if I used a prism in the gnomon to unweave the light into a rainbow I could create something pretty impressive. Ohh… a stepwise twisted prism… that would put a rainbow on a specific spot that changed color for ten minutes then jumped to a new spot when the angle of the sun passed between one step and the next. That could actually be pretty fascinating… now would it run from violet to red or from red to violet?

Ohh.. that might be interesting…. What if, in the next sculpture I design, I put in some reflective surfaces and light channels so that a simple continual light spell at the exact right point will make all the windows illuminate. That would be impressive.

Those barges look like they are having a tough time sorting themselves out… but that isn’t very interesting either. Where is everybody?

The street looks fairly empty. I would have suspected more people to be about at this time of day.

With his focus back on the street, Fortis sees Silver standing in the doorway to the Taxidermist Hall waving her arms around frantically, looking around. She then goes back inside, pulling the door closed.

Down below, out of sight from Fortis’s position the front edge of the roof, Seeker begins maneuvering through the alley. Moving as quietly as possible, the large Wolfen makes it to the end of the alley and has a good view of the deserted street.

A moment later, a Human man steps out of a doorway of the building just to the south (left) of the Taxidermist Hall and starts walking slowly in that direction.

Well, that was odd. I wonder what that was all about? She isn’t normally the panicky sort. I should probably go investigate it. The ‘seagull’ swoops around the side of the Taxidermists Hall, looking for any kind of open window.

Fortis-gull swoops down across the street and past the man walking along. The Human curses and tries to shoo Fortis away but quickly loses interest as Fortis enters the alley to the left of the Taxidermist hall. A quick scan of the area reveals 3 windows in the side of the guildhouse. Two larger windows near the middle and front of the building and a smaller one at the rear. They are all shuttered though the two front windows are propped open a bit and Fortis things he could squeeze through easy enough.

A little further down the street, a wet Wolfen sees a familiar bird flutter across the street, nearly crashing into the walking man, and disappear into the alley.

Recalling the tactical advice of the great Ellylon Gypsy General-Queen Sunny Sue, Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected, Fortis chooses to squeeze through the middle window further into the guildhouse hoping to gain some advantage by surprise. As he squeezes through he considers what sorts of small animals he has seen running around town and whether they would be more ‘expected’ invaders into a building than a seagull. Deciding that a rodent would be the most likely in a port town Fortis shifts his disguise into a brown rat planning to match the coloration of the interior to a high degree once inside.

Halfway down the alley and completely out of view of Seeker, Fortis, now in the form of a rat, slips inside the window of the Taxidermist Hall.

Seeker sees the walking man pass the alley that Fortis just fluttered down and stop in front of the door to the Taxidermist Hall. He looks around for a moment, up and down the empty street, then grabs for the handle.

Seeker moves quickly towards the Human and the door.

As Seeker makes it about halfway across the street, the man turns and sees him running toward him. His eyes widen and he quickly draws a curved blade and takes a step back toward the corner of the building.

Seeker slows and raises his hands. “Easy, easy. Just a fellow taxidermy aficionado. Are you a guild member? What do they have inside?”

“Dragon scat, what do you want here?” He reaches to his belt and removes a small dark object, it looks like a purse or pouch. He holds it at his side.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. As I said, I’m a taxidermy fan. Was going to check the place out. It looked like you were going in as well. Thought I would strike up a conversation with our common interest.” Seeker keeps walking towards him, hands up and empty.

“Yea, shop’s closed right now. Having some, um, issues. I’m not a taxidermist, just help around the shop, ya know. I help clean up, provide security.” As he says this, he tosses the little pouch toward Seeker. It lands on the ground right at his feet. The bag explodes into what looks like thousands of tiny little ropes, all of which try to latch on to Seeker.

Seeker dodges acrobatically and dives to one side.

Despite Seeker’s evasive maneuver, the little pieces of rope spread out and cover a wide expanse of the street. They begin twining around his ankles but none seem strong enough to get a grip. The tiny little ropes lay motionless all around Seeker in the street. The man looks surprised and worried, “Stay right there! Don’t come any closer. Tamm, a little help please!” he calls out, looking up toward the rooftops.

Seeker begins striding more purposefully around the ropes. “Dang, that’s a cool little gadget! Where can I get one of those? And I wouldn’t count on your friend - I have a friend that likes rooftops, too.”

He grins, showing fang. “So If you want to fight, let’s get to it. Honestly, I have been wanting to just pound on something for hours. You might just be in the wrong place at the right time, friend.”

“Fuck this,” the man shouts. He turns and flees as fast as he can into the alley that Fortis had flown down just a few moments earlier.

Seeker opens the door and slips in. “Hey, guys! I think reinforcements are on the way. Whatever you did got them rattled!” He looks around the room. “Guys?”

Just as Seeker pulls the door open to look inside, he hears a sharp cry from above, then a thud and sliding sound. A Human man appears from above and crashes to the ground, landing on his head and shoulders with a sickening crunch. The fletching of the broken arrow sticking out of his side is very familiar to the Wolfen.

Cast of Characters: 

+Arne Jamtgaard plays Seeker, a teenage Wolfen Warlord

+Ben Zittere plays Fortis, an Ellyl trickster and Mage

and +Jason GURPS as the GM