The Free City of Ithell
The party had just set up camp a mere day's ride from the city of Ithell when they recieved a new communication from Demetrious and Jerrod via the magic scroll.
The message stated that the two wizards had relocated to the ruins of the Conclave Fortress, as both had been invited by the Empire as experts in the field of magical research. Using their new found freedom to wander the ruins in secret, both were able to get close to the Chamber of Banishing and the Conduit itself. They had studied the Conduit and made a disturbing discovery.
Around the Gate were 64 "anchor" glyphs. These glyphs were made to seal the Gate on this end and were designed to be difficult to dispel. Each was a puzzle of sorts and had to be solved (a lengthy and complicated process) before it could be dispelled. Draxorith, trapped within the Conduit, was systematically solving and dispelling these anchor glyphs. The good news: this discovery gave them a way to accurately track the demon lord's progress and predict how much time was left before the seal failed and the Gate opened. The bad news: 27 out of 64 glyphs had already been dispelled and he was dispelling another glyph every two days. That left approximately 75 days. Much less than they had previously thought.The group at this point had been traveling almost six months, and through the late Shr'lee's early calculations had assumed that they had at least another six months to collect the rest of the skulls and bring them to the chamber to complete the banishing spell. Instead they now had just over two.
This frightening news changed everything. The Conclave Defiant was now desperately in need of finding a way to quicken their traveling pace. They planned to use the resouces of the city to find a faster mode of travel. Exactly what kind of mode and how they would find it they weren't sure.
The next morning, the party arrived at Ithell and secured rooms at the Saffron Cloud inn. Martin went to the wizard's guild and paid for access to the lab. While there, he concocted some healing potions from herbs and identified the churning green potion from the gumric in the swamp as some sort of mind-altering, consciousness expanding magical potion. "Just the sort of potion I'm into..." the mage thought as he rolled up some choice Kelfarian Red Leaf to reward himself with a smoke.
While at the guild, Martin heard of a noble lord by the name of Pon Molthir (the wealthiest man in the city) who had a fabulous flying carpet among his treasures. He then passed this information on to the group. The group made much use of the city. Stryfal plied her trade and began making small profits by picking pockets. However, after four attempts, her luck ran out and she was caught and held fast by her intended target, who alerted the city guards,
As the guards dragged the thief off to jail, Kramtha was busy doing research at the Lore Masters, Ithell's famous guild of information brokers and archivists. For a few gold coins, he was able to pull servants from other duties and have them help him research everything possible about the wizards of the Conclave, the Captured Sea and any connection between the them. After two days, he had uncovered several key pieces of information. Apparently, after the war, Kelandor (the third member of the Conclave of Freedom and most powerful of the six mages) had come to follow an old obsession - finding an ancient grimoire known as the Codex of Infinite Planes. Kelandor had found a single page from this fabled book earlier in his career, and the Codex's power was such that he was able to design the entire banishing spell from even what sparse information the single page could provide...This powerful book of dark magic was legended to exist in its entirety within the confines of the Captured Sea and had, according to history, sunk an island and gone down with it.
Draabyn, at this time, began to notice a disturbing transformation. He had actually begun to grow small fangs, as well as unsightly bony protrusions from his elbows and all along his forearms. Nothing that he couldn't hide, but very disturbing nonetheless. Could this be a result of his taunting demonic energies within the Avisarr? Prolonged contact? Who could say…perhaps it would be wise to let someone else carry the damned thing, he thought.
The party soon heard about Styfal's thieving activities and paid several stiff fines to gain her release. The party then decided it would be wise to relocate (as they were possibly attracting attention to themselves and were are still being pursued as far as they knew) and moved to the Scarlet Sky Ale House.
Later, while the party was dining, Stryfal met a half orc warrior at the bar and befriended him as only she can. He was captivated by her beauty, gave her his badge and told him that she could find him at the Molthir Estate where he was employed should she ever need him.
Martin quickly reminded the party about the rich businessman in town who owned a flying carpet and might trade with them. The party, seeing Stryfal's new ..friendship with an employee of that very same lord as a golden oppotunity, decided that setting up an audience would certainly be worth a try.
The party arranged to meet with Lord Molthir the next day. Lord Molthir was quite taken with the party who regaled him with tales of their adventures and journeys. Callister offered to draw up maps of the southwestern peninsula that the group had traveled from. Knowledge of those harsh lands being rare and valuble, Molthir eagerly accepted.They also shared with him some of the myrian artifacts they had brought back - short bows, blow guns, and a fabulous chieftain's head dress with an uncut fire agate: a treasure to even the richest man in Ithell. For all of this, he traded the group the much-needed flying carpet and gave them 5,000 gold pieces.
Seeing the man's obvious interest in showing off the spoils of great adventure to his high profile dinner guests, the party asked Lord Molthir to sponser them and he agreed. In exchange for a safe haven each time they stop in Ithell, they agreed to give Molthir the first chance to purchase all treasures obtained from their travels.. This way the party would now have plenty of funding, as well as a mode of transportation that would cut weeks, even months off their journey. Things were starting to look up. As an afterthought, Molthir presented them with another small token before sending them on their way. Another group he had sponsored had picked it up near Asylum and claimed not to be able to understand its make or purpose. But perhaps it could help this group. Martin unwrapped it to reveal the Cheryokzul wand. Of course, nobody wanted to go near it, so Martin tucked it in his belt.
The party, practical minded as always, traded their horses for 50 gp each and then "set sail" on the flying carpet for the city of Strathon. In total, they had spent six days in Ithell. Next they would journey north to Strathon, the coastal capital of Arkalia, on the southern edge of the Captured Sea. The journey to Strathon took only three days, thanks to the carpet. Session twelve ended with the party landing their carpet about five miles outside of Strathon.
Session thirteen: Join the party as they cause trouble in almost every major inn in Arkalia, and pick up a couple new members.