DavesGaming

We got a fresh start on things the next morning. We came up with two things to look into; most obvious was our missing teammate. We had learned Imoen had been arrested by a group known as the “Cowled Wizards” who were responsible for overseeing and regulating arcane magic in Athkatla. Word was, most of those taken for practicing “magic without a license” were rarely seen again. We could go straight to the government district, but Jaheira had contacts at a seedy dive known as “The Copper Coronet” in the Slums district. This seemed like a good place to get information, we could decide on further action from there.
Second, we had learned from questions at the “Adventurer’s Mart” yesterday, that an older sage type magical researcher named Nem would be a good contact to help us with the broken “Soultaker Dagger” we had found in Irenicus’ lab. I desperately wanted to find my missing sister, but no doubt if we could fix things so Skie could be resurrected it would clear my name of murder charges. The rational part of me knows the Skie problem is likely more urgent. And she has family mourning a dead daughter. Nem can also be found working in the slums. So that was our destination.

On entering the slums we met a man named Gaelan Bayle. He claimed to represent an organization that could help us free Imoen. After a chat, we learned this help wouldn’t come cheap. We were told captured mages were not held locally, and there were organizational and logistical challenges in getting it done. Not sure how much of a snow job this was, but we seemed to have a solid contact if we could raise enough money. Yoshimo answered several questions afterwards, this was clearly the local Thieves Guild making contact with us. Known locally as the Shadow Thieves, they are a big organization. Diomedes voiced a strong suspicion they were who was attacking Irenicus yesterday. If so, we can likely trust they ARE enemies of our enemy.

Jaheira still thought checking in with her contacts was a good idea, so we set out for the Copper Coronet. On the way there, we met an elderly mage who fit the description of Nem. She started with an offer to cure any magical rash (!). I’ve not heard that line before! I explained, we’d lost a friend we were pretty sure was trapped in this blade.

She was immediately very curious. I understand her type! So much like Gorion… She offered to look into it for us, but wanted the damaged blade to do research. We parted with the promise to meet back up in three days and discuss her findings.

Entering the Copper Coronet is an assault on the senses. Its a large building and loud, food is cooking, games of chance in progress, and armed guards scattered throughout, especially watching doors leading to private rooms. I suggested to Yoshimo I’d like him to work separately from us for a time, and let us know if he learned anything pertinent. We heard a young woman asking for help, “I’ve helped so many of you, will no one listen to me?” I introduced myself and learned she was Nalia. A woman who said her father’s lands had been over-run by monsters and she needed help.

Monster hunting is right up our alley, count us in! We asked Nalia to join us and we’d take care of her.
A loud man, claimed to be a “Lord Jierdan Firkraag” was asking for similar help. He offered a specific 10000 gold piece bounty for help. He told us how to find his land, we now had a couple of jobs lined up.
I introduced myself to the proprietor, Lehtinan, and immediately sensed I was talking to a human slimeball. He hinted around at all the “extra” sorts of amusements he had to offer. Diomedes nudged me and gave the nod, this man was evil as he seemed. I suggested we’d love to partake, and were granted admittance to the back rooms. I’d never seen such a flagrant evil in any human city. They were staging death matches between slaves, for gambling and amusement. We ended it. The moment reminded me of when we’d encountered those necromancers a couple weeks ago. No words were said, we all drew weapons at the same time. We quickly fought our way to the back where slaves were held in cells.

Diomedes was really not amused. He gutted the jailkeeper. Really fast. We had a small melee with a number of wild animals that were released. But we had the keys now and released all the gladiators. They joined with us and we pacified all the guards very quickly. The leader among them was man named Hendak, Diomedes handed him the keys and said “congratulations, you own a bar”. Hendak told us they’d had children who were being held at another site in the slum district. There was a tunnel from the Copper Coronet off to that site, which we used. And killed more slavers. That was an unexpected turn of events.

We were all a little spent at that point, and decided to enjoy the hospitality of Hendak for the night. We started off for Nalia’s home the next morning. Before even leaving the city we met a messenger from a town called Trademeet, that said they had been under attack from Druids and wild animals. Well that seems a little strange! Jaheira thought this demanded investigation. So we have another task.
Just outside of town we found a poisoned man, beset by thugs. This led to another little detour and an encounter with Harpers. Which also led to Jaheira admitting for the first time that she was one (although Khalid had admitted it, not so long ago). So the following morning we set out for Nalia’s home again.