A3: Ch3: Badur

The party makes their way back into the City of Badur. They are looking for a way to get through the mountains to the Arruce Kingdom. They decide to go to The Taps on level 9 and attempt to find a seedy looking bar where they could find some info. After a couple bars they find one that looks like what they need, a place called The Coal Keg. It is filled with miner's still covered in the dirt and soot from the days work spending what little coin they have on ale. There they are confronted by some Arrucian Soldiers, Shen and Xar take them outside and knock them unconscious. Back inside they convince the barkeep to trust them and to help them find someone who could take them through the mountains and smuggled into the Arruce Kingdom. The barkeep takes them to a locked and guarded back area where they find themselves in an area that looks to be part of a Badur Blackmarket of sorts. They sit down and discuss what exactly they need. They are told that he has an associate who makes weekly travels to and from the Arruce kingdom with shipments of weapons for the war who have experience in smuggling goods and sometimes people as well. He gives the description of a dwarf named Pirav who will be taking off from the Arruce embassy after they check his cart and to get on after the check before he enters the tunnels. This will occur at midday in three days.   The party takes the rest of the day to drink except for Xar who looks after them. In their drunken stupor Aire and Shen get belligerent with some Arrucian soldiers on one of the lifts going as far as throwing a fireball up the shaft. Before they could start anything Xar takes them to an inn to stay the night. The next day Bink goes to the Library, Shen goes to the printing press, Aire goes to volunteer at the medical facility, and Xar looks for work. Bink read a book describing the history and legend behind the founding of Badur, Shen saw the printing press and schemed ways to use it to sell his books then went to the library to read up on Deities and a book about the city which tells where he can find a teleportation circle at the old palace which is now a museum, Xar found a job posting board, and Aire helped some wounded Arruce soldiers with his medicines. While Shen was reading about Deities, an armor clad woman with a symbol of scales etched into her armor approaches Shen asking if she could look at the book he's reading for a single section on a particular god names Mondis.   Meeting back up one of the message board mentioned artisans looking for monster parts which Shen takes in interest in. Shen goes to the shop to sell his items and when he doesn't agree with the prices tricks the owner into telling him who uses his stock to make items. Shen then goes to the gated off manor of Fagrim Steland where his wife Shava finds him and believes he is answering the message board paper asking for an apprentice. Fagrim begrudgingly at the behest of his wife goes to see if Shen is good enough to be his apprentice. Shen fails the test but does commission Fagrim to make him some boots of the winter from the monster parts he had. Meanwhile, Bink is still at the library, Xar and Aire are looking at the job postings when a man named Alem Seawood comes up confidently next to them and looking at the board takes one of the postings and begins to walk away. He gets a few steps away when he turns around and snags another posting and Aire begins to talk to him. He reveals he is one of the renowned Adventuring group known as The Sun Blades. He knows of them, the Heroes of Galren, and is surprised they haven't heard of his group. Aire asks where they are staying and if they could meet up and they say they are staying the night at the Strong Arm Inn and will be leaving in the morning for the Arruce Kingdom. Shen uses suggestion on Fagrim to be open minded to non Dwarves who want to apprentice and offers to bring the crafter maste from Ghandon. Shen gets Daxius to open a teleportation circle to Ghandon where Shen convinces the master to take the job. The scepticle master agrees and they both go to Badur.    That night the team meets up with the Sun Blades who are led by a woman named Kaya Vidimer, the armored woman who Shen met. She and her team, Alem Seawood, Liriene Bennia, and Albrecht Riz (whom is one of the deserting Arruce soldiers they met previously). They find out that Kaya is the first anointed cleric of Mondis is a millennia. They also have come into acquiring an Ildari Artifact (Annika's Wand), and fragments of a broken sword which is part of Taimael's sword which the party had the hilt of. They trade the hilt for the wand and discuss what they are doing trying to save the world. The Sun Blades are tracking down the Celestial stone which contains Kaya's god whom contacted her and gave her the quest of finding and releasing them. They also talk about the jobs they did for some coin and said they ran into some goblins in the mines. They contact Daxius to ask his opinion which he then tells them to go to the teleportation circle and he comes to Badur to talk. They end up forming an uneasy trust and while the Sun Blades try to get the celestial stone from the Arruce queen somehow, the party are trying to track down Rin.    The next day Shen picks up his boots and Bink tries to find the goblins in the caves so he signs up to mine, tries to find them all day and fails. Shen and Xar then go back to the black market and buy potions from a shady seller. Shen uses a strength potion in an unsuspecting bar patrons drink and finds that it actually sapped all his strength. The next day the party leaves their old horse and carriage, takes their chest, and wait for Pirav to show up. When they find him they hop on after the Arruce Embassy check and hide underneath the cloak that over the cart. Once inside the tunnels they rest in an outcrop for the only night they will sleep outside the cart. The next day they all cram into a secret compartment and travel in that cramped condition for 3 days. When they finally come to a stop they are in a warehouse in the Arruce Kingdom in a border town named Salik.