Selt Lat

The characters reach the underground town of Selt Lat.  Here's a synopsis of some things that happened:

• The characters first enter the impoverished shantytown where the bugbears live, but find nothing of interest there.

• They next visit the orcs. A large group of box zombies passes by them, and the rest of the inhabitants give it a wide berth. The zombies pay no attention to the party.

• There they also meet a female orc apothecarist (who helps them identify potions), and a grotesquely rotund orc weapon dealer.

• The orc apothecarist tells them of Mohjgan, a beneficent individual who wishes to lift the orcs up above all other races by destroying them.

• They purchase a non-magical shield and a ton of arrows from the weapon dealer, who also shows them a few magical items he has for sale, including a very valuable shapeshifter's sorrow (longsword). Tiffy vows to steal it.

• They pass through a checkpoint separating the largest orc area from the largest lizard area. Orcs guard it on the west side, lizard men on the east. One of the lizard guards reaches out to stop the party and question them, but another lizard man stops him and lets them go by.

• The visit the jeweler's in lizard territory and sell gems.

• They visit the tavern in lizard territory. There they encounter a gargoyle named Cul-de-Gil and his two gargoyle friends. Cul-de-Gil asks the party to destroy some boats, in exchange for a large ruby he owns. He will not say why he wants the boats destroyed, or why he won't do it himself. He does show the party where they can be found. The party hears an accompanying rumor that the boats were left there by a Valkyrie, who failed to bring a number of viking ships to Valhalla.

• In the tavern they also hear these rumors:

  • Mohjgan is conducting a violent campaign against the "scum" races to elevate lizard mankind above all other races;
  • Don't eat the fish from the fishmonger;
  • A vampire, in the form of a flock of birds, was seen flying through Selt Lat recently, but nobody can agree on which way he went;
  • The bugbear chieftain was murdered by a medusa named Carcatta.

• On the subject of Carcatta, Dev recalls that she assisted the party when they were fighting the grimlocks; she was their shaman, until she determined that the party could help her, at which point she briefly fought with them against the grimlocks.

• The party stays the night in a lizard inn. When they wake up, Meraud is hysterical; it seems that Jago has disappeared in the night, and she claims that it is "impossible" that he left on his own.

  • She explains that vampires exist because of their "contract", which somehow makes them possessed by a single mortal master. They must obey the master.
  • Jago had his contract transferred to Meraud long ago.
  • Since Jago was ordered not to leave her side he could not have left on his own, and he must have been physically stolen.

• The party decides to go find Carcatta in bugbear-town. There they meet Carcatta, who has once again set herself up as the shaman of a tribe. The bugbear chieftain is still around and alive, although they do not meet him.

  • Carcatta asks the party to go find her sisters and shows them where her sisters can be found.
  • She asks them to bring her sisters back; she promises that if they bring a message to her sisters, she will use her network of contacts in Selt Lat to find Jago.
  • Everyone in the party (except Ellira) allows Carcatta to inject them (by snake) with a special poison. She says it will have no ill effects, but will allow her sisters to smell them and identify them as her friends.