Our heroes are getting the accolades they deserve, after being feted as saviours of the city due to their actions in the Theran raid on Jerris. They are being presented to the city, and the ceremony has been going well to this stage. The Councillors are ready to speak their part, what will occur? Will the city be happy with what they have to say? Why are the Troll Crystal Raiders who also were part of that action standing apart? Will the heroes be successful in pursuing their personal goals?

We start our game back at the ceremony where we were half way through. The Councillors on stage start to make a big speech about going forward and fixing the damage from the Theran raid. They go on about the order of what was going to be fixed first, naming the Airdocks, Merchants Hall, various Warehouses and the Anchor Tran Teahouse. The battlements and any damaged housing were to be done last. The crowd perplexed with the announcement, obviously thinking why the council thought it a better idea to fix warehouses and a tea house before patching up their homes. The Troll Crystal Raiders looked unhappy at the end of the speech, and declared loudly across the crowd that they needed to renegotiate their contract with the Council. As the council agreed to this they start to file off with the Troll towards Council Hall. Omasu stops to speak to Grey, and tells him that their meeting will be delayed as he will be part of the talks because he brokered the original deal. Grey tells him they will be out of town for at least a night as they were going to Sleece. Bod notices that a well dressed Dwarf who was part of the ceremony was watching them speak to Omasu intently. Bod questions some bystanders and finds out that the Dwarf is Tyrs Tyrsian, the famous Dwarf Troubadour.

The heroes all warm and glowy from their public accolades decide they want to go and investigate the murder of an ex-councilman that occurred two nights ago. Some detective work and they find out the section of town of which the man was killed. They go out to that section of town and find out it is the wealthy section of town, cleaner streets, and better facades on houses but still a terraced style to them, all packed together for protection.

When they get down to the better part of town Bod uses his excellent social skills to impress, and act seductively with a fine bred lady. She tells him that the ex-councillor, Councillor Maddox (name changed to protect established characters in the Earthdawn setting) was attacked on the way from his club, near Tar St, to his family mansion, on Element St. The party decide to check out the club first, being that it is only up the road a few blocks. They proceed to the club, and see it is on the second floor over a general merchandise store, with its own staircase.

Bod does some scouting, and can only make out that there is some light behind heavy curtains, and there is an Orc on door duties in black finery. Arahan and Grey decide to walk straight up to the guard and ask for admission to the club. The heroes, with Bod hiding behind them try to use their positions as saviours of Jerris to get entry to the club. The guard is not lax in his duty unfortunately, and after explaining that one needs to be nominated by a sitting member for membership, and then get voted on by the membership to get access to the club. Sensing they were not going to be able to enter the establishment Bod used the old “look over there” Unseen Voices trick to get the Orc to check the inside of the club, therefore giving him a change to slip in and look about. Arahan and Grey decided it would be best to back off and do some investigation in the pub across the road as Arahan managed to scare some other citizens with his botched social skills.

As Arahan and Grey entered the pub Bod looked around the private clubs facilities. He could see that it was richly appointed, with covered tables set out in groups of four, silver and gold plated cutlery and plates, fine china, rich hangings over the windows and elaborate chandeliers on the ceiling. There is a set cooking area as well as a small stage. He also saw that there were a number of people already seated for a meal, and even though this is the atmosphere he knew he belonged in hid behind a curtain to gather information. He listened intently to the conversation and it just seemed to be gossip in regards to current events. He heard mention of the death of the ex-councillor Maddox, and how it was sad and they were going to increase security and keep their bodyguards closer. He also heard them belittling the groups involved in the evenings celebrations, laughing at the local boys, disgusted at having Orc’s assist them, upset over the Troll Crystal ?Raiders causing a scene, as they should have been happy with whatever they get tossed off the table, and the windling fighter’s, oh how pathetic they were on stage. This caused a fury in Bod and he stepped out from behind the curtain to rebuke the people dissing his team of fighters! When the diners saw Bod standing there in all his fury they blanched visibly and immediately called for the guard. Bod managed to frustrate the Orc guard for a few seconds with the Fun With Doors spell, and was berating the diners who just continued to scream. The Orc finally figured out the door had not been moved at all and leaps into the room looking for the threat. Bod dodges him and flies out quickly over the rail, muttering to himself a plan to get the diners back for their insult.

Arahan and Grey settled into the public house just across the road from the club, where they assumed they would know a little more about how to get to the recently deceased house. They looked around the pub to see a clientele of it, to notice that it was mainly clerks and such from nearby shops and businesses, having a relaxing after work drink. They listen to the various conversations about them, honing in on one conversation about how city of Jerris does not need the filthy Troll Crystal Raiders protecting it, and they are powerful enough without them. Others joined in saying that Jerris should run them out of town back to their mountains and attack them there. This sounded like empty boasting. Arahan leans across to the Barman and gets directions to Element St from the pub, which ends up being a few blocks down the street.

On the way down to the site Arahan uses his knowledge of the underworld to spot a likely target for information. Offering a shiny silver coin he tempts a youth into revealing the exact location of where the death occurred. The youth agreed and led Arahan and Grey to a spot on the corner of Element St where the murder occurred. With some strenuous searching Arahan also finds exactly where the murder happened, noticing the scrubbed look of the flagstones in a rough man size shape, and also finding specks of blood still in the gaps of the paving. Grey looked around to determine if there were any houses that would be best for viewing the alleged incident, and made the assumption that there were two places with good viewing on what would have occurred.

The first house they went to had an old maid open the door. The heroes were courteous to her and explained they were on a mission from the council to investigate what happened further. See believed them and told them that she saw the murder. After hearing the initial scream she looked out the front window to see what looked like her dead husband stabbing Ex-councillor Maddox to death. He was stabbing with a furious intensity. After that she went back inside, very shocked and the next time she looked out they were cleaning up the mess. In this time Bod had managed to catch up with Arahan and Grey.

They walked across the street to the other house, and pushed Bod in front to utilise his social skills. After knocking an old man opened the door. Bod made a wonderful First Impression and the man, remembering the party from the evening’s presentation ceremony, was delighted to see them. He explained that it was a shame his master was at the club and could not meet them, and probably would have liked to see them. He asked for their signatures in his master’s guestbook, which Arahan and Grey signed with an X while Bod scrawled out his best signature. After this small bit of hero worship the old man replied to the parties questions, convinced as well that they were on a mission from the council. His story was similar as well, in that he heard the initial scream, went to investigate and then looked out the front door, seeing what looked to be his crazy uncle Ike stabbing Master Maddox. It was strange as his arm seemed to be merged with a giant scythe shaped talon, and he was stabbing with abandon. He knew it was strange as his uncle had been dead of missing for a number of years. The group asked a few more question, about the location of Master Maddox’s house and about any orphanages he could recommend. He pointed across the street to one of the largest mansions the group had seen in Jerris, as well as recommending the Shoemakers Orphanage. Grey did not like the sound of the Orphanage and the man gave him directions to another, which was run by supporters of the Passion Garlen.

Bod was shown the spot where the ex-councillor had been murdered and looked at it through his racial ability of Astral Sight. Perusing the spot showed not a lot of information other than violence had indeed been done on the spot, and that there was a taint to the surrounding area. Other than that he could perceive little else, and had a mini vomit on the ground due to the sickening nature of the act’s reflection in astral space.

The threesome travelled across the street to the house of ex-councillor Maddox. Bod scouts around the house (which is a terraced mansion) and then breaks in by going through the chimney. As he moves warily through the house he makes note of the layout, bedrooms upstairs, shared rooms in the middle floor and servant space at the bottom. Bod lets the others in when they knock and they go through the mail, discovering that the wife is out of town with their children recovering from the shock. Arahan does a top to bottom of the house and is unable to find anything that would hide information. Bod scans the house and all the books in it without finding any further information. They find a letterbox in the study which has a couple of letters about the gossip around the council, and details some minor information about Maddox and his connection to other councillors. Earlier information they had received also mentioned that the councillors were always at each others throats generally. As they leave Bod and Grey make up a forgery trying to get the club to horror check every patron that is to enter. They sign it from Master Maddox, even though in the end it did not look too official.

They left to go back to the hotel for the night. The next morning the party leaves for Sleece in the morning, travelling on the trade route. On a spur close to the Liaj Jungle a number of ostrich type birds charge directly towards them cawing madly.

What will become of our heroes? Will they survive the attack from the dread birds of the jungle? Or will they prevail and be eating a local type of tikka massala before the day is through?

Next Week – I feel like chicken tonight, like chicken tonight