Noah's Game: January 31st

Featuring

* John as Rathnor, a half-orc paladin. His people are not your people.
* Triften as Arden, a human paladin of law. Law. Not Good.
* Sean as Rob, a half-orc rogue. Weighs in at several hundred pounds, not counting the bag of cod.
* Emmy as Cinnamon "Buns" McCabe, a gnome bard. This former stripper can use her skills to distact and delight.

Also With

* Lt. Horowitz, the as-yet undescribed Unfortunates dispatcher. A little bit shouty, when stressed.
* Guy in a chair. Don't get too attached to him.

With Appearances By

* Spanky and Jessica, ninja Unfortunates.
* Gladwell, an occasionally effective Unfortunate mage.

Summary

Pregame: The party were all recruited into the Unfortunates, and arrived in the city less than a week ago. The last game session took place two days ago, making today Slausengot, Grune 15th, Year of the Evil, Evil Monkey.

The party is summoned to see Lt. Horowitz. He is in the midst of dispatching them for another escort mission when his badge starts glowing. He uses it to trace a door in the air, and then rushes the party through to another location in the Rothgab. Once they arrive, the party notices a "tear in the air", glowing pure white.

Soon, other Unfortunates appear on the scene, including Spanky, Jessica, and Gladwell. Apparently, this is an unauthorized portal into the city. Horowitz tells Spanky and Jessica to track down anyone who has already come through, and Gladwell to lock down the portal. Then, he tells the party they will be going through the portal, to see if there's anyone worth trading with on the other side, as procedure requires. The party is told that their badges should let them through Gladwell's lock on the portal.

The party goes through the "tear" and emerges in a dark room. Cinnamon notices some torches in sconces on the wall, and pointes them out to the rest of the party. Arden lights one up, so that he can see. The room is finished stone, with three doors leading out. On this side, the portal is pure black, sucking in light from all around it.

There are three doors out of the room. At 6 o'clock is the portal. At 9 o'clock is a door of decayed wood, covered in moss. At 12 o'clock is another door, the same size as the first, but in good condition. At 3 o'clock is another door, also in good condition, but smaller. Rob checks for traps on the 3 o'clock door, and the party goes through.

On the other side of the door is a stone corridor that goes about 40 feet and then turns left. After the turn is another door. Rob checks for traps again, and doesn't find anything, and the party deliberates about what to do. After a little while, some of them hear muffled noises on the other side of the door, and they go in.

In the room is a man tied to a chair. There's also some other furniture, including a desk in the corner, and another door on the other side of the room. The man is bound and gagged. Rathnor searches him and finds a key.

When they ungag him, the man says some others tied him up and went past him towards where the party came from. He tells the party they're in the city of Tharn. The party decides to unbind him, and Rob and Rathnor go to investigate the other door. On the other side, they find a spiral staircase. Rob skulks up it, while Rathnor waits at the bottom, after Rob tells him his armor is too loud.

After a few minutes, the man who was in the chair starts making noises and hunching over. He changes into a werewolf, and attacks Arden. Rathnor hears the noise and comes in, but Cinnamon puts the man to sleep with a dance. They tie the man back up.

Meanwhile, Rob has gotten to the top of the stairs, where he finds a door. He checks the door for traps, and, finding none, heads back to get the rest of the party.

Before he can get back though, the man in the chair wakes up. Rathnor and Arden take turns hitting him in the head while Cinnamon hits him in the shin, but he eventually breaks his bonds. They manage to knock him out before he can do much damage, and Arden delivers the finishing blow.

Rob gets back, and leads the party up the stairs, where they find the door is locked. Rob makes a mental note to check for this in the future. The key Rathnor took off the dead werewolf doesn't work. While Rob picks the lock, a shadow peels off the wall and attacks Rathnor. Rob finishes picking the door and rushes the party through, but the shadow follows. The party finds themselves in what looks like a cobblestone alley. It's nighttime.

The rest of the party attacks the shadow, and Rob ducks back through the door, closing it behind him. The door clicks and locks automatically behind him, and Rob immediately sets about unlocking it. Cinnamon casts a light spell on the shadow, but it is unaffected. Between the three of them, Rathnor, Arden and Cinnamon manage to finish off the shadow, but they are seriously weakened.

Rob re-unlocks the door. The party hears noises and baying coming their way, like a pack of werewolves. They high-tail it back through the door, letting it close and lock behind them, and then run back downstairs and through the rooms to the portal, which they go through.

They find themselves in the desert outside of Rothgab. They go back into the city, and head back to the city's side of the portal, where they find Horowitz. They tell Horowitz what they found. Horowitz yells at Gladwell for screwing up the lock spell and bouncing them, and tells him to shut the portal down. Horowitz explains that Rothgab has had this kind of problem before with Tharn, calling it "attempting to set up improper trade relations." He sends the party back to headquarters. The party collects their pay, and finds healers to help with their wounds.