CALIMPORT GAME

You've heard that Ginseng is in the ward captain's lockup, down in Osiir Sabban. Getting there from your homes in Eraré will require you to ascend two stories from your cool and shadowy dirt streets to the top of the sabban wall, then follow the sun-seared wall-top road to Osiir. Big Zhad says that you need to get Ginseng out of the lockup before they make him spill the tea on all of Big Zhad's plans that Ginseng knows. Big Zhad trusts you. Don't fail him.

There is a fee to walk along the wall tops, collected by guards at the foot of the stairs. A few copper pieces, a nominal amount that gets you a brightly colored string tied round your wrist. Different colors for different days. Some people collect the strings, and some guards will smile at a rainbow wrist; others will cut off all the strings and collect a new fee.

Some people do use the sewers to move between sabbans, but for all the reasons you might think, it is not a preferred way for lawful folks.

There also are a few gates in the walls, but for each gate there is a fee, so if you are moving more than one sabban away it is cheaper to ascend to the walls.

There is no real risk associated with doing all this (at least the daylight routes), it's just a small expense that each of you can bear. Which route you choose will, however, impact what you might encounter. Wall top folks are generally hoitier than gate passers.

You know ginger-haired and scrawny Ginseng, kind of … he is the mouthpiece whom Big Zhad usually uses to assign you tasks. A bit of an attitude on him haughty like. But evidently competent as he's higher than you in the power structure. You think? Knows more than you, anyway.

This time the task to rescue Ginseng came through Ravvok, a thickbodied older man who perpetually scowls. That's just his expression, he's polite in his speech.

The wall top road is on the verge of bustling, many porters hastening to deliver their cargo and get out of the hot sun. A few more leisurely carrying palanquins, the wealthy in their shaded comfort like to slowly take the view. All around, buildings rise above the walls — it is only the destitute who dwell in the dank shadows below the wall tops, those with means live in their towers enjoying the fresh sea breeze of day time and the cold desert breeze of the night. Many buildings have cargo entrances from the wall road. Most rise two or three floors above the two-story walls, but some are taller. The padishah's palace looms large in the distance, unmistakably ornate with gold leaf domes and sparkling glass skylights.

You notice a group of four red-robed people, their sun-burnt shaven heads and faces tattooed with sigils. They blatantly clock you as they approach.

None of you "know" the red robes. But you've heard of them. The Red Wizards of Thay. Merchants of magic. Purveyors of poisons. Dangerous folk, with an interest in unusual people.

The wall top is about thirty feet wide, so there's room for people to pass in either direction with a median space for vendors' carts. The red robes deliberately cross that median between a fig cart and a wine cart, and close distance toward you as you're walking. They're getting quite close and someone has time to say one thing before they'll be definitely in earshot. They're obviously focused on the group of you.

The red robes are right there. Not quite in your faces, but they've stopped right in your path and a little too close.

" what an assortment of knick knacks, " the smallest of them says in Trade. The staccato standard tongue of Faerun sounds harsh compared to the sibilance of Calim, the local speech. " you're a tall one miss. What ya doin this day? "

Someone shouts a word in a language that might? be Thayan. There's a jolting rumble of thunder in the brownish cloud of ash and smokestack lightning crackles through it, making the cloud glow around you as you exit the back edge into bright daylight. People are staring.

Lightning touches Ane and Jasra, singeing small holes in their garments. They dash out of the smoke cloud into the daylight, along with Buruzg and Garrett. You confront a small crowd of excited people who step away to make room for you to continue fleeing. Up above and beyond them, in the sky, a small figure standing on a shining glass plate speeds toward you: one of the padishah's patrolling wizards. Probably a mile away, not quite halfway across the city, but getting closer.

Lightning wraps around Asha, knocking her flat on her face. She's caught at the edge of the smoke cloud, behind you. The cloud is very slowly dissipating.

In the cloud, the Red Robes are coughing and shouting in Thayan. They sound disoriented.

The sea breeze is thinning the smoke cloud and the Red Robes in it become vaguely visible. They're all coughing, the biggest one bent over with hands on knees.

There is a gradually-getting-louder humming noise as the patrolling wizard gets closer on his flying glass plate. That noise makes the crowd of onlookers nervous and they all begin to move away.

On the wall, the magister glides to a position about a foot above Buruzg's head and enough to the side that Buruzg can crane his neck to see the magister's face. "What's this?" asks the magister. His tone is inquisitive rather than suspicious.

You travel through alleys toward Inki's. Behind you, Ane's phantasm fades with her interest in it.

Below the walls the streets are nearly permanently shadowed by walls and buildings, except very near noon. It is breezeless, dank, and not as cool as you might hope; the heat of sunlight somehow runs down the sides of the buildings. Not sweltering, but always verging on sweat. Smells like onions, armpits, coriander, and fried meat.

The sheesha shop is bustling. A very bored looking bouncer, massive and clean shaven, stands firmly planted by the entrance. He looks you up as you approach, then grins a smile from which some daring soul removed one tooth. "Ane" he says. She knows him, kind of, as a decent kind of thug. He gestures you to enter.

Inside is dark and actually cool and pungent with weed. Intoxicated people lounge about talking nonsense or staring blankly into space. Inki's is locally renowned for not offering products that cause paranoia or jitters.

What do you do while you wait for Buruzg?

The padishah's magister frowns and looks toward the Thayans. He touches an amulet on his chest and speaks a few quiet words. Then he addresses Buruzg: "Thank you for your report citizen. Move along."

After you finish your meal you head down toward the docks. Will you borrow or "borrow" a boat?

You get in the boring little boat. It's a bit crowded but not going to sink, there's a decent amount of gunwale above the water and the harbor is calm.

The setting sunlight sparkles on the water, rose and gold. You wasted a while relaxing at Inki's. Big Zhad might be upset; he said this was an urgent task. You'll worry about that later. Jailbreaks are better at night, anyway.

With Ane directing you, even stoned out of her mind, there's little risk in rowing the boat along the wharfs to the other sabban. You clumsily secure it to a dock and clamber up out of it.

The dock is deserted, there are a few barrels and crates but no workers as it's dinner time and everyone's off work. You can see the lock-up looming up above the other buildings of the sabban, near the wall. Probably a few minutes to walk over there, but then you'll have to get up on the wall again if you want to use the main entrance that opens onto the top of the wall.

What do you do?

What about Garrett's background would help him to find an entry point?

Garret's cunning and knowledge of buildings guide him to …

a sewer grate in the middle of the plaza that lays at the foot of the lock up. Probably the city storm sewer also is the outlet for whatever foulness the guards and prisoners produce. And probably there is a route that way to enter the building unseen. Though it would be optimal to access the sewers via a less public opening, as this one is quite visible to passersby. At least the first two floors of the donjon do not have any windows overlooking the plaza.

Ane's perusal of the upper stories indicates there are numerous windows, too large to reasonably open onto prisoners' cells. They must be to the barracks rooms of the amlakkar. Probably not the way to go for a jailbreak?

There is of course the roof, but that's about the furthest in the building that you could possibly get from the basements where the prisoners are locked.

It's not that hard to find a sewer grate in an alley two buildings away from the gaol. The grate is loose and easy to remove, unseen by any passersby.

The sewer smells faintly like a sewer. Not an overpowering stench, though.

Buruzg says nothing, but carefully lowers the grate back in place above you. The sewer tunnel is high enough that you don't have to crawl, but low enough that you can't stand up. For the smaller people it would be impossible to climb back out without the help of the handholds cut into the sewer wall below the grate.

The smell is not overpowering and quickly becomes dull background to your squelchy splashy progress. Garrett leads you around a couple of turns as Asha and Jasra discuss the wall-marks.

Garrett stops by a moderately large opening that has clearly seen some recent flow. You can hear vague distant conversation echoing down the pipe.

"… Yadwar said … he di'n't?! … and she … hahahaha … teach him to … well and he said … yeah but …" the voices echo in a garbled manner, it sounds like two or three bored people laughing it up.

Sounds like they are at the upper end of the pipe, and they're staying there.

The square pipe is big enough for one person at a time to chimney up it. The walls are sticky/slick brick. Who follows Garrett and Asha, in what order?

Garrett gets up to the top of the pipe, Asha a bit lower and Jasra below her. The pipe opens into the bottom of a trough, which has a cover over it about two feet above Garrett's head. There are four holes in the cover, about the right size for people to sit and do business. The trough smells pretty bad. It would be possible to squirm out through the holes in the cover.

The room beyond the holes is silent for now, and stays that way several minutes.

There is a hallway outside the loo, going to left and right along a series of wooden doors with slots at the bottoms and small grilled windows at eye level. Each door has a padlock on it.

The hallway is dim. There are four oil lamps set along the wall across from the cell doors. Each lamp is about twenty feet from the next, so there are lots of shadows.

You hear footsteps. And jingling keys.

The tall and burly guard walks right past Garrett and in the door of the loo, where he confronts the other three of you.

The guard starts to say something when he sees Asha, Ane, and Jasra. Then he collapses with a floor-trembling thud.

There is a long silent moment. A few breaths.

Then more silence.

The cells are unlit. Peeking through the narrow grated windows reveals nothing of their occupancy, only darkness. Anyone imprisoned here is still, perhaps drowsing. You'll need to call Ginsing's name and get a response to have a hope of finding him.

The corridor forms a square about eighty feet on a side, with ten cells along the inner wall on each side of the square. Many of the cells have one or more people sleeping in their dark confines. The people wake up in response to your whispering and start to ask questions, Like "who are you" and "where's the guard" and "will you let me out"? It gets pretty noisy by the time you get to the far side of the square, where there is a padlocked double door in the outside wall.

"Here's Ginsing" a familiar voice says with unfamiliar weakness. The little ginger usually has an outsize personality. Asha's torch shows his face looking haggard as he is huddled in the back corner of his cell.

The guard's key ring is heavy and jingles as you unlock each cell, leaving the padlocks hanging. The prisoners are slow to rise from their places, apparently bewildered by their fortune. Even Ginsing moves haltingly. As he emerges into the dim hallway the various bruises on his face and limbs make apparent he's been beaten, more than once, in the past few days.

"Unlock the door to the stairs," he suggests. "How did you get in?"

As Garrett touches the padlock to open what must be the "door to the stairs", there is an abrupt firm knock at the other side. "Two to go in!" says an authoritative man. "Bardo, open up."

"Baaardo ... come on, man!"

The milling prisoners scramble and shove through the doors. The two captives on the other side join the rush, essentially trampling the bewildered guard. Prisoners go quickly up the stairs (this seems to be the bottom of the dungeon) to the next landing, whence you hear shouts: "The door is locked!" "Quick get the keys!"

Whatever order you go, the other prisoners pay you no attention as they try to break down the door leading up out of the stairwell.

Garrett reconsiders climbing while gripping a dagger, which seems needless as no one is paying attention to your exit.

You make your gross and smelly way out of the prison, back into the sewers.

Who remembers which way out?

You get back up out of the sewer into the alley, which is deserted.

It's a bit after sunset so you're not particularly conspicuous aside from your odor. Which you're kind of noseblind to, but you can guess that others wouldn't be.

Where were you supposed to bring Ginsing?

You emerge from the dark alley into the dark street, lit in a few places by still-open shop fronts or the faint light from upper windows. The night chill of the desert is settling in, and the fog is beginning to drift in from the harbor. A few people are moving with lamp- or torch-bearers through the streets, and more lights are visible moving along the wall tops. If your noses weren't overwhelmed by your own stenches, you'd probably smell good meals cooking. You can certainly hear the sounds of cooking and kitchen conversations faintly trembling through the air. The streets are sparse, the apartments are busy. It's a good time to move unobserved.

You head back toward where you left the boat on the sand between piers.

The boat is not there. It's dark except for light of a barely visible crescent moon, the few torches that move along the wharf (night watch looking out for burglars of crates and barrels), and the pale cyan glow of luminescent jellies on the crests of small waves in the harbor. So you can see ok. The boat is not there.

Garrett and Ane soon enough find a boat as dilapidated but apparently leak-free as the previously borrowed one. You shove it down the sand into the water and all five of you splash in and squeeze aboard.

The boat has only one oar, so there's some clumsy paddling and passing of the oar among you as you maneuver out into the harbor. Sticking close to shore you pass unobserved around the end of the sabban wall. It takes only about twenty minutes to land this boat essentially where from you took the other one. You then take a few minutes to cleanse yourselves as you can in the shallow water of the harbor. Smelling more of salt and old fish than of sewers, you feel better to continue your evening.

Big Zhad surely is afoot right now, it's his time of the evening for business. He'll be glad to see Ginsing, sure of that. Do you make your way to Inki's where you can get news of Zhad's whereabouts?

= = = montage = = =

Big Zhad is pleased to have Ginsing safe out of lock up and hopefully not too much tea spilled by the beatings. "I swear, boss, I said nothing."

You all get swept into the welcome-back party at Inki's and have a great time. Gain ...... coins each.

= = =

A few days later, Ginsing finds the group of you lazing in the sun on a pier not currently in use. There's a ship moored next to you, but it's not being loaded or unladen, so the pier is quiet and sunny and really kind of pleasant with the gulls circling overhead in the fresh breeze and calling to each other.

"Boss has a job for you," he says politely. He's previously thanked you — a lot — for his rescue from the amlakkar. "Wants you to collect a package from the Lightning Tower on Tynar's Square, and bring it to a wizard's house in Najja Sabban."

The Lightning Tower is the temple of the storm god Talos. Also called the Screaming Tower (for the noises that come from it when storms are brewing), it is a square building of black marble and silver about sixty feet high. Each corner of the building has a silver-and-gold lightning bolt traced down from the high cornice to the ground. Although opulent, the tower is centuries old and not well-maintained. Small pieces of marble occasionally plummet from the parapets to the plaza below.

Across from the Lightning Tower is the somewhat shorter and wider temple of Azuth, god of magic. It's not a particularly impressive building, although basically a brownish stone cube with a shallow dome on top it somehow resembles a plump toad.

Catercorner from the temples of Azuth and Talos is the imposing red sandstone fortress that stands as a temple to Helm, the god of war.The package retrieval is a little more than simply knocking on the ill-fitted door of the Lightning Tower and saying "here to pick up". Rather, you will need to get past the weary door warden and meet a corrupt priest who wants to hand off the parcel for a small bag of lotus powder.

Fortunately, you know the pass phrase to get in the door.

The tired old man nods and pulls open the silver-inlaid door, which is a single twelve-foot by eight-foot panel of lightning-blasted oak wood. The door groans on its hinges as it opens.

Inside the temple is dimly lit by narrow windows near the very high ceiling. There is a worship in progress, quiet chanting echoes like distant thunder in the cavernous space. It looks like your contact may be the priest conducting the service.

The service ends. The celebrants disperse through the creaky door of the temple. The priest approaches. He's young-looking and moves awkwardly, as if he's dizzy. He smiles at you as you stand to greet him. The smile is off somehow.

"I don't recognize you," he says gently. "Are you new to worshipping Talos?"

Ane observed the service and noted that it had more formal and impressive versions of the quick prayers that her family said to Talos when the skies looked grim. These worshippers were staving off disaster with their hymns. Despite his evident problems with balance, the priest knew the words and rituals of Talos.

Considering the priest more closely, he moved and spoke like a man recovering from inebriation. Or, more likely, coming down from his last sniff of lotus powder. The little bundle tucked into Ane's cleavage should ease the man's discomfort. If he has the right goods to trade …

"A parcel for a bindle," the priest says to Garrett with another off smile. Too tight, too anxious — and his eyes unsteady — he's crashing hard from the bliss of waking lotus dreams.

"Heh … yeah. Come back to the vestry, the package is there." The priest leads you through the main room of the temple, around the altar and through a narrow doorway into a plain room warmly lit by an oil lamp. There are two comfortable-looking pink cushioned chairs in the room, and another door at the side that probably leads to the priest's living quarters. On one of the chairs there is a cloth-wrapped bundle about a cubit square and several inches thick. The priest gesture to that. "Here. And where …?" he looks eagerly to Ane.

The priest eagerly reaches out, too fast, and then stops his hand before actually snatching the bindle from Ane. "Thank … you," he says a little shakily. He sighs, and weighs the little parcel in his hand. Then he reaches to shut the door behind you.

* * *

It's a perfectly lovely sea-side day in the streets of Eraré Sabban. You maneuver through the narrow streets toward the gap in the Ward wall that opens in to Wizard Ward, where Najja Sabban is the centerpiece.

As you're passing a rope-maker's shop, Garrett perceives that you're being followed. Glancing upward, he sees a trio of red-robed people traipsing along the almost-flat roof tops to the right. They're looking down at you with keen interest.

You walk past the staff in the back of the coffee shop, who look at you curiously as you exit. The alley is fairly clean, narrow, and generally straight. After you pass the back doors of seven buildings, you exit the alley into the plaza where the Ward wall is opened onto Wizard Ward. Looking around, it appears that you've evaded the "chili peppers".

You have the address that you need to attend in Najja Sabban, it's just a matter of getting through the various illusions, wards, unseen servants, visible security, etc. to get there.

Ahead of you the street is blocked by a shimmering transparent curtain of many colors, which ripple back and forth across the street. It appears that two neighbor wizards are playing some sort of magical game, thaumaturgic arm-wrestling if you will. A few bystanders are wagering on "Ilward" and "Lopsy".

"It's every Tyrsday," the bystander answers. He's a swart broad man with a bald head and a wrinkled face. He wears a faded blue caftan of high-thread-count linen with tiny stitching. The stitching might be silver thread. He glances at Ane's feet. "Are you new to the sabban?"

The older man chuckles. "Indeed." He turns aside to a woman with henna hair. " Another gold piece for Ilward I think." Turning back to Ane and Garrett, "do you want a piece of the action?"

"Ilward is magenta, Lopsy is merrigold," answers the gambler. He gestures toward the shimmering curtain, which is mostly orange-brown. "It looks like Ilward's winning … for now. This could go all afternoon."

The older man nods, and gives you brief directions that seem easy to follow.

The directions indeed are easy to follow, and you end up looking through an open gateway in a tall wall of pale yellow bricks. Inside the gateway is a pleasant-looking blue-tiled patio. On the patio are several wicker egg chairs and chaise longues set among big red-brown ceramic pots that contain small citrus trees.

Asha is lounging on one of the chaise longues. She glances up …

You get directions from the healers to the drop off house.

On the way there, you encounter a pair of mage amlakkars. They are the classic tall round and short scrawny pair in matching yellow caftans with blue paisley embroidery. They watch you as you approach.

" good afternoon" says the tall one. She's an imposing woman with bleached cornrows. " do you belong here?"

"Another day another coin," quips the short scrawny wizard. He smiles. "I see you've been in Samray's healing house?"

The smiling wizard half-laughs. "Yes, and the robe you're wearing," he says. "Free advertising. It will last about three or four washings."

The two amlakkar nod to you and begin to walk along the street past you.

The big woman smiles a surprisingly innocent smile. "Thank you."

You continue toward the delivery spot, without direct involvement in any further incident. The street scene is what you might expect in an entirely-wizard neighborhood.

Ane sees only an empty pewter picture frame, with Garrett oddly interested by it.

It's hard to assess motive in a piece of magic. Ane definitely picks up enchantment and divination auras on the frame.

As Ane touches the frame, she sees in it a portrait of her parents, her sister, and herself, all standing smiling in a fishing boat pushed up onto the sand between piers Octopus and Haddock.

Vendor quotes an affordable price. Ane has coin from the rescue of Ginsing and can purchase it if she wants.

But what if Garrett wants it more?

The vendor is an elven woman with a ring in her septum like a bull. She grins. "Not many people think to ask that question. It's art. Like any art it speaks to our wishes and fears and also shows us what's real in an artistic sense." With a wink. " Are you buying yourself or a friend?"

You weren't told not to look, but it's kind of understood that couriers shouldn't poke into their parcels.

The servant who accepts the package is an unremarkable vaporous apparition with a pointy goatee. He dismisses you politely, with a small bag of silver that will pay your way for a while. You make it back to Erare Sabban without incidents.

→ → Time passed …

→ Ane learned Disguise.

→ Garrett got his knives and armor.

One night you were well into it at Inki's when Big Zhad sat down heavily next to you. He reached out and took the pipe, took a deep drag on it, passed it off.

"We gotta problem," he said, "it's not small. Dalana — you know her? — she's got missing. With a valuable package from the docks." He looks at you seriously. "Want you three to find the package. And Dalana. Last thing she was s'posed to be going up to Khanduq Ward, Sholeh Sabban. Way outta our area, but the customer paid extra." He slowly shakes his head. "We maybe bit more than we could chew …" Shrugs. "Anyway, look into it. Bring back all you can."