…back in the Before Time
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Sister Bomia’s Adventure Diary
Our Stop In Palkus
Dogsday 3, White Moon Month, Year 25 of the Golden Emperor
Dear Diary,
Our two day stopover in Palkus, capital of Ixokal, was a wild series of misadventures even by our standards. I couldn’t quite decide how to write them up, so I’ll just do a quick going over of how everything went for each of us.
Me: We got to Palkus about two hours before sun up and went looking for a decent place to eat breakfast. One of our fellow travelers suggested a place called the Full Belly Inn, so there we went. The food was excellent and plentiful. As we were getting done eating, in walked Sister Genola, one of the five Sisters at our second most northern convent. I excused myself and went to greet her. She seemed a bit nervous upon seeing me, but greeted me politely and said she had just stopped it for a mug of tea. After she got it, we sat down and I asked her what was wrong. She began to cry and told me that the High Reverend Mother Pamora in charge of Inspections was on her way and would arrive the next day. The Palkus convent, she explained, is a poor one and in need of some repairs. With the High Reverend Mother Pamora due to arrive the next night, the Sisters were certain they would receive poor marks and possibly be shut down and relocated.
Well, Diary, I am fully aware of what a demanding and, dare I say it, overly judgmental, person Mother Pamora is, so naturally I told them I would help them get things ready to pass inspection.
What followed was just about 36 hours of hard work, conscription of the local parishioners (often via the use of bribes or veiled threats), wheeling & dealing for cleaning & repairing supplies, and even my calling upon the Mother Goddess to guide our hands and speed our progress. By the time Mother Pamora arrived, the convent was spotless and in excellent shape.
I declined to be there to meet her, since she takes a dim view of adventuring Sisters. Instead, I collapsed in a bed at the Full Belly Inn and slept for 10 hours.
Meanwhile…
Amella: After breakfast that first day, Amella decided to “stroll around town”. Given Amella’s larcenous nature, strolling was never really on her mind. Her report to me before we left town included the following.
She lifted the purse of a mage in disguise, who then pursued her halfway across the city (and Palkus is a big city) casting hexes and fire bolts the whole way. He missed Amella, but caused much chaos, for which he was arrested.
Using the fat purse of the mage, she got into a high stakes game of Four Card Slam, where she lost most of the money, but found out where one of the wealthy players lived.
After dark and during a party, she robbed the players house.
After that, she dallied with a young man. Upon leaving his home a few hours later, she herself was robbed by the local Thieves Guild.
Now in a very foul mood, she set about robbing Thieves Guild members and leaving them tied up in embarrassing positions.
Which is why we all had to leave town 3 hours earlier than planned.
Halana: Went to find herself some female company and managed to have a day long tryst a Northern Green Elf. This sort of Elf is given to obsessive behavior and strong emotions and more than a bit of mental instability. When Halana went to bid her goodbye, she would not hear of it. At that point, Halana felt obliged to knock her out and leave. Unfortunately, Northern Green Elves are tough, so she came to about three minutes later and went after our Amazon.
What followed was a mix of the two of them fighting and Halana running to get away from “a very tough crazy woman”. They caused a good deal of chaos, too. It was not until late afternoon on our second day that Halana was able to lead the Elf into the Royal Palace, at which point the Elf got her own pursuers in the form of a dozen Palace Guards. Halana was able to sneak out, then took four hours and a very roundabout path to get back to our rooms.
Grettin: Grettin went out for an after breakfast walk and met several other dwarves at a nearby market. As dwarves are wont to do, they greeted one another heartily and then went looking for a place to drink.
As dwarves are also wont to do, once they were good and drunk and done swapping stories, they decided to go exploring. In the sewers. At night. Heavily armed and armored. Did I mention that the sewers of Palkus go down five or six levels and are home to both foul (literally!) beasts and equally unpleasant people?
What would be 17 hours that most people would avoid turned into “quite a lovely and fun excursion”, as Grettin put it. I should mention that 15 liquored up dwarves looking for trouble caused many of the sewer residents to leave their homes for the city above.
If you guessed that this sowed more chaos, Diary, you are correct.
Olivia: Often the most level headed among us, Olivia went off to the local College of Magic to see what she could learn, and to discuss things wizardly with her peers.
I don’t know what went on, but when she returned to our rooms, her dress robe was badly singed in a few spots and she was limping. This, of course, was after a rather alarming few hours of chaos when the city experienced sticky rain, a flight of dragons made out of assorted leaves, a giant kitten, animated clothing running about and a fireworks show that lasted from midnight until five in the morning.
Olivia will not come forth with details.
As I write this, Diary, it is just before sunset on the day we left Palkus. We have been on the remains of the Great Road for about three hours and are making camp in the Flower Hills. All of us are looking forward to some peaceful and chaos free sleep.
I will write more soon.
Sister Bomia Evarain
The Dociverse Blog 