Out Of The City

On the first group's way towards the East gate, Darius has a change of heart and decides that he will act as the group's tracker. Passing a water pump, he washes off the paste and horsehair making sure that no one is watching as he does it.

Nervously the group approaches the East gate. The party gets in line behind the various groups trying to make their way out of the city - a collection of merchants and clerics mostly. The nerves of the party get more and more frayed as they see that the gate guards are checking everyone very carefully. A few groups in front of the party, a small group of humans is dragged off by a group of guards. Who knows where they are going?

They notice the gate's defenses as they get closer. There are small towers on either side of the gate, each of which house a cannon. There appears to be no one standing by the cannons, however. Next to the towers, on the city walls are three orc musketeers on either side. Their matches are not burning however, and the orcs are interested only in basking in the sun. Next to them on either side is a group of six goblins armed with shortbows. Again they are not looking as if they are ready for action. Guarding the door itself is a group of ten orcs armed mainly with polearms. One of them, obviously the leader, is doing the talking.

Any thoughts of fighting their way out of Mnyesto are swiftly forgotten.

After almost an hour of waiting, it is finally the group's turn to meet the guardian of the gate and to bluff their way out.

The leader starts speaking to them in bad Bohavian.

'Who you is? Why out city you want go?'

Corrow starts to do the talking, explaining that they are a group of bounty hunters, officially sanctioned by the Nyemetz by decree and that they are escorting the elf out of the city to claim a bounty.

The orc asks to see the letter which Corrow gives him. He looks at it blankly for a long while. It is fairly obvious that reading is beyond his abilities. He seems a little confused, wondering whether to take it to a superior. He then turns towards Yaz and points.

'Who is pointy ear one? Where you take him? Why money is on his head?'

Corrow glances quickly at Xavier, wondering how on earth he ended up doing all the talking himself. He quickly tries to remember the cover story and does some improvisation as well.

"His name is Dayfid Dookovni. He's worth a lot of money to us in a town to the east. It's suspected he helped a magician escape the town militia."

The orc thinks for a moment.

'I need check all bags. Give all bags to me. We need look them through.'

The other orcs gather round.

The leader turns to Darius and starts speaking goblin to him.

'Why you with pale ones? Why you no fight with Nyemetz? Deserter is you?'

The orc leader is having problems working out whether this strange piece of paper handed to him means anything, but then he sees Xavier punch Yaz in the stomach.

'Huh! huh! huh! That only way to deal pointy ears with' laughs the orc leader and his henchman. Now that is the sort of thing that orc's really understand well - mindless violence!

Corrow is the first to give his bag to the orc leader. The orc rummages around and pulls out what the others realize to be Corrow's spell book. The orc starts to leaf through the book when Corrow tells him that the book is the spellbook of their elven captive. As soon as the orc hears this, he drops the spellbook back into Corrow's bag as if it just turned into a snake. He then kicks the bag back towards Corrow.

He then asks Darius again what he is doing with the rest of the group. Darius replies with an angry outburst in goblin that the rest of the group can't understand. What he actually says to the orc is that he is on a very secret undercover mission and that unless the orc lets the group go this minute he will be in very great trouble indeed.

The orc leader seems genuinely unnerved by what Darius has just said to him, almost to the point of shaking. Although the rest of the group cannot understand what the orc leader is saying, it's almost as if he is groveling in his reply to Darius. He then barks an order in orcish to the rest of the guards and they move to either side of the gate.

'Go can we now' says Darius to the rest of the group, deadpan.

They move through the door cautiously, observing the fact that the guards are watching them.

After around 10 minutes, the group is out of sight of the gate, and alter their course to take a south westerly course towards the Temple of Laska. It takes a couple of hours to get to the Temple, but they have no problem in finding it. The other group is not there yet, and after more than an hour they start to get a little nervous.

The other group's experience at getting out of the gate starts in a similar fashion. They too were forced to wait in a queue for a long period of time, which gave them ample opportunity for seeing how well defended the gate was. Eventually, the line moved slowly forward and they found themselves face to face with the orcish gate captain.

The leader starts speaking to them in bad Bohavian, asking the same question as the first group had to answer.

'Who you is? Why out city you want go?'

Maire' does the talking. She has managed to bring on a flood of tears in order to act out the part. While she is sobbing, she tells the orc that her little brother has the plague and that they are taking him to an elven healer in order to be cured.

At the mention of the word 'plague' the orc takes a few steps backwards.

'BRTSK' he shouts to the other orcs, and they too make a swift backwards move away from the pallet which Heimlin is lying on.

'Where is healer of plague? Who these other two here you with?' asks the orc leader, pointing at Colin and Winnacer.

'Still need check bags, I do' says the orc leader 'Leave plague one here and come with me here' he says pointing to the opposite tower of the gate. A couple of orcs come with him and want to look through their belongings.

The orc leader looks through everyone's bags trying to keep as far away from the group as possible while he does so. There is nothing in either Colin or Winnacer's bags that seem to interest him. He starts to look through Maire's bag and pulls out her spellbook and some of the spell components.

The orc leader looks at Maire'.

'What these for?'

Maire' comes towards him in order to take a look for herself. As she starts to speak, she starts coughing and spluttering in a fit, sending spittle flying.

This freaks the orc leader out totally! He stuffs everything back into the bag and throws it back to Maire'.

'YOU GO! NOW FAST HURRY' he shouts, obviously very afraid.

The other orcs clear a path through the gateway and Winnacer and Colin drag Heimlin on the pallet through the gate. After 10 minutes, they are out of sight of the gate, and take huge sighs of relief. Winnacer tells Heimlin he can get off the pallet now, but Heimlin says that it is better for him to stay in disguise until they all reach the sanctuary of the Temple of Laska.

It is hard going dragging the pallet for five miles, even with the strength of both Colin and Winnacer. It takes four hours to get to the Temple. They see the other party are already there waiting for them. They seem very relieved to see that the others made it.

They all greet each other heartily, glad that everyone made it back.

'Nice work everyone' says Heimlin, getting off the pallet. 'This all took rather a lot longer than I thought' he says looking at the sun which is now just over the horizon. 'There ain't no point in us startin' out this evenin'. I reckon that we might as well spend the night at the Temple an' set off in the mornin'. You won't find anyone more 'ospitable to stranger than the Laskans. I'll tell you what, if you tell 'em that you're thinkin' of changin' deities, then they can be VERY 'ospitable!'

'While I was on the pallet, I thought 'bouts another problem we needs to solve. I ain't no spring chicken an' I reckon that I's really gonna slow you down as I ain't gonna be able to walk 'alf as fast as the rest of yers. Anyone got any ideas as to 'ow I can keep up with the rest of yers?'

'Oh, nearly forgot, I'll 'ave me money back now, Colin and Corrow'

'Don't all of yers start gettin' cocky coz we got through the gates. This journey's only jus' beginning, it ain't the end yet. We 'ave many days of travellin' ahead of us an' chances are that there will be plenty of dangers ahead o' us without one 'alf o' yers fallin' out wiv the others.'

Heimlin is not terribly impressed with the idea of dividing his funds amongst the party.

'No, it ain't the coin that be the problem, it's me old legs. It ain't that I don't trust yers, it's just that I'd feel lost without me bag o' coin at me side. I'd prob'ly lose me balance!'

'Anyways, I thinks we's been 'angin' around outside 'ere long enough. Let's go inside. I'm for an early night. I don't know about the rest of yers.'