Following the events of session #24, Cahaya detects someone from the Grey Company's own Prime Material Plane reciting the contact rhyme, and dispatches K-Dubbs to investigate. K-Dubbs reports:
- the supplicant is a human woman named Lára Lilja
- her dress and personal style mark her as a berserker, although her conduct and speech were remarkably refined and calm
- she claims to carry a message from King Snurre
- according to her, Snurre told her that one of his vassals recently contracted with a magic-user named Tizun Thane to put a ward on the vassal's treasure room
- it appears that in the process of this work, Tizun Thane left a magical portal in place, which he or his associates have used to rob the vassal
- in exchange for assistance with bringing the thieves to justice & restoring the vassal's reputation, and hopefully treasure, Snurre will offer a remarkable suit of human-size armor and shield which he has recently come into possession of, which he claims gives the wearer supernatural strength, hardiness, and (when the visor is lowered) immunity to mind-affecting magics.
OMG we're stupid (maybe)
Did anyone take Tizun Thrane's corpse along with us??! Please tell me you took it!
In the Nameless City of Limbo, bodies without souls attached are hugely, I mean hugely, valuable: the Nameless City is populated by ghosts who must labor to accumulate new bodies to inhabit, so the entire economy runs on infinitesimal chunks of bone from which one cobbles together a whole skeleton.
Tizun Thrane ain't no skeleton! He's fresh as a daisy and therefore worth one gajillion Limbo Lira. Everyone was so worried about getting the Giants' gold that we (or at least I) plumb overlooked the fact that Tavis dropped a fortune in our laps in the very first sentence.
The possibilities don't end there.
- We get K-Dubbs to occupy the body. Bingo: Weekend at Bernie's, White Sandbox style
- We take the body back to Zekon for resurrection or at least Speak with Dead
- Dead monsters have alchemically valuable body parts. The Brain of an Arch-Magician has to be a valuable component of meta-magical research
If we did take or can get the body i vote we give it to K Dubbs, he could be a valuable member of out team.
If I recall correctly, Tizun Trhane's body was not in factory-sealed condition. Tavis described the rotting stench when we entered the room from his corpse and the close inspection of the body revealed that he had his brain sucked out of his eye sockets (Yay).
On the other had, creating a new business in Limbo by supplying souless bodies for trade seems both interesting and horrifying. I am somewhat fearful of the organized crime that has it's fingers in that racket. Perhaps an Aboleth that speaks in the manner of Edward G. Robinson.
Greengoat, Tizun Thrane's body strikes me as being in VG/F condition, if not Near Mint. Dude's been lying on the floor for 2-3 months having done little more than bleed out. No flies, no maggots, hair still recognizably dyed, styled, and close-cut. We don't know exactly how much meat is left on the ol' pork chop, but he seems to be in amazingly good shape for a dead guy. (Maybe bodies don't decompose in Limbo?)
Anyway, I think we should definitely find a high-level Cleric who can cast Speak with the Dead so we can figure out who killed this dude and who, presumably, also killed the True Ninth Menegril.
I tried to give K-Dubbs a body once before, he seemed kind of dismayed by the idea. The implication is that the True Ninth Menegril wasn't very generous to his servants.
Ookla has, of course, no objection to selling dead or living human bodies to souls in Limbo, but he's not interested in getting into any sort of "trade" of bodies. Again, I think that if this is what other members of the party are after then please knock yourselves out, but I would encourage you to figure out how this is going to jive with those members, specifically John Fighter, who might look down upon the whole matter of going into the grave-digging business. Since gathering large sums of money is something that Ookla doesn't have much interest in [beyond meta-purposes of getting the xp] it is his opinion that doing whatever is best for keeping the party operating smoothly, without any internal conflicts.
Here's a question though: If the purpose of getting enough coinage together in Limbo is to build oneself a skeleton, wouldn't anyone with enough money to buy a corpse already have enough to make their own and thus not really need to buy one?
Speaking with Tizun Thane's corpse sounds like a good idea, if possible (if we're in Limbo shouldn't his soul be wandering around somewhere anyway?) But putting a great deal of time into finding a buyer for his corpse seems like it might take more time than Ookla would like to invest.
We've been ignoring the initial thrust of this post in favor of discussing the matter of TT's body.
Do we need to consider returning to King Snurre's treasure room in order to try to take him out? Ookla is in favor of this since he frickin' hates Hill Giants.
he's not interested in getting into any sort of "trade" of bodies.
Neither am I, but if I find a $100 bill in the street, I'm not too proud to pick it up.
wouldn't anyone with enough money to buy a corpse already have enough to make their own and thus not really need to buy one?
I have no objections to receiving 95% of Fair Market Value, considering how little we did to earn it.
Note that the Assassins Guild may be responsible for transforming Thrane's body into currency, so this presents an opportunity for us to mingle with them. (The Assassins Guild are enemies of Chrystos and Arnold in particular, and probably the other party members like Maldoor who were involved in destroying the lich Patriki Van back in January 2010.)