Chapter Eight – Paperwork to Set You Free – The Plane of Cursed

Tarsek 5 – 14, 1371 D.R.

            They say adventuring experiences can range in difficulty from heaven to hell.  This adventure started with just that comparison.  We had just left the glorious gate town of Excelsior to head back to Sigil and, by nightfall, will find ourselves in Curst, a place of evil all its own.  The planes are all different and each has their own characteristics and amount of danger, as we were about to learn the hard way.

            After returning to Sigil, we decided to find Dreel and Ebb Creakknees n the Hive district.  We were hoping to find a guide to Curst and, as we trusted the two of these folks, were hoping they would recommend someone.  Why were we voluntarily going to Curst?  Let me explain.

            During our first excursion to Sigil we had met Tarin, a bariar (centaur like ram) who has a friend in trouble.  He had asked us if we’d get some paperwork from a man named Gadwin who resides in Curst.  Curst is the gate town for the planes of Carseri - a very evil place.  This paperwork supposedly will prove a friend’s innocence.  We would need to return the paperwork to the Hall of Records in Sigil where the laws are made by the Guvners.  We didn’t have time to get this paperwork at the time but were now back and had some time.

            Ebb informed us that Tarin was still alive and now in hiding from the Mercy Killers.  He was still hopeful we would recover the paperwork in time.  As we discussed all of this with Ebb, we notice we had drawn someone’s attention – an abishai (a creature from the lower planes).  We decided it was best to be on our way and hope that Dreel would catch up with us later on.  Ebb snuck us out to avoid the conflict and we made a stop to pick up a pair of rusty daggers.  It would appear the gate key has something to do with rusty daggers.

            On the way we discussed our return plans since we had no idea where the gate back to Sigil was and figured no one would be very helpful in Curst.  Ebb suggested we travel to the Court of Light in the Outlands, which was in that area.  This was where Faithful Servant Li, a clerk in the palace of the Master of the Dead in the Celestial Bureaucracy, worked and could possibly help us out in getting us back to Sigil.  Now we had our insertion and extraction covered, all that was left now was the trip to Curst itself.

            Ebb stopped in an alley where a walkway spanned the distance and began rubbing the dagger blades together.  As the rust off these daggers fell, the gate to Curst opened up.  Now was our time as we all proceeded through the gate.  Our arrival was less than spectacular and our surroundings were even less so.  The air here smelled like something you would have expected when Zhentil Keep fell or in the continuing battles in Yülash – only…more metallic in nature.  Dust blew hiding footprints and obscuring vision.  It was dry and warmer as one might expect when getting closer to the hells.

            We approached the thick, metal gates of Curst to find the doors wide open with a half dozen guards on duty.  The walls, decomposing and rusted, were lined with razorvine on the inside.  More of a tactic to keep people in than out as we all observed.  As we passed the guards they gave us no trouble on our way into Curst – furthering our suspitions on it being harder to get out than enter.  The guards all seemed to have something they were upset about.  They were not overly friendly and were only as helpful as they wanted to be.  They did recommend a place to find out more about Gadwin sending us to the Quartered Man.  We began heading that way.

            On our way we decided to stop and consult the Mirmar for information, why we hadn’t done this earlier we didn’t know but we decided now would be a good time.  As we slipped into an alley we happened across a woman struggling against five thugs.  She called out for assistance and we sprang to action with Oskar in the lead.  That’s right, we ran right into a situation we had no clue about.  As we engaged, the woman turned to fight us as well.  At one point in the battle, I killed two of our opponents with a single blow of the sword – it was an incredible shot.  We were doing pretty well when a priest and his three warrior companions came upon the conflict.  The priest called out saying “Hold, there is healing to be done.”   It was considered until the joined the fight instead.

As it was finally getting closer to being resolved, the city guard showed up.  The captain of the guard ignored all of Cedar’s explanations.  Instead, he barked the order, “Standard clean-up, Kill them all.”  Not to leave us out to dry, cedar began handling the four guards as they attempted to close and kept the captain at bay until we could assist.  When we were done, everyone was either unconscious or dead.  We did a quick search and fled.  A tiefling and a demon, hearing the commotion, decided to check out the carnage and killed anyone not already dead – they were enjoying it way too much for us.

We finally got a chance to stop and consult the Mirmar as well as to have Cedar remind us what he had found out from the guards.  It told us that Curst is known as a place for exiles and castaways.  Most folks here figure that someone owes them something and carry grudges.  Cedar told us that he had found out the layout of the city was as follows:  Outer ring – Stables/Inns/Houses, Next ring – Craftsmen/Workshops, Next ring – Merchants, Next ring – Nobles, and the Centermost ring – Administrative District/Jail.  We packed up the Mirmar and continued to the Inn.

Upon arriving at the Quartered Man, we rented a room for the evening and secured equipment and ourselves.  We needed more information on Gadwik and, as I was skilled in that, I decided to eat downstairs while others got their food and went up to the room to eat.  I asked around as sneakily as one could in a hostile environment and swapped battle stories to get people to talk.  I also tried to fall into the role of the typical person from Curst.  It seemed to work as I retrieved some of the necessary information.

I found out that Gadwin owned and ran the Swarro Warehouse.  He was a big name in the community – that should have clued me right there something was wrong.  He also had a habit of frequenting the Peery Eyed Tavern.  He would go there to watch his favorite dancer Jisimana.  I figured she would be a good source to get his location from tomorrow.  Meanwhile the rest of the group had discovered we had recovered a bag of holding full of copper struck with the same mark – possibly the local thieves guild mark?  The note the female had also been carrying had mentioned a Potion of Intelligence.  There was also a name, Linthe.  Whether that was her name of the person she worked for we do not know.  I came up to the room, we exchanged information, and then trouble hit.

The next thing any of us remember was being released from our bonds as we had been imprisoned.  It appears that the bartender had poisoned the food and placed a poison candle in the room and thugs on Gadwin’s payroll had brought us here – wherever that was.  We didn’t have a long time to think about it was we were forced to fight a huge four-legged bird in an arena setting.  We were successful but, no matter how much we fought it, when we were bound in the restraints again, it was like being drugged all over again.  This seemed to happen daily but we have no way of knowing.  One thing that was certain, however, Shane was not with us.

The last time I awoke from the restraints, Shane was releasing us after killing the three guards that had been watching us.  Shane had not been affected by the poison and had fought with Gadwin’s thugs.  He had escaped through the window in the room crashing first through the shutters, then through the razorvine, and crashing lastly to the ground knocking him dazed and at a loss of his memory for days. 

As we were equipping ourselves, there was another figure in restraints.  Glyt’da, a Holy Warrior, was a githyanki and his sword lay on the table with our things.  His sword was a mean looking thing, having cutouts in the blade making it rip even more into opponents.  After a detect evil by Oskar, we released Glyt’da and he took up his sword.  He was looking for Gadwin as well for imprisoning him and informed us he was an abishai.  This helped us prepare a bit for our escape.  I was surprised that some of our group let him free.  He was a member of a known evil race and, instead of just writing him off, they checked him out and released him to help us.  Maybe I have gotten through to them and maybe we’ve learned enough lessons to not judge on appearance – we’ll see.

On our way to find Gadwin, we encountered another group of three guards, which we dealt with very quickly.  We pressed on and found Gadwin held up in a larger room.  The battle began.  On our side was the group of us plus Glyt’da.  On their side were Gadwin, an abishai, a mage, a petitioner, and some guards.  The battle started very well but then became skewed against us.  If something didn’t change, we were not escaping.  Glyt’da fell at Gadwin’s attacks and it seemed that it was going to get very costly to gain freedom.

Suddenly, the door behind Gadwin burst in as Dreel entered and attacked the abishai.  The battle was revived and alive.  Primula got Glyt’da out of the front lines and healed him up.  Healed enough, Glyt’da re-entered the battle again further swaying the battle in our favor this time.  It had been required to have a magical weapon to hit the abishai or do massive quantities of damage.  In addition, they regenerate damage done to them!  Finally, under a massive group effort, the abishai fell.

Upon the battle being over, Glyt’da took his leave thanking and saying he would remember us.  He then faded from sight.  It has started to worry me as we seem to have to run back into these people that we help and I wasn’t looking forward to the encounter we encounter him again in the future.  We found the paperwork that we needed, searched for everything we could find, packed up, and escaped the warehouse.

We had found out a bunch of information from the paperwork around.  Gadwin was running a section of a slave ring, even though he was not the head of the organization.  The paperwork also had an interesting name on it – the Tooka’s.  The paperwork showed Tarin had sold the land with the gate to Toril.  Gadwin had replaced the paperwork with a conspiracy that Tarin and the Tooka had used murder and theft in a scheme to acquire the land and the gate.  Interesting, and we just happened to run into Tarin???

Retrieving this information, we managed to leave Curst and made it safely to the Court of Light.  Servant Li was there and helped us get back to Sigil after explaining how we had assisted in recovering Golden Morning Radiance in Sigil.  We then made it to Sigil and hurried across town to the Hall of Records.  We presented the paperwork just as a Mercy Killer, named Tall Tally, was about to finish the judging of Tarin.  Needless to say, he was not happy at all.  He said he’s be watching us from now on and waiting for us to do something wrong.  We took that as our cue to leave for home.

The Tooka was very pleased with us upon our return through the gate.  We shared some of our stories as he listened intently with a look as if he missed the planes.  Sometime, I am going to have to see if I can listen to his stories – I know they will be much better than the ones we bring to him.

The Songs and Stories of My Life,

Kerith of the Dalelands