The vast majority of tonight's session consisted of the party talking to nearly every single resident of Coracco Amargo. Given the sheer amount of role-playing and information gathering, I'll just highlight the key encounters and give a very sketchy summary of the overall event.

The session started with the party arriving on the outskirits of the settlement of Coracco Amargo. The village was a collection of huts built on stilts to keep them out of the water. The huts were connected by a rickety collection of bridges, boardwalks, and planks. Most of the settlement was centered around a mossy stone zigguart. Set apart from the rest of the village was a ring of larger, and sturdier, huts protected by a listing stone tower. This ring, later found to be the home of Ozmandius, surrounded a vast patch of quicksand. This patch was later found to be the village's equivelant of a prison. In addition to the ring, stone tower, and the ziggurat, a total of 21 other huts formed the rest of the settlement.

In the party's interpretation of investigating the town in a rather obvious manner, they decided to stop and talk to (a.k.a harass) every single resident. Over the next several hours, most of the party got the idea about what life is like for those who are confined to Carceri - either by exile or death. They received a vast amount of conflicting information about the politics of town, and Zin was quickly able to determine that everything everybody said was some form of a lie. Of course, the residents' obvious skill meant that the party couldn't just take the opposite of a statement to be true - that would just result in another lie.

The "significant" residents of Coracco Amargo, in the order met, are:

IRIS - a female drow and the local red light district

JENNY - a young human girl (~13) who's parents have recently been imprisoned by Ozmandius

FATHER TOM - a chemically imparied male half-orc who runs the local still and drug house

VOLAN - a male githyanki who immediately attempted to kill Zin on sight

AMALTHEA - a female aasimar and travelling missonary who seeks to relive the resident's oppression

EGON - a male human and resident merchant, dealing in salvaged equipment

BOTON - a female human monk, a traveller resting in the village and a student of the Quivering Palm

GRIMA - a male tiefling who serves as Ozmandius' advisor and senshal

GENERAL SCAR - a male wemic who is the corrupt Captain of the Guards

During their travels in town, the party picked up two new companions. First, Rusteen decided to take custody of Jenny, given the fact that her parents are missing. The fact that Zin kept screaming "she's evil!" every five minutes seemed to make no difference. Second, the party convinced Boton to cease her meditations and follow them to try her luck at assassinating General Scar.

The only solid (but not necessarily trustworthy) pieces of information the party gained are as follows:

There is a power struggle going on between Amalthea and Ozmandius.

Boton is in town to kill General Scar.

General Scar is holding Iris' soul hostage in a soul prison.

Everything Father Tom sells is both poisonous and addictive.

There is a scheduled execution planned for later today.

The session concluded with the party knocking Grima unconcious, and having Shazarr take his place. The new Grima was then able to escort the rest of the party into the stone tower guarding Ozmandius' compound without a problem. Once inside, the party was able to take stock of the situation inside the ring. The prison consisted of some fifty cages suspended over (and occasionally in) the quicksand from a complex lattice work of iron beams and pulleys. A central platform held six levers and overlooked the cages. Knowing that someone was due to die today, the party quickly scouted the rest of the leaning stone tower to try and locate both General Scar and some clue as to which cage would be dropped into the quicksand.

The session ended with the party just outside General Scar's office, having just discovered through clairvoyance which prisoner was due to die. They had to decide on how to save that person, as well as rest long enough to try and attack General Scar to rescue Iris' soul.

Authored by: Ken Lipka E-mail me: krlipka@yahoo.com

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