CALIMPORT GAME

You emerge from the dark alley into the dark street, lit in a few places by still-open shop fronts or the faint light from upper windows. The night chill of the desert is settling in, and the fog is beginning to drift in from the harbor. A few people are moving with lamp- or torch-bearers through the streets, and more lights are visible moving along the wall tops. If your noses weren't overwhelmed by your own stenches, you'd probably smell good meals cooking. You can certainly hear the sounds of cooking and kitchen conversations faintly trembling through the air. The streets are sparse, the apartments are busy. It's a good time to move unobserved.

You head back toward where you left the boat on the sand between piers.

The boat is not there. It's dark except for light of a barely visible crescent moon, the few torches that move along the wharf (night watch looking out for burglars of crates and barrels), and the pale cyan glow of luminescent jellies on the crests of small waves in the harbor. So you can see ok. The boat is not there.

Garrett and Ane soon enough find a boat as dilapidated but apparently leak-free as the previously borrowed one. You shove it down the sand into the water and all five of you splash in and squeeze aboard.

The boat has only one oar, so there's some clumsy paddling and passing of the oar among you as you maneuver out into the harbor. Sticking close to shore you pass unobserved around the end of the sabban wall. It takes only about twenty minutes to land this boat essentially where from you took the other one. You then take a few minutes to cleanse yourselves as you can in the shallow water of the harbor. Smelling more of salt and old fish than of sewers, you feel better to continue your evening.

Big Zhad surely is afoot right now, it's his time of the evening for business. He'll be glad to see Ginsing, sure of that. Do you make your way to Inki's where you can get news of Zhad's whereabouts?

= = = montage = = =

Big Zhad is pleased to have Ginsing safe out of lock up and hopefully not too much tea spilled by the beatings. "I swear, boss, I said nothing."

You all get swept into the welcome-back party at Inki's and have a great time. Gain ...... coins each.

= = =

A few days later, Ginsing finds the group of you lazing in the sun on a pier not currently in use. There's a ship moored next to you, but it's not being loaded or unladen, so the pier is quiet and sunny and really kind of pleasant with the gulls circling overhead in the fresh breeze and calling to each other.

"Boss has a job for you," he says politely. He's previously thanked you — a lot — for his rescue from the amlakkar. "Wants you to collect a package from the Lightning Tower on Tynar's Square, and bring it to a wizard's house in Najja Sabban."

The Lightning Tower is the temple of the storm god Talos. Also called the Screaming Tower (for the noises that come from it when storms are brewing), it is a square building of black marble and silver about sixty feet high. Each corner of the building has a silver-and-gold lightning bolt traced down from the high cornice to the ground. Although opulent, the tower is centuries old and not well-maintained. Small pieces of marble occasionally plummet from the parapets to the plaza below.

Across from the Lightning Tower is the somewhat shorter and wider temple of Azuth, god of magic. It's not a particularly impressive building, although basically a brownish stone cube with a shallow dome on top it somehow resembles a plump toad.

Catercorner from the temples of Azuth and Talos is the imposing red sandstone fortress that stands as a temple to Helm, the god of war.The package retrieval is a little more than simply knocking on the ill-fitted door of the Lightning Tower and saying "here to pick up". Rather, you will need to get past the weary door warden and meet a corrupt priest who wants to hand off the parcel for a small bag of lotus powder.

Fortunately, you know the pass phrase to get in the door.

The tired old man nods and pulls open the silver-inlaid door, which is a single twelve-foot by eight-foot panel of lightning-blasted oak wood. The door groans on its hinges as it opens.

Inside the temple is dimly lit by narrow windows near the very high ceiling. There is a worship in progress, quiet chanting echoes like distant thunder in the cavernous space. It looks like your contact may be the priest conducting the service.

The service ends. The celebrants disperse through the creaky door of the temple. The priest approaches. He's young-looking and moves awkwardly, as if he's dizzy. He smiles at you as you stand to greet him. The smile is off somehow.

"I don't recognize you," he says gently. "Are you new to worshipping Talos?"

Ane observed the service and noted that it had more formal and impressive versions of the quick prayers that her family said to Talos when the skies looked grim. These worshippers were staving off disaster with their hymns. Despite his evident problems with balance, the priest knew the words and rituals of Talos.

Considering the priest more closely, he moved and spoke like a man recovering from inebriation. Or, more likely, coming down from his last sniff of lotus powder. The little bundle tucked into Ane's cleavage should ease the man's discomfort. If he has the right goods to trade …

"A parcel for a bindle," the priest says to Garrett with another off smile. Too tight, too anxious — and his eyes unsteady — he's crashing hard from the bliss of waking lotus dreams.