Last night my group and I returned to Tekumel to pick up our Bethorm campaign. We had put it on hiatus over the autumn/winter because I love to play horror durring the dark nights, but now, with Spring on the doorstep we found a logical place to pause our winter CHILL campaign and return to Tekumel for the spring and summer season.

To begin with, I'll have to do a quick re-cap of how “season 2” ended about 6 months ago, because I never did get round to posting the last two sessions and the events of last nights game follow directly form it.

Seaosn 2 recap.
At the end of “Season 2” the party found the Kirtani vigilante's map in “High and dry” and spent many long hours pouring over the clues until they believed hey had located the area described in the scroll. Assembling supplies they set off to explore the area and discover if the treasure mentioned in the scroll was still there.

During their journey along the Sakbe road the party camped at a fort, but the more observant members began to notice certain regularities with the guards supposedly based at the fort. There were too few of them for one ting, and their uniforms seemed inaccurate in small ways, nor did they seem to display the discipline of true Tsolyani troops. Suspicions raised, Naru opted to stay awake that night and to watch form a dark corner of the plaza, ready to act and wake the others if needed. For her part Tsalisha was unable to sleep deeply and was soon disturbed by one of their comrades, Dharu, rifling her pack. Cautiously she pretended to be asleep and then followed him when he crept off to meet one of the “Guards”, where she witnessed Dharu give the man the Kirtani's map. Getting as close as she dared, Tsalisha eaves dropped the conversation and quickly became aware that the men posing as the Sakbe road guards seemed to have some form of hold over Dharu and that he was clearly being coerced against his will. Armed with this information Tsalisha confronted Dharu the next day, with Narua and Nia.

Thus they learned that Dharu – a locksmith by profession, was being blackmailed by a secretive band of Nakome thieves who referred to themselves as the Withering Bloom Society. Several years ago they had kidnapped Dharu's daughter, who he doted upon and forced him to help them burgle a wealthy merchant. The hiest had gone well and the society had returned Dharu's daughter but, ever since, had threatened to reveal the evidence that they claimed to have, implicating him in the robbery. Having heard the party were about to seek out a vast and ancient treasure the society had blackmailed Dharu into stealing the map and passing it to agents of the Withering Bloom who would then beat them to the location of the treasure and take it for the society – ambushing and killing the party if need be (it was an argument about this part off he plan that Tsalisha had heard last night, as Dharu had sworn that if the thieves harmed his friends he would fight them and ruination be damned!).

Convinced of Dharu's reticence to betray them (he had, after all, been a loyal compatriot in their earlier adventures) the party decided that they would not let the Withering Bloom ruin him, nor would hey take revenge for his forced betrayal. They went on to recapture the map – having found the thieves slaughtered by Chnéhl – locate the caves and steal away a horde of precious gemstones hidden there form under the very noses of the troop of Chnéhl that had made the cave their home in recent times.

Fleeing back to the relative safety of the Sakbe road the party began their journey back to Katalal and Season 2 ended with them planning how to extricate Dharu form his unfortunate position. After all, with the members of the secret society that had gone to take the treasure all dead, and Dharu returning with the party who were now usefully enriched by heir expedition – the society of the Withering Bloom were bound to think he had chosen his clan-cousins over hem and would carry out their threat.

Season 3: First session
The session began with a session re-cap much like the one above, so the players could remember what they were up to and what was at stake. Most of them had also taken extensive notes and re-read them before they began to thrash out their devious plan

The majority of the session was taken up by the players fine tuning the plan and honing it until they were happy, once they actually began to implement it there was only about a third of the session left, but the extensive planning time stood them in very good stead and had been worth the effort.

They began by sending Dharu to Kanbe, a money lender, fence and member of the Withering Bloom Brotherhood. Kanbe is an aging man who runs a small curiosity shop in Katalal. The cluttered shop is located in a cramped, and busy downtown street and also handles pawnbroking and money lending as well as being a front for the Withering Bloom Brotherhood and Dharu's contact with the organisation. Dharu was to give Kanbe a box found in the treasure trove and in it where placed three of the largest blue diamonds form the treasure horde. He was also to give the old man a message form the party.

The stones, he was to say, was the Withering Blooms “Cut” from the treasure horde, paid to show good faith. He was to tell the truth about the fate of the societies thieves, that they had been slaughtered by the Chnéhl and that the ape mutants had left none of them alive, but had left the map on their mutilated corpses, which the party had found. Further he was to tell the truth about how the party had learned of his own treachery – that they had sent one of heir number to follow him and she had overheard the discussion between him and the false Sakbe road guard and that, on confronting him with what she knew, he had admitted everything to Tsalisha.

These two large truths would form the foundation for a plan that would weave both truth and lie together to trick the Withering Bloom into a trap that the party hoped would keep them far to busy to seek revenge, whilst removing any real risk of Dharu's past indiscretions either coming to life or being believed if they did.

Dharu would then explain that some of his fellows from the party had grown disillusioned with the way they were used by their clan and temple and that they wished a meeting with Kanbe that would be mutually beneficial to both. Intrigued by the proposition, and greedy for more wealth that seemed to be on offer, Kanbe agreed to the meeting. He would meet with Dharu's friends form the party the next day.

To add further credence to the story, only some of he PCs would attend and claim to be part of the conspiracy to be, claiming the others had not been told of it as they would likely not support it. A nice touch, I felt, that made it all seem more plausible. Thus at the appointed hour, Dharu returned with Nia, Mnella and Chatan. After being searched for weapons and having any that were found confiscated at the door, the four “conspirators” were granted audience with Kanbe where they wove a tale of woe and dissatisfaction. People of middle linage form a middle ranked clan, they used their mid-ranked status to full advantage, explaining how they were thought hihg enough status to be trusted with dangerous missions, but not high enough status to be justly rewarded or honoured for their actions – always the honours would go to others who had risked less, shed less of hteir own blood.

Nia launched into the most convincing piece of acting she could, weaving truth and lies together so seamlessly that even she began to wonder where the one became the other. She told Kanbe of how they had been sent to retrieve rent from tenants who had faild to pay on time and how when they arrived the tenants had been murdered by their own servants, of how they discovered strange magic devices and evil plots and had brought back these items and other things tey had find in the hidden ruins rented to the clans now murdered tenants. She reccounted how they had brought these items home to the clan, and then her real performance began!

"...they told us what we had brought them was worthless, and that we were useless children, and that we brought no honour on our clan. And we were saddened, that we had so failed." she claimed,"But the Temple and the Clan took the worthless things, reluctantly, so that we would not be burdened with them. It was only a chance discussion with one of the old priestesses that led me to understand that what we had brought back was beyond price. We brought them back strange articles called 'Eyes' which do many things, such as throw stones from nowhere at your enemies, or burn through stone as a knife through fat. We gave them mirrors, which they said were nothing, but which can see into the future or past, and move you around the world without travelling. How can they tell us these things are worth nothing, when they are so rare and priceless?" Now she seemed to grow more animated, feigning an anger at the supposed betrayal,
"And so our reward was to be sent into the forest with a map and no idea of what we were facing. And even now, they will tell us those stones are worth nothing, mere glass. They are already telling us where we will next bleed. Well, I am tired of bleeding. I would like to grow rich and fat, and I want what is mine back from those filth, those liars at the Temple, who are not fit to worship my Goddess.
Claiming hat she had been told the stones were worthless was another nice touch, since Kambe had been given three f them and knew hem to be worth a fortune. By now, greed had gotten the better of him, and the tale of the mirrors than could be used as portals r nexus points particularity interested him.
For more than an hour Kanbe and the party “Conspirators” thrashed out a plan and a deal, a plan for the Withering Bloom to steal back these powerful items from the temple of Avanthe using plans and maps provided by Nia. They would take Dharu – who by mutual agreement must be masked for fear he was recognised, both to pick the locks and as a sort of active hostage to be sure of he parties good faith. They struck a deal on the items, with Chatan haggling just enough to seem genuine but not enough to put the thieves off, and so the heist was planned. The rest of the party would be seen publicly elsewhere in town, to keep suspicion form them, while the agents of the Withering Bloom would raid the temple at night using the maps that Nia had provided (and which she had, of course, carefully doctored in ways the thieves wouldn't know, to lead them right into the trap the party was planning).

Wit the plan made, the Withering Bloom had unwittingly sealed a grisly fate for themselves. The party immediately reported to the temple that they had uncovered a plot by cultists of the Pariah Deities to steal back the artefacts from the cult of the Goddess of the Pale Bone that the party had found in their first adventure and given tot he temple for safe keeping. (Naturally, Nia had neglected to mention the artefacts connections to the Goddess of the Pale bone and the Pariah cults when she used them as bate to hook the Withering Bloom, of course!). Alarmed, the temple quickly informed agents of the Omnipotent Azure Legion that a raid by Pariah Deity worshippers was being planned on the temple and naturally the OAL set up an ambush to capture these degenerates!

On the nigh to the heist, the majority of the party were across town, being seen publicly to be nowhere near the events that would come to scandalise Katalal would occur. Only Dharu and Nia were missing, although due to carefully planned acting by those party members that were there, anyone asked casually would probably have believed they were their too. “Well, no I didn't notice them myself, but half of the Blue stream clan was there that night, I didn't personally notice everyone, and I recall Telek mentioning he had just been speaking with Nia at one point in the night, and later he was seen fetching her a drink so she must have been there” they would say.

In truth, of course, Dharu was with the thieves about to raid the temple, while Nia was with the temple forces that had joined the OAL in setting an ambush for the expected raiders. As the raid began, it all seemed to go well for he thieves, who crept unnoticed up the hallways indicated in the map and plan Nia had provided them until, at an appointed time Dharu opened the lock to the inner chamber where the artefacts dedicated to the Goddess of he Pale Bone had been under guard and lock and key until just hours before when they had been secretly spirited away by the OAL. As the thieves entered, the forces of the OAL and the temple sprang from ambush, Nia summoned two phantasmal Atluns and n the chaos spirited Dharu away, laving his mask behind.

The thieves put up a very brief and one sided fight and most – the lucky ones, were killed in the brief, but savage action. Those that did survive were taken by the agents of the Omnipotent Azure Legion and questioned with extreme prejudice.

Naturally, they told an outlandish story that members of the clan of the blue stream had put them up to robbing the temple, but who believes the words of cultists of the Goddess of the Pale Bone? Especially when their “lies” make no sense! After all, those they accused were the very people who had brought the artefacts to the temple to be hidden away from the clutches of the cult of the Periah Deities in the first place! Had they not known full who they were sacred to and had they not been recompensed quite handsomely for it! Indeed, had they not been the very ones that had warned of he cults plan to steal back the cursed items? No, clearly the cultists were lying in a vein attempt to have their nemesis (nemisi?) impaled along side them as one last act of revenge before meeting their gruesome fate!

What followed the torture and impalement of the surviving thieves was a witch hunt, as the OAL wheedled out every member of the Withering Bloom they could find – believing the “Thieves Society” to be a front for Periah Deity worship. Naturally, every other shady Nakome and thief in the city quickly co-operated, in the hope that in the power vacuum that would follow the Withering Bloom being exterminate, they might grow to be the most influential network of thieves in the city in thier place.

Dozens would be caught and impaled over he coming weeks, but Kambe would not be among them – no one would see him again for quite some time to come...