Sarka, southern city, Klos 19th, 350AC, 10:25  (underground, 65 degrees, crescent moon)

[audio:https://gwevolution.netfarious.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/turdburnthair.mp3|autostart=yes]

You march under one of the huge arches supporting the bridge and roof above, towards the market.  Various simply dressed badders shuffle back and forth, many of them carrying baskets or bags.  A huge building abuts the central keep.  You’re not sure how the badders were able to bring its mushroom cap roof down here.  Smoke and vapors can be seen coming off the top of it, and loud heavy clanging noises come from within.  What you assume is a beefy badder stands right in front of this buildings reinforced door.  The guard wears a suit of what appears to be modified plate armor.  It is much more complete than what the soldiers wear, and includes numerous spikes, studs, and other embellishments.  The guard carries two duralloy short spears (kind of like the traditional zulu spear).

Several badders (peasants), a handful of hoops (studded leather armor and various tech II weapons), and a plate armor wearing true man are standing around the field, watching.  A powerful looking black brutorz is galloping back and forth, going through some exercises.  He is jumping over various shruden posts and gates (which were not here before) and kicking or stomping upon some straw dummies.

A smaller shop is just to your left.  Its open door has a small sign above it that has a rune, and several metal objects (fork, corkscrew, screwdriver) hanging from it like a mobile.

A gaggle of small badder children come scurrying past you.  They are no taller than 2′, and some are running on all fours.  Some of them are wearing a piece of dirty fabric, but others have nothing but their furry hides.  You can hear them make little snarling noises and two of them seem to be fighting and rolling along the ground.  One of them is carrying a small stick, and this one rushes up and smacks Zeebo’s foot a couple of times, then darts off.

See your private posts.

Sarka, gate of central keep, Klos 19th, 350AC, 10:20  (underground, 65 degrees, crescent moon)

[audio:https://gwevolution.netfarious.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/sarka.mp3|autostart=yes]

The hoplites relax from their parade-like stance once Frall is out of sight.  Unfortunately this is a little unsettling, as they focus on you, looking quietly at you with predator-like brown-yellow eyes from behind their duralloy face-plates.

Beyond the open gate is the lower city of Sarka.  It is dimly lit.  It smells of earth, musk, and badder excrement.  What now?  (The lower map is either posted tiny or gets squished together.  Just click on it for the best view)

Sarka, gate of central keep, Klos 19th, 350AC, 10:15  (underground, 65 degrees, crescent moon)

[audio:https://gwevolution.netfarious.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/showdown.mp3|autostart=yes]

You and your escort reach the lower level of the central keep.  As the heavy, reinforced doors come into view, you see that they are already opening.  A metallic clang is heard as the hoplite warriors on guard all stand at rapt attention.

Your badder escort continues to shuffle forward, but stop and sidestep as a new group of figures enter the keep.  Ragnor and Arvak recognize Lord Frall approaching.  He is wearing a black cloak fastened with a jeweled bronze brooch, over a tunic of high quality cloth (compared to the commoner’s clothing) and some duralloy armor pieces (greaves, bracers, shoulder plates).

To his right is a skunk new animal biped: he stands about 5′ tall and is decked out in a navy blue colored cloth uniform with red sashes and gold epaulettes.  He wears white pants, high black boots, and a black bicorn hat.  He has some high-tech looking devices attached to his belt.

To Frall’s left is a badder wearing a navy blue tunic over studded leather armor.  He wears gold epaulettes similar to those of the skunk.  He wears a rapier and some sort of metal bell-like device on his belt.  He is carrying an ancient assault rifle.  There are also about 6 badder light infantry trailing along behind them.

Frall stops in his tracks, looks at your group, and his eyes narrow.  “HRAKA SHRAK’L NA!”  He strides forward and jabs his paw at you.  “You are cheating slime!  You should not be allowed here, you not worthy!”  He is shaking in fury and starting to foam at the mouth a bit.

The skunk steps forward and puts a hand on Frall’s shoulder.  ” ‘Eef day haf eensulted yoo, why not sshallange dem to a du-el?”

Sarka, Sir Cyr’s guest den, Klos 19th, 350AC, 10:00  (underground, 65 degrees, crescent moon)

[audio:https://gwevolution.netfarious.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/descends.mp3|autostart=yes]

The badders leave the room as you unload your weapons and such.  Your soldiers place the treasure chest in the center of the room and start to arrange themselves.  Bren pulls out a carved pair of dice.  Zarr picks up a gray spongy snack and sniffs it suspiciously.  Phallon knocks on the door, which opens a crack.  Phallon says “etak” to the badders beyond, the door opens fully, and you file out into the tunnel.

The other door in the tunnel is closing and being latched.  Eight badder warriors stand guard here, and look at you, blinking.  One of them has some streaks of gray fur on his head and sports some long slashing scars down his face.  He holds up a wooden mace with metal studs and says, “Etak?  Gut, ve go down now!”

The badders are leading you back through the tunnels, across the stone bridge, and down the ramp of the central keep.  Any actions you would like to do along the way?  If not, I’ll start your characters on the level below…

Sarka, Sir Cyr’s guest den, Klos 19th, 350AC, 09:30  (underground, 65 degrees, crescent moon)

Your group walks through the door into the guest dens.  Grerah and the colorfully dressed badder are speaking quietly to each other while you look around.  The cool rock that made up the tunnels has been covered over with warm colored shrud (the mushroom “wood”), and there are actual shruden walls separating the space into rooms.   “These are normally the dens of his servants.  They have been changed so that you may stay here.”

The entry beyond the door has thick floor mats, and a number of metal hooks on the wall.  “You may leave your cloaks and other extra clothing here.”

Past the entry is a larger chamber, where a number of beds have been placed.  Each bed is very low to the ground, almost like an open box, in which a hopper fur has been placed over a “mattress” of straw.  Most of the beds are 5′ x 5′ square, but there are a few larger ones.  There are also some small shruden benches, and some tables.  On the tables are metal plates containing what looks like food (although not familiar dishes to you).  There are also some metal combs, fibrous brushes, a barrel of water with a metal ladle and some metal cups, and a large shallow metal pan.  There is also a shrooden box about 1′ x 1′ on the floor which contains a block of rough-looking stone.  A wooden door is set into the far (western) wall.

“These are for you.  You will be given privacy here, but we will be guarding the rooms beyond.  If you want more food or drink, knock on that door and tell Grerah, “sarfa”.  If you have to relieve yourself, tell Grerah, “hrahka”, and the servants will bring you a chamber pot.  If you want to leave, knock on the outer door and say “etak”, and we will escort you down to the lower level.  There is an evening curfew where you will need to return here.  We badders eat our evening meal after curfew.  Sir Cyr has invited you into his personal den for this meal tonight.  Return to your guest quarters, and you will be fetched at the appropriate time.  Get settled, and if any of you want to leave now, we will be waiting outside.”

Sorry no time for music or map!  I’ll add these later!

Sarka, Klos 19th, 350AC, 09:15  (underground, 65 degrees, crescent moon)

You walk up the stone ramp that spirals inside the tower.  Several empty carts pass you, heading downwards.  At the top, you follow the passage that circles within the tower wall.  There are more badder soldiers here: maybe between 50-70.  At least half of them are hoplites, the rest are archers, or are operating the four ballistae that are pointed outward into the cavern from the tower.   At each cardinal point, an archway leads to a covered stone bridge that stretches across the cavern.  At the end of each bridge is an opening into the rock (more tunnels or caverns beyond?).

The badders herd you along the northernmost bridge.  You can see that the northeastern quarter of the main cavern is similar to the northwest where you entered:  lots of huts and houses.  You enter the tunnel which forks, then forks again.  The badder escort stays to the left both times, and finally stops at the tunnels end.  You are facing two wooden 5′ square doors, reinforced with metal bands and rivets.  A rune is etched upon the metal of both doors.

The colorfully dressed badder says something unintelligible, and one of the soldiers raps on the right-hand door.  The door opens a crack to show the silhouette of another badder whose eyeshine glows yellow for a moment, before the door opens the rest of the way.  The badder is apparently female as she is wearing a fiber dress.  (Clothing seems to be the obvious difference in males and females.  Those of you paying closer attention can tell the males are a little larger, have wider faces, and a muskier odor.)  After a short verbal exchange, the colorfully dressed one turns to you.  His eyes narrow and you feel the buzzing sensation as you understand his badder-speak.

“King Rrullka will summon you tomorrow for an official meeting.  Your quarters are here, in Sir Cyr’s den.  Ghrerah here will show you to your lodgings.  Today you may stay here, but you are free to wander the lower city.  You are not allowed to wander these upper levels, unless specifically invited by a member of the nobility.  We (gestures to the soldiers) will be stationed here, and will escort you anytime you are moving along these upper passageways.”

Sarka, Klos 19th, 350AC, 08:50  (underground, 65 degrees, crescent moon)

The colorfully dressed badder makes a “tisking” sound, and your escort surges forward again.  Your group moves along the outer edge of the “bowl” in a counter-clockwise direction, along a well worn path.  You pass by numerous mushroom cap huts.  Older grey-furred badders with crinkly whiskers, children, and a few adults peer out of windows and doorways at you.  Most of them are wearing coarse fiber clothing.  They either stare quietly at your group, or bristle their teeth and hiss.  Not very friendly folk.

You march under one the the tall stone archways formed by the pillars that support the bridge overhead, and enter what appears to be a market.  The buildings are more spaced out here, but the space is crowded with badders.  They are dressed in a wider variety of clothing.  Carts, similar to the one you saw outside, are moving about, loaded up with goods.  Badders are walking about carrying sacks and crates, looking busy.  Again, there are hostile looks and snarls, but whatever they are saying is lost in the noise of bartering as plastic domars exchange paws.  Your escort keeps you and the riff raff from getting close to one another.

You are marched through the market and across an event field, towards the central keep.  One of the large pair of doors at the base of the keep is open (and again guarded by hoplite warriors) and you are led inside and up a ramp that follows the inner perimeter of the keep.

Any actions or comments at this point?

Entry tunnel to Sarka, Klos 19th, 350AC, 08:40  (underground, 65 degrees, crescent moon)

[audio:https://gwevolution.netfarious.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/tower.mp3|autostart=yes]

The path levels off and heads into the distance, in a straight direction for once.  After all the marching and no chill breeze, you are starting to feel hot in your winter clothing.  After a few hundred feet, you can see some dim lights ahead that show the tunnel opening up into a larger space.

The badders in the lead scurry out of the tunnel and form up in a semicircle.  Your group and the head badder (colorfully robed one) walk out into the space and pause.  You are looking out into a vast bowl-like cavern.  A massive stone keep rises from the center and helps support the ceiling like a column.  Four stone bridges extend along the ceiling from the keep to the edges of the cavern.  Numerous badder soldiers peer down from the keep and bridges, some operating spear throwing siege engines.  They look down upon the hundreds and hundreds of huts and structures (some of stone, but mostly made of wood-like mushroom stalks and caps) that fill the floor of the cavern.  The area is dimly lit by countless small lanterns, like the one your escort carries.  Some are fixed in place, but many are carried by the various badders you see moving though the buildings.  The scene reminds you of fireflies.  The air immediately gets warmer, and much muskier.

The colorfully dressed badder gestures with his cane, while snuffling and snarling in the badder language.  Yet you all somehow understand it:  “You are among the few outsiders to be allowed here.  THIS  IS  SARKA!!”

Entry tunnel to Sarka, Klos 19th, 350AC, 08:25  (dawn, 50 degrees, crescent moon)

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The colorfully dressed badder strides into the tunnel.  The badder light infantry form a ring around you.  Some sprint forward, others flank your group, and the rest take up the rear and snarl or poke at your group with their weapons, as they essentially herd you forward.

One of the badders grabs a metal lantern off a hook, just to one side of the carved stone arch that frames the tunnel.  It glows with a yellow flickering light that barely illuminates the rough hewn tunnel in which you tread.  Your group walks, and the tunnel descends into the earth, at first gently, then steeply.  The temperature raises as you leave the frigid winter air above.  You walk downhill, and the tunnel turns to the right.  And turns to the right.  And turns to the right.  You realize that you are spiraling downward in a lazy corkscrew.  After awhile, the “herd” sidesteps into a side tunnel, although the corkscrew tunnel continues downward.

Any actions at this point?

Badder Tower, courtyard, Klos 19th, 350AC, 08:10  (dawn, 38 degrees, crescent moon)

[audio:https://gwevolution.netfarious.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/tower.mp3|autostart=yes]

The 17 badders surround your group of 9, and escort you to the duralloy tower.  You pass through the metal gates, and even though the average badder is about 4′ tall, the doors are so large that Arvak at 8′ doesn’t have to duck to pass inside.  Walking through the dimly lit gatehouse is like walking under a massive bridge (thick metal walls to your right, left, and above your heads).  You move into a courtyard, lit by some flickering lanterns set into the structure.

Metal walls rise above you on all sides, and a number of badder archers peer down at you from inset balconies above.  There is a stone staircase ahead and to the left of you, which leads up to a large sturdy looking door.  The main path leads up to a stone archway that frames the beginning of a dark tunnel that leads into the earth.  Standing at stark attention are about 15 badder hoplites.  Each is decked out in a face plate, breast-plate, and greaves made of duralloy.  They carry duralloy spears, and wear second melee weapons on their belts which look like 2′ long tridents.  Another badder, dressed in a simple brown colored tunic, carries an ancient clipboard full of paper and wields an ancient ballpoint pen.  As you approach, he snarls and gabbers back and forth with the colorfully clothed one leading your group (this time you do not understand them).

Turning towards you and clicking his cane upon the stones on the ground, the badder speaks to you again, and you comprehend his badder-speak yet again:  “You will declare your business in Sarka!  Also, state your names, titles, and professions for the record.”  You feel a slight buzzing sensation as he speaks.

Zeebo, see your private post.