The adventurers all arrived in Menii, capitol and chief trading city of the Isle of Purple Towns, never having met. Whether fleeing trouble or seeking opportunity, they all arrived in time for one of the greatest spectacles of the Young Kingdoms, the annual Menii Fair. Each of them explored the Fair on their own. Part way through the day Roshni Ponsu-ny (a barbarian) fall in with Pierce (a mercenary solider) after a slight accident with some spicy food and ale, and together they wandered the Fair and imbibed. Failing to pick the pocket of a wealthy merchant, Newt Pitacky fleed by the cafe where Tomara sat amused among bewildered Fairgoers, and eventually escaped, spending the rest of the day in disguise after being warned by a begger of the penalty for thieving on the Isle.
At some point in the day each of the adventurers wandered by the sideshow cart of Farginn Morb, where he weighed people against the truth of their words. Each PC succumbed to his pitch, and climbed into the scales, whereupon the scales at first balanced miraculously against nothing at all, then plunged wildly up and down, until the PC was thrown out. Each time Morb helped the PC up, refunding his or her coin with a public apology, whispering to the PC that he would like talk with them later at his camp.
It was at Farginn Morb’s camp that the adventurers finally met, and he was clean-shaven and brown haired, rather than mustachioed and black haired as he had been at the fair. Surrounded by mists he offered them warm food and drink, which filled them with vitality. He had each of them introduce themselves, then told them they will be companions for a time, and spoke to them of mystic Tanelorn, a city of eternal peace and fulfilment, telling them that the scales have told him that the adventurers could one day reach Tanelorn. Following this he confused them with metaphysical discussions of Law and Chaos (something of which they already knew) and of the Balance, the force he serves, which was new to them.
After much puzzlement, the adventurers left Fargin Morb’s friendly campfire and headed back to Menii along the road. After some time they were accosted by a tall man in black armor, calling himself Sterrin of Chaos and seeking the whereabouts of a Farginn Brass . When they did not tell him, he draws his sword, and saying that one amongst them has been tainted by the Balance he attacked Tomara, while his henchmen attacked the rest of the party out of the fog. The adventurers killed his henchmen, but just as they are about to attack Sterrin, Sterrin stopped on the edge of killing her and healed her worst wound, saying she did not lack for courage.
At this point the adventurers heard the rattle and ring of marching armed and armored troops, and they heard the Trumpet of the Temple of Law. Sterrin fled into the mists. After a moment or two, the adventurers were ringed by soldiers and they were approached by a woman in white armor, as tall as Sterrin and as stern of face. She introduced herself as Keelara of Law, agent of Donblas, and was seeking Sterrin of Chaos. Upon being told that the has fled, she chastised them for letting him escape, but commended them for ridding the world of his Chaos-following henchmen. She then set off in further search of Sterrin.
The next day Farginn Morb, again black haired and mustachioed, was running his sideshow. One of the adventurers[1] accosted him, and demanded explanations of the previous night, but Farginn Morb appeared not to know him, and eventually convinced the PC no explanations were forthcoming. Later that day each PC found a bronze coin in his gear, minted with a set of scales on each side. Later a messenger contacted the adventurers and summoned them all to the home of his master, the Merchant Dobbas.
When the adventurers arrived at the home of the Merchant Dobbas, they were escorted inside and into a sitting room. After a few minutes Dobbas entered; he was obviously a man of great wealth and importance, and even more obviously a man of great, uh, stature. He was also very self-absorbed, and quite rude. He hired them to retrieve a Melnibonéan statue from another merchant, Fiorgan, who lived in the city Kariss. The statue was collateral for a debt which Fiorgan had defaulted on, and while Fiorgan had had given up the statue originally, it had disappeared from Dobbas’s house soon thereafter to turn up in Fiorgan’s debt. Dobbas had sent another group of thugs to retrieve it, and while Fiorgan gave it up without fuss, it disappeared again from their care. Dobbas provided them with papers establishing that they work for him and with a chest for transporting the statute which only he can open after it has been locked. The adventurers accepted the mission, and set off for Kariss.
Kariss was the city where the nobles of the Isle live, a serene city of wide streets and quiet traffic, without the mercantile bustle of Menii, and as the adventurers found out, with plenty of town guards and a strict curfew. They located Fiorgan’s establishment, a modest place in the northeast of the city, near Liberty Plaza, a green field outside the old city walls. Fiorgan himself was a slimy fellow, but after protesting that he was only safeguarding the statue for Dobbas, he turned over the statue to them, hoping that Dobbas was paying them well, as Dobbas is notoriously stingy. The adventurers then set off for Mennii.
On the last night of the journey, as they unloaded the chest for the night, the adventurers noticed that it is much lighter than it should be. They broke open the lock, and find the chest empty. After much brow-beating, Tomara advanced the idea that a demon of Teleportation was bound into the statue, and that it had teleported back to Fiorgan. The adventurers again set off for Kariss, not daring to face their employeer without the statue.
Upon reaching Kariss, they sought out the local constaubulary, and with one of them in tow they returned to Fiorgan’s. This time Fiorgan was more wary in his greeting. After explaining that he must be the victim of some Melnibonéan magic present in the statue and apologizing for the inconvience, Fiorgan handed the adventurers the statue again, and drawing out his contract with Dobbas he pointed out that he was obligated to hand over the statue to Dobbas or his agents, which he had done properly three times, and was not responsible for any magical effects lingering in the statue. The constable, after thinking for a moment, allowed that indeed Fiorgan might be correct.
Again the adventurers set off for Menii. This time, however, once a distance away from the city they stopped to let Tomara investigate the statue. After some thinking and examining Tomara noticed that the statue contains a cavity for burning incense and smells of perfume. She decided that probably the demon’s need is to be daily washed with perfume and to have incense burned in it. This the adventurers did, and then resumed their journey to Menii, this time reaching it without trouble.[2]
Upon reaching Menii the adventurers returned the statue to Dobbas, and extracted an additional fee for telling him how to keep the statue from vanishing again. While they were talking with Dobbas, a demon-stalker in the form of a cloud of thick, black sludge burst into the room and hopped toward Dobbas, who fainted. The adventurers attacked the demon and managed to slay it after a short time. After being revived, Dobbas was grateful, in his surly way, and rewarded the adventurers with more money.