Beckoned to a Reckoning

## Synopsis

In Chapter 97: Beckoned to a Reckoning, the party waited at the Upa Alehouse for any sign of the elusive Shekar Murtas – knowing that our time was limited if we wanted to fit in a full night of rest before our last morning in Navika-Pura.

While Graven and Orba turned in early to attune to some of their newly acquired magical merchandise, a conflicted Erland consulted Sotiria about which path to follow in the wake of Marvyn's disappearance.  Without knowing the specifics of our situation, she did her best to provide some guidance – and something perhaps a little more than friendship was forged in the waning hours of the evening.

With the knowledge that a sneak-attack wouldn't be out of character, we took shifts sleeping even in the relative safety of our rented room – and it was during Erland's pacing of the halls that the young backup bartender informed us that some visitors had arrived and were requesting an audience.

As it turned out, more than one of our attempts to deal with the Shekar problem had yielded results – thus presenting us with three distinct roads to travel down: the Advocates were prepared to give Mr. Murtas an assignment that would take him out of Navika-Pura, Villepont Willoughby was ready to arrange a peaceful sit-down to squash our beefs – and our new acquaintance Hayden knew of a location where scores could be settled in whatever manner of our choosing.

Safira and Orba saw the obvious merits of the Advocates' offer – but Erland saw only an opportunity for redemption, or vengeance, or both… and convinced the others to let him take his shot in Bosworth's Basement, where apparently the only rule was that there are no rules.

We were led to the southwest part of Na-Upa – very close to the seedy Lipatro neighborhood where our past experiences had been somewhat less than pleasant.  On the lower level of a dilapidated shared home we found a hive of after-hours debauchery – complete with a makeshift fighting ring stained with blood, old and new.

As promised, Shekar was there to greet us in the flesh – and Erland barely let him get a sentence out before delivering him a pair of robust opening strikes.  Initially vowing to stay back unless things took a dire turn, it was obvious to Safira and Orba that now was not the time for restraint when Shekar ingested something that seemed to amplify his fortitude – quite possibly a small dose of Myconid Extract he'd been saving for the occasion.

The crowd was rowdy and Shekar's blows rained down with great ferocity forcing Erland into an early retreat – but a clever crystal distraction and some well-timed arrows bought him an opening to get back into the fray.  Balanced atop a table and dodging attacks with his last bit of stamina, Erland used the Dragon's Breath spell that Orba had imbued him with to send his opponent to a frigid grave – firmly shutting the book on the maddening mischief of Shekar.

It was a long walk back to the Upa Alehouse but it came with the promise of much-needed rest, especially for Graven whose magical reserves had been running on empty.  He awoke to find obvious signs of a scuffle in the night – but with everyone alive and other matters to tend to, he decided it wasn't worth dwelling on and started his trek to Na-Garwas.

Our deadline for departure was rapidly approaching, so the party was forced to split once more: Graven to Hwolod ess Afeeod, Orba to the cleric of Grom'legail, Safira back to Battle-Ready and Erland to Fangull where he hoped to meet with Tessa Pleasance.

With a reunion schedule for lunchtime – which would hopefully coincide with our travel supplies being delivered by the Advocates – we went our separate ways.

## Trivia

* Natural one count: five natural ones were rolled in this Chapter. 1 by Matt, 2 each by John and Riley.