Why Milana left the continent

The story begins in Silverton, where I was working with a group of humans and halflings known as the Wharf Rats. We specialized in striking at warehouses and stockpiles of material, and often selling it back to the original owners for money. One night we raided a small ship guarded by some SOM mages and recovered a chest of wands. This was a far larger haul than we had been expecting, and that was to be our downfall. We had no way to get the command words of the wands, and our fence refused to have anything to do with them. Apparently the wands had been embezzled from the stocks of the School of Magic, and therefore the school was not aware of their loss. However, the mages who had stolen them in the first place were rather unhappy about the loss and started to look for them. I don't know all of the people involved, but when we heard that the "Blue Mage" was on our trail, the Wharf Rats disbanded. It was said that the Blue Mage himself would never raise a finger to stop you, but that bad things happened when you were in his viscinity.

I rented a decoy room in the basement of the Magic Amulet, and a real place in a small inn by the Wharf (forget the name). Anyway, the plan was to hide out with the wands until the trail went cold and then try to sell them to some high elves. As it turns out, I was discovered within the week. One night, I came back from a market run (i.e. pickpocketing). As it turns out, Z was also in Silverton for that week, and was making some money by playing at our inn. I was upstairs in my room, counting my earnings when suddenly the door opened, and the Blue Mage came in. He had a calm but frightening smile on his face, and he had a staff tipped with a multicolored gem. He spoke better elvish than I did and began asking me questions about the location of the wands. My gaze was caught by the gem, and I found myself unable to resist. It was much like being paralyzed, except for the fact that I could speak. Thinking seemed slow and blurred unless I was addressing his immediate questions. Luckily for me, Z (always on the prowl for unaccompanied maidens :)) came up to the room, and heard the interrogation, and with the foolish courage which comes naturally to bards, tossed in a gas bomb. The bomb was some kind of sleep poison I suspect, and filled the room with opaque white gas. I heard the Blue Mage keel over as I picked up my backpack and left through the window. By the time I climbed down, Z was below me and said something about stairs being faster. For some reason, he seemed determined to rescue me from my predicament, so the two of us ran to the wharf, where Z had a rowboat ready. We were met by one of his friends, a smelly little gnome with an evil leer. The two of them explained to me that they were in the area "looking for adventure" (whatever that means). I agreed to share half of my loot with them in exchange for help. Apparently they had on their side, a renegade SOM mage (someone who had been expelled) who would protect us from pursuit. We left Silverton that night, but we never heard from Z's mage friend again. The wands were buried down the coast from Silverton, and we picked them up. In any case, the gnome had some friends who were headed for the Southern Continent in some gnomish vessel, and in desperation, we booked a passage. The gnomish vessel was made of some kind of steel plate and didn't float. The voyage took many months, and there were no windows. Z thinks that we were (intentionally) swallowed by a huge whale and carried across the ocean. It's not a trip that I would choose to repeat. We never heard of the Blue Mage again, but both of us were too scared to visit this continent again, even after magic disappeared.

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Narrative by Rahul Sukthankar
Coded by Erich Greene on 2-4-96