Tekumel - Session 15

Naturally, as soon as I declare I'm writing up the old sessions and make a serious start on doing so RL intervenes. In this instance, it did so in the form of a lingering cold which sucked all trace of energy and motivation out of me. But I feel recovered enough now to start work on the write-ups once more, before I let things slide again.

The following write-up is fairly brief, because the session itself was. We started later than usual, it had been some weeks since the last session and so the inevitable social side of things before gaming began took more time- but these things happen. I'd considered folding it into the previous session, but as it stands it's a good point to start getting back into things.

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Gachaya arrived back at the docks at Jakalla aboard the naval trireme which had rescued him and his fellow prisoners. Some effort was made to detain everyone long enough for the OAL to be contacted (since the Inimical Races and the Zu'ur trade had been involved), but Gachaya declared that he had suffered long enough without civilised comforts and that the OAL would know where to find him.

Recalling that the White Stone Clan had several assets in the docks, Gachaya decided to drop by these so he could clean himself a little and borrow someone's litter and clothes to make a more dignified progress back to the Clanhouse. Whilst there, he regaled all present with an account of his heroics. Once cleaned and changed, he found a small crowd had gathered, drawn by the various rumours which Gachaya's own stories had added fuel to. Encouraged by the crowd's presence, Gachaya repeated his tale, embellishing it further, and found himself stopping the litter three times during his procession back to the Clanhouse whenever he saw more crowds gathering.

Tsodlan- with his old soldier's sense of impending trouble- suspected that trouble was going to come of this somehow and tried to have some of his guards (“The Lads” as the player has taken to referring to them) disperse the crowd and hurry Gachaya home. But it was too late- caught up in his boasting, Gachaya added the name of the woman who had seduced and captured him to this very public account of Zu'ur dealing and trading humans to the Hluss. And things had gone on long enough for some of her agents to have heard of Gachaya's return- though as it turned out, the first consequence didn't need Osure to be directly involved at all. A hot-headed young blade from the Iron Helm Clan who was enamoured of the glamorous lady Osure stepped out of the crowd, loudly denounced Gachaya for his lies and other presumed character flaws, and challenged him. In such a public venue, Gachaya had no choice but to accept- and hope he'd been putting enough points into his combat skills to survive what was coming.

Returning to the Clanhouse, Gachaya quickly received polite word from the Clan Elders that he should please consider confining himself indoors for the immediate future. Sending word back that he'd certainly do so once he'd fought the duel he'd been challenged to that morning, Gachaya then received a visitor from the OAL who spent the rest of the day making him go carefully over his story (the impression may have been given that the OAL half expected Gachaya to mysteriously vanish sometime soon, and wanted to get any useful information out of him before this happened).

As it turned out, this duel was nothing much to be concerned about. The young challenger had more passion than skill, and Gachaya was able to best him easily. But immediately following this, a more serious challenger approached Gachaya, who accepted his challenge whilst still flush with victory after the first duel. This second duel the following week was won by the narrowest of margins- good exploiting of the combat system coupled with good rolls. Another victory- but by defeating this much more dangerous opponent, Gachaya had made a name for himself amongst the fighters of Jakalla, and soon found many more challenges being issued.

By now having found just how lucrative winning duels against High Clan opponents could be in terms of both Kaitars and Status, Gachaya decided to begin training in earnest and working to become a known figure amongst duellists.

The other consequence of Gachaya's adventure was, of course, his pledge to marry and have children. Facing the unpleasant realisation that he currently wasn't a good catch for a High Clan bride and risked being offered an ugly girl if he married there, he began looking beneath him for a potential match. He found Nelel hiSaruna of the Blue Kirtle Clan, whose family were clients of the White Stone in Jakalla and who would happily offer up a very attractive and eligible daughter to such a match. The Clan-Elders decided that this at least showed Gachaya was looking to settle down, and after much negotiation the match was approved.

The Blue Kirtle naturally made a large concession to show their appreciation of this marriage, and his new bride's dowry will form the basis of the next session's adventure...