Synopsis of the plotline.

PART ONE Chapter One: Propositions DHarem, Varis, Bon and THomas arrive in Tithuana, get job from An'Jantar. Get advice from an Equilibriate, get offer from RRR, refuse. Karrain appears. Each search for tactical advantages for the Knowledge Duel.

Chapter Two: Stuff Happens Foreigner wins, Khan attacks An'Inglefar. WIthout element of surprise, An'Inglefar owns him, only just escapes, telling DHarem to come see him after. An'Inglefar accidentally killed by Thomas, but resurrected by Varis, both end up in clinic.

Chapter Three: Diplomacy Karrain and DHarem annoy local Guard captain. Thomas miraculously gets better. Fetch Varis, but Karrain runs off to deal with his magic problem.

Chapter Four: Meddling RRR capture An'Inglefar. The team attacks, with Karrain; but in the mêlée, the councillor is killed.
Barbant the (in)famous assassin is hired to kill An'Jantar. Barbant kills Thomas and poisons DHarem, but is overpowered and eventually killed.

Chapter Five: The Wrath of Khan Group visits Khan's tower, who exposes plot.
An'Inglefar was up to something!

Character Name: DHarem
Player Name: Keeper of Dragons
Level: 3 (7550/8000 xp)
"Class": Seeker of the Great Library
Health: Small leg wound, Great Runner Venom poisoning aftereffects

ATTRIBUTES:
Strength: 1
Toughness: 2
Agility: 6
Finesse: 2
Knowledge: 4
Charisma: 1
Will: 0
Luck: 0 (1)

SKILLS:
-Ancient Scholar: Can read many ancient languages and runes.
-Amazing Speed: +2 to Agility.
-Defensive Training: Better at combat defence.
-Martial Artist: Suffer no defense penalty in combat when unarmed.
-Martial Speed: Faster unarmed attack.
-Quick Palm: Stronger unarmed combat.
-Magic from Beyond: Receives magical abilities from the Lord Verona.
-Verona's Mind: +1 to Knowledge.
-Alertness: Harder to ambush.
-Magical Knowledge: Karrain's arrival and subsequent conversations leave DHarem with a greater knowledge of magic, +1 Antimagic.

ATTACKS:
Mainhand: Unarmed, average power.
Off-hand: Unarmed, average power.

TECHNIQUES:
Normal Strike: Ouch.
Nerve Strike: Paralysing attack.
Stopping Strike: Powerful technique that isn't particularly damaging, but nonetheless powerful.
Stone Hands: Can concentrate to have great force and power in one strike.

MAGIC:
Must pray or meditate to commune with Lord Verona, Lord of Wisdom and Knowledge, to gain magical abilities. Some may be at DHarem's will, others spontaneous. When in bad situation can call on divine favor for help.
Divine favour: 3

BACKGROUND:

Juston Bringor was born to a common family in the Tithuana; his father was a warrior, a member of the Champions, who originally came from Deckie. His father had fallen for a woman from Tithuana and upon marrying her they moved to Tithuana where Juston was born.

His father wanted Juston to become a warrior like him, but his mother, a former sage, had higher ideals for her son. Juston had inherited traits from both of his talented parents; he had a thirst for knowledge and yet he had a affinity for combat. Yet Juston detested weapons, and hated the thought of hurting people. He allowed his father to instruct him yet as he grew older he only used such skills to defend himself.

He was 14 years of age when he encountered a “Seeker’ for the Great Library; this simple monk traveled the lands in search of unknown knowledge and brought many long lost works back to the Great Library to preserve it for history.

The Great Library was a monastery in Tithuana whose order included many sages, who tended the Library and cataloged the works, and the Monks or Seekers who traveled and discovered the items and brought them back. The works the brought back included many books, lost tomes, works of art, and even copies of written songs, no form of knowledge was unworthy of their attention. The order worshiped the Lord of Wisdom and Knowledge, Verona.

The lands being a dangerous place; the Seekers were required to defend themselves and being a none violent order they did so through unarmed martial combat. They studied how to fight without the use of weapons and though the wore light types of armor, usually forms of leather armor, they were not considered warriors.

The Seeker that Juston had met was called TPalu; he told the boy of the Order of the Great Library and their mission and the manner in which they sought out the priceless works to safeguard them for future generations.

Juston was fascinated and after much thought he wanted to become a Seeker, but his father found out about his desires and forbade him from joining. So at 14 Juston ran away from his home and traveled to the Great Library. There he managed to convince them to accept him into their order.

Years later, he was anointed as a Seeker; he had learned the ways of the hand, unarmed combat. He learned different languages so that he could read and write so that he could determine if whatever he found was required at the Great Library. Now Juston, called DHarem his Seeker name, travels the lands; moving between Tithuana and Ethrona and other lands to locate and bring back knowledge and works to the Great Library.

Dharem joined an adventurer group as he was convinced by Varis that they could often go into places that were old, containing ancient works which he could acquire, or copy, and bring back to the Great Library.

INVENTORY:

-Rope, hemp, belt, color: medium brown.
-Sandals, leather, shin length, color: medium brown tanned.
-Small pouch, leather. Carries a handful of coins, just enough to provide for his journey.
-Simple cloak with hood, homespun, natural fiber, full length, color: medium. Usually only worn during inclement weather; when not worn carried in sack.

-Silver symbol of the Great Library (Book with quill on cover - Symbol of Lord Verona), medallion, worn around neck.

-Large cloth sack, natural fibers, drawstring, color: medium brown. Worn on back, large drawstring goes over shoulder and neck.

-Simple rations (5 days), smoked meat, bread, herbs, wrapped. In Sack.

-Water skin (1), filled with water. In Sack.

-Small metal Lantern, shuttered, oil type. In Sack.

-Oil, lamp type, flasks (4), wrapped in cloth, bundled. In Sack.

-Writing implements; blank scrolls (6), ink, quill, sand, etc., small wooden case, wrapped. In Sack.

-Meditation Mat, homespun, natural fibers, rolled. In Sack.

-Incense sticks (20), incense holder (small wooden box), wrapped in Meditation mat. In Sack.

-Tinder box (Flint, steel, kindling shavings, etc. In Sack.

-Simple Bedroll, thin mat of natural fiber, simple homespun blanket. In Sack.

-One burnwood stick (Luck Stick!)

-Plain homespun robe, natural fiber, shin length,, color: medium brown.
Slightly cushions bashing attacks.

-Simple quarterstaff (6‘), Hardwood, Color: natural wood. Carried in hand usually.

-Gloves, leather, weighted, color: medium brown tanned. Worn. Unarmed attacks are slightly more powerful.

-4 x Centralium Chunks (firebombs)

-Ring of Liberty: helps resist movement impediment.

- 6 healing potions
- 2 Light Medical Kits (about 19 uses).
- 1 dose Deathshead Poison antidote.

-Blade of Ranef! Looks like a hammer.
Very shiny and powerful, creates red blade when activated by the phrase "Greatest assassin of all." Naturally, the activation phrase used to be "For the glory of Ranef."

BUDGET:
-Current wealth on person: 2101 Electrum.

Drinks and Food: -20EP
Second Round Drinks: -6EP
Payment by Varis: +800EP
Thomas' stuff: +851EP
Payment to Vendor: -1EP.
Further reimbursal: -5EP.

XP:

- 200: Meeting the Equilibriate.
- 200: Meeting the Red Revolutionary Revolutionary. (L3!)
- 100: Meeting Karrain.
- 250: Badass Action.
- 200: Talking to Karrain.
- 100: Detected Khan.
- 300: Defeated Khan.
- 100: Saved Khan.
- 300: DHarem and Varis' meeting (roleplaying xp)
- 100: Messing with the city Guard captain.
- 300: Defeated two Elite City Guards.
- 400: Made friends and beat up others.
- 300: Meeting Walker.
- 1000: Quest completed. (Thomas' Capture.)
- 500: Defeating New Smythian "nurses".

Character Name: Varis Caese
Player Name: Celtia
Level: 3 (7900/8000 xp)
"Class": Bardic Diplomat
HP: Uninjured, but feels a bit off.

ATTRIBUTES:
Strength: 0
Toughness: -1
Agility: 0
Finesse: 1
Knowledge: 2
Charisma: 5
Will: 3
Luck: 5

SKILLS:
-Silver Tongue: +1 to Charisma.
-Truly Fortunate: +1 to Luck.
-Magic from Within: Varis has above-average magical power.
-Wanderer: Knows a variety of people, taverns and stores across areas of Tithuana.
-Storyteller: Knows many details and legends about various things.
-Musician (hand-harp): Good with instruments, very good with singing and hand-harps.
-Basic Training (Longsword): Quite good with a longsword, better if 1v1.
-"Lucky you were there!": Varis' protective nature gets the better of him. Those born to protect, well, protect.

ATTACKS:
Mainhand: Longsword, above-average power.
Off-hand: Unarmed, weak power.

MAGIC:
Magic from Within.
His particular skill is mixing magic and music, average level, but waxing.
He recently broke some laws by resurrecting An'Inglefar. Whoops. This may have repercussions.
"Broke some laws", did I say? I mean BROKE THE UNIVERSE!

BACKGROUND:

Varis Caese was the fourth son to a once-wealthy merchanting family in Tithuana. Traditionally, the Caese family was always known for it's trade in gemstones, relics and texts, undoubtedly historians as much as merchants in many areas. Their trade of knowledge may have gathered them wealth and recognition in the mighty city of Tithuana over so many years, but as generations wear on the Caese family-once known as explorers, archeologists and Sorcerors-now finds so many of them falling into administrative roles in the family business, merely overseeing while others make contacts, making bargains and finding areas to sell. No longer does the family find what they sell, now it is merely a cycle of trade.

Now, with the wealth fading, the business lifespan reaching it's end, many of the young sons and daughters choose to find other ways to make their name in the mad world that it is. Varis is one of those sons.

Well-educated, Varis-even at a young age-had a talent for success. Excelling in so many areas, Varis is an excellent writer, singer and an apt historian, always drawn to more knowledge and never afraid to work for it. Unused to failure, Varis has always been accompanied by a bright outlook to life and good fortune.

As all in the Caese family, Varis took many lessons in longsword-based dueling, as is tradition laid down by an explorer in the family so long ago that his name has been lost. Perhaps being the only thing Varis didn't excel in, lacking particularly notable physical strength or reflexes, it nonetheless taught him an...adequacy with the weapon, though many of the dueling techniques he was taught were more or less impractical in true skirmishes.

As so many of his family, Varis inherited power akin to that of a Sorceror, and is able to draw upon Magic from Within for any range of abilities. Sadly lacking in magical strength, Varis makes a poor combat sorceror, though he can easily create light, light candles, write letters on a surface without ink and various other minor effects, many of which barely qualify as parlour tricks. However, such limited magical ability has proven enough in the past to be able to melt locks of poor quality, seal small scratches and cuts and spell much of his equipment to hold up remarkably well to grime, stains and other minor damage.

But Varis' true talents are showcased in his speech. Impeccably polite and with a good heart, Varis has an innate ability to please everyone in a conversation, talk his way out of anything, break up fights peacefully and motivate the coldest of people. An excellent and soothing singer, Varis is often seen with a hand-harp slung around his belt, an instrument he can play well and alongside his memorized ballads and songs. His songs instill powerful emotions without his conscious bidding, calling melancholy to inspiration to listeners, a talent claimed by those who have heard him to be magical in some aspect, though Varis is himself unsure as to if his Magic from Within has anything to do with what his songs can do to others.

Over time, Varis seperated himself from his family, disliking the business he himself describes as "the slow yet timely death of a proud family name" making his own living as a bard in various taverns around the city, making money off from tips and accepting free meals and beddings from the taverns who profited from the extra business a bard brought. By the age of a mere 19, though, Varis' silver tongue and voice had brought him to the attention of a councillor of Tithuana, and had accepted an offer of a well-paid job to officially guard a caravan as an escort, and unofficially as a personal musician. However, what seemed a simple way to make money went wrong when Varis was forced to protect the councillor against the other escorts of the caravan, turned traitor. Varis survived, slaying the other four traitors with what even he himself would forever describe as "Pure, simple luck".

The attack was Varis' first and as-of-yet only true experience of the madness of combat, yet the treachery he saw that day acted against his sense of loyalty, driving him to pull together like-minded people, fighters, to protect people from circumstances like this. To bring together a group, a force, who are completely loyal to their task, whatever it is. A mercenary group, in effect, acting as anything from guards-for-hire to soldiers.

Surviving as he always had off the various taverns and pubs, while doing his best to refine his mediocre skill with a weapon, Varis finds himself alongside unusual allies as a letter appears for him from the councillor he'd known...

INVENTORY

-Thick, long-sleeved cloth shirt, dyed dark green.
-A full-length, wide, pale brown cloak, that can be clasped together in front of the wearer for warmth. Also had a hood, though rarely worn.
-Simple, dark, featureless pants.
-Simple hardleather boots. Practical for cross-country.
-A thick belt, carrying the sheath to his weapon and a clasp to carry his harp at on his left, while two belt-pouches are arranged at the front and on his right. The one on the right has the capacity to carry a few handfuls of Electrum coins. The belt pouch at his front currently carries nothing but a few cords that he can affix to his harp to replace any strings that break, but can also holds gems or small objects, such as keys.

-Finally, a hide backpack (usually underneath his cloak) with several pockets and openings, and where most of his inventory is kept.

-Trail rations consisting of bread and smoked meat held in a small case. Can be enough for two to four days on the road, if used sparingly.
Smoked meat and bread, 4 days.

-Two waterskins, attached to the outside of his pack, usually kept filled with water from fresh streams or wells.

-A torch with a ferrum cage, with a large amount of kindling, oil and charcoal to resupply it when it burns out.
Torch, 39 hours fuel.

-Eleven blank scrolls, as well as an inkwell and quill to write on and with for whatever reason.

-A simple bedroll affixed underneath the pack to sleep on if outside. Resilient, but not overly comfortable.

-A solitary book: "The Music of Tithuana", essentially just a collection of the lyrics for a variety of songs and ballads of all kinds. Most of them already memorized by Varis.

-A simple whetstone for sharpening his sword, and a glass bottle of an oil specifically for polishing his sword if need be, and can also be used for the same effect on his harp.

-Vault key.

-Worn over the shirt when travelling: A simple, lightweight leather cuirass with leather greaves.
Protects lightly from all.

-A fine hand-harp.

-Ferrum longsword with sheath.

-All-purpose medical kit (26 uses)

-2 "Magemead" vials

-Rough map (parchment) of Tithuana with a cross on taverns

-1 BIG bottle of Lord's Curse poison (Depending on dose)


BUDGET:
-Current wealth on person: 644 Electrum.

An'Jantar's Payment: +2500EP
Lucksticks x 3, 15 each: -45EP
Karrain's Entrance, then team payment: -2400EP
Extra losses for payment: -150EP
Tip to the Bank: -10EP

XP:

- 50: d20 = 20
- 200: Meeting the Equilibriate.
- 200: Meeting the Red Revolutionary Revolutionary. (L3!)
- 300: The Song!
- 200: Freeing Karrain.
- 100: Meeting Karrain.
- 500: RESSURECTED An'Inglefar. WTF.
- 50: d20 = 20
- 100: Roleplaying in the clinic.
- 400: Previous adventures (roleplaying xp)
- 300: Meeting Walker.
- 1000: Quest completed. (Thomas' Capture.)
- 300: Defeating New Smythian "nurses".
- 200: Previous adventures (roleplaying xp)
- 400: Catalium and Barbant

Character Name: Karrain Unzual
Player Name: Clockwork Demise
Level: 3 (7200/8000 xp)
"Class": Sacrelarch (Master Mage)
HP: Uninjured.

ATTRIBUTES:
Strength: 0
Toughness: 5
Agility: -1 (-3)
Finesse: 0
Knowledge: 7
Charisma: 0
Will: 8
Luck: -2 (0)

SKILLS:
-Out of Shape: Karrain's magical, physical and other capabilities have been at rest for too long: he has effectively temporarily lost his experience.
-Mana Body: Karrain naturally resists physical damage and magic, and cannot age, but must channel for a minimum of three hours per day or risk death.
-Relentless Willpower: Karrain has an almost infinite mental resolve after his imprisonment. +3 Will.
-Loremaster (Anathemum): Karrain has mastered the Anathemum Alphabet in its entirety.
-Fortitude of Ages: Karrain has endured for milennia and is quite content to keep enduring, he has +1 Toughness.
-Elightened through Darkness: Karrain understands better than any other the relationship between the body, mind and mana, and has had time to reflect during his imprisonment. He gains +1 to his Knowledge.
-Isolation: Karrain has been isolated from the world for a long time, sheltered from illness, and his immune system has suffered. Weaker to poisons, disease, illness...

ATTACKS:
Mainhand: Unarmed, weak power.
Off-hand: Unarmed, weak power.

MAGIC:
Magic from Without: Sacrelarchs harness the power of the ancient Anathemum Alphabet, shaping magic with words and glyphs. To use this magic, Karrain must either speak an incantation, scribe a glyph or mentaly 'Focus' on a glyph and pour his power through it.

BACKGROUND:
When the world was young and slaughter rife there emerged an Ethronan mage by the name of Karrain Unzual. He alone amongst his kind could hear the echoes of the Lords' spells that still revebrated through the world and skies and he alone could harness the dark energy that these echoes released.
As with most powerful mages, Karrain despised his mortality. Seeing himself as the 'First and Only' he withdrew from the conflict and began his experiments on a Mana Body, a ritual that would reconstruct his body from raw magical energy, rendering him ageless and eternal.
Seeing this blight, his fellow Ethronans banded together to put an end to the scheme, even as Karrain's ritual reached its climax, the Ethronans struck, their shamas binding him in a temporal prison and their sages striking his name from all records, before torching his workshop and hunting down the various other Sacrelarchs that had sprung up amongst their people.
However, Karrain's temporal prison required something to tie it to the mortal realm. The Ethronans chose a massive chunk of Catalium, which they enchanted, rumoured to have gained the power to turn specific items around it into electrum.
Perhaps a less ostentatious prison would have been appropriate as the gem soon fell into the hands of the Caese merchant family who abused its powers over the years until the gem had all but exhausted its magic.
Then, when the prison finally stopped operating, Varis Caese's father hurled it to the ground in rage, shattering it into a thousand thousand shards. To his surprise, one of the last shards to fall from the ground turned itself into electrum, the last vestiges of the prison desperatley trying to keep itself from collapsing with a brief pulse of magic. Now Varis carries the last coin minted from that gem in his pouch and inside that gem waits Karrain. His hubris gone from long years of imprisonement, Karrain is now fatalistic and grim, even as the last wards of his prison begin to unwind. All he hopes is that he doesn't materialise in Varis' belt pouch.

Karrain is fairly tall for a human at around six feet. He has long black hair flecked with grey and tanned skin along with a moustache and beard that are similarly covered and reach down to the top of his chest. He wears a purple robe which bunches up around his upper arms where it is caught between his curiass and gauntlets, the latter set with gems on their longest fingers. The former reaches down to his belt, a single, elaborate, glyph carved into it. The robe extends down, revealing boots of a similar metal to his gauntlets. His two eyes glance out from a hard face, their purple irises matching the colour of his robe.

INVENTORY:
-Long purple robes
-A pair of purple breeches.
-A belt.

-Nestirium gauntlets, curiass and shoes. Each gauntlet has a Taratinum gem ring fused with it on Karrain's middle finger. His cuirass is engraved with a single Anathemum rune which he refuses to translate. (Nestirium is a dark yellow metal, nowadays inexistant)
Very resistant to bashing and slashing, less to piercing. +2 Luck, +2 Antimagic -2 Agility Penalty.

-2 Healing Potions

-2 "Magemead" vials

BUDGET:
-Current wealth on person: 0 Electrum.

XP:

- 300: Escaping the Prison! (L3)
- 200: Talking to DHarem.
- 100: Detected Khan
- 300: Finished saving An'Inglefar.
- 100: Messing with the city Guard captain.
- 300: Meeting Walker.
- 1000: Quest completed. (Thomas' Capture.)
- 300: Dealing with prison.
- 100: Badassery.
- 300: Frostlock! Brrr.
- 200: Useless explosion. Meh, good try.

Character Name: Bon
Player Name: Darren
Level: 3 (4450/8000 xp)
"Class": Hunter
HP: Uninjured

ATTRIBUTES:
Strength: 0
Toughness: 2
Agility: 8
Finesse: 10
Knowledge: -1
Charisma: -5
Will: 0
Luck: 1 (2)

SKILLS:
Eagle Eye: +2 to Finesse.
Hunting Eye: Good at tracking.
Stalker: Good at sneaking and ambushing.
Excellent Training (Longbow): Very good with longbows.
Woodlore: Knows about hunting, nature, animals.
Great Finesse: Can perceive magical effects easily, so can defend better from them.
Poison Dabbler: Better at using poisons, wastes much less per dose (more powerful poisons).

ATTACKS:
Masterwork Longbow: Very powerful.

BACKGROUND:

Nothing is known of Bon... all that is known of him is that he is a hunter and archer.
He remains silent almost permanently. He is the simple "strong but silent type."

INVENTORY

-Dark brown hood and cloth mask permanently masking the face.

-Dark brown cloak attached at the front with a clasp.

-Three vials of healing potion.

-Small shoulder pouch containing most of the assorted gear.

-One waterskin, full.

-6 days of dried, salted meat.

-Fletching gear.

-One burnwood stick (Luck Stick!)

-Hardened leather tunic.
Resists lightly to all.

-Masterwork Longbow

-11 basic arrows
-3 barbed arrows
-4 slick arrows

-Vial, four uses of Deathshead poison
-Vial, three uses of Female Runner venom
-Vial, one use of Ground Biter Poison
-2 "Magemead" vials

-Barbant's Awesome Bracer of Power

BUDGET:
-Current wealth on person: 927 Electrum.

Payment by Varis: +800EP

XP:

- 200: Meeting the Equilibriate.
- 100: Meeting Karrain.
- 200: Scouting the square.
- 100: Detected Khan.
- 300: Meeting Walker.
- 1000: Quest completed. (Thomas' Capture.) (L3!)

Character Name: Thomas
Player Name: Darren
Level: 2 (2300/4000 xp)
"Class": Warrior
HP: Dead. Shot with four crossbow bolts!!

ATTRIBUTES:
Strength: 9
Toughness: 1
Agility: 6
Finesse: 2
Knowledge: -1
Charisma: 5
Will: 4
Luck: -10

SKILLS:
Excellent Training (Longsword): Very good with longsword.
Skilled Armoured Warrior: -2 to armour Agility penalty.
Stronger Than All: +2 to Force.
Naive: "What you don't know can't hurt you." Automatically succeed any defensive Knowledge roll.
Strange Forces: Nudgie nudge, winkie wink.

ATTACKS:
Mainhand: Longsword, very powerful.
Off-hand: Unarmed, weak.

BACKGROUND:

In Thomas, strange forces are at work... Anyone can feel a strange aura coming from him...
Strange.

INVENTORY

-Prisoner garb

-Burnt clothing

-Platemail Armour
Quite damaged.

-Longsword and sheath

BUDGET:
-Current wealth on person: 0 Electrum.

Payment by Varis: +800EP
Four flame oil vials: -200EP
Confiscation by Guards: -1096EP

XP:

- 100: Meeting Karrain. (L2!)
- 300: Killing An'Inglefar.

Openly Friendly: An'Jantar: Tithuanan Councillor for Knowledge. Paid the party 2500ep for this job. Varis knows him.

Equilibriate: Wore a glass mask, and brown cloak. Gave the party a "no magic" pebble, along with cryptic advice about "Red".

Foreigner: Mysterious man, unknown to all, yet is amazingly knowledgeable.

Aaron and Leonard: Guards. Helped DHarem. "Owes them a drink" apparently.

Unknown/Neutral (for now):
An'Tarask: Councillor for Defence. Respectful of Karrain. Offered him a job.

An'Jonesy: Councillor for Commerce.

An'Corent: Councillor for City.

Khan!: Found on a roof, invisible, by DHarem, Bon and Karrain. Hated An'Inglefar. Powerful mage.

Clawsbane: Famous adventurer, mega famous.

Openly Hostile:
RRR Man: Offered 11000ep for the death of all of the councillors. He attacked and then ran away, after having An'Inglefar killed.

Guard Captain: Took offence at Karrain's comments, and is VERY hostile. Is getting angry towards DHarem, too.

Dead:
An'Inglefar: Councillor for Magic, is very appreciated in Tithuana. Rivalry with Khan. Killed by Thomas, but resurrected by Varis (WTF). Killed again by the RRR.

An'Irinar: Councillor for Arts, died in a fire at her manor, quite recently. Elections for successor are to happen in a few months.

RRR "Nurses": six "nurses"... wearing armour and weapons, seemingly from Smythia. All dead, but they killed An'Inglefar. Members of the RRR.

Barbant: famous badass assassin. "When 'Red' attacks, aim for the right arm." DUH! "Red" IS Barbant!

The Councillor's Request: Mercenary work guarding the Knowledge Duel. Why? Unknown.
An'Inglefar was assassinated (and revived) and Khan seemed to be responsible.
But now the RRR have killed An'Inglefar, and Barbant is here to kill An'Jantar. Uh oh. Barbant is dead, and Thomas too, now.
Khan seems to be the key to all of this.

Equilibriate's Balance: "The councillor you must defend. When Red attacks, aim for the right arm." "Beware of the 'sorcerer'. Khan knows."
Khan knows what? Which sorceror?

Red Revolutionary Revolutionism: REFUSED! Kill all the councillors of Tithuana.
But RRR troops seized and killed An'Inglefar, and hired an assassin to take care of An'Jantar. Though that failed.
They hired Khan to kill An'Inglefar, originally.

Thomas' Capture: Thomas has been imprisoned due to killing An'Inglefar. On purpose or accidentally. Hmmm.
Trial would have taken place, if not for a jailbreak.
Thomas is back, now.
Another Side of the Story: Khan told DHarem to visit him in his tower as soon as possible, only with people he can trust.
They were met with a wall of plot exposition.

Another Day, Another Enemy: The captain of the Central Tithuanan Guardhouse is hostile towards Karrain and DHarem. DHarem is also gradually making more and more enemies among the city guard members. 4 at last count. Could this be a war?
Though DHarem may be making friends with two others.

Blast from the Past: Varis and DHarem are still subconsciously looking for the man who betrayed them in that old ruin.

Blade of Ranef: The famous "Blade of Ranef" was stolen a few months ago from the temple of Ranef. Barbant is using it.

Tithuanan Time schedules and Clock Tower.
Morningstrike: long cacophany of mixed bells. Equivalent of about 6.30 AM.
Firststrike: single bell. Equivalent of about 8 AM.
Secondstrike: two strikes. Equivalent of about 12 midday.
Thirdstrike: three strikes. Equivalent of about 2 PM.
Fourthstrike: four strikes. Equivalent of about 5 PM.
Fifthstrike: five strikes. Equivalent of about 8 PM.
Nightstrike: cacophany again. Equivalent of about 10 PM.