Our player for Plank finally returns to his home. And thus, the game has returned to three once more. The game also got started late because one player slept in and got enthralled playing Dragon Age on his computer, that and when conversation began he got bored and drove off quickly for food (very common behavior for him).
After a day of holing up in their room in town for nearly 24 hours to await their meeting with the Shadowed Hand (avoiding the townspeople like crazy), the shadows in their room coalesce into a figure to inform them to go north to the dojo for the meeting. At about noon, they reach the place, and they enter the area that looks much like the Plane of Shadow. They can see the building built into the bottom of the cliff, and the front gate to the grounds is guarded by a pair of orc vampires. The guards open the gate slowly into impenetrable mist, request that the party wait a moment for the path to be shown, in which a gust of wind from the other side of the fog parts the way so the party can swiftly walk across and into the building.
Inside is a dark room with interior paper walls, the largest one being a long table with cushions all around. At the head of table is Shadowtongue (two ninja guards behind him), and on each side of the table are individuals that Shadowtongue introduces as representatives of two other ninja guilds to witnesses to the proceedings. One is a ghoul-like bugbear named Jabb, who leads the Barghest's Maw. The other is a human with a deathly blue flame coming from his eyes, wearing samurai armor made of stone, representing the Scratch. Shadowtongue introduces himself as a negotiator for the Shadowed Hand itself.
Talk about what the party wants is laid out, the contract to be ripped up under threat of violence, the contract to be nulled by a competing offer, or the name of the individual who bought the contract. Negotiation is slow at first because the player for Cast doesn't like the idea of giving the Shadowed Hand anything; 2000gp is his initial limit for buying out the contract (basic magic items are generally worth that, and Cast himself pulls in ~8k a month from taxes). Eventually, Ethedril brings up the idea of giving up the wizard tower they obtained back in the Valley of the White Dragon, with the extra bit that Ethedril will inform her kobold followers to put it back in place (and repaired). This would be in exchange for the name of the person who hired the Shadowed Hand. One Diplomacy check later, and things work out.
Shadowtongue tells them they must wait until tomorrow to leave due to the nature of how they entered the place, and provides the party access to the guest wing. He promises that they will not make any attempt on their lives until nightfall the next day (giving them half a day's travel of seperation from the base), as part of a general pact of hospitality that comes with a ninja negotiation. Inside the guest wing, they are offered a wide selection of food and women and are told they can ask for any other diversion for the day. They all forgo any pleasures, Cast specifically asking for a white room for him to sit and ignore everything in, though Ethedril tries out the food and discovers that it's illusory (30% real because it's a shadow illusion). The next day, they suit up and leave for the Valley of the White Dragon to inform the kobolds to undo what they've done to the tower so far.
They push themselves to the limit of fatigue to avoid getting ambushed in camp right at nightfall, delaying it until about 4am, where half an hour into their rest they are interrupted by a wall of fire forming on them, dealing vile damage (yay Carnage domain). Marshal manages to spot something above the party, nearly 200' above them with wings flapping utterly silently, while releasing a bird to begin diving towards the party. While Marshal and Cast jump out of the fire, Ethedril charges upward to chop the bird in half mid-flight, discovering that it was a very simple conjuration that holds a scrap of real paper. At the winged creature's turn, with a flap it seems to fold itself into the night and disappear (Ethedril cannot sense it). The message tells the party that while they are not yet at the level for his full attention, they are worth a visit to soften them up for the rest of the guild, and it is signed from the Crow.
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