Shackled City - Chapter III

Flood Season

After you have finished shopping and anything else you wish to do, you are summoned to Priestess Urikas' chambers. She is in urgent need of your services immediately.

OoC: As I said in the last thread, no rush on getting to the priestess in character. But could we could a listing somehow of what everyone has been doing in between adventures, what they've bought, etc. Let's try to get all that finalized before moving on with Flood Season.

Not feeling the need to partake in the parties buying and selling needs, the young half elf takes his time to have some long overdue coffee and closer inspect his only acquisition from the dungeons. Sipping his coffee the Sorcerer admires the fine craftsmanship of the Ash walking cane.

Examining the cane closer, Elyas notices something peculiar about the angel-shaped handle. Investigating further, he discovers that it detaches from the cane to reveal a compartment within. Inside is a vial filled with a mysterious liquid.

Elyas tentatively takes out the small vial of liquid, cradling it in his hands the sorcerer calls on his innate powers to see if the liquid will reveal some of its mysteries.

Ooc: Detect Magic

The vial glows with a conjurative aura.

ooc: Alinis will donate 50gp to the church.

Alinis mostly takes in the sights of the city, having done the majority of her 'shopping' while in the dungeon. She plans on saving her coin though.

Flood Season Interlude ~Flashback~

OoC: While we wait for everyone to get caught up, we can roleplay out some events that took place between adventures, namely, Leanthas' mock "trial" in front of Priestess Jenya. I can use this encounter as well to have the priestess inform the party about the upcoming flood season and what it will entail for the city as a whole.

There is an encounter at the magic shop I would like to play out with everyone before we get things officially started, but assuming the natural flow of events as the party are carting loot up from the dungeon, frequent meetings to keep the priestess updated would have taken place.

~

Priestess Jenya Urikas stood, waiting, with her arms crossed and her lips pursed at the end of the large meeting hall awaiting the arrival of the party. The tapping of her foot further betrayed her impatience as she waited to meet with the ex-Hextorite face to face for the first time, since this new batch of trouble he created had started. As the group arrived her eyebrows raised slightly and she huffed a sigh through her nose.

"Later," she spoke, the words clearly meant for Zeric; her gaze on the hexblade would not deny that.

"As for the rest of you, arrangements have been made to store your valuables in one of the temple vaults free of charge, for as long as you are in our service. Now this elven fellow you found down beneath the gnomish city, in the dwarven stronghold, he is being brought here as we speak. He will present his case to me, with all of you present, and he will be questioned on his knowledge of goings-on down there in recent years. But first --"

Before the priestess can continue, Leanthas is escorted in by two temple guards. Jenya sharply considers the frail elf from afar before continuing. "There is no harm in relating what I am about to say with him present so he may stay, but he shall have to wait against the wall," she directs the guards, who position Leanthas according to her orders.

"Now, as I was saying, before we move on to this trial, I think it would be best to inform you all of the coming season and how things are affected here in Cauldron. As winter draws closer, the citizens of Cauldron are busy shoring up their homes and businesses in preparation for the flood season. Since the city is essentially built inside a large bowl, the dormant volcano, the rainy seasons of winter can become quite dangerous. The mouth of the volcano catches the falling rain with great efficiency, and the gutters of Cauldron quickly become filled with turbulent rivers that more often than not overflow into the streets as they drain down the inner surface of the volcano and into the central lake. Most years, the rainfall quickly overcomes the lake's natural drainage into the Underdark, and the water level slowly creeps up, flooding the lower buildings and forcing citizens to flee for higher ground.

"After a particularly wet winter several decades ago, when the central lake's waters reached Ash Avenue and completely submerged many of the lower buildings, the city decided to do something about the problem. Representatives of the churches of Pelor, Wee Jas, and Kord got together under the urgings of the then high priestess of our temple. We pooled our resources, and created several wands that controlled water to combat the next flood season. That winter, priests from our four temples patrolled the lower streets of Cauldron and fought back the flood using their wands. THe citizens were grateful for the aid, and assisted with sandbagging and shoring of buildings where they could, even with the magic wands though, the flood waters could still do significant damage.

"So successful were these measures that, after that flood season ended, the city erupted into a massive festival. In the years to follow, this grew into a tradition. The Flood Festival, as it came to be known, began earlier each year until it started before the first rains fell. Each year, the priests of the city created the wands to fight the floods, and each year the floods were controlled and blunted. For a few years, we even dabbled with certain scrolls that controlled the weather outright. This option was abandoned before long because too many mishaps cropped up when our younger priests miscast these powerful spells.

"But time breeds contentment, and it is my opinion that the Flood Festival ended up too successful for its own good. As the years went by, the churches began to refine their uses of the wands and found that they could build fewer wands and still make it through the season. At the same time, the festivals grew more gaudy and extravagant. Over the past decade, the winters have been fairly mild, and it is doubtful that the lake would have flooded even if its waters weren't held back. As the apparent need for protection has faded, so does the city's memories of the floods of decades past, and the need for the wands began to grow smaller."

Jenya's eyes narrow slightly as she paused in her tale, considering the mage at the far end of the room for a moment before continuing, this time, at barely higher than a whisper.

"Last year, a drought caused a late and exceptionally mild winter, so no one really noticed or complained that dangerously few wands were built. In fact, the wands weren't even used except at the start and end of the flood season as part of festival ceremonies. As a result, the long-standing alliance between our temples has faded. The church of Kord has long balked at the cost of building the wands, and this year its priesthood has turned its focus to the Flood Festival itself, organizing numerous sporting events to entertain the city. The church of Wee Jas would rather spent their efforts creating "more constructive magic items", and they too have dropped their support of the wand creation program. They were always the least supportive of this practice anyway," she shakes her head. "The church of Pelor, although still supportive of the program, has relatively small presence here in Cauldron, and last spring it lost its two most powerful priests to a tragic accident. No current member of their clergy has the expertise to build one of the wands. That left only our church...

"Sarcem Delasharn, I've told you of him. He's the current high priest of this temple. He has asked me to fill in for him in his absence. Sarcem grew worried. He couldn't make enough wands himself for the festival, and certainly didn't think that the calm winters Cauldron had witnessed over the past dewcade would last much longer. He collected what funds he could, mostly from our church, but some came from donations, and tried to keep the wand shortage as low key and secret as he could; he didn't want to distress the populace any more than necessary. He then set out from Cauldron on a long trek to the distant capital city to purchase or commission as many wands as he could afford. It was a long task, requiring him to be absent from Cauldron for many weeks. This again, is why he has named me high priestess in his stead, until he returns."

Her long tale finished, Jenya gets right to the point. "Your next task should not be as dangerous as before, but it is a precautionary measure we must take. As setup for the festival begins and the event eventually begins and passes, I would like you all to keep your eyes sharp. Keep on the lookout for anything suspicious going on. I would like to have you escort the priests that will be charged with patrolling with the wands around town, when High Priest Sarcem returns with them. The range of kidnappings may have ended thanks to you, but I am not yet convinced that things have returned to normal around here..."

Avoiding eye contact with Leanthas, the priestess eyes the others, obviously awaiting any questions or concerns, before continuing on to the trial.

Elyas listens carefully to the words of the priestess, some what amused at the willingness of the so called “faithful” to ask there god to solve there problems instead of just thinking about the situation and taking a some what more logical and permanent masseuse. “Why didn’t the city opt to use there funds more efficiently and make a some what more adequate drainage system? I’m sure that with the help of some experienced dwarfen-miners the city could have constructed a moor efficient way of draining the flood waters.” Pausing slightly …”Who are we protecting these priests from? Are there groups within the city that would benefit from its flooding?”

While he had not expected trumpets and banners upon their return, Zeric thought that perhaps the High Priestess would have been slightly more pleased to see them return.

~Or perhaps she is angry that I pressed on when the others returned after Kazmojen had been slain. Why would she care beyond the fact that Raven followed me vice the others? I will find out later I suppose...~

While a few days ago, Zeric had no doubt that he would have been preparing to storm out of the church in a huff and damn the consequences, the simple fact was he was too tired to damn anything or one but himself at the moment. While the healing the Cudgels had provided, had removed the wounds; the fatigue from fighting, adrenaline, moving the amassed treasure, and lack of any sleep had sapped nearly all of Zeric's strength.

Matching the High Priestess' gaze as best he could, Zeric nodded once and stood beside the others, all too aware of his disheveled appearance.

As the priestess began telling them of the city's past and the dangers it faced from the possibility of the approaching fall rains, Zeric could not believe the other churches would allow themselves to become so lackluster in their duties to the city that housed them. However, it was not his place to seek to decipher the will of the other gods when he himself still could not always understand what Cuthbert truly wanted out of him.

~My life for the slaver's...a deal struck and made when he gave us victory...~

As the priestess finished, Zeric listened as the scribe spoke of hiring dwarven masons to overhaul the city's drainage systems and smiled at the suggestion. While Zeric was still new to the city, he knew that only one person held enough power to have something like that suggested and while it was a good idea how would the commoners who had to pay for it feel of having their crops and wares taxed more to make it happen.

"While the dwarves would do it for the right price Elyas, it would be the workers of the city who paid for it and when their taxes go up, the donations in the coffers go down. If the coffers begin to go, the churches begin to complain and then the city would tell them "If you could stop this, we wouldn't need this now would we?". It is a cruel cycle and balancing act that everyone in power plays, and the ones that always suffer the most are the workers who just want a safe place to rest their bones at night."

Rubbing some of the grit from his eyes, Zeric looked up briefly at the high priestess for a moment before speaking more to the others.

"As to who could want to stop the church from using the wands to help the city? There are always though who seek to find an advantage when a weakness presents itself. If any in the theives' guild caught wind of this, I am sure they would seek to blackmail the city, using their priests to control the water to their advantage. A fanatical druid could see this as his chance to wash this spot of civilization away, or any other crazied follower of anything. There is nothing more dangerous than a fanatic..."

Realizing the irony of his last statement, Zeric paused for a moment before pressing on.

"How long before High Priest Delasharn returns from gathering the wands? While I can not speak for the others, but you know I will assist the temple as best I can, per our contract, as well as mine with Cuthbert. However without some rest, the orphans I plan on visiting in the morning could sneak up on me right now."

These people live inside a dormant volcano. You'd think rain water would be the least of their worries... the bard thinks to himself as he lets the others voice their concerns and opinions. The Last Word is a key advantage to any great orator.
"Extra precautions can be taken by the churches, Priestess Urikas," he says, setting his things down. "Of course we would not want to allow Panic and Rumor to run rampant throughout the streets, so every task must be taken with some amount of subterfuge..." he adds to assure the priestess that he isn't ignorant to the Greater Good.
"Safe Houses. There must be temples and theaters set above even the highest flood-water ranges for the citizenry to seek shelter in should the need arise."
'Arise.' Oh, I am clever...
"Start preparing for the worst. If the worst never comes: at least you were prepared. In the mean time, our lot can equip ourselves with the means to protect the carriers," he says, looking to the members of the party.