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Story Hour
Erkonin (Campaign #2) [Session 45: Rajalmin's Agent]
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<blockquote data-quote="prabe" data-source="post: 8165749" data-attributes="member: 7016699"><p>Session 26: Library and Lobster</p><p></p><p>Dramatis Personae:</p><p></p><p>Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid</p><p>Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)</p><p>Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)</p><p>Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)</p><p>Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin</p><p></p><p>GM - Everyone Else</p><p></p><p>(Note: This session was held on Discord.)</p><p></p><p></p><p>9 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 101)</p><p></p><p>The day dawned warmer and clear after the stormy night and stormy fight with the ala the night before. The boat sailed down the river toward New Arvai uneventfully all day and all night.</p><p></p><p></p><p>10 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 102)</p><p></p><p>The day passed uneventfully until just after sunset. At that point, we saw not far from the river an old abandoned tower that was broken at the top and about fifty feet deep in rubble all around There was a cliff on the other side of the tower that had let go and slid down and engulfed the tower, but not knocked it over, in the landslide.</p><p></p><p>The tower was clearly not occupied and was human-scale.</p><p></p><p>Vinya asked someone on the crew and they said that a wizard had set up the tower there. About a hundred and fifty or so years ago, boats traveling the river saw this -- they didn’t know if some magical experiment had gone badly and caused the landslide, if there was an earthquake, or what might have happened.</p><p></p><p>Vinya added it to her map of interesting places.</p><p></p><p>The night passed without incident.</p><p></p><p></p><p>11 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 103)</p><p></p><p>Around noon on this day the Emerson had to maneuver around a new wreck in the river that was partly impinging on the ability of boats to travel safely. (The wrecked boat had run aground on a sandbar in an awkward position.)</p><p></p><p>We talked about working to try and shift it to make passage down the river smoother, but Captain Siltrene said we could just tell the harbormaster in New Arvai about it and they’d send someone out to deal with it. Possibly a class of wizarding students from one of the college could use the destruction of the boat as a class project.</p><p></p><p>And in fact, later in the day just about sunset, we saw a boat heading up the river. Vinya asked if they were heading toward the wreck and was told that they were -- some of the more senior students were going to practice their skills moving the boat around then the underclass students were going to destroy it. We wished them luck and a good time.</p><p></p><p>The night passed.</p><p></p><p></p><p>12 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 104)</p><p></p><p>Around midday we arrived in New Arvai and pondered where to stay. Vinya wondered if maybe we could get put up at the Chiaroscuro Temple, where she’d trained as a monk, but we decided instead to go with Elama to the temple of the Seafarers and Wayfarers order of clerics. Elama isn’t a member, but they are religiously kindred spirits and she was able to arrange for a discounted rate at the large inn connected to the temple. They run the inn as part of their mission to provide assistance to travelers.</p><p></p><p>Having arranged for lodgings, we headed toward the School of the World -- taking a slight detour to stop by the Chiaroscuro Temple. The building appeared to be undergoing significant renovations, part of the roof was obviously new and the top of a corner of the building had scaffolding with some monks on it applying plaster to part of the wall.</p><p></p><p>Vinya asked for Belia and a violet-skinned tiefling woman came to the door shortly after. Vinya was greeted warmly and there was a short conversation.</p><p></p><p>Belia: How are you doing? You appear to be progressing in your studies. You chose the radiant path, I see. I am not surprised.</p><p>Vinya: I contemplated the question long and hard. Probably longer and harder than I needed to because I knew what my heart wanted. How go the repairs?</p><p>Belia: They’re going. We got the roof mostly fixed before the winter came.</p><p>Vinya: Has there been any more sign of Aerellor or the Zariel cultists?</p><p>Belia: None here. Have you any news?</p><p>Vinya: Not of that. We fought a lot of cultists of the Hunger Between Worlds but nothing of Zariel.</p><p></p><p>They spoke for a few more minutes then Vinya told Belia where the party was staying and said we’d be in town for a while and she’d come around to visit for longer, perhaps do some training to make sure she was staying on the proper path.</p><p></p><p>As we walked away, she explained to the rest of the party that toward the end of her training at the Temple, a cabal of Zariel cultists working within the Chiaroscuro Temple had been rooted out and many had escaped and fled out of the city.</p><p></p><p>At the front desk of the Library of the School of the World, just as one of the attendants was about to ask us to pay to enter the library, Vinya pulled out the package we’d been carrying since we left Erlin.</p><p></p><p>Attendant: Admittance is 300 gold pieces per person per day or...</p><p>Vinya, setting the package on the counter: We have a delivery for the head librarian. It’s from Jamil, the sage in Erlin.</p><p>Attendant, slightly flustered: I’ll go talk to Elledrian. He’s the head librarian.</p><p></p><p>He then disappeared down a corridor and around a corner. A few minutes later we saw an elf stick his head around the corner. When he saw us, he ducked back. The attendant returned to us.</p><p></p><p>Attendant, looking confused: I’ll take your package to Elledrian. He doesn’t wish to interact with so many elves.</p><p>Elderron: I don’t blame him.</p><p>Marxine: Me neither.</p><p></p><p>He took the package and went back down the corridor and around the corner. He returned several minutes later.</p><p></p><p>Attendant: Elledrian thanks you for bringing the book and indulging his eccentricities regarding meeting you personally. In thanks, he will grant you two free person-days in the library. You can take those as one day for two people or two days for one person. As it is late in the afternoon, I recommend you return in the morning rather than wasting a day on the few remaining hours we’ll be open.</p><p>Vinya: As a group, we have wide ranging interests and questions. Can you help us with how to most strategically approach our research, so we can make the most of our time when we return tomorrow?</p><p>Attendant: What are you interested in researching?</p><p>Vinya, consulting with the others as she spoke: Rakshasas in general, one named Rajalmin in specific, dragons in general, the dragon called the Blue Death, Sossonosssomething, and the Gleaming Dame in specific, and anything about Castle Dante in the Feywild and how it’s laid out or how one would get into it.</p><p></p><p>They said that research librarians would be available to assist with finding both the general and specific information that we were looking for, but that was definitely going to be at least two full days of research.</p><p></p><p>We then left. Elama wanted to find theater and food and some fun and excitement and we all agreed that sounded like a nice way to spend the evening.</p><p></p><p>On the way to finding that, Vinya let the group get ahead a bit and stopped at the Chiaroscuro Temple again.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: Have you heard anything from Thorin?</p><p>Belia: I have not and it concerns me.</p><p>Vinya: I’ve been told that he might be somewhere far away. Not even on this plane, perhaps. He has to go where he’s assigned. I was just...hoping.</p><p></p><p>Then she caught up with her friends and we had a nice evening. We returned to the Seafarers and Wayfarers Temple early so that Elderron could get a good night’s sleep and be up at the crack of dawn to go to the library.</p><p></p><p></p><p>13 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 105)</p><p></p><p>The next morning, we were all up very early and we all went to the library together. We decided that our two free days would be used by Elderron and Aldalomiel. Aldalomiel could do the research into dragons and Castle Dante. Elderron would be looking into the rakshasa and the hells and devils.</p><p></p><p>Elderron: I’ll pay to get in again tomorrow.</p><p>Vinya: I’ll happily pay for you -- you need to spend your money on learning spells and suchlike. I just need to buy a new quarterstaff and a spare gi or two once in a while.</p><p></p><p>This was not totally settled, though Vinya has no intention of letting Elderron pay for himself to get into the library.</p><p></p><p>We walked with them from the reception desk to the entrance to the library proper.</p><p></p><p>Some librarians were available to assist each of them. The ones assigned to assist Elderron seemed a bit more senior and a bit more serious -- because the library, indeed the city, indeed all of Erkonin, have learned to be a bit paranoid about people doing research into devils and the hells. Team Library, led by Elderron who looked like he never wanted to leave, went through the doors into the library to do their research.</p><p></p><p>The rest of the party, Marxine, Vinya, and Elama, headed out into the city to see if they could drum up some work or an adventure or something exciting we could do or help with, becoming Team Finding Trouble.</p><p></p><p>Elderron learned about rakshasa in general. They are hedonists, which can be helpful when trying to find them, and they like to eat people. They can disguise themselves so they can be hard to spot when living among humanoids. Spells of less than sixth level simply don’t work against them. Neither do non-magical weapons.</p><p></p><p>He also got a line on more specific information about Rajalmin, but it will take another day of research to nail that down.</p><p></p><p>Aldalomiel started out by looking into how to get into and out of the Feywild. She learned that traveling in the Feywild is challenging because it shifts and changes -- the path from one place to another may vary from day to day, or even not go to those places when travelled at another time. (So perhaps going straight into Castle Dante might be the best choice.) She also looked into why the fey nobles might take someone from Erkonin into the Feywild -- if they do that it is to gain power or to make a move in some complicated plot or counterplot against some other fey noble. Regarding the Dante family of fey nobles -- the Dantes include some very viciously mean nobles and some kind ones. The Walking Man, Falaggo, is a Dante.</p><p></p><p>Castle Dante is big and crazy and basically a castle version of the Winchester House.</p><p></p><p>Aldalomiel looked into whether deals with the fey nobles could result in someone being taken to the Feywild, either deals gone well or poorly. The answer to that seemed to be that it was possible for that to happen. She tried to see if there was any mention of Lothiriel’s family making such a deal, but found nothing.</p><p></p><p>She also learned that fey nobles of the younger generation -- such as the Academician or the Keeper of Secrets or the Peaceful Conqueror (these names don’t really mean anything to her, except someone mentioned the Keeper of Secrets as possibly the source of the true information at the well) who aren’t Dantes detest the Dantes. Which is potentially interesting, though the only fey noble we’ve met has been Falaggo, the Walking Man.</p><p></p><p>While Elderron and Aldalomiel were learning all of these things, Team Finding Trouble headed toward the guardhouse. Marxine was a little skeptical of this approach, but Vinya figured there might be a job board there of things that the guard was seeking outside assistance in dealing with. Or that there might be some work that the captain of the guard would be willing to give us.</p><p></p><p>We did find a board where people could post requests for help, when help could not be gotten from the guard themselves. Marxine and Lamie noticed that there were a large numbers of postings looking for missing people in the Stormyside area of town. In fact there were more of these postings than there was room on the board for -- some of them were pinned up over older notices about people who were missing.</p><p></p><p>Elama grabbed a passing guard.</p><p></p><p>Lamie: How come there are 50 bazillion missing person reports here?</p><p>Guard, hurrying along without stopping: Ask at the guardhouse.</p><p></p><p>We headed in that direction, looking for someone to talk to. Inside, we saw a young halfling woman at a counter. She did not in any way look like a guard.</p><p></p><p>Lamie: Why are there so many missing person reports on the board outside.</p><p>Halfling: We can’t handle everything. Not even close. If we can’t help, sometimes people post on the board out of desperation. We’re understaffed and underfunded -- that’s why the gangs and the cabals have free rein.</p><p></p><p>We turned to leave, planning to gather up some of the notices.</p><p></p><p>Hafling: Do you want to talk to Chief Longroot?</p><p>Vinya: Sure! Let’s do that.</p><p>Marxine: ::eyeroll::</p><p></p><p>Chief Longroot was a sturdy halfling woman in armor with a short sword on her belt.</p><p></p><p>Chief: How can I help you?</p><p>Vinya: We’re here in town for a bit -- some of our friends are doing research at the library. We’re looking for something we can do, or something we can help out with. Do you know anything about the many disappearances that are on the board outside?</p><p>Chief: A little bit. It seems like most of the people have disappeared after doing some business with the Green Hand.</p><p>Vinya: The gang, the Green Hand?</p><p>Chief: Yeah, they specialize in vice. The disappearances don’t seem to be centered around any specific place -- beyond mostly being in Stormyside. Most of the people involved are financially sort of on the margins, but that’s true of most everyone in that part of town. Most of the people had jobs, but maybe weren’t making much more than just barely enough to live on.</p><p>Vinya: Is it okay with you if we look into this?</p><p>Chief: We appreciate the help from outside. We get so little from inside.</p><p>Marxine: Are rich people getting abducted and ransomed and the poor people just can’t afford the ransoms?</p><p>Chief: I haven’t heard anything about abductions in the wealthier parts of town. And I probably would have.</p><p>Vinya: Can you think of a better approach than grabbing some of the recent notices and going and talking to people?</p><p>Chief: It’s what I’d do if I had the manpower.</p><p></p><p>Chief Longroot gave us a little bit of information about the gangs that had a lot of power in town and their particular areas of influence: Darkeye's (information); The Green Hand (vices); Stonetongues' (magic); The Silent (transport); New Power (property crimes); Copperfeet (money and bribery); The Soft Touch (violence).</p><p></p><p>So we grabbed five of the most recent (least weathered) notes and headed to Stormyside, in the southern part of the city, where the river flows into the ocean.</p><p></p><p>The first note we looked at had as a contact a person named Tordray Embranch, so we found our way to the place listed on the note and spoke to him. He told us that his sister, Ardvay, had gone missing.</p><p></p><p>Elama: We’re going to be looking into that. When was she last seen?</p><p>Tordray: She had been working at Tilla’s and she didn’t come back from her shift.</p><p>Elama: What does she do?</p><p>Tordray, emphatic: She works behind the bar. Not upstairs.</p><p>Elama: What kind of business is it?</p><p>Tordray: The first floor is a bar. Upstairs is a brothel. She worked on the first floor.</p><p>Vinya: When was she last seen?</p><p>Tordray: Three days ago. She left Tilla’s and didn’t get home.</p><p>Vinya: Where’s Tilla’s?</p><p>Tordray: A fifteen minute walk from here. On the edge of Woodyard.</p><p></p><p>We thanked him and headed to the contact person listed on the next notice in the stack we had. We found a young, pregnant tiefling named Sunrise Clear. She told us that her husband, Brightwater, was a sailor on a ship that had just returned from Dhaqi, on the southern continent. He should have been home three days ago. He got off the ship and was coming home but never arrived.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: Could he have stopped at a bar or something on the way after such a long sail?</p><p>Sunrise Clear: Maybe -- but I asked his shipmates and they said he was coming straight home. Hurrying. Because he’d been afraid he wouldn’t make it to New Arvai before our baby did.</p><p>Vinya: I can see he would rush home to you.</p><p></p><p>We thanked her, trying to be reassuring without promising anything.</p><p></p><p>Vinya, as we walked away: The docks are nowhere near the bar and her house is nowhere on the route that Ardvay would have taken from Tilla’s to her house.</p><p>Marxine: Yeah.</p><p></p><p>We decided to go talk to the captain of the ship that Brightwater had sailed on -- since the ship was still docked in the Shallows nearby. On our way there, we heard screaming and saw people running away from the docks looking scared.</p><p></p><p>Elama, to one of the fleeing people: What happened?</p><p>Person, in a panicked shriek: The lobsters are having their revenge!</p><p></p><p>With that intriguing comment, we ran toward where people were running from and saw a giant lobster-esque thing with an unmoving person in its claw.</p><p></p><p>Marxine got in there first, hitting the lobster-esque monster twice with her hammer. Elama moved to a position where she could see it and cast a sacred flame on it, which it was unable to dodge, giant lobster-esque monsters not being too nimble, apparently. Vinya ran in and attacked with her quarterstaff, hitting it twice in critical spots, then summoned her ki and did a flurry of blows, landing one more hit.</p><p></p><p>The lobster-esque monster dropped the civilian it was holding and attacked Marxine and Vinya, each with a claw. Marxine was hit and grappled by it. Vinya was missed.</p><p></p><p>The other civilians on the docks scattered out of the way of the monster.</p><p></p><p>Marxine hit it twice then surged with energy and attacked it again, getting another hit.</p><p></p><p>Elama moved closer and cast another sacred flame on it. From her closer vantage point, she was able to see that the civilian the lobster-esque monster had been holding didn’t appear to be dead. She managed to grab him from where he was laying on the ground and drag him a few yards away from the monster. Then she cast healing word on him -- his bruises healed up, but he still didn’t move, though he was clearly alive.</p><p></p><p>Vinya hit the monster with her quarterstaff again, another mighty critical hit that shattered its shell and dropped it.</p><p></p><p>Ten seconds after that the civilian drew a ragged breath then shrieked at the top of his lungs. As he was scrambling to get up and run away Vinya put what she hoped was a calming hand on him.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: It’s okay. It’s okay. You’re safe now.</p><p></p><p>Elama calmed him down even more.</p><p></p><p>Guy: What was that thing?</p><p>Elama: It was a giant lobster?</p><p>Vinya: Where did it come from?</p><p>Guy: The water.</p><p></p><p>We let him go then and took a closer look at the monster. It had four legs, gills, big snapping claws, tentacles, and a lobster-like tail. Lobster-esque but not really an enormous lobster. Vinya lived in New Arvai for a while, but has never heard of anything like this in the city. The three of us managed to pull together a bit of knowledge about the monster -- these things are connected to ancient, aquatic evil entities. They’re servitors, not masters. It clearly didn’t have any problem living or moving on land, so it is not dependent on an aquatic environment.</p><p></p><p>All of the missing people went missing at night -- the lobster-esque monster was active in the daytime.</p><p></p><p>We decided that this was the time to circle Aldalomiel and Elderron into this situation.</p><p></p><p>Elama sent a message to Elderron, using a sending spell.</p><p></p><p>Lamie: Lots of missing people down by the docks. We’re looking into it.</p><p>Elderron: Where can we meet?</p><p></p><p>Lamie cast the spell again.</p><p></p><p>Lamie: We’ll meet up back at the temple.</p><p>Marxine, listening to Elama’s side: We’ll meet up with the nerds at dinner.</p><p></p><p>We went back to the Seafarers and Wayfarers to wait. Elderron and Aldalomiel showed up just in time for dinner. Over dinner we filled them in on what we’d learned and the lobster-thing we’d fought.</p><p></p><p>Vinya suggested that we go out looking around in Stormyside to see if we could hear screaming or otherwise learn anything. We spent an hour on the docks, but they were quiet aside from what seemed to be normal stevedore-ing and longshoreman-ing activities. We decided to head to Tilla’s bar.</p><p></p><p>Tilla’s is not a high class bar/brothel, but they had drinks and we ordered beverages. We asked about Ardvay and were told that she was friendly with patrons, but worked strictly downstairs.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: Have the upstairs girls been going missing?</p><p>Dude: No. Fair question though.</p><p>Vinya: Have you seen anything like a lobster-esque monster?</p><p>Dude: Nothing like that around here. Maybe at other brothels.</p><p></p><p>We started to walk out then decided that maybe we needed to try to get in touch with the Green Hand, since Captain Longroot had the sense that the victims had been having dealings with them shortly before their disappearances. We turned around and went back and asked to talk to the person in charge of the upstairs activities.</p><p></p><p>We were introduced to Tilla, the madam.</p><p></p><p>Elama: Hello. We’re looking to get in touch with someone from the Green Hand about these people who have gone missing.</p><p>Tilla: I don’t know nothing about people who’ve gone missing or the Green Hand. But I can put you in touch with the person I pay rent to, Tomud Grennett.</p><p></p><p>Armed with that name and where we could contact him, we headed back to the Seafarers and Wayfarers to rest.</p><p></p><p>The night passed without incident.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="prabe, post: 8165749, member: 7016699"] Session 26: Library and Lobster Dramatis Personae: Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest) Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul) Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster) Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin GM - Everyone Else (Note: This session was held on Discord.) 9 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 101) The day dawned warmer and clear after the stormy night and stormy fight with the ala the night before. The boat sailed down the river toward New Arvai uneventfully all day and all night. 10 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 102) The day passed uneventfully until just after sunset. At that point, we saw not far from the river an old abandoned tower that was broken at the top and about fifty feet deep in rubble all around There was a cliff on the other side of the tower that had let go and slid down and engulfed the tower, but not knocked it over, in the landslide. The tower was clearly not occupied and was human-scale. Vinya asked someone on the crew and they said that a wizard had set up the tower there. About a hundred and fifty or so years ago, boats traveling the river saw this -- they didn’t know if some magical experiment had gone badly and caused the landslide, if there was an earthquake, or what might have happened. Vinya added it to her map of interesting places. The night passed without incident. 11 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 103) Around noon on this day the Emerson had to maneuver around a new wreck in the river that was partly impinging on the ability of boats to travel safely. (The wrecked boat had run aground on a sandbar in an awkward position.) We talked about working to try and shift it to make passage down the river smoother, but Captain Siltrene said we could just tell the harbormaster in New Arvai about it and they’d send someone out to deal with it. Possibly a class of wizarding students from one of the college could use the destruction of the boat as a class project. And in fact, later in the day just about sunset, we saw a boat heading up the river. Vinya asked if they were heading toward the wreck and was told that they were -- some of the more senior students were going to practice their skills moving the boat around then the underclass students were going to destroy it. We wished them luck and a good time. The night passed. 12 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 104) Around midday we arrived in New Arvai and pondered where to stay. Vinya wondered if maybe we could get put up at the Chiaroscuro Temple, where she’d trained as a monk, but we decided instead to go with Elama to the temple of the Seafarers and Wayfarers order of clerics. Elama isn’t a member, but they are religiously kindred spirits and she was able to arrange for a discounted rate at the large inn connected to the temple. They run the inn as part of their mission to provide assistance to travelers. Having arranged for lodgings, we headed toward the School of the World -- taking a slight detour to stop by the Chiaroscuro Temple. The building appeared to be undergoing significant renovations, part of the roof was obviously new and the top of a corner of the building had scaffolding with some monks on it applying plaster to part of the wall. Vinya asked for Belia and a violet-skinned tiefling woman came to the door shortly after. Vinya was greeted warmly and there was a short conversation. Belia: How are you doing? You appear to be progressing in your studies. You chose the radiant path, I see. I am not surprised. Vinya: I contemplated the question long and hard. Probably longer and harder than I needed to because I knew what my heart wanted. How go the repairs? Belia: They’re going. We got the roof mostly fixed before the winter came. Vinya: Has there been any more sign of Aerellor or the Zariel cultists? Belia: None here. Have you any news? Vinya: Not of that. We fought a lot of cultists of the Hunger Between Worlds but nothing of Zariel. They spoke for a few more minutes then Vinya told Belia where the party was staying and said we’d be in town for a while and she’d come around to visit for longer, perhaps do some training to make sure she was staying on the proper path. As we walked away, she explained to the rest of the party that toward the end of her training at the Temple, a cabal of Zariel cultists working within the Chiaroscuro Temple had been rooted out and many had escaped and fled out of the city. At the front desk of the Library of the School of the World, just as one of the attendants was about to ask us to pay to enter the library, Vinya pulled out the package we’d been carrying since we left Erlin. Attendant: Admittance is 300 gold pieces per person per day or... Vinya, setting the package on the counter: We have a delivery for the head librarian. It’s from Jamil, the sage in Erlin. Attendant, slightly flustered: I’ll go talk to Elledrian. He’s the head librarian. He then disappeared down a corridor and around a corner. A few minutes later we saw an elf stick his head around the corner. When he saw us, he ducked back. The attendant returned to us. Attendant, looking confused: I’ll take your package to Elledrian. He doesn’t wish to interact with so many elves. Elderron: I don’t blame him. Marxine: Me neither. He took the package and went back down the corridor and around the corner. He returned several minutes later. Attendant: Elledrian thanks you for bringing the book and indulging his eccentricities regarding meeting you personally. In thanks, he will grant you two free person-days in the library. You can take those as one day for two people or two days for one person. As it is late in the afternoon, I recommend you return in the morning rather than wasting a day on the few remaining hours we’ll be open. Vinya: As a group, we have wide ranging interests and questions. Can you help us with how to most strategically approach our research, so we can make the most of our time when we return tomorrow? Attendant: What are you interested in researching? Vinya, consulting with the others as she spoke: Rakshasas in general, one named Rajalmin in specific, dragons in general, the dragon called the Blue Death, Sossonosssomething, and the Gleaming Dame in specific, and anything about Castle Dante in the Feywild and how it’s laid out or how one would get into it. They said that research librarians would be available to assist with finding both the general and specific information that we were looking for, but that was definitely going to be at least two full days of research. We then left. Elama wanted to find theater and food and some fun and excitement and we all agreed that sounded like a nice way to spend the evening. On the way to finding that, Vinya let the group get ahead a bit and stopped at the Chiaroscuro Temple again. Vinya: Have you heard anything from Thorin? Belia: I have not and it concerns me. Vinya: I’ve been told that he might be somewhere far away. Not even on this plane, perhaps. He has to go where he’s assigned. I was just...hoping. Then she caught up with her friends and we had a nice evening. We returned to the Seafarers and Wayfarers Temple early so that Elderron could get a good night’s sleep and be up at the crack of dawn to go to the library. 13 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 105) The next morning, we were all up very early and we all went to the library together. We decided that our two free days would be used by Elderron and Aldalomiel. Aldalomiel could do the research into dragons and Castle Dante. Elderron would be looking into the rakshasa and the hells and devils. Elderron: I’ll pay to get in again tomorrow. Vinya: I’ll happily pay for you -- you need to spend your money on learning spells and suchlike. I just need to buy a new quarterstaff and a spare gi or two once in a while. This was not totally settled, though Vinya has no intention of letting Elderron pay for himself to get into the library. We walked with them from the reception desk to the entrance to the library proper. Some librarians were available to assist each of them. The ones assigned to assist Elderron seemed a bit more senior and a bit more serious -- because the library, indeed the city, indeed all of Erkonin, have learned to be a bit paranoid about people doing research into devils and the hells. Team Library, led by Elderron who looked like he never wanted to leave, went through the doors into the library to do their research. The rest of the party, Marxine, Vinya, and Elama, headed out into the city to see if they could drum up some work or an adventure or something exciting we could do or help with, becoming Team Finding Trouble. Elderron learned about rakshasa in general. They are hedonists, which can be helpful when trying to find them, and they like to eat people. They can disguise themselves so they can be hard to spot when living among humanoids. Spells of less than sixth level simply don’t work against them. Neither do non-magical weapons. He also got a line on more specific information about Rajalmin, but it will take another day of research to nail that down. Aldalomiel started out by looking into how to get into and out of the Feywild. She learned that traveling in the Feywild is challenging because it shifts and changes -- the path from one place to another may vary from day to day, or even not go to those places when travelled at another time. (So perhaps going straight into Castle Dante might be the best choice.) She also looked into why the fey nobles might take someone from Erkonin into the Feywild -- if they do that it is to gain power or to make a move in some complicated plot or counterplot against some other fey noble. Regarding the Dante family of fey nobles -- the Dantes include some very viciously mean nobles and some kind ones. The Walking Man, Falaggo, is a Dante. Castle Dante is big and crazy and basically a castle version of the Winchester House. Aldalomiel looked into whether deals with the fey nobles could result in someone being taken to the Feywild, either deals gone well or poorly. The answer to that seemed to be that it was possible for that to happen. She tried to see if there was any mention of Lothiriel’s family making such a deal, but found nothing. She also learned that fey nobles of the younger generation -- such as the Academician or the Keeper of Secrets or the Peaceful Conqueror (these names don’t really mean anything to her, except someone mentioned the Keeper of Secrets as possibly the source of the true information at the well) who aren’t Dantes detest the Dantes. Which is potentially interesting, though the only fey noble we’ve met has been Falaggo, the Walking Man. While Elderron and Aldalomiel were learning all of these things, Team Finding Trouble headed toward the guardhouse. Marxine was a little skeptical of this approach, but Vinya figured there might be a job board there of things that the guard was seeking outside assistance in dealing with. Or that there might be some work that the captain of the guard would be willing to give us. We did find a board where people could post requests for help, when help could not be gotten from the guard themselves. Marxine and Lamie noticed that there were a large numbers of postings looking for missing people in the Stormyside area of town. In fact there were more of these postings than there was room on the board for -- some of them were pinned up over older notices about people who were missing. Elama grabbed a passing guard. Lamie: How come there are 50 bazillion missing person reports here? Guard, hurrying along without stopping: Ask at the guardhouse. We headed in that direction, looking for someone to talk to. Inside, we saw a young halfling woman at a counter. She did not in any way look like a guard. Lamie: Why are there so many missing person reports on the board outside. Halfling: We can’t handle everything. Not even close. If we can’t help, sometimes people post on the board out of desperation. We’re understaffed and underfunded -- that’s why the gangs and the cabals have free rein. We turned to leave, planning to gather up some of the notices. Hafling: Do you want to talk to Chief Longroot? Vinya: Sure! Let’s do that. Marxine: ::eyeroll:: Chief Longroot was a sturdy halfling woman in armor with a short sword on her belt. Chief: How can I help you? Vinya: We’re here in town for a bit -- some of our friends are doing research at the library. We’re looking for something we can do, or something we can help out with. Do you know anything about the many disappearances that are on the board outside? Chief: A little bit. It seems like most of the people have disappeared after doing some business with the Green Hand. Vinya: The gang, the Green Hand? Chief: Yeah, they specialize in vice. The disappearances don’t seem to be centered around any specific place -- beyond mostly being in Stormyside. Most of the people involved are financially sort of on the margins, but that’s true of most everyone in that part of town. Most of the people had jobs, but maybe weren’t making much more than just barely enough to live on. Vinya: Is it okay with you if we look into this? Chief: We appreciate the help from outside. We get so little from inside. Marxine: Are rich people getting abducted and ransomed and the poor people just can’t afford the ransoms? Chief: I haven’t heard anything about abductions in the wealthier parts of town. And I probably would have. Vinya: Can you think of a better approach than grabbing some of the recent notices and going and talking to people? Chief: It’s what I’d do if I had the manpower. Chief Longroot gave us a little bit of information about the gangs that had a lot of power in town and their particular areas of influence: Darkeye's (information); The Green Hand (vices); Stonetongues' (magic); The Silent (transport); New Power (property crimes); Copperfeet (money and bribery); The Soft Touch (violence). So we grabbed five of the most recent (least weathered) notes and headed to Stormyside, in the southern part of the city, where the river flows into the ocean. The first note we looked at had as a contact a person named Tordray Embranch, so we found our way to the place listed on the note and spoke to him. He told us that his sister, Ardvay, had gone missing. Elama: We’re going to be looking into that. When was she last seen? Tordray: She had been working at Tilla’s and she didn’t come back from her shift. Elama: What does she do? Tordray, emphatic: She works behind the bar. Not upstairs. Elama: What kind of business is it? Tordray: The first floor is a bar. Upstairs is a brothel. She worked on the first floor. Vinya: When was she last seen? Tordray: Three days ago. She left Tilla’s and didn’t get home. Vinya: Where’s Tilla’s? Tordray: A fifteen minute walk from here. On the edge of Woodyard. We thanked him and headed to the contact person listed on the next notice in the stack we had. We found a young, pregnant tiefling named Sunrise Clear. She told us that her husband, Brightwater, was a sailor on a ship that had just returned from Dhaqi, on the southern continent. He should have been home three days ago. He got off the ship and was coming home but never arrived. Vinya: Could he have stopped at a bar or something on the way after such a long sail? Sunrise Clear: Maybe -- but I asked his shipmates and they said he was coming straight home. Hurrying. Because he’d been afraid he wouldn’t make it to New Arvai before our baby did. Vinya: I can see he would rush home to you. We thanked her, trying to be reassuring without promising anything. Vinya, as we walked away: The docks are nowhere near the bar and her house is nowhere on the route that Ardvay would have taken from Tilla’s to her house. Marxine: Yeah. We decided to go talk to the captain of the ship that Brightwater had sailed on -- since the ship was still docked in the Shallows nearby. On our way there, we heard screaming and saw people running away from the docks looking scared. Elama, to one of the fleeing people: What happened? Person, in a panicked shriek: The lobsters are having their revenge! With that intriguing comment, we ran toward where people were running from and saw a giant lobster-esque thing with an unmoving person in its claw. Marxine got in there first, hitting the lobster-esque monster twice with her hammer. Elama moved to a position where she could see it and cast a sacred flame on it, which it was unable to dodge, giant lobster-esque monsters not being too nimble, apparently. Vinya ran in and attacked with her quarterstaff, hitting it twice in critical spots, then summoned her ki and did a flurry of blows, landing one more hit. The lobster-esque monster dropped the civilian it was holding and attacked Marxine and Vinya, each with a claw. Marxine was hit and grappled by it. Vinya was missed. The other civilians on the docks scattered out of the way of the monster. Marxine hit it twice then surged with energy and attacked it again, getting another hit. Elama moved closer and cast another sacred flame on it. From her closer vantage point, she was able to see that the civilian the lobster-esque monster had been holding didn’t appear to be dead. She managed to grab him from where he was laying on the ground and drag him a few yards away from the monster. Then she cast healing word on him -- his bruises healed up, but he still didn’t move, though he was clearly alive. Vinya hit the monster with her quarterstaff again, another mighty critical hit that shattered its shell and dropped it. Ten seconds after that the civilian drew a ragged breath then shrieked at the top of his lungs. As he was scrambling to get up and run away Vinya put what she hoped was a calming hand on him. Vinya: It’s okay. It’s okay. You’re safe now. Elama calmed him down even more. Guy: What was that thing? Elama: It was a giant lobster? Vinya: Where did it come from? Guy: The water. We let him go then and took a closer look at the monster. It had four legs, gills, big snapping claws, tentacles, and a lobster-like tail. Lobster-esque but not really an enormous lobster. Vinya lived in New Arvai for a while, but has never heard of anything like this in the city. The three of us managed to pull together a bit of knowledge about the monster -- these things are connected to ancient, aquatic evil entities. They’re servitors, not masters. It clearly didn’t have any problem living or moving on land, so it is not dependent on an aquatic environment. All of the missing people went missing at night -- the lobster-esque monster was active in the daytime. We decided that this was the time to circle Aldalomiel and Elderron into this situation. Elama sent a message to Elderron, using a sending spell. Lamie: Lots of missing people down by the docks. We’re looking into it. Elderron: Where can we meet? Lamie cast the spell again. Lamie: We’ll meet up back at the temple. Marxine, listening to Elama’s side: We’ll meet up with the nerds at dinner. We went back to the Seafarers and Wayfarers to wait. Elderron and Aldalomiel showed up just in time for dinner. Over dinner we filled them in on what we’d learned and the lobster-thing we’d fought. Vinya suggested that we go out looking around in Stormyside to see if we could hear screaming or otherwise learn anything. We spent an hour on the docks, but they were quiet aside from what seemed to be normal stevedore-ing and longshoreman-ing activities. We decided to head to Tilla’s bar. Tilla’s is not a high class bar/brothel, but they had drinks and we ordered beverages. We asked about Ardvay and were told that she was friendly with patrons, but worked strictly downstairs. Vinya: Have the upstairs girls been going missing? Dude: No. Fair question though. Vinya: Have you seen anything like a lobster-esque monster? Dude: Nothing like that around here. Maybe at other brothels. We started to walk out then decided that maybe we needed to try to get in touch with the Green Hand, since Captain Longroot had the sense that the victims had been having dealings with them shortly before their disappearances. We turned around and went back and asked to talk to the person in charge of the upstairs activities. We were introduced to Tilla, the madam. Elama: Hello. We’re looking to get in touch with someone from the Green Hand about these people who have gone missing. Tilla: I don’t know nothing about people who’ve gone missing or the Green Hand. But I can put you in touch with the person I pay rent to, Tomud Grennett. Armed with that name and where we could contact him, we headed back to the Seafarers and Wayfarers to rest. The night passed without incident. [/QUOTE]
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Erkonin (Campaign #2) [Session 45: Rajalmin's Agent]
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