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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Goonalan" data-source="post: 5475401" data-attributes="member: 16069">The following from Rogar's diary for session 13-<session 13>Arh, Mad Manticore Ale.  After delving into the dangerous darkness to clear away a nest of angry magical beasts, I tuck into a pint of another.  A free pint as well, as Farkill is overjoyed at our success and how we are embracing the adventuring way.Bith happily paid us the 250gp he promised, before heading off to get paid himself.  He also gave me something extra, something special.  It doesn’t look like much, just a crude leather sling that looks like it was made from an eye patch, but when you drop a bullet or simple stone (actually, I think it’s stronger when you use a normal stone) and spin it up, there is this feeling of power and malice, and this intensifies whenever you sight up on anyone bigger than you.  Just a little feeling though, and it’s... false?  It’s clearly not my thoughts, just a bodge job over the top.  Can’t wait to try it out on a worthy (and big) target.Bith had one other thing to say.  The Swiftwaters will be arriving tomorrow.  In his eyes, this was important and almost conspiratorial... I’m not sure what to make of it though, as I just know the Swiftwaters as another set of river-traders.  Still, gotta look them up.Bith and Farkill are both happy to tell others about our success, this should get us some rep, something that pauper or prince, saint or sinner would be pleased with. Day 08)I write this entry in the strangest place yet.  Up a tree in the Tombwood!  Got a little time to kill, yet I need to keep watch to make sure nothing too bad happens to my sort-of-enemy.  Confused yet?  Lets start with breakfast.Farkill’s breakfasts are clearly designed for the Dwarven palate.  One egg, a slice of bacon as thick as my finger and good serving of mushrooms, all fried of course, served up on an super-heavy slice of bread.  Between this and few sips of my freshly filled flask, I skipped lunch and barely noticed.  I say freshly filled, as my flask was empty after toasting our victory over the Kruthik last night.  Bought a pint of whiskey from Farkill and while I do love my hip-flask for how easily it fits in the pocket under the belt, I love the Bag of Holding more!  I just slipped the rest of the pint in there and... it weighs nothing, can’t be broken, doesn’t bump into other things and when I want it, I just stick my hand in the bag and think about it, and it’s there!  Such convience!  Such capacity!Anyway, we mostly split up and went off on our errands after breakfast, set to meet again before four at the House of the Sun.  Neb and Jeb where off to the Tower, Maldor was following Resolute to the Wizard’s Gate to meet someone, Drake was going to the House of the Sun to prepare and I foolishly went way out of my depth.  “No good deed goes unpunished” this never felt so true.You see, Ressilmae of Sehanine had mentioned obtaining a preperation “Ratsbane” to help Hoyt with the ritual.  Turns out it’s not a common plant and needs to be specially prepared to be in the right state.  This means you have to buy it from an alchemist., and that means I had to visit one ‘Golan Naddershrike‘...When I say “I had to” I mean that I felt I had to, but really we should have thought about this in more depth, done some research, picked a team and made a plan.  Ha, all to go shopping.Ratsbane, as I learned (at too high a price) is a fancy rat poison with the big advantage that it doesn’t kill people.  I guess it would help in the ritual to weaken the rat-ness in Hoyt, so his human-ness can win out.  This other use was known to Golan, and when I wasn’t happy with the price (or rather the lack of a price... that’s how you KNOW things will cost you) and didn’t want to wait a day for it anyway, she started blackmailing me about Hoyt (of course I never said his name or race or gender or story, just “a friend”; she may even think it’s me with the affliction) and how it could cause a panic if this info got out.I’m not a social animal, I’m not trained to fight with words; so I did the logical thing and ran away.  That cost me 15gp and she still knows about someone fighting their wererat nature.  Still, by this evening that truth will be a lie.Another thing to find out about... just who or what is Golan Naddershrike?  She’s so... otherworldy.  Some type of stranded Outsider (like Jeb)?  Some type of True Fey?  If we ever need to speak with her again, we need to know beforehand (and once we know, maybe we will find someone else to deal with).Last week, dropping 15 gold like that would have been unthinkable.  It would have been almost everything I owned, apart from my everburning torch (which was a gift.  I should write about it sometime); today though, that’s just a setback.Anyway, I sulked a bit, then wandered uptown to see how important this Ratsbane really was.  I passed Resolute and Maldor heading towards the King’s gate, Resolute looked determined, yet a little confused.  Still, determined is good.Ressilmae of Sehanine confirms that the Ratsbane isn’t needed, but could be more useful than I thought, it’s still perfectly feasible to go through with the ritual as planned.  After that, I felt pretty listless.  Still a few hours to the sermon, nothing important to do; that’s when I spotted Grundlemar.While I’ve only known a few Dwarves... I’m pretty sure this isn’t normal.  He went outside the House of the Sun, tied a knotted hankechief to the top of his head like he had never seen an actual bandana before and took off his boots, then uncorked a pint of whiskey and relaxed.  Pretty much on the front steps of his own church!This meant he had his guard down, and I figured it was a good chance to weaken his place in town and the temple, to help give Drake an edge.  Turns out it’s hard to shame someone with little shame.Grundlemar quickly shuffles to the shade of the Tombwood where he drinks heavily and … takes a nap.  Here was me thinking that being a priest would be hard work!  Neither, it turns out, is stealing from a priest.  First time I have done this and it’s for a good cause... I’m sure it is.Like a cat, I crept up to the sleeping dwarf, then, unlike a cat, I took his whiskey.  Harsh stuff, but not sight-stealer or anything.  Good enough for my plan, which works but not in the way I, err, planned.I simply left the bottle unattended close to a group of almost-teen human children, skiving off from their chores.  A few minutes later the kids where sneaking sip and daring each other to try it.  My plan was to wait until they where a bit over tipsy and attracting attention for being twelve and drunk then quickly:1) Wake up Grundlemar2) rush over to growing spectacle3) pluck the jar of whiskey from whoever held it4) when Grundlemar waddles into view, cry “who’s bottle is this?”5) wait for Grundlemar to incriminate himselfThe kids scuppered that plan by relocating to the Tombwood to drink.  Such animal cunning, I should have expected that from twelve year olds.  I quietly followed them and run up a nearby tree to be ready to step in if things went bad.  The children where simply children though, and they noticed the sleeping Grundlemar; one of them releaved himself on him (he didn’t notice) which sparked laughter then vomiting from the others.Grundlemar is awake now and... he thinks he has pissed himself!  Surely this will shake him, worry him and make him unsure of challenging Drake to sermonise the way he did...  huh.No, he just thinks he pissed himself and doesn’t think much of that.  Well, I hear the chime for four o’clock so it’s time to be off.___________________________________________________________________________“No good deed goes unpunished”“It’s always darkest before dawn”Blast, I know there is a line for this, but it escapes me.  Things were going so well: Drake’s sermon was a great success, Drake has a possible task for us and Ressilmae has a simple-sounding task that will get us a great discount on Hoyt’s ritual and and an introduction to powerful friends... then it all gets urgent, as suddenly we need a powerful friend.At starts with Drake’s sermon at the House of the sun.  It starts great, gets better, falters a little as Grundlemar-the-smelly stands and challenges Drake not once but three times.After the 1st time, Resolute sits with him to keep him down.  After the second time, Maldor sits at the other side of him to keep him quiet.  The third time Grundlemar stands in anger... I’m not sure what caused it... I mean the ceiling is reachable through the scaffolds around the inside of the temple, so it could have been tampered with, yet.. the divine works in strange ways with the world.  But affecting it phsyically without sending agents is unknown to me, then again it could simply be a hole in my learning.… I’m struck with the feeling that a combination of factors must be involved.  Anyway, with Grundlemar sat down, things went better.  Drake made one more little speech and the light from the hole above intenstifed and fell upon, not Drake, but the children in the audience!Neb started up with his magic, casting light and glowing magical effects into the air, and I saw my chance to help.Drake has stepped down from the podium to be with the crowd, yet he was still infront of it.  I slipped through the crowd like a ghost and stepped up on a bench behind him, so only Resolute could see me.  Then I lit my everburning torch and lifted it above and behind Drake’s head... from the crys of shock and awe, I reckon they only saw the fake flame and nothing else; when they finished bowing their heads, I was in the crowd and none of them knew.</blockquote>

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