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Story Hour
Erkonin (Campaign #1) [Session 46: Making Deals with Devils is Stupid as well as Bad]
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<blockquote data-quote="prabe" data-source="post: 8105726" data-attributes="member: 7016699"><p>Session 14: Slave Eyes</p><p></p><p></p><p>Dramatis Personae:</p><p></p><p>Mo - Goliath Bard (College of Lore)</p><p>Orryk - Forest Gnome Monk (Way of the Four Elements, variant)</p><p>Fiona - Half-Elf Wizard (Evoker)</p><p>Taman - Human (variant) Rogue (Inquisitive)</p><p>Joybell - Forest Gnome Paladin (Oath of the Ancients)</p><p>Imaktis - Tortle Cleric (Nature)/Shadow Sorcerer</p><p></p><p>GM - Everyone Else</p><p></p><p></p><p>22 Sunnin 748 (Campaign day 23)</p><p></p><p>We spent the night back in the druid village -- Irlua transported us through the plants again. They had some huts available for pilgrims and visitors so we were able to be accomodated. Orryk asked if he could sleep in the circle. He spent some time meditating and then slept.</p><p></p><p>[Note: His dreams were discussed around the table, but the player said Orryk wouldn’t be sharing them, so they aren't included here.]</p><p></p><p>Joybell just enjoyed being in a druid place again.</p><p></p><p>Taman spoke with one of the druids about mixing a military combat style with a druidic style -- with a thought to opposing other planes, or protecting against incursion from them. He talked with someone and got some encouragement along that route.</p><p></p><p>Joybell asked if there were going to be any rituals, particularly the ones they’re using to balance fire and water right now, but they said there weren’t any at this time.</p><p></p><p></p><p>23 Sunnin 748 (Campaign day 24)</p><p></p><p>In the morning, food and breakfast were provided for us, because we’re kindred spirits (at least some of us) with questions.</p><p></p><p>Joybell asked if there was anything we could do for them, but they said no. She was a bit disappointed.</p><p></p><p>So we got back on The Lilac and began our cruise back to Pelsoreen. The captain had been told about the oncoming storm by the druids, so he set sail and set course to stay ahead of it. When we were aboard Fiona and Taman noticed that there was a bit of a cold going around -- some of the crew were sick and snuffly. Orryk also noticed that two of the crew had pink irises, like the slaves have. They didn’t have them when we left Pelsoreen.</p><p></p><p>When this was pointed out to the rest of us, we went to find Captain Witt.</p><p></p><p>Mo: What’s going on with those people over there? (Pointing to the two people with pink eyes.)</p><p>Captain: I don’t have slaves -- the sea is too risky to force people to be sailors.</p><p>Mo: They were free when we left Pelsoreen.</p><p></p><p>We went and talked to the two guys, Gullin and Inder.</p><p></p><p>Mo: So...what’s up with your eyes?</p><p></p><p>They said that they’d been a little draggy and sick the day before but were fine today.</p><p></p><p>Fiona: Did you get visited by anyone?</p><p></p><p>They said that we were the only people on the boat other than the regular crew. The druids never came aboard.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Did you owe anybody money?</p><p></p><p>They said they don’t owe anyone -- they’re free and their families are as well.</p><p></p><p>Taman was certain they were being truthful -- but they’ll be treated like slaves as soon as they get back to Pelsoreen.</p><p></p><p>They had colds (like many in the crew) the day before.</p><p></p><p>Taman wondered if the pink eyes could be just a symptom of something...though they did look just like a slave’s pink irises. Fiona took ten minutes to perform the ritual to cast detect magic, but whatever the effect was, it was not magical. Talking to the ship’s doctor was not helpful either -- he was pretty much a sawbones (patching up injuries from falls and so on).</p><p></p><p>Joybell laid on hands to cure Gullin’s disease, just to see if it would work. She was slightly surprised to find that it did work. In a similar vein of experimentation, Imaktis used the lesser restoration bead (from the prayer necklace) on Inder -- that also worked.</p><p></p><p>The total crew of the ship was 12. Five of the others were sniffly and had those mild colds. The other five seemed unaffected.</p><p></p><p>Joybell went around and, with permission, cured the diseases of four of the five with the sniffles. The fifth one, Nicklin, she left sniffly -- with the idea of seeing if the sniffles did in fact lead to the pink eyes. Captain Witt said that Nicklin could stay on the ship, rather than going ashore into Pelsoreen as a potential slave. The next morning we could come and check on him.</p><p></p><p>For the rest of the sail, we talked about what else we want to accomplish in Pelsoreen -- we want to get Fiona in to do some research in the Quiet Room, Taman indicated a potential interest in going to Carveen’s to learn about summoning fey. Joybell and Orryk wanted to go to the Steel Crucible. And we may want to get into the Amber Flame if we have time.</p><p></p><p>If we had to leave in a hurry, we could skip some of those, but we definitely wanted to get into the Quiet Room and the Steel Crucible.</p><p></p><p>Joybell suggested to the others that she could summon Darkmoon Moonstone Happyhowl, Defender of Henge and Wold back as a mastiff or small pony or something. So we’d look less like our group, maybe. But Orryk (and the others) looked around at the group and said it really wouldn’t make much of a difference.</p><p></p><p>As for where we’d stay when we got back to the city, Joybell suggested that we could ask if we could stay with the Cracked Shield (she still wants to be an honorary member), but Imaktis emphatically rejected that idea.</p><p></p><p>As we approached the pier, Joybell started casting Find Steed, so that Scooby would be waiting on the pier for us when the ship tied up.</p><p></p><p>Taman volunteered to stay on the Lilac with the Captain and Nicklin, but the Captain didn’t want to have outsiders on the ship in port. However, he reaffirmed that he’d be able to find work for Nicklin to do on board.</p><p></p><p>As we pulled up at the pier, there were four guards waiting from us -- they were from C&C, the corporation that protected the House of Masks (or at least their building) and also the Lilac.</p><p></p><p>We started getting ready to disembark, while listening to the Captain’s conversation with the guards. The guards were checking to make sure of the “status” of the employees of the organizations they protect.</p><p></p><p>Joybell (to the others): Do they do this regularly?</p><p></p><p>But of course we didn’t know.</p><p></p><p>Captain Witt was once again very firm that he doesn’t own slaves and won’t force anyone to go to sea.</p><p></p><p>Watching, it was clear to Mo and others that the Captain was annoyed at the situation -- he had to answer the questions, because he has responsibilities to C&C.</p><p></p><p>Taman wondered if the guards seemed like they were bored doing a routine inquiry or if they were expecting stuff to go down. Watching them it was clear that this wasn’t routine -- though they weren’t prepared for battle or anything either.</p><p></p><p>Mo and Joybell wandered over to see what was going on…</p><p></p><p>Mo: How are things, Captain.</p><p>Captain: Fine. I can vouch for my crew.</p><p>Mo (to the guards): Is this a regular inquiry? Do you hassle all ships with passengers?</p><p>Guard (staring at Mo): We’re not hassling the passengers. We’re just talking to the Captain about his crew.</p><p>Guard: We’ve had incidents with slaves turning up in places they don’t belong and insisting that they’re not slaves.</p><p>Mo: What did you do with them?</p><p>Guard: Put them in the slave pens, of course.</p><p>Joybell: What happens if you find someone who looks like a slave and you can’t figure out who they’re slaves to?</p><p>Guard: That’s a question for someone further up the chain than me.</p><p>Joybell: I...forgot something downstairs!!</p><p></p><p>Then she scampered below and cured Nicklin, rather than waiting until tomorrow to see if his eyes turned pink.</p><p></p><p>Another lie from Joybell.</p><p></p><p>Black Irnod had recommended an inn in Thani’s Truth called the Iron Steed, so we headed there directly we got off the boat. Joybell once again happily riding Scooby.</p><p></p><p>Taman, Orryk, Imaktis, and Fiona noticed, as we were proceeding, that we were being shadowed by two pairs of operatives (two separate pairs). It was clear to Taman that they were so busy trying to hide from each other that they were not doing so well as all that at hiding from us. They weren’t doing anything to interfere with us, just shadowing us.</p><p></p><p>Orryk: If a group of people came into our town and killed an organization of tough hired assassins, I’d probably want to keep an eye on them for our own safety.</p><p></p><p>Taman also noticed that there were a lot more guards in the street than usual and pointed that out to the rest of us.</p><p></p><p>Joybell was concerned about the people suddenly showing up as slaves and if things were going to be horribly unfair and unjust for them, but we weren’t sure what or how to deal with it.</p><p></p><p>At the Iron Steed (protected by Dallington’s), we spoke with the innkeeper, a tiefling woman with violet skin and yellow hair and pronghorn horns named Borma. She was dressed pretty conservatively. The room rates at the Iron Steed are the same as the Flaming Quill, 6gp per night. We paid for the first night out of the party kitty.</p><p></p><p>They had a tavern with food. Orryk pulled a bag of rations out of the bag of holding. Imaktis logged everything he ate. Taman and Mo ate normally. Joybell ate and drank normally -- but something different from what the others ate.</p><p></p><p>Mo looked around the room to see if anyone was sniffling or showing signs of a cold in the room. He didn’t see anyone. Taman was watching for it, a bit, while we were walking -- though he was mostly paying attention to our tails -- but he did get the sense that there was a mild cold going around. And new since we left early the day before.</p><p></p><p>The tails didn’t follow us inside - which suggested to us that neither of the groups were from Dallington’s.</p><p></p><p>Up in our room, we planned what we wanted to do the next day. One part of it was going to be library research in the morning -- Fiona was going to the Quiet Room and Joybell and Orryk to the Steel Crucible. While the research was going on, Mo, Imaktis and Taman would be doing some poking around in the city -- Team Gettin’ in Trouble.</p><p></p><p>Fiona set an alarm spell and Joybell had her sword of warning. And the night passed without incident.</p><p></p><p></p><p>24 Sunnin 748 (Campaign day 25)</p><p></p><p>Come the morning, no one in the party had pink eyes. Which was reassuring. Fiona, Taman and Imaktis were all sniffly. Joybell laid hands on Taman and Fiona, curing their sniffles, but Imaktis declined to be healed or to heal himself -- he wanted to see how this would play out.</p><p></p><p>We had breakfast in the tavern -- there were ten to twelve other people in there eating. We noticed that two of them had the sniffles. Taman pulled a bandanna over his nose to use as a face mask.</p><p></p><p>After breakfast we headed out together to take people to the libraries, before Team Gettin’ In Trouble went off to do their thing. Taman noticed that there were now three groups of people waiting for us to leave the inn.</p><p></p><p>As we walked to the Quiet Room, we noticed that there were lots of businesses with closed signs and far fewer people on the streets than we’d seen before. We also noticed more guards on the streets. Though slaves had always been less common on the streets in the Heights than elsewhere in the city, there were none on the street at all today.</p><p></p><p>Mo stopped to talk to one of the guards: What’s up with the city today? Is an orc invasion expected?</p><p>Guard: There’s a cold going around and some people are being laid lower than others.</p><p></p><p>Mo got the sense that the guard was not lying -- he was relaying what he’d been told -- but that he had his doubts.</p><p></p><p>Mo: I can understand why you have a lot of guards out in the event of a cold.</p><p></p><p>Then we left.</p><p></p><p>We noticed as we continued that the guards were from all of the corporations.</p><p></p><p>We took Fiona to the Quiet Room - the outside of the building was nondescript, but inside was a normal <em>looking</em> room, but it sounded weird. (It was an anechoic chamber.) She showed them Black Irnod’s letter of reference and paid them 300gp (to which everyone contributed).</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Good luck! Have fun!</p><p></p><p>At the Quiet Room, Fiona was looking into basics of High RItual magic and perhaps into how the Masks might have been created.</p><p></p><p>The basic rules of HIgh Ritual Magic:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">You need accoutrements and ritual gear -- and those need to be individual and custom made (ideally, at least -- it is possible to use someone else’s gear but it is much harder). These are things like candleholders, knives, etc., that can be used repeatedly. These are very expensive (approximately 1000 gp).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">There is a skill check with a difficulty based on how much of an effect you’re trying to create. The amount of time and the cost in consumable material components (separate from the ritual accoutrements that are not consumed) also scale based on the size of the effect (the level of the spell). For example a fairly basic ritual to create a permanent teleportation circle would be a DC15 Arcana check, take 5 hours, and require 1500 gp in material components that would be consumed during the ritual.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Some material components are hard to find. Some are just unpleasant (sacrifices of living things, for example, or lots and lots and lots of blood).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">This is an old, ancient even, kind of magic. Perhaps a form of magic that evolved into “modern” magic as people learned how to control it.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">When one finds the instructions for a high ritual to create an effect there are requirements for casting it; You have to have slots of the spell’s level (if it’s a ritual emulating the effect of a spell). You can’t have cast any spells since your last long rest. You have to have ritually cleansed yourself. If it is a normal spell, you can get advantage on the check to cast the ritual by having the spell prepared.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">High RItuals are not like casting spells (such as Alarm or Detect Magic) as rituals -- those take an hour or several minutes. High Rituals take hours and generally have more wide-ranging effects. They are also more difficult and expensive. That said, you have to be able to do ritual casting (either through a class feature or the feat).</li> </ul><p>After learning some of the basics, Fiona then went on to look for information about a ritual that could have created the Masks. She didn’t find anything like that here.</p><p></p><p>She also looked into anything that might be related to the disease that’s popped up in Pelsoreen. She got some hints of maybe a clerical High RItual that could have been used to create a new disease, based off the Contagion spell.</p><p></p><p>She ended her library time looking to see if there was a ritual that would allow her to make some sort of communication item -- something that would allow two way communication any number of times a day. She found some hints that points to a ritual based off of Rary’s Telepathic Bond, a fifth level spell. She got a sense of what she’d need for the ritual, but she’d need to do more research.</p><p></p><p>Taman: Wouldn’t that create like a hive mind?</p><p>Mo: Oh, snap!</p><p></p><p>(However, Black Irnod said that the Masks had a tumor-like growth in an area of the brain where telepathic species have an organ. So while that may be connected to how the Masks get their hive mind, it’s probably not that simple.)</p><p></p><p>That was Fiona’s day.</p><p></p><p>After the rest of the group dropped her off, we proceeded on to the Steel Crucible. Joybell produced the card she’d been given the previous day and got Orryk in as her guest. Joybell was interested in doing some research on higher-level healing potions, other things she could create with her herbalism kit proficiency. Also communication devices.</p><p></p><p>She learned that she can make higher level healing potions, but of course the cost and time to make them go up as they get stronger. To make a greater healing potion would cost 100gp of materials and take a week. To make a superior would cost 1000 gp of materials and take 5 weeks. And a supreme would take 10000 gp of materials and take 3 months. She took good notes on the greater healing potion instructions and figured the others were unlikely to ever be relevant to her life.</p><p></p><p>She also looked into the communication magic for Fiona and found some information about making a set of webbed sending stones. She made notes on how to do that to give to Fiona.</p><p></p><p>Orryk at the Steel Crucible was looking into how to work magic into clothes and about weaving elemental magic into items. He learned that you can make a magic cloak out of any cloak, it doesn’t need to be one you wove yourself or anything. Same with tapestries.</p><p></p><p>[Note: At this point the players went into a fun conversation about how it would totally be possible these days to make a Get Smart-style shoe phone -- with panels that regenerated the battery while walking.]</p><p></p><p>As for elemental magic -- working it into items is not particularly affected by the elemental connection. Making a flaming sword is the same process as making any other magic sword. Creating weapons with specific kinds of damage is all the same. So Orryk did some looking into how to go about that -- what it takes and the tools involved -- he could work with someone else to cast the spells. Orryk learned some techniques of how this all goes together and is able to help someone make a magic item.</p><p></p><p>Elemental magic is not unique to the other kinds of magic, though it is possibly older or more primal.</p><p></p><p>That was Joybell and Orryk’s day.</p><p></p><p>Team Gettin’ In Trouble, after dropping off the library kids, decided that since the guards were taking people with pink eyes down to the slave pens, they’d head down that way. Imaktis wanted to try curing (or restoring) a slave to see if that would fix the eyes.</p><p></p><p>They thought about trying it on someone they met along the way, but they didn’t see any slaves on the street -- which was unusual.</p><p></p><p>The slave pens down in Old Lament were closed -- when we went by there before the sides of the buildings were open (or at least large garage-like doors on each side were) and the public was free to walk through (shopping, I suppose). This time the doors were down and there was a guard presence in the streets, especially around the pens and the doors.</p><p></p><p>Mo wanted to sow a bit of confusion, and see what would happen, by changing the color of one of the guard’s eyes to pink.</p><p></p><p>They found a group of three guards together on the street -- Taman hid around a corner (quite effectively), Imaktis hid behind a hitching post (large tortle, small post, not so effective). Mo’s spell had a short range, 10’, so he walked by the guards playing his flute.</p><p></p><p>As he walked by, one of the guards noticed him.</p><p></p><p>Guard: Why are you here?</p><p>Mo: I’m in town on business. I have no idea where everyone went. Apparently you are having a plague. So I took a walk.</p><p>Guard: You can’t be hanging around tootling your flute around here.</p><p>Mo: Okay. I’ll see if I can arrange my business elsewhere, then. Perhaps in another city.</p><p></p><p>Then Mo continued down the street and around a corner.</p><p></p><p>Taman, watching from his hideout thought that perhaps one of the guards had pink eyes.</p><p></p><p>Mo was going to meet up with the others, but he couldn’t see Taman (who hid really well) so he joined up with Imaktis. As nothing was obviously happening with the guards, Imaktis went over to talk to them.</p><p></p><p>Imaktis: You guys are doing a great job. My uncle was taken and his eyes were never pink before. I’m sure you’re just overwhelmed...I’d like to see him if possible.</p><p></p><p>The guards clearly didn’t believe him -- but then Imaktis pointed out that one of the guard’s eyes were pink. The other two guards looked at the guard with pink eyes…</p><p></p><p>Pinky: Guys! You know me!</p><p></p><p>There was a brief tussle as the two other guards grabbed Pinky.</p><p></p><p>Imaktis: If it’s a sickness going around and you are manhandling him, you might get it.</p><p>Guards: A sickness?</p><p>Imaktis: Yes <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />: coughing:: and Imaktis was actually sick)</p><p></p><p>One of the guards got a weird look at that - like a light-bulb went off. Then the other one frogmarched Pinky toward the slave pens while the one who had the light go off started walking, double-time, toward The Heights.</p><p></p><p>The guard escorting Pinky pulled out a key and opened the door to the slave pen -- there was a lot of noise and chaos inside. And a lot of people -- far more than we’d seen when we were here before. All the people started yelling as soon as the doors were opened. The guard looked inside, then closed the door without putting Pinky in.</p><p></p><p>As the door closed, Imaktis and Taman both heard someone say, “My eyes aren’t pink anymore! Let me out!”</p><p></p><p>Mo and Imaktis contemplated putting the guards to sleep with a sleep spell and letting people out, but decided against.</p><p></p><p>Instead, Mo turned Pinky’s eyes purple and they all walked away.</p><p></p><p>As they walked, they contemplated what could be going on -- this could be a distraction for something else (certainly the whole city is very distracted). Or an attempt to get a lot of people into the same place.</p><p></p><p>On the way back to the Iron Steed, Taman looked for the operatives that had been following us -- how had they dealt with people being dropped off at the libraries. (We also recapped what he’d noticed during the day.) When Fiona got dropped off at the Quiet Room, one person from each team stayed there and were still trying to stay hidden from one another. When Joybell and Orryk got dropped off at the Steel Crucible, there was some puzzlement -- the two libraries are at enough of a distance from one another that one person couldn’t watch both entrances all the time. It ultimately broke down this way:</p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The Blink Toad’s representatives kept one person bouncing between libraries and the other following Team Gettin’ In Trouble.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The Brass Giant’s representatives had one person at the Quiet Room and one at the Steel Crucible. Team Gettin’ In Trouble got in trouble un-watched.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">C&C’s representatives left one person at the Quiet Room and one continued following Team Gettin’ In Trouble.</li> </ol><p>So operatives from C&C and the Blink Toad saw the shenanigans with the guards at the slave pens -- or at least interaction with those guards. (They had gone to the Brass Giant’s slave pens, so those were the guards they’d interacted with.)</p><p></p><p>Both Teams Library were still doing their research, so after that Mo and Taman spent the day drinking, then eventually picked up the library folks later in the day.</p><p></p><p>When we left the libraries, the guards that had stayed outside were still there and we were still being followed. Though one of the C&C agents was gone.</p><p></p><p>Orryk: We’re going back to the Iron Steed.</p><p>Joybell: The food was really good. You should eat there too.</p><p></p><p>We headed back to the Iron Steed with an entourage of five -- still trying to hide from each other and us.</p><p></p><p>We shared notes on the day and had dinner. Orryk ate rations again.</p><p></p><p>After dinner, Taman slipped outside without telling anyone. None of our tails had come into the inn for dinner. He saw four sets of operatives out there and walked straight up to one of them -- the agents from the Blink Toad. They tensed as he approached.</p><p></p><p>Taman: I want to ask a simple question. What does the Blink Toad know about the pink eye epidemic that’s sweeping the city? We’re very concerned and we assume you are too.</p><p>Operative: If it were just an epidemic of pink eyes it would be less problematic.</p><p>Taman: What do you know? We don’t want to just stumble in the dark.</p><p>Operative: Part of the problem is that if a slave catches it, their eyes aren’t pink anymore. We threw people who got it into the slave pens and now some people in the pens don’t have pink eyes.</p><p>Taman: Thanks for providing some insight. We’ll be staying in for the night, so come on in and have dinner.</p><p></p><p>Taman returned to the rest of us, who were unaware that he’d gone anywhere, and relayed what he’d learned.</p><p></p><p>Taman: Apparently when a slave catches it, their eyes aren’t pink anymore.</p><p>Mo: That is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.</p><p>Orryk: It seems like someone is trying to mess with the slave trade.</p><p>Joybell: Bless their little hearts. How do we help them?</p><p>Taman: I’m of a mind to let this play out.</p><p></p><p>We discussed our next steps -- talking to a cleric (we’ve got previous contacts with two here in the city -- the one from the Joyful who took care of the Orcphans and the one from the Purveyors and Wrights who recommended a ship for us) because Fiona’s research indicates that a ritual could have been done with a contagion spell that could have to do with this. Imaktis wanted to try to use lesser restoration on an actual slave to see if that makes the pink go away. We also discussed going to the Blink Toad corporate offices.</p><p></p><p>And then, with the alarm and the sword of warning, the night passed without incident.</p><p></p><p></p><p>25 Sunnin 748 (Campaign day 26)</p><p></p><p>When we woke up, Imaktis had pink eyes. Joybell wanted to lay hands on him to fix that, but he wanted to stay that way just in case it would be useful in the future, so Mo used prestidigitation to turn his eyes back to normal. (He also wanted to see if the pink eyes from the contagion will ever change back on their own.)</p><p></p><p>When we left the inn, Taman noticed that there were only two sets of operatives (he could see) outside this morning, one from Dallington’s and one from Ammadorse & Sons.</p><p></p><p>Taman pointed/shoved Mo in the direction of the Dallington’s agents.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Hi. How’s it going? I hope you guys are having a good time surveilling us.</p><p>Agent: I’ve had worse assignments.</p><p>Mo: What do you guys know about the pink eye problem?</p><p>Agent: I know there’s something going on.</p><p>Mo: We’re interested in finding out what’s going on. Do you think your bosses would be interested in talking to us about finding out. Like right now?</p><p>Agent: I can take you to HQ, but I can’t promise that anyone there will talk to you.</p><p></p><p>So we followed the Dallington’s agents (the other group continued to follow us) to their corporate office. The building had a double door with the bighorn ram’s head logo of the corporation inlaid in platinum. Very nice. One of the agents opened the door and gestured us inside, the other staying close by. Inside there was a nice office lobby.</p><p></p><p>The agent we’d been speaking to left to find someone to talk to us. He returned a few minutes later with a human man in his fifties -- dressed very nicely.</p><p></p><p>He looked us over, then turned to Mo.</p><p></p><p>Dallington (to Mo): You’re the one who does most of the talking. I’m Etra Dallington. Why don’t we go talk?</p><p></p><p>He led us all into his office and closed the door.</p><p></p><p>Dallington: On the one hand, I think I should apologize for having you surveilled. But on the other hand, all the other corporations were, too.</p><p>Mo: Can I ask, just to confirm, is there any particular reason why you were surveilling us?</p><p>Dallington: Well, we know that you turned down an offer from the Brass Giant. We know that you got the assistance of the Cracked Shield. We know that you took out the House of Masks. And we know that you’ve only been here a few days.</p><p>Mo: We’re not here to talk about ourselves. We’re here to talk about the pink eye disease.</p><p>Dallington: You know it’s a disease?</p><p>Fiona: We think it’s maybe a ritualized clerical spell.</p><p>Joybell: The precursor cold is treatable with healing magic.</p><p>Mo: Are you interested in hiring us to help?</p><p>Joybell: Strictly on a one-time, freelance basis. We’re not interested in a contract.</p><p>Dallington: I’m not sure that will be necessary.</p><p>Mo: Are you not interested in seeing this solved?</p><p>Dallington: If it’s a disease, we can probably solve it ourselves.</p><p>Orryk: But that doesn’t tell you who did it or why they did it. You can possibly fix this, but can you stop the next thing? Or the one after that? That third one is going to be really bad.</p><p>Dallington: This is, as it is, destabilizing the city.</p><p>Joybell: There are so many possibilities as to what’s going on…</p><p>Orryk: Is there another player in town other than the corporations? All of the corporations are being equally affected...so who benefits?</p><p>Dallington: I can think of no organization in Pelsoreen that would benefit.</p><p>Joybell (interested in the careful wording): What about outside of Pelsoreen?</p><p>Dallington: The only city we have a problem with is New Arvai, but this isn’t the kind of thing they do.</p><p>Mo: What entities in Pelsoreen would have this kind of power?</p><p>Etra: Other than some genies, I can think of no one who would casually have this kind of power.</p><p>Mo: What about the genies? Are there any new ones? Are any of them acting strangely?</p><p>Dallington: We don’t have direct dealings with the genies.</p><p></p><p>Taman suggested testing to see if cure disease would affect the normal pink eyes given to slaves in the ordinary course of things. Etra Dallington agreed that would be useful to know, so we left for a moment and came back with a house slave.</p><p></p><p>Joybell asked permission and then laid on hands to cure disease. The slaves eyes were still pink. Imaktis used lesser restoration from his prayer necklace and that didn’t change anything either.</p><p></p><p>Mo cast prestidigitation and changed her eyes to blue, just before she left.</p><p></p><p>We left, discussing options. Orryk wanted to go to the Amber Flame (paying with the Staff of the Python which we don’t need) and Fiona wanted to go to Urlott’s (where they want a service as payment for entry.</p><p></p><p>As we walked out, Taman saw that the operatives who followed us from the inn had left and we have a whole new set -- five groups were following us (four groups of three and one of two).</p><p></p><p>We left Orryk at the Amber Flame to learn about some theoretical magic and went with Fiona to Urlott’s to learn what the service they required would be.</p><p></p><p>At Urlott’s they first asked what Fiona wanted to learn -- about the contagion ritual and whatever magic could have created the Masks. Then they asked who would be performing the service -- which we said would be the five of us (since Orryk was at the Amber Flame).</p><p></p><p>To do research into the kind of magic that goes into making the Masks, they want the head of a Gorgon. As fresh as possible. We asked if they knew where a gorgon might be located -- they told us the southern end of the mountains to the east has gorgons. This is about one week travel, overland, each way. They will permit us to add Orryk to the group performing the service.</p><p></p><p>To do research into the Contagion, they sent us to the Quiet Room.</p><p></p><p>At the Amber Flame, Orryk paid with the Staff of the Python and looked into how Elemental magic is created. He found himself looking into some druidic texts, written in Druidic. Elemental magic and the elements themselves are structural blocks of reality. The purest elemental magics are druidic in nature -- there weren’t Elemental Gods before the Severance because the elements predate the gods. When the world makes magic, it makes elemental magic. The druids are the ones who really do a lot of shaping of elemental energies and make magic closest to natural magic.</p><p></p><p>He also started looking into theoretical magic about the contagion.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="prabe, post: 8105726, member: 7016699"] Session 14: Slave Eyes Dramatis Personae: Mo - Goliath Bard (College of Lore) Orryk - Forest Gnome Monk (Way of the Four Elements, variant) Fiona - Half-Elf Wizard (Evoker) Taman - Human (variant) Rogue (Inquisitive) Joybell - Forest Gnome Paladin (Oath of the Ancients) Imaktis - Tortle Cleric (Nature)/Shadow Sorcerer GM - Everyone Else 22 Sunnin 748 (Campaign day 23) We spent the night back in the druid village -- Irlua transported us through the plants again. They had some huts available for pilgrims and visitors so we were able to be accomodated. Orryk asked if he could sleep in the circle. He spent some time meditating and then slept. [Note: His dreams were discussed around the table, but the player said Orryk wouldn’t be sharing them, so they aren't included here.] Joybell just enjoyed being in a druid place again. Taman spoke with one of the druids about mixing a military combat style with a druidic style -- with a thought to opposing other planes, or protecting against incursion from them. He talked with someone and got some encouragement along that route. Joybell asked if there were going to be any rituals, particularly the ones they’re using to balance fire and water right now, but they said there weren’t any at this time. 23 Sunnin 748 (Campaign day 24) In the morning, food and breakfast were provided for us, because we’re kindred spirits (at least some of us) with questions. Joybell asked if there was anything we could do for them, but they said no. She was a bit disappointed. So we got back on The Lilac and began our cruise back to Pelsoreen. The captain had been told about the oncoming storm by the druids, so he set sail and set course to stay ahead of it. When we were aboard Fiona and Taman noticed that there was a bit of a cold going around -- some of the crew were sick and snuffly. Orryk also noticed that two of the crew had pink irises, like the slaves have. They didn’t have them when we left Pelsoreen. When this was pointed out to the rest of us, we went to find Captain Witt. Mo: What’s going on with those people over there? (Pointing to the two people with pink eyes.) Captain: I don’t have slaves -- the sea is too risky to force people to be sailors. Mo: They were free when we left Pelsoreen. We went and talked to the two guys, Gullin and Inder. Mo: So...what’s up with your eyes? They said that they’d been a little draggy and sick the day before but were fine today. Fiona: Did you get visited by anyone? They said that we were the only people on the boat other than the regular crew. The druids never came aboard. Mo: Did you owe anybody money? They said they don’t owe anyone -- they’re free and their families are as well. Taman was certain they were being truthful -- but they’ll be treated like slaves as soon as they get back to Pelsoreen. They had colds (like many in the crew) the day before. Taman wondered if the pink eyes could be just a symptom of something...though they did look just like a slave’s pink irises. Fiona took ten minutes to perform the ritual to cast detect magic, but whatever the effect was, it was not magical. Talking to the ship’s doctor was not helpful either -- he was pretty much a sawbones (patching up injuries from falls and so on). Joybell laid on hands to cure Gullin’s disease, just to see if it would work. She was slightly surprised to find that it did work. In a similar vein of experimentation, Imaktis used the lesser restoration bead (from the prayer necklace) on Inder -- that also worked. The total crew of the ship was 12. Five of the others were sniffly and had those mild colds. The other five seemed unaffected. Joybell went around and, with permission, cured the diseases of four of the five with the sniffles. The fifth one, Nicklin, she left sniffly -- with the idea of seeing if the sniffles did in fact lead to the pink eyes. Captain Witt said that Nicklin could stay on the ship, rather than going ashore into Pelsoreen as a potential slave. The next morning we could come and check on him. For the rest of the sail, we talked about what else we want to accomplish in Pelsoreen -- we want to get Fiona in to do some research in the Quiet Room, Taman indicated a potential interest in going to Carveen’s to learn about summoning fey. Joybell and Orryk wanted to go to the Steel Crucible. And we may want to get into the Amber Flame if we have time. If we had to leave in a hurry, we could skip some of those, but we definitely wanted to get into the Quiet Room and the Steel Crucible. Joybell suggested to the others that she could summon Darkmoon Moonstone Happyhowl, Defender of Henge and Wold back as a mastiff or small pony or something. So we’d look less like our group, maybe. But Orryk (and the others) looked around at the group and said it really wouldn’t make much of a difference. As for where we’d stay when we got back to the city, Joybell suggested that we could ask if we could stay with the Cracked Shield (she still wants to be an honorary member), but Imaktis emphatically rejected that idea. As we approached the pier, Joybell started casting Find Steed, so that Scooby would be waiting on the pier for us when the ship tied up. Taman volunteered to stay on the Lilac with the Captain and Nicklin, but the Captain didn’t want to have outsiders on the ship in port. However, he reaffirmed that he’d be able to find work for Nicklin to do on board. As we pulled up at the pier, there were four guards waiting from us -- they were from C&C, the corporation that protected the House of Masks (or at least their building) and also the Lilac. We started getting ready to disembark, while listening to the Captain’s conversation with the guards. The guards were checking to make sure of the “status” of the employees of the organizations they protect. Joybell (to the others): Do they do this regularly? But of course we didn’t know. Captain Witt was once again very firm that he doesn’t own slaves and won’t force anyone to go to sea. Watching, it was clear to Mo and others that the Captain was annoyed at the situation -- he had to answer the questions, because he has responsibilities to C&C. Taman wondered if the guards seemed like they were bored doing a routine inquiry or if they were expecting stuff to go down. Watching them it was clear that this wasn’t routine -- though they weren’t prepared for battle or anything either. Mo and Joybell wandered over to see what was going on… Mo: How are things, Captain. Captain: Fine. I can vouch for my crew. Mo (to the guards): Is this a regular inquiry? Do you hassle all ships with passengers? Guard (staring at Mo): We’re not hassling the passengers. We’re just talking to the Captain about his crew. Guard: We’ve had incidents with slaves turning up in places they don’t belong and insisting that they’re not slaves. Mo: What did you do with them? Guard: Put them in the slave pens, of course. Joybell: What happens if you find someone who looks like a slave and you can’t figure out who they’re slaves to? Guard: That’s a question for someone further up the chain than me. Joybell: I...forgot something downstairs!! Then she scampered below and cured Nicklin, rather than waiting until tomorrow to see if his eyes turned pink. Another lie from Joybell. Black Irnod had recommended an inn in Thani’s Truth called the Iron Steed, so we headed there directly we got off the boat. Joybell once again happily riding Scooby. Taman, Orryk, Imaktis, and Fiona noticed, as we were proceeding, that we were being shadowed by two pairs of operatives (two separate pairs). It was clear to Taman that they were so busy trying to hide from each other that they were not doing so well as all that at hiding from us. They weren’t doing anything to interfere with us, just shadowing us. Orryk: If a group of people came into our town and killed an organization of tough hired assassins, I’d probably want to keep an eye on them for our own safety. Taman also noticed that there were a lot more guards in the street than usual and pointed that out to the rest of us. Joybell was concerned about the people suddenly showing up as slaves and if things were going to be horribly unfair and unjust for them, but we weren’t sure what or how to deal with it. At the Iron Steed (protected by Dallington’s), we spoke with the innkeeper, a tiefling woman with violet skin and yellow hair and pronghorn horns named Borma. She was dressed pretty conservatively. The room rates at the Iron Steed are the same as the Flaming Quill, 6gp per night. We paid for the first night out of the party kitty. They had a tavern with food. Orryk pulled a bag of rations out of the bag of holding. Imaktis logged everything he ate. Taman and Mo ate normally. Joybell ate and drank normally -- but something different from what the others ate. Mo looked around the room to see if anyone was sniffling or showing signs of a cold in the room. He didn’t see anyone. Taman was watching for it, a bit, while we were walking -- though he was mostly paying attention to our tails -- but he did get the sense that there was a mild cold going around. And new since we left early the day before. The tails didn’t follow us inside - which suggested to us that neither of the groups were from Dallington’s. Up in our room, we planned what we wanted to do the next day. One part of it was going to be library research in the morning -- Fiona was going to the Quiet Room and Joybell and Orryk to the Steel Crucible. While the research was going on, Mo, Imaktis and Taman would be doing some poking around in the city -- Team Gettin’ in Trouble. Fiona set an alarm spell and Joybell had her sword of warning. And the night passed without incident. 24 Sunnin 748 (Campaign day 25) Come the morning, no one in the party had pink eyes. Which was reassuring. Fiona, Taman and Imaktis were all sniffly. Joybell laid hands on Taman and Fiona, curing their sniffles, but Imaktis declined to be healed or to heal himself -- he wanted to see how this would play out. We had breakfast in the tavern -- there were ten to twelve other people in there eating. We noticed that two of them had the sniffles. Taman pulled a bandanna over his nose to use as a face mask. After breakfast we headed out together to take people to the libraries, before Team Gettin’ In Trouble went off to do their thing. Taman noticed that there were now three groups of people waiting for us to leave the inn. As we walked to the Quiet Room, we noticed that there were lots of businesses with closed signs and far fewer people on the streets than we’d seen before. We also noticed more guards on the streets. Though slaves had always been less common on the streets in the Heights than elsewhere in the city, there were none on the street at all today. Mo stopped to talk to one of the guards: What’s up with the city today? Is an orc invasion expected? Guard: There’s a cold going around and some people are being laid lower than others. Mo got the sense that the guard was not lying -- he was relaying what he’d been told -- but that he had his doubts. Mo: I can understand why you have a lot of guards out in the event of a cold. Then we left. We noticed as we continued that the guards were from all of the corporations. We took Fiona to the Quiet Room - the outside of the building was nondescript, but inside was a normal [I]looking[/I] room, but it sounded weird. (It was an anechoic chamber.) She showed them Black Irnod’s letter of reference and paid them 300gp (to which everyone contributed). Joybell: Good luck! Have fun! At the Quiet Room, Fiona was looking into basics of High RItual magic and perhaps into how the Masks might have been created. The basic rules of HIgh Ritual Magic: [LIST] [*]You need accoutrements and ritual gear -- and those need to be individual and custom made (ideally, at least -- it is possible to use someone else’s gear but it is much harder). These are things like candleholders, knives, etc., that can be used repeatedly. These are very expensive (approximately 1000 gp). [*]There is a skill check with a difficulty based on how much of an effect you’re trying to create. The amount of time and the cost in consumable material components (separate from the ritual accoutrements that are not consumed) also scale based on the size of the effect (the level of the spell). For example a fairly basic ritual to create a permanent teleportation circle would be a DC15 Arcana check, take 5 hours, and require 1500 gp in material components that would be consumed during the ritual. [*]Some material components are hard to find. Some are just unpleasant (sacrifices of living things, for example, or lots and lots and lots of blood). [*]This is an old, ancient even, kind of magic. Perhaps a form of magic that evolved into “modern” magic as people learned how to control it. [*]When one finds the instructions for a high ritual to create an effect there are requirements for casting it; You have to have slots of the spell’s level (if it’s a ritual emulating the effect of a spell). You can’t have cast any spells since your last long rest. You have to have ritually cleansed yourself. If it is a normal spell, you can get advantage on the check to cast the ritual by having the spell prepared. [*]High RItuals are not like casting spells (such as Alarm or Detect Magic) as rituals -- those take an hour or several minutes. High Rituals take hours and generally have more wide-ranging effects. They are also more difficult and expensive. That said, you have to be able to do ritual casting (either through a class feature or the feat). [/LIST] After learning some of the basics, Fiona then went on to look for information about a ritual that could have created the Masks. She didn’t find anything like that here. She also looked into anything that might be related to the disease that’s popped up in Pelsoreen. She got some hints of maybe a clerical High RItual that could have been used to create a new disease, based off the Contagion spell. She ended her library time looking to see if there was a ritual that would allow her to make some sort of communication item -- something that would allow two way communication any number of times a day. She found some hints that points to a ritual based off of Rary’s Telepathic Bond, a fifth level spell. She got a sense of what she’d need for the ritual, but she’d need to do more research. Taman: Wouldn’t that create like a hive mind? Mo: Oh, snap! (However, Black Irnod said that the Masks had a tumor-like growth in an area of the brain where telepathic species have an organ. So while that may be connected to how the Masks get their hive mind, it’s probably not that simple.) That was Fiona’s day. After the rest of the group dropped her off, we proceeded on to the Steel Crucible. Joybell produced the card she’d been given the previous day and got Orryk in as her guest. Joybell was interested in doing some research on higher-level healing potions, other things she could create with her herbalism kit proficiency. Also communication devices. She learned that she can make higher level healing potions, but of course the cost and time to make them go up as they get stronger. To make a greater healing potion would cost 100gp of materials and take a week. To make a superior would cost 1000 gp of materials and take 5 weeks. And a supreme would take 10000 gp of materials and take 3 months. She took good notes on the greater healing potion instructions and figured the others were unlikely to ever be relevant to her life. She also looked into the communication magic for Fiona and found some information about making a set of webbed sending stones. She made notes on how to do that to give to Fiona. Orryk at the Steel Crucible was looking into how to work magic into clothes and about weaving elemental magic into items. He learned that you can make a magic cloak out of any cloak, it doesn’t need to be one you wove yourself or anything. Same with tapestries. [Note: At this point the players went into a fun conversation about how it would totally be possible these days to make a Get Smart-style shoe phone -- with panels that regenerated the battery while walking.] As for elemental magic -- working it into items is not particularly affected by the elemental connection. Making a flaming sword is the same process as making any other magic sword. Creating weapons with specific kinds of damage is all the same. So Orryk did some looking into how to go about that -- what it takes and the tools involved -- he could work with someone else to cast the spells. Orryk learned some techniques of how this all goes together and is able to help someone make a magic item. Elemental magic is not unique to the other kinds of magic, though it is possibly older or more primal. That was Joybell and Orryk’s day. Team Gettin’ In Trouble, after dropping off the library kids, decided that since the guards were taking people with pink eyes down to the slave pens, they’d head down that way. Imaktis wanted to try curing (or restoring) a slave to see if that would fix the eyes. They thought about trying it on someone they met along the way, but they didn’t see any slaves on the street -- which was unusual. The slave pens down in Old Lament were closed -- when we went by there before the sides of the buildings were open (or at least large garage-like doors on each side were) and the public was free to walk through (shopping, I suppose). This time the doors were down and there was a guard presence in the streets, especially around the pens and the doors. Mo wanted to sow a bit of confusion, and see what would happen, by changing the color of one of the guard’s eyes to pink. They found a group of three guards together on the street -- Taman hid around a corner (quite effectively), Imaktis hid behind a hitching post (large tortle, small post, not so effective). Mo’s spell had a short range, 10’, so he walked by the guards playing his flute. As he walked by, one of the guards noticed him. Guard: Why are you here? Mo: I’m in town on business. I have no idea where everyone went. Apparently you are having a plague. So I took a walk. Guard: You can’t be hanging around tootling your flute around here. Mo: Okay. I’ll see if I can arrange my business elsewhere, then. Perhaps in another city. Then Mo continued down the street and around a corner. Taman, watching from his hideout thought that perhaps one of the guards had pink eyes. Mo was going to meet up with the others, but he couldn’t see Taman (who hid really well) so he joined up with Imaktis. As nothing was obviously happening with the guards, Imaktis went over to talk to them. Imaktis: You guys are doing a great job. My uncle was taken and his eyes were never pink before. I’m sure you’re just overwhelmed...I’d like to see him if possible. The guards clearly didn’t believe him -- but then Imaktis pointed out that one of the guard’s eyes were pink. The other two guards looked at the guard with pink eyes… Pinky: Guys! You know me! There was a brief tussle as the two other guards grabbed Pinky. Imaktis: If it’s a sickness going around and you are manhandling him, you might get it. Guards: A sickness? Imaktis: Yes (:: coughing:: and Imaktis was actually sick) One of the guards got a weird look at that - like a light-bulb went off. Then the other one frogmarched Pinky toward the slave pens while the one who had the light go off started walking, double-time, toward The Heights. The guard escorting Pinky pulled out a key and opened the door to the slave pen -- there was a lot of noise and chaos inside. And a lot of people -- far more than we’d seen when we were here before. All the people started yelling as soon as the doors were opened. The guard looked inside, then closed the door without putting Pinky in. As the door closed, Imaktis and Taman both heard someone say, “My eyes aren’t pink anymore! Let me out!” Mo and Imaktis contemplated putting the guards to sleep with a sleep spell and letting people out, but decided against. Instead, Mo turned Pinky’s eyes purple and they all walked away. As they walked, they contemplated what could be going on -- this could be a distraction for something else (certainly the whole city is very distracted). Or an attempt to get a lot of people into the same place. On the way back to the Iron Steed, Taman looked for the operatives that had been following us -- how had they dealt with people being dropped off at the libraries. (We also recapped what he’d noticed during the day.) When Fiona got dropped off at the Quiet Room, one person from each team stayed there and were still trying to stay hidden from one another. When Joybell and Orryk got dropped off at the Steel Crucible, there was some puzzlement -- the two libraries are at enough of a distance from one another that one person couldn’t watch both entrances all the time. It ultimately broke down this way: [LIST=1] [*]The Blink Toad’s representatives kept one person bouncing between libraries and the other following Team Gettin’ In Trouble. [*]The Brass Giant’s representatives had one person at the Quiet Room and one at the Steel Crucible. Team Gettin’ In Trouble got in trouble un-watched. [*]C&C’s representatives left one person at the Quiet Room and one continued following Team Gettin’ In Trouble. [/LIST] So operatives from C&C and the Blink Toad saw the shenanigans with the guards at the slave pens -- or at least interaction with those guards. (They had gone to the Brass Giant’s slave pens, so those were the guards they’d interacted with.) Both Teams Library were still doing their research, so after that Mo and Taman spent the day drinking, then eventually picked up the library folks later in the day. When we left the libraries, the guards that had stayed outside were still there and we were still being followed. Though one of the C&C agents was gone. Orryk: We’re going back to the Iron Steed. Joybell: The food was really good. You should eat there too. We headed back to the Iron Steed with an entourage of five -- still trying to hide from each other and us. We shared notes on the day and had dinner. Orryk ate rations again. After dinner, Taman slipped outside without telling anyone. None of our tails had come into the inn for dinner. He saw four sets of operatives out there and walked straight up to one of them -- the agents from the Blink Toad. They tensed as he approached. Taman: I want to ask a simple question. What does the Blink Toad know about the pink eye epidemic that’s sweeping the city? We’re very concerned and we assume you are too. Operative: If it were just an epidemic of pink eyes it would be less problematic. Taman: What do you know? We don’t want to just stumble in the dark. Operative: Part of the problem is that if a slave catches it, their eyes aren’t pink anymore. We threw people who got it into the slave pens and now some people in the pens don’t have pink eyes. Taman: Thanks for providing some insight. We’ll be staying in for the night, so come on in and have dinner. Taman returned to the rest of us, who were unaware that he’d gone anywhere, and relayed what he’d learned. Taman: Apparently when a slave catches it, their eyes aren’t pink anymore. Mo: That is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. Orryk: It seems like someone is trying to mess with the slave trade. Joybell: Bless their little hearts. How do we help them? Taman: I’m of a mind to let this play out. We discussed our next steps -- talking to a cleric (we’ve got previous contacts with two here in the city -- the one from the Joyful who took care of the Orcphans and the one from the Purveyors and Wrights who recommended a ship for us) because Fiona’s research indicates that a ritual could have been done with a contagion spell that could have to do with this. Imaktis wanted to try to use lesser restoration on an actual slave to see if that makes the pink go away. We also discussed going to the Blink Toad corporate offices. And then, with the alarm and the sword of warning, the night passed without incident. 25 Sunnin 748 (Campaign day 26) When we woke up, Imaktis had pink eyes. Joybell wanted to lay hands on him to fix that, but he wanted to stay that way just in case it would be useful in the future, so Mo used prestidigitation to turn his eyes back to normal. (He also wanted to see if the pink eyes from the contagion will ever change back on their own.) When we left the inn, Taman noticed that there were only two sets of operatives (he could see) outside this morning, one from Dallington’s and one from Ammadorse & Sons. Taman pointed/shoved Mo in the direction of the Dallington’s agents. Mo: Hi. How’s it going? I hope you guys are having a good time surveilling us. Agent: I’ve had worse assignments. Mo: What do you guys know about the pink eye problem? Agent: I know there’s something going on. Mo: We’re interested in finding out what’s going on. Do you think your bosses would be interested in talking to us about finding out. Like right now? Agent: I can take you to HQ, but I can’t promise that anyone there will talk to you. So we followed the Dallington’s agents (the other group continued to follow us) to their corporate office. The building had a double door with the bighorn ram’s head logo of the corporation inlaid in platinum. Very nice. One of the agents opened the door and gestured us inside, the other staying close by. Inside there was a nice office lobby. The agent we’d been speaking to left to find someone to talk to us. He returned a few minutes later with a human man in his fifties -- dressed very nicely. He looked us over, then turned to Mo. Dallington (to Mo): You’re the one who does most of the talking. I’m Etra Dallington. Why don’t we go talk? He led us all into his office and closed the door. Dallington: On the one hand, I think I should apologize for having you surveilled. But on the other hand, all the other corporations were, too. Mo: Can I ask, just to confirm, is there any particular reason why you were surveilling us? Dallington: Well, we know that you turned down an offer from the Brass Giant. We know that you got the assistance of the Cracked Shield. We know that you took out the House of Masks. And we know that you’ve only been here a few days. Mo: We’re not here to talk about ourselves. We’re here to talk about the pink eye disease. Dallington: You know it’s a disease? Fiona: We think it’s maybe a ritualized clerical spell. Joybell: The precursor cold is treatable with healing magic. Mo: Are you interested in hiring us to help? Joybell: Strictly on a one-time, freelance basis. We’re not interested in a contract. Dallington: I’m not sure that will be necessary. Mo: Are you not interested in seeing this solved? Dallington: If it’s a disease, we can probably solve it ourselves. Orryk: But that doesn’t tell you who did it or why they did it. You can possibly fix this, but can you stop the next thing? Or the one after that? That third one is going to be really bad. Dallington: This is, as it is, destabilizing the city. Joybell: There are so many possibilities as to what’s going on… Orryk: Is there another player in town other than the corporations? All of the corporations are being equally affected...so who benefits? Dallington: I can think of no organization in Pelsoreen that would benefit. Joybell (interested in the careful wording): What about outside of Pelsoreen? Dallington: The only city we have a problem with is New Arvai, but this isn’t the kind of thing they do. Mo: What entities in Pelsoreen would have this kind of power? Etra: Other than some genies, I can think of no one who would casually have this kind of power. Mo: What about the genies? Are there any new ones? Are any of them acting strangely? Dallington: We don’t have direct dealings with the genies. Taman suggested testing to see if cure disease would affect the normal pink eyes given to slaves in the ordinary course of things. Etra Dallington agreed that would be useful to know, so we left for a moment and came back with a house slave. Joybell asked permission and then laid on hands to cure disease. The slaves eyes were still pink. Imaktis used lesser restoration from his prayer necklace and that didn’t change anything either. Mo cast prestidigitation and changed her eyes to blue, just before she left. We left, discussing options. Orryk wanted to go to the Amber Flame (paying with the Staff of the Python which we don’t need) and Fiona wanted to go to Urlott’s (where they want a service as payment for entry. As we walked out, Taman saw that the operatives who followed us from the inn had left and we have a whole new set -- five groups were following us (four groups of three and one of two). We left Orryk at the Amber Flame to learn about some theoretical magic and went with Fiona to Urlott’s to learn what the service they required would be. At Urlott’s they first asked what Fiona wanted to learn -- about the contagion ritual and whatever magic could have created the Masks. Then they asked who would be performing the service -- which we said would be the five of us (since Orryk was at the Amber Flame). To do research into the kind of magic that goes into making the Masks, they want the head of a Gorgon. As fresh as possible. We asked if they knew where a gorgon might be located -- they told us the southern end of the mountains to the east has gorgons. This is about one week travel, overland, each way. They will permit us to add Orryk to the group performing the service. To do research into the Contagion, they sent us to the Quiet Room. At the Amber Flame, Orryk paid with the Staff of the Python and looked into how Elemental magic is created. He found himself looking into some druidic texts, written in Druidic. Elemental magic and the elements themselves are structural blocks of reality. The purest elemental magics are druidic in nature -- there weren’t Elemental Gods before the Severance because the elements predate the gods. When the world makes magic, it makes elemental magic. The druids are the ones who really do a lot of shaping of elemental energies and make magic closest to natural magic. He also started looking into theoretical magic about the contagion. [/QUOTE]
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Erkonin (Campaign #1) [Session 46: Making Deals with Devils is Stupid as well as Bad]
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