Session 11: In Which Joybell Lies
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
Before we got started there were two corrections to information previously imparted by the GM:
19 Sunnin 748 (Campaign day 20) (immediately after the previous)
We got some information about Pelsoreen, based on talking with Jorly the Innkeeper at the Flaming Quill and looking at the map Orryk bought.
Geographically the city is two islands near the mouth of the Gramolos River connected by footbridges, not large enough for cart travel. The smaller, upstream island is called The Breaks and is a lower-class area with slaughterhouses and poultry farming. The larger island is the bulk of the city of Pelsoreen. The Currentside district, which has the river port, is on the upstream side of the larger island. The islands are very hilly and the larger has a perimeter road which gets most of the cart traffic, and the most heavy traffic. About a half mile out toward the ocean is a breakwater that protects the ocean port and its vessels from the sea. Even despite the breakwater, though, the Gramolos River gets a tidal bore and flows backwards for a time every high tide.
There are two causeways connecting the larger island to the banks of the river, each about a mile long. The one to the right bank (as you’re facing downstream) is called Ovverway and leads to the road that parallels the river toward Ov and Tash. The left bank causeway is called Mountainway and leads to a road that goes into the Dunnimar Mountains. The causeways rise from the bottom of the river for an hour and a half at sunrise and sunset on a set, semi-alternating schedule.
There are several districts in on the larger island: The ocean port is in a district called Waveside. The Heights is the nicest and wealthiest parts of town -- in addition to expensive houses there are also city offices and upscale businesses. This is also where the colleges and libraries are. Located. The Stonetree district has nice hotels and upscale brothels, as well as some upper-middle class homes. This is not where the Flaming Quill is located however. That is in Thani’s Truth, which where a lot of the students live, as it’s near the part of the Heights with the colleges. Bloom Cliffs is a series of terraces from the high hilltop down to the sea and it is where all of the agriculture that takes place within the city is located -- fruit orchards, vegetable gardens, and some terraces dedicated to growing plants for spell components, alchemical work, and herbal medicines and other concoctions. The Old Lament district is close to Waveside and is where the banks, gambling dens, slave pens, skeevy brothels, and the Courts are located.
Slavery has arisen in Pelsoreen mostly since the Severance, though there have been genies since the city was founded.
All of the schools of magic and the libraries are located in the Heights district, where they are safe from the periodic tsunamis the city suffers. There are two colleges, or collegiate libraries:
There are other smaller and more focused libraries, which one needs a reference to get into. In addition to whatever entrance fee they charge.
Jorly also told us that there are five Corporations that run the city -- what we were thinking of as mob “families”. They are not geographically separated -- no corporation “runs” or “owns” the Heights, for example. But almost all the buildings in the city (except those that are city owned, like the courts and the buildings associated with various city offices) have one or more plaques outside indicating which corporation or corporations they’ve paid to affiliate with (or paid for protection). The signs are (at least) plated with copper, silver and gold. The preciousness of the metal involved indicates how tightly the building has affiliated itself (i.e. how much it has paid). Some buildings will have multiple copper signs for multiple corporations, but it is rare to see more than one silver or gold sign.
The Five Corporations are:
The Flaming Quill had a silver sign with an armored figure -- the emblem of the Brass Giant corporation.
Before we left the Flaming Quill to look into the libraries, we went up to our room to stow some of our stuff. When she opened her pack, Joybell gave out a yelp and went pale and stiff when she saw something in her pack.
She put it on the bed for the others to see -- it was a divination card, like a Tarot card, showing a person, recognizably Joybell, in a city, with an out-of-focus wolf behind her, looking determined and frightened and holding a blank mask. She told the others that this card had been following her for years. She left it at the Henge deliberately. She’s also left it at her parents’ house and in fields. It’s why, she believes, she almost didn’t get accepted as a novice at the Wold -- because this horrible card was following her. The picture changes -- it showed her unhappy with trees, which is utter nonsense because she loved trees and the Wold. The last time she saw it, just before she left the Henge to go to Embernook (the day before the campaign started), she looked happy, or at least satisfied, and was wearing armor and had a sword with black stone behind her.
Joybell: It’s been following me since I was a kid. I hate it.
Fiona cast detect magic followed by identify. The card is indeed magical and has an aura of divination. The card is a Card of the Wheel -- it does not require attunement and is not really cursed, but they do sometimes attach themselves to a person. They show a probable near future. But not a definite one.
As we left the hotel room, Joybell left the card on the wash \stand in the room with a note saying “Please feel free to steal this”.
Then we headed out toward the magical colleges. Orryk and Fiona wanted to go to The Demasthy first, so we headed in that direction. The Demasthy is the library dedicated to practical magic and history -- to get in one must demonstrate ability. We had no problems getting onto the university campus -- we don’t exactly look like students (except Fiona and Orryk) but the campuses are open and free to enter.
At the library, there was an anteroom with a reception desk. University students have a badge that lets them get in. Those without the badge must cast spells that produce fire, cold, thunder, lightning and acid. While the rest of us were figuring out if this was even going to be possible, Fiona cast Chromatic Orb, which can (with different castings) produce all five. Satisfied with that, the attendant gave her a card permitting admission. With that card, she could take in one additional person, which was Orryk, of course.
Team Library rides again.
The rest of us, Mo, Imaktis, Taman and Joybell (Team Gettin’ In Trouble) headed down to the Old Lament district. We had a few research interests -- we wanted to see the slave pens and talk to a slave or two, if possible. Mo wanted to know how closely held the slaves are -- are any free-roaming people that we could talk to or are they always closely accompanied by their masters We wanted to see what we could learn about the five Corporations -- their reputations, the distribution of their emblems on houses, etc. Joybell wanted to find a temple and talk to the priests/clerics inside just to get a sense of the religious life of the city.
Joybell: Even bad people need religion.
We went from the Heights, through Thani’s Truth (a bit out of the way, but it let us see more of the variety in the city), to Old Lament to get a bit of perspective on the city and its people.
Observing the Corporate affiliation plaques we noticed that the residences and buildings have them. In the Heights the representation was pretty balanced. In Old Lament, C&C and Ammidorse & Sons were perhaps over-represented and the Brass Giant (as at the Flaming Quill) was perhaps under-represented. The plaques seemed to go in clusters or seams - all the houses in a row or block seemed to have the same ones.
Back at the library, Fiona was looking for information on the Severance and on pre-Severance history. Working together she and Orryk learned the following:
As they were going along toward Old Lament, Joybell spotted a temple of an Order she was unfamiliar with, The Purveyors and Wrights. They were priests of the Forge and Travel and appeared to be a temple of merchants -- people who make and transport things. We went in to talk to the priest there. Joybell asked the priest what kind of religious life the people of Pelsoreen have.
Priest: As expensive as they can afford.
Joybell gave him a gold piece.
He chuckled and said that some pay to have questions answered (pocketing the gold), some pay to be seen by others, some pay to be seen as people who come to the temples, some pay to make social and business connections among other merchants and manufacturers. Some pay the temple for services they can actually provide -- healing, assistance making things, curing diseases. And some legitimately come out of religious sentiment to pray.
This pragmatic religious life is typical of the people here -- certainly a plurality if not a majority of his parishioners are there for reasons other than religious sentiment.
Joybell asked him about getting to the druid circle on the island that she’d heard about. He said that there are almost always vessels for hire both Currentside and Waveside -- we just need to hire a ship with a captain who knows where to go. He recommended a captain who was one of his parishioners -- Captain Doyard of The Elephant, who docked at Waveside. At the least, he wouldn’t take our money if he couldn’t actually take us there.
As we left, Mo hung back to talk to the priest privately, handing him 5gp. Mo asked after an apothecary or alchemist that is discreet and doesn’t ask questions. Whoever would be discrete about what he’s going to be looking for. The priest gave him two names: A rock gnome alchemist in Stonetree named Burnocka and a wood elf herbalist in Bloom Cliffs named Turalee. One or the other of them should be able to help with whatever Mo is looking for.
Then we continued on our way to Old Lament.
As we were walking around, Taman pointed out a store with a sign in the shape of a blank mask hanging from a sign bracket. The sign was hanging out in front of a building that was one of a row of mostly businesses. There were no windows, only a closed door, at the street level. Taman went up to the door and poked his head in. The room was small, with a door in the back wall. As he looked in, three Goliath-sized people wearing masks, armor and with sheathed longswords turned to look at him in unison.
Taman: I was wondering what kind of store this is.
Masks (in unison): This is not a store. We do not sell goods.
Taman: Then your sign is misleading.
Masks (in unison): It is who we are.
Joybell, peeking in under Taman’s arm, saw that the masks looked like the mask that’s on her card now.
Taman apologized for disturbing them and we left.
So we’d remember where we were, because Orryk had the map he’d bought from Jorly in the library with him, Mo used the Flute of Scribing to write, in Dwarven, on the sidewalk across the street: “You are here” in non-glowing letters.
Joybell looked around at the building and the near environs of it -- there are 10’ wide alleys on either side of the house, which is on a narrow lot. There are five houses on either side of it, with alleys separating them, on this block. Joybell went down one of the alleys to see what was there. There were no windows on the ground level even in the alley. The back of the building had a fenced yard, but the fence was not well-maintained. Through some missing slats we could see that there is a back door (still no windows on the ground floor, though there are some on the 2nd floor). The fenced yard ran back to another fenced yard which was behind another similar building that faced onto a different street. That street seemed to be more residential.
The building was under the protection of C&C, with a silver sign.
Joybell wanted to watch over the house and see the masked people coming and going -- to get a sense of numbers and movements and maybe what they’re up to.
Imaktis: It’s their town.
Instead, we continued on our walk around in Old Lament. Mo was keeping his eyes open for any slaves, but we hadn’t seen any we were sure about. We’d seen some people walking together where there was an apparent disparity in wealth and/or power, but we weren’t positive we’d seen slaves out with their masters.
We tried to figure out if there was some way we could tell which people were slaves -- but we didn’t notice anything like brands or tattoos.
(Joybell was also looking for people in masks, but didn’t see any.)
We made our way toward the Courthouse and found ourselves going by some of the slave pens. These were open sided buildings, just roofs without any walls, with prison-like hallways between rows of cages with varying numbers of people in them. The slave pens are open to the public (one supposes so that people can shop) and we were able to walk around and look at the people. There were slave pens under the protection of each of the corporations, so there doesn’t appear to be any corporation that is not involved in the city’s slave trade.
There we noticed that all the slaves have pink eyes -- the irises, not the whites. Imaktis and Joybell consulted about this -- Imaktis contributing knowledge of medicine and Joybell contributing knowledge of herbs and they figured out that this is caused by a medical/herbal concoction that works on every humanoid race. While it might make the slaves a bit more docile, its primary effect is to make the visible mark of slavery. It has to be re-administered every few months, but there is an antidote that can end the effect early if one’s period of servitude ends before the effect wears off.
Once we knew what to look for, we could see slaves doing all kinds of work -- those who were slaves due to debt were using whatever skills they had to pay what they owed. Those who were unskilled were working doing physical labor, repairing buildings, hauling materials, and so on.
Mo was watching to find a slave he could strike up a conversation with -- one that was moving freely without supervision or observation -- but there weren’t so many of those in this part of town. Perhaps in a nicer part of town we’d find more of that.
We went into a bar near the courthouse to talk to people, listen to people and generally gather some information. We were hoping that we’d find lawyers in a bar near the courts. Mo wanted to learn if there was an abolition movement or if there is any instability or insurrection. Joybell wanted to learn more about the mask-people and the different reputations of the various corporations. (What she really wanted to know if there was one that was maybe secretly Not Bad that we could interact with without fear or guilt.)
Mo singled out the most fancily dressed person to speak to. Before he went to talk to him, he asked Taman to keep Joybell away from his conversation, because he was going to be lying and didn’t want her interfering. So Taman and Joybell played darts, while Taman listened to the buzz around the bar.
The person Mo spoke to was a city employee who worked in the courts. His job was to keep track of balances owed to the city. Those balances owed to the city usually start as unpaid fines but if, after several opportunities to pay, the debtor doesn’t pay their fines, the city owns them until that debt is paid off. Slaves owned by the city are generally fairly fortunate, because the city does not sell their slaves. The slaves who owe a private debt can be sold to others and often change hands many times.
Mo asked if the slavery is permanent or if it is just for a term of service. The gentleman said that some unfortunates accrue enough debt that it cannot be paid off in their own lifetimes, so their children are enslaved until it is paid off.
Mo asked if there are any groups that have issues with the system or is the city stable? The gentleman said that the city is stable because the city is prosperous. And if there were problems, the Corporations are capable of working together when they need to in order to solve a problem.
Mo: It’s good there’s no insurrection. We’ve had those in our city and it’s been a real problem.
Gentleman, looking at Mo curiously: Tash is having problems?
(He had apparently recognized Mo’s accent.)
Mo: Yes, but don’t let the news out. It would hurt trade.
Gentleman: Yes. Yes it would.
The gentleman then went on to say that the only problems are when slaves are bought from the genies. No one knows how much debt to attach to them. The genies don’t keep records and have no idea of paperwork. The Dao or Efreeti might have just captured them, so the slave isn’t sold with an amount of debt attached. Fortunately genies don’t sell their slaves very often.
Mo: How many genies are there in the city, approximately? Hundreds? Dozens?
Gentleman: Dozens, at most. You don’t need many genies before you have too many genies.
Mo: You can’t tell me that enough. Where do they live?
Gentleman: Mostly in the Heights or around the causeways. They probably don’t live in the city, though -- they probably have gates that take them back to their home planes.
Then the gentleman asked: You’re in town looking for bardic gigs?
Mo: I’m always looking for bardic gigs.
Gentleman: And your armored friends?
Mo: The roads are dangerous, It’s good to have defense.
Gentleman: Self-defense is always a defense. Vendetta sometimes works too.
While this conversation was going on, Taman beat Joybell handily at darts, though it wasn’t as lopsided as Joybell, at least, was expecting. They were going to be listening for some buzz in the bar about the corporations and their different reputations. Joybell got kind of caught up in cheering for good shots and commiserating with Taman when he made bad ones. Taman, who was listening, got the sense that there is not a lot of difference between the Corporations -- they all have a lot of tentacles in every kind of pie in Pelsoreen. Some people have good experiences and some have bad experiences with any of them. All five of them are all about maximizing profit.
Joybell, once the dart game was over and Mo had rejoined us, looked around for anyone in masks, but didn’t see any. She did find a nice looking drunk guy to talk to. As she sat down, Mo looked at the guy with the Eyes of Charming and suggested that he wanted to answer her questions.
He was extremely drunk, but still the first thing he did was ask for a drink. Joybell asked Taman to take his time going to the bar to get another drink -- because it seemed like if he had too much more to drink he wouldn’t be able to talk to her.
Joybell asked about the building they saw that had the sign with the blank mask. It looked so curious, but there were no shop windows or anything so she couldn’t see what they were selling. The drunk guy told them that’s the House of Masks -- if you want someone made dead and don’t care about whether or not there’s a mess left, they’re really good at that. They’re also really good at collecting living children.
Mo: How much for an assassination? I want to know how much value is placed on a human life.
Drunk: 20,000gp for killing.
Mo and Joybell: They value life very highly, apparently.
The drunk told us that it is less for kidnapping or leaving people alive. Getting living children is less expensive than an assassination.
Joybell: If we wanted someone killed, how would we arrange that?
Taman: Walk into their shop, I suppose.
Drunk: He has the right of it.
Joybell: So how do you get them to take children for you?
Drunk: They get children who won’t be missed or looked for.
Joybell: <<didn’t scream>> <<didn’t hit him with her flail>> <<took a deep breath>> I guess you go to their shop for that too, huh?
In the background, Mo and Imaktis started talking about this.
Mo: We’ve killed a lot of people.
Imaktis: Maybe we’re not charging enough.
Joybell: We’ve mostly killed things that are already dead, actually.
Mo cast sleep on the drunk guy and we left the bar. On the way out, Joybell gave the bartender a silver piece and told him to give the guy a drink when he woke up.
Taman: You’re too good for this town.
Joybell: I told him I’d get him a drink.
We head back toward the Heights and the Demasthy library we’d left Orryk and Fiona at.
Back in the Library, Orryk was finding some information about the House of Masks (Joybell’s mask-wearing monsters).
At dinner, we talked about all that we’d learned and discovered during the day.
Orryk: The question you haven’t asked yet is who hired the Masks to take the children from the Wold.
Joybell: <<silence>><<anger>> That is a good question.
Orryk: Whoever hired them may have wanted specifically the children from the Wold. Or may have wanted generic children and they chose that village themselves.
After dinner, Joybell wanted to go back to the House of Masks just to look and see if we could see a pattern of activity. If there were lights in the windows. That sort of thing. Everyone said that she couldn’t do that, because they saw her and she’d be obvious. She wasn’t planning on being right outside the door, or across the street, just down at the end of the block maybe.
Fiona: You can’t do it. You don’t have the skill set.
Taman: I was assuming I’d do it.
Orryk worried that the whole organization would know who we are. Joybell tried to make it clear that she wasn’t going to do anything -- just go be down in the vicinity and see if there was anything she could see from a distance away. She just wanted to gather information, so we have information to know if there’s anything we can do.
So, after dinner, we headed out on our scouting mission. As we left, Orryk put on the Gloves of Swimming and Climbing, just in case.
As we left the Heights going toward the House of Masks in Old Lament, we found ourselves going by the back of Black Irnod’s library. There was a cart parked near the open door (the tradesmen’s entrance). Three of the Masks were there -- one of them was getting a small orc child out of the cart. The other two were standing guard.
We saw this when we were still 100 to 120 feet away. There weren’t any visible guards around, and even if there were they might not have been inclined to help.
Joybell kept on moving in that direction, while the rest of the party stopped to plan. Riding Scooby, she proceeded along, a member of the public on the public thoroughfare, moving at Scooby’s normal pace, not hurrying or charging. When she got about 30’ away she could hear more children from inside the open door -- the masked figure had put the child over his shoulder and was walking to the doorway.
Taman drank his Potion of Invisibility and moved up 90 feet with his move, dash and bonus dash actions. Orryk turned down an alley to see how big the building was and to see what people on the other block were doing.
As Joybell got to about 30 feet away the Mask had the orc child over his shoulder and was turning toward the open door of Black Irnod’s.
Joybell: Hi! It’s a nice night! How’s the kid? He’s sure squalling a lot.
All three Masks turned silently to look at her, then two of them went back to what they had been doing while one continued to stare at her.
Taman snuck up to the one with the child and plucked the kid out of its grasp. Because of the invisibility, the child immediately became invisible when Taman grabbed it. Taman then ran up the street and used the Cape of the Mountebank to dimension door around a corner behind a building.
Joybell, not sure what was going on (all discussion of plans and ideas happened while she was being a member of the public on the public thoroughfare), but guessing that her friends were involved, started freaking out and shouting. Really loud.
Joybell: The kid! He just disappeared. Did he run off!? I’ll help you look for him!
The Masks appeared baffled, confused and disoriented. They were having a moment of utter inability to deal with the changed circumstance. (“Norman, coordinate.”)
Down in their hiding place in an alley, the orc child whispered to Taman in common: “What happened? Big men with masks came through our village. There were six of us in the cart.”
Joybell, “frantically” looking around for the missing child, got a look in through the door -- there were five more orc children in there, all looking terrified, ranging in age from five to ten years old. There was also one guy in a robe.
Joybell: Look at all those kids! Maybe he’s in there! Did you see a missing child, sir? He just disappeared.
Then she cast Moonbeam near the cart (not near any of the Masks -- this was not an attack)(at this time) and blathered about needing more light to find the kid by.
Mo moved up and cast blindness on the two nearest to him. Both failed their saves.
Orryk, not having any non-combat options appropriate to the situation, and unwilling to get in combat, turned into an alley a couple of buildings away to see how people were reacting over there. Taman had taken the child to an alley far even further away and instructed it to stay hidden behind some crates. Fiona, also lacking non-combat options appropriate to the situation, went into the alley behind Orryk.
Despite the blindness the two nearest Masks were able to move up on Mo and attack. One missed but the other hit -- though Mo’s Stone’s Endurance reduced that to a just a scratch. Unfortunately the other one hit as well. At the end of their turn they got another chance to shake off the blindness. One succeeded, but the other didn’t.
Through all of this, the Masks still hadn’t said anything. Their only noises had been athletic grunts of exertion while swinging at Mo.
Joybell did some more screaming and yelling (playing “worried auntie” to the hilt), then noticed that the guy in robes inside the house was radiating vibes of having done something his boss may literally kill him for. All the commotion had what appeared to be a naturally sun-tanned and swarthy man scared pale.
Seeing that, Joybell started yelling, loudly: Is there someone else in there? They can come help too! Help! Help! We have a missing child out here! Please, anyone inside, come help!
Imaktis, who’d been moving up this whole time, was finally able to cast a spiritual weapon just behind the blinded one (the weapon missed) and shillelaghed his club.
Mo cast hold person on the two right in front of him -- the one who’d shaken off the blindness failed to save against the hold, but the other one did. Then he moved toward Joybell on the other side of the cart, despite drawing an attack of opportunity from the one that was still blinded.
Fiona (after failing an Int check with advantage) continued up the alley after Orryk and cast a Mage Armor on herself.
Joybell continued screaming and carrying on and playing worried auntie -- trying to get the wizard inside to come out and help look for the child, trying to get the Masks to help look. Then she sent her Moonbeam around the corner of the building (to get more light over there), parking it on top of one of the Masks.
From inside the building, both Joybell and Mo heard someone say: Tarly, what have you done?
The young man in robes in the vestibule looked even more scared at that.
Orryk emerged out of the alley into the street on the other side of the building. The people on the street over there were all studiously ignoring all of the commotion from the other side of the building. No one was going to come help people find a missing child. But no one was going to come interfere with us rescuing them either.
The Mask nearest to Mo swung at him -- Joybell used her shield to protect him from the first attack, but the second one got through. The one in the Moonbeam took some small amount of damage from the spell.
Joybell: I’m sorry! I’ve never cast that spell before. I didn’t know it would do that!
The young man inside, apparently Tarly, turned around and said to the person inside: J-just some beggars…
It was not a persuasive lie.
Imaktis moved his spiritual weapon to the held one, but missed with it despite swinging at a paralyzed opponent. He did hit with the shillelagh.
Orryk continued to the front door of Black Irnod’s library. The door was unlocked and inside the door was a reception desk with a bell. He began to ring the bell.
Mo quaffed a greater healing potion and then cast healing word on himself and moved to a new position behind Joybell, which made both of them feel better.
Fiona continued up the alley and came out onto the other side of the building.
With the child hidden in an alley, Taman moved up to range and took a shot at the held one -- got a crit on a sneak attack and did 14 points of damage.
Joybell continued the frantic worried auntie routine, going carefully around the Mask standing nearest to the door (so she could not be interpreted as attacking him, and so she would not draw an opportunity attack) and went right to the doorway. She didn’t go inside, because that might be wrong and she’d said she wasn’t going to do anything wrong.
As she got to the door, an interior door opened and a tall guy in comfortable looking robes came into the mudroom. He was livid.
Irnod: Tarly, did you do a deal with the Masks? Why are there living people here?
Joybell: I’m so glad you’re here, sir! There are all these children here and another one just went missing from outside! I was hoping he’d come help look.
Irnod, to the Masks: Your delivery is accepted. You may go.
At that the Masks got onto their cart (when Mo released the Hold spell on the one) and drove away.
Irnod, to Joybell: Do you know where these children belong?
Joybell: No, but I’m sure we can find out and we’ll be happy to get them to a safe situation.
Irnod: There are probably places or people in the city who can help.
Joybell: We’ll make sure they’re taken care of.
Joybell and Mo got the children out of Black Irnod’s, gently and without being unnecessarily scary. Taman went back to where he hid the child he rescued and brought him back to the group.
Orryk continued ringing the bell at the desk for a minute or more. Eventually an interior door opened, with a whiff of burned flesh, and Irnod came through.
Orryk: I heard that you take corpses, but I just saw a delivery of a live child at the back door. Is there a different fee at that entrance?
Irnod: My apprentice was making an error. He will not be making another one.
Orryk: Very good. Is there any usual way to obtain a corpse for the entrance fee?
Irnod: Self-defense. Here in Pelsoreen, vendetta is also a reason. The corpses we receive don’t come back.
Orryk asked what the library specialized in and was told anatomy and medicine.
Down at the back entrance, Taman, Imaktis, Joybell and Mo were gathering up the (probably) orphaned orc children, the Orcphans, and getting ready to take them back to the Flaming Quill for the night.
Mo, joking: We could sell these children to a genie.
Joybell: Mo W. Kang!!
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
Before we got started there were two corrections to information previously imparted by the GM:
- Overland distances are greater than originally reported by a factor of approximately 3. [The GM believes he has fixed this one, above]
- The Guard are paying us 3 silver a day, and room and board, instead of one silver a day. We’re rich!
19 Sunnin 748 (Campaign day 20) (immediately after the previous)
We got some information about Pelsoreen, based on talking with Jorly the Innkeeper at the Flaming Quill and looking at the map Orryk bought.
Geographically the city is two islands near the mouth of the Gramolos River connected by footbridges, not large enough for cart travel. The smaller, upstream island is called The Breaks and is a lower-class area with slaughterhouses and poultry farming. The larger island is the bulk of the city of Pelsoreen. The Currentside district, which has the river port, is on the upstream side of the larger island. The islands are very hilly and the larger has a perimeter road which gets most of the cart traffic, and the most heavy traffic. About a half mile out toward the ocean is a breakwater that protects the ocean port and its vessels from the sea. Even despite the breakwater, though, the Gramolos River gets a tidal bore and flows backwards for a time every high tide.
There are two causeways connecting the larger island to the banks of the river, each about a mile long. The one to the right bank (as you’re facing downstream) is called Ovverway and leads to the road that parallels the river toward Ov and Tash. The left bank causeway is called Mountainway and leads to a road that goes into the Dunnimar Mountains. The causeways rise from the bottom of the river for an hour and a half at sunrise and sunset on a set, semi-alternating schedule.
There are several districts in on the larger island: The ocean port is in a district called Waveside. The Heights is the nicest and wealthiest parts of town -- in addition to expensive houses there are also city offices and upscale businesses. This is also where the colleges and libraries are. Located. The Stonetree district has nice hotels and upscale brothels, as well as some upper-middle class homes. This is not where the Flaming Quill is located however. That is in Thani’s Truth, which where a lot of the students live, as it’s near the part of the Heights with the colleges. Bloom Cliffs is a series of terraces from the high hilltop down to the sea and it is where all of the agriculture that takes place within the city is located -- fruit orchards, vegetable gardens, and some terraces dedicated to growing plants for spell components, alchemical work, and herbal medicines and other concoctions. The Old Lament district is close to Waveside and is where the banks, gambling dens, slave pens, skeevy brothels, and the Courts are located.
Slavery has arisen in Pelsoreen mostly since the Severance, though there have been genies since the city was founded.
All of the schools of magic and the libraries are located in the Heights district, where they are safe from the periodic tsunamis the city suffers. There are two colleges, or collegiate libraries:
- Thani-Breel - Which focuses on theoretical knowledge and the Planes. To get into this library there is a test of knowledge.
- The Demasthy - Which focuses on practical magic and history. To get into this library there is a practical test of ability.
There are other smaller and more focused libraries, which one needs a reference to get into. In addition to whatever entrance fee they charge.
Jorly also told us that there are five Corporations that run the city -- what we were thinking of as mob “families”. They are not geographically separated -- no corporation “runs” or “owns” the Heights, for example. But almost all the buildings in the city (except those that are city owned, like the courts and the buildings associated with various city offices) have one or more plaques outside indicating which corporation or corporations they’ve paid to affiliate with (or paid for protection). The signs are (at least) plated with copper, silver and gold. The preciousness of the metal involved indicates how tightly the building has affiliated itself (i.e. how much it has paid). Some buildings will have multiple copper signs for multiple corporations, but it is rare to see more than one silver or gold sign.
The Five Corporations are:
- Corbus & Coldin (logo: an intertwined C&C)
- Ammidorse & Sons (logo: a caravel ship)
- The Brass Giant (logo: an armored humanoid figure)
- Dallington’s (logo: the head of a bighorn ram in profile)
- The Blink Toad (logo: a one-eyed toad)
The Flaming Quill had a silver sign with an armored figure -- the emblem of the Brass Giant corporation.
Before we left the Flaming Quill to look into the libraries, we went up to our room to stow some of our stuff. When she opened her pack, Joybell gave out a yelp and went pale and stiff when she saw something in her pack.
She put it on the bed for the others to see -- it was a divination card, like a Tarot card, showing a person, recognizably Joybell, in a city, with an out-of-focus wolf behind her, looking determined and frightened and holding a blank mask. She told the others that this card had been following her for years. She left it at the Henge deliberately. She’s also left it at her parents’ house and in fields. It’s why, she believes, she almost didn’t get accepted as a novice at the Wold -- because this horrible card was following her. The picture changes -- it showed her unhappy with trees, which is utter nonsense because she loved trees and the Wold. The last time she saw it, just before she left the Henge to go to Embernook (the day before the campaign started), she looked happy, or at least satisfied, and was wearing armor and had a sword with black stone behind her.
Joybell: It’s been following me since I was a kid. I hate it.
Fiona cast detect magic followed by identify. The card is indeed magical and has an aura of divination. The card is a Card of the Wheel -- it does not require attunement and is not really cursed, but they do sometimes attach themselves to a person. They show a probable near future. But not a definite one.
As we left the hotel room, Joybell left the card on the wash \stand in the room with a note saying “Please feel free to steal this”.
Then we headed out toward the magical colleges. Orryk and Fiona wanted to go to The Demasthy first, so we headed in that direction. The Demasthy is the library dedicated to practical magic and history -- to get in one must demonstrate ability. We had no problems getting onto the university campus -- we don’t exactly look like students (except Fiona and Orryk) but the campuses are open and free to enter.
At the library, there was an anteroom with a reception desk. University students have a badge that lets them get in. Those without the badge must cast spells that produce fire, cold, thunder, lightning and acid. While the rest of us were figuring out if this was even going to be possible, Fiona cast Chromatic Orb, which can (with different castings) produce all five. Satisfied with that, the attendant gave her a card permitting admission. With that card, she could take in one additional person, which was Orryk, of course.
Team Library rides again.
The rest of us, Mo, Imaktis, Taman and Joybell (Team Gettin’ In Trouble) headed down to the Old Lament district. We had a few research interests -- we wanted to see the slave pens and talk to a slave or two, if possible. Mo wanted to know how closely held the slaves are -- are any free-roaming people that we could talk to or are they always closely accompanied by their masters We wanted to see what we could learn about the five Corporations -- their reputations, the distribution of their emblems on houses, etc. Joybell wanted to find a temple and talk to the priests/clerics inside just to get a sense of the religious life of the city.
Joybell: Even bad people need religion.
We went from the Heights, through Thani’s Truth (a bit out of the way, but it let us see more of the variety in the city), to Old Lament to get a bit of perspective on the city and its people.
Observing the Corporate affiliation plaques we noticed that the residences and buildings have them. In the Heights the representation was pretty balanced. In Old Lament, C&C and Ammidorse & Sons were perhaps over-represented and the Brass Giant (as at the Flaming Quill) was perhaps under-represented. The plaques seemed to go in clusters or seams - all the houses in a row or block seemed to have the same ones.
Back at the library, Fiona was looking for information on the Severance and on pre-Severance history. Working together she and Orryk learned the following:
- The first tidal wave in Pelsoreen was heralded by the sky going black. People heard a banging or a roaring out over the ocean and then the tsunami hit. This was the first notice anyone had of the Severance -- clerics couldn’t get spells to heal people and deal with the disaster by praying to their gods. Just before the sky went black and the tidal wave hit, prayers for spells had been answered as normal.
- There have been three tsunamis since the Severance have also been heralded by the sky going black and the banging over the ocean, but there was no additional supernatural effect like the Severance.
- Inside one of the history books, Fiona finds a small piece of very old vellum that has written on it, in Celestial, “I’m sorry”. This is the same handwriting as a letter (or document) that Fiona found when she was adventuring with a dragonborn friend in a temple in an abandoned village. The document describes a group of people from another plane finding a stone table with names of the gods carved on the table.
- The Outer Chaos isn’t a plane -- it is (or it lives in, it’s a little unclear) the space between planes (like between the Material Plane and the Astral Plane). In mortal time scales it is not aware of us at all and it doesn’t appear to be reacting to mortals at all. Contact with it makes mortals crazy. (When we talked about this at dinner Joybell would have been wondering how warlocks make pacts with something so entirely indifferent and possibly not even sentient. But she didn’t raise the question.)
- There was no new information about Orcus.
As they were going along toward Old Lament, Joybell spotted a temple of an Order she was unfamiliar with, The Purveyors and Wrights. They were priests of the Forge and Travel and appeared to be a temple of merchants -- people who make and transport things. We went in to talk to the priest there. Joybell asked the priest what kind of religious life the people of Pelsoreen have.
Priest: As expensive as they can afford.
Joybell gave him a gold piece.
He chuckled and said that some pay to have questions answered (pocketing the gold), some pay to be seen by others, some pay to be seen as people who come to the temples, some pay to make social and business connections among other merchants and manufacturers. Some pay the temple for services they can actually provide -- healing, assistance making things, curing diseases. And some legitimately come out of religious sentiment to pray.
This pragmatic religious life is typical of the people here -- certainly a plurality if not a majority of his parishioners are there for reasons other than religious sentiment.
Joybell asked him about getting to the druid circle on the island that she’d heard about. He said that there are almost always vessels for hire both Currentside and Waveside -- we just need to hire a ship with a captain who knows where to go. He recommended a captain who was one of his parishioners -- Captain Doyard of The Elephant, who docked at Waveside. At the least, he wouldn’t take our money if he couldn’t actually take us there.
As we left, Mo hung back to talk to the priest privately, handing him 5gp. Mo asked after an apothecary or alchemist that is discreet and doesn’t ask questions. Whoever would be discrete about what he’s going to be looking for. The priest gave him two names: A rock gnome alchemist in Stonetree named Burnocka and a wood elf herbalist in Bloom Cliffs named Turalee. One or the other of them should be able to help with whatever Mo is looking for.
Then we continued on our way to Old Lament.
As we were walking around, Taman pointed out a store with a sign in the shape of a blank mask hanging from a sign bracket. The sign was hanging out in front of a building that was one of a row of mostly businesses. There were no windows, only a closed door, at the street level. Taman went up to the door and poked his head in. The room was small, with a door in the back wall. As he looked in, three Goliath-sized people wearing masks, armor and with sheathed longswords turned to look at him in unison.
Taman: I was wondering what kind of store this is.
Masks (in unison): This is not a store. We do not sell goods.
Taman: Then your sign is misleading.
Masks (in unison): It is who we are.
Joybell, peeking in under Taman’s arm, saw that the masks looked like the mask that’s on her card now.
Taman apologized for disturbing them and we left.
So we’d remember where we were, because Orryk had the map he’d bought from Jorly in the library with him, Mo used the Flute of Scribing to write, in Dwarven, on the sidewalk across the street: “You are here” in non-glowing letters.
Joybell looked around at the building and the near environs of it -- there are 10’ wide alleys on either side of the house, which is on a narrow lot. There are five houses on either side of it, with alleys separating them, on this block. Joybell went down one of the alleys to see what was there. There were no windows on the ground level even in the alley. The back of the building had a fenced yard, but the fence was not well-maintained. Through some missing slats we could see that there is a back door (still no windows on the ground floor, though there are some on the 2nd floor). The fenced yard ran back to another fenced yard which was behind another similar building that faced onto a different street. That street seemed to be more residential.
The building was under the protection of C&C, with a silver sign.
Joybell wanted to watch over the house and see the masked people coming and going -- to get a sense of numbers and movements and maybe what they’re up to.
Imaktis: It’s their town.
Instead, we continued on our walk around in Old Lament. Mo was keeping his eyes open for any slaves, but we hadn’t seen any we were sure about. We’d seen some people walking together where there was an apparent disparity in wealth and/or power, but we weren’t positive we’d seen slaves out with their masters.
We tried to figure out if there was some way we could tell which people were slaves -- but we didn’t notice anything like brands or tattoos.
(Joybell was also looking for people in masks, but didn’t see any.)
We made our way toward the Courthouse and found ourselves going by some of the slave pens. These were open sided buildings, just roofs without any walls, with prison-like hallways between rows of cages with varying numbers of people in them. The slave pens are open to the public (one supposes so that people can shop) and we were able to walk around and look at the people. There were slave pens under the protection of each of the corporations, so there doesn’t appear to be any corporation that is not involved in the city’s slave trade.
There we noticed that all the slaves have pink eyes -- the irises, not the whites. Imaktis and Joybell consulted about this -- Imaktis contributing knowledge of medicine and Joybell contributing knowledge of herbs and they figured out that this is caused by a medical/herbal concoction that works on every humanoid race. While it might make the slaves a bit more docile, its primary effect is to make the visible mark of slavery. It has to be re-administered every few months, but there is an antidote that can end the effect early if one’s period of servitude ends before the effect wears off.
Once we knew what to look for, we could see slaves doing all kinds of work -- those who were slaves due to debt were using whatever skills they had to pay what they owed. Those who were unskilled were working doing physical labor, repairing buildings, hauling materials, and so on.
Mo was watching to find a slave he could strike up a conversation with -- one that was moving freely without supervision or observation -- but there weren’t so many of those in this part of town. Perhaps in a nicer part of town we’d find more of that.
We went into a bar near the courthouse to talk to people, listen to people and generally gather some information. We were hoping that we’d find lawyers in a bar near the courts. Mo wanted to learn if there was an abolition movement or if there is any instability or insurrection. Joybell wanted to learn more about the mask-people and the different reputations of the various corporations. (What she really wanted to know if there was one that was maybe secretly Not Bad that we could interact with without fear or guilt.)
Mo singled out the most fancily dressed person to speak to. Before he went to talk to him, he asked Taman to keep Joybell away from his conversation, because he was going to be lying and didn’t want her interfering. So Taman and Joybell played darts, while Taman listened to the buzz around the bar.
The person Mo spoke to was a city employee who worked in the courts. His job was to keep track of balances owed to the city. Those balances owed to the city usually start as unpaid fines but if, after several opportunities to pay, the debtor doesn’t pay their fines, the city owns them until that debt is paid off. Slaves owned by the city are generally fairly fortunate, because the city does not sell their slaves. The slaves who owe a private debt can be sold to others and often change hands many times.
Mo asked if the slavery is permanent or if it is just for a term of service. The gentleman said that some unfortunates accrue enough debt that it cannot be paid off in their own lifetimes, so their children are enslaved until it is paid off.
Mo asked if there are any groups that have issues with the system or is the city stable? The gentleman said that the city is stable because the city is prosperous. And if there were problems, the Corporations are capable of working together when they need to in order to solve a problem.
Mo: It’s good there’s no insurrection. We’ve had those in our city and it’s been a real problem.
Gentleman, looking at Mo curiously: Tash is having problems?
(He had apparently recognized Mo’s accent.)
Mo: Yes, but don’t let the news out. It would hurt trade.
Gentleman: Yes. Yes it would.
The gentleman then went on to say that the only problems are when slaves are bought from the genies. No one knows how much debt to attach to them. The genies don’t keep records and have no idea of paperwork. The Dao or Efreeti might have just captured them, so the slave isn’t sold with an amount of debt attached. Fortunately genies don’t sell their slaves very often.
Mo: How many genies are there in the city, approximately? Hundreds? Dozens?
Gentleman: Dozens, at most. You don’t need many genies before you have too many genies.
Mo: You can’t tell me that enough. Where do they live?
Gentleman: Mostly in the Heights or around the causeways. They probably don’t live in the city, though -- they probably have gates that take them back to their home planes.
Then the gentleman asked: You’re in town looking for bardic gigs?
Mo: I’m always looking for bardic gigs.
Gentleman: And your armored friends?
Mo: The roads are dangerous, It’s good to have defense.
Gentleman: Self-defense is always a defense. Vendetta sometimes works too.
While this conversation was going on, Taman beat Joybell handily at darts, though it wasn’t as lopsided as Joybell, at least, was expecting. They were going to be listening for some buzz in the bar about the corporations and their different reputations. Joybell got kind of caught up in cheering for good shots and commiserating with Taman when he made bad ones. Taman, who was listening, got the sense that there is not a lot of difference between the Corporations -- they all have a lot of tentacles in every kind of pie in Pelsoreen. Some people have good experiences and some have bad experiences with any of them. All five of them are all about maximizing profit.
Joybell, once the dart game was over and Mo had rejoined us, looked around for anyone in masks, but didn’t see any. She did find a nice looking drunk guy to talk to. As she sat down, Mo looked at the guy with the Eyes of Charming and suggested that he wanted to answer her questions.
He was extremely drunk, but still the first thing he did was ask for a drink. Joybell asked Taman to take his time going to the bar to get another drink -- because it seemed like if he had too much more to drink he wouldn’t be able to talk to her.
Joybell asked about the building they saw that had the sign with the blank mask. It looked so curious, but there were no shop windows or anything so she couldn’t see what they were selling. The drunk guy told them that’s the House of Masks -- if you want someone made dead and don’t care about whether or not there’s a mess left, they’re really good at that. They’re also really good at collecting living children.
Mo: How much for an assassination? I want to know how much value is placed on a human life.
Drunk: 20,000gp for killing.
Mo and Joybell: They value life very highly, apparently.
The drunk told us that it is less for kidnapping or leaving people alive. Getting living children is less expensive than an assassination.
Joybell: If we wanted someone killed, how would we arrange that?
Taman: Walk into their shop, I suppose.
Drunk: He has the right of it.
Joybell: So how do you get them to take children for you?
Drunk: They get children who won’t be missed or looked for.
Joybell: <<didn’t scream>> <<didn’t hit him with her flail>> <<took a deep breath>> I guess you go to their shop for that too, huh?
In the background, Mo and Imaktis started talking about this.
Mo: We’ve killed a lot of people.
Imaktis: Maybe we’re not charging enough.
Joybell: We’ve mostly killed things that are already dead, actually.
Mo cast sleep on the drunk guy and we left the bar. On the way out, Joybell gave the bartender a silver piece and told him to give the guy a drink when he woke up.
Taman: You’re too good for this town.
Joybell: I told him I’d get him a drink.
We head back toward the Heights and the Demasthy library we’d left Orryk and Fiona at.
Back in the Library, Orryk was finding some information about the House of Masks (Joybell’s mask-wearing monsters).
- There is no record of how they came to be, but they’re known to have been in that house in Pelsoreen for a few hundred years.
- It has never been known that there were more than six or ten in Pelsoreen.
- They have been recorded north of Auriqua and in many cities and various wilderness areas all over Urnod. They only have an open and obvious storefront in Pelsoreen (because Pelsoreen is the only city where this kind of operation can work so openly).
- When paid 20,000gp for an assassination, they will do anything they have to do to take that one person. There are records of them showing up by the dozen to get to a particularly well protected target.
- This wasn’t from the library, but Barnett told us that he saw them robbing a caravan up north of Auriqua. They weren’t especially interested in killing people or stealing children. They took what they wanted and left. So either they needed something that the caravan was carrying in order to get to an assassination target or they sometimes take jobs other than assassination or kidnapping.
- The Steel Crucible - to get in you need to be able to make something
- Carveen’s - to get in you need to give them a blood sample that they don’t already have (so your own blood would work for the first visit, but then you’d need to give them someone else’s blood).
- Black Irnod’s - to get in you need to give them a corpse or corpses. The more corpses you give them, the longer you can stay doing research. There appears to also be some sort of consideration of the quality of the corpses in this corpses-for-time calculus.
At dinner, we talked about all that we’d learned and discovered during the day.
Orryk: The question you haven’t asked yet is who hired the Masks to take the children from the Wold.
Joybell: <<silence>><<anger>> That is a good question.
Orryk: Whoever hired them may have wanted specifically the children from the Wold. Or may have wanted generic children and they chose that village themselves.
After dinner, Joybell wanted to go back to the House of Masks just to look and see if we could see a pattern of activity. If there were lights in the windows. That sort of thing. Everyone said that she couldn’t do that, because they saw her and she’d be obvious. She wasn’t planning on being right outside the door, or across the street, just down at the end of the block maybe.
Fiona: You can’t do it. You don’t have the skill set.
Taman: I was assuming I’d do it.
Orryk worried that the whole organization would know who we are. Joybell tried to make it clear that she wasn’t going to do anything -- just go be down in the vicinity and see if there was anything she could see from a distance away. She just wanted to gather information, so we have information to know if there’s anything we can do.
So, after dinner, we headed out on our scouting mission. As we left, Orryk put on the Gloves of Swimming and Climbing, just in case.
As we left the Heights going toward the House of Masks in Old Lament, we found ourselves going by the back of Black Irnod’s library. There was a cart parked near the open door (the tradesmen’s entrance). Three of the Masks were there -- one of them was getting a small orc child out of the cart. The other two were standing guard.
We saw this when we were still 100 to 120 feet away. There weren’t any visible guards around, and even if there were they might not have been inclined to help.
Joybell kept on moving in that direction, while the rest of the party stopped to plan. Riding Scooby, she proceeded along, a member of the public on the public thoroughfare, moving at Scooby’s normal pace, not hurrying or charging. When she got about 30’ away she could hear more children from inside the open door -- the masked figure had put the child over his shoulder and was walking to the doorway.
Taman drank his Potion of Invisibility and moved up 90 feet with his move, dash and bonus dash actions. Orryk turned down an alley to see how big the building was and to see what people on the other block were doing.
As Joybell got to about 30 feet away the Mask had the orc child over his shoulder and was turning toward the open door of Black Irnod’s.
Joybell: Hi! It’s a nice night! How’s the kid? He’s sure squalling a lot.
All three Masks turned silently to look at her, then two of them went back to what they had been doing while one continued to stare at her.
Taman snuck up to the one with the child and plucked the kid out of its grasp. Because of the invisibility, the child immediately became invisible when Taman grabbed it. Taman then ran up the street and used the Cape of the Mountebank to dimension door around a corner behind a building.
Joybell, not sure what was going on (all discussion of plans and ideas happened while she was being a member of the public on the public thoroughfare), but guessing that her friends were involved, started freaking out and shouting. Really loud.
Joybell: The kid! He just disappeared. Did he run off!? I’ll help you look for him!
The Masks appeared baffled, confused and disoriented. They were having a moment of utter inability to deal with the changed circumstance. (“Norman, coordinate.”)
Down in their hiding place in an alley, the orc child whispered to Taman in common: “What happened? Big men with masks came through our village. There were six of us in the cart.”
Joybell, “frantically” looking around for the missing child, got a look in through the door -- there were five more orc children in there, all looking terrified, ranging in age from five to ten years old. There was also one guy in a robe.
Joybell: Look at all those kids! Maybe he’s in there! Did you see a missing child, sir? He just disappeared.
Then she cast Moonbeam near the cart (not near any of the Masks -- this was not an attack)(at this time) and blathered about needing more light to find the kid by.
Mo moved up and cast blindness on the two nearest to him. Both failed their saves.
Orryk, not having any non-combat options appropriate to the situation, and unwilling to get in combat, turned into an alley a couple of buildings away to see how people were reacting over there. Taman had taken the child to an alley far even further away and instructed it to stay hidden behind some crates. Fiona, also lacking non-combat options appropriate to the situation, went into the alley behind Orryk.
Despite the blindness the two nearest Masks were able to move up on Mo and attack. One missed but the other hit -- though Mo’s Stone’s Endurance reduced that to a just a scratch. Unfortunately the other one hit as well. At the end of their turn they got another chance to shake off the blindness. One succeeded, but the other didn’t.
Through all of this, the Masks still hadn’t said anything. Their only noises had been athletic grunts of exertion while swinging at Mo.
Joybell did some more screaming and yelling (playing “worried auntie” to the hilt), then noticed that the guy in robes inside the house was radiating vibes of having done something his boss may literally kill him for. All the commotion had what appeared to be a naturally sun-tanned and swarthy man scared pale.
Seeing that, Joybell started yelling, loudly: Is there someone else in there? They can come help too! Help! Help! We have a missing child out here! Please, anyone inside, come help!
Imaktis, who’d been moving up this whole time, was finally able to cast a spiritual weapon just behind the blinded one (the weapon missed) and shillelaghed his club.
Mo cast hold person on the two right in front of him -- the one who’d shaken off the blindness failed to save against the hold, but the other one did. Then he moved toward Joybell on the other side of the cart, despite drawing an attack of opportunity from the one that was still blinded.
Fiona (after failing an Int check with advantage) continued up the alley after Orryk and cast a Mage Armor on herself.
Joybell continued screaming and carrying on and playing worried auntie -- trying to get the wizard inside to come out and help look for the child, trying to get the Masks to help look. Then she sent her Moonbeam around the corner of the building (to get more light over there), parking it on top of one of the Masks.
From inside the building, both Joybell and Mo heard someone say: Tarly, what have you done?
The young man in robes in the vestibule looked even more scared at that.
Orryk emerged out of the alley into the street on the other side of the building. The people on the street over there were all studiously ignoring all of the commotion from the other side of the building. No one was going to come help people find a missing child. But no one was going to come interfere with us rescuing them either.
The Mask nearest to Mo swung at him -- Joybell used her shield to protect him from the first attack, but the second one got through. The one in the Moonbeam took some small amount of damage from the spell.
Joybell: I’m sorry! I’ve never cast that spell before. I didn’t know it would do that!
The young man inside, apparently Tarly, turned around and said to the person inside: J-just some beggars…
It was not a persuasive lie.
Imaktis moved his spiritual weapon to the held one, but missed with it despite swinging at a paralyzed opponent. He did hit with the shillelagh.
Orryk continued to the front door of Black Irnod’s library. The door was unlocked and inside the door was a reception desk with a bell. He began to ring the bell.
Mo quaffed a greater healing potion and then cast healing word on himself and moved to a new position behind Joybell, which made both of them feel better.
Fiona continued up the alley and came out onto the other side of the building.
With the child hidden in an alley, Taman moved up to range and took a shot at the held one -- got a crit on a sneak attack and did 14 points of damage.
Joybell continued the frantic worried auntie routine, going carefully around the Mask standing nearest to the door (so she could not be interpreted as attacking him, and so she would not draw an opportunity attack) and went right to the doorway. She didn’t go inside, because that might be wrong and she’d said she wasn’t going to do anything wrong.
As she got to the door, an interior door opened and a tall guy in comfortable looking robes came into the mudroom. He was livid.
Irnod: Tarly, did you do a deal with the Masks? Why are there living people here?
Joybell: I’m so glad you’re here, sir! There are all these children here and another one just went missing from outside! I was hoping he’d come help look.
Irnod, to the Masks: Your delivery is accepted. You may go.
At that the Masks got onto their cart (when Mo released the Hold spell on the one) and drove away.
Irnod, to Joybell: Do you know where these children belong?
Joybell: No, but I’m sure we can find out and we’ll be happy to get them to a safe situation.
Irnod: There are probably places or people in the city who can help.
Joybell: We’ll make sure they’re taken care of.
Joybell and Mo got the children out of Black Irnod’s, gently and without being unnecessarily scary. Taman went back to where he hid the child he rescued and brought him back to the group.
Orryk continued ringing the bell at the desk for a minute or more. Eventually an interior door opened, with a whiff of burned flesh, and Irnod came through.
Orryk: I heard that you take corpses, but I just saw a delivery of a live child at the back door. Is there a different fee at that entrance?
Irnod: My apprentice was making an error. He will not be making another one.
Orryk: Very good. Is there any usual way to obtain a corpse for the entrance fee?
Irnod: Self-defense. Here in Pelsoreen, vendetta is also a reason. The corpses we receive don’t come back.
Orryk asked what the library specialized in and was told anatomy and medicine.
Down at the back entrance, Taman, Imaktis, Joybell and Mo were gathering up the (probably) orphaned orc children, the Orcphans, and getting ready to take them back to the Flaming Quill for the night.
Mo, joking: We could sell these children to a genie.
Joybell: Mo W. Kang!!
: coughing:: and Imaktis was actually sick)
