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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: 8058161" data-attributes="member: 7016699"><p><span style="font-size: 15px"> Session 5: Talking and Parlaying</span></p><p></p><p>Dramatis Personae:</p><p></p><p>Imaktis - Tortle Cleric (Nature)/Shadow Sorcerer</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></p><p>GM - Everyone Else</p><p></p><p></p><p>5 Sunnin 748 (later that night) (Campaign day 6)</p><p></p><p>After meeting with Tulmor and Barnett and passing off the Crazy Book (in pages) and Harl’s journal to them, we retired for the night.</p><p></p><p></p><p>6 Sunnin 748 (Campaign day 7)</p><p></p><p>The next morning, Joybell woke up early so she could ask Orryk to do some research for her next time he was at Tulmor and Barnett’s library before they went to the Pewter Oar to gather with the others for breakfast. She asked him to find out what he could about humanoid figures, about the size of a troll or an ogre that took the children from a city. She knows they were wearing shiny armor like a breastplate with blank masks and carrying swords and shields and longbows. It was described to her that they fought as a coordinated unit, so when one was attacked the others seemed to know.</p><p></p><p>Orryk said he’d look into that at the library -- then everyone met up at the Pewter Oar. After breakfast we went to report to Chief Ullar Truehammer about what happened up in Kalmarn. We also asked if that was actually in his jurisdiction and were told that it is, in the sense that Embernook sort of controls some of the area around it (as a city-state, sort of) and Kalmarn is in Embernook’s protected area.</p><p></p><p>Imaktis had an idea about the Earth giving us some of the answers that we need -- and it sort of made sense to Joybell, but it was hard to convey to the others.</p><p></p><p>Chief Truehammer told us that nothing happened in Embernook while we were off in Kalmarn dealing with the Allip and the Whispering Ghouls (which seems a good name for them). At least nothing like undead or risen corpses. After a bit of figuring, we think that what happened in Kalmarn happened about 7 or 8 days ago, which would put it contemporaneous with the first Shadowpool and the first zombie outbreak in Embernook.</p><p></p><p>All the official people we have run into are telling us that this is all unrelated, but it still seems awfully coincidental that there was an undead outbreak in Kalmarn on the same day that the first shadowpool in Embernook ripened and went active. It’s like the Shadow of Orcus is over the city and its environs or something.</p><p></p><p>After reporting to Truehammer, we figured out what we wanted to do for the day. Fiona and Orryk, naturally, wanted to go to Tulmor and Barnett’s library. Of course. Taman, Mo, and Joybell wanted to try to find Alin, the former foreman at Istin’s Yard, who’d been seen acting strange by someone Mo talked to when he was working as a stevedore in Deepport. Imaktis wanted to talk to his special “contacts” in the Nook and Pierton (and then hook up with Taman, Mo and Joybell in Deepport).</p><p></p><p>Mo, Joybell and Taman (Team Deepport) planned to look for places where Alin might have found work -- anyone can do basic stevedoring (pick up box and move it as directed) but Alin also had shipwright skills and management skills.</p><p></p><p>Their first stop was at Ser Istin’s house (the owner of Istin’s Yard) to ask if he had an address for Alin. The Butler told them that Istin wasn’t there -- he was at the shipyard working on paperwork and getting the yard operating again. They still had that contract to do repairs on that ship, after all. So they went off to Istin’s Yard…</p><p></p><p>Orryk and Fiona (Team Library) went off to Tulmor and Barnett’s library. The first question they asked came out of an attempt to get at Imaktis’ idea about the Earth having the answers -- they asked about another library that might have more ancient history and folklore in it. They were told that the best library on Urnod (the continent) is in the city New Arvai, which is at the mouth of the river Embernook is on. It’s a couple of weeks travel away. It’s not a formal library, per se, (there isn’t an order of archivists or anything) but there is a collective of wizards in New Arvai that shares students and shares educational resources. Harl was from there.</p><p></p><p>As far as other libraries in (or near) Embernook, Harl had the best one. (There was a moment of silence for Harl’s library at this). They didn’t have any suggestions for where to look for histories of undead outbreaks (beyond what they’ve found regarding Orcus and his warlocks becoming wights when Orcus manifests in the Prime Material plane).</p><p></p><p>As far as Joybell’s research, Barnett (the more recent and extensive adventurer of the two of them) said that the masked figures rang a bell with him. He didn’t remember them going after kids, but he had personally run into them at some point in his adventuring past. He’d never figured out where they were from or what they were doing. He’d been part of a caravan up in the mountains and forests up north. They never communicated demands or asked for anything; they just attacked the caravan. He had the sense that if he and his compatriots hadn’t fought them, they would have taken what they wanted and left. He said they attacked as one -- fighting them was like being in a swarm of goliaths. He said they were hard to hurt and hard to kill -- not that they were exactly resistant to damage of various sorts, but they were like trolls. He saw one re-attach a severed limb just by sticking it back on. The spellcasters found that Necrotic damage seemed to stop them from healing in the middle of battle, but the beasts were resistant to it.</p><p></p><p>Barnett asked why Orryk and Fiona were asking about it -- Orryk said because Joybell had inquired. (When they were together again, presumably later, Joybell said that her experience was to the south, not the north, and only a few week’s travel away.)</p><p></p><p>Imaktis (alone by himself as Team Brothel) went to interact with the women in the fancy houses he’d been frequenting. Over the course of the morning, he asked around at several establishments and spoke to several women. He learned that Alin was an occasional customer but not a regular. He didn’t have a particular girl he’d seek out, he’d just take who was available. Imaktis managed to find the most recent girl he “visited” with and had a talk with her. Alin never said anything about where he went when he wanted to be alone -- she had the sense that when things were tense for him at home he’d come to the brothels. He never gave her a creepy vibe. And the last time she was him was about 4 weeks ago, so well before the troubles started.</p><p></p><p>Imaktis thanked her and proceeded to Deepport to hook up with that group.</p><p></p><p>Team Deepport (Mo, Taman and Joybell) went from Ser Istin’s house to Istin’s Yard. The ship looked much like it had when they left it after the zombie/wight incident (“The Incident”). Occasionally someone would go out of the office and onto the ship, then return minutes later, but it didn’t appear that there was any work being done on the ship.</p><p></p><p>In the office, Istin (and some other people) were doing a methodical examination of the files and records. He gave us Alin’s address (or at least directions to where Alin lives, since street numbers haven’t been invented yet) nearby.</p><p></p><p>Ser Istin told them that very little work had been happening in the yard from well before The Incident -- at least a couple of weeks before it seemed like Alin was winding things down. Some of the workers were just on call but not actually working, some were being paid for a day’s work and then sent home. Alin wasn’t assigning them other work, he was just sending them home. Taman and Mo didn’t think that Istin was lying to them or even holding anything back. He appeared to be open and honest. The only thing like work that seemed to be happening was that Alin was paying people to move things onto the ship then paying a different crew on a different time to move the same stuff back off the ship.</p><p></p><p>Ser Istin had been to Alin’s lodgings since The Incident, since he was not among the dead and is still not accounted for, and no one there had seen him since that night. Alin did not have any family that anyone knew about.</p><p></p><p>Before they left, they asked if they could go on the ship and were permitted to do so, with an escort to make sure they didn’t fall into the bilge and drown or any other fool thing. They found the hatches propped open and the ship’s interior being aired out. Lots of light was pouring in to where the shadowpool had been, so clearly no one was attempting to re-create it at that time.</p><p></p><p>The group went off to where Mo’s stevedore contact most recently saw Alin on the street in Deepport to look for him in that area. Their plan was for Taman to look for his face in the crowd while Mo talked to humans and Joybell talked to a few rats.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Team Library was still at Tulmor and Barnett’s. Orryk was looking for older books on the Elemental Planes and asked for recommendations on where to go. Once again, the best information is in a fairly distant city -- Pelsoreen, at the mouth of the other river that goes through Urnod, has a lot of Elemental artifacts and elemental magic. (Tulmor and Barnett also pointed out that the Black Field is a potent elemental “resonator” as well, because of the confluence of fire and earth.)</p><p></p><p>Orryk asked where someone who had acquired things from the Elemental planes might sell them in town. Perhaps the Nook? Tulmor and Barnett said they’ve seen such things, but don’t know where they would be. Maybe not in Embernook.</p><p></p><p>Embernook is the city on Urnod with the <em>good</em> reputation. Pelsoreen doesn’t have nearly so good a reputation, and New Arvai is only a little better, so one needs to be cautious when purchasing items from those cities. You may not get what you’re paying for or have newly purchased items stolen on the way out of town.</p><p></p><p>After that, Team Library turned into Team Window Shopping….eventually making their way to the Pewter Oar.</p><p></p><p>Team Deepport hooked up with Imaktis, who almost immediately raised the question about where someone would go who was acting crazy, or like they didn’t know who they were. Joybell asked someone on the street and was told that maybe they’d go to the clerics in Soul’s Rest . So Imaktis and Joybell headed off that way, becoming Team Temple.</p><p></p><p>Taman and Mo stayed in Deepport talking to people and looking for Alin. They found a person running a boarding house where Alin <em>didn’t</em> rent a room. He refused to rent because the rooms were all too <em>bright</em> in the house. The boarding house keeper didn’t know where he went after leaving her place, but did say that he seemed a little weird -- carried himself like he was more important than everyone else, talking down to everyone. And he smelled like death. They asked if there was a boarding house that might have darker rooms, perhaps basement rooms, but there aren’t really basements in the riverside parts of town (Pierton, Deepport, Upport). The boarding house keeper never saw the color of Alin’s coin, but he was dressed like a workman. And he smelled too bad to even be allowed into the Spans.</p><p></p><p>Taman and Mo went from the boarding house to the nearest, biggest bar just to look for Alin in the crowd, but didn’t find him.</p><p></p><p>So they headed to the house where he’d been living, the address that Ser Istin gave them. They weren’t wearing their guard armbands, so the boarding house owner wouldn’t let them into Alin’s room. She did give them enough information to figure out which room he lived in and on which floor. While Mo stayed in the parlor chatting with the owner, Taman snuck up there to take a look in the room. It looked like a guy’s room, but it was clear that there hasn’t been anything going on in here in a while, probably since two or three weeks ago (which would be a week to two weeks before The Incident at the shipyard). He looked for correspondence (or a journal) but didn’t find either.</p><p></p><p>He snuck his way back downstairs, while Mo was asking if Alin was still paying his rent. The owner said that Ser Istin had paid for an additional month, in case Alin showed back up. Which immediately made Mo suspicious about Ser Istin all over again. Taman returned to the parlor to hear Mo saying, “And that’s how I found out dwarven women don’t have beards…”</p><p></p><p>Then they headed off to the Pewter Oar.</p><p></p><p>Team Temple (Joybell and Imaktis) went first to Imaktis’ temple (of nature and life). They hadn’t had anyone that matched Alin’s description brought in because they were sick or because they were acting crazy. They went then to the druid grove, where they also hadn’t seen Alin. The druids, when asked about the undead issues, owned that they were glad the undead are being destroyed, but seemed to have a bit of a long view -- these things happen when someone gets it into their head to take over the city with undead.</p><p></p><p>Joybell and Imaktis then headed to the Pewter Oar as well to share notes with the others. One thing that was pointed out is that the Tall Slender Swordsman seen coming off the ship smelled like death. So did Alin.</p><p></p><p>We went after dinner to report to Commander Mogree and Chief Truehammer. We asked them to have someone in the guard looking for Alin, which they agreed to do. Mogree commented that we’ve had zombies, ghouls, ghasts, wights and a spell casting wight. And the shadows, which he saw as a side effect of the shadowpools. There seemed to be more going through his mind during the roll call, but he didn’t really unpack it.</p><p></p><p></p><p>While they agreed to have guard looking for Alin, Mogree said he didn’t think that Alin still existed as himself. He said that Alin might have been replaced by a powerful, spellcasting tool of Orcus that could shapeshift into Alin’s form. Perhaps someone casting a spell like create undead, which kind of alarmed us because someone would have to be a powerful spellcaster to do that. Or, perhaps, have a magic item that would do it.</p><p></p><p>We were told that dealing with Orcus is not illegal, per se, but killing people and animating their corpses is. They weren’t aware of a cabal working with/for Orcus in the city, until this all started up.</p><p></p><p>After that conversation, Mogree and Chief Truehammer said they had a task for us. Chief Truehammer had spent much of the day dealing with Tillaron Zun, a wealthy merchant who lives in the Spans. Tillaron Zun was insisting that the guard provide protection to him and his family, but wouldn’t say why until Truehammer showed up with his guards.</p><p></p><p>Zun would have liked to have had us earlier, but now is better than never.</p><p></p><p>So we headed over there. On the way to the Spans, Chief Truehammer told us that Tillaron Zun is not personally on the city council, but a member of his family is. His family moves and trades in a lot of dry foodstuffs (grains, beans) and fabrics (both fine fabrics and more common ones).</p><p></p><p>The houses in the Spans are built as bridges over the river -- there is no part of the estate on either side, but the houses have gardens on their bridges.</p><p></p><p>At the Zun estate, we met Tillaron Zun, a human man in his 40s built like he did a lot of physical work in his 20s. As soon as he saw Truehammer and the party, he said “Well, that took a while. I thought I was going to have to contact the Administrator.”</p><p></p><p>Once Truehammer smoothed the ruffled feathers, Tillaron explained to us that his son, Boludor, and his wife and their daughters, a toddler and a little six-year old girl named Kalona, were recently on a caravan trip up north past Auriqua and came back shaken in the past week. That morning a note had been thrown through the window in a snowball. The note said, “You haven’t kept your promise.” (At the mention of the snowball, Taman perked up like a dog on the hunt. “You have my attention.”)</p><p></p><p>It turned out that Boludar Zun had made a deal with the Tundra Queen. Fiona and Orryk both knew something about the Tundra Queen. The Tundra Queen is a fey noble from the Feywild. She is really into making and keeping bargains with mortals. Her agents, fey called Dilyarli, enforce the terms of her deals. Sometimes by turning people to solid ice. They also know that Dilyarli do not lie.</p><p></p><p>We asked what the promise was and, to Joybell’s surprise at least, Tillaron answered. The Tundra Queen gave Boludar money to deliver a package to the Administrator of Embernook, Aligheri. Unfortunately, the older daughter, Kalona, opened the package. When she did she started talking in a language they didn’t know and has been mute since. When they looked in the package, there was nothing there.</p><p></p><p>We went to speak with Kalona, except for Taman who was looking around at the perimeter of the building. While Mo was in the background taking 10 minutes to cast comprehend languages. Everyone in the party listened to the child while Joybell tried to talk with her. She was not speaking any language anyone in the party knows. When Mo got his spell off, we learned that she has a message for the Administrator. She couldn’t tell us what the message is, because we weren’t the Administrator.</p><p></p><p>We talked to Tillaron Zun and explain that Kalona needs to talk to the Administrator in order to deliver the message to him. He said that he’d draft a letter to the Administrator (which gives a bit of a lie to his bluster when we arrived about going to the Administrator because it took a while for Ullar Truehammer to get us there) to see about getting an audience for Kalona.</p><p></p><p>As night approached, we sent the family into an interior room on the second floor of the 3 story house, with an escape route for them so they wouldn’t be sitting ducks. And Imaktis would be able to cast a message spell to tell them to run if they needed to. Fiona set an alarm with a spell so we’d know if anyone went in there. We arranged ourselves watching the ends of the house and along the side with the river to the north.</p><p></p><p>Around midnight, we noticed, we thought, a fog cloud moving strangely on the river. It was coming downstream. It got closer and closer as we watched. Fiona and Orryk didn’t know whether or not the Dilyarli could turn into mist, but their natural form is humanoid. The dense fog kept getting closer. There was no noise beyond natural river -- a bit of water lapping at the pilings of the house was pretty much all. We continued watching the cloud approaching. Orryk and Fiona were hiding on the second floor. Joybell was standing openly in the middle of a room on the first floor (no point in trying to hide). The others were hiding on the first floor. There was some discussion of shooting into it, but we decided against.</p><p></p><p>The cloud came up over the the riverbank toward the end of the house with the garden and the gates, all also on the bridge. We all moved toward that end of the house, so we saw the cloud come over the wall at the end of the bridge and into the garden.</p><p></p><p>When it entered the garden, it turned into a tall, elegantly dressed, very pale-skinned fey man wearing leather armor in black with blue trim. He was carrying a rapier and had a longbow on his back, but didn’t have it out.</p><p></p><p>We stepped outside the door of the mansion. Mo was about to greet the figure, but Taman spoke first: “Do you know me?” “No.” Then Taman decided to charge.</p><p></p><p>Taman’s decision to charge was slow in coming (the player rolled at nat 1 for his initiative), so the party was able to talk to the dilyarli.</p><p></p><p>Orryk to the DIlyarli, Is there any way to end this night without bloodshed or death?</p><p>Dilyarli: Yes.</p><p>Orryk: What is the alternative?</p><p>Dilyarli: The package must be delivered.</p><p>Fiona said: The package has already been opened by the little girl.</p><p>Dilyarli: She’s speaking Sylvan?</p><p>Us (except Taman): Yes.</p><p>Dilyarli, after thinking for a moment: Then she is now the package.</p><p>Us: They didn’t know that. Can we have more time to get her in to the Administrator? She’s just a little girl.</p><p>Dilyarli: I can give you until tomorrow night.</p><p>Us (except Taman): Okay.</p><p></p><p>Mo tried to cast Hold Person on Taman, but Taman saved against it and charged the Dilyarli with sword out, ready to stab it. Except that thirty feet away from the Dilyarli he got turned to ice. Solid ice. An ice sculpture.</p><p></p><p>GM: He is wedding decor.</p><p></p><p>The Dilyarli turned back into a cloud and drifted away the way he’d come.</p><p></p><p>Imaktis used the Greater Restoration bead from the Prayer Bead Necklace and restored Taman to human. When restored, Taman ran after the cloud, flailing at any remaining drifts of mist in the garden.</p><p></p><p>When he was finally calm enough to talk, he told us that those things killed his entire family, his parents and his brother, just a few months ago. So the pain is fresh and raw. He said he was going to learn and train and get strong enough to kill them. Then he went into a corner to cry.</p><p></p><p>We went to talk to the family because we have 24 hours to get Kalona in to talk to the Administrator so she can deliver the package.</p><p></p><p>Joybell is concerned about what the package/message might do to the Administrator, since opening it had Kalona speaking in nothing but Sylvan. Mo thinks we need to give him some sort of cover story to get her in there (perhaps she “won” some sort of city-wide contest for children). Imaktis thinks we should tell the truth.</p><p></p><p>But we need to get her in to see him or the family will be turned to ice.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="prabe, post: 8058161, member: 7016699"] [SIZE=4] Session 5: Talking and Parlaying[/SIZE] Dramatis Personae: Imaktis - Tortle Cleric (Nature)/Shadow Sorcerer 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) GM - Everyone Else 5 Sunnin 748 (later that night) (Campaign day 6) After meeting with Tulmor and Barnett and passing off the Crazy Book (in pages) and Harl’s journal to them, we retired for the night. 6 Sunnin 748 (Campaign day 7) The next morning, Joybell woke up early so she could ask Orryk to do some research for her next time he was at Tulmor and Barnett’s library before they went to the Pewter Oar to gather with the others for breakfast. She asked him to find out what he could about humanoid figures, about the size of a troll or an ogre that took the children from a city. She knows they were wearing shiny armor like a breastplate with blank masks and carrying swords and shields and longbows. It was described to her that they fought as a coordinated unit, so when one was attacked the others seemed to know. Orryk said he’d look into that at the library -- then everyone met up at the Pewter Oar. After breakfast we went to report to Chief Ullar Truehammer about what happened up in Kalmarn. We also asked if that was actually in his jurisdiction and were told that it is, in the sense that Embernook sort of controls some of the area around it (as a city-state, sort of) and Kalmarn is in Embernook’s protected area. Imaktis had an idea about the Earth giving us some of the answers that we need -- and it sort of made sense to Joybell, but it was hard to convey to the others. Chief Truehammer told us that nothing happened in Embernook while we were off in Kalmarn dealing with the Allip and the Whispering Ghouls (which seems a good name for them). At least nothing like undead or risen corpses. After a bit of figuring, we think that what happened in Kalmarn happened about 7 or 8 days ago, which would put it contemporaneous with the first Shadowpool and the first zombie outbreak in Embernook. All the official people we have run into are telling us that this is all unrelated, but it still seems awfully coincidental that there was an undead outbreak in Kalmarn on the same day that the first shadowpool in Embernook ripened and went active. It’s like the Shadow of Orcus is over the city and its environs or something. After reporting to Truehammer, we figured out what we wanted to do for the day. Fiona and Orryk, naturally, wanted to go to Tulmor and Barnett’s library. Of course. Taman, Mo, and Joybell wanted to try to find Alin, the former foreman at Istin’s Yard, who’d been seen acting strange by someone Mo talked to when he was working as a stevedore in Deepport. Imaktis wanted to talk to his special “contacts” in the Nook and Pierton (and then hook up with Taman, Mo and Joybell in Deepport). Mo, Joybell and Taman (Team Deepport) planned to look for places where Alin might have found work -- anyone can do basic stevedoring (pick up box and move it as directed) but Alin also had shipwright skills and management skills. Their first stop was at Ser Istin’s house (the owner of Istin’s Yard) to ask if he had an address for Alin. The Butler told them that Istin wasn’t there -- he was at the shipyard working on paperwork and getting the yard operating again. They still had that contract to do repairs on that ship, after all. So they went off to Istin’s Yard… Orryk and Fiona (Team Library) went off to Tulmor and Barnett’s library. The first question they asked came out of an attempt to get at Imaktis’ idea about the Earth having the answers -- they asked about another library that might have more ancient history and folklore in it. They were told that the best library on Urnod (the continent) is in the city New Arvai, which is at the mouth of the river Embernook is on. It’s a couple of weeks travel away. It’s not a formal library, per se, (there isn’t an order of archivists or anything) but there is a collective of wizards in New Arvai that shares students and shares educational resources. Harl was from there. As far as other libraries in (or near) Embernook, Harl had the best one. (There was a moment of silence for Harl’s library at this). They didn’t have any suggestions for where to look for histories of undead outbreaks (beyond what they’ve found regarding Orcus and his warlocks becoming wights when Orcus manifests in the Prime Material plane). As far as Joybell’s research, Barnett (the more recent and extensive adventurer of the two of them) said that the masked figures rang a bell with him. He didn’t remember them going after kids, but he had personally run into them at some point in his adventuring past. He’d never figured out where they were from or what they were doing. He’d been part of a caravan up in the mountains and forests up north. They never communicated demands or asked for anything; they just attacked the caravan. He had the sense that if he and his compatriots hadn’t fought them, they would have taken what they wanted and left. He said they attacked as one -- fighting them was like being in a swarm of goliaths. He said they were hard to hurt and hard to kill -- not that they were exactly resistant to damage of various sorts, but they were like trolls. He saw one re-attach a severed limb just by sticking it back on. The spellcasters found that Necrotic damage seemed to stop them from healing in the middle of battle, but the beasts were resistant to it. Barnett asked why Orryk and Fiona were asking about it -- Orryk said because Joybell had inquired. (When they were together again, presumably later, Joybell said that her experience was to the south, not the north, and only a few week’s travel away.) Imaktis (alone by himself as Team Brothel) went to interact with the women in the fancy houses he’d been frequenting. Over the course of the morning, he asked around at several establishments and spoke to several women. He learned that Alin was an occasional customer but not a regular. He didn’t have a particular girl he’d seek out, he’d just take who was available. Imaktis managed to find the most recent girl he “visited” with and had a talk with her. Alin never said anything about where he went when he wanted to be alone -- she had the sense that when things were tense for him at home he’d come to the brothels. He never gave her a creepy vibe. And the last time she was him was about 4 weeks ago, so well before the troubles started. Imaktis thanked her and proceeded to Deepport to hook up with that group. Team Deepport (Mo, Taman and Joybell) went from Ser Istin’s house to Istin’s Yard. The ship looked much like it had when they left it after the zombie/wight incident (“The Incident”). Occasionally someone would go out of the office and onto the ship, then return minutes later, but it didn’t appear that there was any work being done on the ship. In the office, Istin (and some other people) were doing a methodical examination of the files and records. He gave us Alin’s address (or at least directions to where Alin lives, since street numbers haven’t been invented yet) nearby. Ser Istin told them that very little work had been happening in the yard from well before The Incident -- at least a couple of weeks before it seemed like Alin was winding things down. Some of the workers were just on call but not actually working, some were being paid for a day’s work and then sent home. Alin wasn’t assigning them other work, he was just sending them home. Taman and Mo didn’t think that Istin was lying to them or even holding anything back. He appeared to be open and honest. The only thing like work that seemed to be happening was that Alin was paying people to move things onto the ship then paying a different crew on a different time to move the same stuff back off the ship. Ser Istin had been to Alin’s lodgings since The Incident, since he was not among the dead and is still not accounted for, and no one there had seen him since that night. Alin did not have any family that anyone knew about. Before they left, they asked if they could go on the ship and were permitted to do so, with an escort to make sure they didn’t fall into the bilge and drown or any other fool thing. They found the hatches propped open and the ship’s interior being aired out. Lots of light was pouring in to where the shadowpool had been, so clearly no one was attempting to re-create it at that time. The group went off to where Mo’s stevedore contact most recently saw Alin on the street in Deepport to look for him in that area. Their plan was for Taman to look for his face in the crowd while Mo talked to humans and Joybell talked to a few rats. Meanwhile, Team Library was still at Tulmor and Barnett’s. Orryk was looking for older books on the Elemental Planes and asked for recommendations on where to go. Once again, the best information is in a fairly distant city -- Pelsoreen, at the mouth of the other river that goes through Urnod, has a lot of Elemental artifacts and elemental magic. (Tulmor and Barnett also pointed out that the Black Field is a potent elemental “resonator” as well, because of the confluence of fire and earth.) Orryk asked where someone who had acquired things from the Elemental planes might sell them in town. Perhaps the Nook? Tulmor and Barnett said they’ve seen such things, but don’t know where they would be. Maybe not in Embernook. Embernook is the city on Urnod with the [I]good[/I] reputation. Pelsoreen doesn’t have nearly so good a reputation, and New Arvai is only a little better, so one needs to be cautious when purchasing items from those cities. You may not get what you’re paying for or have newly purchased items stolen on the way out of town. After that, Team Library turned into Team Window Shopping….eventually making their way to the Pewter Oar. Team Deepport hooked up with Imaktis, who almost immediately raised the question about where someone would go who was acting crazy, or like they didn’t know who they were. Joybell asked someone on the street and was told that maybe they’d go to the clerics in Soul’s Rest . So Imaktis and Joybell headed off that way, becoming Team Temple. Taman and Mo stayed in Deepport talking to people and looking for Alin. They found a person running a boarding house where Alin [I]didn’t[/I] rent a room. He refused to rent because the rooms were all too [I]bright[/I] in the house. The boarding house keeper didn’t know where he went after leaving her place, but did say that he seemed a little weird -- carried himself like he was more important than everyone else, talking down to everyone. And he smelled like death. They asked if there was a boarding house that might have darker rooms, perhaps basement rooms, but there aren’t really basements in the riverside parts of town (Pierton, Deepport, Upport). The boarding house keeper never saw the color of Alin’s coin, but he was dressed like a workman. And he smelled too bad to even be allowed into the Spans. Taman and Mo went from the boarding house to the nearest, biggest bar just to look for Alin in the crowd, but didn’t find him. So they headed to the house where he’d been living, the address that Ser Istin gave them. They weren’t wearing their guard armbands, so the boarding house owner wouldn’t let them into Alin’s room. She did give them enough information to figure out which room he lived in and on which floor. While Mo stayed in the parlor chatting with the owner, Taman snuck up there to take a look in the room. It looked like a guy’s room, but it was clear that there hasn’t been anything going on in here in a while, probably since two or three weeks ago (which would be a week to two weeks before The Incident at the shipyard). He looked for correspondence (or a journal) but didn’t find either. He snuck his way back downstairs, while Mo was asking if Alin was still paying his rent. The owner said that Ser Istin had paid for an additional month, in case Alin showed back up. Which immediately made Mo suspicious about Ser Istin all over again. Taman returned to the parlor to hear Mo saying, “And that’s how I found out dwarven women don’t have beards…” Then they headed off to the Pewter Oar. Team Temple (Joybell and Imaktis) went first to Imaktis’ temple (of nature and life). They hadn’t had anyone that matched Alin’s description brought in because they were sick or because they were acting crazy. They went then to the druid grove, where they also hadn’t seen Alin. The druids, when asked about the undead issues, owned that they were glad the undead are being destroyed, but seemed to have a bit of a long view -- these things happen when someone gets it into their head to take over the city with undead. Joybell and Imaktis then headed to the Pewter Oar as well to share notes with the others. One thing that was pointed out is that the Tall Slender Swordsman seen coming off the ship smelled like death. So did Alin. We went after dinner to report to Commander Mogree and Chief Truehammer. We asked them to have someone in the guard looking for Alin, which they agreed to do. Mogree commented that we’ve had zombies, ghouls, ghasts, wights and a spell casting wight. And the shadows, which he saw as a side effect of the shadowpools. There seemed to be more going through his mind during the roll call, but he didn’t really unpack it. While they agreed to have guard looking for Alin, Mogree said he didn’t think that Alin still existed as himself. He said that Alin might have been replaced by a powerful, spellcasting tool of Orcus that could shapeshift into Alin’s form. Perhaps someone casting a spell like create undead, which kind of alarmed us because someone would have to be a powerful spellcaster to do that. Or, perhaps, have a magic item that would do it. We were told that dealing with Orcus is not illegal, per se, but killing people and animating their corpses is. They weren’t aware of a cabal working with/for Orcus in the city, until this all started up. After that conversation, Mogree and Chief Truehammer said they had a task for us. Chief Truehammer had spent much of the day dealing with Tillaron Zun, a wealthy merchant who lives in the Spans. Tillaron Zun was insisting that the guard provide protection to him and his family, but wouldn’t say why until Truehammer showed up with his guards. Zun would have liked to have had us earlier, but now is better than never. So we headed over there. On the way to the Spans, Chief Truehammer told us that Tillaron Zun is not personally on the city council, but a member of his family is. His family moves and trades in a lot of dry foodstuffs (grains, beans) and fabrics (both fine fabrics and more common ones). The houses in the Spans are built as bridges over the river -- there is no part of the estate on either side, but the houses have gardens on their bridges. At the Zun estate, we met Tillaron Zun, a human man in his 40s built like he did a lot of physical work in his 20s. As soon as he saw Truehammer and the party, he said “Well, that took a while. I thought I was going to have to contact the Administrator.” Once Truehammer smoothed the ruffled feathers, Tillaron explained to us that his son, Boludor, and his wife and their daughters, a toddler and a little six-year old girl named Kalona, were recently on a caravan trip up north past Auriqua and came back shaken in the past week. That morning a note had been thrown through the window in a snowball. The note said, “You haven’t kept your promise.” (At the mention of the snowball, Taman perked up like a dog on the hunt. “You have my attention.”) It turned out that Boludar Zun had made a deal with the Tundra Queen. Fiona and Orryk both knew something about the Tundra Queen. The Tundra Queen is a fey noble from the Feywild. She is really into making and keeping bargains with mortals. Her agents, fey called Dilyarli, enforce the terms of her deals. Sometimes by turning people to solid ice. They also know that Dilyarli do not lie. We asked what the promise was and, to Joybell’s surprise at least, Tillaron answered. The Tundra Queen gave Boludar money to deliver a package to the Administrator of Embernook, Aligheri. Unfortunately, the older daughter, Kalona, opened the package. When she did she started talking in a language they didn’t know and has been mute since. When they looked in the package, there was nothing there. We went to speak with Kalona, except for Taman who was looking around at the perimeter of the building. While Mo was in the background taking 10 minutes to cast comprehend languages. Everyone in the party listened to the child while Joybell tried to talk with her. She was not speaking any language anyone in the party knows. When Mo got his spell off, we learned that she has a message for the Administrator. She couldn’t tell us what the message is, because we weren’t the Administrator. We talked to Tillaron Zun and explain that Kalona needs to talk to the Administrator in order to deliver the message to him. He said that he’d draft a letter to the Administrator (which gives a bit of a lie to his bluster when we arrived about going to the Administrator because it took a while for Ullar Truehammer to get us there) to see about getting an audience for Kalona. As night approached, we sent the family into an interior room on the second floor of the 3 story house, with an escape route for them so they wouldn’t be sitting ducks. And Imaktis would be able to cast a message spell to tell them to run if they needed to. Fiona set an alarm with a spell so we’d know if anyone went in there. We arranged ourselves watching the ends of the house and along the side with the river to the north. Around midnight, we noticed, we thought, a fog cloud moving strangely on the river. It was coming downstream. It got closer and closer as we watched. Fiona and Orryk didn’t know whether or not the Dilyarli could turn into mist, but their natural form is humanoid. The dense fog kept getting closer. There was no noise beyond natural river -- a bit of water lapping at the pilings of the house was pretty much all. We continued watching the cloud approaching. Orryk and Fiona were hiding on the second floor. Joybell was standing openly in the middle of a room on the first floor (no point in trying to hide). The others were hiding on the first floor. There was some discussion of shooting into it, but we decided against. The cloud came up over the the riverbank toward the end of the house with the garden and the gates, all also on the bridge. We all moved toward that end of the house, so we saw the cloud come over the wall at the end of the bridge and into the garden. When it entered the garden, it turned into a tall, elegantly dressed, very pale-skinned fey man wearing leather armor in black with blue trim. He was carrying a rapier and had a longbow on his back, but didn’t have it out. We stepped outside the door of the mansion. Mo was about to greet the figure, but Taman spoke first: “Do you know me?” “No.” Then Taman decided to charge. Taman’s decision to charge was slow in coming (the player rolled at nat 1 for his initiative), so the party was able to talk to the dilyarli. Orryk to the DIlyarli, Is there any way to end this night without bloodshed or death? Dilyarli: Yes. Orryk: What is the alternative? Dilyarli: The package must be delivered. Fiona said: The package has already been opened by the little girl. Dilyarli: She’s speaking Sylvan? Us (except Taman): Yes. Dilyarli, after thinking for a moment: Then she is now the package. Us: They didn’t know that. Can we have more time to get her in to the Administrator? She’s just a little girl. Dilyarli: I can give you until tomorrow night. Us (except Taman): Okay. Mo tried to cast Hold Person on Taman, but Taman saved against it and charged the Dilyarli with sword out, ready to stab it. Except that thirty feet away from the Dilyarli he got turned to ice. Solid ice. An ice sculpture. GM: He is wedding decor. The Dilyarli turned back into a cloud and drifted away the way he’d come. Imaktis used the Greater Restoration bead from the Prayer Bead Necklace and restored Taman to human. When restored, Taman ran after the cloud, flailing at any remaining drifts of mist in the garden. When he was finally calm enough to talk, he told us that those things killed his entire family, his parents and his brother, just a few months ago. So the pain is fresh and raw. He said he was going to learn and train and get strong enough to kill them. Then he went into a corner to cry. We went to talk to the family because we have 24 hours to get Kalona in to talk to the Administrator so she can deliver the package. Joybell is concerned about what the package/message might do to the Administrator, since opening it had Kalona speaking in nothing but Sylvan. Mo thinks we need to give him some sort of cover story to get her in there (perhaps she “won” some sort of city-wide contest for children). Imaktis thinks we should tell the truth. But we need to get her in to see him or the family will be turned to ice. [/QUOTE]
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Erkonin (Campaign #1) [Session 46: Making Deals with Devils is Stupid as well as Bad]
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