Boone’s antiques
Aligor heads quickly for Boone’s, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your opinion, seeing no sign of Hex’s men. There is a sign on the window of the antique shop that wasn’t there before, which says “Experienced trackers needed, inquire inside”. Once through the door, the dwarf sees Boone, who hasn’t noticed him come in. Boone is barking orders at two Gnomish women who are cleaning the floor “Get every drop of that blood up, or I’m nor paying you a copper. First thieves steal from me, now you’re profiting on them too. I think you’re all in cahoots together.” The women shake their heads and pretty much ignore the old man.
Quentin’s Cubbyhole
T’aria finds out that there is a small stable next to the inn, which is unfortunately full at this time, but a more public one down the street, which charges 5 silver pieces a day. After getting her horse Shadow stabled there, the half-demon returns to check out her room. T’aria finds that there is an empty secret compartment in the floor near the foot of the bed, and she finds peepholes behind a painting of a caravan traveling across country, the holes matching two wheels on a wagon, although no one is looking through them at the moment. Next to the peepholes, she finds a sliding slat that can cover the holes, and, as far as she can tell, can only be slid from her side of the wall. Apparently if one is good enough to find the holes, the management doesn’t mind them being covered.
The next day, after a good night’s rest and bad experience trying to meet with the dwarf, T’aria finds herself in the common room at the Cubbyhole. Like her room, and unlike the lobby, this area is very nice, with elegant couches, half a dozen tables, nice carpeting, and a roaring fireplace. As she enters, a young female elf approaches and asks if there’s anything she’d like to be brought for lunch. She’s handed a list of what they have available, the fairly typical things an inn might serve, as well as a few house specialties, such as Quentin’s Rare Meat Pie, which no basic persuasion seems capable of convincing the elf to tell her what animal the meat comes from; and Masque’s Mead, which the elf says is quite intoxicating.
There are half a dozen other people in here already, probably due to it being lunch time. A gnomish couple sits at one table, two human males are talking together on one couch, an elderly looking halfling in some really tattered clothing is sitting by the fireplace, and a middle-aged human woman is sitting at large, beautifully engraved, and probably expensive harp. She’s strumming a bit on it, not playing any one tune for long, just bits and pieces of different songs. Shadow doesn’t appear to have arrived yet.
Glind River Bridge
As everyone does what they can to coax their mounts to traverse the bridge, Girdra spends time talking to the horse she’s been riding, Sunedilar’s horse, in a language no one in the party understands, possibly dwarven, and the horse actually seems to pay attention to what the dwarf is saying, unlike Gwyn’s horse who is still shaky about crossing, and also unlike Alev’s horse, which doesn’t particularly understand threats to its life. Then, all begin to carefully cross the bridge (a map of which is attached below), passing between the two apparently inanimate demonic gargoyles.
[Gwyn’s Wild Empathy rolled 5+5=10, failed to affect his horse. Girdra’s succeeded, and helped. I’d have given Alev an Intimidate check, if he spoke horse
BTW, that’s not intended to discourage Alev’s extremely entertaining threats, I just can’t give a bonus for it when the animal's too dumb to appreciate it. No one said it, but I’m assuming people are taking 10 unless something happens, which is all that is needed for the moment, DC 10.]
As the party moves along the bridge, the see there are two abutments to it, one on their right, and up head, one to the left (see map). Painted on the surface of the nearer right-hand area is a symbol of a spiked gauntlet holding some wicked looking arrows. This symbol is known to most people as the representation of Hextor, the god of tyranny and war.
In the middle of this area is a tall, thin urn. It is about one foot wide and 4 and half feet tall, and it has pictures engraved on it of devilish looking creatures wielding weapons, fighting a dragon with three heads, two of the heads breathing fire, the other spitting some sort of liquid. Lydia knows that this is the sort of receptacle used at temples of Hextor for taking monetary donations. Money is dropped into the urn, and the height of it makes it difficult for anyone to reach in to steal anything. The urn appears to be bolted down.
[Lydia rolled Kowledge(religion) 18+6=24.]
Alicia, watching behind the party, sees the yellow-furred creature far in the distance. It seems to be standing alert, watching her and the rest of the group intently. But it doesn’t seem to be coming closer.
[Does the group continue on, or… something else? Some notes about the map: The scale is 1 square =10’, not 5’, so I could fit the whole bridge on it. That’s why Alicia is taking up one square instead of her usual 4. There wasn’t room to easily put which PCs are using which letters to represent them, but I’m hoping it’s obvious. Girdra is in the same area as SH(Sunedilar), as she is riding the same horse.]
