As we wake up, it is Kel, the fourth day of the fifth week of the month of Tarsakh in the year 997 P.D. It is seven days until the spring equinox.
We are in the West Haven. A map of the West Haven consists of a circle with gates in the north, west, and southeast corners. The walls are 30 feet tall, and perhaps 5 miles across. Population about ten thousand.
Salris and Jerry are one day into a were-rat curse.
Our goals for the day:
Visit the temple of Corellon Larethian to get the curses lifted
Sell our shit
Buy stuff
Bugfood wants to visit an astronomer to find a missing star.
The morning
As we're discussing what we want to do in the morning, we hear some trickles of rain off of the roof. In the common room we find Valna with breakfast. Ryltar jokes about Salris and Jerry's impending desires for cheese.
Valna says that she was able to secure our rooms last night by pulling a lot of strings; we'll need to find our own accommodation in the city. We're okay with that. She says that Bertram Bell left earlier in the morning, headed off to find his own place to sell his enchanted wares, and to find other enchanters.
Valna will be with the head office during the day, talking with them about her village's location. She plans to secure her own passage back to Hillthrope. She hopes to see us again, perhaps meeting up with us for dinner.
The main office where Valna will be spending much of her time in the is near the government lodging house; she also visits the coliseum. The Woven Council will be holding a four-day series of events leading up to the equinox this year, each day with a challenge and an event.
The first day's challenge is a joust, for nobles.
The second day's challenge is the Battle of the Beasts. The challengers are those who fight against beasts; the victory condition is either the challengers kill the beast or they retreat.
The third day is the Might of the Magus, a spell-slinger's duel to collapse, about outwitting or outmaneuvering the opponent.
The fourth night is the night of the equinox: the Spell-slinger Spectacle. A group event, putting on a show using spellcasting.
Valna tells us the signups are at the coliseum.
Jerry asks where the markets and the church of Corellon Larethian are. Valna says the markets are in the northwest; churches are central and southeast. The seat of government is also in the center. Wizards will be in the Eveningstar Forum in the southwest; the coliseum would be south of the city center. (It's as big as the Roman Coliseum, seating a tenth of the population of the West Haven.)
We decide to split up:
Salris and Jerry go to the temple, then to the market. Tula will follow with.
Bugfood would go off to the wizards' forum, traveling with Ryltar who will cover his expenses.
Vurguron plans to find a bar. He's 17; he reached physical maturity at 15 and would be allowed to drink. He's grown the chin hairs.
We'll meet up at the city center at noon. If the temple contingent isn't done with the temples at noon, they'll send Tula to meet up.
The Wizards' Forum
Ryltar suggests that perhaps they will never see Vurguron again; that he will be lost in the city. Bugfood jokingly agrees, lamenting the loss of their bold companion.
They find their way to the Wizards' Eveningstar Forum, finding their way to a teardrop-shaped spire with a double door. Adjacent buildings are similarly marked with distinctive emblems. Bugfood walks up to the guard at the door, and falteringly explains (with Ryltar's assistance) that they're looking for an astronomer, not someone who studies stalagmites.
"You're looking for Ren Farlow," says the guard. "He may be able to help with your ailment," ("Ailment? No, I'm quite well," says Bugfood) "and he's down the hall, second door on the left."
Bugfood and Ryltar enter. The hall is large, with recesses with statues of past deans. The hallway continues to an intersection with a huge glass pillar in it, stretching through the ceiling. They walk to the intersection, turn left, and find the door. There's a door with an open eye and a closed eye; Bugfood knocks on the open eye.
The door is answered by a balding human with glasses and poorly-assembled lilac robes. "Can I help you?"
"You should know," begins Bugfood.
"Mr. Farlow, My name is Ryltar; this is Bugfood, we come here seeking information about a problem with a missing star—"
"The red one!" says Farlow. "Yes!" exclaims Bugfood.
Farlow invites them inside. His study is festooned with crystal balls and star maps. Bugfood looks at the star maps to find the constellation Abraxes; he doesn't see it immediately in the giant mess of star maps.
Farlow asks what brought them here. Bugfood explains that the red star is bad, he knows it's bad, but he doesn't know why. "Why is it bad?" he asks Farlow.
Farlow explains that he is an astronomer of this plane; that a change in the stars may reflect a change of the world. He's a diviner, estranged from the local astronomers and the elvish lineages of the city. He's a tutor. He tries to help those who are ignored by the more-powerful mages.
"But the red star, the problem. Change is bad, probably. Usually but not always, I think?" says Bugfood. "Is there a, a better astronomer?"
"Bugfood, that was quite rude," says Ryltar. Bugfood realizes that this was said in anger, acceptance, and pride in Bugfood.
"There is no one better, but I am not the most respected amongst the community."
"Well so am I!" says Bugfood.
"Not all change is bad," says Ryltar. "We met each other."
"I've been beaten and stabbed more times in the last week than ever!"
"And you've learned to be a better weasel in that time."
Farlow looks on inquisitively. Ryltar makes excuses, then returns the conversation to the red star. Farlow says that he had a vision of the red star among stars that he had not seen on this planet. This red star is not of our plane, and Farlow saw it among stars not of this plane. Bugfood wants Farlow to get it back to our skies, Ryltar explains that that's not possible.
Ryltar asks if the red star had a name. Farlow says that he saw six stars in a hexagon. One turned red, one blue, one green. One remained white. One disappeared. And the vision ended before he saw the sixth star again. He was shunted from the vision.
"Perhaps another astronomer moved him from the vision. No, astronomers don't do that," says Bugfood. "Have you told anyone else about this?"
"The head of the academy has denied my requests for further research."
"Maybe we could help," offers Bugfood.
"I've tried this for many years." Farlow explains that there's someone who might help, several days' travel away at the Sky Diamond Academy.
"What's to be done in the meantime?" asks Bugfood.
"What remains to be done is to rid the city of draconic influence."
"Well, we've already did one," says Ryltar with a laugh.
"I don't mean your friend."
"Hold on, what do you know about us and our friends?" asks Ryltar.
"The city will fall under draconic influence in the coming days. I reached out for visions and as I reached for the Scaled Legion, I saw your friend, Vurguron. I saw his movements across the desert, headed to Hillthrope."
"Fascinating." says Ryltar.
"I need to do something. Goodbye!" says Bugfood.
"Bugfood, sit still for a minute," says Ryltar. "You need someone from Vurguron to help, from his lineage perhaps?"
"I don't know where or when, just that he's needed in the next few says."
Ryltar muses. "I think that the biggest venue for draconic influences in the near future is the coliseum."
"I told the council; they said that they'll keep an eye out for draconic influences."
"That sounds like they didn't respect you," says Bugfood.
They resolve to continue researching the draconic influences. Bugfood is worried about returning the red star to here. And Ryltar suggests that the party should visit the Sky Diamond Academy. Bugfood thanks Farlow for his trouble, tosses a gold coin past Farlow's head in a hasty way, laughs nervously, and walks away. He walks off to the town center, and Ryltar follows.
Vurguron in the tavern.
He looks for the nearest tavern to the government quarters. He smells the booze on the wind, and is lead to The Forest Floor, a verdant green building with a big tree in front of it. It's a quiet spot. Not much of noise or high spirits going on here at nine in the morning.
He goes inside. There are two humans on one wall, passed out with their half-full goblets in hand. There's a male barkeep doing the morning cleaning. He looks for a bulletin board and finds the wine list.
He's disappointed in the character of this venue, and leaves to look for a seedy tavern.
Someone points him to The Willows, to the north.
He follows the road to the north, out of the city walls, eventually to a tent made of freshly-cut willow branches. He sees various feet and hands and heads sticking out around the edges, of all races. There's an opening on the far side. There's a half-org, some halflings, a green dragonborn, some humans. The dragonborn is slowly making his way out the opening to the tent.
Vurguron enters. There's barrels upon barrels stacked within the tent, with a makeshift bar.
He's looking for info about his people here. Seeing no more dragonborn in the tent, he exits to follow the dragonborn outside the tent. The green dragonborn is bent over at the back of the tent, puking his guts out.
Vurguron claps him on the shoulder, saying, "Hey, mister, are there any other dragonborn around here?" The puking drunk dragonborn straightens up. "Most don't travel far. Most staywith the legion."
"Where's the legion at?"
"West?"
"Are they all in a group traveling and stuff?"
"They're in the Legion…. Shouldn't you…."
"They're back in haven. South Haven. North Haven."
"Okay. I really need a drink right now."
"Go into the … wake up Gar." Yes, Vurguron is asking a drunk how to get booze from a bar. "He's the small one."
"Thank you!" says Vurguron, and puts a silver on the ground near the dragonborn.
Vurguron enters the bar, looking for the small one. He sees several halflings, maybe a dwarf, a gnome. He says, in a slightly loud voice, "Hey, Gar, give me a drink. I wanna get fucked up, man."
Some of the humans rouse themselves; one punches a halfling near the casks. "Gar, wa'kup." The humans go back to sleep.
Gar wakes up. He's got a bug stuck to his face.
"Gar, I wanna get fucked up."
Gar pulls the mug off his face. "Two silver?" he asks.
"What's it called," asks Vurguron.
".. Barrel brew."
Vurguron gives him a gold. Gar pulls down a board, tipping five mugs across the spout of a barrel. He passes the board to Vurguron and passes out.
Vurguron toasts him. The brew is weak, barely-fermented. It has alcohol in it, and tastes of bread. He drinks a second one, and passes a constitution check with his 22. He starts a third, and with a 6 starts coughing it up. He reconsiders drinking, but continues.
The green dragonborn reenters and sits down. Vurguron passes him a mug, and asks questions about the Scaled Legion. The dragonborn's name is Mahan. The Scaled Legion is the militaristic government of the northwest corner of the continent. Vurguron asks if they'll be coming here; Mahan says that he doesn't know. He came here when things started getting bad. "So did you like leave them?" "Yeah…" "How bad did you mean?" "Bad enough for me to come here, I guess…."
Mahal looks up at Vurguron, grabs his shoulder, says, "I know they're not them anymore," and collapses.
Vurguron leaves and wobbles back to the city. The guards let him enter, making sure he's fine. "See that your friends take care of you," they say.
The Temple District
Salris takes the lead. We're looking for Vicar, an acolyte of Corellon Larethian. A couple of random guards direct us to the responsive temple, which has a large stained glass window.
We find it; it's the nearest one to the city center and the biggest. It's a slate-gray wall, almost 30 feet high, with a curved top, and an unreasonably big window, one solid piece of glass. The wall drifts down to a point, slanting downwards to a pint. It seems bigger because it's on a hill; the group walks up to the entrance. It's a pair of double doors, underneath a pair of windows, one tinted white and one dark. The doors are attended by two robed acolytes.
Salris walks up to the acolytes. "Morning!" "Morning." "We're looking for a head priest or something," says Salris. Jerry adds, "Or the acolyte named Vicar."
"Vicar? The acolyte who was removed this morning?"
"Removed?"
"He came back, and left with all his belongings."
Jerry asks in which direction; it seems that he left the city.
The door acolytes direct us to talk to the magistrate Andraste Netyoine about getting the curse lifted. The acolytes open the doors, and we're greeted by a female elf. She asks how we could be helped; we explain. She says that the magistrate is busy, but we are welcome to wait.
The 9 a.m. sun shines through the stained-glass window, lighting the floor. On the ceiling there's a vast expanse of black glass with white specks, tapering with the width of the room down to a small circular window at the far end. There must be rooms on either side of the hall. Acolytes walk up and down the outside walls, chanting and walking with censers.
The Party waits.
The elf returns. "I have spoken with the magistrate; the urgency of this healing has caught his ear." We follow her through the sanctuary to a door on the right, through a door, to another door with a half-moon image. There's a secretary's office, and here she says, "He'll be with you momentarily," and leaves.
The room is a standard reception room; the secretary's desk is covered in papers. There's the symbol of Corellon Larethian on a wall. There's some chairs that we sit in, and off to the left is another door.
And eventually we hear, "Come in" come from that door.
We enter. The office contains an older elven man with solid grey hair, silver streaked and long, looking out through a stained-glass window to a small courtyard. He's behind a large desk with a light scattering of papers. There's some bags of coins, a suit of very artistic and elegant elven armor in one corner.
Salris introduces the group; the magistrate asks Tula what god she serves.
"Not yours," she says.
"Clearly," he says. "What brings you here?"
Jerry says, "We were suggested to come here by the acolyte named Vicar."
"The one who was caught worshipping a false idol this morning."
Ryltar says, "We met him on the road," and explains the events of the last day.
"Yes, on his pilgrimage. It seems coincidence that his pilgrimage failed, and he was caught praying to a false idol this morning. It seems a related measure."
"But me and Jerry were wondering if there would be any way you could alleviate this curse on us. We would, of course, be able to compensate you for this."
"Yes. The process does not cost coin; Corellon Larethian asks an exchange of actions."
"Well what can we do to help?"
"For the upcoming celebration, there seems to be a rabble. An unfortunate event happened last night, on the northwest side of the Haven. A corral of animals escaped; these animals are necessary for the celebration."
"And you want us to round them up?"
"Yes. The horses would be easy. You would have to ask the beastmaster for the rest; he said that half had escaped."
"So where can we find the beastmaster? By the north gate?"
"Yes."
"So are we agreeable?" asks Salris. Jerry says yes; Tula says that she has business to take care of, and walks out. "I'll take that as a yes," says Salris to her departing bum. "So what's the beastmaster's name?"
"Toran Merrick. You can find him outside the broken corral at the north gate."
And so they leave.
Jerry suggests going to find another temple. They follow Tula; Tula is looking for the temple of Ilmater. It takes a couple hours of walking back and forth before Tula finally notices the bland stone building with a ribbon above the door. There's a couple of gaunt and sickly people on the stoop.
Tula Lays on Hands to cure three stoop sitters of their diseases. Three more, four more, five more appear around here. The healed ones thank her, calling her a priestess of Ilmater. "I am no priest; I do what I must." And then she enters the temple. Jerry and Salris follow.
The temple has a ceiling of standard height, just barely taller than Tula. She sees pews and pews of sick, feeble and infirm. There's a food line of gruel and bread and water. A person wearing simple grey robes with the emblem of Ilmater is passing out food, laying blessings on each who comes. Another robed person leads a group in prayer. There's a slope going up.
Tula takes the slope up; the second floor is full of beds of diseased and sick, with a priestess doing rounds, healing people for a day. Tula walks to the priestess. "Excuse me; I'm somewhat of a traveler. My family," and she pulls up her maul with the red grip and the sign of Ilmater. "My friends were traveling were traveling on the road and were bit with a curse. Is there anyone in this facility that can remove the curse?"
"We few of Ilmater's faith, we strive to aid others. We aim to give back. Though we are few, we tend to those less fortunate. We don't have higher powers. We cure what is necessary, and there are so many…" The priestess pointedly glances around.
"That is a pity. You do good work, even if you are not chosen, or blessed with the abilities. Never the less, perhaps you could help me on a different matter. I am looking for someone knowledgeable of all gods, someone who studies them. Do you know someone who would know?"
"If you are the faith of Ilmater, why would you?"
"My family's god is Ilmater, but you cannot deny there are other gods. If you wish to know, my reasons are personal."
"The magistrate of Corellon Larethian would have some knowledge of otherworldly beings."
"I would rather not associate with him."
"Outside of that, I know the Sky Diamond Academy has knowledge of all - mostly arcane knowledge,"
"And where would that be?"
"South, outside the city. It's a campus with guards an people knowledgeable of protection." She leaves 25 gold with the priestess.
"If you don't mind, we're busy here. Would you go to the market just south of here; would you buy water, food, bandages."
"I will go to the market." She turns, and sees Jerry and Salris at the top of the ramp. Salris asks in a whisper if the priestess would help; Tula says no.
Tula heads straight to the market south of the temple district. Salris and Jerry go to the center of the town to meet up with the rest of the Party.
Tula in the Market
She buys 25 gold of various supplies and takes it back to the temple; she drained all the stalls in the tiny market, in an aggressive fashion. She fills five barrels of water, and then walks all the food over, then returns for each barrel of water. The eyes of the supplicants in the temple widen; the priest is agog. "I do what I can because I must," she says.
Her actions take time. When she's done, she heads to the central market.
The group in the city center
Salris, Jerry, Ryltar, Bugfood and Vurguron meet in the middle of town.
Ryltar explains that the group will need to head to the Sky Diamond Academy eventually.
Salris explains the goal of catching animals, and says we should talk to the beastmaster. Bugfood says that we might need to do this tomorrow; he can talk to animals but not cast Animal Friendship this day.
In the market
Here, we run into Tula.
Bugfood requests healing potions from the group. He's not going to enter; it's a hive of scum and villainy and market-based solutions.
In the market, the characters sell:
Tula: dragon fetus head
Jerry: 2 spears
Jerry: 2 suits leather armor
Jerry: 7 light crossbows
Jerry: 6 shortswords
Tula finds an alchemist's shop, which is coincidentally staffed by Sir Bertram Bell. He calls out his boss, a dwarf man, who is intrigued. He says it's a red dragon baby; offers 350. Tula bids 450. He offers 400. She asks 415. He looks at Bertram; Bertram shrugs. The sale completes for 415. She splits it among the party: 83 each.
Bugfood creates an illusionary chair on one side of the marketplace; Salris accompanies it with a table and mead.
Jerry finds a store stocked with crossbows. The salesman says that he supplies his crossbows to the Woven Council's guards, and only to them. The one that Jerry pulled out matches the model that the store stocks; it turns out that the were-rats were wielding the exclusive crossbows of the Woven Council. And so we get a very bad deal on them; the sales person offers one gold per crossbow and not telling the guards. Jerry accepts the 7 gold.
She leaves the store, and ducks into an alley to examine her other wares. The two spears are not worth trying to sell. The 6 swords are half marked for the Woven Council.
Salris leads the group to the nearest blacksmith. He finds a breastplate, which is trimmed in green, but he doesn't like green. The dwarf blacksmith wants 410 for the breastplate. Jerry joins in the haggling; in the end we trade three sets of leather armor and Jerry's scale mail for two breastplates.
Jerry also sells the three non-Woven-Council shortswords for 10 gp. She pumps him for info about the location of someone who might sell darts; he says Fleming's.
Ryltar and Salris and Bugfood find an apothecary's store, Berb's Herbs. In search of health potions, which the Party buys many of, along with some antitoxins.
Jerry finds Flemings, who doesn't stock darts per se, but he does sell a throwing pen. She buys that, and receives directions to Bert's Bindings, where she buys a book of paper and a bottle of ink at absurd prices. There's a mail post on the southeast entrance to the city.
Salris and Bugfood amuse themselves by creating Minor Illusions of coins in the street, which children try to pick up, only to receive spiders in their hands. The parents are amused but offended.
The beastmaster
It's now midafternoon. We meet back up with Tula; she and Bugfood need to go to the Sky Diamond Academy, nine days' away. So we now go to find the beastmaster.
By the north gate, we find a squat, elderly half-elf, who's barking orders to stablehands that are taming horses.
Salris greets the beastmaster, Toran Merrick, and explains that he and Jerry had been assigned by the magistrate of Corellon Larethian to find the beasts. Merrick explains that the beasts were freed by a drunken party: wolves, ogres, a warhorse, and a kuthrik. A kuthrik is something that has lots of spikes.
It is important to the beastmaster that they be found alive. They're rare, dangerous in groups. The one that was lost was the mother. Bugfood casts Speak with Animals and asks the baby what its mother would like to eat. It tries to stab him with its pointy forelimbs. It doesn't answer his question.
There are a number of ogres in the pen; they don't answer questions.
We're looking for:
2 wolves
1 ogre
2 warhorses
1 kuthrik
The kuthrik in particular will be a problem; the wooden cage that the mother was transported in is as big as a house. They can tunnel quickly through solid rock, with climb speed as fast as walking in the open, and it's carnivorous.
We buy some rope and chains.
It's now 6 o'clock. Jerry spends a little while familiarizing herself with the ogre and kuthrik tracks in their cages.
The tracking begins
Jerry easily tracks the trail of the ogre out of the gate. The kuthrik's trail is there, somewhere, but hard to make out because of its pointiness. The ogre went north; the kuthrik went east; the wolves went west; the horses went along the road.
So we elect to track the kuthrik first, because it's hardest to replace.
End session
Jerry and Salris are still afflicted by the were-rat curse.
The draconic influence that Farlow described should probably be identified and brought to the attention of the Woven Council.
Jerry needs to offload those three Woven Council shortswords before they get her in trouble.
Jerry will eventually need to visit her daughter, Majorie, and her host, Jerry's former commander Fenross.
Bugfood and Tula will want to leave the West Haven for the Sky Diamond Academy, nine days' travel south from the Haven.