Session Date: 08/23/2024
Ships
Ships was going to look into the local underworld to find a cool dagger in the black markets → the black markets may have the coolest dagger, or perhaps the best value on a cool dagger. He makes a quick assessment that there is a smuggling ship that is having barrels go in and out of a shop called The Brass Band.
The Brass Pad.
There is a much more upscale shop primarily a money changer and assessor. Based on their location, most of their business is likely at the end of campaign wars of the year on the continent - this is where people come to pay ransoms for captured knights, convert treasure to coinage, etc. This is The Saddled Mule - this is slang for a bastard in Midmirish.
The ships at port:
- The Fever Dream
- Ships has never seen a ship quite like this, so it must be from quite far away.
- While making inquiries he finds several members of the crew of this ship making similar inquiries.
- The Current’s Curse
- From Cornew (spelling?)
- Ships has seen this ship in his youth, so he 100% knows this ship smuggles.
- The Pale Rose
- Midmirish Ship
- As Ships looks at the number of crew on the ship, and the size of them, he realizes this has to be a pirate ship 100%
He starts with The Fever Dream. The crew is from Cursinth and when Ships compliments the vessel, they (as politely as possible) agree that westerners have no clue how to build a ship. Ships says he is interested in some Cursinthian(?) style knives, and they produce two options.
Basket-hilted dirk - sharpened on one side and curved at the tip, a large fighting knife. He cannot throw it but gets advantage on checks to disarm him. The steel is this world’s equivalent of Damascus steel, which Ships has never seen before.
The other dagger comes in a matched pair and they are effectively brass knuckles with curved blades coming out of them. Also cannot be thrown, but give advantage on checks made to climb and against disarm. Also Damascus steel, with inlaid electrum in the knuckles.
- Mother’s Claws
- 500gp for the pair OR he’ll part with them for 400gp if he can direct him to someone who supplies wizards with their spell components who is not too particular about the payment of tariffs
- After helping find the bat guano, the woman says to sell Mother’s Claws 400gp
Ships couldn’t convince the man to ask what kind of components he was looking for, but Ships offers the pickled tentacle or the eye in the platinum container. He needs to consult someone, and a crewperson in a rich but let’s say aromatic robe. The tentacle and eye are no good, but the woman manages to speak with broken Midmirish to ask where they can obtain bat guano. Ships can tell that they do not necessarily wish to steal from anyone, but they wish to avoid taxes and get excellent prices. He tells them about Skerry Yayek.
Ships then makes his way over to The Brass Band and the shopkeep is a particularly weasley elf that is generally nervous. One barrel is 3sp that holds 40 gallons and if one springs a leak within 10 years he’ll replace it for free. Ships says that is a great value and then uses thieves cant to sign some secret phrase, and the nervous elf (Martin) calls for Uncle.
A large, pot-bellied, purple-skinned tiefling with an awesome set of horns ducks in from the back and addresses Ships. Ships introduces himself and the man introduces himself as Uncle Reputation. Ships explains that we will be fixing up an estate and will need some barrels and also slips in some thieves cant commenting on how sturdy the barrels are with bearing very heavy weights coming and going.
Uncle Reputation will quote a price (7gp for a 40 gallon barrel of beer) for a full barrel and Ships is able to work out that he’s talking about beer. With the basics that Ships knows - if the Duchess were to tax the barrels then he’d operate at a loss, so this is clearly smuggled in. Ships is interested in building a relationship to keep our stores full of his beer.
Ships mentions other things he is looking for and lets Uncle Reputation know to keep him in mind if he finds them.
Sarras
Sarras arrives at the Abbey and it’s about what she expects. At the gate Sarras sees the guard of the day is Brother Tiberius. He greets her and allows her entry to the Abbey. She enters and the monks are training, and the library windows are open because it is a beautiful, bright, dry, sunny day.
She has multiple reports to give. The prioress is the humbly appropriate person to brief on this, but the abbot has already sent her a personal letter about this so it would not be inappropriate to give the report to the abbot direct. She ultimately chooses to report to the prioress as that is what is accustomed to.
The prioress is over by the library doors, taking a break. She is not wearing a prosthetic on her right leg, but it is resting on a wheeled cart that is easier to navigate while walking. The prioress gives Sarras a serious but not quite alarmed glance over. She comments that Sarras is not running nor is she panicked, so the news is either mixed, or good.
Sarras admits that it is mixed, and she’s come into some items of interest that would probably be safest here at the Abbey rather than with her on her travels. The prioress admits that these items are above her grade, as it were - she gestures towards the temple spire itself, asking Sarras to lead the way.
Within the temple are any number of young clerics going about doing their daily prayers or duties. In an alcove beside the altar is the abbot himself. He’s one of the few elves that Sarras has ever seen aged so that their hair has gone white, and - of any elf Sarras has ever met - the bushiest eyebrows. Standing to one side and behind him with an expression of trying to be the hawk on his arm is his clerk. Acuity - the clerk - holds up a hand to ask them to wait while the abbot finishes his last round of prayers.
Acuity comments that they have prayed for Sarras’ safety and all the usual graces, to which Sarras responds graciously and politely in kind. Sarras explains that with everything she and the party has seen, she’s opted to come visit in person to give a report, as well as bring the items of interest for safekeeping. Acuity agrees to take the items, and then asks for the report. Sarras gives a straightforward report, and she will mention Almodis was receiving magical training from the largest, and they’re not sure what that means at this time - she hasn’t seen anything from the girl that was problematic or concerning at this time.
Sarras omits the information that Calthel might be a warlock (omitting eldritch blast + hunger of hadar — she isn’t quite sure she actually saw a hunger of hadar, she knew it was chaotic and dark, etc), but she does report the information from Fourth Largest that they learned (tilting it as it being strategic to learn this).
They note that The Dread One is the largest morkoth here that they’ve heard of in the last 3-400 years. They’ve never had to directly deal with a nest of young morkoths that got scattered. They’re very concerned at the mention of a half dragon morkoth, or something like that (what second largest was described as). They are not actively disapproving of the information from fourth largest, but they are very concerned.
Items to turn in:
- Bottle of portal slime from Skerry Yayek
- Bottle of extraplanar goop from the Marquis(?)
- Scribe’s Guild introduction letter from Cult Clerk Oliver
- Discarded writings from Coldhursthire
- Dread One tentacle
- Aberration obsessions
- Bag of Devouring
They take full custody of all of this except for the bottled slimes - they take half of the slimes so they can test it, but leave the rest so that Sarras can further analyze if the opportunity comes up to do further research.
The main thing they discuss is concern about Almodis and potentially about the baby, though the baby is more of a concern for the well-being. They are concerned about implantation of extraplanar insanity or something of that nature. They will have a quick back and forth discussion and determine that they probably should send a cleric to Compass Tor to check on the children.
Sarras is welcome to stay the night, of course, in one of the cloister cells reserved for the traveling paladins.
They eventually leave, the prioress asks what it is that Sarras isn’t sharing. Sarras asks what she means, and the prioress means the point that made Sarras anxious and rush to the next thing. Sarras opts to discuss her discomfort in talking to Fourth Largest, admitting her appreciation for the teachings not to trust these types of creatures and how trying to weave trickery among these kind of rates might have gone horribly wrong. The prioress says that there are several biographies in the library of others that have been in some similar situations - some are lessons in how to navigate this situation successfully, and others are others cautionary tales - the prioress will give her one of each. The most important is two things you must not promise on pain of her oaths:
- She must not swear that she will never (or even nebulous conditions) slay the creature
- She must also never promise not to drive them away
She may not kill them immediately, but she cannot remove the future possibility of these actions. There are times where having them as an ally against a greater evil can be rather advantageous.
At dinner she was asked about the miracle that Sarras managed and Sarras explains how she brought Charity back, but does so in a way that lessens her own impact and agrees that she was the conduit, but it otherwise had nothing else to do with her.
Calthel
Iolande’s Spellbook: Checked spells are spells that Calthel already has.
- Cantrips
- Thaumaturgy
- Vicious Mockery
- Guidance
Homebrew: From book of shadows → book of shadows you can copy cantrips for 1/2 the cost and time of a level 1 spell; you cannot exceed the normal cantrip amount, making you a prepared caster in terms of the cantrips.
- Rituals
- Unseen Servant (1)
- Alarm (1)
- Ceremony (1)
- Find Familiar
- Illusory Script (1)
- Speak with Animals (1)
- Augury (2)
- Gentle Repose (2)
- Locate Animals or Plants (2)
- Skywrite
- Magic Mouth
- Beast Sense (2)
- Identify
- Floating Disk (1)
The Whole Party
Sarras returns with a very serious blonde elf (Brother Decimus). Sarras and the elf are pointedly not talking to each other except for whatever minimum is required.
We have sailed for eight of the eleven hours of our trip when out of the north-northwest we see a broad, anvil-shaped cloud that is a sort of curdled grey and violet color coming our directly very quickly. Ships can tell this cloud looks like a storm of malevolence - it is a natural thunderstorm that either evil or air elemental magic has infused with. It’s not necessarily being deliberately directed by some force, but it is a result of unnatural energies moving about in the area. It will have much more lightning than a normal storm, but the good news is any individual lightning bolt is far less destructive.
Kerran doesn’t think that with the speed of this boat that we can completely get out of the way of this storm. He does think that if the ferryman lets him take the helm, he might be able to only catch the edge of this storm briefly. While we skim the edge of the storm, the lightning doesn’t hit the boat once - two air elementals do come toward us looking to attack, though. Sarras moves away from Kerran, who she’d been shielding from the lightning, and then uses abjure the extraplanar to force the elementals away.
We otherwise make it to the port of Toadmoth on the Grislith. Toadmoth is a particularly soggy and fetid shore, and the port itself is best described as a collection of hovels. A burly orcish man stands guard at the wharf with a boat hook. He looks us over in our incredibly expensive gear, then asks where we are going. Charity mutters something along the lines of “200 years and it hasn’t changed at all”.
Grislith:
The orc advises that we won’t be able to make it up to the Baron at Caer Llwyd because of how dark it is, we’ll break our necks on the way up. He advises that we can stay at the local temple. The temple itself is basically a converted warehouse with bone marrow soup and hay palettes. There’s a small smattering of people here, but it’s mostly empty. The room itself is rather large, ready to take in many sailors if needed. He says that in the morning we will want a guide if we wish to make our way up to the castle - there’s just the one road, but we’ll want a guide.
The orc’s name is Roemid.
Roemid will be free to guide us 2-3 hours after dawn to guide us if we wish. He asks if we will need horses or anything. Ships says yes, but we also review the map together. With a casual look of the map it looks like an easy ride - the castle is only half a mile away - but when Ships looks closer to the map, he notices that there’s no road from Toadmoth that leads up to the castle. You have to go entirely around the island to get there. This whole island is essentially one big slanted mountain with a long ridge along the top.
We are looking for the following families with regards to the baby:
- Lothar the Red → Estate of Crib Coron
- Near the top of the mountain
- Daughter Sora
- Baron Llwyn
- Daughter Kara
- Estate of Uskillyfant
- Appears on the map but not in our notes on the island
In the morning we will wake up tot he smell of flying fish - they’ve got the fire going again and are laying a lot of fresh caught fish on the hearth to sizzle up.
The parson is blearily hungover as he asks a few questions - essentially determining that while we needed a place to say, we are not sailors in need that they need to worry about deeply. The parson then goes back to tending his own headache, clearly he feels that fish eggs are definitely the cure for a hangover.
There are five sailors, and the bone broth is still in its cauldron. It’s more of a gruel than a soup at this time. Ships uses a cantrip to make it taste better and the sailors feel better about us in general.
Roemid returns with two horses and three mules and shows us to the baker. We get some bread for the road, and then some more to send over to the parson and stranded sailors.
A note on Decimus -
Decimus is most animated and charismatic when he prays. It’s not that he’s not charismatic, but it’s as if that’s when he takes his hair down and it’s something he clearly cares about. He exists his own little world.
We are only a few hundred feet out of Toadmoth before the swampy sandy soil turns into a shale surface as we follow it. It’s pretty bleak as we move ahead. To the southwest is maybe the worst beach we’ve ever seen for landing boats that isn’t just a cliffside. The stone itself looks as if it’s rippled and flowed, so anything washing up is washing up directly onto eroded scars of stone that have not fully disintegrated yet.
As you go around the side of the mountain it begins to incline. You’ll see the faint green of what looks like not a lot of not very good farmland to the left of the road, and downhill. There are scattered little gardens and farm plots and huts. Up ahead of us is a tall, pointed tower of slate over a set of pits in the ground where the quarries are that look like nothing so much as dry tooth sockets. They are quarries of slate, basalt, and granite - this is where the granite would come from for the estate.
On the other side of the embattled tower - definitely a knightly estate that went vertical and is currently darkened and shuttered - is a fork in the road, with the lower path leading to Carrion Landing. The current is just right where anything that washes up on this island washes up at the back of this inlet. There are many deadwood trees from far away that look like a pile of bones here. We take the upper road and the horses start to slow a bit on the steeper incline, but the mules are unbothered by it.
The estate at Crib Coron is a completely different architectural style than Crau Wag: it’s built into the side of the mountain ridge. There are stone facings, but it looks as if someone built walls and windows up the side of the mountain ridge. As we look at it, it’s the place we expect Caer Llwyd to be as it’s the natural high lookout position, but from here we can look down into the marshy lush green land halfway down the mountain where there’s a plateau where Caer Llwyd is.
The castle itself is just a squat, squashy thing that is very definitely more of a large embattled estate house than a keep or proper castle. It’s a big house that’s 2-3 stories, and it is also built much closer to the river than we’d expect - there is path up against the river gorge with a railing, parts of it getting so narrow that a horse may not be able to fit.
The northern part of the river is rocky, but the southern bank where there’s more soil is heavily undercut with the water rushing with incredible force. A bridge would be not be easy to build as a bridge heavy enough to span the river would not be stable on the heavily undercut bank.
We choose for now to head on to Caer Llwyd rather than stop at Crib Coron so that we may speak with the Baron first. We arrive to Caer Llwyd around dinner time. The guards had plenty of time to notice that we are on our way to the castle, and they will call out a challenge to ask who we are.
Possible group name: The Petracorps
Calthel calls out that we are knights of the Marquis Petra. They confer, then invite us in. One guard worries over the mounts, and the other gets our names so that we can be properly announced. As we step in tot he castle, the first thing that we notice about the inside is that it does not look even a little bit like a castle: we are sure there’s a stone tile floor somewhere in there, but the entryway has been strewn with rushes in the same way a lower middle class farmer’s house would be done. The interior of the walls have been plastered over and are sweating and damp as the climate is not at all suitable for plaster walls. There are numerous tapestries and carpets, the windows are carved much larger than is defensible. There is a strong aroma of mildew.
As we are led into the main hall we will hear music that is really, really well-played. It has all of the classic court instruments - harp, flute, lyre, drum, horn - and it’s very soothing music, but played with a quality that we would associate with feast days in a cathedral, not just with dinner time in a Baron’s manor. So far this music is the only thing we’ve seen where someone’s spent money for the sake of comfort.
There are the usual assortment of court personages, half a dozen young children, three women in their twenties or thirties, several high ranking armsmen and servants, a grey-bearded man in wizardly robes (the robes are in such a state that Calthel can’t tell what Grammary he graduated from). Seated at the head of the main table is a slender bald man who also looks somewhat incongruous to his surroundings - he looks like a professional soldier like a mercenary or captain. He does not look like a man who Baron’s for 3.5 years and then captains for 1 summer - he looks more like a hired mercenary captain that happens to be sitting in a Baron’s finery and chair. (he’s now jason stathem)
The guardsmen announce us and the Baron looks around with an expression as if he’s waiting for the punchline. He is surprised and says that it’s quite the honor, and admits he’s never been graced with the honor ever. He invites us to sit, saying there’s goat, there’s soup, there’s something with eggs. He invites us to eat and drink, and then tell him why he is receiving us.
Calthel assesses the Baron and can tell that he is suspicious - he has never, in the entirety of his time as a Baron, had five knights unannounced and say they’re here from the Marquis court. He’s a bit nervous: it’s scary when such high ranking officers so well-armed shows up on his doorstep unannounced. Calthel quickly assures him that his position is in no danger and we are simply following up on some other investigations that we are pursuing. He visibly relaxes and chuckles just a little too long.
He invites us to sit and the food is pretty good, but the wine is not good. It’s better than a random tavern, but not by much.
The Baron asks what investigations we’re following up and Calthel explains that we found a lead on a missing child and there were two children on the island about the same age we wanted to check in on. The Baron counts out his own children and none of them are missing, and Ships asks if this is all the children on the island, and the Baron laughs a little too long again. The Baron calls down to one of the well-dressed women and there’s a little interaction, and then the Baron asks how many children there are on the island - not if any are missing, but if there are any - and she says around 100 or 150 pending if they agree with the elves, and he sneers and says okay, 100.
We break away to have a small sidebar and discuss the plan, and then we return to the Baron and explain that we need to follow up with Ser Lothar the Red. He offers us a room for the night and gives us each rooms on the main floor.