Chapter VI.
General Summary
Cailín turns into little white spider. A gaping hole, grimy cobwebs, broken furniture. Several holes in the floor. Two sacks to the north. Cailín spends fifteen minutes crawling through the sacks. The only thing in the sacks besides old clothes and rags is a porcelain doll in sailor’s costume with eyes made of jade worth 10 gold each. Then she crawls down onto Lily’s shoulder. Ollin and Helvella sneak down the hallway and listen at one of the doors. They hear nothing, sneak inside. Storage room with an ill-made oaken chest. Recent clothes. The chest is empty. Sacks have rotted clothing. Clothes have an inordinate amount of crusty wool socks. Sailor boys make do. They check the other room. Single mattress on floor, stuffing coming out. Moldy smell, water damaged ceiling. They search. Moldy ragged clothes that were never in fashion. Spider legs dipped in ink. “Doll upstairs.” One leg for yes. This doll upstairs. Hello little spider. Axel lifts Kvaethi into the attic. Cailín leads him to the sacks and runs in circles. Kvaethi sneaks in the attic. On the way back. Axel helps him down and checks the doll for magic, but it doesn’t seem of interest currently. We go down the hall onto the balcony that overlooks the main hall. Lily listens at the first door on the west side. Hears nothing. Axel checks the door for traps, but doesn’t see anything. Lily + Axel, Ollin + Kvaethi, Helvella + Cailín, Kadias Axel walks in first. A decayed master bedroom. Wooden wardrobe, fireplace. Cailín investigates the fireplace as a spider, there’s nothing. Then she investigates old cracked leather boots and a ragged stained cloak tooled with coiling ivy leaves. She indicates there’s no enemies. Kvaethi opens the wardrobe, takes the cloak. As we stuff it into the bag of holding, yellow spores puff out of the fold. Cailín pops out of her spider form, naked. Helvella and Ollin are poisoned for one minute, coughing. Lily spares Ollin and Kvaethi. Kadias gets Ollin back up with Lay on Hands, Cailín uses her healing hands to get Kvaethi back up. Yellow mold is a common mold that can be destroyed with sunlight or fire. Axel takes a sample of the yellow mold in a flask, then Kvaethi opens a window and drops the cloak out into the garden, where he sees the mold disperse. Cailín puts her armor back on. As we go down the stairs, we hear loud knocking on the front door. “Come on out little mice, I know you’re in there.” -San Balay Helvella sneaks up to a window to see who the voice belongs to. A bald man dressed in loose fitting pirate garb knocking at the door. A hobgoblin and another tough looking sailor. Helvella casts charm person on the bald guy. Then she talks through the door. Lily guides her. Helvella and Kadias stay to talk to the pirates while the rest go to the back door to try and get out that way. Around the corner steps a hobgoblin and another pirate, holding weapons and sneering. “Hey, why don’t you come back later.” -Helvella “Why don’t I come back later when I live here?” -San Balay “We’re cleaning the house and we’re not done.” -Helvella “We just found some deadly mold.” -Kadias “Yes, you’re cleaning it…but…you know it’s not just me here. I can’t just leave them behind. Why don’t you open the door and we can have a conversation.” -San Balay “All the cleaning has kicked up poisonous spores. It’s dangerous to let you in.” -Helvella “What about your companions, you are safe from the poison?” -San Balay “Yes, we are.” -Helvella “You know what, we can come back later and finish, just let us go. Your friends don’t like my friends, we don’t want them to start arguing. It’s fine, we can go and finish up later.” -Helvella “What is she talking about boss?” -Pirate “Shut it. Why don’t we all step outside and talk about this.” -San Balay “Hey man. Tell your friends to lower their weapons.” -Helvella “Lower your weapons.” -San Balay “We got rid of all those bugs, we cleaned the spores.” -Helvella “What are they talking about? San Balay, what are you thinking?” -Female Pirate “We are only having a conversation.” -San Balay “Yeah, we are having a parley!” -Helvella “We are all friends here. Why don’t you join us downstairs and we can sup together.” -San Balay “We would love to, but we have another client. We would love to sup, but you know how it is.” -Helvella “You’re right, I don’t mean to press you. Of course we can talk later. Let them go, they can leave.” -San Balay They step out of the way. “I don’t know what you’ve done, but we’ll remember your faces! We’ll find you anywhere you try to hide in Saltmarsh!” -Lady Pirate “Hey, I know where you’re hiding honey. I’ll see you later.” -Helvella We get down the hill, out of eyesight and then start sprinting the rest of the way. We make our way back to Saltmarsh and then to Councilman Anders house. “You all look worse for wear. You’re here to report Master Solmor?” After a few minutes, Anders comes to the foyer. “Scarin told me you were injured, but he didn’t tell me it was this bad! Please, come in!” “It’s good you escaped them. San Balay is a wanted criminal. He’s a mage.” “The important thing now is, did you find any proof that I can take to the guards?” We’re mostly going off your word and mine at the moment, but it might be enough to get the guards to investigate. You are representing the Ring & Wren which goes a long way. I’ll have to take this to the council, the guards. “Save the lives of your guards, give us some gold.” -Kvaethi “Now that they know they’ve been made, the question is how quickly you can act. They’ll be ready for you if you go back now. They certainly had some sort of plan that they’ll be enacting now.” -Anders “When are you going to meet with them?” -Axel “You’ll be summoned if you’re needed.” -Anders “I can spare one guard to watch the inn.” “Thank you sir.” It’s about one. Got a loo I can use? -Ollin Of course. Scarin can show you. Scarin, can you show the good man to the toilets? -Anders Ollin pockets 1 gold worth of valuables from the bathroom. Kvaethi and Scarin have been eyeing each other. Eliander, captain of the guard. Ollin tries to talk to Scarin about the art in the house. That’s good, a butler is good, steady “Does it hurt having your wings clipped?” -Kvaethi “Watch what you say to me, blood drinker.” -Scarin “Big words from a man who last saw the sea years ago.” -Kvaethi “When was the last time you saw iron rock, boy?” -Scarin “If you’re here, I know there are others.” -Scarin “Prove it to your town council then.” -Kvaethi “Where are they?” -Scarin “My people are from here, but they are thirsty.” -Kvaethi Kvaethi asks about Scrimshaw’s instruments and takes them for himself. Kvaethi is delighted to play Scrimshaw’s lute during the short rest. Axel and Kadias go to The Dwarven Anvil, Axel’s parents’ shop. An older Middle Aged Goliath wearing glasses and looking over a ledger at the counter. Just a moment. Please stay behind the counter, I’ll be here in a moment. You shouldn’t be here! Your mother will kill you if she sees you. You’re back in town? Do you have a place to stay? Need food? You never wrote!! I couldn’t! They outlawed writing! Greg? Who is that? Just Mr. Parsons picking up his order! If she catches you here, she’ll put you to work! This is my friend Kadias, we met at the Ring & Wren. The Ring and Wren? You’re working for the Ring and Wren? Yeah that’s why I left. When you left Scrimshaw was with you. Where is he? He died by snakes. In a well. For twelve silver. It was horrible. I was there Mr. Howitzer. It was my fault. Why was he there? He’s an old man! He was supposed to keep an eye on you! Even though Scrimshaw went out, he was living the way he wanted in the end. I’m glad you’re here. Good to see you, son. Maybe on Sunday, you can come by. Well smooth things over with your mother. Greg, I need your help back here! Wait, before you go! This armor… There were grubs on it. Grubs?! Shhh! Don’t tell me! I don’t want to know. That’s fine armor. I don’t know where you got it, and I don’t care. It’s fine armor. By next week it should be ready. Listen leave the armor and the gold. It costs two hundred. Take it on credit. We’ll sort out the rest later. It’s the best I can do for the materials and labor. I appreciate it. Before we go. Can you give this to her. Unicorn wine. Note to mom explaining everything. Around 11 PM our long rest is interrupted by the guard, who calls our attention Messenger came. Council wants to see you. Right now? Aye seems they’re having an emergency session. I can lead the way. We go next door to the town Wooden sign depicting a net filled with fish. Horn blown to announce a town meeting. Ten town guards out front. Flanked by guards who lead us in. Council is seated when we enter. Town council members: Eda Oweland. Older dark skinned human woman, most senior member. Gellan Primewater. Dapper older gentleman with light skin and a neatly trimmed beard and fancy clothes. Name is all over the docks. Eliander Fireborn. Leathery skinned older man scarred face dour demeanor, looks like an old soldier, under the table has a peg leg. Manistrad Copperlocks. Female dwarf, not that old. Bright copper orange hair in two long braids in worker’s attire. Anders Solmor. Youngest to ever be elected to council. Slight man with sharp features. Eda speaks first. “I don’t think we need to go into too much detail into who each of you are. We’ll address you as the representatives of the Ring & Wren.” Thank you for that Mr. Trench. It’s quite late at night and we’ve been summoned by Mr. Solmor. He’s brought several damnable accusations for the business you’ve been overseeing for him with that damned house. We’ve brought you here to question you further before we make a decision Gellan: ladies and gentleman of the council, members of the ring and wren, I want to welcome you and thank you for your assistance. What I have questions of is we were told of this business of the pirates or smugglers we found at the house. How can you be so sure these are smugglers and not local riff raff? Is it a conspiracy? His crew addressed him as such. We saw his a picture. Gellan, they represent the Ring & Wren. We can trust their word. I know we can trust their word. But words can only go so far in a place such as this, a council hall. Listen Mr. Primewater, I know you want to protect the interests of your business partners in this matter. How dare you! It’s late at night. Axel leaves and returns with a piece of bark. This is the man we saw! Listen, I’ve got the guard ready to go. I say we send them there and figure it out later. -Fireborn Awful quick to send the guards I have a royal decree to operate here M’am we’d be happy to do that for you, but we don’t work on charity. There’s no problem with the mines, dear. I don’t think my workers would appreciate to see us sendin’ out half the town guard to an empty warehouse. We are after all, the Ring & Wren. That sounds lovely. You know this character is a mage. He might be tricky to capture. Do y’all have something to give us to assist in a live capture? No. Is the council in agreement? I just think this is a waste of our time. So my vote is no. Fireborn: I’d rather trust the guards than some mercenaries, but I see the councils divided about where we send our resources. If they die, we’ll send the guard out yesterday. Anders: I know a lot about this Sanbalet. Sigurd and Sanbalet are working together, Sigurd is most likely in charge of the operation. These goods are being stolen and trafficked, probably kept somewhere in the house, but then taken somewhere. It’s imperative we stop this operation before word gets out to the ship. If you can deal with Sanbalet before the ship comes in, we could trick them into coming and get the whole lot. I think you have a promising Alright that’s enough yipping and yapping about future events. Are we ready to adjourn? The guards see us out after we Axel and Ollin antagonize the council members about their crankiness about staying up late. Kvaethi writes names, numbers, maps at night while Cailín looks at the stars. Kvaethi bunks with Cailín, Axel and Kadias, and all the halflings in one bed. The next day after breakfast, we make out for the Hill House again. The plan is to go in through the back door, go to the basement and try to figure out where the door in the basement leads to outside. Lily looks for traps on the way. Outside the steps up to the back door is a bear trap. Lily listens at the door, doesn’t hear anything. We go in the unlocked door, try to sneak down into the cellar through the kitchen. We get down there relatively quietly. Kadias uses divine sense at the bottom, but doesn’t sense anything. Cailín casts light on Lily’s necklace. Ahahaha!!! Fools have returned to see what awaits you at the hands of Sanbalet! Journey further if you dare! The hidden door is still ajar. The room looks knocked apart and hastily ransacked. We step in and
