Session 34: "Welcome" Said the spider to the fly Report
General Summary
2nd of Haelynir 1524 At 12pm the started to split up. Lily spoke with Xeldarix. They talk about the events that have passed and the concerns they share for one another. Xeldarix has an idea of something she can do to help protect Lily more, but needs a special item made for it to work. She encourages Lily to go talk to Fargrim who seems to be in shock after the events of the day. Fargrim had been reflecting when Lily comes over to talk to him. She asks him to accompany her to a blacksmith. They get into their armour, Lily helping Fargrim with the heavy armour. Fargrim does a sending spell to contact Karl to ensure that no one had gone to investigate Wellmore’s house yet. After getting his reassurance back from Karl that they were both he and Lyra are still in the tower, he leaves with Lily.
Karl went up to the apprentice longue common area to have one of the younger members (Jeremy) of the guild take a message to Karl’s family, reassuring them he was safe and would be by as soon as he was free. After that he went to see Sam Sparrow. They discuss a bit of the fallout of the Wellmore situation and how the school is going to cope with this scandal. They discuss the items Karl had requested for enchanting and the outstanding amount due. Karl was able to pick up both sets of Earrings of Deafening for Simone and Xeldarix, and the Wand of Smiles. The Cloak of Billowing due to be finished today and the Wand of Magic Missiles due to be finished in a few days. Karl gave some more funds with the promise of more when he picks up the Wand of Magic Missiles. Once they conclude their discussions he goes to find Xeldarix. Karl gives Xeldarix the earrings and they have a discussion about the cost of them that Karl dodges giving Xeldarix a price. They also discuss Orel, the stranger who attacked their with the teiflings. Their discussion shifts to Alexis and Xeldarix shows him her latest reply and the anger that is stirring within Alexis right now. This leads to a brief mention of her fall and what led to it, the blood war, the situation with Fulda, the changes Xeldarix is going through, where Xeldarix had accidentally planeshifted them to.
Lyra went to talk to Steve Eelwind. There she meets Reed God of the Tower who is being punished by Steve for some of his actions while Steve was away. Lyra and Steve apologise to each other the events of the previous day and discuss what happened a little. He confirmed that at the time Wellmore seemed to have left the city and was travelling in the plains. Wellmore had told Steve that she was going to find her benefactor whose name was starting with G. Leaving Steve, Lyra goes to investigate Wellmore’s office with Lila. She finds in some of the books that Wellmore wrote many of them were dedicated to her Father Huey Wellmore. Lila picks each of the locks for the six draws. As each lock is picked and the draw is opened a bell seconds. Each bell seems to be a different tone. Upon the final draw being opened they rise to a crescendo and the second hits Lila and Lyra hard with a concussive blast, hurting them and stunning them for a minute. By the time they are able to move again Steve has run up to the office to heal them. In the desk:
- Top left: It's mostly stationary, but there are two very nice looking items. One is a quill and the other seems to be one of those pens the rich people sometimes have. They're rare.
- Middle left: There are a few books in here. Upon inspections they seem to be guild ledgers and council notes books and planning school related documents.
- Bottom left: It has filing segments. With folders and loose paper. There was a hidden puzzle box with a figurine inside. When Lyra says the phrase she finds on it grows into a wooden person who starts to clean the office.
- Top right: This one seems to have more personal things in it. Two quills that point to one another no matter where they are moved to in the draw. An interesting looking bookmark. A photo of a younger looking Wellmore with an older man, but aside from that not much else.
- Middle right: This draw does have an interesting looking knife with a glass looking blade and bone handle. And a stone tablet. Aside from that no knife or plain looking quills.
- Bottom right: A small glass phial contains a thin, slightly opalescent liquid and a jar. This clear glass jar is sealed with wax. It contains the body of a dead sprite preserved inside. There was another empty jar that had Karl's name on it.
- The box with the figurine
- The knife
- The opalescent liquid
- The stone tablet
Lyra catches Xeldarix and Karl at the end of their discussion. Lyra tells them about her experiences in Wellmore’s office and the items she found. Xeldarix identifies the opalescent liquid as dryad tears.Karl identifies the other items.
- The knife is enchanted to never break or lose it's edge.
- Smart Tablet - A small slate tablet has a button on the bottom that, when pressed, magically shows a chalk drawing of whatever is in front of it. Can only hold the one image. To take another picture, the tablet needs to be shaken.
- (Inside the wooden box) Portable Librarian- This is a tiny figurine of a humanoid. When a command word is spoken, the figurine grows to become a medium size automaton. It immediately begins to perform simple "librarian" tasks such as returning books to shelves, tidying up loose papers, refilling inkwells, and so on. (If in a location where there aren't any library tasks to perform, the automaton will make do with whatever's handy -- stacking rocks into tidy piles, putting weapons into alphabetical order, and so on.) After an hour, it reverts back to figurine size, and can't be used again until after a long rest. It can be changed back early and the amount of time within the hour is reserved for later use in the day. A long rest still resets it. The Portable Librarian can't speak except to say "Shh."
On the way back to the mage guild Lily and Fargrim talk about the research they would like do for the afternoon. They arrive back at the tower at 2:30pm. They grab lunch at a nearby cafe before hitting the books. They do try to enter Elaren's office, but the door is closed and they are unable to enter. They go back down to the library. Lily looks into the Shadow World and Fargrim looks into different types of elves. However for Fargrim this seems to set off a bad reaction and he is unable to continue, leaving the library. Lily tries to talk to Fargrim but he doesn't make much sense. In the end Lily continues to read her book.
At 7pm Karl arrives back at the mage guild, escorted by his sister who seems to have calmed after some family time. He heads downstairs and runs into Fargrim when he gets back. However Karl is greet by Fargrim who is acting strange. In describing what happened after they last parted way Karl asks Fargrim if he is okay, but Fargrim is jumpy and starts to ramble. Karl resorts to pulling his wand on Fargrim to try and dispel the affect on Fargrim, however it has no affect. Instead Fargrim starts to walks off, leaving Karl a little frightened by this and nervous. However, Fargrim does come back to talk seeming to be more calm, explaining how much Cassandra has unnerved him. Karl leaves and goes upstairs to see Lily after Fargrim and Karl finish talking. Karl and Lily discuss their concerns about Fargrim. After talking for Karl goes downstairs again to see Steve about the other items from Wellmore's desk. Steve had Sam identify the items out of concern if anything was dangerous or could hurt a student.
- A writing pen. This writing pen appears to have been made from a small magic wand that was never enchanted. The handle is slim and warm to the touch, carved from ash that has small veins of silver running through it. The writing nip is also silver, and resembles an ash leaf.
- Quill of After Thought. This feathered quill looks to have set of quizzical eyes across the plumage; at a glance it appears that they are looking back and forth to your writing and your face as it moves. Write a message of up to 20 words about a situation or a plan, let the quill go and it will offer helpful notes or criticisms about said plan. In a very judgmental tone.
- Compass Quills. This pair of matched feathers will always point toward each other, no matter how far apart they are.
- Wondrous Bookmark. This tasseled bookmark can never fall out of the book it is placed into; it must be physically removed by a person with the intent to move it. If a word, phrase, or page number is spoken aloud, the tassel will hover, snakelike, for a moment, then dive into the book, indicating the page with the first occurrence of that word or phrase, or the page number cited. If the word or phrase is spoken again, it will move to the next occurrence.
3rd of Haelynir 1524 After some breakfast the groups set off. Fargrim leaves Lyra to watch Lila in the main temple, after attempting to have strong words with Lila about what it means to donate money, to talk with High Paladin Salma. The issue of Cassandra put Salma on high alert and Saryea who was also in the office starts to worry about Karl. High Paladin Salma tells Saryea to stay and says she will go to have a look at the temple.
Lily, Karl and Xeldarix go to the temple where a pale Fulda seems up and about. However, she has two guards on her at all times from the thieves' guild rather then the priests that are usually at her side. Little spiders are used for communication as the group seeks an audience with Cassandra. They are all taken into the bowels of the church to an ancient church below. They pass through the thieves' guild itself to get there. The large guild hall is covered in spider webs. They are invited to sit at the long main table to talk with Cassandra. Karl and Lily sits next to one another while Xeldarix stands between them silently. Fulda and Cassandra sit at the heads of the table. Karl and Lily share their concerns and Cassandra reassures them of her intensions. A thieves guild cannot run without a city. There is nothing to gain from destruction. Those not cared for by the city will be in better hands. However, this comes at a cost of those who raise a hand against Cassandra being sacrificed to her mistress Lolth. Cassandra is not scared to take the entire city as slaves in the name of her mistress, but would prefer things continue as they are. The city and those who would stand against her are unaware of her presence and she'll play nice. In exchange for their silence Cassandra promises to keep her spiders out of the mage guild. However, the conversation takes a downwards turn when Salma shows up in the main temple. Karl is sent to convince her to leave while Lily and Xeldarix keep Cassandra company. After a bit of discussion, Karl convinces Salma to leave. Once Cassandra is happy with that, she allows Xeldarix and Lily to walk out. Cassandra seems happy to make any agreement as long as she is getting something out of it. This includes if Cassandra no further use for Fulda, to allow Lily to have the halfling.
At the temple of Neria the group slowly gets back together and they decide that they need to do something about Cassandra. Lily uses her Detects Life blood ability to see there are a lot of spiders around. Some of their party members that they carefully remove. Xeldrix enables a telepathic conversation in their minds while Salma sets the scene to make it look like they are all praying rather then standing around staring at one another. They come up with the bones of a plan that involves saying there was a leak to the Watch, they bring the only Watch member who knows in good favour to Cassandra in order to spring an attack in the lair. Other ideas discussed are waiting for Cassandra on her nightly walks and fighting their way in. However, there is more unknows with these ideas. The time is 10am.
Rewards Granted
- Compass Quills
- Unbreakable Knife
- Smart Tablet
- Dryad's Tear
- Access to Wellmore's belongings
Missions/Quests Completed
- Assess a Spider's Bite - Dangerous and needs to be dealt with
Created Content
- Lolth
- Brechlen's Thieves Guild
- Ela's Suppression of Shadows
Notes
| Name | XP | Running Total | Level at the end of session |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fargrim | 425 | 60,535 | 9 |
| Karl | 425 | 60,535 | 9 |
| Lily | 425 | 60,535 | 9 |
| Lyra | - | 53,270 | 9 |
| Simone | - | 36,400 | 8 |
