A Curse in Ivory Report

General Summary

Previously: Albrek Strikes Back
Silla Scalesweep, our halfling friend, invites us to help cook a celebration breakfast for the town. They have lots of flat fish and shell fish to eat. The Growler asks us to write an official report on behalf of the slacker head guard, which we do. We cook good breakfast.
The town only has one temple currently, which is dedicated to Lathander, god of the dawn. We left our partially dismembered zombie friend Brag there, but the god doesn't have an affinity toward the undead. The novice priests there tried to heal him, but it didn't work. We ask them for information about the goddess Lurue, for which they consult a huge book called the Rites of Good and Evil. It is a textbook for temples of good-aligned gods, common along the sword coast but Herdyr had never seen such a thing in her temple back in Sharandar. Half of the book describes traditions and rites of good worship; how to participate with and respect those of other good faiths. The other half is a primer on how to spot the worship of evil gods, what their worshippers might do, and what powers they might have.
Lurue's sigil is a unicorn head in crest. Her places of worship are found in the wild (not where one is likely to be attacked), with the best places to commune with Lurue being forest glades near flowing water, under sunlight, moonlight or starlight. The common practice is to set up a small altar and burn herbs as incense: Verbana, colt's foot and twigs of hazel, for instance. Things that anger Lurue are the killing of intelligent animals, burning of trees, etc.
We think that in praying to her, we might gain the necessary invitation to find a way to her temple. One of the initiates recommends a glade nearby to the west of town. While we're at the temple, we notice that Demonbiter is back on Anathema's shoulder. She asks where he's been and he doesn't seem to understand the question.
We check in on Brag who seems unnaturally upbeat, a weight off his shoulders. He's making his own prosthetics. Anathema updates him on the rest of the gang. Anathema agrees to take him to our other zombie acquaintance, Elf, in exchange for the cloak. He says to let his brother know if we see him. Tharg carries him while we go off to deal with the unicorn horn. Elf is standing in the doorway, looking much less aware of what is going on around him. Tharg brings both back to town and looks for a necromancer. He gets a recommendation to talk to Gallio Elibro, who is in charge of rebuilding the wizard's tower in the centre of town. Brag tries to get him to help with the prosthetics. The wizard has jars of body parts from the tower that used to be a planar beacon, so they contain parts of animals from different plains, with claws and tentacles and the like.
We go to find the glade that the priest suggests. We get lost, but find a good alternative. We connect with the god who sets out the story and explains where to find the door to her temple, which appears at the full moon, (in two days time). We scare away a monstrous cat, a malk, which might have been attracted by the horn's curse.
Tharg saw an imp - a small leathery-winged creature from the hells. Brag thinks that it might be looking for him, as he's meant to be dead. Imp heart is a potion ingredient but they are hard to get ahold of. Imps are born of spite and malice, and live to create more. Brag agrees to stay and help the wizard with building the tower, and agrees to look after Elf.
We leave the mirror in a secure storeroom in the fortified compound in Leilon. We build a door and fix it onto the front of the mirror with a lock on it to ensure that nothing that might be inside can get out easily. Anathema offers the cloak from Brag to Tharg. It is a Nymph Cloak, increasing the Charisma of the wearer due to the magical effect of the nymph hair woven into it.
We go back to the temple and look up information on Talos. Signs that Talos is being worshipped in the area include unnatural storm clouds, things being ripped apart, and destroyed magical objects. His symbol is three thunderbolts meeting at a point, or three thunderbolts arranged in parallel. His followers travel around inciting violence, but some people pray for Talos' mercy if they are worried about destruction, so not everyone who mentions him is bad.
We get the cold-iron shortsword back from the blacksmith, then set out towards the site holy to Lurue, carefully carrying the unicorn horn.
Next: A Sinister Journey of Three Parts