Episode 9: Around Town

General Summary

32nd of Harvesttide, 1283 Dyeri Cycle

Sealgair Fala has been on half a dozen missions since joining the Order of Inquisition. During her last mission, she had tracked down a sorcerer to a small town on the eastern coast of Kelwyn. When she found them, the sorcerer turned out to be a seven-year-old girl. Sealgair just couldn't quite finish the job and instead provided a way for them to disappear while providing "evidence" to her handler. However, she is now on her guard because something about the way she is being treated makes her feel like maybe she didn't get away with it. She would normally get a new mission within a few days, but more than a week had gone by before she was sent to the Nyrael Marches to check on reports of werewolf activity. When she got there, she learned a local lord had claimed a man had given his wife a potion which had changed her into a wolf. She did some checking and there was some missing livestock in the area and some anecdotal evidence from some witnesses about a wolf hurting some guards, but not enough to really make it seem like there were werewolves. Reporting back on this mission, Sealgair is then sent to Tanylvar to work with the local chapter of the Order.
Reaching Tanylvar, she goes to the main temple to Cyr and reports to Father Cedryc. He greets her and mentions he had requested someone to look into some local matters and wasn't expecting to receive Sealgair. He mentions her superiors felt she needed a break from her more lethal activities. He tells her the main temple here follows the Order of Compassion, but it is quite clear Cedryc is part of the Order of Courage. He then briefs her on the mission to find intelligence on a local artificer who is looking for new technology. She is to track the group he has been sending out and see what he has found and if there is heresy to report on it. He mentions the local baron does not know anything about this and so she needs to be more circumspect in this mission. She is told to seek out Castor Fizzbolt and is given directions to his abode. He mentions that he has two of his men watching the place, Dreskar and Phillip. She should make contact with them and then report back in a week unless earlier is warranted.
She is dismissed and heads to the artificer's abode via the Merchant District and along the western side of the city. After about twenty minutes she reaches the workshop and sees two guys sitting on barrels across from it. Based on what Cedryc mention, Sealgair is sure they are the men she was supposed to contact. As she approaches, four people leave the workshop and she sees them notice the two men. She continues walking past the workshop as those people head back the way she just came. Sealgair turns around and start following from a distance. The other two men do the same, but Sealgair is further back than them.
The group heads a few blocks away and enters the Red Boar Inn. Sealgair notices one of them continue on and head to a park where he seems to kneel and pray. She continues into the park and sits down watching the man. The two others following the group take up a station across from the tavern and wait. After a short bit, the man praying heads into the tavern. Sealgair heads into the tavern and finds a spot in the corner of the room.
[ED Note: some of this is modified to fit what actually happened the previous session vs what was mis-remembered] After about thirty minutes, the group leaves the tavern and heads to the Merchant District their two shadows in tow. Sealgair leaves the tavern and finds that the priest-looking man has gone a different way and the two other men are already gone (probably following the other three). She follows him through an alley and around a corner. She hurries and sees the priest head out onto the main thoroughfare where she loses sight of him briefly. As she reaches that area she sees the priest is headed south towards the Merchant District. She hurries after him trying to close the distance a bit.
Eventually, the priest catches back up with the other three near the guardhouse just inside the Merchant District. She also sees the two men following them and decides to follow them instead and they move down a bit further and start looking into some shop windows but clearly still watching the group of four. Sealgair heads past them all and into a jewelers shop. A dark-haired woman with green eyes asks what she can do for her. Sealgair asks about rings and the woman starts showing her rings. She eventually buys a ring (silver with a pale violet stone) for 3gp. She heads out of the store and sees the group of four are heading towards her. She starts inspecting her package as she notices they are headed straight for that store. She moves to the side as they walk into the shop. The larger of the two men walks past the store as she steps back in. She starts looking at the necklace case. After a bit of talking with the woman about a potential job, the four people leave the shop and the woman again asks what Sealgair might be looking for. She makes up an excuse about needing a job and asks about the job Opal has. She excuses herself and leaves.
The two guys get up from the table and start after the group of four while Sealgair follows those two. They head down the street and when the two men pass the temple, the smaller man ducks into it while the larger one continues following the group. The group continues out of the Merchant District and on into the Docks District where they eventually reach a fish market. At that point, the group splits up with half continuing towards the main docks and the other half taking a different road along the market. The larger man follows the woman and fighter-looking man as they head to the southwest around the Fish Market. Sealgair continues to follow the large man and eventually sees that the two smaller groups re-unite at another job board near the harbormaster's building.
Sealgair watches them go over the job board. Eventually, the priest heads away from the job board while the other three head straight over to the large man. They speak with him, but eventually, the woman takes him to the job board and then to the harbormaster's office where the large man enters and then the group heads over to a warehouse where they meet up with the priest. Sealgair looks over the warehouse and notices a silver scale over the door. She heads over to the job board and looks it over. She takes the warehouse guard job posting and a transport job posting and heads to the warehouse.
As she reaches the warehouse, the group of four is standing outside it and starts to leave. She notices the priest give her an odd glance, but she continues past and heads to the fish market. She stops on the other side of the market and waits until they pass by. She continues to follow them at a distance as they head along the docks, across the river, through the north side of the city, and eventually reach a dirt track about thirty minutes outside of town. They head down the track and she follows far enough to see them reach a camp with two circles of wagons. She takes up position outside of the camp in the forest.
She hangs out there as they enter the camp and talk with some people. The group all heads off out of the camp to the north. After about twenty minutes of watching the camp, she feels a tap on her shoulder. Turning around she sees a man tapping his foot. He asks why she has been watching their camp and she dissembles for a bit. He seems to not believe and tells her to come in and speak with the caravan master. The two of them head into the camp and a man comes out from a chair and speaks with her. The man introduces himself as Rorick and offers her to sit for a while and maybe have some stew before he suggests she leave. She wants to just stay on the outskirts, but Rorick tells her to have a seat and have something to eat, but just don't stay the night. Sealgair takes a seat near the fire as the four people come back into camp.
[Ed note: and now we pick up where the last session left off]
As Artemis heads into camp with the others, he notices the woman with white hair that he has bumped into a couple of times over the last day sitting near the fire and is eating some stew. They head through the stew line and get some stew before Artemis mentions the woman to Silva. As they look at her, she pulls out some paper and continues to eat the stew. The two head over and sit down next to the woman. They greet the woman and she mentions there were some guys following them. They ask why she is at the camp and she mentions she is looking for a job and how she thought guys were looking for her. Artemis doesn't fully believe her, and Silva asks why she thinks there is a job up here. She dissembles for a bit and then mentions she thought the mines were this way. Again Silva doesn't fully believe her and politely suggests the mines are to the west and not the north. Sealgair asks what the four people are doing. Artemis mentions he is also looking for work, and Sealgair asks if she can tag along as she doesn't like traveling alone. Artemis asks where she is from. She mentions she is from the capital of the Cyrlys Kingdom on Cyrwyn. She mentions she wants to find some adventure. Eventually, the group decides to allow her to join them. Sealgair asks why people would be following them and Silva and Artemis say they have no idea why.
Artemis decides to retire for the evening and finds a spot on the ground to sleep. He sets it up as the rest of the people in camp continue to entertain themselves. Morgoth finishes his food and he and Andal head back to Tanylvar. Silva finds a spot to sleep and so does Sealgair. Morgoth and Andal reach the city and go separate ways as Morgoth heads to his house and Andal heads to the Salty Rat on the docks.
Andal finds the Salty Rat right on the waterfront of the docks. He heads inside and finds the room packed with sailors, dock workers, harlots, and rogues. He looks around and sees his contact, Uryel. Andal steps up next to Uryel and the bartender, Dart, asks him what he wants and provides him with the requested ale. Uryel asks Andal about the lady favors which is the sign and Andal provides the countersign. Uryel nods and then tells Dart the two of them will be in the back. Andal and Uryel then head over to one of the booths and close the curtain.
Uryel and Andal talk about the spying job they want him to do. They want Andal to check out an iron mine run by the Silve Ore Consortium. The mine seems to have run out of ore, but the Cosortium denies that is the case. The reason they want to know this is that if the ore truly is played out, then the contract is null and void and the baron no longer needs to pay a retainer. Their mutual benefactor wants Andal to infiltrate the mine and find evidence that the mine is played out. Uryel mentions Andal has been chosen because of his in at the Consortium. Uryel also mentions that time is of the essence, so they wish to learn this information as soon as possible. Andal realizes he has never been asked specifically to do something for the baron's interest, so maybe the real employer is potentially connected to the baron in some way. It's also possible someone is trying to find a way to reduce the standing of the Consortium. Clearly, the employer knows more about the baron's contracts than he should. Uryel offers double the pay if Andal gets the information in the next two days. Uryel gives him 5gp and then leaves the booth.
Andal pays for the ale and leaves the tavern. He heads along the docks and eventually reaches the tenement where he lives.

33rd of Harvesttide, 1283 Dyeri Cycle

A new day dawns as Artemis, Sealgair, and Silva wake up in the Havani camp. They prepare for the day. Artemis asks if he can purchase anything for the camp, but Rorick declines as he is a friend of Silva and so there is no need. The three of them head back to Tanylvar. Andal heads over to the north part of the city where he runs into Morgoth and they then wait for the other three to come through. It doesn't take much time before the group is all together again.
They discuss options for what to do with themselves before finally deciding to go to the warehouses and find a job taking items to the mines. Talking with Quil they find a job transporting some mining equipment to one of the nearby mines. Artemis, Morgoth, and Sealgair each get a cart, one of the pickaxes, one of the shovels, and one of the wooden beams from quartermaster Byron. Byron hands Andal a scroll and tells them to give it to the overseer. As they are about to leave, Byron asks for collateral. Artemis leaves a handaxe and a dagger. Morgoth leaves his javelins. Andal leaves his bow and arrows. They head off and start pulling the carts towards the mine.
They head through town and out to the west. They pass the mining camp and head west towards the mine. It takes them the better part of three hours to reach the mine as they tend to swap between people every so often. Reaching the mine, they find a wall surrounding the entrance of the mine and some buildings (an office, a warehouse, and another building). Stopping at the gates, they are eventually let in after providing them with the scroll. They are given back the scroll and they take the items to the warehouse. Unloading the equipment, they find that not all of the shovels are there (they are missing two of them). The quartermaster marks the missing shovels on the scroll. They try to convince the quartermaster to sign off on the shovels to no avail. Taking the scrolls and the carts, they head back to Tanylvar.
As they are leaving Artemis looks over the camp. It is a quarried out hill with a haphazardly made wall and guard tower with multiple buildings. There is a mine entrance in the hill with a track for mining carts. There is also a cesspool on one side where waste is being disposed of. He also notices some carts coming out of the mine with some rock glinting of silver guarded by men with crossbows and several miners. Artemis notices the miners getting patted down as he finally exits the gate. Artemis asks the guards about trouble with beasts, but the guard mentions some goblins a couple of weeks back.
They head back to Tanylvar and reach the mining camp about an hour and a half later. They stop and look at the job board. The jobs consist of miners needed; teamsters needed; a bunch of odd jobs such as blacksmiths, carpenters, and stonemasons; and finally a scribbled page for someone to go to the Dyaril Forest to get bitterweed. Artemis thinks the scribbled note is only a couple of days old. He takes that note and they head back to the warehouse. Byron complements them and asks for the scrolls. He looks them over and then asks about the shovels. Artemis tells Byron they didn't remove the shovels. Byron gives back the handaxe and the dagger and the javelins. He then asks Rob about the shovels and Rob says he put them all on the cart this time. Rob looks a little nervous as Byron goes over to a pile of equipment and doesn't find any shovels, so he starts blaming the adventurers until Artemis points out the pile of shovels where they find some extra shovels. They get back the bow and arrows. They head out as Byron berates Rob. Heading over to Quil they get their pay.
The group splits up as Morgoth goes hunting, Andal and Sealgair head to the Silver Ore Consortium office, and Artemis and Silva head to the mining camp.
Artemis and Silva head out to the mining camp. They head into the maze that is the streets of the camp searching for Kilani. Artemis tries to talk to a child messing around with some sticks, but the kid says "no I don't talk to your kind." Artemis starts trying to get attention by playing with some copper and heads to the next kid and the next and the next always getting the same result, a cold shoulder. He then finds a woman who is sewing in a chair. She seems upset to see him and doesn't want to talk to him or give him any answers. She suggests that Artemis leave the camp before he is accosted. Both of them realize that these people don't like the Cyrlys and Artemis is one of them.
Artemis heads out of the camp while Silva starts looking for Kilani. She heads further into the camp and comes upon a "square" where she finds some kids playing and some women doing laundry and chatting. In the center, there is a pole with the remnants of streamers. She goes up to a woman washing laundry. Silva asks about Kallaniand the woman tells her to go through three more of the squares and then she will find her. Silva goes out the other side and the path twists and turns before coming to another square and she goes to the other side of this new square and continues until she reaches the next square and she finds it to be the square she started in. Silva heads back one and finds it to be different with a set of older people. Silva asks an old woman named Kallaniand they mention she is the medicine woman. Silva asks where she is and what she looks like and they say one more square over and that she is a young woman with straw-colored hair and hazel eyes.
Silva heads to the next square and sure enough, the woman washing clothes is straw-haired with hazel eyes. Asking her if she is Kilani, the woman answers in the affirmative and then tells Silva to come inside when Silva mentions the job. Stepping inside what amounts to a tent, Silva finds a room full of a variety of items on shelves. They discuss the job. Kilani tells her to go to the Dyaril Forest to look for amarga which looks similar to nettles. As Kilani goes to find a book to show Silva what to look for Silva notices several scrolls and books on the shelves. Kilani shows her a picture of amarga. Silva looks around and sees there is a bunch of ingredients for a wide variety of things and that she is probably an herbalist. Nothing is labeled which makes it hard to discern exactly what everything is. She says it is ok if it takes a week or so.
Silva heads out of the room and finds her way back out of the camp through the maze of passages. She finds Artemis and tells him about the job. Artemis asks about how much it pays. Silva mentions she lost interest in the pay as she was distracted by all of the herbs.
Silva heads back in and finds Kilani again where she asks about payment. Kilani offers to pay in trade such as some healing draughts. Silva heads back out and gives Artemis the news. Artemis seems ok with that. They head back to the Havani camp.
Andal and Sealgair head down the docks to the main office of the Silver Ore Consortium. They enter the office and find a map of the region on the wall with pins on it. A man stands up and asks if he can help. Andal asks if his brother Callam is in the office or in the city. The man mentions he is out at one of the iron mines working with the overseers. He asks to take a message and Andal mentions that his brother would like to see him. The man says oh since Andal is his brother he points at the map and tells him which mine he is at. The mine he points at is north of Raventhorp. Andal and Sealgair head out of the office and to the Havani camp.
Morgoth hunts for a bit but doesn't have any luck so he returns home.
Andal, Artemis, Sealgair, and Silva all meet at the Havani camp where Andal mentions he was looking for his brother and found out his brother is at an iron mine that might be the same one as a contact mentioned was having issues. Artemis and Silva tell them about the Kilani job. Andal and Silva talk about the map to the locations of the ruins. They decide to head to the mine and see if they can make it to Raventhorp yet that day. They pass by Morgoth's ramshackle house to collect him and meet one of his sisters, Ivy (the other is Lily). They fill Morgoth in on what is going on and then head to Raventhorp.
Reaching Raventhorp, they head to the Wagon Inn where they are met by Brunner. He welcomes them. Silva, Morgoth, and Artemis take a room while Andal and Sealgair stay in the common room. They come back down and eat some food. Silva tries some of Yon's "hooch" and she starts coughing right before everything comes back up. Brunner cleans up the table and they spend some time eating and drinking. They ask why there aren't very many people there and Brunner mentions harvest time and some attacks on a local farmer by goblins. Silva asks where the goblin attacked happened and Brunner mentions it was to the west. He also mentions Yon and Halton are looking into it. When asked about the attack, Brunner mentions the goblin riding a strange dog. They drink a bit and then head to bed.

34th of Harvesttide, 1283 Dyeri Cycle

Waking up in the morning, they head off out of town to the west and follow that track as it turns to the north. As they travel the track for four hours they encounter no one until they reach the mine proper. Similar to the other mine they made it to, it has a wall around an office, warehouse, and some other buildings including a really large building that is also part of the wall. As they approach the wall, guards stop them and ask what they want. Andal explains he is looking for this brother Callam and was sent out here. The guard goes and gets Callam. After ten minutes, a man comes over wearing the garb of Tanylvar, and while it has some smudges on it the tailoring is much better than the clothing worn by the party. The man resembles Andal with dark hair and similar features. Callam addresses Andal and the guards back off a bit. Callam asks why Andal is here and Andal says he wanted to see him since it has been a couple of years. His brother seems a little suspicious of the reasons, but before Andal can provide a lie the sound of thunder can be heard from the mouth of the mine. Callam and the guard duck as dust billow from the mine. Callam tells Andal to leave and then heads towards the mine entrance at a quick pace...

Rewards Granted

Artemis, Morgoth, and Sealgair each get 1sp for taking equipment up to a mine
Andal is given 5gp upfront for the spy job.

Character(s) interacted with

Quil Tyryon - manager at the Silver Ore Consortium warehouse
Rorick - SIlva's uncle
Byron - quartermaster at the Silver Ore Consortium warehouse
Rob - work at the warehouse
Brother Cedryc - handler for Sealgair Fala
Opal - jeweler
Uryel - contact for Andal
Kilani - herbalist in the Maze
Dart - bartender at the Salty Rat
Brunner - innkeeper at the Wagon Inn
Callam - Andal's brother
Ivy - Morgoth's sister

Created Content

Ivy and Lily - Morgoth's sisters
Callam - Andal's brother
The Salty Rat - tavern on the docks

Notes

Andal 2cp in ale.
Andal knows that Uryel is a go-between for someone else who is the real employer. This real employer uses a few different people to provide Andal with jobs. None of the jobs have been morally repugnant and the only one that was sort of bad was the job where Andal learned something about someone that he didn't want people to know.
Silva pays a 1gp for all of the rooms and food
They learn about a goblin attack in Raventhorp