CM: C11E1 - The Situation with Skitterwidgets Report
General Summary
Lyra spent much of the weeks that followed their victory over Stonky researching any records of findings from the observatory that they found atop The Barn Door. Vooshadi Moonriver was able to find a number of different charts and reports that were authored by members of the Avowed over the years, prior to the Barn Door being condemned the first time, and over time Lyra was able to compare these to her own observations and begin to understand, and predict, the relative motion of the stars and planets as time passes. Toby De Term'nd returned from a trip to Baldur's Gate to discover the situation with the skitterwidgets, and he promptly decided to "nope" his way to a room at the House of Rest until the situation was dealt with. Unfortunately, when he settled into his room, he found that he had a stowaway kittywidget in his pack and he returned grumpily to the mansion where the others were unsuccessfully trying to come up with a plan to deal with them. Eventually, after Toby left once more - this time to see what some research could dig up on things like these - the others landed on a plan of separating the skitterwidgets and convincing the various friends they had made over the past year or more to each adopt one. Lyra managed to successfully convince K'Tula to take one, but before she could send letters to their other contacts, Toby arranged to meet with the First Reader to seek aid after striking out on his research. The First Reader was quite intrigued, as he was unaware of any record of another automoton self-replicating in this way. He offered to help, by setting a team of Avowed to collect, separate, and research the skitterwidgets. He also offered some advice to be passed on to Bardak - that he exercise caution when dealing with things beyond his understanding. With that all cleared up, life returned to normal for a few days. Until a strange, marble and leather tome named "Zikran's Zephyrean Tome" landed on Jayce's pile of research material one day. Other than the odd choice of material for its cover (marble is impractically heavy for a book), it was also set apart by the heavy padlock that prevented its opening. The group tried everything they could think of, including dispelling the magical lock, using their chimes of opening, and could not manage to open it. That is, until Lyra contemplated removing it to a pocket dimension such as their mansion for further study...as she thought this to herself, the padlock clicked open. Understandably ... cautious ... around this strange book after their previous dealings with strange books, Jayce carefully cracked the cover open. To everyone's surprise, a Djinni emerged. He introduced himself as Gazre-Azam, and explained that he had been ensorceled in the tome for quite some years by none other than the author himself, Zikran! The djinni pleaded his case to the Planeswalkers, asking that they help free him by finding Zikran and either convincing him to remove the enchantment that bound Gazre-Azam to the book, or by killing him. The party agreed, even before the djinni offered that upon being freed, with their aid, he would bestow upon them one free casting of the wish spell. The next day, the party set out to the south, where Gazre-Azam assured them Zikran kept a laboratory in a seaside cave. Bardak reduceds the size and weight of the tome and transformed into his hybrid form in order to remove the tome from Candlekeep undetected. They travelled the rest of the day uneventfully and rested beside the road in a copse of trees that Lyra found to protect them somewhat from the rain. In the morning, just as Toby's tiny hut was dissipating they caught sight of three somethings in the sky over the coast to the north. Deciding to continue south but try not to attract attention, they made it several more hours before it became apparent that the things in the sky were wyverns and that they were on an intercept course with the party after catching sight of them while hunting along the coastline. The party headed inland but the wyverns followed, so they decided to hide inside another tiny hut spell, camouflaged to match their surroundings when viewed from outside. Apparently the trick fooled the wyverns as they broke off their pursuit after half an hour and headed back north towards the coast once more.
Rewards Granted
Observatory to be built atop the Pillars of Pedagogy.
Missions/Quests Completed
Dealt with the situation with skitterwidgets - First Reader Bookwyrm assigned a team of Avowed to collect, separate, and study these unique automotons that can apparently self replicate.
