Session 154 - "Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright"

General Summary

Hyannis

4.32p

Not finding anything of interest in Lytha's wares, she tells the Fellowship to stop by if they ever happen to be in town again and then bids them farewell. The party gets on their new horses and ride off.  

5.32p

The sulfurous smell of the surrounding countryside finally begins to wane. X keeps an eye out for the suspicious halflings resembling Twip and Pip from the town, however he does not believe they are following. Heading south toward Rozenport, they keep the Danver River to their west as they journey down a dirt road.  

Versex

8.32p

Travel has been going well for the party when X suddenly asks who's spitting at him. A dark shadow flies overhead, revealing itself to be the strange winged beast that they have seen before, a cross between a serpent and a bat. X discovers a clear, thick, viscous, slippery substance on his neck and is immediately disgusted.  

9.02p

With some miles to go, the Fellowship decides to camp for the night. They find a short little path off the road that leads to a small bluff over the river. X volunteers to take Drago's position in the watch rotation. Kelath sets about setting up a rope corral for the horses.  

10.02p

X suddenly wakes and finds himself in a forest of giant mushrooms glowing red and green, and other trippy colors. Then just as suddenly, he finds himself back at the campsite. He calls out to someone to come out of the shadows. For a moment he notices the moonlight glint off two tiny yellow eyes about 100 ft. away, cat eyes. And then just as quickly they are gone. Kelath is roused from his sleep as X calls out, who suddenly begins casting a spell and an illusory cage appears where he saw the eyes. As he advances, it appears as though he indeed has captured a black cat. X tells Kelath that he thinks it put him in a trance. Kelath halts before getting too close, the cat watching him. One of its paws reaches and gently touches the cage, a seemingly odd gesture. The cage disappears and the cat takes off running. Kelath attempt to cowl the creature.   Taking action against the creature, Velexander casts a fireball at the creature. Kyrrn asks what he's attacking and she asks if it's the cat from before. Kelath gives chases and the cat jumps into a hole in a nearby tree, disappearing from view. Kyrrn dimension doors towards the tree and finds that part of the tree is hollow and the cat has somehow slipped further into the tree. Neferu attempts to detect magic and senses conjuration and occult magic. X sets out a piece of hard tack in case it should return.   On the way back to the campsite, X notices a small ring of toadstools in the grass which has the odd scent of freshly brewed ale or cooked meat. X eats one and finds it has a taste like mutton.  

Wealday, Gozran 27, 4711 AR

7.02a

Kyrrn begins smelling a whiff of decay as the sun begins struggling to rise. As the low mist that has crept up before begins dissipating, so does the odor. The piece of tack still lies in front of the tree.   As the group begins saddling up the horses, a man calls out to them from down the path and the begins walking towards him. He appears to be wearing a traveler's cloak and a sheathed sword. He is fit and solidly built with dark eyes and a chiseled face. The man says his name is Swany Tort and asks if they have travelled from the north as that is the way he is going. X says that the party is going south to Absalom after winning a quite of bit of gold from gambling. Tort asks if Lytha is still running things in town as it has been a year since he was last in Hyannis. He says he is coming from Rozenport where work has all but dried up because of trouble there. He normally does security jobs for professors that want to go out in the field, but the university there, the Sincomaki School of Sciences has closed up. The professors are normally always going out on digs and such, but the university's doors have closed because of an issue between the school and the Count of Thrushmoor, Count Lowls. X pegs him for a hired mercenary. Kelath asks if he has heard of Gastar Lucus, but he has not. Tort says that he normally earns 1 gp a day, and Kelath says they might want him to protect Lucus in Thrushmoor. X offers him 5 gp to travel with the Fellowship and have him continue on to Thrushmoor to guard the merchant, and he accepts. X tells them that they will send him word and payment if they will take longer than a week to arrive. He normally stays at the Silver Wagon Inn. Thrushmoor is about a three day travel away. Kyrrn has Tort describe the inn in great detail and believes the information will be enough to allow her to teleport to the place if need be.  

8.02a

The group begins to see a hill in the distance on the road.  

9.02a

They can now make out a clustering of hills by the river and there are clusters of buildings on the hills.  

10.02a

Begin to encounter traffic, people on horseback, pulling wagons, etc. The school has been having problems with Count Hasertown Lowls IV, ruler of Versex. Rozenport is found to be a bustling town on the verge of being a city. It is perched in and amongst an area of steep cliffs, overlooking the river. It is a maze of throughfares and streets. X and Kelath begin asking around, attempting to explore the underworld elements of the city. X learns that Pol Jupple can be found in a room below Muckshins. Kelath speaks with Sully Moyons, trying to get information on why the university has been closed. He says the Count has started buying up all the ancient texts in Thrushmoor and Rozenport and then invited other experts from out of Ustalav to examine them. The Count sent away all the other professors without warning, even threatening to pull funding from the university if they meddled. Supposedly they had some kind of scholarly agreement, but the Count broke it. The school has been closed about two weeks so far now.   X finds that Muckshins is an area of tanning and fisheries and it smells quite badly. According to the innkeeper there, he is not the first to be looking for the Pol Jupple. X descends into a small cellar area where a group of people are playing cards and talking. X tells him that he and the Fellowship are coming into town and are paying respects to him. Pol says that someone needs to talk to the Count, and X asks him how much that would be worth to him, a sum of at least 50 gp. X tells him 75gp and offers to do a job for Pol to show they are capable of the challenges.   Kyrrn talks with Quentin who is running a fruit stall at the north gate. She is a young, pretty girl that appears to be quite popular. Kyrrn attempts to glean information about the dark riders. Quentin says that a lot of people have been leaving because of the work drying up. She is in a prime location in the north district because of the travelers entering in through the north gate come by this street, Dagger Lane. The street is not violent, it is named more of the look of it from the cliffs. Quentin explains she doesn't normally see that type of piebald horses, but remembers that about four or five days ago she was getting ready to close up near dark and may have noticed them coming through town. It struck her that the horses looked a bit different than others and that the big men could have been nobles coming through town. As with the others before he, the merchant could remember specific details about the riders, but thought that the look of them. Quentin says it looked to her that they were just going through town, heading south down Dagger Lane, which cuts through to the city. She says she has a cousin Berta that sells trinkets at the south end that might have seen the riders leaving. Kyrrn gets a description of her cousin, but says that she might be returning to meet her with Quentin. She normally gets off at nightfall around 7:30, but X says they have a job to do at 8:00.