Session 26 Report

General Summary

We have found our lead in Duk who'd hands over an Aetherstone the size of a pebble to the apparent leader. Although it didn't look like much in size, the inhabitants of the Quenched Iron craved the tiny stone, which only emphasized that both the rarity and the value of the jewel must be unbelievable. Just as we were contemplating our next course of action, Silver Tongue has been propelled through the air by Fireheart, the former of which was thought to be up for grabs as a slave by a gem gnoll. Though I quickly dismissed the offer, Cher displaying her impeccable acts of tomfoolery attempted to ship Silver off, ignoring her purport place in the pecking order of Weldstone. Obviously, such treasured information would not be as easy to come by as simple as giving a hello. After me and Cher's frenzy of verbal tug of war, Swift with the subtlety of a firework boomed at us that we should stop procrastinating in the place and catch up with the Shorthoof. Of course, this call to action takes the little horse's owner from 0 to 100, throwing a threat and leaving it hanging in the air if we pursue the little one. Swift not backing down keeps up his bravado, got into a verbal clash that was slowly heating up into a potential brawl. To simmer down the two I intervened, telling the gnoll to keep off my guard slave. Though that worked to quell their quarrel, the patrons of the bar were sick of our shit at this point, anticipating a scrimmage to come to fruition. Tangent does a rather meek attempt to barter for the information of the Aetherstone, which although wasn't absolutely thrown out, had an abstract price likely none of us wanted to cough up. With our business here all but complete and Duk only wandering farther from us, I hastily gave a justification under the guise of acquiring our licenses and made our way to the exit when suddenly one of the lowly gnolls occupied the space between us and the entryway.   Although we tried to persuade him otherwise, the leader saw right through our insincerity, acknowledging that we're still after the slave horse, emphasizing that Cher's intentions having murderous tendencies. Cher abruptly goes off on her usual tangents of her repugnance of creatures that aren't as pure as Cher or some shit, casting slander upon the opposing company. Though it did sting a pussy or two rather harshly, the main guy seemed unimpressed and bluntly tells me to, and I quote "discipline your slave". Me being rather inexperienced in such practices, I send one of my quasi laborers, Swift, to employ the feat in my stead. With a simple action of knocking Cher's suspiciously smelly hat to the ground, Swift has performed seemingly a cardinal sin so heinous that Cher considered engulfing everyone in the area in flames if she does not get her alleged deserved apology. Swift gave Cher a speech with a concession to not be found within, a skirmish ensuing soon after. With his impressive maneuvers on display, Swift bypassed the temporary gatekeeper, then with a potency of a fierce lion shoved the brawny mutt from our getaway exit much to our much-needed relief, only for dread to knock the group's former sentiment's teeth out as Cher to this opportunity to get a good ways back to enact her pyromaniac tendencies upon most of those inside, no prejudice to be shown as she blasted most of her "comrades", including myself, with a ball of inflammable gas. Through my remarkable dexterity, the majority of me was not made into charred meat, and despite some of my company not faring as fortunate, I knew that Cher was going to come out of this as the biggest loser as I witness the chief of these mongrels and malkins waltz through the mayhem without breaking a sweat in spite of being set ablaze prior, bee-lining towards Cher. When I get outside, a broken Cher was lain across the ground, bleeding profusely through the face, with the immense gnoll towering over her. As I think Cher got her just deserts, with my eloquent claim that Cher is given a proper punishment, he returns to the blazed bar, exclaiming proudly about teaching not to fuck with the Foremanes, the Bannermanes of Weldstone, which caused me to internally freak out at the abrupt matter laid before us: Cher attacked our most valuable asset in this small mining town. After a bit of healing amongst the group, Moon Planter arranges with the head of the Foremanes, ensuring that Cher will make up for her behavior with the proper number of pieces, that after some time, likely some convincing from Moon Planter, Cher begrudgingly forks over the gold. Silver Tongue wanted to put the cherry on top of Cher's payback through song, making himself look like an utter fool in the process, and with my contribution earned himself the slave’s name Dingus. After the tension settled at last, the forerunner of the Foremanes, who we now know as Karat, drags in a proposition to get access to the right to his mine and gems, to take out the spiders that he had his Short Hooves block from the rest of the mines with sandbags. Though it sounds simple enough, the caves weakened magic users such as me to a severe degree, making this more difficult than it naturally be. With a much-needed rest and cuisine filling us, we make our way back to the main stitch of Weldstone, who formerly believes that our boss Amdem won't budge and won't buying a lick of Aetherstones because of his lack of reverence for the Foremanes, Moon Planter and I soothes out Karat's doubt by giving him our word that we'll be capable on convincing our main stitch otherwise and pitching a compromise he couldn't refuse. Shortly after Karat supplies the less respected races of the group badges and directs us that they will need to be attended to at all times with either a Purrsian, a Sun Cat, or a gnoll while they're out and about. With all that out of the way we ceremoniously land in front of the cave, making our way inside.   During our trek in the mines, we come across some mushrooms, soon after being identified as some kind of memory moss that can mess with your memories, with Moon Planter extending the details, entailing that even when dull you should still handle with caution. Me being resourceful, I managed get the mushroom into my bag of holding, even with the devilish trickster Cher making it harder than it had to be with her childish pranks. Soon after we come across a room with a few Short Hooves, all of which were rather skittish, and Cher becoming an inconvenience for them they attempted to get her out of there. Thankfully, I was there and was capable enough to do the nigh-impossible and settle Cher down and getting the slaves to overcome their fear of what they called "leggings" for long enough to comply, distributing directions that'll lead us to these creatures. When we finally reached our destination, Silver brought out his mouse and sent it in to scout what lies ahead of the sandbags, only to get stuck in webs. Whatever awaits us, hope none of you have arachnophobia.