Journal Entry 8.2023.12.23

1 Uvork 527.
There are 2 bearded devils at the entrance with glaives, crossbowmen facing us, and a crowd of chanting cultists around the corner. Clive casts a fireball into the room, killing all the crossbowmen. Gyrah casts moonbeam on one of the devils. Darien starts spirit guardians but cannot advance. Grasshopper runs into the room, finds a barrier between Ammalia and us, and casts some kind of fear which affects a few cultists. J’aboc advances and attacks, and gets hit and gets a bleeding wound, which is healed by Darien’s coatl. Hergatz starts spirit guardians and advances to affect the devils. The bearded devils are killed. A summoning circle on the south of the room spawns a portal. We advance into the room. The barrier is a wall of arcane force. Grasshopper crosses to the other side and 3 human berzerker barbarians come out of a door and surround him, hurting him a lot. Out of another door across the room comes a devil (‘Sar Chasm’) and a little girl (‘Susan Smith’). Darien and Hergatz cross the room to encompass the barbarians in spirit guardians. J’aboc, Dalden, and I dash to the devil and little girl. Sar tries to protect her as she goes toward the portal but J’aboc grabs and grapples her so she can’t, and moves away from the portal. Grasshopper goes down under the berzerkers. Clive does something to Ammalia that incapacitates her. Oh wait, not her, a cultist, she is unaffected. Sar disappears. Tecpilcoatl convinces Susan that they are trying to protect her and she becomes compliant. Clive sleeps all the cultists. J’aboc has his mind changed for him and takes Susan through the portal; I fail to grab her. We kill the last of the berzerkers. Darien reads thoughts through Tecpil and finds that Susan is being sent to the swamp level of the dungeon, heading the group towards a show down with her ex-husband. In port we choose to go to Skullport rather than the swamp. Susan is with us.
 
Skullport: Death skulls in a market square warn us against weapons and ‘uncivil tongues’. There is a not-quite-a-dwarf selling slaves; we buy all five (a water genasi, a dwarf, a goblin, and a couple humans in bad shape) and bring them with us to The Flagon and Dragon to get some food, drink, and rest. Darien gives coin and asks questions of beggars. All The Light Touches shows silver and attracts more beggars. I assure the slaves that we are going to get some food, drink, rest, and will then discuss their fate. The Flagon and Dragon’s owner is Kalal, a half elf Atlantean woman.
 
[The Flagon and Dragon serves a decent stew of gumpfish and ripplebark, with bluebread on the side for 1gp. They also have Goat’s Head Ale, which Cal’al brews herself, (4sp/ tankard) and Amberjack, a fine whiskey from Gyudd’s Distillery (8sp/glass). Sleep in common room 1 sp/person /night.]
 
Unhappy with the prospect of staying in a common room, we go to The Guts and Garters for a private room (3 available at 5 silver/night). The owner is a tiefling named Quietude who speaks softly. He charges 2 sp / tankard of ale called Wyrmwizz (which is terrible and the name is apt).
 
We eat at the Flagon and Dragon. Although Bolide sees some Grant family thugs, who are apparently the group’s enemies, we stay at the Guts and Garters. We get a long rest. Phew.
 
In the morning we are confronted by Allegra, a dwarf with a magnificent beard, who demands the ‘tourist tax’ of 5 dragons (gp) each. Quietude and the G&G staff seem quite wary of him. Services provided for the tax are a lack of dismemberment and death. We pay the tax and inquire about how to get out of Skullport and back to Detroit. He blathers about ships and stuff and sounds evasive; I don't know I stopped listening.
 
According to a mildly bribed Quietude, rumors allege Tass Veldarn at the Poisoned Quill can transport people magically to Detroit.
We ask the slaves we bought what they would like to do. Two of the slaves (dwarf and water genasi) were ambushed and enslaved when entering Skullport, looking for their lost captain. They have no more reason to stay in town and would go with us. The goblin just wants to get out of town. Rubbish and Junk, the two humans, have no initiative and will do what we say. So everyone wants to go to Detroit, and we head to The Poisoned Quill.
 
We run into Ping Pong's brother Ding Dong who takes us back to the G&G and tries to talk us into a job for him (clear out some monsters in the trade route between the fens and the Skullport). We just want to get Susan back to Detroit. He is annoyingly persistent.
 
Tass Veldarn at The Poisoned Quill is an elderly grey haired human woman. She puts on tea and asks us what we want. J’aboc shouts “TAKE US TO DETROIT”. We have a choice of teleportation circles in Detroit – an orphanage on the docks or The Ruined Tower. The Tower might be taken over by the Grant family – not good. She sends us along to the orphanage at the cost of 50gp each. We take Susan to the temple and alert her parents. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. We also took the ex-slaves to the temple of healing and sent them off with some cash from All The Light Touches.
 
J’aboc and I go looking for a fight. Time to get some training in.