Chapter 11, Session 4: Some research, some refugees and some booze
General Summary
This session started with Thordak convincing Ez to send him to Wakefield in order to check in on his clan and support their growth and recovery, notably bringing Gell and Gromm the Smith with him to finally house them in the safety of the town.
After a little bartering and back and forth, Ez teleported Thordak to Wakefield (one mile on the outskirts in the forests) and agreed that the party would come to pick him up in two weeks.
Thordak reached Wakefield and was met at the front gates by Daedric Marx and a coterie of his Petal monks that were harnessing their stealth to better prepare a defence of the town if needed.
Marx explained to Thordak that the Petals were working to better defend the land but were not used to the role and were also left unnerved by the Utrunk horde that had arrived in their town and were keeping themselves to themselves within the town. Marx also revealed that the Petals had continued to grow and had recently added some ex-monastery members to their ranks, notably Delthea who had become the cook and chef for the camp.
Thordak first visited Ardeth who explained that she has been working hard to build up the town but was beginning to show signs of strain under the pressure, Thordak also asked Bazzle to research the topic of his deathless state to see if they could uncover anything while he went to speak to his clan.
Meeting with his appointed shaman Grushka she revealed that the clan were completing regular prayers to Pelor and The Hunt and, in doing so, she had come to the conclusion that the clan wanted to travel and roam and hunt in the wilds like they once did but they agreed to stay in Wakefield to help rebuild it first as thank you to the town for housing them... primarily as Grushka felt the Utrunks needed that to be their new direction, something Thordak seemed to agree with.
With that done, Thordak agreed to stay in Wakefield to help the Utrunks and also to teach the people of the town how to hunt and look after themselves, intending to train the younger members of the town to build it's sustainability.
The rest of the party decided to first meet Allea in her spa/gym/self defence training area where she told them about Temptation stepping down from her role as arch-inquisitor of King's Bay without notice and warning. Allea then added that she had heard this was due to Temptation being blackmailed by someone but she did not know who. After a brief reunion with Drahz Grymhook and the party spending some time in the spa they soon spoke to Temptation and confronted her with what they learned.
On speaking to her, Temptation revealed to the party that she had someone she did not know using dream spells and sending spells to remind her of wrongdoings in her past and 'mistakes' she had made, though she did not elaborate further, onyl stating that it happened nightly and that these secrets could ruin her if they were revealed.
Ez and Fen both heard the story out and explained that they could cast Dream as well and possibly view what was happening to Temptation, something that she hesitantly agreed to. After this, Ez showed Temptation the forgery letter from Xan Prayerkeep that they found in the bedroom of Vraxan and Vola to which Temptation claimed that she saw a 'letter from Xan Prayerkeep' implying she did not know about the forgery. When the party asked Temptation who she found suspicious she was not helpful as she believed that Xan had too many enemies and people close to him to count, though she stated she believed it was Lord Alastair , ironic considering his accusation it was her.
When Temptation left the party discussed what to make of her revelation and decided to see how things played out as, much as they found Temptation frustrating, they valued her as an ally over Prayerkeep and knew how much her leaving the Inquisitors would leave all of Alturis in a difficult position.
The party then discussed potential traitors and blackmailers but found they did not know enough about the courts and politics of Xan and Temptation to be able to make an accurate decision and so decided for the time being to start their downtime and wait to investigate during another time.
With that that in mind, the party split into two teams as both groups decided to complete some research during their downtime. With Olympia and Ez both researching the End and the Knowing respectively.
From their research, Olympia learned that, to the north The Cave of Longing had been renamed to the Cave of Knowing when the party underwent their time skip, she additionally learned that The Spectre used a style of magic called 'Thirst to Know', leading Olympia to declare that that should be their next location to search for the Knowing.
Meanwhile, Ez's research yielded an old parchment section of a journal of a former follower of the End expressing their misery and dejected duty of 'wiping the End clean' as they had apparently lost their minds. Ez and Olympia discussed this new finding about the End and this led to Olympia believing that The End may have been a mortal once who ascended to become an entity.
Mimsi, Kodo and Fen then did their own work on looking through the records of the city in order to try and track down Mimsi's other The Talented siblings and see if they could contact them.
The group found a good measure of success and realised that there were several Talented like Mimsi and Bazzle who had become part of various factions, however, Silver Pipe Gwendoline was the primary source of Mimsi's attention as the goblin was in King's Bay and formerly worked with Poppy before having to keep a low profile by drinking and playing in taverns at night in the guise of a halfling.
With that, the group made a sensible, methodical and entirely sane plan. They decided to hit every tavern in King's Bay in a single night in the hope of finding Gwendoline.
And so the party (all green skinned to cosplay as goblins to make Ez more comfortable... for some reason) went out and hit the first tavern where they were immediately taken in by a drinking game in which bottles, glasses and shots grew wings and flew around the tavern, with the winning individual being able to catch and consume the most drinks. The party took this more seriously than anyone thought and included Kodo and Mimsi using thier monk speed and reflexes to catch drinks, Olympia using her magic carpet and bag of holding, Fen using his highest level teleportation spells and the winner Ez choosing to summon over 30 monkeys in total which fetched and fed him drinks. Making the party INCREDIBLY intoxicated when they completed the challenge and decided to move on to the next bar.
The next location led the party to a tavern completed a battle of the bands competition where they spotted a halfling with half faded makeup and a pearl in their eye... Silver Pipe Gwendoline in a disguise! Mimsi confronted the goblin and they had a tense exchange where they slowly felt out eachothers vibe, Gwendoline implied she knew something of their blood and abilities as well as referencing The Hook and Knife Foundation, however, before they could take their exchange any further, she became competitive and tried to goad Mimsi into a 'music-off' explaining that, if she won, Mimsi would become her retainer but, if she lost, she would become Mimsi's... the party became tense and antagonistic at this but, before it could result in them coming into contact with Gwendoline, Olympia accepted her challenge on Mimsi's behalf and shook... realising that Gwendoline did not have the ability to bind people to a deal like Bazzle Strum-Strum and instead was just using this as a wager.
Report Date
24 Jul 2024
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