Arkomir writes...
The next day passes in much the same way.
Dharra and I have a chat about my bow and I relate the story of the first
Hobgoblin fight. Late in the afternoon we start to see more farming communities as we head closer and closer to
Confluence. Up ahead we see the walls of Confluence rising ahead of us - this is a big big city! Owen and Josephine drop us at a dock near the walls of Confluence and we make our way into the city.
Heading into Confluence
From this water gate we can tell that they can close this off (with chains) if needed. Further to the left and the right we can see other gates as well. We get ourselves set and just watch the gate for a bit to see how others negotiate it. There is a door next to the waterway that we will use to enter the city proper. We prepare some small coins to pay the 'toll' and make our way up to the gate. The guards hand us note with a large C that we can use should we trade our gems. He gives us directions to
The Lively Grotto and we make our way there, through the Fracture region of Confluence.
We are in a pretty crowded part of the town it would seem. We head up this first road and make our way to the Lively Grotto. The tavern itself is set on an island with some land in front of it. We stable our horses with an elf named Finore and then head into the tap room. We are greeted by Fastolm, a halfling, who runs the tavern. We stow our gear and then head to Myriad Plaza to find
The Good Word Bookstore and Verithrax.
In the square that makes up Myriad Plaza, there is a central fountain, possibly to
Avandra. The plaza is made up with more street vendors, with an eclectic mix of goods available. We find The Good Word bookstore tucked away in a corner. As we walk over to the bookstore, we pass a half-elf woman with a
Corellon tatoo and I say 'Corellon be with you'. She acknowledges me and then motions back to the fountain. Dharra heads into the bookstore, whilst I head back into the square and do a lap around the fountain. Dharra ctaches up with Verithrax and they have a discussion about
The Cleansing Wave.
Out on the square, I notice a number of things, I sit myself at the fountain near to an elf with a fan. Behind the elf is a red dragonborn (stripped to the waist), playing a game with a female Tiefling. I strike up a conversation with the Elf, whose name is
Trielle. They give me directions to the temple to Corellon , which is in The Crown. I also ask him about
The Quiet Hand, and he tells me they hang out in Swan Way. I press a silver piece into his hand and thank him for the information.
I head over to the bookstore and meet up with Dharra, Verithrax, Zelki and Jenni. I look at a couple of books about Corellon and am interested in purchasing them, however when we searchn for our bag of holding, we find it missing. I excuse myself and head back out to
Trielle and they ask me to sit with them. They say that I may have crossed paths with
The Quiet Hand sooner than I expected. They come this way from over by East Bank. There is a middle aged man with a balding head but long hair at the back, who works in the Haymarket called Dirk. Our best bet would be to find him and maybe our stuff. I excuse myself from him and make my way back to Dharra.
I gather Dharra from the bookstore and we head toward the Haymarket on the trail of our stuff. We find oursleves in another market and make a quick circuit of the area. Something at the north end of the square grabs our attention, so we head there. We ready ourselves, head into the building and head upstairs. Dharra gets a sense of the bag in one of the rooms. We head in and there a three kids and a guy that fits Dirk's description. Dharra rushes to the window, sees our bag and a kid, casts fly on herself and heads out after it whilst I find myself in a fight with Dirk.
After a brief chase we manage to get Dirk and ask him to get the kid with our bag to come back. He sent him to deliver the bag to his higher ups. He has sent the bag to
The Pepperjack and from there it will go to the boss,
Ked Bendison. We use Dirk to direct us to the Pepperjack and end up nearby to the docks region of Confluence and ebentaully at the Pepperjack. We head into the tavern. There is a mixed bag of races in here, pretty much one of every race. Dirk announces us as we enter and says we would like to talk to the boss. A figure at the end of the bar stands up and tells us that the boss is amenable to a conversation. We are to wait for him to turn up now. After some time a door opens and human walks into the bar accompanied by an entourage. He introduces himself as
Ked Bendison.
Bendison grabs himself a drink and makes his way over to our table. We start our chat about the state of play. We outline that we are keen to catch up with the folks from
Belhaim and retrieve the article they took. We will take care of them for him in return for our bag and its contents. We ask for a location and some information to lead us to these folks. He is amenable to our offer with a couple of small conditions. His condition is that
Aldrich must die, if we can convince the others to come back to him he will welcome them. He gives us directions to where they will be, then Bendison gets up and leaves. We make our way to the warehouse.
On arrival, we see a balcony near the woodturners end of the building and decide to try and find our way in that way. Dharra makes her way up onto the balcony, with minimal noise, however someone moves inside. In that room Dharra sees Lady
Ivy get up from the bed. She makes some noise to attract some attention and try to get her out onto the balcony. Dharra lays out Bendison's offer and after some consideration she agrees to this and leaves. Before she does so, she tells us that Aldrich is upstairs in the room next to hers. In the room is a familiar bag, a bunch of letters and things and the
K sigil scrawled all over the place, as well as Aldrich.
During the ensuing battle we manage to convince
Togg to go back to Bendison with Lady Ivy. We fight with Aldrich as best we can and follow him outside as he attempts to escap. We find him outside, bent over the dead body of Aldrich is Lady Ivy. She can now go back to Bendison with some more to bargain with. We ask about the K Sigil. She says he woke up one day obsessed with it, just after the green moon. We all walk back into the warehouse and Lady Ivy settles Togg down a bit. Ivy continues with more information; Aldrich said he needed more power to unlock the power of a god and he promised them both riches and power. We give Ivy and Togg a pearl for their help. As I hand it over, I get a zap as I touch her hand. She and Togg leave to head back to Bendison.
Searching the warehouse, we grab all the papers off the desk upstairs, a hand drawn map of some sort, the Red Laquered Chest, which itself contains a pouch filled with rings and ornaments, a small amount of precious metals in the form of religious symbols, a bunch of coin, a leather bound neat looking book. Gathering all this up, we head back to
The Lively Grotto.
Keeping to the shadows and away from main roads as best we can we make our way a bit more lowly back to the lively Grotto. We check in with Verithrax and he tells us the best place to trade gems is The Spectacular Eye, which is nearby. Dharra also asks him to keep an eye out for Amdrom once he makes it to town. We ask about the Green Moon and Verithrax tells us, we just had one. I ask if there is a link between Corellon and
Sehanine and he says that there is some discussion of that. Sehanine is more closely linked to
Melora than to Corellon. We bid Verithrax goodnight and hope to see him at the Grotto later tonight.
We head back into Myriad Plaza for a look around. Dharra gets talking to a local wood carver and then we have our wounds tended by Corelle and Dravic, friends of Trielle's at the fountain. On the way back to The Lively Grotto it appears to be in full swing. There is a halfling bard playing for the crowd and he is doing rather well. We spot Verithrax, Zelki and Jenni at a table, so we head over to join them. We buy a round for the table and settle in for a night of catching up. Dharra goes up to the bard and during a break she has a chat with him about playing. His Gilliam and he says Dharra is welcome to play. The crowd is primed but get on board with her set pretty quickly. After a good night sitting about and talking, Verithrax and his crew head off and we head upstairs to bed.
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