Session 77: The Hungry Priest

General Summary

Trislee and Nemara found Lins in the Deluxury room she shared with Trislee, and caught her up on the situation. Afterward, Trislee set up shop at the desk to begin copying her magic into her new spellbook - an arduous and expensive process - and Nemara retired to her room for a nap.
With little to do in the room, Lins decided to do some exploring of her own. The way to Alhaster market was easy to remember, and the market itself easy to spot. Gear of the calibre she wanted, however, was not so easy to find. Lins' path took her and her lunch back to Iomandi's wonders, where Trislee met her on the steps of the hotel next door. Lins gave her the extra sandwich she'd bought, and the wizard devoured it, laughing that she'd forgotten to eat. They chatted for a minute, Lins updating the excited wizard on all she'd seen in the market, before Lins completed her shopping.
Well, almost, she still needed a gala outfit, but the tailors in high Alhaster charged arms and legs, and didn't seem very open to letting the client design their clothes. Lins decided to try another route, and began chatting up a minor noblewoman on the street. It took some schmoozing, but eventually the noblewoman let slip where she got her dresses.
Lins made her way back though Alhaster market, making small talk about dragons along the way. Attitudes were mixed, from nervous confusion to patriotic pride: "not even a dragon dares cross our mighty Prince!"
Eventually, she reached a series of ramshackle buildings near the docks, and knocked on the door of a tenement house. An exhausted-looking human woman with a baby on one hip answered.
"Marissa Crum?" Lins asked
It was. At first, the savant seamstress assumed Lins was attending one of the many smaller parties in the city, and had some confusion over the insistence on having the dress ready by the morning of the 15th. She nearly dropped her teacup when she realized Lins meant the gala in Zeech's actual palace.
The timeline was difficult, she explained, and waved off offers of increased pay for increased speed. She simply couldn't work any faster with six kids to mind all by herself. If she had a babysitter, she could work faster. As it was... she'd try.
Lins said she'd see if she could find some child-minding time, and returned to the hotel. But before she left the apartment, Marissa stopped her gently at the door.
"Be careful," she said, "Speak falsely under the sky."
Wondering if she knew more than she let on, Lins returned to the hotel, where she was almost immediately pulled into the spellbook of hero-storing.
---
After her nap, Nemara checked in on Trislee, who was about as strung out as someone who had been working on spells that long could look. She needed a study break, and they decided to talk mission plans.
They had several leads to follow in the city, and decided to look for the author of A History of Alhaster, a Cuthbertine cleric named Rhorsk.
Unfortunately, they learned pretty quickly that the worship of st. Cuthbert was a scorned culture in the city, and its former temple, the Church of Blessed Deliverance, had been burned with all its clergy locked inside for opposing Zeech's rise to power. The whole place was surrounded with signs warning that the site was to be left untouched as a reminder of the folly of opposing the impeccable Zeech.
So they waited for cover of night.
With Trislee invisible and Nemara shape-shifted using her new Cloak of the Bat, they easily snuck in through a nearby alley.
The place was gutted, but the fire hadn't completely reduced it to rubble. They found a trapdoor, fully intact. Some rubble had been scraped off it, but not recently. Trislee estimated that the timing lined up with when Balakarde, the kyuss-expert whose trail they followed - was there.
Below, they found a nasty surprise; a chattering ghoul in Cuthbertine priest robes, distressed and babbling gibbrish. When the party advanced, the ghoul began casting spells at them, and all their attempts to calm or talk to it came to naught. They ended up fleeing a hail of ceiling-stones back toward the ground-level of the ruin...

Notes

noon of 9th of Reaping to 12:00am on the 10th

Report Date

20 Aug 2023