Session 30 - Desperately Seeking Stefan
5 Klarmont 1010 - 7 Klarmont 1010
General Summary
The party rises bright and early at the Growling Griffin in Luln, and head downstairs to check out. There is a different woman at the desk, and she says there are two letters and a note for them. One letter is addressed to Vinko Wensk in Leeside, which she has heard is where the party is headed next. The other letter is addressed to "T" in Saltmarsh, which, presumably, the party will be headed back to at a later date. The party promises to deliver the letters. The note is from Sascia, who heard they were trying to catch her. The note says to meet her at "PP." The party asks the innkeeper where that might be, and she guesses it is a reference to a bakery not too far from here that has good breakfast breads.
The party heads there, and in fact catches Sascia. They explain their mission and what they have found, including a debrief on the Ogres on the road. She doesn't know anything about the courier they are seeking, but will keep an eye out. They also discuss the continued kidnappings and the situation with the Barony, and she explains with frustration that the capitol won't do anything about it, because there is a trust in the King's cousin. He keeps claiming he is working on getting the "humanoid problem" under control.
Sascia finishes her meal and heads out to attend to the town, as there is much to do. They say their goodbyes, and after the party picks up some minor supplies for the road, they too head out. They have an uneventful (but cold and wet) trip to Radlebb Keep. Here they find a good size outpost, with nothing around it but a clearing and the road. There are various travelers making camp under the protection of the keep, but nobody has been bold enough to set up a permanent town here for the travelers.
The party makes the rounds, speaking with the various travelers and the guards, but nobody has seen a sign of the missing travelers. They also give a warning for the travelers heading west that beyond Luln they had encountered ogres on the road so be cautious. The travelers headed West weren't going as far as Saltmarsh however, but thanked them for the warning.
The party leaves early in the morning, getting out just ahead of the carts. It is yet another dreary wet day, but the road is good quality, so they are still able to go forward if at a slower pace than normal. Partway through the day, they encounter a downed pine tree across the road. They check for trouble, but it seems that the tree fall was natural While it would be easy for them to go on, they think of the carts not too far behind them, and start clearing the road. This takes some time, and the travelers catch up before they have finished clearing the debris (and help). They stop for lunch after finishing the work, then get back on the road to Leeside.
By the time they arrive at Leeside, it is getting dark, and with the gloom and clouds, the town, while just a few buildings along the road, is still hard to see across. The first building they encounter on the north side of the road is the town hall, which is quite large considering the town proper only has four buildings. It appears to be closed for the evening. A little further up the road and on the south side of the road is a general store. They see a lad lighting the lamps on the street, and the store appears to be open, but getting ready to close. They speak with the lamplighter, and then the shopkeeper, and find that the inn is the next building down the road on the North side, and that the owner is Katya Wensk but, to their knowledge, there is nobody with the name Vinko Wensk. They buy some hard candy, and let the shopkeeper close up, and head to the inn.
At The Blue-eyed Cat, Stavos sees that there is a stable around to the back and decides to check it out, and Seraphina follows. The rest of the party goes inside to get a table and a round of drinks.
Stavos and Seraphina find the stable boy inside working, and ask him about Stefan. He doesn't recall seeing Stefan, but when they mention that his horse had needed a shoe, he mentions that they have a horse that had shown up one day without an owner, and it needs a shoe as well. This seems strange, and Stavos asks if he can take a look at the horse. When he checks out the stall, he sees that there is a saddle and saddlebags in the stall as well. These apparently arrived with the horse, but the stable boy doesn't recall. Seraphina decides to cast speak with animals and see what the horse knows. This is when things become strange...
It seems that the horse has a clear memory of being in the big city (Mirros) and not liking the smaller city by the swamp (Saltmarsh), but doesn't remember his owner/rider, and doesn't remember his rider being with him when he came to this inn. His memory is coming here by himself (quite odd). Meanwhile Stavos has looked into the saddlebags, and found the packages for delivery. Among them is a package for Aubreck, confirming that this is in fact Stefan's saddlebag, horse, and saddle. But why doesn't anyone remember Stefan, including his own horse???
Stavos discusses with the stable boy about how can they take possession of the horse and saddlebags properly, and he says he'll have to take that up with Kat (the innkeeper). With that, Stavos and Seraphina come in to the inn to join the rest of the party, and discuss the horse with Kat.
Stavos speaks with Kat about the saddlebags and horse, and offers to pay the care fees for the horse. He also asks about the courier, as well as Vinko Wensk. She says she doesn't know of a Vinko Wensk, and doesn't recognize the letter either. They collectively come to the conclusion that they should speak to the town hall about the horse and the saddlebags.
By now the party is very suspicious of everyone's memories. It seems "insane" that the horse would just show up on its own with saddlebags and a saddle, but no rider or memory of the rider. Kat and the shopkeeper had also mentioned that there is no blacksmith, and hasn't been for four years. There is a smithy just up the road (the fourth and final building of "downtown". In the end, the party decides they need to do some late night exploring to get some more information about what is really going on in town.
They arrange for lodging, move to their rooms after a long dinner, wait a couple hours for Kat to go to sleep, and then sneak back out of the inn. The first place they head is the blacksmith. Here they find tools and, peeking through the windows to inside the smithy itself, items on display as if the owner had just taken the day off.
They break in to the smithy, and find a ledger, which shows sales activity (an order for Kat at the inn) from about 30 days ago, contradicting what she had just told them. Behind the smithy they see a house which, from the worn path, appears to be associated with the smithy; they decide to check it out as well.
Peeking in the windows, they notice that the door is wide open in the back. It looks like it has been unoccupied for some time. Going inside they find it to be a simple home with just a couple rooms. In the bedroom they find a journal which seems to be that of the smith, whose name is Fritze Lieben. The journal shows he has been an active member of Leeside since he took over the smith from his former master, Vlad about four years ago. Near the last entry there is a section where the handwriting changes drastically, in the middle of a sentence, and it says "it's watching me" in alarming text, but then goes back to continue the sentence normally. It appears almost as if Fritze just walked off into the woods one day. There is no sign of struggle, or forced entry, and the door was wide open.
With all the evidence pointing to people's memories being altered, they decide that they want to check out the kitchen and basement of the inn to try to understand more. Leo looks in the back window, and sees everything shut down for the evening, and nothing unusual. He checks the outer cellar door, but it appears to be barred from the inside. Instead he picks the lock to the kitchen from the outside. They do a quick once over on the kitchen, hoping to find a ledger or other written notes, but nothing stands out. They head into the cellar from the kitchen and also find nothing unusual down there. Satisfied, that there doesn't seem to be any dastardly deeds being done in the cellar, they restore things to where they were, and lock everything back up behind themselves, and sneak back into their bedrooms.
The next morning Seraphina trips over something by her bed, and finds it to be a small backpack. It seems like someone slept in the bed next to Elincia and Seraphina without them knowing, as the third bed is now unmade. They get the rest of the party and together they look through the bag, finding a strange booklet that appears to be handmade, titled RACH + FRENDS. Flipping through the pages, it appears to be an illustrated log of their adventures ever since encountering the Kobolds at the Sunless Citadel, except there is one more person, drawn similarly to the other Kobolds, in most every scene. It appears that the party has a "FREND" named Rach that they do not know, and is following them and chronicling their adventures.
While this is very flattering, and they are happy that it is a "FREND", it is still disturbing that they have not been aware of this person following them. They decide to take the gear, and put it into their Bag of Colding, in the hopes that they are able to find this Rach. The addition of a Kobold to their party would hardly change their composition, as they are already as motley a crew as can be gathered.
Moving, on, the party goes to the town hall to discuss what to do about the horse. As they go into the lobby, they notice that there is a library to the left of reception. Once again, this town hall seems quite large for the four-building town. Stavos greets the woman at the counter and describes their business, including asking after Stefan, seeing if she is aware of a Vinko Wensk, and their desire to take possession of Stefan's horse, saddle, and saddlebags. She informs them that to her knowledge there are no other Wensks besides Katya, and she has not seen any sign of Stefan. She goes into the back and finds a clerk to help them, and informs them that Vasili can help them - his office is the second door on the right. Leo mentions the library, and the clerk lights up. He asks if he could take a look in the library while Stavos and Seraphina deal with the business side, and she says yes, but no books are allowed to leave the library.
Stavos explains to Vasili the desired transaction, and he says he will need to spend a bit of time to look up the necessary rules for this, and get back to him. In the meantime Stavos & Seraphina return to the library to rejoin the rest of the party.
Leo has noticed that there is a log on the counter by the door, and flips through this. He also notices that there is a nameplate for the librarian on the library's main counter, for one "Yelena Henkel." It seems the log goes back a few years, and he finds the entry from when Eliander Fireborn visited to transcribe the missing volume of his Darrington Creature Catalogue (Volume 3) for a week. Toward the later end of this log, there is an entry about 40 days ago from Fritze Lieben reading a book on alchemy, so they decide to search the shelves for this book. Eventually Tork finds the book, and Leo flips through it, but it seems more chemistry oriented, and shows no signs of magical overtones; something a blacksmith may normally be interested in to improve their skills in metalworking.
The party decides to look for a book on local history. They fail to find one, but they do find a census of the town from four years back.
In it they find two things of note. First, the former blacksmith and his apprentice, Fritze Lieben, are listed, further corroborating their other evidence on the Fritze Lieben data. More interestingly, there is an entry for Vinko and Katya Wensk (married) and innkeepers.
Leo now decides to confront the clerk, hoping to get some kind of breakthrough. He goes out to the lobby, and asks if she can come in to the library to see a book She says she needs to stay where she is, but allows that he could bring a book to her to show. He brings the census, and asks her to read the line with Vinko and Katya Wensk. She reads off Katya Wensk. Leo is dumbfounded. He says you really only see Katya on this line, and not Vinko and Katya, and she confirms this. Leo, exasperated, says he is going to try dispelling magic on her, which makes her nervous. He explains that he thinks one of them (Leo or her) is under some sort of illusion. He casts Dispel Magic, and asks her to look again - she still sees the same thing. Leo is at a loss, and starts to question his sanity.
With the mention of magic, and illusion, the woman suggests maybe the Waldhexe is involved. Leo asks about this, and she explains that sometimes people go to her for love potions or if they are sick for help, but she is a ways away from town. The party decides they will need to go speak with her to perhaps get more information. When they ask how they would find her, she explains that there is a rosebush with a single rose and a trail off to the south of the main road a ways east.
Meanwhile, Vasili has come back out with information for the party, and questions why a book is outside the library, and Leo explains he wanted the clerk to confirm what he was seeing in the book. He also asks Vasili to read the line in the census, and just like the receptionist, he only sees Katya listed. Leo returns the census book to the library, and in total confusion, the party returns to the inn to reserve their rooms for another night, as they will need to stay in the area for another day. It seems there are at least three missing people they need to track down. Stefan, Vinko Wensk, and Fritze Lieben. And they need to understand what is happening and break this town free of whatever is warping reality locally.
They have some lunch at the inn, as the morning has now passed. Katya also confirms the way to Waldhexe - that they will find a trail south from the rosebush with a single rose.
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