Session 34: Visiting Sohmweyr Part 2

General Summary

Summary: 3 points.

Evening of Starday, 22nd Leafbreak

At Day's End

Maya and Rain discuss how to make "righteous muffins" based on her usual approach. The druid offers to pan-fry some dinner in return for picking up some of her tips on baking, and ends up offering to acquire her a wok in town.
Sunny's on the front porch, practicing with Deep Rumble, regaling Blaze with tales of his exploits. After some time soaking this in, Blaze peeks into make sure Goldy isn't nearby and asks Sunny to take him along when he leaves. Sunny tries to dissuade his younger cousin from this sort of thing as a first move, since where his party is going is way too dangerous. Blaze, for his part, seems unmoved and a little betrayed by his cool cousin trying to talk him down. Sunny suggests working a caravan; Blaze is pretty uninterested in this comparatively mundane suggestion but days it's probably better than being stuck on the farm.

Rehoming Cinnamon

Maya inquires if Goldy has a need for a donkey, and indicates that the druid would consider it a small favor to keep him in a relatively safe place. The farmer is a little surprised by this, but welcomes the additional livestock. Goldy seems ill-equipped to deal with Maya's ability to converse with the animals and is stolidly incurious about the unusual abilities others might possess.
Heading out to the barn, Maya explains (as best he can) that Cinnamon will be staying at the farm. Goldy looks on, uncomprehending, while the druid extolls the virtues of the farm (no boats, "sweet sticks", the barn to sleep in, etc.) and that he'll come back to visit. The farmer seems unable to grasp a world in which animals have thoughts or feelings and is having a rough time adjusting to this knowledge.

Back in town

The rest of the party has a plain but filling dinner.

Saf and Bursk

Having set Bursk up with a job and lodgings, the pair get a meal and play at dice for a bit. Bursk calls it a night pretty early in anticipation of his new work tomorrow; Saf does a bit of light gambling and makes some pocket money (8 silver).

Kolvonnin and Leucis

Kol tries to get to know the locals, but they find his demeanor of authority and heavy armor a bit intimidating. Leucis fares a little better. Between the two of them, they get a bit of a feel for the locals - a few are caravaners are here (mostly using beasts rather than wagons due to the jungle) but most are from nearby areas around town. Townfolk feel like life is pretty good in town, it's not as exciting as it could be but the winters are mild and there's interesting things coming in from the traders (and ships during the warm season). Bandits are uncommon (and the townsfolk credit the Sohmweyr Town Guard) and lycanthropes are not common enough that folks much worry about them.

Harb checks the general store

As the fighter arrives at Sohmweyr General Store, Brook greets him warmly and launches into a barrage of questions before circling back to what he's looking for. Harb shows her the ersatz eye and the sketch of its former owner, but Brook isn't able to place who it might belong to. When Harb mentions that it was in the possession of a bandit gang, Brook muses about how strange a place downriver would be for bandits, especially during the seasons when the river isn't very navigable.

Saf's Side job

After some gambling, Saf heads off to her room and sneaks out of the common house. She jumps the palisade and heads to the graveyard without incident, noting a faint orange glow from a hole in one of the trees. Saf drops the spool, and after a few seconds a stick with a small pouch on the end. There's a low thunk noise and the orange glow disappears. She returns to the common house without incident and counts her gains (150 gp) but notes that the stick the pouch was perched on has a strangely clean cut at the bottom.

Clothday, 23rd Leafbreak

In town

Saf advises her contact that the delivery has been successfully made and that she'll alert them when she knows where she's going next. She inspects the stick but can't tie it to anything; one end appears slightly whittled to hold the pouch, and the other end has an unnaturally clean cut.
Bursk has headed off to the blacksmith shop to take on his new duties.
Saf and the rest of the group head out to the farm to meet Sunny's extended family.

At Day's End

Sunny and Maya are assisting with morning chores by pumping some water (and staying out of Rain's way while she's cooking). Rain sends the pair out to locate Blaze and Goldy and bring them in for breakfast. Pancakes with berries and honey seem much to Maya's liking, and shortly after breakfast the rest of the group arrives.
Sunny makes introductions, and Goldy seems a bit uncomfortable with the sheer number of visitors. Blaze is gobsmacked as though the whole wide world has come to visit; Saf clocks this wide-eyed idealism and requests a tour of the farm. The two step away from the larger group. Goldy recognizes the deities to which Kolvonnin and Leucis are faithful, but seems to know little about them.
Meanwhile, Saf tries to dredge a little information about Sunny out of his cousin while cautioning him against jumping out into the wide world without knowing what he's getting into. She finds out that Blaze asked to leave with Sunny but got shut down. When the attempt at persuasion didn't penetrate in the way that she'd hoped, Saf changes tactics to attempt to intimidate the youngster and hits with a bit more success - he seems a little devastated but thoughtful about trying to make a more reasonable and measured step towards leaving home than he previously intended.
Upon their return, Sunny suggests that Blaze accompany the group into town. Harb offers to take his place on the farm, but Goldy strongly radiates discomfort at this idea and sputters out as polite a decline as he can manage. Kolvonnin, seeing this, suggests that they return to town.
On the trip back, the group discusses their plans - see the town elders and try to get in some sparring practice. Sunny chimes in that the town guard has a very rudimentary area slightly downriver where they spar - a few straw dummies and some swinging bags for dodging.

Talk to the elders

As the group approaches the house of the Sohmweyr Elders, they run into Clouded Summit. When she inquires about the recent events and Sunny starts to explain, Summit suggests they continue inside.
In the main room, Snowcapped Peak and Towering Spire are talking to Stout "Red" Redwood (who spots Saf wearing Excowlibur and gives an approving nod). Sunny relates the recent unpleasantness with the earthen keystone and the Cult of Ogremoch, but conveniently leaves out having taken Bursk as a prisoner.
The elders consider the deeds described and that they would have been woefully underpowered to handle it themselves, determining that as the closest settlement the trouble would likely have come this way. In thanks for saving the town, they present the items they have stored up for shipment to Grayhill to sell in the spring, as the group may find them of use (as well as four cold bars). The party decides to pick these over and Identify them later on.
Turning to the keystones themselves, Spire and Peak explain that they hear many stories about a lot of wild things out in the world, but nothing that matches up with these. When Harb inquires how long the town has been here, the twins mention that they arrived from the far north decades ago and there was already a tabaxi settlement here, but it was smaller and less well organized. The settlement is a reflection of the tabaxi not being a very settled people, but it's the "home" that many of them are away from on their travels. When Maya inquires about records, the elders reflect that they cleave to stories, but not so much records, and that the dampness here doesn't do well for paper.
Maya suggests telling the villagers to stay away from anything that looks like a keystone, and Peak gives him a knowing look at the suggestion.

You've been traveling with Sunny here, right? Have you tried telling him to not do something? ... We can warn people, but telling them to stay away from something is almost like telling them to go look for it. We don't keep a ton of secrets in this place because all that does is drive curiosity. We'll let people know there is a danger, but we don't try to make people do or not do that kind of thing.

The group seems to grasp that the elders here are effectively herding cats and that they don't push too hard because it's unlikely to get good results; they could try to elaborate on the scale of the danger but that would only rouse curiosity. Blaze sees this interaction and isn't used to seeing the elders tangling with people who they don't have any useful wisdom to impart to - the party saved the town and the elders aren't trying to convince them to be more cautious.
Harb pipes up to inquire how many of the townsfolk know how to defend themselves - offering to have anyone in town who's interested to spar with the group. Saf suggests charging by the head. Summit is on board with this idea and offers to round up many of the guards for this activity. Blaze looks enthused about getting to engage in some mock combat.

Next steps:

1. Continue in Sohmweyr.
   • Train and spar with the townsfolk and town guard.
   • Visit the graveyard (Sunny).
   • Visit the various shops (Sunny+?)
   • Shop the Sohmweyr General Store and the Sohmweyr Market, especially on market day (Woodday).
   • Potentially work out a deal to Identify goods at the various shops if there's interesting stuff.
   • Work out where to go next (leaning towards Estimarth / Leng).
2. Between session tasks:
   • Sendings to/from Mia (3)
   • Prep the next Wisdom of the Elders of Hearthstone (DM)
   • Be ready for Market Day (DM)
   • Lay the track to the next place (DM)
3. Out of Character tasks:
   • Pin the Player Quick Reference to the Discord.
   • Determine any in-town activities your character needs to handle (shopping, questions, etc) and communicate with DM for planning purposes.
   • Add 100gp back to Sunny (retcon)
   • Add 200 gp (mostly silver pieces...) back to Harb (retcon; Sunny handed him 100 gp already and 300 is what he spent on the retconned items)
   • Negotiation or prepare for roll-off for the Necklace of Adaptation (DnD Beyond) (wishlisted by Maya and Saf)
   • Assigned Skymaul to Leucis after negotiation between Meg/Jeremy.

Session Feedback

Eddy: Getting to know the people of Sohmweyr, seeing where Sunny is from and his family, interacting with the elders, all cool. Lore dump on the NPCs was fun as a change of pace.
Heather: More fun with the family. Trying to save Blaze from Saf was good, heart to heart with Blaze was good, pity I didn't roll better. Not sure what influence Creeping Vine has on him.
James: Finally rehomed Cinnamon. Lots of fun RP with Sunny's family and the town. More magic items doesn't hurt my feelings. I'm impressed that Saf didn't try to milk the elders.
Jeremy: Info dump with possible snafu there at the end was a nice chuckle. I have thoughts about Blaze sparring with the town guard as a means of training him up. Cool items showing up. Kinda feels like we're checking boxes til market day. Looking to get gone next session if we can manage it.
Matt: Not sure what else could be had from the elders, and they didn't seem like they were holding back much. The stuff with Bursk was cool, the side job was interesting. Training being with everyone is different than what I planned but that's fine. Nice to have more magic items but that would take some retcon.
Meg: Hurrah for loot. Farm RP was fun. Saf's turn from corrupt to set straight was good. I'm glad we talked to the elders.
John: Glad to be able to whet the party's thirst for loot.

Rewards Granted

Skymaul
*Mithral Plate Armor (DnD Beyond)
*Javelin of Lightning (DnD Beyond)
*Necklace of Adaptation (DnD Beyond)
*Cloak of the Manta Ray (DnD Beyond)

* denotes an item that was wishlisted or otherwise requested by a player