It's an offer, and it's a good offer. We're good people, we take care of our own. If you're in, we'll teach you. If you're out, you'll figure it out, until you don't.— Neville, departing
After resolving the minor matters of the Hanging tree with the Pixies, Crisnos told us that he was going to head back to Frial to explain the ill news to his family and prepare funerary rites.
I wished him well and explained that
Ospher and I hoped to speak with him again once he was ready.
So we set out afterwards to give him his space and as night fell, Ser Brightshine elected to continue back ahead of us as well as he didn't want to get in any trouble with the
Grand Order due to truancy. We agreed that sounded intelligent and so Charity, myself and Ospher bed down for the evening in the safety of the well worn south road.
As we came back to the stone streets of Frial, it was clear that Founder's day was already well underway. We got more complimentary Founder's Cakes as we passed back into city limits and saw a new celebratory item up for sale, a Journey Wheel, which was probably the largest food item I've ever seen as it is specifically meant to be shared by four people. It's an 18" pie, prepared with local spices and served in a wooden box for transport, while the crust of the pie itself is meant to look like the wagon wheels that brought the founders to Frial. There were a number of different fillings too, local meats, fruits, and rare odd fruits too, "Squish Fruit" from the swamps to the east (not frequently offered), Minga fruit, imported from Far Harbor (for a much higher price). Charity's favorite filling was tart Green Apple, so we got one of those, Minga Melon, a meat (at Ospher's insistence) and a cheese one too. I was slightly disappointed at the lack of spider meat and voiced that to my friends which sparked the idea to swing back by the
Righteous Lobster and see what horrible pies they have. Charity had some questions about our obsession with the place, but I again deferred to Ospher who explained he thought what they were serving there was likely to harm it's patrons and he wanted to confront the "Chef" to stop him.
Back to the South side of town, the
Righteous Lobster wasn't doing anything outdoors for Founder's day, but to be fair, there wasn't much else going on outdoors in the area. We went in and there were a couple folks looking kinda mopey with a bowl of porridge which, Pascalina, the proprietress whose name we finally learned, said was the new special. She also called us their best customers which I'm sure nearly slew Ospher inside. With this moniker, we were given complimentary tastes of the new porridge, a "ricotta and apple oatmeal", which I took her up on immediately, and it wasn't awful but it was very sour and there were brownish lumps of mushy taste we later determined that are ripe spider egg that were ready to hatch as you chewed. I have had worse. Ospher said that the other bits were "Squish Fruit".
Chef Pete was in today and Pascalina helped set up a meeting, he's a very heavy set man with labored breathing, a skin/leather apron and pants, very fuzzy with thick stubble on his face and heavy breathing. Ospher pressed him on why he was lying about the ingredients and told him that the food he served was essentially an affront to everything he believes in. He wound around to demanding to know what the "trade secret" of the spice is because he wanted to improve it, which Pete countered that he would let him in on it if he agreed to work for him. I intervened at this point and attempted to make the bargain better, and we ultimately agreed that Ospher would train Pete and fix the recipes while I'd been roped into being the hostess. Charity did a little bit of investigation of her own with the spell False Life and came to the same conclusion that these spider bits were comprising a majority of the bits besides the oatmeal.
On the way to the
12 Carrots we saw a lot of posters for celebrities that would be performing, including the person we heard of from Laurent, Claudius Roche. We resolved to attend his show to see if his loose tongue spoke truly. Part of the Founder's day celebration we were told of as well was the replacing of a brick after the final performance of the night to be celebrated with Fireworks. An old brick near the Kreastos would be replaced by one of silver, engraved with the year and put in celebration of the town's restoration after the collapse of
The Grand Concordance. Upon our return, we gave a few of the pies to Greasom, and sat down with Digby. He was a little displeased about Charity having gone with us out of town for a couple days, but he was sufficiently distracted by some of the items we got from Illsemine, though he tried to really lowball us for them.
I mentioned to him that we were hoping to buy a house near to the Abby with the solicitor tomorrow in order to possibly open a restaurant or other place of business which he was excited about and seemed to set his mental wheel en mouvement and he explained that his plans following clearing the Abby was to restart the College of Magic (which he either had obliquely mentioned in the past, or we inferred) and set us to work there as teachers. It was also revealed that he already planned on Charity being his custodian of the place, and had already acquired her a broom for such. We agreed to talk more about it later and I set off to remove the burden of paying for and caring for the horse I acquired to go to the swamp and then down south.
I met with Crisnos' family as they were getting things together to perform their funeral rites, and told them I would be happy to give them this horse at a discounted rate to make up for ones killed by the harpies as they attacked and we came to a bargain where I received two weeks of vegetables from them and a small cart to bring all of it back to the
12 Carrots. His and Nirue's grandmother also wanted me to have a prayer scroll of hers as thanks for the assistance when I explained that while it was cruel fae that were responsible for her death, some very kind ones were instrumental in avenging her and ending the threat. In exchange I gave her the copper symbol and chain dedicated to
Corellon The Dawn Master that I found at the tree which she appreciated. I was able to use Gentle Repose on the crop to keep it as fresh for 10 days which we could then use for our upcoming cooking experiment.
After I returned and stored our food in our room, we headed out to the Fair proper. Lots of people were out on the town having a good time, playing bucket games named after a local clown, Boggans, eating contests where people would eat multiple Journey Wheels worth of Founder's Cakes in a single sitting, strength tests, shooting moving targets, bawdy poetry, a singing competition. Street peddlers and a Magician's Alley with card tricks and sleight of hand illusions, there were alot a lot of kid running around with small banners attached to the end of poles which were representative of the way markers the caravans followed as they left Balmoral. Evidently, the Grace of Sandor was once one of these. When Charity and I won the bucket games, we each received a bowl from the Tairuk isles with something called a Shimmer Squid in it. They can change colors in a hypnotic pattern and in the air they're capable of flight! Very cool prize.
In the alley, there were a lot of shell games and card tricks being arranged, with prizes available for being able to guess the secret behind the trick. We noticed one person near the end of the alley being picked on by a group of 7 older youths heckling a guy who hadn't finished setting up yet and using Prestidigitation to do so. I interceded to distract their attention and they claimed to have learned on the streets and the eldest of them called himself Giancarlo. He picked up on me making fun of him and said if I'm not impressed with his tricks he'd be happy to show off some real stuff in the evenings. He and his cronies then took off. The magician introduced himself as Boris Landholme, a cobbler by day who thanked us for chasing them off. He wasn't convinced that the youths were using real magic until I showed him that it does exist with a mending spell and declined to show off my skills for accolades and money in an alleyway. Nevertheless he was appreciative of the actions and gave us a box of a Founder's Day historical outfit with sealing wax and a faux signet ring.
I told Ospher I needed to check back in on the Temple to Sandor and he said he wanted to wait outside while Charity came with. In the temple, I finally got back in touch with Lielt Moonpelt and he said that he was doing quite well and the people that had been taking good care of him. I explained that I had reason to suspect that Shepherd was sympathetic to Locklanders and he needed to watch out as a "fellow" half-elf but he was happy there and planned on staying, or at worst finding refuge in another temple and recognized the symbols to Nisaba and Vale that adorn me.
Outside, Ospher saw Morgan Honeysuckle very anxiously navigating the crowds heading south and intercepted him and learned that he had met up with his fiancee last night in a supposedly haunted building in Bell Haven district that left his soon to be husband transfigured into a toad that he had in a Founder's Cake wooden box presently to keep him safe. We came back out at this point and resolved to check out the haunted locale to determine what he had imbibed to leave him this way and if there was anything else there that could be used to undo it.
We stopped over at the Abbey along the way and confirmed that no one had been back within it and some of the Journey Wheels I had bought was left with the homeless persons who explained that they had acquired a King of Bellhaven, Nimoy, as well as made an enemy of a dragon that was turning people to stone and consuming the stone. They said this dragon was associated with the Fountain on the south end of Bell Haven and we should watch out until they find themselves a dragon slayer. We wished them well, in spite of the incredible claims, and continued to the far north edge of town.
We arrived at the haunted location that Morgan guided us to and from the outside it appeared to be an old apothecary shop. Entering we saw the shop in surprisingly good shape, though a bit of disarray. The old herbs and tonics were mostly dried and gone, but a lot of preserving bottles and corks were still able to be salvaged and near the back, Ospher and Charity were able to figure out immediately where Morgan and Tadlo had their drink. There were about 8 surviving potions left and Morgan explained which bottle Tadlo had used and said that after he drank, Morgan didn't (for whatever reason) and saw the horrible changes firsthand. As I was gathering up the bottles and corks, I saw a smoky trail attempting to make its way towards my friends and so I got their attention and intercepted the creature by slamming my shield onto it on the ground and it and three other creatures coalesced in front of me.
I had a sense that this thing wasn't undead, whatever else may be weird about it and disarmed them by asking what is the next step of their con, do they want gold or someone escape alive to tell everyone else to leave the place alone because it is "haunted"? They claimed to be ancient ghosts of sorcerers and eventually gave up on this tack and said that they'd let us go if we left behind magic stuff for them to feed on in order to sustain their presence in our world. Recognizing that as a bad slip up that they're
outsiders I got Charity to distract them as she asked them what sort of undead horrors they are with images in one of her books whilst I prepared the alternative invocation of Nisaba's power to banish them back whence they came. Their tethers here were not strong enough to overcome my willpower, and in a flash the four of them were gone and we were free to return to the
12 Carrots.
Walking in, Digby was in his usual spot with his usual mood and we told him we needed his help for someone who had been polymorphed. After some back and forth and incredibly intimate prodding, Digby gave us information for 4 gold pieces (that Morgan paid) that the polymorph would be permanent at midnight, and if we got it fixed before that, there would be no lasting effects. So we laid out the potions we recovered and offered him all the rest of them if one of them would correct the problem. Digby sat a moment and said that his successive offer would be the only offer he would accept: he would identify all the potions, take none of them and we would work for the madman for a year, including as teachers. I got a little flustered at this, as him being our continual employer would require him being much more upfront with me going forward and less outlandish comments as well as a allowing a test run of our cooking experience in a week's time. He attempted to brush me off on a couple of the topics and I told him that we would have this conversation soon.
He was able to rapidly identify the potions, without casting a spell. There was a potion of sharpness, a potion of slipperyness, two philters of love, one giant's strength potion, one potion of supreme healing, two potions of greater restoration (which I was familiar enough with to immediately recognize as both expensive and what we needed). I handed one to Morgan, explained that this was incredibly valuable, and to his credit, he barely hesitated before feeding it to Tadlo in the box. I tried to intercede but as his soon-to-be husband transformed back and busted open the box and fell out onto the floor by the table. I explained to Morgan that we would need their help finishing out the task for Digby since we've now agreed to a year of (essentially) servitude to him, which Morgan readily agreed to and we left them alone to get a room here at the
12 Carrots, changing their lodgings from the east side of town in the Berian District and they went upstairs to have some privacy to deal with the last 24 hours of pressure and emotion.
The three of us agreed to go enjoy the fair further at this point and I went upstairs to make heavy use of my disguise kit before we set out, in case we had acquired any tails at this point. Ospher was heading to our discreet armorer to affix an item to his hat and Charity and I were discussing the events in the Hole in the tavern downstairs to explain my paranoia, when I noticed someone sitting in a booth near the door who had been surreptitiously watching me. Charity wasn't sure exactly when it was that he came in, so we went upstairs to use our climbing tools to head out the window. Sadly, Bohannan wasn't there to see us not fall on our asses outside where we took up a watching position on the street corner by the trashcan after I pulled the grappling hook down. We explained to Ospher what was going on and I saw the person pull out and whisper something to a tiny mouse and it scampered out the window across the street. We took off after it and it ran through a crack in a building to a nearby sweets shop, so Ospher and Charity chased it inside while I went to cut off an escape from the front.
It popped out the front door and I grabbed it immediately and tossed it into a stoppered bottle, and waited in the alleyway with it in my bag with my hand around it in case it was able to break out. The two of them came back out into the alley, Charity somehow covered in flour and we gathered around to pull it out of my bag. They deduced based on the mouse's actions that it was a wizard's familiar, so to get the message across, I held my dagger to the bottle in an overt threat until the man came out to the alley. He was dressed for skulking, scruffy and slightly older than me and human and he opened with telling us that he was supposed to watch us and decide when to give us something and then slowly reached into his cloak to pull out a scroll with a tie around it. Ready for a trick, Ospher grabbed the note and checked it out for magic before Charity read it and it was an invitation of sorts to a group meeting tomorrow night called the Court of the Basilisk. He explained his name was "Neville" and that they had been satisfied with their observations of us and our magical competence. There was some warning that if we didn't deign to join them, we would likely be easier targets for the Circle, which I jumped at to get him to elaborate, since we'd had some forewarning of, since he explained that others had noticed us as well. As a gesture of good faith, I released his familiar unharmed to return to him. The night hunters, as I called them, are of varying degrees of pure-ness to Roche himself, since if he makes others of comparable strength, they could potentially usurp him, which to me completely confirmed Laurent's story.
He decided he'd explained enough at this point, and if we saw them tomorrow, we'd get more information, otherwise we would be left to fend for ourselves against the forces he wouldn't mention within the town. He didn't understand Thieves' Cant, so I had to assume he either wasn't familiar with rapidly spreading Ghal Peloran threat, the
Black Thorn Society, or didn't know enough to understand how they make contact with one another. We went back to the Carrot to get properly equipped again and then went back to the fair to watch some people make fools of themselves at the strength competition, I literally saw a man shoveling Founder's cakes into his mouth while regurgitating through his nose as he lost the challenge and enjoyed a good bit of bawdy poetry before the final act of the night.
Claudius Roche was exactly what I expected him to be after all the talk and words of warning, a bard that wasn't afraid to use his talent on crowds to entice people into lower their guard for his spawn and "children" to take advantage of in the the dim setting. Between persons actively engaging in blood sucking and humanoids taking other people off into dark alleys, we estimated their total numbers in the range of about 30, assuming the entire band and backup singers were well initiated into the diablerie.
We left mid-performance, as Charity had an idea of a good spot picked out in advance to view the fireworks and since the actual event of the brick being pulled up and the new one being placed didn't really call to any of us, we agreed easily to head slightly outside of town to a hill where the dwarven explosives were lit and used for celebration. In all, it was a pretty good day, though pretty hectic with Morgan's misfortune and the Court being pretty stalky about their invite.
While outside of town, I played the pipes to call out to Tarre and her brothers who responded back very quickly. They had been anticipating good news, which partly worked out. I explained exactly how to get there and that they should work with Polly and her siblings to make sure the glamor and defenses hold. In the event that Crisnos decides to go against our caution, he would be quite a force to be reckoned with by just the six of them if he manages to rope others into further bloodshed. They thanked us and began their trek south, knowing also to avoid the Grace of Sandor.
Charity at a couple points today was very ready to join a life of crime as I showed enthusiasm for a heist and we needed to deal with Neville potentially tailing us. Is this because she perceives me as a role model, or is it my connection to a divinity? Or does she want to affix her life to ours and wants to be malleable enough to remain attached regardless the circumstance? It's been barely 10 days since arriving here and with the madness of this place, I haven't had the time to recenter my personal feelings for some time. The gravity of several possible upcoming undertakings demands I carve out that time, and soon.
Digby has put the rope around us, so to speak. I'm curious if he is aware of my magical source yet, since he's said a few things that don't really indicate him having as open a mind as he would need to understand my news. It is best that he doesn't have the opportunity to understand my motivations better unless he undergoes more significant change in the interim.
Morgan had been a lock I had hoped to pick for most of the trip to Frial and now we know that he himself is capable of creating actual locks and other non-metaphorical thievery related things. I look forward to hearing more about his Tadlo's skill set, I've not had the chance to work with a trustworthy thief in some time and I missed being able to rely on someone else swinging the dagger.
The Court simultaneously represents a chance for us to have another inroad of magical repository and knowledge that has been hoarded as well as further scrutiny of who we are and our circumstances. My guard shall be high in the meeting, there is possibly many persons in positions of power involved in this sort of skulduggery. Thankfully the letter was addressed to Adjenna and not
████ ██ █████ ██████ ███. The journey til now has been difficult but it certainly feels that there is flowering here and we must continue to persevere until it bears fruit.
Nisaba's power can now be called to banish the threats that the pantheon on the whole has deemed an intrusion to the world. If she has others that she trusts in the manner she trusts me, I hope that they may wield this to the glory of The Lady Midnight and the aim of her goals.
