S1 E1: Arrival at Raven's Rock Keep

General Summary

In which our heroes meet, learn their way around town, and investigate why the Castellan is so interested in adding private adventurers to his payroll...
We began with a round robin of the characters at the gate, with one quiet guard and one excessively chatty one, who had evidently lost a bet or gotten assigned to the job as a punishment. Nevertheless he evaluated each of the characters in turn, getting their name and a reason they were there; Xi Shi already knew one of the residents of the little fort's town, a shady seeming character named Confidence Carlysle. The others had no particular connections, but each had some reason for being there.
They spoke with the soup goblin, a cheerful little thing who seemed genuinely glad to sell a bowl of flys 'n cheese soup to Lorfel, but had no takers on potato and ashes soup. Mae suggested perhaps carrots instead of the ashes, and the little goblin was greatly inspired. From there they observed the large and somewhat haphazard marble fountain, engraved with the names of worthy heroes past, holy symbols of dozens of faiths, and important moments in the history of the realms; Lorfel pledged his name would one day be found there too. They then headed over to the Jewel merchant, passing by a weathered-looking man in the other storefront reading some sort of holy book who took no notice of them. A discussion and some bargaining was had at the Jewelers over the relative value of a pair of less-than-spectacular snake-eye peridots, and pledges were made about bringing in gems and riches from their adventures to trade here (and not at the trader shop around the corner).
On the way out, the group was accosted by the weathered-looking man who introduced himself as Parson Naphan Agrippa. After some vague proselytizing on behalf of a deity known as the Voiceless God, Naphan attempted to talk the group into buying one or more copies of the book he had been reading, for 'only' 50 gold pieces. He tried again at only 40 gold, but had no takers. When it seemed clear everyone thought he was running some kind of book-selling scam, he offered to accompany the group along with his acolytes for a fair share of anything earned in their adventures - a fair share being a third of the take, as he would being 3 people to their 6. Getting a weird vibe, the party left and headed to the tavern, meeting up with a troupe of entertainers rehearsing a play out front. One of these was very smitten with Blizzard's beautiful plate mail armor, and the leader of the Troupe, named Zeffirelli, was smitten and heartbroken by the mostly unresponsive and thoroughly unimpressed Xi Shi.
At the Tavern they met up with the Bailiff, who told them about the lizardfolk encampment in the so-called bottomless swamps, and their attack on the Keep a few months ago; they were repelled, and the Castellan sent the Bailiff and a contingent of soldiers to wipe out the encampment. The Bailiff was repelled with loss of life on both sides, weakening the garrison to the point that the Bailiff has put out a call for adventurers, and a foreboding regarding the lizardfolk; despite their attack, they serve a real purpose in keeping a lid on the various vile extraplanar creatures that sometimes crawl up out of that swamp. She doesn't want the lizardfolk eliminated, because she doesn't have the manpower to keep the whole region safe from those threats without them.
It was also revealed that a strange green and white soapstone tablet had been recovered after the plundered items from the raid on the encampment had been burned. The Bailiff speculated this tablet had come from one of these extraplanar entities that the lizardfolk had dispatched, on the assumption that lizardfolk don't carve apocalyptic poetry in stone, but it was found in the ashes after some wooden crates from the camp had been burned - and it is written in draconic. The party went to the chapel to take a look at it (where Keebler did some quick math and memorized the combination to the chapel vault, should that ever come in handy). they met the Serene Mistress and then Lorfel, Xi Shi and Blizzard examined the tablet The Profane Deep and determined it was, indeed, mostly gibberish. but Lorfel seemed a little perturbed nonetheless.
The group learned of three major sources of trouble, in addition to the situation with the lizardfolk:

1. A hermit living in the nearby region, who might have just been a guy keeping to himself and minding his business, but there have been some disappearances and the rumors are that the hermit is a cannibal. 
2. A wizard's tower once stood over the treetops of the forests north of the Keep, but over the decades the place fell into ruin and the surface stones were taken away tro be used in wall repairs and other projects at the Keep. The undercroft remains, however, and while the initial areas are a frequent destination for 'tourist' adventurers, the inner sanctum is evidently both dangerous and filled with at least the promise of riches and magic items. This makes it dangerous until it has been explored and cleared out; who knows what may have moved in once the Wizard was gone. 
3. The Caves of Chaos, a section of dry valley pocked with at least ten cave entrances, a known haunt of hostile humanoid tribes (though also the home of at least one tribe of at least neutral if not friendly goblins. The Bailiff hinted at aa number of rumors surrounding it as well, including the possibility of white-scaled Kobolds; Blizzard had an obvious interest in that, though the Bailiff was concerned that perhaps that meant an actual White Dragon was somewhere to be found in the region too. She didn't give a lot of details, but she gave the impression that she had more information if it became relevant to the party to know more.

The end of the episode had Xi Shi re-establishing contact with her network, and learning from Confidence Carlysle that the Jewel Merchant might be something of a jewel thief, and possibly connected to a larger criminal faction, warning that "we don't want to do anything if he knows the boss of the boss of a boss." The group decided to meet up for dinner and decide on its next course of action, ideally before the curtain opens on the dress rehearsal of the community theatre production of "Pretty Pretty Peacock" by the Zeffirelli Collective.

Rewards Granted

• 1,470XP / 6 = 245XP per character
• A fragment of a strange poem taken in the attack on the lizardfolk camp
• A reasonably reliable map showing the location of an old wizards tower's undercroft, and the dangerous and monster-infested Caves of Chaos
• A bowl of Flys 'n Cheese soup

Missions/Quests Completed

• "Don't get shot at the Keep Gate"
• "Stay out of Jail"
• "Meet the Bailiff"
• "Meet the Serene Mistress"

XP

245

Character(s) interacted with

• Gate Guards: Unknown chatty guy and "Rhinegold" who never spoke, just rolled his eyes at the Chatty Guy
• The Soup Goblin, a female who is very small even for a Goblin; evidently taken in by the keep as a refugee at some point in the past.
• Icies Veiss, Jewel Merchant
• Parson Naphan Agrippa, proponent of the Voiceless God and author/bookseller
• Bailiff, Captain Varia Carford
• Serene Mistress Alba Filorene, high priestess at the Keep Chapel
• Zeffirelli, bard, playwright, and leader of the youth performance troupe "the Zeffirelli Collective"
• Montague Ford, Proprietor of the Silver Spade Tavern
• Pippa Candler, Proprietor of the Silver Spade Inn, Montague's sister

Report Date

29 Mar 2022

Primary Location

The Keep on the Borderlands

Secondary Location

The Borderland Marches