S1 E19: The Trinket Tree

General Summary

In which the gang finds uniquely personalized trinkets in a strange hollow space in a tree, then meets the Castellan's right hand dragonborn

• The gang is dismissed by Ophelia, and Lorfel uses his clairvoyance spell to drop in on what's she's up to; he witnesses her perform a ritual on two of the remaining cultist prisoners - evidently from areas of the temple where the party didn't go - which leaves one dismembered and bleeding out on the altar, while the other's head and upper body rapidly transmute into a snake form as he becomes another Yuan-ti. 
• Lacking the power to do much of anything about this, they resolve to head back to the Keep and revive Willow to get her side of the story and enlist her help should they want to fight this medusa creature.
• They decide to take a long rest inside "Lorfel's Tiny Hut", a new spell the tortle has discovered how to cast. They choose a clearing some distance off the road and a quarter mile or so away from the canyon of the Caves of Chaos.
• Lorfel takes the first watch, discovering a tree with an expertly and fairly recently carved old man's face in the trunk. After some fiddling around, he discovers a small hidden opening in the tree that the face is looking at.
• With mage hand he pulls out a Tarot Card, without number or suit, depicting himself taking a card out of a hidden hollow in the tree.
• Feeling around a bit more, he discovers an antique dice set made of ivory or bone in a purple velour bag. Further investigation shows it can be used to ask two different questions if the dice are used for Augury, rather than only one result from a single question about a given course of action.
• Xi Shi also feels around in the space, that Lorfel was certain he had emptied; she finds a small bird egg etched with scenes of catastrophe and destruction that doesn't repeat as she turns it around: The Egg of Quantum Misery.
• Mae finds a small mouse in the space Xi Shi is certain she emptied. It's very friendly and seems fine other than its withered tail. She determines it's Fey, not a beast: The Mouse of Encouragement. Using an Augury spell. Lorfel determines it would being woe to himself and his friends to set the fey spirit free from its enchantment. Mae christens it Gusgus. It gives her a thumbs up.
• Rongo reaches into the space and finds a broken-off katana sword reminiscent of those he had seen people use in his village when he was younger. The peculiar weave of red, green and blue ribbon around the group is also a strong reminder, but of what specifically, he can't quite place. Something else from his home. The blade is sheared off clean without the slightest burr or scrape of the metal.
• Blizzard reaches in and finds the space empty but for something hard and cool in the back of the space - what he thinks is a dinner plate or serving platter turns out to be an enormous white dragon scale, surely from an ancient and gargantuan white dragon.
• Keebler finds a set of small throwing daggers with bone or ivory handles - perhaps the same stuff Lorfel's dice are made of. Their blades are invisible, and quite sharp. 
• In the morning, well rested, the group continued to the Keep, welcomes by guards who told them of those who had arrived earlier - Gorapple Dors, a goliath named Jannan and the statue of a local ne'er do well named Austice, who evidently had been a wanna-be Yuan-ti and had tried to lead several expeditions to the temple the summer before - as explained by the guard post men and then Kador Hyanada, the Captain of the Guard and second-in-command of the keep, who arrived in full armor on a barded horse to greet the party and give them a heads up about the celebration scheduled for that night.
• In the discussion about bringing Willow back, Kador made little attempt to conceal that he was demanding a bribe to prevent Willow Cather from being revived before the gang has a chance to go through her house. His price was steep - 250 gold per day. He left them to decide on it, riding back to the Keep along with the statue of Willow on a wagon, leaving them uncertain if he was really serious or if this was some kind of a test.
• Once back inside the Keep proper, Blizzard went home to take a bath, while the others gadded around a bit, meeting up with Zeffirelli who mentioned tryouts for his latest play, the Peasant Vampire, to Mae and Xi Shi as well as the others, sharing an awkward few moments before leaving them. The others also spoke a bit with the Bailiff, Captain Carford, who told them a bit more about Austice as a troubled youth and wild-eyed dreamer who perhaps spent too much time with Zeffirelli, and took his mild revolutionary nonsense too seriously, or perhaps they'd had a relationship or breakup in the past; both had evidently come from the Lamburtus farming compound, at any rate.
• Carford mentioned the big party and suggested getting appropriate clothing at the Guild House. She also said that Austice's statue had been taken to the serene mistress, while Willow's had been set up almost as a scare tactic on the doorstep of her tall townhome next to the bank.

Rewards Granted

Trinkets:

• A Tarot Card showing the person who drew the card, drawing the card
• A set of divining dice
• An egg etched with scenes of human misery and horror
• A friendly live mouse with a withered tail
• A sword with a sheared off blade and a grip wound with cloth in a distinct patterned weave
• Dragon scale the size of a dinner plate
• Set of 8 throwing knives with invisible blades

Missions/Quests Completed

• Willow's return
• The Tree of Trinkets
• Finding the Blue Dragonborn

Character(s) interacted with

Kador Hyanada Captain Varla Carford Janni Zeffirelli

Report Date

13 Aug 2022

Primary Location

The Keep on the Borderlands

Secondary Location

The Borderland Marches