5: The Mysterious Dust Report
General Summary
After taking a rest to recover from the siege of Silvium, The Champions decide to take their mind off of the mornings events by going to the Adventurer's Guild. Unfortunately, the guild is closed due to light damages from the attack. Before they leave, the guildmaster does find one job that they could do today; a young boy named Kalen is looking for someone to help him impress a girl named Uthred at his school. Amnur is displeased at the assumed dip in pay, so the guildmaster gives him some of her own gold to humor the child.
Arriving at the school (closed due to the attack), they find a group of children playing in the courtyard. Garrisund holds up the job slip, and Kalen runs straight over. Explaining that Uthred is the toughest and coolest kid he knows, he wants to look tough and cool too so she will like him. Uguz offers him a Dread Helm, but Iris comes up with a quick plan. She will shape change into a black bear and "scare" the rest of the group, while Kalen rushes forward to "defeat" the bear and return to the other kids with a bear tooth necklace in tow. The plan seems to work as the children are frightened, but Uthred grabs a rock and whams Iris in the head. Uguz and Amnur both attempt to restrain her for her safety, while Kalen and Iris grapple and move out of view. Iris then changes back to a fairy, just in time for Uthred to arrive and see the bear teeth that Kalen holds. Impressed by his bravery and completely missing the fact that the fresh bear teeth are already strung on a necklace, she grabs his hand and drags him back to the other kids to show off his prize. He quickly returns to give The Champions their reward; a bag with 1 silver, 2 copper, and 6 flavor-changing hard candies.
Somewhat cheered after helping the young Kalen, the group begins to investigate the blue substance that Uguz found within the suits of armor. They leave samples with Levi at the Silvium Library and with an older Half-Elf alchemist named Killead, owner of Killead's Cold Lotions & Potions. While at the library, Iris sees a young woman reading a book about fruit trees and strikes up a brief conversation. Asked to return to Killead later in the evening, each member splits off to pass some time. Amnur returns to the Traveler's Rest to drink and relax, Iris magically grows some chrysanthemums in a public garden, Uguz helps repair some superficial damage to the Temple of Lathander, and Garrisund volunteers his services to the town guard. Garrisund is asked to walk down the western road out of town to keep an eye out for anything, and he notices that there are a great many fresh wheel tracks leading south off the road just before a large hill. He reports his findings to the gate guards, and they thank him while calling for a scout to check it out. The group reunites and visits Killead, who has some results. He learned it is slightly arcane but can't quite place what school of magic it is, doesn't react with any components he introduced it to, and it destroyed his mortar and pestle when he attempted to grind larger bits of it down. He returns his remaining residue and asks the group to stop by if they learn more. Before returning to the inn with the rest of the team, Garrisund asks the western gate guards if they learned anything about the wheel tracks. They are hesitant to share, but tell him that they lead further south and west. He asks them if they lead to Fort Hartseer, but neither guard has heard of such a fort. Another nearby guard overhears this and asks Garrisund about the fort, and Garrisund shares what he knows from his groups investigation of the blue residue. The guard offers to keep his ear out and promises to meet Garrisund at the Traveler's Rest Inn tomorrow morning.
The following morning, Uguz, Amnur, and Iris leave to check in with Levi, while Garrisund waits at the inn for his guard friend. Arriving at the Library, Levi tells the three that no substance on record is a perfect match for this residue, but shows them something interesting. When placed next to a vial of water, the powder shifts to be as close to the water as possible. Curious about this fact, they take the powder out to a small pond on the Capital building grounds. Uguz dumps half of the residue into the water, and the group sees that it fizzles and causes the pond to temporarily turn bright blue before fading. As this is going on, Iris notices a silver-eyed woman watching them from the second floor. Iris decides to see why the woman was watching them and quietly enters the building and ascends the stairs. She sees the woman, who is wearing a blue vest with yellow lining and brown cavalry boots, peeking out the window and taking notes, but Iris is spotted and the woman quickly moves through a door at the end of the hallway. Iris follows but loses sight of the woman. She checks a nearby door and sees an elderly woman in a long dress cleaning an office. Asked if she had seen anyone enter, the older woman says no and that she's just the cleaning lady. Iris returns to the group and they head back to Killead to investigate their new finding.
Shortly after this, Garrisund sees his guard friend, who he learns is named Kevin, enter and approach him. Out of breath due to hurrying over, he reports that there is an old fort to the southwest, but no records show that it was ever called Hartseer. They continue to discuss and make small talk while the others reach Killead's. Killead brings a copper basin full of water over, and when the residue is dumped in it turns the water a deep, shifting blue and several crystals form along the bottom. The group take the basin over to Levi, who is amazed at the development and suggest they seek out someone with magical knowledge while he passes the crystals and basin to one of the Magisterium workers present in the building. Uguz and Amnur leave to return to the inn, but Iris stays behind. She asks Levi about the woman he saw on the second floor, and Levi is puzzled. He explains that the second floor isn't operating due to the recent attack, and that only him and 4 Magisterium workers are there today, all working on the first floor. Iris then heads back to the inn.
Uguz, upon arriving at the Traveler's rest, sees Garrisund talking to Kevin. Not knowing who the young man is, he sits at a nearby table to listen in on their conversation. Amnur returns shortly after and sits at the bar. When Iris returns several minutes later, she sits with Uguz and observes Garrisund and his friend. Kevin gets up to leave, and Iris notices Kevin is pretty nicely dressed, and keeps an eye on her as he heads out. Uguz is suspicious of the fellow, so he decides to tail him down the street. Stepping out the door just seconds after Kevin, he sees the man turn down an alley about 120 feet away. Perplexed at how he got there so quickly, Uguz sprints after him, only to find the alley empty. Stepping further into the alley, he is grabbed from behind. Uguz headbutts the assailant, but then suddenly finds himself 10 feet in the air with his attacker. Uguz is able to shift the attacker under him before they impact, but he is grappled again before he can right himself, this time finding a dagger pressed into the base of his spine. Unwilling to answer when the attacker asks why Uguz followed him, Uguz is kicked a short distance away. Spinning around to attack the man, revealed to be Kevin, he suddenly realizes that this whole kerfuffle is a big misunderstanding. The man asks Uguz some questions about the group and the blue residue, which Uguz answers before asking questions of his own. Only answering Uguz question about his speed (he says his boots give him greatly increased speed), Kevin excuses himself briefly and takes a few steps away. Not wanting to interrupt his new friend but curious about what he was up to, Uguz leans over to see. He sees the man pull out a Sending stone and hears the following in a female voice:
"Theren, Aeris here. Group investigated armor residue, learned more than we know. Half-Orc aggressive, pacified temporarily. Possible allies; thoughts? Don't respond, office at 6."Kevin then bids Uguz farewell and moves to leave the alley. Uguz then realizes he had been pacified by some sort of spell and moves to retaliate against the man. He strikes Kevin with a glancing blow, opening a wound in his side. Kevin steps into the street, then flops over and calls for the guards while Uguz continues his attack. This causes a commotion among some nearby citizens. Sitting at the inn, the remainder of the group hear the shouting and go out to investigate. Stepping out of the main square and into the street, they see Uguz engaged in combat with someone. They rush over to him as guards make their way over as well. A lone Halfling guard approaches Uguz and Kevin to break up the fighting, but Uguz heads down another side alley. The guard gives chase, and Uguz contemplates killing him to remove the sole person who had a clear look at his face. He decides instead to threaten the guard, who explains he merely wants to get to the bottom of the issue. They both head back to the street to talk with Kevin, but he is nowhere to be seen. Amnur, however, was able to see that he headed further down the street and seemingly disappeared. Amnur sprints to the spot where Kevin stood and sees movement down a side street. Desparate to catch the man, he continues the chase but loses sight of him completely. He does hear a strange sound though, and realizes he heard the same thing when Kevin disappeared on the main street. Figuring he has some method of teleportation, Amnur headsback to the main group who are now talking to a guard captain. Uguz explains what happened, and Garrisund tells them that Kevin is a guard from the western gate. Upon hearing this, the captain asks for more details. Garrisund tells him the circumstances of their meeting, and the captain responds by informing him that he is in charge of the western gate, and there is no one named Kevin who is on rotation there. At this point Amnur arrives, and the group is asked to give testimony at a nearby guardhouse. Amnur reveals his findings to the group. Iris also realizes that the finely dressed Kevin was wearing the same outfit as the woman on the second floor of the Capitol building, and more curiously they had the same silver-colored eyes. After hours of discussing and written statements, the group is thanked for their time and released. The time now approaching evening, the Champions are left to wonder what the meaning of the days events mean.
Rewards Granted
1 sp, 2 cp, 6 pieces of Molly's Many-Candy
Missions/Quests Completed
Kalen's Quest completed
Character(s) interacted with
Kalen, Uthred, Leviticus Boneson, "Kevin"
Iris (Azalea Marigold) Rose
Amnur Balderk
Uguz Hellgrip
Garrisund
Report Date
27 Feb 2023
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