Session 10 - Painting
General Summary
While getting help for Drindov at Scholar's Forum, S'thom saw that townsfolks gathered for the bi-weekly Regional Retrospective, a public discussion on current events. When she arrived they were discussing the cockatrice. When she left they debated what to do about the refugees.
After the guild members helped Drindov get back to his own bed, the team decided to get advice from Marshal. On the way to Meditation Point across the Hippogryph Hills, Gorgoroth warned them to be extra vigilant. At the same moment, a shadow crossed their path and spooked them into hiding. Fortunately, it was only a halfling flying on the back of a hippogriff. The halfling warned them to stay away from the hills because the local kobolds had been acting unusual and chanting all day. They had even spooked her herd.
At the Giant River the team struggled to cross without a boat. S'thom was an excellent swimmer and Red shapeshifted into a crab but Berov and Gorgoroth didn't want to risk drowning in their heavy armor. Ultimately, S'thom and Red "borrowed" a boat from the Upstream Village docks. They were busted by it's owner, a kindly human named Kappel Mitzi, the proprietor of Kappel's Tavern. He told them to pay their debt by washing dishes and they promised to oblige.
Marshal guided Gorgoroth through meditation techniques through the night and into the next day. While practicing his psychic exercises Gorgoroth asked his mentor about the creatures they found the day before during the Night of Stars and about the labor camp in the Redlands.
Marshal called the creatures draconians and indicated they were created or bred to serve The Queen Mother . He told of many work camps across the Mottled Demesne where politcal prisoners, debtors, felons, and slaves worked at the pleasure of the local masters.
Meanwhile, Red and S'thom bussed tables and washed dishes to pay for the borrowed boat. The tavern was abuzz with rumors from the Regional Retrospective, including:
Someone from "the labs" paid big Blessings to a dockworker for the Bazaar cockatrice.
Cockatrice live in grasslands, but none have been spotted nearby, only far, far to the south in the Golden Savannah.
Refugees are infected with Fenblight, a disease found in swampwater. Leander Needletoes |Grung Healer is helping find a cure.
A dwarven refugee told stories of troglodytes in the work camp who took his hands for fun.
People are worried that Sephadex is behind the cockatrice and deliberately sent the refugees to infect Frontierfolk.
Arnorr Coplin | Tiefling Lord of Laline Manor is offering 500 Blessings for information on Sephadex.
The party took a long walk back down to the Temples of Light and helped Isabelle Atieno | Elf Priestess with the flame ceremonies before asking her for more information. She was still guarded and limited her information about the Resistance. She agreed that rescuing enslaved operatives from the work camps would benefit the cause and help build trust.
When they pressed for more information, she hesitated then agreed to help if they found a long lost artifact called Lightbringer's Lantern. The team suspected it might be related to Kurtulmak's Star and told her what they recently learned from the kobolds. One of the lines in the poem led them to the secret room in the basement of the Eternal Flame Lighthouse where they inspected the painting of the New Frontier before it was settled. The painting led them to believe the artifact was brought by the original settlers and might be found in the ruins of the Illimine Aufklarung.
The team left the temple and took a boat to the Scholar's Forum.
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