Ep 13: "The First"

Owen had kept the group apprised of any changes in the new statue man and there had been none. He was still motionless, very heavy, and appeared to almost be in a hibernation state. Pip had spent time searching for a way to hide weapons in town and Pesk was still trying to recover from her brush with death. Her normally vibrant scales showed signs of recent, angry scarring.
The Beer Forge was absolutely packed with people when the party arrived. Ivy was nowhere to be seen and they discovered that a celebration was going on. It was the 17 year anniversary of Lady Ennith’s death, the Blood Fang Riots two weeks later, and the leviathan destroying part of the town. The group learned that each year the “gentlemen” in town refer to this time as “The Rising and the Purging”. Songs are sung in honor of the king and the squashing of the rioters is celebrated. The group tried to stay, but after several close calls they decided it would be better to look for another location for lunch. They headed to The Tea Garden, hoping for better company.</span>
At the Tea Garden they were greeted warmly by Kurt Brambleknut, the proprietor and “World’s Tallest Halfing”. They noticed Tybaly Lockridge at another table with a darker skinned elven woman they had seen at Seldanna’s party. Pip went over to introduce himself and discovered that her name is Anica Chin-Raton. She showed interest in Pip and asked him to teach her a few words of Farrosh, which irritated Tybalt. Nathan (human warlock and son of a noble family) also said hello to Tybalt, he felt that he had to since they were both nobles, and met Anica.
Anica was very excited to meet Nathan and the group discovered that he was the Royal Cartographer. Anica revealed that she had actually come to town in order to speak with the Royal Cartographer. Many of the most recent maps had been drawn without certain trade routes or with indicators that certain routes were dangerous. This had resulted in trade slowing to Anica’s city and increasing in Cinderhaven. Nathan knew nothing about this and was very concerned that the maps being sent out might be incorrect. He agreed to meet her at 6pm at his estate.
Pesk, Owen, and Primeheart went to the clinic to check on the newest Goa and found him awake. He was able to talk and informed them that he did not remember his previous life. As far as he was concerned, his life began when he woke up in Owen’s clinic. The group decides to call him Farite, the Farrosh word for companion, as a temporary name. Farite was resistant to aid from the group since they had abducted and bound him. At least that was how he saw it.
Farite agreed to wait there until the group could bring Cyl to meet him. Pesk wanted to make sure that Farite was a not a danger to others and reached out to touch him. She did not start turning to stone. Three more people were brought in while the group was at the clinic. All three had the strong side effects of the Daydream drug. Pesk used a lesser restoration spell on two of the people and they went rigid, like Farite had, and became stone. Holly, the other person running the clinic with Owen, began treating those two people as though they were dead.
Meanwhile, Rosie and Pip got to see the lavish but somber estate that Nathan lived in. Pip made himself at home in the kitchen, while Nathan took Rosie to the bedroom that his twin sisters had shared and got her some new clothing. They found her a sundress and Nathan felt the emotions, that he often kept suppressed, bubbling up to the surface as he realized that the anniversary of his family’s deaths was approaching. Nathan’s uncle, Preston, started making noise and Nathan realized that they did not have the house to themselves.
Anica arrived at the Brell estate early, and was let in by Preston. Preston sent Nathan back upstairs to get dressed properly for company, and spoke frankly with Anica about his negotiations to marry Nathan off to a good family in town. Pip and Rosie listened at the door to the entire conversation. Nathan argued with his uncle before taking Anica to go look at the master copies of the maps. They discovered that someone had altered the maps as Anica had described. Nathan revealed that his uncle was the one who did the final approvals and Anica pointed out that the changes made Highwater, where Preston was from, a major stop on the way to Cinderhaven. She also reminded him that the king also had to approve them before they were distributed to the country. Nathan vowed to do what he could to fix the maps. Anica was happy that someone at least cared.
Back at the clinic, the two patients that Pesk cast lesser restoration on continued to turn to stone. Farite suddenly began to try and get out of the office. He demanded to be shown to the new Goa. He said that he needed to be present at their births. Pesk used detect magic and saw a faint aura of transmutation magic around the two newly forming Goa. Farite declared that his name was First and named the two new Goa Wit and Might. He shaped the woman to be Wit and somehow altered how she formed as a Goa. He did the same for Might, making him larger and stronger.
Pesk carved bone into small “birthday” gifts for the three new Goa. Owen and Holly argued about what to do with the new Goa. Ultimately, Holly gave Owen the name of someone who ran a farm outside of town that took in strange cases. The man was named Matthias and the Goa agreed to go there with a promise that Cyl would meet them soon.