Jarlyn’s place

I missed last week, see other blogs…..

We go to Chad and Bob’s for dinner. When we get there the gate is open so we go in and as soon as we enter Chad steps around the corner and invites us around back. They are roasting a pig on a spit and other fine goodies to eat. Much small talk ensues and good eating. Learn there are lots of Orcs and Goblins gathering Northwest of the Greyward Mountains. Chad and Bob let us know there is a contract out on Perrol’s life (Red Daggers) and then there is separate contract out on all of our lives (general contract); so Perrol is in double trouble. More small talk and some marshall arts training for some of the guys. We head back to the Inn and have an uneventful night.

Next morning we have breakfast and head to the Sky Father’s temple. It’s an uneventful trip to the temple. We notice that my order (Knights of the Azure Banner) is still guarding the temple since the Favored of Kilbern is still taking care of the metal plates we found. As we approach, one of the guards ask us to follow him and we go back to the Aldusmannus’ office. He tells us that he has to leave soon to help with the ceremony to destroy the tablets. The tablets are most likely from the High Priest for the Dark God that is trying to come back. He lets us know that he has talked to his cousin (Aaron) in the mages tower and he will enchant an item for each of us at a discounted cost. He also wants to know if we are willing to give them the location to the other scrolls. Kross draws them a map and we ensure they are aware of the potential disease. We depart and head to the Wizard’s college. While we are on the way, Ghoral notices a guy in a wagon selling weapons. For some reason, this one weapon catches Ghoral’s eye. It’s looks like an Ashurana (serated edge, funky point). Ghoral asks how much and they start talking. I do detect evil and see nothing . Perrol does detect magic and notices that it’s magical. Ghoral asks to see the weapon (in the mean time) and when he touches it he seems to pause for about 20 seconds. The merchant says its 250 gp and Ghoral gives him 5 gems. Perrol also notices another item that is a magical mace. I ask to look at it and ask him about it; he had it in a special case. He says it’s a mace that’s been enchanted for better accuracy and says it’s cost is 600 gp. I decline and we decide to move on to the Wizard’s college. On the way, we ask Ghoral what is special about his weapon. It looks ornate but well used. He said the weapon “spoke to him” when he held it. Perrol asks to hold it and it feels unweildy and unbalanced to him. Glaive takes the weapon and her eyes go a little wide and she gently hands it back to Ghoral. Perrol asks her what she felt and she said it did talk to her, but wouldn’t specify what it said. At this point, Perrol is going a little nuts because can’t understand why it didn’t talk to him.

We get to the Wizard College gates, using our pass, and head to see the Aaron. We see the assistant and she asks if she can help us. We say we are there to see Aaron. We are taken back to Aaron. Aaron says the enchantment they discussed allowed the weapon to hit corporeal creatures, e.g. ghouls, and Lycanthrope because it’s like silvering.  Perrol asks about other enchanted items. In particular he is interested in the Earring of Intrigue and Aaron believes they may have it in stock. Glaive ask for Yldvar’s Awl and they do have one in stock. Kross and I choose to take the enchantment for our weapons. I also get the Armor of Steadfast Protection for 150 gp. Ghoral learns that his new weapon is called a “Cat Lady’s Claw” enchanted by the Priests of Ulinoor from the city-state of Devyldra. They say it will take two days per weapon to get our weapons enchanted.

We each get on XP for the night….

While in the shop, Perrol buys two healing potions (1 gp each). While making the transaction , two city guards enters the shop. We tell them the story and they go off to see if they can find Glaive and Kross. I peruse the merchandise and I purchase “dust of imprisonment”, normal strength, single dose for 15 sp. Eventually Glaive and Kross get back and tell us about catching the assassin and that he said, “that damn noble”, right before he died from poisoning himself.

We head to the Wizard’s college. We are taken to an office where a distinguished older gentlemen, Aaron, is located. Perrol noticed that the door said “Director of Special Projects”.  We recount what all we saw there. Kross offers to draw a map of everything, which he accepts. He touches a crystal on his desk and asks for Sara. A young lady comes in and does the police sketch thing to draw pictures of what we saw. He offers to buy the pelts, diamonds, gems, and ore that we have. We agree, in principle, to sell the items, including one of the knives and saws. The bad news then comes. By the charter of the university, once they found out the general location of receiving end of the device, we could not pursue it due to restrictions and we could not pursue who was involved. Perrol asks if this should be a cause of concern for us and he says yes. Range of the device is 10 miles. We give our stuff to Haley, a mage, to get it appraised at market. We decide to go read the charter, which is in the library. We note the charter was granted by the local lord and it was approved by the Mendarian Pallintate, Lord of Cyradon. Big no-no’s of charter are don’t get involved in politics, assist in defense, any sort of conflict with churches be mediated through the Lords house, and no direct spying or investigation unless invited on the royal grounds. Doing such things could invoke the immediation revoking of the charter of the university. This last charter peaks our interest and makes us think this may be the source of the assasination attempt on us. Because it’s so late, we decide to go to the Boar’s Head Inn and will visit the Lord Marshall in the morning. The bartender says “Oh shit” when we walk in to the Inn. He asks that we pay for all damages if we start a bar fight. We get same deal as last time, 2 sp/day each for 4 bed room and meals. We note there is already a bard playing (and he’s playing The Ballad of Perrol the Precocious Penis). We have an uneventful night.

In the morning we head to see the Lord Marshall after breakfast. We are shown to a waiting room by a page and 15 minutes later a different page comes to get us to take us to our meeting. We are taken to a different wing than we were taken to first time we came. The room we are taken to looks like a study/library. As the page leaves the room a lady, ~35 years old, turns around in a big chair. She says “Thank you for joining me this morning.” She announces herself as the Duchess Lusia Meralda, which is the regent mother. We tell her why we were sent (and show her the letter) and let her know that the Lord Marshall told us everything is fine last time we came. She takes the letter, goes to her desk and looks at the letter through an ocular. While she’s looking at the letter, Perrol does mage sight and notices a lot of magic in the room, among them being the ocular, a ring she’s wearing, a knife hidden up her sleeve, and an entire wall is glowing. When she’s done examining the letter, she smiles and hands letter back to us. She asks how the Grand Lord Marhall is and we say fine. She also asks how our original meeting went with the local Lord Marshall and we tell her about the encounter and how he said everything was fine. She tells us there is some disagreement there and there is some tension in the court between old guard and new guard. In Cyradon, the old guards are wanting the raise the eldest son to be the king by tradition while the new guard are wanting a new king. Something similar is happening here where I am wanting to raise my son in the traditional way to the kingship and the Lord Marshall and some other local nobles are wanting to use him as a puppet. I ask if there is any thing we can do to assist her in this manner and she says she will have to think on it. Perrol is able to sense that she has real fear for her son. Side note, the sone is 12 and he comes into a semi-Lord status at 16 and full status at 18. We know that this is unusual in the way the progression normally works. Perrol brings up the assassination attempt and asks here about the Red Daggers. She goes to a desk and rings a bell and a lady, ~25 years of age, will appear. The duchess says “Red Daggers” and the lady starts giving a lot of information on them, including that their main guild is in Aarn and they have a local contingent that specializes in assassinating wizards. They specialize in dangerous assignments. Normally they don’t commit suicide if caught. They would pay the fine to get out of jail or they would be broken out of jail. The lady leaves  and then Perrol asks the duchess if there is any chance the Lord Marshall hired the assassin. She says that it may be possible that anyone that knows we have the letter might be interested in “taking us out”. Perrol also brings up the subject of the pin. She rings different bell and a middle-aged man appears. She tells him to draft a letter to the wizards college to allow them to pursue the origins of the pin and where it was transmitting. He will draft and bring it to us at the Boars Head Inn this afternoon. We adjourn the meeting. We go to the market and do our own research and find we would get ~2400 gp for furs, diamonds, ruby, emeralds, knife and saw. The wizards offer to give us 2700 gp, or 540 gp each. So we take 200 gp and 50 gems, worth 50 gp each. We finish out day and go back to Boar’s Head Inn.

On a boat approach port of Tietha…..

Perrol notices that there’s a building visible from the water and there is flashing light coming from it, so he tells us. This is the area where noble, wizards, and guild/professional buildings that have business with the harbor. Kross says this isn’t normal to be communicating like this. We see that the 1st mate seems to be writing stuff down in the captains area. As we are discussing what to do about this, Perrol notices the second mate glancing over at us. Perrol tells us that something is up. Perrol, Ghoral, and I decide to approach the wheel house to find out what is going on. As we approach the wheelhouse, the boswain asks if he can help us with something. We tell him we want to talk to the captain, 1st mate, and 2nd mate. He says he’ll see if they can. Perrol notices that the signaling stopped. The boswain and 1st mate come down the steps. Perrol says that we can’t help but notice that there was the communication going on and what was it about. 1st mate says that it’s communication about coming in to port. I say this isn’t normal communication and the 1st mate looks uncomfortable. Perrol uses his skills to try and charm the 1st mate and fails. (Back in time, we figured out that the copper leaflets were highly magical); 1st mate sticks to his story. I say I want to speak to the captain. The 1st mate says the captain can’t come down; I say I’ll go up. He says he’ll see if the captain come down. I start casting a “detect evil spell” more for effect. The captain comes down while I’m casting so Perrol asks him what is going on, using charm. The captain lets us know that the wizards have asked them to delay our departure. We decide to stay on board. As we approach we see seven wizards on shore; none that we recognize. Kross sees a boy with a tabard running from the dock area towards the temples that bears the symbol of the Skyfather. As the ship finally docks, we see a cleric from the temple of hospin approaching that stops and starts praying. A wizard approaches and says his name is Bemmel. We ask if we can help him and he says the wizards at the college want to talk to us asap. Apparantly all of the wizards that went to the site after us are dead and another wizard that was sent that reported this has lost communication. They are wanting to see if there is disease, hence the Cleric. We agree to meet after we “freshen up”. We depart single file so that the Cleric can “scan” us. When she scans me she seems to follow me with her eyes and lean back. It’s 2 PM and we agree to meet at the Wizard college at 4 pm.

We all head to the SkyFather temple and about a half block away all the Paladins start coming out, some in chain and three in plate mail. I tell them that we need help with some items again. The old man came out and asks to see what we have. We move to the side and I show him. He says the book in the satchel can come in to the temple. The metal leaflets however will require research on what to do with it. It seems likely it’s a high priest’s prayer book. We also show him the scroll and he suggests that the temple of Aladan (God of Knowledge) would be a good choice and sends for someone to look at them. The priest of Aladan looks t at the script and gets headaches too, will take a couple days to study. The priests also send for a priest from the Temple of Ishander (God of Smiths) to look at the metal leaves and says it can probably can be destroyed. We all freshen up and head to the wizard’s college.

As we are down the street from the mage academy, Perrol notices too late movement and is hit by a crossbow bolt in the left shoulder from up an behind; 7 body and 21 stun. Perrol feels something tingly and takes 10 more body (probably poison); start segment 12. We break for the Wizards college. Ghoral picks up Perrol. Glaive ducks in to a shop, turns out to be a potions shop. Ghoral goes in to shop. Perrol drinks healing potion. Kross climbs up the building and sees the assassin moving to the other side of the building. I run in to the building to and ask the merchant if there is a back door; he says no, only a side door that is trapped. I ask the shopkeeper if he knows anything about poisons; he says yes. We (Kross, Jaryln, and Glaive) continue the chase of the assassin. Assassin runs all out, Glaive and Kross purse and I head back to heal Perrol. Kross hits assassin in the right foot with arrow slowing him down. I heal Perrol for 6 body. Glaive hits (by 5) in the shoulder for 5 body. Assassin continues running. Kross hits him in the leg with arrow for 8 body. Glaive attempts presence attack and he stops; he’s foaming at the mouth and shaking; he laughs, says that damn noble, then he dies. They search him and find a red dagger. Glaive knows there is a loose guild of assassins called the Red Daggers.