Leaving the elven attackers under Garreth's custody, you head out bright and early in the morning, resuming your trek southward. Over the course of the next couple of days, the road takes you away from the lush greenery of the forest and into a golden savannah, the vegetation growing ever more sparse as you continue your journey. Mountains come into view on the southwestern horizon, while the road continues southeast toward flatter terrain.
Around the middle of your third day of traveling, Border City comes into view. Situated on the blurry line between prairie and desert, the city is massive and sprawling: a good deal of space exists between buildings, and merchants sell their wares at tents by the road as well as in large, open-air markets. Mud-built dwellings rise as high as 3 stories, and many rooftops are used for drying clothes or performing other outdoor-suitable chores.
The city is noisy and active, with people milling about like ants on an anthill. You haven't even reached the first true building before merchants call out from their tents to offer you all manner of "essential" traveling gear, both mundane and magical.
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"Should we ask around town if an impact has happened recently?"
Would seem a good course of action. Garnult says, still troubled by the attack on his allies.
"Lets split up, ask around, and meet up later at a designated inn."
Cassidy will ask around to see if an impact happened recently, or see if she can get any other helpful information.
"Good idea. I was just about to suggest it."
if that helps.
Garnult will assist Cassidy and if he has to Tolbert.
"It certainly won't hurt to ask around, though we may get some unwanted attention. I think we may be outside where any more are likely to have fallen if the pattern is a circle based on the previous sites. I think more would be west of here and down into the mountains to the southwest."
It doesn't take long before you all realize that in the many days since the stones fell from the sky, knowledge of their existence has spread among the populace. You're even occasionally offered related merchandise, such as broken objects that would normally be considered junk if not for the merchants' claims that they were damaged from direct contact with a falling stone prior to being shipped here for a discerning collector like YOU.
You also learn that this city was attacked from the south by undead hordes only a couple of days ago. Fortunately, there was a contingent of Iomedaen and Sarenite paladins in town at the time, and they fought off the abominations without suffering any casualties. Even though no stones fell in this area, most believe the spontaneous zombie attack was connected to them in some way.
You also learn that the paladins—who are still present in the city—are led by a human man by the name of Jelkar, and that he's interested in seeing anyone with any information regarding the stones or the recent attack. The entire squad of paladins is lodging in the Dusty Cup Inn, near the center of town.
Iomedae is a good sort...Sarenrae is too...friendly for me Garnult grumps as the party makes its way to the Dusty Cup Inn.
"They can both be trusted in a fight against evil. I think we need to go see them."
"Talking with some paladins is usually pretty safe. Let's go."
Opening the front door to the Dusty Cup Inn, you realize that not only is this troop of paladins staying here, but they've booked the entire place. Every patron in the common room is wearing fancy, gleaming armor and has one or more well-cleaned weapons hanging from their belt or strapped to their back. The air is filled with a bit more "please" and "thank you", and the waitstaff is generally happier, than is typical for some random inn.
Standing in the doorway and sticking out like a sore thumb, you draw the gaze of everyone in the room. Pleasantly, most of the paladins give you a friendly smile, a raised mug, or some other warm greeting. Behind the counter, a middle-aged human man in an apron bends down and says something to a young boy, probably no more than 10 or 12 years old, while pointing in your direction. The boy, who bears quite a resemblance to the man, scurries over to you and speaks in his best "I swear I'm all grown up" voice:
"We have no more brooms, but would you like something for feet?"
The boy puffs out his chest in pride at having successfully delivered the message. Meanwhile, the man - along with several paladins - can be seen trying to stifle a giggle.
Warren smiles at the boy and tries not to giggle, "Thank you for letting us know. We didn't come here to clean up but getting off our feet and having a bite and a drink might be good. We also need to speak to whomever is in charge of these fine looking shiny men about a "heavenly" matter."
Wha? Feet? Well maybe Tolbert needs something...his feet reek! Garnult quips
As the boy runs back across the room for a head-pat while you're still in mid sentence, one of the actual waitstaff - an elven woman - pops over between collecting dirty dishes and leads the four of you to an empty table and tells you that someone will be with you in a moment, then hurries off to bus tables.
Meanwhile, the rest of the patrons have gone back to their conversations. From a neighboring table, a human woman in gleaming mithral full plate armor leans over.
"Hi folks," she says, in a surprisingly casual tone. "I couldn't help overhearing that you needed to talk to one of us. Whaddya need?"
Cassiy will say in her most friendliest voice, "Yes, we learned that a man name Jelkar, who we believe is your leader-correct me if I'm mistaken, is collecting information about the stones that fell from the sky. We were hoping to talk with him and swap information."
Yeh. What the lady said. Garnult says, looking around for the next serving person bearing a mug of tasty beverage.
The woman pauses, still smiling, and looks intently at Garnult for a couple of seconds. She then does the same to Cassidy, then Tolbert, then Warren. Finally, she speaks:
"Great! I'm sure he'd love to hear what you've got to say. My name's Colette. Let me know when you're finished eating and I'll walk you to his room."
With another big smile, she returns to her own meal, just as a man in an apron arrives and asks you what you'd all like to eat.
Warren smiles at Colette while she examines him.
When the man in the apron arrives he says to him, "We've been eating trail rations for far too long. Something with good taste and a drink to go with it!"
Cassidy will order something yummy to eat too with some tea.
Tolbert tries to shout above the noise of the paladins. "Excuse me, can I see a wine list for Cayden's sake?!"
Once you've finished eating, Colette politely takes you upstairs and knocks on one of the doors.
"Enter," says a deep voice from within the room. Opening the door, Colette escorts you into the modest room where a mountain of a man sits behind a desk that's clearly too small for him. Papers cover the desktop, and a few are laid out in piles on the bed as well, alongside some recently-emptied dishes.
Colette speaks: "These folks wanted to talk to you about the stones," she says, smiling brightly.
Jelkar squints at each of you in turn, then smiles. "Excellent! Thank you Colette, that'll be all."
The woman nods, smiles at each of you, then leaves. Once you're alone with Jelkar, he leans back in his chair and addresses you.
"So! A fellow double-sword wielder, a Toragian battle cleric, and a pair of well-traveled-looking companions, all with knowledge of these stones. This should be interesting, eh?"
He folds his hands in his lap and smiles expectantly.
"Yes. My companions and I first encountered the stones in Woodhaven, where the mayors house was struck by one of the stones, resulting in an unpleasant incident of zombies, which we helped stopped. Seeing first hand the destructive potential of the stones, my companions and I have been searching for others to prevent them from falling into hands that would use them for evil purposes. We have no desire, but to see danger averted."
"Upon entering this town we heard your group of Paladins stopped a undead horde from attacking the town, and are now looking for information related to the stones.
"We (indicating her friends) are hoping that we (gesturing between Jelkar and her group) maybe able to help one another, if we have similar goals."
"I'm sure you have questions for us."
"You've been collecting stones?" Jelkar asks, looking a bit surprised. "How many do you have? Are they properly contained?"
Garnult looks around wary for an attack....the last "good guys" looking for stones almost killed Cassidy.
Scanning the room for danger, Garnult notes the following:
The room is plain and wooden, smallish with a simple bed and desk. The door you came through (behind you) is the only entrance.
Jelkar wears a gleaming breastplate emblazoned with the holy symbol of Iomedae, and has a two-bladed sword (like Warren's, but nicer-looking) leaning against the wall next to him, behind the desk.
You feel substantially more brave just by being near him.
"Yes. They are contained as far as we can manage. We don't know much about the stones themselves. But it seems like a lead box prevents them from activating things around them. I think we have found three so far.
Could you tell us what you are hoping to learn about the stones,or what your goals are in regard to them?"
Warren speaks up at this point. "Five. We have discovered five. Three we found and two Garreth obtained. We know of one more found by the elves but not it's location." Warren then watches Jelkar for any reaction at the mention of others knowing about the stones.
"Yes, that reminds me: we ran across some Elves who said they were looking for the stones, and insisted they had claim to them. Have you encountered them yourselves?"
"Okay, slow down a second," Jelkar says. He looks at Warren and asks, "Who's this Garreth who found two stones?" Then, turning to Tolbert, he adds, "And can you be a little more specific than 'elves'? There's a lot of elves in the world, some of them even within my troop. Gonna need a little more to go on."
Elves what attack travelers intent on murder and robbery is who! Left em in a podunk human town a few days travel from here. Garreth is a priest of Sarenrae, he found stones also. Helped us mightily he did. Garnult splutters, its not hard to see that like many of his race, he holds grudges.
Warren nods to Jelkar. "Maybe we should start at the beginning and tell the basic of the whole story that led us to hear and you can ask for more details where you want them.
The four of us were separately in Woodhaven the day the stones fell. Guard Captain Arriaga tasked us with checking on the Mayor as two strikes were seen. One in town and one outside near the Mayor's mansion. Upon arriving we found undead and a stone there. We were attacked by bandits sent to retrieve the stone on the way back to town and delivered them and the stone to the Captain. The other stone was retrieved by the thieves guild and sent on to Zunberg.
We traveled to Zunberg and were again attacked on the way. Rather than fighting the guild there we bought it from them and put it in safe keeping. We found out another had been found and sold and set out after the buyer.
We cut through the woods and found another stone and came to Olgenheim and rescued Garreth from some undead. As my friend Garnult stated he is a cleric of Sarenrae. He had found a stone that fell into the nearby lake and traveled to Zunberg and purchased the other stone. When he brought them close to each other they fused together. Looking at a map of the area we determined that the stones fell in a circular pattern and set off to find more.
When we got to where the road to Border City crosses the river we spotted a farmhouse damaged by a stone. When we entered we were attack by three people dressed in full-length hooded cloaks of a dark green, and smooth porcelain masks black on the top half and white on the bottom half. They turned out to be elves and claim the stones are theirs as the owned them before the fell. We didn't get any explanation on what happened other then they are dangerous to those who don't understand them.
We returned the elves to Olgenheim and then proceeded to here.
What other questions do you have for us before we ask you ours? And I apologize for being long winded. I don't usually speak that much." Warren exhales deeply and seems lost in thought for a moment.
Damn. Why did I just pour out the whole story with no promise of anything in return. Need to watch that in the future.
Garnult eyes Warren sidelong, but doesn't say anything.
Cassidy nods agreeing to Warren's tale.
Jelkar listens quietly, a look of focused attention on his face. When Warren finishes, the paladin nods, then speaks.
"Well, where to start?" he says. "First, thank you for being so good as to take the initiative on dealing with this threat. I am impressed. Second, thank you for the information on the stones you've encountered so far; having a rough tally of how many stones have been recovered is sure to be useful in some way."
Jelkar leans back in his chair and folds his arms.
"As for these masked elves," he says, "I've been briefed on that organization, but only lightly. They're a cult of Nethys, and their claim on the stones could possibly be legitimate. Further details on that are above my pay grade, so to speak, but I and my troop have been advised to be 'cautiously cooperative' with them. After all, the final destination of these stones is a more distant concern than getting them away from innocent civilians and active villains."
"Speaking of which," he continues, sitting up straight again, "I could use your help. As you've heard, someone initiated an undead attack against this city recently, and we believe one or more stones were involved. We intend to find the instigators, put an end to their activities, and recover any stones involved. We don't know for sure where they're based, but some divinations have narrowed it down to two probable locations. I was planning to send a squad to each location simultaneously, but that leaves precious few paladins to defend the city in case we're wrong and another attack comes along while we're out. However, if the four of you could head to one of the sites, then I would only need a single squad to handle the other site, and there would be enough paladins left to protect the town if necessary."
"What do you say, will you help me?"
Garnult harrumphs, but his pals can tell its more out of some sense of necessity than true grumpiness. He is spoiling for a fight.
"Sure"
"Perfect!" Jelkar says, clapping his hands together and rising to his feet. "I'll gather my squad. Make any necessary preparations, then meet me at the southernmost part of town in an hour, by the big signpost. You can't miss it. There are plenty of shops between here and the gate, in case you need any supplies. Be warned: we're heading into desert wilderness, so be ready, especially those of you in armor."
Picking up a wand of endure elements on the way, you arrive at the southern signpost at the appointed time. Jelkar is there already, with a small group of paladins at his side.
Seeing you, he speaks: "You're ready? Great! Thanks again for the help. Now then, there are two locations we've determined to be possible hideouts for the people responsible for the undead attack. One is to the southwest, a few miles away. There's a rocky area at the edge of the desert which contains the entrance to a network of caves that would make a good hideout for ne'er-do-wells. The other is to the southeast, about the same distance from here. It's sort of a ruined ghost town type of place, which could also house a band of villains. Which do you want to investigate? We'll take whichever one you don't."
"I'm fine with either, but as far as preferences go I'd say we take the ghost town unless there is an objection."
Garnult shrugs, One bad guy feels the same as another when I'm smacking them in the head with muh hammer.
"The ghost town probably has fewer... droppings. Let's go there first."
-Posted with Wayfinder
"I'm fine with the ghost town."
Cutting a path through the desert like a pro, Warren leads you a good 2-3 miles in the first hour, no sweat. You can see the dunes getting rocky on the horizon.
Continuing his forward momentum, Warren fails to notice certain signs of danger (such as wandering into a hunting ground)...
Garnult sees the sand start to shift on either side of the party, just in time to watch as massive black creatures burst out of the ground!
,
A segmented tail the size of a tree swings down, plunging a sword-sized stinger into the ground between Cassidy's feet! A puddle of green-black venom remains in the sand as the tail withdraws!
,
,
A chitinous black pincer the size of a horse swings forward at the unprepared Warren, grabbing him and squeezing painfully!
Garnult uses his deflection aura!! Everyone gets +2 AC for 4 rounds
Garnult casts a spell, grabbing the Rod of Extend! Garnult casts Spiritual Weapon it will last for 8 rounds.
A Warhammer made of force energy attacks the nearby Scorpion.
Status
4 Rounds Deflection Aura
7 Rounds Spiritual Weapon
Tolbert and Warren, you're up!
"Warren, good job protecting me! Keep it up!"
Tolbert steps away from the not-grappling scorpion, and unleashes a blast of glittery motes at it.
"I will. Thanks for the help by the way." Warren grunts as he tries to break free of the Scorpion.