"Aye...they're gone," Grimnir says. "We need tae rest now...but thar may be some stuff tae clean up tomorrow."
"Wait a sec. There is still this Josef Barvasi out there and his sect. According to Myra they were behind most of the mischief."
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Drune pulls out a registry and jots a quick not, smiling the entire time as he writes with hurried strokes.
A man soon enters with a small chest and Drune opens the coffer. "Here is your reward as promised."
He claps his hands as he waves off all other talking. "You boys did a good thing today. Get some rest. You deserve it.I am sure you all have something better to do."
Taking the money, Reigan puts the pouch in his new robe. "Let's head to the inn and rest. Perhaps the spirits will guide us towards our future if we calm our minds and satisfy our bellies. We have plenty of coin and the Ticklefish has plenty of beer!" he says jovially to the group as he makes for his favorite watering hole.
Terry gives Reigan a man hug, smile about as broad as it can get.
"Gods, I love pay day."
"Much pleasure doing work with you." *Ribbit* "Even did some good while we're at it."
Grinner takes out Tin from him backpack, who is relieved that the day is over. Grinner glances at Reigan and smiles. "Sounds like fun!"
Gerard was too exhausted to even consider an evening of drinking. The bed was calling his name. "Who is going to be on watch tonight? The way this town has treated us, you know something awful is coming looking for us tonight."
Terry looks at Gerard as if he's crazy.
"Uh, I don't think I'll be in any condition to take a watch tonight. Unless you have a magical 'remedy'?"
"Ah can watch ferst," Grimnir says. "Sleep tight."
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You spend the next several days recovering from your many injuries and ailments, though as you wander the many shops around town, spending your incredibly earned reward you also begin mulling over the many unanswered questions from dealing with the cult.
Namely where is Josef Barvasi? What is this strange tome Myra spoke of that was stolen from the cult? From what she described the book holds all of teh secrets to what is happening. The final question is what exactly is the strange key that Myra handed over? It is a large, ornate, silver and mithral key. It is very cold to the touch and always gives off a faint vapor of condensation.
With the Brotherhood of the Spider wiped out the Nightmare Plague should have ended though over the next several days even more rumors spread throughout Korvosa. Rumors that cannot be ignored. Ash-Gray corpses continue to show up each morning in Bridgefront. Rumors of many young and infirm dying in their sleep as the nightmare plague intensifies.
Reigan enjoys his newfound wealth, keeping most of it, but investing in a few adamantine durable bolts after the scrape with the statue. "Cant be too careful." he says to the fletcher as the man puts the finishing touches on the projectiles, fletching them with spotted roc feathers.
As the group stays in town, Reigan keeps his ear to the ground, so to speak. I do run a mildly successful detective agency, after all. he thinks as the rumors pour in.
At the inn, he announces that he is offering his services to contact those that have been lost to the Nightmare Plague. "Please come put your loved ones to rest! I shall contact them for you and ease both of your sufferings!" he advertises. "All for a nominal fee, of course."
Terry looses track of time as he visits bars and gambling dens, occasionally checking in with his fellows to see what's up and if there is another job on the horizon. He halfheartedly tries to persuade them to return with him to take a crack at Osiran tomb raiding, but the shadow of his mother is deep and dark there and he is all too easily convinced to stick around. By the time the next mission is available he is probably as much in need of rescuing as anyone could be. Those giant spiders did a number on his head and if there is not a job to keep his mind diverted, he finds something else less 'productive'.
Grinner has his natural aroma from his backpack and a few herbs dangling from his backpack to advertise his services.
Before they head out, Grimnir has second thoughts about only having one potion of touch of the sea and quickly buys another.
"Joseph Barvasi...ye know the guy?" the dwarf begins asking the alchemist where he buys the potion. He spends a little time on his way back asking around.
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Catching word of Reigan's ability to speak with the spirits he begins with merely a few people answering his call and with each passing day more and more enter, beginning to overwhelm the investigator as he has difficulty keeping up with the demand as most aren't able to answer his call due to the authorities cleaning up the bodies as quickly as they can. As Reigan is searching through the minds of the many souls his thoughts keep being drawn to the key as it holds some sort of strong psychic bond. Perhaps Madam Carrington may know a bit more of it's history.
Terry rushes about town on some sort of entertainment spree as he looks for another job to keep his interest. Over the next several days he notices on the Bridgefront that the Korvosan Guards have seized and secured the Hook Street House, not allowing anyone near the unsafe structure.
Grinner sets up a stand in the market to sell a few herbs and spices to try and offset the sales of the Shiver in the area.
Grimnir has little luck in the Market as he asks all around for Josef Barvasi. Seems noone has heard of the man.
Gerard took things easy for the next couple days, resting his already taxed mind. The last couple days had taken quite a bit out of him, so the relaxation did him some good. Finding Barvasi was probably the most prudent next step...but where to find the man? After a few days of rest, Gerard ventures out to market so listen for any rumors.
Diplomacy to gather information.
Reigan works his detective 'magic' and actually makes a decent amount of change before heading back to meet with the group at the inn. "Word on the street is that we should check with Madam Carrington about the key. Some of the spirits seem to think favorably of her."
Reigan will make an appointment to meet with Madam Carrington about the key.
Terry shows up looking rather dissipated.
"I'm bored. I think a trip to the Madam is a great idea. Let's round up the others and see where the key takes us. I've seen Grinner at the bazaar hawking his herbs. Let's start with him."
"Aye, mebbe she knows aboot the key," Grimnir agrees.
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The group returns to Madam Carrington's establishment where you are eventually led back to the middle aged paralyzed woman lying on the couch. Her severely atrophied body is attired in a black mourning dress several decades out of fashion and her face is frozen in a grim rictus. Her eyes, however, reveal an active mind full of smoldering dignity.
As you enter her eyes dart all about the room as the planchette nearby shakes and darts all over the board in rapid and jerky movements.
"What have you brought in here?" She let's out a low gurgling moan as a thin line of drool drains from her mouth. Maynard, the quiet voiced servant with a wispy mustache and an ill-fitting suit too small even for his tiny frame moves over and dabs at her mouth his the edge of a handkerchief.
"Actually, we were hoping you would tell US."
I'm not sure which one of us has the key but we produce it.
"We got it off some dangerous and wacked cultists that had a very unhealthy interest in spiders. Not that that matters. What does matter is that, like many such cultists, they are messing with things that should be left alone and, not to be too melodramatic here, want to destroy the earth of fabric of reality or something like that. Like I said, wacked. Anyway, pun aside, this thing might be the key to stopping them. So how about it? Can we get a discount on account of saving the world and all?"
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The planchette moves erratically. "Set the key in my hand." Upon doing so her eyes close and within a minute a psychic flash and burst of images flash through each of your minds as you watch time unfolding in reverse.
The first image you receive is a vision of Myra Lombroso
within the domed presbytery, underneath the House on Hook street, being handed the key by Moses Greeley (The Shiver dealer near the fountain), who seems to be offering a sneering apology to both her and Mog-Lathar.
The second vision reveals Frell Tann (Magistrate Tann's nephew whose death you were initially investigating) pillaging the destroyed ritual chamber, in the House on Hook Street, and snatching up both the smoking mithral key and a battered tome from among the wreckage as several other rogues stand nearby.
The third piece of information shows Nahum Caligaro and others in the ritual chamber before its destruction, dressed in ceremonial robes and desperately clawing away from a dark portal that drags them ever closer while warping and distorting their forms. The key drops from Nahum’s grasp and bounces on the sigil-riddled floor as the glow of a strange burning stone illuminates the room. As this vision fades, the psychic impressions show the same man and several cultists uncapping the seal in the catacombs of the cult house as fiery phantasmal forces wash over them. Finally, the visions reveal the same man in deep contemplation in the cult library, poring over a large tome with a gleeful look of discovery.
Madam Carrington falls back into her sofa ever so slightly as her body spasms. The Planchette slides silently across the wood.
"I have felt this Nightmare Plague growing stronger in the Dream Realm. These last few days I have been doing what I can to protect the people of Bridgefront while they slumber at night but it is becoming more and more difficult. Perhaps this book will have the answers to stopping what is happening...." Her body is wracked with a coughing fit as the thin man near her moves to add a few more pillows.
"I have a Baku in the dream Realm that has been aiding me though you must find this tome quickly if we are to put this to rest. each day more and more people are succumbing to these nightmares as if someone or something is hunting them down."
"Whaur might we fin' thes book?" Grimnir asks solemnly after listening to her visions.
"Yes, we find to find this Caligaro. Any help in doing so would be greatly appreciated. Any clues to his whereabouts, or do you recognize anything from the vision?"
"Yes. I may be able to ask the spirits or sends out my tendrils into the loclas to find Caligaro, but that might take several days." Reigan advises as he hopes to find Caligaro before the town is sent into mental fugues.
"I can do the same with my part. The spirits are not always the most direct but at least can point us in the right direction."
Grinner doesn't have a problem switching spirits for a day, perhaps to the Lore spirit to get Locate Object?
"Maybe the magistrate knows this person? We should check in with him anyway in case we can talk him into 'rolling us."
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"I have not located the book on the Dream Realm unfortunately. It looks as if someone stole the book and escaped with it. This tome must be within the physical realm. Hopefully within the city still." Madam Carrington stares blankly off into space as beads of sweat form on her brow.
Maynard quickly steps in. "I am afraid she is straining herself. You must go and give the Madam time to rest." he says as the thin man ushers you out the door.
"We never did explore the entire house. Perhaps the library is in the unexplored section? I think we should go back and see."
Grinner slaps his forehead. "Of course... we didn't finish. How silly of us."
"It's true that we left the second floor unexplored to a certain degree, but I doubt that those last two or three rooms contain the answer. Could we be that unlucky?" Reigan asks, thinking that they have the worst luck. "Yeah, we should probably check it out." he adds as an afterthought.
"Thank you, Madam." he says with a bow before heading back to the House on Hook Street.
Annoyed at the guard blocking his way, Terry briefly entertains decking him.
"Reigan, you think you could slip past if we distract them? You're the most likely to spot an... On second though, that place is a bit of a death trap. I know I wouldn't want to go in alone. We need to figure out how to get past these guys."
Grimnir also looks unenthusiastic about the guards.
"We coods wait until they ur gone, ur we coods fin' a different entrance," he suggests.
"Let's case the joint, then. If there's another way in, we take it. Or we could just tell them we are on a mission from their superiors and that we need access."
"If we fail we can return the the magistrate and ask nicely I suppose, though I prefer not to ask nicely. It rarely works out for me."
Memories of little Tarantula begging his mother nicely, "Please mama, don't mama," twist his face into a grimace briefly before settling back into the casual seeming half-smile he usually wears.
"I can offer up my skills in climbing if they can help, however I have no way to turn invisible."
"Well, give me a day to prep new spells and I can turn someone invisible for about half a minute."
"While we wait for a new day, lets poke around for this Barvasi fellow. We have a name and a description now and we know he is into spiders and cults and all that gooey goodness that goes with it all. Guys like that ALWAYS make enemies, it just takes a little special effort to deal with the understandable reluctance they have of talking. We might want to try something more subtle than waving a years wages around this time."
"He shouldn't be all THAT hard to find. He has a whole gang, Barvasi’s Band, associated with him as you remember and links to the brotherhood."
"Still, I'd like to come back later and see what we can find in the library. Could be stuff worth money there if nothing else."
Reigan is about to move in to speak with the guards, hoping to draw their attention to something a bit more bright and shiny, but Terry stops him. "Eh, I guess. Still wonder what we left behind. Ten gold on these fellows pocketing anything valuable before we return..." he says dourly.
"Either way, let's pay a visit that Barvasi fellow and see if he will be forthcoming with his belongings." Reigan adds as he pulls down the hook-nosed mask and leaves the greenish Snuggie on. "It's very comfortable. Don't judge me." he adds.
Gerard nods in agreement. "Let's get to it then. There's obviously still issues in town. We didn't get to the complete bottom of whatever has been happening. I expect more spiders, though."
"Aye," Grimnir agrees. "Le's find Barvasi."
"So, where do we start? Perhaps another visit to the Shiver den might be in order?"
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