Maxwell turns and bows as he continues walking with his group. "In that case, we'll see you in Olegton whenever you get there. Otherwise, peace and prosperity go with you wherever you go."
Rubins waves goodbye, "Take care Maxwell. Lets see where a couple of weeks takes us..."
With that he decided it was time to retire to their quarters.
The festival over, the remaining crowds start heading back to Pitax or find tents or patches of grass to sleep off the heavy drinking that is a fixture of the final day.
Word reaches the Mantises that some time over the night, the Emeraldvaleans teleported away. The locals appear in awe of the powerful magics used so casually.
Anyone who experiments with the magical spoon discovers that it does generate a warm, greyish gruel that tastes terribly bland. Yet, every indication is that the paste is nutritious, and the spoon promises to produce enough for all four Mantises.
As the night passes while they decide their next move, a glance into the sky reveals a moon only about three days away from being full -- likely related to Alecia's insistence on hurrying back to Emeraldvale.
When Alenaya returns to the spot in the copse of trees to recover her dress and underclothes, she discovers that they're all missing.
Asking around, the locals say it's about 200 miles to Olegton. Thankfully, most of the journey is over plains, meaning that a small group riding light horses can traverse the distance in roughly three days. From the Rushlight Festival grounds, a group moving swiftly can probably reach Fort Delev in one day. Then, unless they want to charter a boat to cross Lake Hooktongue and slog through the bogs that surround the lake, they'll have to skirt around the swampy region known as the Hooktongue Slough. Thankfully, an ancient stone bridge called Wyvernstone crosses the East Sellen River on the north end of that swampy region. Once across the bridge, you'll be in what's generally regarded as the westernmost border of Emeraldvale, though there won't be much in the way of civilization until you reach Olegton -- about a day's ride east from the Wyvernstone Bridge.
All lycanthropes are capable of spreading their curse. While legends abound of the afflicted completely falling under the sway of their bestial selves, it's not so much as the person gaining control of the beast as the beast taking over the person. Individuals afflicted with lycanthropy are savagely powerful in their bestial forms, and the only reason why the affliction isn't spread as widely as it could is that the beasts usually kill their prey.
The journey back to Pitax is without event, though it is very late. Your horses are stabled near the Darkwind Trade House and are easily collected.
Rooms are hard to come by, as many of the exhausted, drunken festival goers are claiming anything vaguely comfortable. The rest are collapsing in the streets and alleyways to sleep off their drink.
It's very possible to find lodging with the Strocalle house, or even in the stables where your horses are kept. Or, you could get an early start (though one which will leave you fatigued during the day) by gathering your horses and setting out immediately.
If you choose to stay, there are still numerous taverns and playhouses open and catering to those with the stamina to continue the revelry. Many art houses are still showing bawdy performances to extract the last bit of coin from travelers to the festival.
Once they are alone, Alenaya turns to the others and says ”We should get a move on a bit at least. Set up a camp on our trail, even just a bit up the road. Free ourselves from prying eyes and ears and come up with a formal plan and let me work on Sa’Kage’s requests.”
Deodorizing Agent 30 gp
Stalker's Oil 50 gp
Wolfsbane 5sp
I'm sure you can select some fun poisons ;)
Kage nods, "Indeed time waits for no one, still I wonder do we have everything we need? I'm not too worried about Alacia or Thrusk - yes they are powerful combatants it's true but that's all. Grey and Yallah are practitioners of the art, they concern me. And then there's Maxwell a dark horse..."
Leaving in the middle of the night, the Mantises put Pitax behind them and travel an empty road for a few hours. The moon, fat in its waxing phase, casts a silvery glow upon the rolling hills and fields. The long day soon begins to creep up on them and it becomes very tempting to doze off in the saddle.
After a cold camp and far too short of a sleep, the sun rises in the east.
By late afternoon, the assassins arrive in Fort Delev. It is a relatively new settlement on the shores of a soggy lake with swampy marshes surrounding the small inlet of dry land on which the settlement is built.
Because of the head start, the Mantises are in the town while the shops are still open, so they can purchase supplies they may still require. The town is mostly a frontier settlement and doesn't have a huge selection, however.
Alenaya is not quite so pleasant as the group rolls into this "Fort Drelev." She immediately sets to trying to locate an inn and a bath.
Eris likewise follows suit, loooking to find suitable accomodation and recover from the long hard travel
Conversation had all but stopped half a day into their slog. At first Kage had been glad to head out but now he was bone tired. The lure of a hot bath and a clean bed was very strong... Still the shops were still open which was a wonder.
The Mantises arrive through the western gate. A tall watchtower is in the final stages of construction to the left of the gatehouse. The main road running east from the gate eventually splits, one branch going southeast toward the lake and the variety of docks and warehouses, while the other veers northeast toward the center of town.
They pass a small stone shrine to some sort of rat god, while opposite that is a gambling hall and brothel -- dedicated to Calistria no less -- called the Velvet Corner.
The river rat shrine is dedicated to Hanspur, a minor god of the River Sellen and other waterways. His followers pay him homage by causing drownings in the rivers that are his domain. Frequently, his worship is outlawed, but many boatment provide him offerings to ward off bad luck.
In the center of town is an industrious forge called Sutton's Stables and Smithy that has a small selection of horses and other goods. The largest building other than Drelev Keep is the Temple of Erastil across the street from the smithy.
A bustling tavern overlooks the lake called Bellweather's Soup n' Kettle, while a large building just west of the eatery is the town's largest inn, called the Iron Steeple Inn.
"This is not a place for us to tarry. Between the Rat God and Calistria, is not a place anyone wants to be. Let us get our rest, purchases supplies and be on our way."
Jon still has money left.
Kage nods and starts walking away, "Indeed. I may regret saying this, but I don't believe I have need of anything in the stores here. Do any of you? Perhaps something to give a certain mage a headache?"
Alenaya cackles. ”Oh, that would be wondrous! Especially if we can somehow coax most of his spells out of him for the day. Maybe catch them fresh off of an adventure. Or perhaps a series of unfortunate events repeatedly happen around him throughout the day that force him to intervene with his spells.”
Kage listens to Alenaya talk and smiles beatifically almost like Cheshire Cat. Revenge was going to be fun...
"Any specific suggestions or are we just going to wing it?"
”The distractionsto Grey need to be the day before our attempts. Maybe use a few different disguises to cause some misfortunes near him, like some fires or conjure some monsters near him sneakily. Force him to fight and use his magic. I can’t summon things though. Can any of you?”
"I am no summoner plus Grey's magic outclass my own. If I were going after him alone, I would use the a hidden dagger to his back. Of course, that is my preferred method in any case."
The presence of a Calistrian temple actually turns out to be a fortuitous thing, since the Mantises are able to find an adherent who has a scroll of the nightmare spell for special forms of vengeance after making a few discrete inquiries.
Otherwise, there are few remarkable goods for sale in the town's markets. The promise of a soft bed for a night is indeed a blessing, after the long events of the previous day, the abbreviated night and the present day's travel.
Kage was well pleased with the results of their shopping trip. After leaving the temple, he quietly said "Excellent! Any other business before we collapse in a bed somewhere? I half wonder if it's worth trawling for any rumors about our friends..."
"Possibly an excellent idea Sa'Kage, but I wonder how many rumors we would expect to pick up here that we couldn't learn earlier. I'm happy to trawl through the town and see what I know if you like, but after a long trip I'm famished and in need of a good nights rest if possible" Eris responds, with feeling.
A quick bit of asking around quickly finds out that the people of Drelev are actually rather fond of Emeraldvale and its Council of Five. The patrons in the tavern are quick to point out that they're not even sure if they should still call the place Fort Drelev, considering that the founder of the place practically turned it over to a tribe of barbarians.
Baron Hannis Drelev was the leader of one of the groups of settlers from Brevoy that included the adventurers that eventually founded Emeraldvale. He built Fort Drelev here where a small independent community long existed, and everything started out fine. The wilds and the swamps were being tamed by his forces. However, he ventured into territory claimed by the nomadic barbarians that roamed the lands north of Pitax. Eventually, they came threatening the fort. Drelev capitulated, letting the barbarians take several young women as tribute.
The Emeraldvaleans came last year, liberated the fort and slew the barbarian leader. That sent the rest of the barbarians scattering back into the hills. The town has begun to prosper once again. Most of the people hope that Emeraldvale will soon annex Fort Drelev into the kingdom, once the roads are improved.
The "border dispute" between Pitax and Emeraldvale seem to be partially related to Fort Drelev. Rumor has it that Lord Irovetti was the one that whipped up the barbarians into a frenzy over the settlement.
The barbarians call themselves the "Tiger Lords" and have a strong hate for the heroes of Emeraldvale. The barbarians, however, are not the true threat. They are supported by a contingent of female spellcasters calling themselves the "Black Sisters." Little is known of them, but rumor has it that the barbarians' leader, Armag, was their creation. Thank goodness for the Emeraldvaleans in eliminating that threat!
Jon spends time carousing with the locals.
"We could possible have some allies in our endeavors."
In private Kage asks the others, "Jon-Wyn's findings have given me a half-baked idea. I'm not sure I want to bring outsiders into this, but what if these Black Sisters were to attack Emeraldveil? The ensuing chaos might prove useful, or it might bring them all together which we don't want..."
”Unless we can use them to attack different points in their kingdom, forcing them to split up...”
Further asking around about the Black Sisters gets you hushed whispers that the witches are adherents to Gyronna, the Angry Hag. Mean and spiteful anarchists, the Black Sisters are no doubt nursing their grudges against Emeraldvale. The faith is outlawed in Fort Drelev, just as it is in most civilized communities.
I'm scared at how well this dice roller has been treating me lately. I just know it's getting me ready for disappointment.
"Treating with the Black Sisters will call for a delicate balance of strength and respect. I think the women should take the lead in any negotiations with them."
Alenaya sighs as she flops back on a bed. ”Will it be worth the loss of time? How quickly could they muster? All assuming they’d be willing to consider it and not try and kill us just out of spite!” She rolls her head over and looks to Eris. ”What do you think?”
"I think we need to bring something new. Perhaps I'm being harsh on us, but I believe all we managed during the festival was arouse enough suspicion (I imagine) for Grey to attack Alenaya and Alacia to try and track me down when I was isolated. Enlisting the aid of the Black Sisters is going to be time consuming, but thanks to the Kings criteria, a quick mission was never going to be an option. I'd rather use every option available considering we need to face all Five of them, than set ourselves an arbitrary deadline and attack ill prepared. I support checking to see if the Black Sisters feel like retaliating against our targets." Eris replies to Alenaya
The faithful of Gyronna are generally societal outcasts, and her clergy are always women. They have no temples, but create small shrines of piled stones. Most will feature a cat's eye gem or a stone painted to look like one. It's said that Gyronna the Angry Hag herself can peer through the stones.
If Gyronna's faith hasn't been entirely rooted out, these simple shrines would likely be found in and around the community or along the roads, created by the Sisters out of spite and to sow paranoia in the town. They'll be built to be seen, and though it'll be tough, it may be possible to track the creators from the shrines to their hideouts.
Kage nods, "I think I agree Eris. We'll only get one shot at this, better to do it right. I wouldn't mind some time to scout and watch our marks, to get to know their routines. People tend to fall into predictable habits, habits we can exploit. Of course the tricky part is not being noticed, Yallah's eyes are way too sharp for my liking."
Alenaya sighs. ”Well then, it looks like we will be going to play nicey-nice with them in the morning. For now, let’s get some rest since we aren’t in a rush anymore. Then we track them down and Eris and I can go have a chat with them.”
In the morning, after waking up and slipping her gear on, she says ”Ya know, now that we aren’t in a hurry, another thing I could do is rig up something special for one of their other towns, drop it in their water supply and force them to look into that too. Just a little something to spread them even thinner around the time we start making our moves. A series of unfortunate events that...if they were able to focus on them one at a time, may not be insurmountable, but hitting them all at once is just too much to bear!”
She pauses before adding ”We also should probably maintain our aliases as much as possible, since their wizard or whoever could possibly try and use a divination or scrying to find out where we are or whatever.”
As a reminder, we're having these discussions in a Rope Trick. In addition, Jon will be checking for Scrying.
"Our plan seems simple enough in theory."
Kage nodded, "Of course no battle plan survives the first engagement unscathed. Lets hope we can contact these Black Sisters and see what befalls. Even if we can't perhaps we can spread the rumor that they are coming? Nothing like a bit of panic and a few poisoned wells to distract the eye from the ball."
"I agree, we should first try and see if we can locate these Black Sisters though before we starting poisoning the water supply. We might need to coordinate these things for maximum disruption"
Taking your time in Drelev, talking with locals about recent events and getting familiar with the common folk, Jon-Wyn has the most luck uncovering the hushed fear of the hag covens of Gyronna that may still be lurking somewhere beyond the roads. When things were at their worst, when the barbarians had cowed Baron Drelev to hide within his fort, the witches were brazen in their activities. They would extort common folk with threats of hexes and ill fortune and expect payments of all the gold and silver in their purses. Their shrines to their spiteful goddess started popping up everywhere, even within the city. The shrines were merely piled rocks with a cat's eye stone at the top (sometimes a mundane stone painted to look like a cat's eye) representing the eye of Gyronna.
Thankfully, those ramshackle but unnerving shrines have been removed whenever one is spotted, with the stones being thrown into the Hooktongue Lake rather than risk any evil taint left on them infesting the village further.
Most of the women who have not renounced Gyronna were either killed or run out of town once it was liberated from the barbarians.
You said most. That means there are some still out there.
Hence the undercurrent of fear. The folks you spoke with aren't sure they ran every one out of town.