When Cai'nan disappears, Kallie frets during their time at the Cove. Still, she memorizes the identify spell a couple times, and puts it to use trying to figure out what the rod does.
As they get home, Croq pounds on the door to the Arrows' keep, and then ushers Dolland in.
"Hey, Auntie Elandra! You and Dolland know each other yet? He's a capable fella who just had a mid-life crisis, and decided it's time to take the black."
At breakfast, Croq notes that Cai'nan has wandered off, but doesn't seem terribly occupied by it. Instead, she chats with those remaining about who plans to stay on the job, and how to divvy up the gear, and what--if anything--to keep as group gear.
She also mentions, "Hey, sis and I want to go visit Crostella at the Peacock Manor, and find out what she knew about that vault...and if she has any idea where the sword might be. Anyone wanna join us?"
"Uhm, Ms. Andosana is our mom. Call me Aurealia, please." Aurealia gives the former bandit a sasquatch smile .
"It seems a shame to let someone of your talents just wander off. You're no Barry - he was a tool. I mean, your music made me feel really amazing. Like I could do anything..." Aurealia thinks for a moment. "What if we got you some kind of steady work in the Cove? You could use your musical talents. Or if you prefer to live life on the road, you could gather intel for the Black Arrows. There might be a time soon when we could use your help on one of our adventures , but if you leave we won't be able to cut you in on the loot."
Seeing that she might be getting a pretty good deal, Lullaby smiles and slowly nods.
"...Very well. I'm sure we can reach a deal that satisfies everyone."
She follows you back to Roderic's Cove.
As they get home, Croq pounds on the door to the Arrows' keep, and then ushers Dolland in.
"Hey, Auntie Elandra! You and Dolland know each other yet? He's a capable fella who just had a mid-life crisis, and decided it's time to take the black."
You find your Aunt Elandra reviewing some paperwork. She seems a bit... stressed. However, the Deputy Commander smiles upon seeing her beloved niece.
"Dolland Reggelore?" says Elandra with mild surprise. "I've heard that you're one of the Roadkeepers' sub-commanders."
"...I was, ma'am," says the ginger dwarf with a polite bow. "The Roadkeepers are no more. However, despite my... previous affiliation, your niece offered me mercy and the opportunity to take the black."
Elandra studies the alchemist for a long moment.
"Do you formally vouch for this man, Croquelle?" asks your aunt. "I know that the Roadkeepers avoided murder, but..."
"I've only taken other lives in self-defense, and I don't think that's a crime, ma'am. If necessary, I'll submit to magical divination," says Dolland.
Cai’nan turns to Croquelle and says gruffly ”Croq, Shiloh. Shiloh, Croq,” as he pulls out a chair and sits down heavily. He waves at a waitress and orders a plate of whatever they are serving and a mead.
"I was at your concert," says the gnomish Kailani with a large grin. "I really enjoyed it!"
Along with his mead, the waitress brings Cai'nan some of the town's famous smoked salmon. It's served with excellently cooked scrambled eggs, which are prepared with a cheese of his choice. He also gets a side of nicely toasted sourdough bread.
Jaya plunges into her books when she returns home, taking careful sketches and measurements of the Gauntlets in particular while away from prying eyes.
She forces herself to sleep the first night, but after that, she keeps her spells ready, but her body exhausted, subsisting mainly on an occasional hunk of bread, and copious amounts of Katapeshi coffee. Eventually, rather than wake them in the middle of the night, she just has the staff leave a large copper pot of it in her room, prestidigitating it to a proper temperature when necessary.
She slept.
Jaya went downstairs, dark rings still under her eyes, but a gleam of triumph mixed in among the weariness. She'd heard that Cai'nan was still on walkabout, which she wasn't particularly happy about, but she trusted him to take care of himself. But knowing he'd be gone, she looked around for her former 'classmates' to see who might be up for finding something fun in town. Or Croquelle, I suppose, if she's free. I've seen her perform, but we haven't spent much actual time together.
Kallie appears visibly distressed that Cai'nan left on some errand and wasn't hanging out with them in the days that follow.
When Croquelle asks if she wants to join them to Peacock Manor, she readily agrees, anxious to take her mind off of other matters.
"We have to be careful though. If she's looking for the sword, she might want what we found badly enough to... Well, to do whatever she'd be willing to do for anything I suppose..."
"She's just an old lady. If she turns out to be evil, well, look what happened to the Roadkeepers. Between the four of us, we should be okay. What's our plan though? Are we just going to come right out and confront her with the truth? Or something more subtle?"
"You can always throw out accusations, you can't always go back to subtle."
"That's true. What tact do you propose?"
"We're scholars interested in Thassilon. She has a lodge dedicated to the Peacock Spirit, even if she doesn't advertise that fact. We can be interested in sussing out her research purely from what we could have guessed from her naming scheme."
"Should we claim we're looking for Stone House because we heard there is a Thassilonian vault underneath to see how she reacts? If she lies, we'll know she's evil. Or we could just detect evil on her. But if she admits being interested, then we'll go from there..."
Jaya shrugs. "Or she just wants to keep rival historians from poaching her find. In any case, she would have to be fairly powerful for her to give off an actual aura of evil. Unless she's a priestess of the Peacock Spirit, I suppose. Even then, despite its famous adherents, it's not entirely clear whether it was evil itself... I suppose if she is a cleric we would be able to test that! So if she's evil and has a holy symbol anywhere, we should definitely capture her alive, the archaeo-theological implications would be very interesting."
The luxurious Peacock Manor is the second largest building in town; naturally, the Eugeni-built Black Arrow's garrison is somewhat bigger. The building was actually once three large houses, but Corstela purchased each property and then hired a construction crew to merge them all into one sprawling estate. Peacock Manor is surrounded by a fence, but getting to the front door is a simple matter of just following the road from the town streets. Despite its size, the place overall looks rather warm and inviting.
Aurealia, Croq, Jaya, and Kallie arrive there without incident.
Croq grins. "'Scholar' might be overselling it for me, but I'm happy to let her know that I'm interested in learning more about Thassilonian history. Eventually we can let drop that Dolland said she'd hired him to get something out of the vault, and maybe ask her who her associate is in Riddleport.
"I dunno if it's a crime to pay a Roadkeeper to try to get a relic for her, but it's interesting..."
Aurealia casts bull's strength on herself, just in case, and then walks up to the door and knocks.
As Aurealia lets her chiropteran side show, Jaya can't help but ask, "You change your shape so often, with magic and naturally too. Is there one form that feels most like you?" I hope that wasn't rude
"You're looking at it!" Aurealia says, flexing her now massive muscles.
Kallie had changed her hair color to a soft lavender shade. She stands with the others and doesn't venture an opinion. She didn't know how to detect evil auras anyway. She unconsciously adjusts her new headband that has boosted her spellcasting prowess that she bought the other day.
After a moment, a young human woman finally answers the door. She is a statuesque, striking ginger with piercing emerald green eyes. Her demeanor is very relaxed, and her manner of dress is similar to the finer outfits Jaya sometimes wears.
"Kallie? Jaya?" she says, a lovely smiling breaking out on her pretty face. "Have you two been enjoying your time in Roderic's Cove? Did you get a chance to dig through those ruins yet?"
Wouldn't you like to know...
Aurealia looks at Kallie and Jaya. She arches an eyebrow. "Y'all are acquainted?"
Kallie lights up when she sees the woman. "Ciara! Hey! Yes, it's been great here! We didn't do much digging, but we did some exploration... fought some goblins... quite a lot of excitement. What about you? Found any clues about the fey that existed during Thassilon?"
"You're looking at it!" Aurealia says, flexing her now massive muscles.
Jaya rolled her eyes, and pushed her smoked lenses back up her nose, but couldn't help but give Aurealia a warm grin. I guess it wasn't **that** rude...
***
"Traveling companions, yes."
"Not in depth yet, I'm afraid Ciara. We were hoping to speak to Corstela about her own investigations."
"I actually hit a breakthrough the other day; evidently, despite divination being frowned upon by her peers, Sorshen might have consulted heavily with norns in the years just before Earthfall!" Ciara says to Kallie. Before going into more detail, she pauses upon hearing Jaya's request, "You'll have to ask Ms. Rostrata when she returns, Jaya. She and a few of the others went to poke around some of the ruins yesterday morning. Talking to Master Lightstaff and reading his accounts about Vice Primarch Constantine's duel with Krune... inspired her. Probably won't be back for a few days."
"Trei pulpe cu picioare, dracului de o broască țestoasă cu susul în jos!" Aurealia curses. "She might be in danger. Do you know where the ruins are that they went to? We need to go find her. Official Black Arrow business, you see."
"Ms. Rostrata didn't mention specifics, which likely means that she'll be visiting multiple sites; if you really want to speak with her, it'd probably be better to just wait until she returns," answers Ciara. For the first time, the pretty ginger seems to focus her attention on the Andosana Sisters, "And why would Ms. Rostrata be in danger? Are the Horned Fangs up to something again?"
Croq nods gravely.
"We don't know all the specifics, but it seems some kind of coalition is growing--including goblin tribes that wouldn't normally be intrested--and it seems to have something to do with Thassilonian ruins. We were attacked ourselves, but managed to stave them off.
"Who did she take with her as guards? I'm afraid that they could be in real danger indeed!"
Ciara seems slightly skeptical of Croq's claims.
"...In that case, I'll-" she begins just before...
"Whose at the door, Ciara?" calls out a stern masculine voice.
"Oh, it's just-" begins the jolly ginger just before she reflexively moves aside for someone else. He is a tall, trim, half-elven man with brown hair, fair skin, and green eyes. Ciara's associate is wearing black pants and boots with a green shirt that shows off much of his muscular chest.
"...The Black Arrows?" says the newcomer, recognizing the Andosana Sisters. He turns to Ciara and asks, "What do they want?"
"No need to be so rude, Alden! They just want to talk to Ms. Rostrata-" she begins before being interrupted again.
"Perhaps the intrepid Black Arrows should be trying to stop those murderous Horned Fangs instead of bothering us," Alden states coolly. "Good day."
He slams the door closed faster than anyone can react. You hear heavy locks quickly being moved into place.
"I think that plan's a bust," murmurs a familiar disembodied voice. "I guess we could break down the door, but that'd probably be an abuse of our authority... Oh, I'm still invisible, aren't I?"
Galatea appears and waves at you all.
"I guess we could just wait until Corstela gets back. Alternatively, maybe we could look into the Horned Fangs? Lullaby called them kleptomaniacs, and this isn't the first time I've heard them get labeled as murderous..."
"Hmm. Alden. Have I heard that name?" Kallie thinks as the group contemplates their next move.
"Gali! I hope you didn't get in too much trouble yesterday." Aurealia blushes as her heroine shows up out of nowhere.
She also takes a moment to consider what she knows about the Horned Fangs, and this Alden fellow.
"Well meet, Aurealia. Don't worry; I'm fi- an adult, so it's not like Yulia can ground me. She was just... following through with Mom's... request that Ariel and I don't leave town unless it's together with the entire troop of Silver Sentinels," explains Galatea with a slight blush. "In hindsight, my 'almost died' sarcasm probably wasn't the best thing to say to her after vanishing for an entire day."
Just before your mother mobilized the majority of the Black Arrows, several members of the Horned Gang were found dead in the Circle (the market/town center where Sir Roderic's ghost appeared). The investigation has gone nowhere; right now, both the Roderic's Cove city officials and the Black Arrows haven't found any clues about who's responsible. Those deaths might have radicalized their ranks somewhat...
"Well meet, Aurealia. Don't worry; I'm fi- an adult, so it's not like Yulia can ground me. She was just... following through with Mom's... request that Ariel and I don't leave town unless it's together with the entire troop of Silver Sentinels," explains Galatea with a slight blush. "In hindsight, my 'almost died' sarcasm probably wasn't the best thing to say to her after vanishing for an entire day."
Aurealia rolls her eyes. "Yeah, I know that feeling. Mom still treats me like a kid all the time."
Is her mother really so insane that she can't talk to her? Or is she just a total pushover when it comes to her mother? Maybe its her elf blood, makes her feel like she has time for this nonsense.
"Well... mother issues aside. I don't think we know enough to break in. Interesting that Alden wants us so focused on the Horned Fangs though."
"Alright guys, we need to find the Horned Fangs. Just before mom left, several members of the Horned Gang were found dead in the Circle"
"No one really knows where their headquarters are, but it's got to be somewhere in town. They are always hanging around. We should try to find them, see if they're willing to spill the beans on who killed their crew. These Peacocks are giving me a bad feeling...if they are going vigilante on the gang, and hiring other people to look for the sword...well, it can't be good. Let's go look for the Horned Fangs?"
"Well... in case it goes awry, we may as well head over before too many spells wear off."
"...Not so much Mom, actually. It's more like I said the worst possible thing to Yulia yesterday," Galatea explains as you all depart from Peacock Manor. "When I was a teenager, me and my sisters Honey and Shiloh joined the Cladissans. Mom was good friends with Cladissa, and our sister is the Classy Herald, so Honey was positively in love with the idea! She was our best friend, so obviously Shy and I were gonna join her."
Gali sighs.
"The three of us were apprenticed to the most esteemed paladin in the new faith: Lady Priscilla Moonblade. Throughout all our adventures with her, Yulia was our protective guardian. However, one day, Sentinel Rockne was asked to help out elsewhere; the Sihedron Heroes had finally tracked down the elusive Alaznist, and given how many bodies it took to defeat Karzoug, they wanted everyone there to fight her. Meanwhile, around the same time, Lady Moonblade decided to take us on what should have been a light assignment."
Galatea looks out to the sea.
"I really don't remember what happened that day. According to Shy, something attacked us. It killed Lady Moonblade and most likely kidnapped Honey. Afterward, Shiloh and I wandered the wilderness for days, nearly dying of exposure. Luckily, Mom and Argor Constantine rescued us in the nick of time, but no one has ever discovered what happened to poor Honey. As for Yulia, no matter what anyone tells her, she seems to think that what happened to me and my sisters is her fault. Hence my 'almost died' remark being in such poor taste."
Kallie is only marginally successful in suppressing a scowl when Gali talks about yet another adventure she'd been on without her. The fact that it was nearly a total tragedy all around doesn't make a difference.
"Well, if we find a gang member, before we go all-out with weapons drawn, let's see if I can make him (or her) my buddy. It worked great with Lullaby, you know." Buoyed by her recent success (and new magic item), Kallie appears eager to try her spells again.
Stuff
"Wow, that sucks. I wouldn't worry about it though. We all put our foot in our mouths sometimes. If she cares that much about protecting you, she must love you. She'll forgive you for being your awesome self. How could you just sit there and do nothing while your friends were in danger? Besides, if you hadn't been there I couldn't have saved you, and you couldn't have saved me. It was destiny."
Turning to Kallie she says, "Sure. Go for it. I'd rather you use your charms than have more blood on our hands...I never killed anyone before the other day. It's not exactly pleasant. I keep seeing their faces in my sleep." Aurealia shudders.
It was a sad story... But it didn't really change her mind. Galatea was still the one whose mother had sent along an overprotective and clearly unwanted bodyguard to mind her. That didn't really happen if both people communicated and respected each other. Something was still out of wack...
But solving their issues wasn't her problem. There were a lot of places where a hero could intervene and be helpful, even if they weren't wanted. Family was rarely one of them.
"Absolutely, Charms first, but... probably only if they're alone. The hand waving and incantations are a little suspicious to any of their friends. And actually, if we can find Jana "Gold" Gildersleeves, she's a higher up in the organization. Split her off from the herd and I'm certain we'll learn some interesting things."
Galatea listens to Aurealia's remarks. She also takes a moment to study both Kallie and Jaya. Whatever she detects, the Kailani heiress is left contemplative.
"...Perhaps it's time I stop dancing around the issue and talk to both Mom and Yulia," she murmurs. Gali sighs and turns to the rest of you, "If you need me, I'll be at the Efficient Quiver. I'd love to help with the search, but Silvie's a little under the weather today. Upset tummy I think. I was actually out fetching her some medicine when I saw you all heading toward Peacock Manor and..."
Rather than rambling about stuff you already know, Gali stops herself and flushes. The Kailani heiress quickly waves goodbye and scurries off. If Kallie allows it, she gets a hug. Same deal with Aurealia.
After three hours of searching, you can't seem to find any obvious signs of Jana or the Horned Fangs. You do learn that someone recently stole the Port-Governor's beloved tricorn hat, though. Maybe those supposed "kleptomaniacs" are responsible? Otherwise, it seems that the Horned Fangs have gone underground; the impression that Aurealia gets is that they've been terrified by the Black Arrows' total destruction of the Roadkeepers!
Aurealia eagerly hugs the sexy oracle, perhaps a bit too eagerly for a mere friend. "Okay. Don't beat yourself up. If you talk to them I'm sure they'll recognize the reality that they can't contain or retrain you from doing the right thing anyway. They are both former adventurers, they will understand, even if they don't like it."
After three hours of searching, you can't seem to find any obvious signs of Jana or the Horned Fangs. You do learn that someone recently stole the Port-Governor's beloved tricorn hat, though. Maybe those supposed "kleptomaniacs" are responsible? Otherwise, it seems that the Horned Fangs have gone underground; the impression that Aurealia gets is that they've been terrified by the Black Arrows' total destruction of the Roadkeepers!
"Hmm...I have an idea, but I'm kinda broke after buying all this combat gear. We should pick up a scroll of locate object and see if we can ping the Governor's hat. It might lead us to wherever the Horned Fangs are holed up, and then they can confirm my suspicions about the Peacock mo'f#$+ers being evil. Anyone who hides behind something as gaudy as a peacock has something to hide...."