["There is flooding in my hometown sometimes. This is how we reinforce our buildings."
Chimwemwe gets to work. He seems happy despite the pouring rain,
Akoril does his best to help shore things up.
You add 2 days to the life span of Amaechi’s workshop. During the repairs several of you find evidence that the canal wall has been sabotaged with acid.
Amaechi is still worried and begs you to do what you can to find a more permanent solution. The mayor is too busy with his own flooding! Please, perhaps the Magaambya has one of those fancy rituals or something.
You can go back to school and spend a day gathering information to find a suitable ritual.
Chimwemwe inquires among the Cascade Bearers about rituals that might help with Amaechi's situation.
Alrinkiri asks around for tales of floods that fellow Uzunjati scholars might have heard, hoping to gather helpful leads.
Akoril learns the Community repair ritual from Ot.
You can decide amongst yourselves how to perform this. You can recruit Noxolo to help with the Performance, or Ignaci for the Society too. I'll give you a bonus on your checks if you choose one of them to come.
Uh, sounds cool I guess. she's in!
Akoril does his best to recover stories about Nantambu that mention the fountain.
Akoril succeeds t his check, telling the tale of a fountain in the square when Nantambu was only a village. Its waters were fed along a ley line, and it always rejuvenated anyone who drank from it… young or old, good or evil.
Chimwemwe consults--and misreads--the stars the night before ritual. He tells tales of apprenticing with his father as the older man repaired the bridges, hoists, and pulley systems of Hyrantium after storms.
Alrinkiri tells a story of two villages they encountered in their wandering many years ago. Separated by a wide gorge, the two towns were isolated and alone, both struggling to get by. One day, a person from each village happened to visit the gorge at the same time, striking up first a conversation and then a friendship. Together, they led their villages to work together, constructing a sturdy bridge across the gorge and ending their isolation.
Alrinkiri also stops in on Chezire, hoping the catfolk might have some insight into alchemical concoctions that could help hold the structure together.
Wisps tells a stories of previous Nantambu public works.
You shore up the shop. Noxolo leans against the wall and does a stretch, then lights a clove. Cool.
As you complete the ritual it would be a good idea to walk the canal wall. As you do so, make me a DC 25 Arcana or nature check, or a DC 21 Engineering Lore check.
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The evidence is nearly entirely erased by the floodwaters, but someone has been using an acid to erode the canal walls.
You should do the ritual to shore up the walls too… the damage is subtle but extensive. It will take 6 weeks, but there is less of a rush.
Amaechi congratulates you, “Thank you so much for all your hard work! It’s true what they said about you students after all—the future is so bright with people like you learning and helping others.” Amaechi chuckles to himself. “I mean, Asanda has a whole work crew at his manor, and they haven’t done for him what you did for me in days. You’ve really helped me and everyone in this community.”
As you begin work on repairing the wall, neighbors bring a celebratory feast, with you as guests of honor. Of course, all your friends are there too!
During the party, Amaechi presents each of you a clay pot as thanks. I was inspired by all of you. I hope you like them.
- Soomdevi's is jet black and mysterious.
- Wisps's features a delicate cracked surface like a spider's web.
- Akoril's has thick slip-carved lines that swirl in patterns, not unlike ley lines.
- Chimwemwe's is dark with iron flecks in it that sparkle it like stars in the night sky.
- Alrinkiri's is a salt-fired piece that looks like it was once shattered, and is now put back together.
"Thank you, Amaechi!" Chimwemwe says, surprised by the gift. "This is beautiful!"
He worries to his cohort, however, "Who would be intentionally trying to destroy the canals?"
"Thank you Amaechi, this is beautiful."
"Who would stand to profit, and how?" Alrinkiri muses. "Who would benefit from flooding?"
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Akoril marvels at his clay pot, and eventually spends an entire evening finding the perfect place in his room to properly channel its power.
You spend the next 4 weeks working on the. canals, with many of the community members pitching in. Binji is there too, and you see that she has been "practicing" her writing in places on the new canal walls, though some may call it graffiti: BINJI HALPED HELLPED HELPED Past participles are tricky.
During this time, you notice Soomdevi has fallen far behind in his studies. The softballs Koride throws her favorite Fetching in class are ever more pathetic.
Perhaps you can find a way to apply some practical way to help him study while working on the canals.
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Soomdevi spends much of his time in his room studying, and occasionally coming out to ask for sharper and sharper knives. After one particularly cacophonous study session, Soot comes squealing out from under the door and runs down the hall.
Finally, Soomdevi emerges with Blinks, barely hiding his pride. He asks if anyone notices anything different. His clothing looks even more muted.
"I've cut off my shadow!" he says, and then calls down the hall toward his room.
"Come on out, don't be shy! I'd like you all to meet Shadow Soomdevi!"
Blinks lets out a low growl.
What emerges, with smooth, inky steps, is a strange, giggling facsimile of Soomdevi, even more reluctant to step into the light as it looks around the room with dark rolling eyes.
"Don't worry," Soomdevi says reassuringly. "I'm sure he'll be used to you all in no time."
Koride grins when she sees Soomdvi's new friend. "I see you're learning from your little expeditions. Have you used it to stand in for you in any of your most boring classes? You should. In some cases, it's not like you'd miss out on much." Her pet vulture, a dead mouse in its beak, lands on the facsimile's shoulder and swallows it whole.
"That's, hmm, interesting, Soomdevi," Chimwemwe says. He squints at the shadow doppelganger and draws a few diagrams in the air. "Are they independent like a familiar? Or is it more like a puppet? Did you have to separate your psyche in the process of separating your shadow?" The last question carries a hint of concern for his friend.
"It is a very impressive feat," Chimwemwe acknowledges, nodding. "They seem, hmm, a bit, hmm, naïve? How fast do you expect them to learn?"
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Soomdevi’s toothy smile returns once he feels his talents are being appreciated.
”Well, see, that’s the thing, your shadow is with you your whole life, they’ve already seen and done all the things you do. They don’t need time to learn, they’ve already done it all. This one’s just giddy with freedom. Can’t wait to get into trouble I bet.”
”Go on.” Soomedevi nods to his new familiar. ”Go lie down somewhere.”
Shadow Soomdevi waves goodbye with a grin then dissipates into their shadowy form and slinks about Soomdevi’s feet.
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While Koride applauds the new shadow familiar, others like Ot shake their heads in disappointment. Zuma refuses to be around it whatsoever as he is worried enough about the so the familiar must to hide in class, in the rafters along the ceiling.
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Akoril's mask winks at Soomdevi's shadow but most keeps to itself.
Alrinkiri's attention in class wavers for a few days as their eyes instinctively dart around, following the movements of the shifty shadow.
Over the coming days, you hear rumors describing nighttime fires across campus. The fires take place at unoccupied parts of the campus and appear to be nothing more than strangely coincidental accidents. So far, the fires have been extinguished before there’s been any real damage, but rumors swirl that perhaps an arsonist is to blame.
Janatimo calls you to his office to investigate. “Greetings conversants! I suspect you’ve heard about the fires around campus. I am glad no one has been hurt yet, but I feel that someone’s lighting those fires to draw our attention to something. Whoever or whatever this fire-starter is, they don’t understand that fire is like magic: you don’t ever fully control it, and the more you think you have it wholly contained, the more likely it is to hurt you or someone else.
“I’d like to find whoever’s responsible and stop them before they end up learning this lesson the hard way and causing real damage. I’ll need your help to investigate and track them down.”
He gives you the locations of the fires: the ancient lecture hall, an unused old dormitory, and a dusty lab.
Any questions?
Akoril wait for any questions from his companions before tracking down an extra map of campus. Once acquired he draws a triangle on it with the three points before spending some time turning the map around and even looking at it from the back to see if he can divine anything of use.
"Draw our attention to something or away from something else?" Chimwemwe asks. "Are the fires inside or outside these buildings? Do we know what was used to build each fire?"
Akolil looks at the map and determines that the places perfectly line up across the campus in the order they were lit (lecture hall, dorm, lab).
The fires are outside the buildings. I’ve come to understand that the arsonist used a sophisticated blend of magic and alchemy to ignite the fires.
You may be able to, but you should try to gather all the evidence you can first.
"Are the abandoned buildings accessible to anyone?" he asks one more question.
Janatimo smiles. I have found that if precocious students want to access unused buildings or tunnels they can do it with ease.
You can’t help but think of the parties you’ve had under Spire dorm.
Alrinkiri remembers the boathouse, and nods. "We should investigate quickly. If there is a way to predict the next location, we want to find it before they strike again. Perhaps we should take them in reverse order, investigating the most recent while the evidence is freshest?"
Akoril muses "I suspect we'll need clues from all three, but maybe we'll get lucky with fresher evidence so lets give it a try."
You make your way to the old lab. There are burn marks on the wall — it does not look serious to cause more than superficial damage. They make jagged lines from the alchemical residue used to set them.
You all can see that the jagged marks spell a word!
DEBTS
You can investigate here as well.
Diplomacy check to gather info (secret), a DC 20 Crafting check (you can roll it), DC 24 CCrafting check (you can roll it).
Alrinkiri begins by prowling the perimeter looking for any additional clues, then takes a closer look at the scorch marks.
Akoril pulls his mask down from his forehead to over his eyes. The feathers on the edges extend to the sides like wings as Akoril investigates the burn marks.