Fentus will examine the scrolls, "She really left in a hurry, I think these scraps are magical scrolls, now just to see what they say,"
"But uh, they must be some other kind of magic, druid or something, cause I can't make heads or tails,"
"We can examine them at the inn." Trista pages through the book and papers, looking for notes or dogeared pages.
"Can I take a look?" Zainab take a look of the scrolls for herself.
Trista reads the book while Zainab and Fentus look at the scrolls.
The books seems to be a history of Breachill. It relates that in 4520 AR, a group of 50 humans found themselves mired in a threadbare outpost in a valley at the foot of Five Kings Mountains. They had little shelter, provisions, or means to survive for more than a few weeks. There were few skills among them, and almost no defenses against the area's natural and magical dangers. Stranger still, the humans had no idea how they ended up in their hovels, nor why there were there in teh first place. Some didn't remember their own names. As winter approached, the flimsy outpost seemed sure to perish.
Serendipitously, a wandering wizard named Lord Lamont Breachill, who was returning from a lucrative trading trip to Druma, stumbled upon the amnesiac's primitive outpost. He took pity on the villagers, and spent much of his recently acquired wealth building appropriate structures on the shores of Breach Creek. He hired experts to teach the people trades and used his magic and know-how to aid their day-to-day affairs until they became self-sufficient. They named the village Breachton's Hill in their benefactors honor -- it was soon shortened to Breachill. Soon, dwarves, elves, halfling, and other races moved to town, and in less than a year, this doomed outpost became a thriving hamlet.
Breachton is described as having distinctive, gold-colored eyes, hte rich voice of an angel, and the flowing white hair that reached past the magnificent robes he always wore. He was exceedingly paternal to the townsfolk, and spent large amounts of resources on the burgeoning village. He spent an entire year with the new village, and then one day disappeared without a trace - he was a wanderer after all. The people never heard from him again, but erected a statue to him in the middle of town, that still stands today.
There are notes hand-written in the margins likely from Voz, that say things like : "Ha, the fools!" and "Idiot humans trusting that lying wizard" and "The fools put up a statue of that duplicitous charlatan -- hilarious!"
There are other written notes, but they are in some kind of code that might take some time to decipher.
Fentus has no luck with the scrolls, but Zainab can identify the first one as an arcane spell of acid arrow. The others will take more time (and rolls) to identify.
"Hmmm...'Flowing white hair'? In this climate?" Trista puzzles through the notes.
Zainab decides to take the time to try and decipher a new scroll, a
handing the first one over to Fentus for save keeping.
Olaf looks over the scrolls quickly as the group discusses the next step.
Trista sits with the coded text and its not long before her literary mind can make sense of way the code works. As the others look at the arcane scrolls, she reads a different account of the founding of Breachill. Olaf is able to quickly identify the writing. The other three scrolls are: false life, obscuring mist, and touch of idiocy.
Looking to Olaf as he quickly identifies the scrolls, "I think these are all yours buddy, Arcane must not be my forte, all these scrolls read like gibberish to me,"
Looking to Trista, "Now that I think about it, Trista didn't you grab some scrolls from the Vault and stuff 'em? Maybe we have Olaf have a go at them now as well,"
"Let's examine them at the inn, then see about grabbing some supplies."
Trista leads the way out of the shop.
"Vox was evidently a conspiracy theorist. She thought the town's founder was a wizard who kidnapped people and wiped their memories!"
Olaf looks quickly at the magical items in the treasure pile, and this time has no trouble identifying most of them. One scroll remains beyond his ken, but Fentus is quick to help discover that magical writing.
Trista will puzzle over the religious symbol, making sketches of it in her book.
"I don't know much about the town... but from what we've seen we need to find her." Once she's done with Fentus' wounds, she sought out any clues to find out where she went.
Letting Zainab finish patching him up, smiling as he winces from the healing, "Still can't believe she had such a nasty trap set up in her own house,"
Looking at the others, "Maybe we pay a visit to my little halfling friend in jail, might be he can offer us more clues about her,"
Trista spends a few moment consulting The Book regarding the silver holy symbol found in the crypts of the Hellknights. It has a pair of faces in relief. To her surprise, she finds that the symbol belongs to the Taldan goddess of portals, doorways, thresholds, and the transition from year to year. She is Lawful Neutral in alignment, so her symbol in the Hellknight keep or among the undead is strange indeed.
Further, you recall that arsonist Calmont going on and on about Alseta's ring, and elf gates.
Zainab looks around for anything important the group missed, but it seems all the clues from the bookshop have already been uncovered. What they exactly mean, might take a little more time or investigation.
"Back to the fortress? I think we'll have more luck finding our errant bookseller there than chatting with the delinquent, Calmont." Trista shares the results of her research with the crew. "It's strange that a holy symbol of Alseta would be in a Hellknight citadel. One more mystery to solve!" She sounds ready to tackle it with relish.
Olaf thinks aloud, "Would still be worth it to stop and ask our little friend. Maybe being caught will losen his tounge some. Or maybe we can find a way to loosen it for him, offer him a deal or something."
"Then we probably should head back to the fortress and make sure we didn't miss anything."
Nodding with Olaf, then speaking to Trista "You said this is a holy symbol of Alseta?" Looking at the Holy Symbol, before continuing, " Calmont was raving about Alseta's Ring, surely there is a connection there. Maybe the Hellknight Castle was built on top of an old church of Alseta or something,"
"Then we should go meet with Calmont and have a chat with him." With a nod, she would head out in that direction.
Trista nods. "Very well, let's see if he's decided to be helpful."
After identifying the scrolls Olaf asks the other casters, "Any of these of use two either of you? There are a few I can use, but won't be terribly helpful with the way I fight."
As the group decides to head out to the jail, he nods and follows along.
Once the team arrives at the jail, Trista greets the arsonist.
"Calmont. Have they been treating you well, here in prison?"
Calmont looks at you sourly, even more so when Trista speaks to him. "What do you lot want, eh? Come to rub salt in poor Calmont's wounds? I coulda been great! Filthy rich, but no, you goody goods threw it all away for some dog-eating goblins. What a bunch of morons!"
He doesn't seem to penitent or sorry for the attack on the Bumblebrashers so far.
"Oh, Calmont. Is that what Voz told you? I'm afraid that she was just making you her patsy." Trista tries to make nice with the arsonist.
"If you tell us what she was up to, maybe we can talk the town into levying a lighter sentence on you."
Following Trista's lead, "Whatever Voz was up to was much more sinister than just gold and riches, I know you aren't truly evil, maybe a little greedy but not anywhere close to as evil as Voz has turned out to be," Holding his hands out peacefully, "The town wants to execute you for working alongside Voz, but if you help us here man, we can get you off with some light community service. Just tell us what you know of Voz's plan with the Rings of Alseta,"
Calmont is a simple sort of fool, and succumbs to the faux friendliness of Trista and the words of Fentus rather easily. "Wait, what?" he says genuinely puzzled. "The town wants Voz locked up too? For what, being a terrible boss? Ha, she's harmless, just an old bookworm with no sense of adventure about her at all. That's pretty funny that you think she has doen something wrong...." He laughs an evil little sound.
Suddenly he gets serious again. "Get me off, can you? I mean just let me go, and I'll far far away, you'll see. Or maybe we can work together to get that ring. Alseta's ring, you remember. It near some old elf gates or something, and poor Voz thought it was in Hellknight Keep. She's mad! Just those smelly old goblins there, far as I could tell. You think that ring will fit on my finger? It's pretty small, see..."
He holds up his hand showing off where he thinks Alseta's Ring would fit nicely.
"That's the thing, she's not in her building right now," Zainab replied with a shrug. "If you could tell us where we might find her in the castle, we can help get you off with far less than your current sentence."
While she appreciates the halfling's enthusiasm, she's not so certain that his offer of help is genuine.
"Did she ever mention why she thought that? Hellknight Hill is just an old ruin, and the goblins have been living their for years. Why would there be anything special left?"
Olaf starts to ask about the strange creatures and cultists but stops, content to let the charismatic group members do the questioning. Instead, he leans against the wall with his arms folded and looks mean, in case he’s asked to do a little physical convincing.
Calmont shrugs. "I don't know where she is. locked down in her miserable little study reading miserable little books, I'd guess. That's where she always is. Except one day, I got in there and read her notes. All about these elf-gates and finding Alseta's Ring, and I knew I could get rich if I found them first. And I would've if you lot hadn't showed up when you did...."
It seems Calmont doesn't know anything about Voz's secret life as a necromancer, or anything more about where she is or why she's looking for Alseta's Ring. Mostly he stumbled upon some notes of hers, and not knowing what they meant went looking for a get-rich-quick scheme. As bad a person as he is, he doesn't seem to know much more about Voz's plans.
"Now, you'll break me out of here, right? That was our deal!"
taking a step back, calling for a huddle with the others, arms around the others, "Alright, I think this guy is actually an idiot, think we wasted our time with Calmont, I have just one more question for him,"
Quickly sticking his head out of the huddle, "Cal, buddy, do you know where Guardian's Way is? This question is for all the marbles, so to speak,"
Calmont squints his eyes at Fentus. "Yeah, I know. Get me out of here, and I'll tell ya,"
This wasn't going well unfortunately. All of a sudden, her head twitched as if she had and idea. Thus, she pulled Fentus away for a more private conversation. "We found notes about Alseta's Ring at Guardian's Way. We don't know where that is... but perhaps Calmont does."
Olaf just squints at Calmont dangerously.
Calmont laughs. "You're a bunch of bumblers, ain't ya. I mean, everyone in this town knows where Guardian's Way is. I mean literally everyone, 'cept you lot. That's rich! Ha!" He laughs to himself for several minutes, maybe not understanding what leverage is.
Olaf chuckles back, ”Guess your usefulness is nearly at an end then.”
Leaving Olaf to menace the halfling, Trista goes to chat with the guard.
"Have you heard of something called the Guardian's Way? It's evidently well-known around town, but I've never heard of it, being a newcomer myself."
Shaking his head, "Being antagonistic like this doesn't earn you any favors, Cal. It seems like you've truly learned nothing and will have to pay the price,"
Zainab could onl look at the halfling with confusion. "You... you do know that means we won't need you for anything now, right?"
In case you were wondering, Calmont is not too bright. When he realizes what he said, and that he has no information you need, his eyes widen. "No! No!," he says in a panicked way. "No, I didn't mean it. Guardian's Way is a secret. We're friends right? I'll tell you and then you let me out, that's our deal isn't it? Please? Please!" He grows a little more desperate and shrill as he sees the last hope slipping through his stubby fingers.
The guard nods at Trista. "Aye, miss. I know. My father fought there in the Goblinblood War. It's about 6 miles from here, northwest I reckon. In a clearing with a cliff behind it. Good defensive position, and last I saw the structures were still there, though soldiers don't garrison it any longer. Probably just a hangout for bandits or worse these days, I'm afraid. Should be a memorial or something there, good men fought and died on those wars. You should be careful if you go there nowadays."
"The Goblinblood Wars? Interesting." Trista consults her book to see if it has any useful details.
Poking her head back into the prison chamber, she mentions to her companions. "I think I have a bit of a lead. We should put our heads together and decide what to do."
Looking away from Calmont's pleading to Trista, "What'd'ya got for us? Hopefully more than the nothing Calmont here has giving us," flicking a thumb in Calmont's direction, dismissively, ignoring his final pleas.
When Trista came out with news, Zainab shook her head. "You're far too late for that now." With that she spoke to Trista. "I think wherever Guardian's Way is is where Voz found Alseta's Ring and where she probably is right now."
"It certainly seems like some place to investigate, but perhaps we should finish checking out the keep first." To Trista, these both seem interesting. "We should get the goblins situated before we start chasing tangents."