As the conversation shifts to the lessons instilled into each generation by its predecessor, Zeldrith grins, raising his eyebrows as he glances over at Arrian. "Ha! Well, my parents taught me tenacity at least. You know, there have been Angothanes in Magnimar for as long as anyone can remember. Might not sound impressive, seeing as how we're poor as the proverbial temple mice, but when you consider that fully half of my family are complete idiots - pardon the language, Brother Sower, can never remember what scandalizes you cloistered folk - and then it starts to make you think. Why, my great-grandfather used to help out around the temple in Magnimar - you know, tidy up the place, sweep the floors, polish the candlesticks, that sort of thing. He spent most of his time replacing the candles at the altar - they'd burn down, you see, and he thought someone was replacing them with shorter candles. He replaced those candles every hour, on the hour, for forty years. Now that's dedication."
"And the Temple never went dark - an admirable achievement but even more considering for how long he did this work."
Ameiko looks happy to see the group as they arrive in the inn. Obviously she doesn't recognize Ethan, but seeing as he's well accompanied, she smiles all the same. She approaches and says "We are having some stew with the boar leftovers that you hunted down with that nobleman... uh, whats-his-name. It's really good, Bethana found some exotic herbs selling in the wharf and it's bringing people in. Can I pour you a bowl?"
Smiling at Ameiko, "Yes please maybe even two bowls for me! And some bread please. Geeze where are my manners? Ameiko, this is Ethan Sower. Ethan this is Ameiko, she owns the inn."
Ethan gives a respectful nod. "A pleasure to meet you, Mistress Ameiko. May Erastil bless your establishment. I would be pleased to enjoy a bowl of your fine stew."
Ameiko smiles and is about to say something when she's interrupted by a nearby table. An older man recites "Deadeye, Deadeye, you wanna hunt, so what's your good eye? Let's have some soup! Bring us your lemon pie!" Despite his age, the old man looks stronger than the usual traveler, and he carries only a quarterstaff as a weapon.
Ameiko says "Oh, we're starting with rhymes, eh? Good that you gave us a bad one, eh Gabe?" The man says "Ha!", provokingly. Ameiko says "Well then, you won't beat this hen, I'll bring soup to those who vanquish my foes! Twice more for Sandpoint's heroes!" The patrons see what is happening and cheer Ameiko on.
Gabe gulps from his flagon and thinks. Then he says "Oy, heroes you say? What did they do, break some clay? I bring you goblin ears! The bounty alone will by me some... pears?" The patrons laugh, a bit awkwardly.
Somehow a big pot of stew is sitting on the table now. Ethan swears he saw a halfling elderly woman scurrying away from the table.
"A game of rhymes? What are the rules? Who judges keen quips from the prattling of fools?"
"We slew goblins with wit and might," Juriya quips. "Surely you remember that, right?"
Brodert walks with the two women and he spends quite some time having fun in the room with levitating things. He also inspects the statue carefully. Later, he sees a fountain and says "This is clearly unholy Lamashtu unholy water."
In the room with the orange pool, he is very impressed. He looks at Donimah and says [b]"Do you see this? It's a runewell!" He approaches, but doesn't touch the water. He says "It seems it's still active! That's bad news, of course, but so interesting!" He takes out a notepad and starts drawing the pool.
Donimah nods at Brodert's observations.
"That Ethan Sower priest we met may be able to call upon Erastil's power to cleanse this fountain of Lamashtu's taint."
When they arrive at the runewell, her eyes glitter as she looks it over with Brodert.
"I agree. As much as I'd like to try and harness this thing's power for my own, it's for the best that we exhaust its power and return it to dormancy...possibly permanently. Better that than trying to collapse this entire chamber on it and possibly opening a sinkhole in the town above."
As the group returns to the Rusty Dragon, Zeldrith sits down at one of the tables with a sigh, seemingly preoccupied - after a few moments, he glances up at Juriya, his brow furrowed in thought. "Hey, Juriya, do you think there'll be some sort of reward for saving the town?" Glancing down at his drink, he scowls, muttering to himself. "We saved that old skinflint's hide - you'd think the least he could do would be to knock a bit off the top of the damned thing."
When the rhyming game starts, however, his head rises, and he smirks, waiting for an opportune lull to jump in. "It's been many years since I played this game - I still remember the rules, all the same." At Gabe's bungled rhyme, Zeldrith grins, nodding to the old man. "If I were you, I'd pick another verse - whatever one you find can't be much worse."
Arrian glowers at the group's efforts being questioned and diminished.
"Don't be openly greedy, we already got a reward didn't we?" Juriya snaps back.
"Don't be openly greedy, we already got a reward didn't we?" Juriya snaps back.
"I don't want to be greedy but it would be nice if someone replaced my poor falchion. From brand new to tiny pieces in an instant."
"wouldn't it be easier to get a spellcaster to do it than get a new falchion? Shatter's a spell more than a few people have, sowe can't keep asking for a favor everytime a weapon shatters. Plus, make whole is a transmutation spell, maybe Donimah can copy it and we can have it in our pocket."
Brodert says "This Sower priest sounds interesting. Yes, you should ask him too! Now, about this runewell. I hate to admit it, but... I have no idea how to deactivate it. Did you find anything in your travels?"
Ethan quickly realizes that the winner is de facto declared by how loud the crowd cheers. Other than that, there don't seem to be any rules. Not that he can tell at this point.
As Juriya gives her rhyme, then Zeldrith, the mood becomes tense. The patrons say a long "Oooooohhhh". Gabe the strong bard scoffs, but feels threatened. He puts his mean face on and says "Wit and might, you say? As I hear it, you're in the cathedral so much all you do is pray! Who is to know, the town was in disarray, maybe you're just posing, fishing for a parade? Next thing we know, let's all bow to a sculpture in clay..."
Some people look outraged, but the entire inn went silent. It seemed that the patrons were holding their breath, waiting to see how well the heroes defended themselves.
It's not in Ethan's nature to behave in such an audacious manner, but the other fellow's mocking of faith and the faithful in a town where the cathedral nearly burned to the ground irked him. He does his best to keep the acid out of his tone, and maintain the veneer of a friendly bar game.
"These heroes have no need of braggin', just a meal and a drink at the Rusty Dragon. I've been in town for less than a day, and yet tales of their deeds is all any can say. Praise and thanks, not a word of blame, but not even one Sandpointer has mentioned your name."
While Ethan isn't one to behave audaciously... Juriya, on the other hand, does not have the common sense to know when to quit, and is much more prone to bragging. "You take me for one to sit down and pray? I'm an adherent of Zohls, investigating's the way. I promised myself I'd help out the town! To fail would be to let her down. Sure, I admit we both don't have much sense, but you just sit there rhyming, what's your defence?"
Some might say they can literally see steam coming out of Arrian's ears as his half-orc eyes turn even more red, "Do not question our heart, what did you do to defend Sandpoint, light a fart?"
After Ethan says his rhyme, the old bard seems hurt, as though someone had punched him. But it is Juriya's that makes him start to think hard. He starts sweating, then Arrian says his. That completely breaks his concentration.
The man is struggling to find a reply. Then Ameiko says loudly "Gabe, I told you you had to much cheese, if you're lighting something, do it outside, please!" At this, the entire inn roars in laughter. Even Gabe breaks his mean face and starts laughing. He comes closer to Arrian. With his big frame, it looks like the man is coming for a punch, but instead he puts he big arm around the half-orc. The two large men barely keep their balance, looking like two drunkards.
He says to Arrian "Ooof, thank Desna for Ameiko, I was starting to think I'd have to fist fight you! Next round's on me, hey Bethana, bring my friends here a jug!"
Meanwhile, the other patrons start their own attempts at rhymes, most of them bad. But the general mood is suddenly very cheerful, as if suddenly everyone was drunk.
Arrian looks more than eager for a fight from Gabe but is surprised when the old bard puts his armor around him instead.
"Thanks for the round. Cayden would heartily approve of such a gesture. I'll drink to your health!"
Brodert says "This Sower priest sounds interesting. Yes, you should ask him too! Now, about this runewell. I hate to admit it, but... I have no idea how to deactivate it. Did you find anything in your travels?"
Donimah steeples her hands over her face and breathes pensively through her nose.
"That's the rub, of course," she admits. "At the moment, the only solution that presents itself seems to be repeatedly using it until its magical energies are completely exhausted, rendering it just a fancy hole full of water. Its demonic guardian seemed very cautious to draw on its power for fear of draining it dry. But obviously that's a risky approach, since it'd just conjure more sinspawn that I likely wouldn't be able to control. I may be arrogant, but I know my limits, and these are creatures of wrath, not...greed...Ancestors alive, putting it like that makes me seem like a two-bit stage villain."
She casts spells to detect and read magic in the chamber, and begins looking over the runewell in detail, making sketches and rubbings and cross-referencing them with Thassilonian diagrams in her grimoire to try and truly understand the magic she was dealing with here.
"Don't be openly greedy, we already got a reward didn't we?"
Zeldrith grimaces. "I'm sorry - I'm not trying to be greedy, it's just that, well, Mr. Scarnetti... look, I'll talk with you about it later."
As the mood in the tavern settles down, however, Zeldrith perks up, and after a few more drinks, he starts regaling the tavern with various tall tales from his mercenary days.
He settles on an old favorite of his, a yarn where he and his friend Zenvir killed a Chernasado Ranger by getting too drunk for the archer to aim at them. After a few minutes entertaining the bar patrons with his fabricated tale, he drains the last of his own mug, grinning. "...after all, how could that archer know where we were going to be if we didn't know where we were going to be?"
Gabe slaps Arrian on the chest and they drink together.
After a while, Zeldrith shows Cayden Cailean's spirit as he gets up and tells a drunken tale about a time when he was drunk. Most of the patrons roar in laughter and the night goes on...
Meanwhile, Donimah is having a serious conversation with Brodert while Ano watches.
This artifact works by absorbing the soul of a wrathful creature that has died within a mile of it. As it does so, it gains power. There is no limit to how much power it can hold, but if it reaches 0, it deactivates, but not destroyed. You estimate that it can create two more sinspawn before deactivating.
It makes a lot of sense to think that the goblin raid on Sandpoint had the intention to feed wrathful souls to it by having goblins die over the town. It probably was a plot put together by Nualia and Elyrium.
The next morning has some peaceful light rain coming down.
Ethan turns in relatively early, graciously accepting whatever accommodations are offered. He rises with the first light of dawn, says his morning prayers, washes, and dresses.
He makes his bed, and then heads down to the kitchen. "Good morning, friends," he says to the kitchen staff, and then proceeds to help getting the morning's work completed. He does whatever is needed, chopping wood, kindling fires in the ovens, emptying slop buckets, and the like.
After eating the delicious stew and drinking the ale the group received as their 'prize' for winning the rhyming competition, Arrian returns to The Hagfish to catch up on chores and pester Jargie with tales of the group's accomplishments.
The group returns to Thistletop with a plan in mind. The light rain continues on with no indication that it will stop, but also no indication that it will intensify. Inside Nettlewood, the drops can't be felt, but the peaceful sensation is still there.
Ethan, having been inside the woods for the first time, notices that the small forest is very dense, with treacherous thorns. Big animals are seldom to be seen here, and the only predators is the group of heroes itself.
The group follows the entrance to the goblin hidden path that leads to the natural wall that can be raised. Once they go through the wall, the raindrops can be felt again.
You hear a goblin's voice. Whoever it is, they seem to be screaming at someone.
You can make out the intonation well, and it's more like instructions being conveyed in a very aggressive form.
Arrian holds up his hand to signal for the group to stop. He whispers, "Goblin. Giving instructions in a very aggressive form."
"Confirming that here."
Meanwhile, Donimah is having a serious conversation with Brodert while Ano watches.
Despite Donimah's best efforts, the power and finesse of an artifact this ancient is beyond her ken, even with Brodert's help. It was clear she was out of her depth with the runewell.
She closes her grimoire with a sigh.
"It is getting late. We'll have to come back to this later, I think. At the very least, without murderous cultists and demons riling it up, it should stay quiet until we can find more information elsewhere."
She leads Brodert and Ano back topside and they reunite with the rest of the crew at the Rusty Dragon.
"Looks like you've had a fun evening," she comments. She asks Ameiko for some food and drink.
"Good night, Brodert."
She brings her dinner up to her room to eat it before retiring for the night.
The group returns to Thistletop with a plan in mind. The light rain continues on with no indication that it will stop, but also no indication that it will intensify. Inside Nettlewood, the drops can't be felt, but the peaceful sensation is still there.
Ethan, having been inside the woods for the first time, notices that the small forest is very dense, with treacherous thorns. Big animals are seldom to be seen here, and the only predators is the group of heroes itself.
The group follows the entrance to the goblin hidden path that leads to the natural wall that can be raised. Once they go through the wall, the raindrops can be felt again.
Despite her late night, Donimah is up and ready to go when her friends reconvene in the morning, though her grim expression and dark circles under her eyes tell the world her patience will be thin.
Once they return to the outskirts of Thistletop, she listens with the others.
Still waking up, the yelling described by the others is indistinct noise to her, but she gives Arrian and Juriya a respectful nod.
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Brodert is visibly upset that Donimah said to go to bed. He reminds the two women of a child being told to go to sleep in the middle of their favorite playtime.
As the group stops and listens, the instructions continue. Juriya can make out someone trying to make their students (?) meditate. They are not having a good time.
Ano is relieved to be out of the catacombs. Once they head to the Rusty Dragon, she immediately bids them all good night and retires to her room, not even eating any dinner.
“Ano?”” Cherry asked, fluttering next to the catfolk as she prepares to sleep, “What’s wrong?”
“After everything that’s happened, it would be easier to say what isn’t wrong. I just want to sleep. You can join the others if you want, but as for me? Good night.” Ano’s words were a little more venomous than she anticipated, but she truly was done with everything and wanted nothing more than a peaceful sleep.
Too bad the peaceful sleep wouldn’t come. Only memories replaying as nightmares.
“Do we really have to go back here?” Cherry asked the others, anxiously shaking while perched on Ano’s shoulders.
“We won’t be here long,” Ano told her familiar, “Now please, keep quiet.”
Ano’s ears flatten with anticipation as she hears the commotion with the others. Her hand rests on the handle of her rapier, waiting for any confrontation to happen.
"yep, definitely a druid alright. maybe even a salvageable one. trying to get them to meditate, haha, not going well
As you approach slowly, you notice that it is indeed Gogmurt trying to teach basic druidism to a bunch of goblins. They are having trouble sitting in a fixed spot. However, they are too scared to get up. Looking for a reason for this points to a large angry purple cat next to Gogmurt who looks (purposely) hungry.
The goblins have apparently not noticed you yet.
“Someone has to go talk to him,” Ano whispered, ”Someone who won’t cause a panic.”
”It has to be someone small, nonthreatening, someone who looks like they can go right up to a druid without causing a commotion.” Cherry commented, pondering on which of them fits that criteria most.
"But who?"
"I can disguise myself, if necessary," Juriya adds. "Either a fox form or some other form. I can't talk in my fox form though"
"You could do it, little bird," Ethan whispers to Cherry in an encouraging tone. "I doubt the goblins would think much of a bird flying in to talk to a druid, and you're too small and agile to be caught by one of them. It is up to you, of course."
"Last time Cherry tried to scout, Tsuto Kaijitsu nearly killed him," Donimah whispers back.
"how about the both of us go, i can shift forms back if things go south?"
Arrian nods and readies his weapon and shield - just in case things go poorly.
Ano looks completely flabbergasted by the suggestion, but before she can snarl at Ethan, Cherry chirps, ”If Juriya goes with me, then I guess that will be okay. You ready, Juriya?”
The catfolk is stunned by her friend’s words…but stays quiet.
"Yeah. I don't think it'll be that weird seeing a fox and a bird going up to a druid," she says as she prepares the magic. "So it should be fine. If you hear a blood-curdling yip, rush over. Unless you want me to take another form since I know Goblin, but I'm worried I'll screw that up. Or that my voice will give me away."
She then shifts into her fox form, hoping that no-one knows enough about Kitsune to know it's her. Granted, she could have gone in the appearance of a Goblin, but she knows she'll f$@~ that up.
Cherry perched on top of Juryia’s head as she walked out. Once they were close, the bird chirped, “Um, Gogmurt, is it?”
Ano’s eyes glared at Gogmurt from the bushes, hand gripping the handle of her rapier.
Juriya says nothing, since she can't speak in this form, she just tries to act as fox-like as possible.
Juriya sees that all 10 goblin students all look at her and Cherry. Between her and the sitting students, Gogmurt is standing next to a hungry big cat. Both the druid and his cat don't look back, but the cat's ears move sideways. The cat looks at its master with sad eyes, but Gogmurt doesn't move. It's as if Gogmurt already knew you were here.
The goblins seem confused to see a fox and a bird, especially with the bird talking. However, they all get up, eager to have some fun, and stop this boring class. Gogmurt first barks something to the goblins. Those who speak goblin understand that he used one of the many goblin words to order them so settle down. He slowly turns and says "Well, well, well..." His face is that of mischief.
However, when he sees a fox and a bird, he is completely surprised. He stays quiet for a few moments and says "What's going on?" His pose of superiority is completely broken by the confusion.
Donimah looks to the others, the question clear in her eyes: Do we step out and reveal ourselves?
Donimah looks to the others, the question clear in her eyes: Do we step out and reveal ourselves?
Arrian returns Donimah's look and shakes his head slightly while also edging closer in case intervention is necessary.
The bird chirps, “Well, the Sandpoint Saviors are back. Not to attack anyone, but because they want to know more about what’s in the lowest level of Thistletop. Is there any way we can go by without problems?”