Yep. A month gap doesn't bode well though.
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How's it going, GM Dickie? My computer is on its last legs, too. Backing up and shopping for a new one :(
"We sure appreciate all the history and the delicious food, Bassy. Hey, if you're interested, we've got a plaque from the dungeon you might like for your collection- big piece of bronze embossed with a rooster over crossed spears. I bet that's the Canteclures crest, huh? That reminds me, there was a mechanical man down in the dungeon that obeyed whoever had that crest. Anyway, if you're interested, maybe we could trade you that crest for a potion of healing?" "I'm not too worried about the kobolds, but having a potion like that might be handy in a pinch if we're fighting dire wolves and mysterious batmen as well."
Xylas grimaces a little. "Aside from that smith, folks have been friendly enough. We'll see if we can work things out with the kobolds. Could be as easy as a change of leadership. Hearing about the Canteclures just now, that sort of thing sounds like a problem we big folk run into as well." "Just so I get my facts straight: Lady Tula founded the town here, then somehow the Canteclures took over and now it's the Devys running the place. How is power passed along in Belhaim? Are the Barons appointed or is it another system?" "Oh, and Bumolin heard some stories from the folks on the northside about a flying Batman or something. You ever hear anything about that? Not sure if it's related to the giant wolf reported up there. It does sound like a lot is going on around here."
Xylas looks around with interest at Bassy's collection, but the smell of hot sausage focuses his attention. "I am feeling a bit hungry, Bassy. Much obliged. Well, other than a creepy dungeon with the restless spirits of forgotten victims and that devil bird, we found Hunclay's corpse- killed in the collapse apparently- and a pair of kobolds that reported Hunclay had hired their tribe to destroy the tower. They said the current chief made sure Hunclay was under the tower when it fell and was angling to take on the town as well. Those kobolds headed out and I think we need to have some words at least with their chief."
"Well, I do appreciate your service to the community and the advice the Archbanker gave me earlier. Ya mind if I leave a donation in appreciation?" Xylas gives two gold coins as an offering.
Xylas waves down the acolyte they were speaking with before. "Hey. I forgot to ask about the dead body we dropped off yesterday, Hunclay. What did you all end up doing with it. No problems, I hope."
"Sure. We'll take the scenic route to Bassy's place and stop by the Abadarans again."
"Actually there was the one of the wizard, but Thorfinn and Xylas took care of that..." "Right, that wizard Hunclay. I totally forgot to ask the Abadarans about that when we were just there. Why didn't you remind me, Thorfinn? You'd think that I was the one that got bashed on the head."
Xylas sighs. "You're vastly overestimating my education, Bumolin. Father Eddrin made sure I had an education that Erastil would approve of- practical skills like hunting and planting and taking care of the horses. All I know about monsters and such came from tall tales around the Inn's hearth. It was Bassy that hinted that the mean bird could be a devil and the Abadarian that told us about using silver and blessed weapons against it." He shrugs, "From what I've heard, batwings might mean a devil, but don't they usually have hooves or reptilian feet. Not sure what pawed batmen might mean."
"How did your shopping go? Xylas gestures at the side of Thorfinn's face that remains discolored from half-healed bruising. "weelll, Thorfinn got a close inspection of a shield and decided it wasn't for him. Seriously, that blacksmith is awful. So no sale there. We did find that the Abadar market will give us a discount if we have a written recommendation from the Baroness. So raincheck there. Not a lot of buying today. We have maybe identified that bad bird as an imp, minor devil. So that's something, and we have an invitation to dinner. Our host seems quite free with her healing potions so I recommend accepting."
Xylas leads the way inside and his sharp eyes quickly spot his companions in the dim dive. He looks a bit confused as he approaches. "I thought y'all were heading to the outskirts. Have you been in this bar all day?"
"That's a bit of a relief that they can't possess you. I suppose if it could, it would have tried that already. Silver, ya say. Don't happen to have any silver arrows, do ya? I think I have enough to cover that. If not, we'll be back some time with a note from the Baroness regarding our authenticity so to speak. Appreciate your forthrightness, Archbanker." he nods and gives a winning grin.
I'm sure we can get Lady Deva to write us a note, if that works?" "Yes, we have an imp situation: talking black bird that haunts our steps and tries to make outlandish deals like hurting ourselves for information. It escaped when we were exploring the Witch Tower. I was mostly just annoyed until your acolyte mentioned possessions. Do you have any advice on sending the little monster back to the Hells?"
Xylas nods, "Noted. Is there a discount on goods as well? Old Deadeye supplies me with a bit of services, but I'm still working on my spellcraft and maybe a scroll or potion with a little extra could help me help my friends here."
Xylas looks sheepish at the jokes that he takes as directed at him. "Did I say goblins, maybe it was kobolds? I seem to be confusing the two. Nevermind. No immediate danger anyway. If you have a couple healing potions or something that would let me heal up Thorfinn when he gets his usual scrapes, I'd be interested in that." He looks alarmed at the last bit. "Imps can do that? That's not good. Yes, I'd like to talk to the Archbanker then!"
Xylas grins. "Howdy. We're new to town here and could probably use a safe place to keep our money while we're in and out of town. Also, wondered what type of equipment you might have for sale here. Something that might help with clearing off goblin swarms and giant wolves and such." "I'm Xylas. This is Thorfinn and Aleksara by the way. Also, if you have something to get rid of imps. That would be helpful."
Xylas grins. "Howdy. We're new to town here and could probably use a safe place to keep our money while we're in and out of town. Also, wondered what type of equipment you might have for sale here. Something that might help with clearing off goblin swarms and giant wolves and such."
remind me what the factions are again. also, is that really supposed to be a +7 crossbow at the Abadarites?
"I guess that's an imp then. I heard they're like a baby devil or something. Never heard of a whatsit. Sure, we'll be by later. I wanted to go by the Temple of Abadar and see what they've got to offer first. It'd be nice if they had some kind of devil repellent."
Xylas thinks. "I don't recall if it gave us odds, but sounds like something it would do. Oh, and it can vanish from sight, too."
"No!" Bassy says with a laugh. "But I am someone who has been around the block a few times and knows how to be prepared for the unexpected. Anyway, come by for dinner, bring your friends." "Sure. We'll do that. Hey, can I ask you something seeing as you've been around- did you notice that crow up there watching? We found it under the Witch Tower. It talks and says awful things. I know it ain't no normal bird, but not sure what it could be. You got any ideas?"
Xylas rushes to his companion's side. "Thorfinn!Ill luck and I'll bet that crow was behind it. Are you a priest?" he asks the gnome.
"That was first blood, you lying snake." Xylas reminds the smith. "May Erastil bless the just, Thorfin," he encourages casting bless on his ally.
I sent JW a PM. Sometimes the activity counter switches off so maybe it's not apparent that there are new posts.
Thorfinn's player is around. You just have to keep adding posts now and again to let him know we're waiting for him in game. He's trying it, Thorfinn : )
"I'm Xylas. Well, in this case, Agham, the rumors weren't far off. Yes, we did see a ghost in the dungeons, but we were able to see his soul off to the afterlife. Erastil be thanked," Xylas taps the round of elk horn with a bow and arrow carved on one side and a bull's eye on the other. "Master Chance might be a good smith, but he's not a good person. An apprentice ought to respect his master, but it needs to go the other way around, too." Xylas' attention is drawn to the crow. "Why that little-"
Xylas smiles certain that the cruel smith is going to get his comeuppance. He sidles over to the kid and speaks to him in a low voice, "What's your name, friend? He can't be paying you enough to put up with his bullying."
I wouldn't call it a major blunder since we don't know any better. Xylas was actually thinking that they might need to bring another blacksmith into town bc this guy is really asking for a thrashing and there would go our weapons hookup
Xylas laughs out loud. "What's the scabbard supposed to do? You must not expect it to do much if you think a kid with a mop is going to help Thorfinn test the worthiness of your wares. You're a big guy, why don't you grab a real weapon and give him enough of a challenge to see if it actually does anything?"
Porcine actually means resembling a pig soooo... could be guinea pigs or whistle pigs or maybe a hippo? orrrr a tyrannosaurus rex in a pig costume! ; )
Xylas gives Thorfinn a quizzical look.
Xylas doesn't approve of the bullying behavior of the smith, but leaves things to Thorfinn for now.
Xylas hears the offense in Bumolin's voice. "Your people are quite different from how most would imagine the dwarves. I'd like to hear more about them sometime. I agree that both the wolves and kobolds are dangers to the community. I guess, I'm thinking that we deal with the kobolds first since they've already murdered at least one of the villagers and it sounds like Roaghaz is on the war path. Maybe he's just a bad apple and we can work with the other kobolds as the Baroness said. Maybe not." "I don't discount the wolves though. They've only been preying on livestock so far, but it's only a matter of time before a villager is hurt or killed. I'm glad your talking to them, Bumolin. Tell them to be careful and we'll be hunting the big wolf soon." He turns to Vanaira, "I don't know too much about magic, but I hear magic wands and staffs can boost a wizard's power so I'll keep an eye out for those. Meanwhile, off to the Smithy to get something pointier for Thorfinn. We've got a pair of fancy daggers we found. I was going to keep them as souvenirs, but might be useful for someone with more practice to use one."
So with the reward and liquid assets (I'm not counting the 4000 silver and nearly 20,000 copper pieces bc that would take a work crew to bring up), we've got 1,656 gp, two mithril daggers, and a 100gp plaque. That's 552 gp apiece for the original three. I think the newcomers got extra starting gold so I don't feel the need to share : ) Seeing that it's a wand of cure Moderate wounds at Abadar's temple, I don't think we can afford anything there. Is that a +7 crossbow?
Once outside, Xylas looks to his companions. "I think that we can put off the kobolds until tomorrow. Bumolin wanted to talk to the farmers about the wolves and I wanted to see about the other body that we dropped off at the Temple of Abadar. We ought to get to know the community a bit better seeing as we're likely to be here a bit longer than expected. Anyone is welcome to join me or just go recover from a hangover, " he shrugs.
"The kobold said east of the fen, near the old quarry."
Xylas nods. "That's right. She did say that. I guess I need to get better oriented. Is the old quarry near Hunclay's Manor, Baroness?"
Xylas shakes his head. "Hunclay was employing the kobolds until they betrayed him and we saw one tunnel under the Witch Tower that lookd to be heading back to the manor. Might not just be kobolds Hunclay was consorting with, too. That nasty talking crow certainly wasn't a normal animal. Now I'm thinking that it could have been a little devil seeing that Hunclay was rumored to be friendly with fiends as well. We definitely need to get to the bottom of all this."
"From what we were told, Roaghaz timed the falling of the tower to hurt townsfolk. I'm not negotiating with him, but there's another kobold named Nighttail that is his rival and I'd consider talking with her if we come upon her first." "Sounds like the kobold are holing up in Hunclay's Manor. I'm for heading in there sooner rather than later, but we should take a day maybe to get our bearings and prepare."
"That's what I'm here for," Xylas says cheerily. "I'd have a lot to explain to Old Deadeye if I turned my back on a community in need."
I guess that I should have explained better. I had a GM that would allow us to do several rooms simultaneously by posting a header for each room if it wasn't anything too important. I intended to continue the breakfast discussion while pushing ahead with the baroness discussion.
"Kobolds huh?" "Probably got a whole tribe near here then. Kobolds aren't usually a solitary kind. They group together and live tribal..." "You seem to know a lot about these critters. Well, if you're interested, I don't see why you shouldn't come along as well."
Xylas nods. "Probably not a bad idea to keep folks away from Hunclay's place. Hunclay may be dead, but some of his dangerous little former friends sure ain't. We need to discuss that with the Baroness."
Seeing that they're just getting down to business, Xylas fills the Lady in. "Good morning, Baroness. Oh yeah, we found out a fair bit. I can spin the longer yarn, but just for the quick version now- besides Hunclay, we found a couple long dead folks tortured and trapped in that dungeon some time ago, I reckon. I do have some questions about who it was built that tower and for what purpose." "We also caught one of those kobold down there that was still kicking and were able to question it. Seems Hunclay had a kettle of kobold, er, what do you call a group of those things, Bumolin? Well, a bunch of them working for him undermining the tower so it would come down. One of the kobold, a sneaky one named Roaghaz tricked Hunclay into going under the tower just before it fell and Hunclay was killed in the collapse. Sounds like that Roaghaz is in charge now and fixing for a fight."
Ritti's eyes go a bit wide. "Like a real baroness baroness? I've never seen one of those! Do you mind if I tag along? ..." "So we were told. I don't see why not," Xylas shrugs.
Xylas returns from the kitchen. "Everyone is OK. Talia is going to need a moment to cleanup before she can bring anything else out. What's that, Bumolin? Yeah, Hunclay was killed in the tower collapse yesterday. His remains are at the Temple of Abadar at the moment. We need to report to the Baroness about what we found yesterday, if you want to know more, I guess you could come along."
Xylas' attention is very much on the kitchen. "Everyone OK, back there?" he calls and heads back to check, not even noticing the creeping kid.
Loot Tally so far: 2 mithral daggers 18,500 copper, (185gp)
Did i miss a couple things? I seem to recall another key and a plaque.
Righto, chief! I'll hunt that down... Welcome all! and since at least one of you is into hunting, how about hunting down some out of line wolves. : )
Xylas looks alarmed at the mention of wolves preying on the outlying farms. "That definitely sounds like something we need to deal with. Maybe we can find a couple other folks to join our hunting party." "But before that, seems we're due to report to the deputy and the town leadership."
Xylas greets Bumolin, "Good morning. Hope you didn't get too wet out there." The elf has let his long years working at his father's inn take hold and has been helping to clear the tables as folks finish up. "Get some breakfast if you haven't eaten. The strawberry jam is delicious. Then we should go report to Lady Origena and see about the dead at the Temple."
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