Journal 27: A Brand New Day

General Summary

From the quarry...

As the team learns a little about Wren and tries to figure out a plan, they meet Bryant Branford. He is, for the lack of better words, the town accountant (or 'Money wizard', as Naiur prefers to call him). He tells us that there actually are no orcs, and that the kidnapping is nothing more than a facade. Maybe. It might be that the mayor's son is just trying to escape. His words don't seem to exactly flow true, as it seems he is keeping something back. He offers us more money to just leave. Naiur extorts the man a little. We tell the mayor of Bryant's offer (1000 gold!), who then angrily goes looking for Bryant. The townspeople seem malnourished and impoverished. When questioned, it turns out they haven't eaten in days, because the mines are closed and they can't work.   It turns out there are two mines in Respit's Quarry. We talk to the foremen of the mines: Cadman (of the Alabaster mine) and Gilthur (of the iron mines). After some banter, Naiur thinks Gilthur insults him and attacks. Gilthur gets brutally murdered. After the rest of the party recovers of this sudden, inappropriate display of violence, they thell Naiur to stuff it and stop murdering people. Naiur shows some remorse because Gilthur didn't insult him, and thus murdered a man for no good reason. He forfeits his reward money as penance to the mayor. The mayor is shocked, but doesn't seem to be in a position to do anything about it.    

...Into the mine.

We enter the (iron) mine. After exploring them a little and following the directions Gilthur gave us before getting killed, we find the cave-in where the workers and the mayor's son are trapped. Rael talks with some rats by using his Druidic powers, and learns of Totec, the Rat King. We enter the cave-in. Rael turns into a giant squid and tentacles a patrolling orc. Following the cave, we find more orcs, plus Manford, the mayor's son. He is unharmed and not bound!   We fight the orcs, and manage to dispose of them. Manford is weird, won't speak plainly and knows more than he lets on. There is obviously something strange going on. Manford states that he is done with the futility of it all, with the war. Because he won't explain anything in a way that we like, we tie him up.   The cave with the now ex-orcs also contains a giant door, shaped like a coin. The center contains a skull engraving, with candles for eye sockets. By lighting these (with magic) we manage to get the mouth of the skull open.