Session 59

General Summary

• Biz got Grogery to enlist the help of some clerics from the church of Pelor, to assist the surgery patients in their recovery, and then marched off without letting the party assist.
• While waiting for the clerics, the party did some more research and investigation:
• Dazki shared the details of the book that he found when searching for something that might help Barry.
• Dazki then looked for more details about the author, Finnigan Perry, while Grogery was able to shine some light on the historical context.
• Kesmet found some useful info about dealing with lycanthropes. He will be more adept at detecting them in the future, sometimes even before they transform (depending on the moon phase).
• Once the clerics arrived at the House of Crystal, the party had a chat with Fitz, one of the members of the House. Fitz offhandedly mentioned that one of the patients had been "stoned" (turned to stone) in order to stop them from bleeding out, which turned the chat into more of an argument.
• Grogery and another cleric of Pelor disapproved of this "stoning". While the clerics surely can reverse the process, it's not cheap (100gp and a 5th level spell slot per person), and it would have been unnecessary if they had waited for the clerics to arrive before starting.
• Dwardazik attempted to use GIST to get in contact with Biz or one of his assistants, with no success, so he went back to doing research about the Rubymist clan:
• Some other clans have also broken ties with the Rubymists, but the primary reason for it seems to always just be that their druidic magic is "creepy as fuck".
• The feud between Dwardazik's clan and the Rubymists actually seems to go back further than he thought. If anything, recent events such as the mine collapse may have actually improved their relations with one another, though the source of that information believes that the peace will not last.
• During the argument, Dazki had managed to slip away behind an arcane lock. Only he knows exactly what happened back there, but he ultimately returned with an intern from the House of Crystal, saying that it was fine to send the clerics back there.
• The party left the House of Crystal to check on Rosalin, after getting the other clerics of Pelor to promise Grogery that they would observe the surgeries and contact him if needed.
• The House of Gold was closed to the public pending investigations, but Gilda was available outside. Dazki offered sanctuary for Rosalin up north with his people, and he gave her the address of The Party's Estate where the party is staying in case something else comes up.
• The party intended to go to the House of Steel to talk with Sorda'an about next steps, but Gilda intercepted them, saying that it would be suicide to go there now:
• Sorda'an's son, the one who was mentioned in the blackmail documents, passed away shortly after Baxton was killed.
• The son was mysteriously poisoned a while back. Sorda'an had tried to cover it up, in order to find out who had done it, but he waited too long. It seems like the only hope was a mysterious "doctor", who was connected to Baxton.
• Apparently, this gave Baxton leverage over Sorda'an: if anything should happen to Baxton, then he would lose his son.
• So since the party are the ones who killed Baxton, Sorda'an's immediate reaction is to blame them.
• Gilda has also been researching this "doctor", enough to find out that the townspeople call him "the Flesh Artist".

 

Full Recap

The session opens with the party in a room inside the House of Crystal with Biz Abrak and Sol DeWork.  

Come On, It's Not Brain Surgery

Biz: OK, so, are you gonna do surgery, or what?   Dwardazik: If we're doin' surgery, we should have Grogery with us, and I would like to observe as well, but I'm more interested --   Biz: That's not doin' surgery, that's just watchin' surgery. We don't got time for people to watch surgery!   Dazki: Well, do you have a doctor who is skilled in surgery?   Biz: Of course I do, but now we can do two at the same time if you guys are also doin' it, right?   Dazki: Well, I don't know how to do surgery, and I don't think anyone else here does either.   Biz: Well, then why am I even talkin' to any of you?! OK, OK. He points his cane at Grogery. Grogery, what are your skillsets? 3 words, go.   Grogery: Heal stuff good.   Biz: OK, OK. He points his cane at Dazki. You, now!   Dazki: Sneak and stab.   Biz: NOT HELPFUL! He points at Dwardazik. You!   Dwardazik: Drink. Get drunk.   Biz: ... ... He points at Kesmet. You, fire man. You!   Kesmet: I... cauterize wounds?   Biz: Great. All right... nope... well... usable stuff! You! He points at Grogery. Send a message to the church of Pelor explaining that they are best qualified for post-operative care, even though Loprair wants nothing to do with Turmoil and the government.   Grogery: Hang on, you want me --   Biz: You! He points at Kesmet. Sol seems to like you! Why don't you calm down Sol DeWork so his handler doesn't own my ass!   Kesmet: ...OK.   Biz: You there! He points at Dazki. If Mr. DeWork says or does ANYTHING, or if the situation changes, you jot ALL OF IT down in that little notebook over there.   Dazki: All right, I did have a thought there with regards to that book I gave you...   Biz: You! He points at Dwardazik. Just... don't break anything.   Dwardazik: Easy enough.   Biz: All right. Assignments. Questions? None? GOOD! I'm off to perform surgery!   Biz bursts past the party through the door of the room, almost bumping into an intern in the hallway holding a cup of coffee. We learn later that the intern's name is Landon.   Landon: Um... sir?   Biz, turning around to point at him: You! Make sure they don't swipe nothin'!   Biz then continues past the hallway past some swinging doors, leaving the party and Landon all dumbfounded by the situation.   Dwardazik: Well, Grogery, what's the plan, then? Do we have any way of messaging the church of Pelor, or are we going to have to send a group out to go talk to them?   Grogery: I can send messages.   Dwardazik: Hummingbird or magic?   Grogery: Hummingbird would probably be best, since I might need more healing magic.   Dwardazik: I suppose we should consider how we should complete these tasks, and if they're even worth doing. Let's at least get that message to Pelor's priests, though, since it sounds like there are many others about to go into surgery.   Dazki: Hey, Kesmet, I have a question.   Kesmet: ...I... have many. What is yours?   Dazki: Can you do anything with time magic?   Kesmet: No. I shoot fire. We've known each other for weeks.   Dazki: Yeah, but you're always coming up with new spells and new ways to use fire. I wasn't sure if you'd developed some of these powers over the last few days or not!   Kesmet: That's fair, I did invent something like fire boots. No, I don't think I can... burn time, or anything.   Dazki: OK, because the book I found mentions that temporal magic is used by the tribes in The Phantasmagoria to stop, or even reverse, Turmoil-related changes to a person.   Dwardazik: How would you do that?   Dazki: Two thoughts, not sure if either is correct. One would be, if the Turmoil actually becomes part of the person, then a possibility might be to reverse time on that person to before the Turmoil was part of them, thus removing the Turmoil. Or, if the Turmoil is not affected by time magic, then one could stop time on the body, then go inside the body to remove the Turmoil object, then healing the body, and then starting time back up on the body again.   Dwardazik: Stopping time on the body? I've never heard of such a thing!   Dazki: There are spells that can stop time for a few brief moments, so a really powerful mage might be able to localize that to one individual for a few minutes. I don't know, but these are just hypotheses of mine. I don't have any real evidence to support them, but I do have an idea about where we can go to find out more.   Dwardazik: Well, it beats standing around.   Dazki: The problem is that it involves a trip of multiple weeks.   Dwardazik: Weeks?! We don't have weeks! If this thing is spreading, it could go through every person that Baxton has touched in the whole city! A third of the city might just fall over dead!   Kesmet: Well, if we get time travel, then the weeks don't really matter, since we can just time travel back to when we were here.   Sol: Or I could always, like, work at night, and then have Sunday off to re-evaluate things?   Kesmet, walking over to Sol: Hey, Sol, buddy, how ya doin? Look, I told you it's the weekend, right?   Sol: It's not Wednesday, and I have the day off, so...   Kesmet: Actually, look, it's not only the weekend, but you're on vacation! Al gave you a vacation, remember? You are off for three months. You don't have to worry about work, at all!   Sol: ...that's why I was on a boat...   Dwardazik: So, we have an issue. We can't travel far enough to talk to this person... it is a person, right?   Dazki: Well, the guy who wrote the book hasn't been seen in nearly two decades, but the tribe that he went to visit is probably still there. They were experimenting with changing and reversing the effects of Turmoil on a mortal body.   Sol: ...that's the only way I would be on a boat, right?   Dazki: Yeah, you were on vacation. On the boat.   Dwardazik: Yeah! Vacation!   Dazki: You went on a fishing trip, you wanted to see how it was. You wanted to try it.   Sol: I like fishing?   Dazki: I don't know if you do or not. You wanted to see if you did.   Dwardazik: So there's no way we could simply contact them to get this information? We'd have to travel there in person?   Dazki: I don't know anyone there, and I don't imagine that any of us would be able to cast a Sending spell to communicate with someone that far away whom we don't know.   Dwardazik: I don't know... first things first, let's get that message to the church of Pelor.   Grogery: I'm putting a message together right now.   Dwardazik: Something along the lines of, "We need the priests of Pelor's assistance in healing the injured from dark magic.", or however it's possible to not say the word "Turmoil". Ugh, that means we have multiple things to worry about, eh? We could try and gather information from this tribe you were talking about, we could try to get in contact with this "healer" in the countryside, or we could come up with some other ingenious solution.   Dazki: We definitely need to pursue the "healer" to stop the Turmoil. We could try to research this author some more to see if we can find any contemporaries of his, anywhere else that he might have left information, or something like that. It seems like he wrote this book, and then he was going to go back to learn more and write more about it, but then he never came back.   Dwardazik walks over to the intern, grabs the coffee, and starts drinking it. The drink is incredibly sweet.   Dwardazik: BLEH. Tastes like elf juice. You want this, Dazki?   Dazki: Sorry, I'm not much of a coffee drinker. I generally prefer tea.   Dwardazik: Well... it's no good to waste something, even if it does taste like... candy.   Grogery: OK, guys, how does a message like this sound: "Many sick people in House of Crystal, need help with injuries, surgery. Annu was demoted, Abrak runs House now. Can the church send help?"   Dwardazik: It's definitely informative. Sounds good to me.   Dazki: Sounds reasonable to me.   Grogery: OK. He sends out the hummingbird.   Dwardazik: How long does it take for the bird to get back, again?   Dazki: Just a few minutes.   Dwardazik: Let's go back to the library to see if we can find out more information about this.   Grogery: Don't we need to keep an eye on Sol?   Dwardazik: Sol, we're lookin' for more information on curing some injuries. You wanna go to the library with us and do some research?   Sol: I can't do any research. I am on vacation.   Dazki: What if you do research for one of the hobbies you have? Personal research, not work-related.   Sol: Like fishing? I think I fish now. I think I'm a fishing guy.   Dazki: Yeah, sure! If you want to research about fishing, you can research that in the library with us.   Dwardazik: I'm sure there's a couple of help books about how to fish better! I know some of the fishers are always talking about what kind of tackle and bait they want to use.   Sol: I think I'm going to sit here and think about fish. I tried to get up just now, and I don't think I moved.   Dazki: Seems fair.   Dwardazik: OK, so how do we proceed, guys? Do we leave Sol alone? Figure out how Biz is doing with his surgery? Sit here and wait for a return message? Are we at all concerned about the trial that we will have to go through eventually?   Grogery: We could wait for a return message.   Dazki: I think right now, we should wait for the message back from the church of Pelor and then see what to do after that.   Dwardazik: Suits me. He sits down. Hey, lads, you any good at playing cards?   Dazki: Yeah. In fact, I've got a deck right here.   Dwardazik: Grogery, Kesmet, you any good?   Grogery: I'm OK.   Dwardazik: All right, coppers only, though. I'm still learnin'.   Dazki: Sure thing.   They play a round... Grogery is out, and Kesmet skipped. It's just Dwardazik and Dazki.   Dwardazik: All right, Dazki. I know you think you got somethin'... but you ain't got nothin!   Dazki: All right, call then!   Dwardazik: Oh, I'm gonna call... and I'm gonna raise you an extra 2 copper pieces, 'cause I know you ain't got nothin!   Dazki: All right, sure, I'm in. Let's see what you've got.   They reveal, and...   Dwardazik: ...what? No one can draw that kind of hand!! You cheated!   Dazki: You don't cheat at cards with friends.   Dwardazik: Grrr... those were my five coppers!   The hummingbird has returned, with a reply message: Alice and I will help those in need, as long as we don't step foot in there. No Adabra (good he's demoted). Light shines through.   Dwardazik: What do they mean by "don't step foot in there". They're not going to walk into the building?   Grogery: That's what it sounds like. Considering what was going on with Baxton...   Dwardazik: So it looks like we have Alice and Isaiah, right? They're going to be assisting us. So, should we meet them?   Grogery: I'm trying to figure this out... it sounds like we'll either have to work something out between them and the House of Crystal, or we'll have to actually bring people to the church?   Dwardazik: It would be easier if they would just come here...   Grogery: It would, but they're being generous enough to help us, and...   Dazki: Hey, intern, do you know where your boss is?   Landon, a little startled: What? Uh... that way? You saw him go!   Dazki: We don't know where he went after he turned the corner. Could you get him a message that the church of Pelor will help if we bring the patients to them, before the surgery?   Landon: Yeah, that's like, a third of my job!   Dazki: OK, could you please go do that then? Quickly now!   Grogery and Dwardazik: Wouldn't it be after surgery, though?   Landon: I'm so confused! I'm gonna have to write this down...   Dazki: I don't want to cart people through the streets if they're cut open and bleeding to death. They can do the surgery there.   Landon: They have a whole cool setup back there...   Dwardazik: We need to get these priests in here. Grogery, they trust you.   Landon: I can just go tell 'em and you guys can go?   Dwardazik: I've had it with this! Show me where Biz is.   Landon: Well, it says "Employees Only", so, you can't really go back there, so...   Dwardazik: Oh, really? Are you gonna stop me?   Kesmet: Well, we're supposed to be helping, so we're technically kind-of employees?   Landon: I don't, like, make or enforce the rules here. I'm just the intern... like, why would you think I would have any authority? So...   Dazki: If you don't enforce the rules, then I'm just going to walk on over there.   Dwardazik: Sol, we'll be back. Stay safe.   Dwardazik and the others follow Dazki, to the doors that Biz went through. The doors are arcane locked.   Dazki: ...ah. Of course.   Dwardazik: Damn!   Kesmet looks at the door with an "I'm going to cast Dispel Magic on that arcane lock" kind of look on his face.   Dwardazik: Kesmet, I see that look on your face right now. I don't know what you're thinkin', but we probably shouldn't cause any scenes.   Kesmet: All right, fine. Oh no, we can't get through here!   Landon: I mean, I'll send 'em all the messages! They pretty much have all the stuff under control, though. I don't even know why you have to be here. I mean, no offense... please don't tell my boss!   Dwardazik: Listen, lad. I think it's time you be quiet. He immediately does. Now let's go get those priests and see if they'll come with us. Maybe we can convince 'em that with Grogery and us here, folks they trust, they'll come in here to help us deal with the surgery?   Dazki: At the very least, we could send them a message asking them to meet us outside the House of Crystal.   Dwardazik: Let's do that. Let's send that and then let's go outside to try to get some fresh air. This place doesn't feel like real tunnels.   Landon: Like, who are you guys? Why are you even here?   Dwardazik: Did I not tell you to be quiet, lad?   Dazki: Sorry about him. We are independent contractors for Annu.   Landon: What, like, advisors?   Dazki: Yeah, advisors. That's a good way of putting it.   Landon: Well, Annu doesn't really work with the church very well, so, I don't see how any of this is really your problem, beyond the message, you know?   Dazki: Well, it's part of our problem because Sol right here is a friend of ours.   Dwardazik: Are you tellin' us what is and what isn't our problem? He takes a step towards the intern, and the intern takes a step back. Just who are you, anyway?   Landon: Uh... um...   Dwardazik: And what do you know about the church of Pelor anyway?   Landon just stammers more.   Dwardazik: And why do you know about Annu?   Landon: Well, he...   Dwardazik: You think you've got all these answers? So how do we stop the Turmoil, huh? How do we stop the Firelord from being pissed off, huh?   Landon: The... I mean, the guys back there... um... the... hmm...   Dwardazik: Lad, go get another coffee, and bring it to Sol, all right? You're wasting our time here.   Kesmet: Maybe we should stick with water for now?   Landon: I really think that... you guys should go? Yeah...   Dwardazik: Let's go outside and meet the priests, and ensure that they get here without issues. Then we can decide if we want to try to figure out what's goin' on with that priest.   Landon: Yeah, that's right, you guys... you can't... you're not allowed to bully me, and...   Dwardazik: I swear, lad. You are one step away...   Landon: ...and my mom says you should stand up to bullies...   Grogery: Hang on, what the heck is going on here? I've just been trying to pen out my response since we have such a limited number of words, and now I overhear that you're bullying this guy?   Dazki: I was trying to come up with one too, but it sounds like you got yours done first.   Dwardazik: Lad. Listen to me carefully. Go get Sol some water, some coffee, or whatever it is you do, because we have other things to do, and you're wasting our time. Good? Good. Conversation over.   Landon seems a bit dumbfounded, but he does wander off.   Grogery: Does this sound like a good message: "It’d be best if you could come inside – these people aren’t easily moved. What arrangements would help you feel safer, your path brighter?"   Dazki: I'm good with that.   Dwardazik: I say we go outside and get some fresh air.   Grogery: We can't leave Sol unattended.   Dwardazik: What do you mean we can't leave Sol unattended?   Grogery: We just sent that intern off to get coffee, for one thing.   They discuss strategy for a bit.   Dazki: Unrelated, Dwardazik, do you think there's anywhere in town where we could negotiate a decent prices on trade bars?   Dwardazik: What kind of bars?   Dazki: Bars of metals, things like that. We came across a fair bit of money recently, and I don't feel comfortable having all of that in coin.   Dwardazik: Oh, of course!   Dazki: So I think trade bars would be a much more appropriate way to carry our wealth.   Dwardazik: I think it would absolutely be possible. The Dwarven district would also be able to enforce the quality and everything else! I'm sure we could go over there and contact some lads... of course, we could try the trade district to trade for it, though I would be concerned we might not get a good deal.   Dazki: OK, we should look into doing that over the next couple of days, then.   Dwardazik: Yeah, I'd be happy to do it right now, if I wasn't tied to Sol's bedroom.   Dazki: Speaking of which, what did you guys purchase while we were wandering around the marketplace?   Dwardazik: Oh, you didn't notice? He shows Dazki his backpack. I had a leatherworker add some more straps to this backpack so I could hold more things in it. Also, he pulls out his warhammer if you take a look at this, you see this strap right here? He lets go of the hammer, and it holds onto his wrist. That way, if someone tries to knock this out of my hand, it won't be so easy. Kinda nice, eh? He swirls the hammer around his wrist a few times, then grabs it again.   Dazki: Yeah!   Dwardazik: Additionally, if you're extra curious, if you take a look here around my waist, I have this extra pouch here, with a whole lot of things I thought might be useful in all these dangerous situations we keep runnin' into. And these two pouches on the side, you might actually find these interesting. He unties one and hands it over to Dazki.   Dazki opens it up and sees that it's a bag of caltrops.   Dazki: Oh, very useful, yeah! He hands it back.   Dwardazik: I wouldn't want to step on one of those in a haste, eh?   Dazki: Nope, not at all. Good thing you have those heavy plate boots so it won't affect your own movement.   Dwardazik: You know I would just run right through 'em anyway.   Dazki: Fair.   Dwardazik: But a sharp point can be quite dangerous, regardless. Anyway, I also picked some buttons, a sewing kit, and some oil (two flasks of that, never know when it'll be useful). I thought since we keep going around to interesting places, I got myself some extra vials, some chalk, and probably my two favorite things I picked up... he pulls out from his pocket a deck of playing cards I saw these over in the market and I thought, well, it could be something interesting to kill some time with, eh? Playing cards, with these nice pickaxes on 'em.   Dazki: Fair enough.   Dwardazik: And the other thing... you might have noticed this lantern I have hanging from the side of my belt on my right side? It's a dwarven lantern. He pulls off the hood, and an extremely bright light shines out.   Dazki: Wow! Very impressive!   Dwardazik: This right here is some of the finest of dwarven engineering. Light will never go out, cool to the touch. He passes it to Dazki.   Dazki: Wow! Is it magic, or...?   Dwardazik: Magical flame.   Dazki: Very impressive. He hands it back. Nothing quite so interesting for me. I got a couple of books, some ink, and I bought a bed and some sheets for back at the house.   Dwardazik: Oh. That... sounds like a good idea.   Grogery: Oh man. A bed would have been such a good idea.   Dwardazik: I am gettin' kinda tired of sleepin' on the floor.   Grogery: I got a quote for some safes, a lot of spell reagents, and a large diamond I can use for a spell.   Dazki: Oh yeah, I did buy a footlocker too. I don't put too much faith in safes, they're really just there to slow people down, or to thwart the casual thief just shopping around who's not really interested in what you have. If someone really wants into a safe, they will get there.   Dwardazik: And how would you keep things safe, Dazki?   Dazki: I'm not saying safes are useless, just that if someone knows what you have in there, and they really want whatever is in it, they are going to try to get into that safe. It'll slow them down, of course, but it won't stop a skilled thief forever. That's all I'm saying: don't rely on it being impervious.   Dwardazik: We could send all our goods to the dwarven vaults of Amber Falls.   Landon is back.   Landon: I wasn't sure if you guys wanted hot water, or cold water, or, uh, room temperature water, so I just brought all of the water... type... temperatures.   Dazki: Well, thank you.   Landon: I can... for... please don't tell my boss!   Dazki: You're doing just fine, kid, you're doing just fine. Don't worry.   Dwardazik grumbles: Rrrgh... warm water...   A reply from Isaiah: The situation is known partly to me. I can send cleric volunteers in the meantime before speaking with Abrak. Don't worry or tell Alice. Thanks.   Dazki: OK, we should go head up to the front entrance to meet the clerics once they get here.   Dwardazik: Listen, lad. You remember what Biz said?   Landon: He told me... not to let you swipe anything?   Dwardazik: He said, specifically, in that room. So you're going to have to go stand in that room and make sure we don't swipe anything. In the meantime, why don't you keep an eye on Sol and make sure he's doin' all right, and get him whatever he wants.   Landon: Umm...   Kesmet: He believes he's on vacation. Lean into that.   Sol: I don't even know if I'm allergic to fish or not... I think I've had fish before...   Dazki: You live in a sea town. I'm sure you've had all kinds of fish. You'll be fine.   Kesmet: And if not, we know of a rather friendly fish merchant on the east side who's usually pretty good with information.

  After much discussion about what to do next, during which the party learns Landon's name and has another message back-and-forth with Isaiah, the party decides to go back to the library to follow through on some of their previous attempts at research, and to wait for the clerics to arrive.  

Booking Some Time for Research

Librarian: Back so soon?   Dazki: I'm looking for information on -   Librarian: Don't tell me, tell the crystal.   Dazki: OK, crystal: books on, or by, Finnigan Perry.   A ton of books light up. He writes a lot.   Dwardazik: Looks like there's an awful lot of choices for this guy. He's quite a writer, eh?   Dazki: Yeah, he's pretty prolific, it seems... let's look for things more recent, or related to the Phantasmagoria?   Dwardazik: What about the date? When was your book written?   Dazki: The one that I found...

  He gives some information about the book, and there's more back-and-forth about the book, which I won't repeat here: throughout the session, Dazki reveals enough of the important points that I'm just going to link to it directly (note the "Read the Document" link on the page to get the text of the book):  

Dazki, to the crystal: Let's try to narrow it down to some of the more recent stuff, anything else related to the Phantasmagoria, and anything you can find about where he or his family last resided? Whether here or at the Capital, since he worked at both universities.   They look around at what's lit up a bit. The bulk of his writings are about ancient ruins, and he seemed to only have gotten into the tribal stuff very recently.   Despite being a family man, it seems that Finnigan moved around a lot and probably didn't spend too much time with his family. His last tenured position was at Hawksfjord University at the Capital, so that's where one might say that his "home" was, but his family didn't live there. The family probably separated at some point. then.   Grogery, chiming in with some historical background: Finnigan is supposed to be an archaeologist, but his problem is that as he researches one topic, he'll find some related thing that he doesn't know about, and then he diverts all his energy to researching that other thing to learn about it. Then he'll usually find some more related topics that he doesn't know about and switch to researching them, going down rabbit hole after rabbit hole.   Looking through the next-most-recent topics, it seems like Finnigan first got onto the topic of the tribes of the Phantasmagoria while researching ruins from before The Serpent War. Those ruins are believed to be something like a staging ground for one of the incursions; they're over by the World Sunder.   Grogery, with some more historical background: The World Sunder is an ancient artifact, a gigantic sword that was used to end the Serpent Wars, skewering the massive serpent that jumped over the wall after an epic combat with a now-deceased Firelord, Hestia. The serpent's body is still pinned in the swamp by the sword, in an ever-decaying state. Nowadays, it's essentially become a feature of the landscape.   Some more background on the Serpent War: During construction of the wall, the Turmoil was getting concentrated on the other side, where the wall hadn't been built yet, along with the tribes. A lot of the tribes started lashing out from being pushed out of their homeland. Though the Turmoil itself couldn't get past the wall even during its construction, things that were made by the Turmoil could still get through or over. Helped by the tribes and the Turmoil itself, a giant serpent did manage to make it over the wall, threatening to destroy everything. The wars ended about 80 years ago.   Dazki gives more information about the book.   Dwardazik: So if we could learn that same information, then we could either use this Turmoil for good, or just get rid of it!   Dazki: Yeah, that's why I'm trying to find any more about Dr. Finnigan, since he's the person who has the most useful information.   Dwardazik: Damn, Dazki, this is brilliant!   Dazki also points out the colleague, mentioned in the book, who was working on time magic. As is typical for Finnigan, he doesn't give this individual's name, and they don't show up in any other works by Finnigan.   Dazki: So I think our best bet, then, when we have time to find out more about him, would be to go to the university and see if anyone there is studying time magic or archaeology who would have known Dr. Finnigan. It's only been 18 years, there's probably been plenty of tenured professors there who would have at least heard of the guy.   Dwardazik: Of course, and if we could find some who worked with him, then all the better!   Dazki: Exactly. Another longer-term goal of ours, then.   Dwardazik, matter-of-factly: If this guy was really learning how to handle Turmoil and stuff, then wouldn't this just be common knowledge throughout all of Exignis?   Dazki: Well, this is just one researcher, it looks like his research isn't finished, and this looks like the only book he actually wrote about it. Besides, the common belief on Turmoil in these parts is "Burn it, burn it fast, burn it hard". So this information probably would not have been well disseminated.   Dwardazik: That's true... maybe it's just 'cause they don't understand it? It seems like these Phantasmagoria tribes understand it significantly better.   Dazki: Yeah. My concern is... that was also Baxton's goal, to understand the Turmoil so that he could control it, and (in his mind) stop it from hurting people. Or at least that's how he started.   Dwardazik: I suppose, but it seemed more like he got possessed by it, and then someone tried to use him to try and kill everyone else.   Dazki: Oh yeah, that's totally what happened. He went a little too far (that's an understatement), but his initial goal seemed to be, learn to control the Turmoil so that I can stop it.   Dwardazik: So what in the world do we do, then? We have a destination: the Capital. Technically, there's roaming Undead that need to be dealt with. There's this "healer", walking across the lands, that we have to investigate. And it's quite dangerous to keep engaging in Turmoil without having a way to handle it.   Dazki: I say we find this "healer", first of all, because we know he's dealing directly in Turmoil, and he's been in towns in the area. So he is our closest lead, and we can go from there once we get all this terrorism stuff cleared up.   Dwardazik: Well, when do you think we should do that? Do you guys have any recommendations? Think we should go sooner, rather than later?   Grogery: Well we need to deal with the immediate thing of helping to heal these people from surgery. It would also be a good idea to check in with some people that we haven't seen in a bit, like Wendi and Tilda, maybe even The Gentlemen's Club? It's been a while since we've seen them.   Dazki: We do have a few things to take care of in the city, first.   Dwardazik, angrily: There's nothing we need to check up on with Wendi, so you can cross that out as complete.   Grogery: What do you mean there's nothing? Don't you think that she's been put through enough with what was going on with Baxton?   Dwardazik: Oh yeah, traitor to her clan, yeah.   Grogery: I don't understand how she was a traitor? She ran with a bad crowd, doesn't everybody do that at least once?   Dwardazik: You don't betray your clan.   Grogery: Don't you think that recent events would have shown her, "wow, you don't have the best judgment with these sorts of things, maybe you should listen to your family a bit more"? I don't know.   Dwardazik: If you think that you can get into Wendi's stupid little head and convince her to stop being dumb, then by all means, go ahead and do it. But the next time I see her, she had better not be trying to sling a spell at my face, or hanging around with a crowd that does. Especially with a crowd of Rubymist traitors!   Grogery: I can see that you feel very strongly about this, and I think it would be a good idea for people to talk to her. At least, make sure she's doing OK.   Dwardazik: I'm sure she's doing FINE. Probably sacrificing babies and flipping over rocks.   Grogery just sighs.   Dazki: Well then, as a good responsible dwarven man, it's your duty to save her!   Dwardazik: It ain't my duty to do NOTHIN' besides tell Tilda where Wendi is, so that she can beat some sense into that damn girl.   Grogery: Aren't you concerned if she's hurt?   Dwardazik: Of course I'm concerned if she's hurt, she's Tilda's younger sister! But that doesn't mean I can ignore the actions she's taken!   Grogery: OK. Well, we need to at least check in with them. I'm thinking of maybe giving Tilda some business.   Dwardazik: I'm sure she'd love that.

Meanwhile, Kesmet has been off doing his own research:

Kesmet: Excuse me, Mr. Crystal?   GIST: Yes, my name is GIST, and I can help you find whatever you need in this library or anywhere else within the House of Crystal! How may I serve you today?   Kesmet: I would like to find a book on how to fight werewolves.   GIST: Oh my gosh, yeah, we have stuff on that all the time!   Kesmet: Anything current?   GIST: There's a lot! Just, y'know, follow these lights and I will show you the way!   As with Dazki's query, way too many books have lit up.   Kesmet: OK, Janet? No response from the crystal. Fine. "GIST"? Hello?   GIST: Oh yes, hello! How has your research on werewolves been?   Kesmet: Well, it's been three seconds. Also, you lit up a LOT of books, so can you help me filter some of them out?   GIST: I can do whatever it is you need! You just say the right words to me, and POOF! All the information you could ever need!   Kesmet: So all these books are about fighting werewolves. Can you de-illuminate all the ones that are under "Fiction"?   GIST: Of course!   Lots of books go dark.   Kesmet: Can you keep only beginner-level books and de-illuminate everything else?   GIST: I'm not really... entirely sure what's... beginner?   Kesmet: Maybe we'll revisit that later, OK, let's try something else. Can you keep only instructional books?   GIST: Oh, you got it! Instructional is A-OK! Gonna get you some hot information on non-fictional werewolf hunting!   Lots of books go dark.   Dwardazik calls from a table where the rest are: Hey Kesmet, once you find your books, come sit down and read with us!

  That filter was good enough for Kesmet to find a book written by Dan Whelan on how to deal with and defeat lycanthropes and more finicky undead characters as well. As he reads, not only does he learn about werewolves, but other kinds of lycanthropes as well (were-jackals, were-rats, etc.). The book mentions that just because some things look like they might be lycanthropes, that doesn't mean that they are. A Kenku, for instance, is not a were-bird. It's just a bird-person.   It gives information on how to tell when you're dealing with a lycanthrope (warning signs, etc.), so Kesmet should have a much better time determining if someone is or is not a lycanthrope in the future, especially if they've already transformed, but you can also tell pre-transformation as well, depending on the moon cycle.  

Dwardazik: Hmm, the moon does have a direct correlation, but those guys we fought, they turned into their werewolf forms after just doing a bunch of drugs, nothing to do with the moon. Where in the world does that come into play?

  Kesmet's book does say that some lycanthropes are capable of performing a simple ritual to transform at will, so it seems that The Hounds Guild uses drugs to amp themselves into the form.   Dwardazik's book isn't quite as helpful. Apparently, the individual will have a tail after transforming, but only if the underlying creature for the transformation has a tail.  

Kesmet: Hmm, would were-tadpoles have tails?   Dwardazik: Were-tadpoles? I don't see that in my section. Is that in your book?

  Grogery looks around for any books on Pelor that he hasn't seen yet. He gets the sense that if there's anything particularly useful that he hasn't heard of yet, it would be more likely to be at the church.  

Dwardazik: Hey Grogery, sorry you couldn't find much on Pelor, but you did help us out a lot on the history of this stuff. I'm surprised at how well-versed you are.   Grogery: I read a lot as a kid.   Dwardazik: To think that the elves... they must have a much better educational system than the lads around here, heh.   Dazki: It depends on what family you're a part of.   Dwardazik: You know what, I don't think I've ever asked! Grogery, what family do you come from, again?   Grogery: The Daointaar family.   Dwardazik: What does that name mean to you, Dazki?   Dazki: They're not royalty, but they're damn close.   Dwardazik: Wait, Grogery, you were with royalty?   Grogery: They're nobility.   Dwardazik: Then, pardon me for saying this because elves seem particularly prude at times, but why did they pick you as a... "guest"?   Grogery: Well, I was orphaned at a rather young age. Theran and his caretakers found me while they were out doing a hunt, and they basically took me in.   Dwardazik: Interesting... does that sound like something they would do, Dazki?   Dazki: I've never met the family, so I don't know for sure, but according to the rumors about them, it's not something that would be common for them to do. However, based on what happened with the gemstone and the dragon and everything, I'm starting to think that those rumors might be a bit overblown, and they might be better people than I've been led to believe. So Grogery, I apologize for comments and assumptions that I may have made about your family in the past. I think I may have been wrong.   Grogery: Well, that's all fine. Just as it's kind of unfortunate that people make remarks about me based on the fact that I'm a goblin, not everybody's immune to that. People get unfortunate remarks about them based on what they are, rather than who they are, all the time. All we can do is work to try to be better people.   Dwardazik: Damn well said! You should be a speaker!

  Once the party is satisfied with this latest round of research, they check up to see if the clerics have arrived. They have.  

A Heal Lot of Trouble

The officials in the House of Crystal are directing the clerics over to stuff. Biz hasn't shown up anywhere yet.   Dwardazik leans in and motions for everyone to lean in closer.

Dwardazik: So... what are we going to do about this trial? Can we even leave the city to investigate this "healer" before we're cleared?   Dazki: It would not look good. We haven't expressly been forbidden from doing it, but it would make us look pretty damn guilty.   Dwardazik: So what are we going to do? Are we going to ask for the trial to be resolved now? What's the deal? Of all the things I can think of, should we not sort this out as soon as possible? And if something should go wrong, then should we have a contingency plan in place to leave the city?   Dazki: Yeah, that's why we were here in the first place, to try to get Sol to talk to Al on our behalf. Since that doesn't seem to be working, then we can either try to help with this, or we can talk to Rosalin and, possibly, Sorda'an.   Dwardazik: Well, the clerics are gonna need time to do their job, so I suggest we go talk to those two, then. Where would Rosalin be, anyway?   Dazki: Last time we saw her, she went with Gilda, so the House of Gold would be the first place I'd look.   Dwardazik: Then let's go to it!   Dazki: Unless Grogery wants to see if he can help the clerics here and we can maybe find out more that way, though that seems kind of like a longshot.   Dwardazik: OK, hear me out, I have a bit of a plan. Grogery is a cleric of Pelor, right? Let's get into one of those surgeries and find out how things are going. If Grogery can assist, then allow Grogery to assist. We'll be able to see how the Turmoil behaves. After that's done, assuming we don't get a better idea from that, then we can leave and go to the next House over to find Rosalin and talk with them. We did say we'd help, and I'm very curious to see if these surgeries are successful or not.   Dazki: I'm good with that.   Grogery: I'm also good with this. I don't think I can be much of a help during the actual surgery, but definitely the recovery afterward.   Dwardazik: All right, then. Let's go over to some of the clerics and ask them for permission to get over there. He stands up. Let's go find those clerics!

  Dwardazik heads over to a cleric.  

Dwardazik: Hail!   Cleric: Light be with you!   Dwardazik: This here is Grogery, a cleric of Pelor. We need to make our way over to where the surgeries are happening. Could you lead us there?   Cleric: Well, they're going to lead us there, but the surgery's not done yet...   Dwardazik: Do you know what timetable they're expecting?   Cleric: I was just asking this chap the same thing!   Dwardazik, turning to the other dude: Excuse me lad, how are the surgeries going? It's been some time now.   Fitz (the other dude, whose name we learn later): It has! They already had to stone one man, we'll see if they can get the second one right.   Dwardazik: WHAT? They had to STONE someone? Explain to me!   Fitz: Yeah, they turned 'em to stone so they would stop bleeding out. Can't bleed if you're stone!   Dwardazik: WHAT? Why, WHAT? We need to get back there! Grogery...   Grogery: It sounds like the surgery wasn't going well, so they turned him to stone so that he wouldn't bleed until they could get -   Fitz: Yeah! And then the clerics, later, they'll just un-stone him and fix all the things! It's perfect!   Dwardazik: If one of the guys is already turned to stone, then shouldn't we get over there, have 'em un-...turned-to-stone... and deal with the healing process then? Clerics seem ready.   Fitz: You've got, like, infinite time once somebody's stoned, my dude!   Dwardazik: We DON'T have infinite time!   Grogery: And it takes pretty potent magic to un-stone people!   Fitz: That's, like, a Greater Restoration, right chief? He turns to the other cleric.   Grogery: Yeah, but that's, like, MONEY.   Cleric: Yes, a Greater Restoration would... all the way to stone, huh?   Fitz: YEAH, like, solid, statue, stone!   Grogery: That takes a lot of resources to undo. It would be much more helpful to...   Cleric: I'm with the goblin, man. That's... you weren't... I didn't even prepare Greater Restoration...   Fitz: I mean, he could have just died. I think stone's a much better alternative!   Grogery: Sure, but this could have been organized so much better. Have a cleric be there, and then when stuff starts going wrong, you heal them immediately, no need to turn them to stone and wait.   Cleric: Oh, I don't want to go there!   Dwardazik: Grogery, we need to get back there. This is ridiculous.   Grogery: Yeah, sounds like they need my help...   Fitz: No-no-no, we got this... it's all good. You clerics are always so paranoid. We haven't lost a single victim PATIENT! We haven't lost a single PATIENT!   Grogery: This is not increasing my confidence in what is going on here!   Dwardazik: I demand to go back there!   Fitz: They all signed the waiver.   Grogery: It's 100gp per person worth of diamond dust that you're wasting!   Fitz: It's not a waste if the guy pulls through! You know how much easier it is to get that shit out of a stone than it is, like, a brain? It's so much easier! I think they might just stone everybody!   Grogery: That actually sounds kind-of clever, but I'm not sure if they realize that not just any cleric can un-stone people.   Fitz: Think about how soft and delicate, like, a brain is, right?   Dwardazik: Get me back there right now! OK, let me understand this correctly, OK? Are you telling me that they're turning people to stone and THEN performing the surgery?   Fitz: Just the one guy, and it's 'cause he was gonna die otherwise!   Dwardazik: Well, is he cured of the disease or not?   Fitz: I haven't heard back yet! I don't have, like, a connection! Like, dude, bro, what do you want me to do? Bro, you gotta trust the magic, man.   Dwardazik, walking over to a GIST crystal: Get me in contact with Biz right away, it's an emergency!   GIST: OK! Please hold. ... ... It seems like Biz Abrak is unavailable at the moment. Can I leave a message?   Dwardazik: No. We need to get back there right now, lads.   Kesmet: You know what, actually, yeah. Let's go, let's dispel the arcane lock, let's barge right in, and hopefully we don't startle him into stabbing the brain of whoever he's working on at the moment.   Fitz: I don't see why you guys are so distressed that ONE CRIMINAL got turned to stone! He survived. He's just stone.   Grogery: OK, so one person got turned to stone, but if we can't figure this out and like 10 or 12 people get turned to stone, that's going to take a lot of effort and a LONG time to undo!   Fitz: Listen... do you think these people are not clever? Are you just going to -   Dwardazik: OK, lad, what's your name?   Fitz: Fitz.   Dwardazik: Fitz. Fitz. OK. I am a skilled stoneworker, OK?   Fitz: You don't look like a skilled stoneworker...   Dwardazik: I am a skilled stoneworker. If they are working on stone to remove the Turmoil, I want to see how they're doing it, because I might be able to help! If they're removing the Turmoil, and patients are dying, you have two clerics here who can-   Fitz: There is no dying happening! He's stone.   Dwardazik, going back to the GIST crystal: Can I get in contact with Biz's attendant?   GIST: One second, please hold. Music that we would recognize as "hold music" starts playing... except, GIST is singing it herself.   Fitz, sighing: How do you guys even... anything? You have no confidence in this house at all?   Kesmet: That's all because of experience. We, uh... yeah, this is kinda scuffed.   Grogery: It's almost like a state of emergency has been declared.   Fitz: These people are really clever, and they're working good despite the fact that they're now being operated by, let's face it, a bit of a hothead. Listen, listen... before you argue with me thinking that you know better, what's the normal range of intraocular pressure of a healthy half-orc, huh? What is it? Tell me!   Kesmet: I don't know, that has nothing to do with cauterizing wounds.   Grogery: I feel like I've read this and memorized it at some point, but I can't figure it out right now. Turning to the cleric. You can do Greater Restoration if you prepare for it, right?   Cleric: I'm sure one of the others has it, but... I didn't even think I was going to come here today.   Grogery: But it's something you can -   Cleric: We'll get it done, we always get it done.   Grogery: It just seems like something we could have been better prepared for.   Cleric: Oh I totally agree with you 100%, little goblin dude!   Dwardazik: His name is Grogery.   Cleric: All right, Grogery.   Dwardazik: So we're not getting back there? Is that what you're saying? Who are you, anyway?   Fitz: I already told you, I'm Fitz, and that's all you gotta know.   Grogery: Well, Fitz, whoever's deciding to turn people to stone, can you let them know that it's going to take a long time, more powerful clerics, and 100gp of diamond dust per person to undo? I'm sure you're very clever and are aware that there is a cost to this, but I don't think we can pull on the resources of the Church of Pelor to have that be accessible immediately.   Dwardazik: Hrrmph. Fine. It appears that we're not wanted back there. I don't know what to do, then. These people are infuriating! This bureaucracy is pissing me off! I have half a mind to take this pickaxe and shatter this useless crystal... turn off this music right now!   GIST: Oh, I'm sorry! Would you rather listen to something more classical? It seems I am unable to contact Biz Abrak or any of his associates at the moment. They must be awfully busy, not wanting to speak to you, tough guy!   Dwardazik: You're lucky you're just a crystal... wait, where's Dazki?   Grogery: Darn it! I'm supposed to keep an eye on everybody...   Dwardazik: He must have gotten fed up with this garbage. He probably went to go read, or do something productive.   Grogery: He would let us know if he was just going to leave, wouldn't he?   Dwardazik: If he was as annoyed as I am with this entire situation, ... you know what, I'm going to go read some books, because at least that's better than doin' nothing!   Dwardazik goes back to the crystal.   Dwardazik: What can you tell me about the Rubymist clan's military?   GIST: One moment, please! More hold music. The Rubymists are not a militant group. They are quite powerful druids. Good for them!   Dwardazik: I want to find information on the Rubymists' magic.   GIST: The Rubymists' magic is primarily druidic in nature, although they favor the moon over the elements.   Dwardazik: What about Rubymists' diplomatic relationships?   GIST: What about Rubymists' diplomatic relationships would you like to know?   Dwardazik: Which clans do they currently have favorable and unfavorable ties to?   GIST: Please hold. More hold music. It seems like a lot of dwarven treaties have been disbanded with the Rubymists. Not very popular, I guess!   Dwardazik: What are the primary reasons why these treaties have been disbanded?   GIST: It seems like a lot of the problems come from the fact that they are moon druids. Many clans find that method, and I'm going to quote from this article here, "creepy as fuck"! That doesn't seem well-informed, but there you go!   Dwardazik: Clarify. What are the diplomatic reasons for ending clan relationships? Am I to believe that the clans broke off ties with the Rubymists only because they're druids, and not some other reasons such as broken promises or... some other thing?   GIST: Oh, all manner of weird things are listed here as to why you would disband a relationship with the Rubymists, but dishonesty does not seem to be one of the primary causes.   Dwardazik: Could I get a couple of other examples, besides "creepy as fuck"? I'm trying to understand why I would not want to be friends with the Rubymists.   GIST: There's an instance of a long-distance relationship involving the Stonechild family, quite a well-known family in their region. Would you like to hear more?   Dwardazik: Sure. Might get something from this.   GIST: The Stonechilds, ages ago, disbanded a relationship with the Rubymists despite being nowhere near the territory that the Rubymists inhabited. The document cites many instances of strange magic that the Stonechilds were not able to fully understand, although judging by their descriptions and my analysis, it seems to be just normal druid magic.   Dwardazik: That's it?   GIST: That seems to be it!   Dwardazik: No diplomatic incidents? No foreign affairs? No stolen money?   GIST: There is a somewhat current incident involving miners in the Amber Falls, if you would like to listen to that article?   Dwardazik: Yeah, sure, why not?   GIST: It seems like there is a feud between two dwarven families there. Both families must share the same gem mine, as it is profitable, and their talents are complementary. However, there seems to be a deep-rooted family feud that causes each side to "mess" with the other. This has been escalated by a recent event.   Dwardazik: Wait, "deep-rooted"? Does this mean that there is animosity between the clans from... years ago? What is the current relationship of those two clans?   GIST: Tenuous, at best. They still must share the same resource.   Dwardazik: Has there been any official documentation of a change in their relationship?   GIST: There is a brief news article, though I do not know the full extent, that there are talks of a peace finally forming between these two clans, although the writer of this article does not believe that it will last. I wonder what brought that up? They've been feuding for so long... and right after a mine collapse killed a bunch of Rubymist!   Dwardazik: Stop talking about that mine collapse!   Dazki is back, with an intern. Dwardazik rejoins the rest of the party (and Fitz).   Dazki: All right. They want the clerics of Pelor in the operating room.   Grogery: Is that including me?   Dazki: You could if you really wanted, but I think we should head to the House of Gold next. We have a packed agenda right now.   Dwardazik: How about this, Grogery: if they need your help, we can have them send a message to you, and we'll run right back.   Grogery: Part of my concern is that they would turn a bunch of people to stone without an exit strategy, without even contacting me.   Dazki: There will be clerics of Pelor in there. If the clerics of Pelor feel that they need your assistance, then they can be the ones to contact you. We won't have to rely on the people actually doing the surgery to make that call.   Grogery: Sounds good to me. Should we give them the hummingbird so that they can contact us?   Fitz: Dude, everybody has one already.   Dazki: We will be nearby, either the House of Gold or House of Steel.   Dwardazik: I don't have one...   Fitz: You don't have a bird, bro?   Dwardazik: How much is a bird?   Grogery: We do have one! But maybe we can go shopping again for more.   Fitz: If you live here, you just go to the post office and you just buy one.   Dwardazik: How much did your bird cost, cleric?   Cleric: I don't have a... what do you mean, "everybody has a bird"?   Dwardazik: Fitz, how much was your bird? I want a bird...   Fitz: You don't need to know how much... nah. Nah, you know what? Nah. I just decided, just now, that I'm too cool for this conversation. I shoulda noticed it ages ago, but it turns out, you guys are all super lame.   Cleric: I don't think that's very nice... I mean, they're right in front of you...   Dwardazik: Well YOU'RE super lame!   Dazki: Come on, guys. Let's go hobnob with -   Dwardazik: You're super lame! You're EXTRA super lame!   Fitz: No, you!   Dwardazik: YOU'RE super lame!   Fitz: YOU'RE super lame!   Dwardazik: You live in a house full of dumb crystals!   Dazki: Dwardazik, why don't we just leave them to being elbow-deep in blood and guts, and we'll go talk to the beautiful woman in charge of the House of Gold.   Dwardazik: Hey, crystal!   GIST: Why yes there, how can I help you today?   Dwardazik: Call Fitz.   GIST: Please hold...

  The party ditches this place and starts heading towards the House of Gold.  

Silence is Golden

The public part of the House of Gold is currently closed, undergoing investigation. Gilda Lily is sitting on a bench in a small side courtyard, trying to avoid all the hubbub. She's practicing a speech quietly to herself, checking back in her notebook to change some things or remember a line.  

Dwardazik: Is that Gilda?   Dazki: Yeah.   Dwardazik: Should one of us approach her, instead of us all swarming her?   Dazki: That sounds reasonable. I'll head over there, unless someone else wants to?   Dwardazik: Dazki, use your charm! He slaps Dazki on the ass as he leaves.   Dazki heads over to her.   Gilda: What do you think sounds better, here, "tragedy" or "travesty"? They're both so close.   Dazki: I would say "tragedy", because of how significantly it's impacting so many people's lives.   Gilda: Hmm.   Dazki: "Tragedy" makes it seem like there's much more of a human cost.   Gilda takes down some little notes.   Dazki: So how's Rosalin doing?   Gilda: I wouldn't really know about any of that, so...   Dazki: Yeah, you would. He leans in a little. The two of you have many obvious similarities. I'm not going to say anything, but the minute the two of you walked in the room, I could tell, even through the blinding light of the beauty of both of you.   Gilda: I can't tell if you're trying to flatter me or blackmail me.   Dazki: Not blackmail. I'm genuinely asking how she's doing.   Gilda: She's holding in there, despite everything she's been through.   Dazki: Good. I'm glad to hear it. Is there anything that can be done to help?   Dwardazik gives him a big thumbs up, from behind a bush.   Gilda: Um. Discretion's always good. That's really what got us into this in the first place, was a lack of discretion.   Dazki: Yeah. So, I do have an offer. No conditions, nothing like that, but I have some contacts in the elven lands up north, if she needs to get away from the city for a while. I know she's a talented musician, and my family would love to host a musician as good as her.   Dwardazik, still behind his bush, makes an interesting finger and circle motion with his hands.   Gilda: Why the generosity?   Dazki: Baxton wanted me to basically become the next... him. He wanted me to be his protégé, so to speak, and I don't want that. I don't want to be anything like him. So, I'm trying to help the people that he hurt, if nothing else to prove to myself that that's not who I am, and that's not who I'm going to become.   Gilda: That's fine and all, but I don't know anything about you or your family.   Dazki: That's fair. I'm sure you know my name: I am Dazki Sylroris, we're minor nobility in the wood elf lands up north. We have a bunch of land: orchards, things like that. A lot of farming and food production. Not anyone too important, but enough that we have a name for ourselves up there. Half-elves are not particularly uncommon in those parts, so I thought I'd make the offer in case your sister needed to leave for her own mental well-being for a while. I'm sure what she's gone through has been incredibly traumatizing.   Gilda: She used to really like this city, the smell of the ocean, and all that sort of jazz.   Dazki: It certainly has quite the charm to it, at least when things aren't going poorly.   Dwardazik: They're talking. I think it's working out!   Gilda: I'm still unsure about this whole situation. Last time someone else "watched over" my little sister, it did not go well.   Dazki: I understand entirely.   Gilda: And she's kind of her own woman.   Dazki: Well, yeah, but I was hoping that you could convey the message for me? I'm sure she has wanted to be somewhere safe, with you, since it seemed like the two of you really care about each other, really close siblings. I figured an offer coming from someone she knows and trusts might be seen as less forceful, less inappropriate.   Gilda: I mean, that's if everything else turns out OK, though.   Dazki: Yeah. I'm working on that. It's not an easy thing. They're doing some surgery in the House of Crystal right now to try and figure out how to help people that have things implanted in them that are still causing issues, but I don't know what they'll be able to find out.   Gilda: I don't know, this has all gotten just too surreal for me.   Dwardazik starts walking up.   Dazki: Yeah. I mean, hell, the only reason I came to this city was to find a couple of gnomish inventors to try to help me with a personal project, and then I get caught up in all of this. He waves his hands around.   Dwardazik: Gilda! Pleasure to meet you. He does a small bow.   Gilda: Oh, your friends are here too, huh?   Dazki: Yeah, we were trying to check up on Sol in the House of Crystal.   Gilda: I do, SO, like being outnumbered.   Dazki: Fair enough...   Dwardazik: If you're busy, I can understand that.   Gilda: No, it's no trouble at all. I really am super grateful, it's just... kind of a lot going on right now. I do apologize if I feel insincere towards you.   Dazki: No, not at all. I apologize if my offer seems like I'm coming on too strongly, or if it seems inappropriate. I'm just trying to help fix a problem.   Dwardazik: Oh, what, the fact that Baxton's trying to kill everyone and ruin everything? Yeah, I've been trying to deal with that myself. He's already ruined one family I know of.   Dazki: So anyway, here is the address of the house that we're staying at. It's just been constructed, so the inside isn't too much to see yet, but if you're interested, or if your sister is interested in talking with us, or in the -   Gilda, making a glance at Dwardazik: I'm an only child, and I don't have a sister, so it's weird that you would say that.   Dazki: OK, fair enough, I -   Gilda: These secrets, they may seem piddly enough to you, but it's actually really important to me that they be kept.   Dazki: If anything comes up, here's where we're staying, and we'd love to have a visit from you, or... any of those that you trust. I'm sorry we weren't able to help sooner, or help more.   Dwardazik: Hmmph. Help more? I thought we helped pretty good.   Gilda takes Dazki's note.   Dazki: Good luck with your speech. I'm sure it'll be amazing.   Gilda: I always am, dear.   Dwardazik: So I guess our business here is done, then?   Dazki: Yes, I think we should probably take our leave. We don't want to cut into Lady Lily's rehearsal too long.   Dwardazik: Right. Of course. Pleasure to meet you, lass!   Gilda, hesitating almost imperceptibly for some reason: You as well, fair dwarf.   They leave.   Dwardazik: Did you ask her at all about the trial?   Dazki: No. I can tell she's already on our side.   Dwardazik: You think?   Dazki: 100%.   Dwardazik: Hmm. All right, that's all I needed to hear. So, let's go to the others.

  They go back to Grogery and Kesmet, who have been making small talk of their own:  

Grogery: So, what was your specialty when you were a baker?   Kesmet: Soufflés.   Grogery: So, like, how do they make those puffy?   Kesmet: You put extra fire in them, and the heat expands them.   Grogery: Oh. I always thought it was, like, eggs or something.   Kesmet: Yeah, probably that too.

  Dazki and Dwardazik return:  

Dazki: It definitely seems like Gilda Lily is going to be on our side, for the trial, at least. Our problem are, as we thought, going to be with Sorda'an. And, possibly, Al.   Dwardazik: We helped Sorda'an, didn't we?   Dazki: Not really.   Grogery: We helped Al, but it really depends on whether or not Sol is going to be in a position to talk with him about that before the trial happens.   Dwardazik: So what do we do, then? Sol still needs to have treatment on him!   Grogery: Really, all we can do is wait, see how the experimental surgeries go, and basically let the House of Crystal do its job, I think.   Dwardazik: Then I suggest that's it for this evening?   Grogery: We could try to talk to Sorda'an and see when this trial is actually going to happen? See if there's anything we can do for... certain... people?   Dwardazik: I suppose that makes sense. Then let's try to get in contact with Sorda'an. He's in the House of Iron, right?   Dazki: Yeah, I'm sure he's incredibly busy, but hopefully we'll be able to, um, STEEL, some time from him.   Dwardazik: Then let's make our way over there.   Gilda sees the party heading that way and intercepts them.   Dazki: Oh? Is there something the matter?   Gilda: I mean, he's very busy, first of all. You guys didn't seem like the suicidal type when we first met.   Dwardazik: Bad idea, I take it?   Gilda: He's going through some... ... rough patches.   Dazki: I gathered that much from his actions at the meeting.   Gilda: I'm quite certain that you did not.   Kesmet: I remember you guys nearly shitting yourselves after seeing a box get opened?   Dazki: That was a reasonable reaction, Kesmet.   Kesmet: We have grown considerably unreasonable in our time here in this city, dealing with the Turmoil, nonsense, and nonsense Turmoil.   Gilda: You guys really are a... group package, huh? All or nothing?   Dazki: We seem to be.   Dwardazik: When you're dealing with Turmoil, anything can happen.   Gilda: Look, I just... you guys are really great, and you don't deserve bad things to happen to you. Sometimes, bad things happen to good people, and I think we should try to stop that whenever possible, so I've stopped you from going over there right now, without all of the information.   Dazki: Thank you. If you could possibly put in a good word for us, if you get the opportunity?   Dwardazik: Oh yeah, that would be great. We tried to help your city, please don't kill us?   Dazki: Dwardazik, stop being so cynical.   Gilda: Some things are more important than a city.   Kesmet: We'll bear that in mind, the next time the whole city is in danger.   Dwardazik: Yeah, like a clan.   Gilda: Like a clan, indeed.   Dazki: Kesmet, is there anything you wouldn't have done for your wife? Family can be more important than the entire city sometimes.   Kesmet: Not when your family is gone. Thousand-yard stare.   Dwardazik: What should we do, then? Talking to Sorda'an was our next option. Since that's suicide, we should choose something else.   Grogery: We do have other people we need to talk to, like Tilda.   Dwardazik: Very well. You did say you had some business to give her.

  The party starts walking away. Once Kesmet thinks they're free of Gilda, he brings up:  

Kesmet: Why are we trying to clear our names, again? This is not really helping us get any closer to Dennis or destroying the other pieces of the Turmoil. Seriously, I think we know where he is. We can just head over to fantasy Cuba, book a passage on a ship (walk out of this city, go to the next one), we're out of here in a couple of weeks.   Grogery: We have resources and a position here that's good to maintain.   Kesmet: We do? Like what?   Grogery: A house, we have allies.   Kesmet: I used to live in a circus tent. Also, where are our allies?   Grogery: We have Barry, we're cultivating allies in the Houses here.   Dwardazik: I have to admit, Kesmet has somewhat of a point.   Kesmet: We're trying to gather allies in order for us to defeat some bogus terrorism charge. We didn't fuck up the city. We helped save it. I don't feel like giving any more to it. It's been useful, we got some information on where Dennis is, we have an idea of what he's doing with the whole drug thing, I think we can take that and go.   Dwardazik: I suppose. How long would it take to go on a journey to find out where this healer is?   Dazki: We don't know, because we don't know where he was last seen. He was in the city a few days ago, but we don't know where he is now. It seems like people just follow his trail.   Dwardazik: Perhaps we could go take care of some business and then take a couple of days outside of the city to let everything calm down over here.   Grogery: Or we could stay, and not look like we're running away from a trial.   Gilda: Well you could always just, like, come back later. I definitely think giving Sorda'an some space to work out some things would be better.   Grogery: We don't need to visit Sorda'an, but like...   Dwardazik: Can't we just tell Annu what we're doing and then just bounce? The city's getting a bit ridiculous. We should maybe take care of a few things here, get any equipment that we need, and then take some time out of the city to deal with all these problems surrounding us.   Grogery: We've got the few people we need to talk to, and then I wouldn't be opposed to trying to track down this doctor fellow.   Dwardazik: Before he gets too far away and the trail gets cold.   Dazki: I'm fine with that.   Grogery: And there are people in the city who can give us information on that sort of thing.   Gilda: If you don't mind me prying... you're a cleric, right?   Grogery: Yes.   Gilda: Why would you be looking for a doctor if you already have a cleric?   Dazki: This "doctor" we're looking for, we think he might be connected to the negative things that Baxton was doing. We want to try to stop him from doing these things elsewhere.   Gilda: Um... yeah, sure. Great. Um... She's flustered.   Dazki: Sorry, was that too much information?   Dwardazik: Is there something you know that you want to tell us, lass?   Gilda, hesitating again, almost imperceptibly: You're looking for a doctor attached to Baxton?   Dazki: Yes.   Gilda: I definitely don't think you should seek out this doctor.   Dazki: Why shouldn't we seek him out?   Gilda: I've just got a feeling that guy's trouble. Call it a woman's intuition.   Dazki: I believe that he's trouble. We want to stop the trouble. Do you know anything else that could, maybe, help us with that?   Dwardazik: If you know anything about this doctor, you should tell us.   Gilda: You're not threatening a lady of a House, are you?   Dwardazik: I'm not threatening you, I'm asking if you have anything that could help us out!   Dazki: You'll have to forgive him, that's dwarven negotiation.   Dwardazik: It's not "dwarven negotiation", it's a simple question. It's common courtesy!   Dazki: But is there anything that you could tell us about these men that would be useful in finding them or handling situations that they might be involved in?   Gilda: I know you shouldn't trust 'em...   Dazki: And how do you know that, other than the fact that he was connected with Baxton?   Gilda: Look. I know Baxton knows a nefarious doctor. I knew that before you said it. That much, I think, you've surmised?   Dazki: Yes.   Gilda: I've been looking into information about this individual as well, but not for myself. I've been looking into it for... a family friend. OK, OK, it's not a family friend.   Dazki: It's someone whose son is not well.   Gilda: How do you know that?   Dazki: I have ways of getting information as well. Don't worry, I'm not going to use it against him, I'm not going to do anything with that information.   Gilda: The reason why Sorda'an has been so foul recently, unable to do his job effectively, well... his son passed away.   Dwardazik: Wait...   Gilda: Shortly after you slew that terrible man, his son died.   Dazki: ...ahh.   Dwardazik: I was wondering if that's... I see now.   Dazki: Baxton and that "healer" were the ones keeping him alive.   Gilda: His son was fatally poisoned. Baxton promised to heal him, even though no cleric could. And it was successful, but it had a price.   Dwardazik: Was it 100gp for being turned into stone?   Dazki glares at Dwardazik.   Dwardazik: So what, the price was Turmoil? Is that what you're saying? What, did Sorda'an sell his soul? What did he do?   Gilda: The perfect blackmail. The lad certainly knew how to take hostages, huh?   Dazki: Absolutely.   Gilda: If Baxton were ever to perish, then so, too, would his son.   Dazki: So we killed his son.   Dwardazik: BAXTON killed his son.   Gilda: So I very much believe that you should not talk to him right now.   Dwardazik: Then we need to learn more about this "healer". And there's nothing that can be done for the fallen son? Surely, any clerics could have dealt with it?   Gilda: He had hidden the word of his son's poisoning, hoping to root out who had poisoned the son in the first place. He had left it too long for it to be healed by traditional medicine, having difficulties determining whether he should do his work or protect his family.   Dwardazik: Well damnit. Looks like Baxton strikes again. Now what has you so much in a buzz that we shouldn't go and track down this healer? That's the other guilty party.   Gilda: I care about you guys, I think. And I don't want to see anything bad happen to any more people I care about.   Dazki: Well, thank you for that. I appreciate your care and your concern. The thing is, we don't want to see things like this happen to anyone else, either. Instead of sitting back and letting other people handle it, We feel like we have the knowledge and, hopefully, the ability to stop it. So if I'm going to be a leader of people like I'm expected to be when I go home, then I need to be able to prove that I can protect them.   Dwardazik: And I'm not leavin' my lads behind! We can handle it. I know we can!   Gilda: Information about the doctor is awfully scarce.   Dwardazik: Any leads you can provide would be appreciated and would assist us in performing our duties.   Dazki: I have a contact or two that might have some more information on him.   Gilda: I think I have a name, does that help? It's not much.   Dazki: It's far more than we had 5 minutes ago.   Gilda: He's certainly more of a monster than a name would give him now. It's not even an actual name, it's more just what the locals have been taking to calling him, I suppose much like Baxton was called "The Disfigured Man". He goes by "The Flesh Artist", which I find quite concerning.   Dazki: Not exactly the kind of a name that-   Gilda: And it's not anything I can really look up in the library, so I doubt it's very useful.   Dwardazik: If that's the name he's going by, then we might get a lead talking with folks outside the city.   Gilda: It seems to be what people tend to refer to it as.   Dazki: Someone that Kesmet and I talked to might have some more information about this Flesh Artist.   Gilda: I mean, it's just so vile of a name. Why would he be so praised?   Dwardazik: Perhaps he's doing things with dark magic, just like they've done with the aforementioned son, granting false promises.   Gilda: You will keep this information between us, right? I'm really getting tired of blackmail.   Dwardazik: Of course, lass, dwarven honor.   Gilda twitches a little.   Dwardazik, kneeling down: On the order of my clan, as a Stoneturner Boulderhearth, this information will die with me.   Dazki: I promise you, you have no reason to fear us misusing any of the information you have provided us.   Gilda: And just stay away from Sorda'an until he comes back to his senses.   Dazki: I understand. Thank you so very much.   Dwardazik: You've been very helpful, lass.   Gilda, having finally had enough of this: I am a lady.   Dwardazik: M'lady. It's difficult to find a nice person in this city.   Gilda: Have you tried... being nice? No offense, I do work with a lot of dwarves, but they're just so forward, and their forwardness tends to put others off.   Dwardazik: What? Of course I'm nice! I'm very nice! I'm very generous, and overlook many things that a normal dwarf wouldn't overlook! Isn't that right, Dazki? Isn't that right? I'm a nice dwarf!   Dazki: You are, indeed, however, you do tend to be a little bit gruff. Which, I'm sure is very respected in dwarven society, but among humans and elves, sometimes a little bit more discretion is preferred.   Dwardazik, gruffly: Gruff? I'm not gruff!   Grogery: Gentleness is sometimes good.   Dwardazik: What do you mean? I'm not talc! I'm granite! Dwarven honor!   Dazki: But you can be a very well-polished granite, that has an appearance of smoothness. Not necessarily a roughly hewn wall. A well-polished surface is no less strong.   Gilda: Anyway. Rosalin believes that I should trust you. And so I will.   Dwardazik: What, the beautiful lass from the tavern?   Gilda: Also technically a lady...   Dwardazik: Thank you, m'lady, for the information.   Dazki: We very much appreciate your help. Thank you, and thank her.   Dwardazik: Give Rosalin my regards. I wish to see her safe.   Dwardazik: Dazki, was that good?   Dazki: That was very good, Dwardazik.   Dazki gives Gilda a deep bow, and kisses the back of her hand.   Dazki: If you'll excuse us, we have some other business to attend to.   Gilda: By all means.   Dwardazik: Yes, drinks!   Gilda: I will do my best to keep Sorda'an well away from you, if you do your best to keep yourselves well away from Sorda'an.   Grogery: Sounds like a good solution.   Gilda: Deal! Now, I've got a bunch of unrelated business that I was always doing over by that bench.   Dazki: We didn't even speak today.   Gilda: It's a shame.   Dazki: You seem like such a nice woman. I would love to be properly introduced some day.   Gilda walks away back to her bench.   Dwardazik: What?   Dazki: This conversation didn't happen.   Dwardazik: What do you mean?   Dazki: If anyone asks about it, we didn't talk with her about this. Because, you know.   Dwardazik: Oh. I get it.