37: Crow's Hollow - Part 4 - Meeting with the Mayor

General Summary

The session begins with the party gathering for breakfast in their dimensional manor, and discussing their plans for the day ahead.  

Visiting the Blackwood Farm

The party split up for this encounter, with Zolv and Ophellia approaching the farm openly and Darnalore and Icarus sneaking round the back in order to investigate, while the others kept Giles Blackwood distracted. Silas Crookshank, a farmhand in the employ of Giles Blackwood, sees Zolv and Ophellia first. He reveals that Giles in in the outhouse currently, so they use the time to question Silas. Silas doesn't have many details to offer, but mentions that his employer has gotten him to do some strange jobs for him. Eventually, Giles Blackwood joins the conversation.   Icarus and Darnalore successfully infiltrate the house. Everything seems pretty normal in the house, the only evidence that Giles Blackwood has tying him to the cult is a sacrificial dagger hidden in a trunk and a set of cult robes.   As Giles Blackwood is not particularly interested in answering Zolv's and Ophellia's questions, the pair stall for time to allow the others time to finish their recon. They are nearly discovered however, as Darnalore stumbles slightly out of the window while leaving the house. Giles enters, just narrowly missing Darnalore closing the window behind her as he enters the house. The only thing that rouses Giles's attention is his open bedroom door.   The party depart the farm, and gather together to discuss what was found and said by both teams. From here, the party wait for their meeting with Mayor.  

Meeting with the Mayor

The meeting with the Mayor goes relatively smoothy. While there were some potentially subtle jabs at one another, the meeting was extremely civil and no hi-jinks were attempted. Zolv subtle cast detect magic to identify two doors that have abjuration magic cast upon them. There is mention of breaking into the building later to look for clues.  

Back to the Tavern

The party head back to the tavern for lunch, and to discuss their next course of action after the less than fruitful conversation with the Mayor. While they were able to maintain the ruse of being historians researching the town, they got very little out of the conversation with Mayor Thorne other than some more suspicions. Darnalore leaves ahead of the rest of the party to head to the Raven's Quill apothacary.  

Heading to the Mill

Darnalore meets with Tilly at the Raven's Quill and asks her some questions, and also shows her the strange plant samples they found at the Abandoned Farmhouse. They also approach the topic of the hedge witch in town, and where Darnalore might be able to find them.
The rest of the party meet Darnalore at the Raven's Quill, where they proposition her with a place of safety and sanctuary, and show her the entrance to their mansion. Tilly refuses the safe harbour, as she still has research and customers to tend to. However, should the party figure out when the cults ritual is to take place, she will gladly take refuge within their manor at that time.   We end the session shortly after arriving at the Old Mill. Here, Darnalore makes herself invisible and sneaks past the cultists and strange humanoid-plant creatures guarding the location, and heads inside. Using Liath, she locates a number of prisoners, many of which match the descriptions of the people who have been rumoured to be missing.

• We end the session here as two people had to leave for the night.