Research in Manaes

General Summary

At Arilla's Oddities, the party picked up a few magical items, before splitting up to cover more ground.   Murtagh and Bayleaf went to the human temple, to learn a little more about Ahnk Dracas. Like most temples to the Human Pantheon, the building is a large, primary room with alcoves. In each of the alcoves is a shine to one of the gods, with small plates for offerings. Bayleaf steered them towards the shine for Sif, the goddess of harvest. He offered some rations, in honor of her gifts of agriculture.   Clearly uncomfortable in a temple after so long, and not comfortable offering no worship at all, Bayleaf told Murtagh "And now we think about things really hard for like, 30 seconds." He muttered prayers quietly, appologizing for using her shine as cover, and saying in his defense "I'm pretty sure this will piss off your husband, so I hope that will please you."   When a priest came out to speak with them, they asked about Ahnk Drakas. The priest clearly found the city Distasteful. He explained that the city had an extensive guild system, and the most racial diversity of any city in the world. It was the seat of the god Vanir, and was before the the Expansion, so the human empire considered Ahnk Drakas a part of itself from it's creation.   At the same time, Guy and Lyra went to the temple of Triton. The initial priest they spoke to, a halfling named Dawn, appeared actively disinterested in their search for books. She quickly pawned them off to a human priest, Julius, worshiped Ægir, the human aspect of the same god. Julius, after listening to what they want to search for, he went through his esotericly organized library of reference books, and pulled the books he thought would be relevant, to either the Fire of the Deep, or the Anvil of the Underdark, or Underdark Gods.   They found information about the fire of the deep and a creation myth of an item known as the Anvil of the Underdark.   Murtagh and Bayleaf headed to the Harbor Master's office pay dues, as Murtagh is a member of the Shipwright's Guild. He paid a year of dues, and tried to send a letter home, though the guilds were not able to send it. He needed to go to the rail station to send it. His letter would get to Runemace territory, and hopefully from there get to his mother, but the trains are having difficulty getting into the Dwarven Atol, so delivery will be highly delayed and not assured.   The letter told his mother he was in Maneas, safe, all body parts accounted for. He'll be traveling again soon, "dont worry, I'm ok. Love you lots." The letter was dated.   Guy eventually caught up with Murtagh and Bayleaf, got some seafood, picked up Lyra, and all went to have a long talk at the sea side. They filled Lyra in on the long backstory, danger, and threats, and ultimately Lyra decided she trusts the party, and was on board for adventure.

Notes

Lyra both owes a guild money, and has stolen items from said guild. So she's avoiding guilds.