Session 2 - Return to Burmery

General Summary

With the cave cleared of supplies, a wagon repaired enough for travel, and the sun beginning to set, the party decided to spend the night at the site of the caravan attack before returning to the road back to Burmery. All were on guard during their watches, keeping an eye out for the strange blue lights they had seen while camping at this spot the night before. Prince was the first to spot them, not long after the sunset, and spent his watch tracking their movements through the trees, as they seemingly never move closer, or further away. He passed this information on to Haeni at the next watch, who informed Lerissa at the shift change.

Lerissa, however, was not so interested in watching the lights, and she woke up Olut for another crack at opening the locked chest that they had found in the cave the day before. Working quietly, Olut raked the lock open as Lerissa kept an eye on the party, making sure that they did not stir. Once the chest was opened, the pair looked inside to find a small collection of silver coins, a potion of healing, a silver pitcher, a statue carved of bone, and a pair of silver-decorated copper mugs. Disappointed at the find, Olut gave up the chest as a waste of his time, while Lerissa swiped the silver, the potion, and the statue before they both returned to watch for the rest of their shift.

The following morning, after a brief discussion on the merits of investigating the lights in the forest, the party decided to return to Burmery posthaste. The repaired wagon was loaded with the recovered shipments from the cave, and Liber attached his magical floating disk to the cart, which carried Prince and the body of the dead goblin. After a few hours of daydreaming on the journey, Prince looked down at the goblin's corpse, examining it for the first time. Averting his eyes from the rough-hewn cut that separated the goblin's head from his shoulders, Prince spotted a strange blue hue on boh of the goblin's palms. Connecting in his head the blue patches on the necks of the wolves that had attacked the party to this new discovery, he called Liber's attention to the coincidence. The party stopped in their travels for a moment while Liber inspected the hands, discovering that the coloring came from beneath the skin of the goblin's palms and was not a topical effect, but without a clear indication of what that may mean, the party noted it and continued on their travels.

After several more days on the road, the walls of Burmery appeared before them, and they rolled their cart into the city, heading directly for the Council Square, where their quest was originally given. As they stopped their cart in the middle of a bustling district of councilors running from one building to the next, they sent word to Michis Liadan, the chair of the Burmerian Council of Defense(Domestic), and their original quest giver. After a few moments, Michis appeared from the doors of a building across the square and rushed toward the party, looking flustered by this unscheduled appointment. As he reached the wagon, he took eyed the returned goods and congratulated the group on their apparently successful mission. Michis took inventory of the barrels of mead and the returned chest, explaining that their original owners would be sought out in the coming days. As he reached the disk and the goblin's body, Olut described the situation at the cave and the strange coincidences involving the blue hands and fur that they found during their journey. Liber requested an audience with the Burmerian Council of Practical Magics to discuss this issue, which Michis said he would organize for the following day. As Michis began rambling about the good the party had done, Prince interrupted his tangent and brought the conversation around to the promised reward. Michis made one last count of the returned cargo before running off into a nearby building and returning with a pouch of 160 gold pieces, payment for services rendered.

As the party left the Council Square and headed to The Beggar's Dog Inn for a celebratory drink, the party split the gold reward between them. As he received his portion, Haeni commented on the relative pittance they were offered for the job and how few meals it would buy, prompting a few minutes of questioning about his seemingly affluent background. After the party tired of questioning the Aasimar on exactly how much he could be ransomed for, the conversation turned to future plans as the group determined that they'd like to continue working together, agreeing to stop by the city notice board together to look for their next job later that afternoon.

As the group arrived at the quiet inn, Lerissa called out to the owner and bartender, Tarla Bruden, asking for a round of wine for the table. As they settled into their seats, Liber brought the topic of conversation back to Haeni, asking him about his family back in Gaudville. Haeni explained that he had left the city for an escape from the protective bubble of high society, seeking to learn "the song of the road" on his travels. As he described the soaring towers and marble-lined streets shining like the heavens at sunset, the rest of the party conjured images of utopias in their heads, all while Haeni derided the peaceful and boring life he had once led there.

After Tarla delivered to the table a bottle of the inn's house wine, glasses were poured for each adventurer, and a toast was raised to the first of many adventures together. After his sip, Prince whispered a quiet "thank you" to his sword for its help in battle, and poured a small amount of wine down the length of the blade. Noticing this, Liber asked about the ritual, and if the sword was especially magical in some way, asking Prince to borrow it for a moment to cast a spell of identification. At Prince's consent, Liber began the ritual, explaining each step to a curious Prince watching over his shoulder. At the spell's conclusion, Liber saw in the weapon powerful magic, allowing Prince alone to wield it through the sheer force of his will. After observing this process, the party began asking Prince about his history, to which they learn that Prince is an orphan from the mountains north of Etonford, and that he wants to discover more about their death.

At this revelation, the table quieted for a moment, interrupted only by Tarla's reappearance at the table. Lerissa asked Tarla for her finest wine, and Haeni pipes up with a suggestion of the Gaudville 32 vin. Taken aback at the specific request, Tarla called from the back a boy who she explained was her son, Brom, sending him out into Burmery to find a bottle for the group. As Brom darted out into the street, heading to an inn on the other side of town, the party tells Tarla that they plan to spend the evening back at the tavern, after a walkabout town. Tarla booked them for a table for dinner and a quartet of rooms for the night, promising to hold the wine that Brom returns with. As the group stands from their table, Haeni leaves 4 gold for their drinks and a tip as the group heads for the door.

On their walk to the town notice board, Liber asks why Tarla reserved only four rooms for the group, and Lerissa explains that she owns a small house in Burmery, having lived there for a few years working as a clerk. Further questions about her background don't yield much, and before too long, the party arrived at the notice board, providing a distraction from the conversation at hand. Several sheets are pinned to the board, from advertisements for palm readings, reports of ships lost at sea, and a notice announcing a new tax on work animals in the city streets. Among these posters are several job listings, one asking for a group of caravan guards, another requesting contact with the Tribe of Elementals, and a third announcing a reward for the capture or killing of a bandit named Davren Thenrus. Given the reward amounts listed, the last posting attracted the group's attention, and they headed back to Council Square to find Michis and ask for more information about the job.

Michis explained that Davren is a noteworthy smuggler in the city, allegedly responsible for the import of large amounts of Devil's Tongue into Burmery through the city docks. While the guards have spent time and manpower on inspecting goods arriving by the land gates of the city the volume of shipments coming through the port is large enough that it can't reasonably be searched regularly. Michis suggests that the party could speak to the harbormaster, Molgom Bonecloak for information at the docks, or that they could try to suss out the distribution network on the streets and work backward from there to find their source. After a brief discussion, the party decided to check out the docks after dark and after their meal at the inn.

As the party heads back to the inn, Olut and Prince hung back with Michis, and asked if they could take the hands of the goblin corpse that they brought to the city. Confused at first, Michis consented to the plan, walking them back to a small alley where the cart sits more or less as they left it. Michis turned away from the body as Olut lopped off its hands and tucked them into a burlap sack on his belt before heading back to the inn. Meanwhile, Liber, Lerissa, and Haeni took a new route back to the inn and found themselves in the middle of a flea market, with maybe a dozen stalls staffed by gnomes hawking their wares. Lerissa wandered toward a booth where a particularly excitable gnome demonstrated a ring that made its wearer invisible (but none of their clothes or equipment). After a few rounds of haggling, Lerissa purchases the ring for 20GP, with a money-back guarantee if its quality slips.

As the party regrouped at the Beggar's Dog, they found a table already set for them, with plates of stewed mule, served with carrots and parsnips, and a bottle of wine at the ready. Tarla hurried to the table, apologizing for Brom's inability to find Haeni's preference, but hoping that the replacement is suitable. After being assured that it is acceptable, Tarla headed back to the bar as Lerissa raised a toast to their next adventure together. The party settled in for a relaxed dinner, as Olut hummed a low tune and the group conversed as they watched the tavern's other patrons drink, gamble, and talk. Once their meal finished and the skies outside began to darken, the party called Tarla over to explain that they would return for their rooms late. As Tarla struck up a conversation with Haeni about her late husband Craig, the rest of the group left the inn and headed towards the docks.

As the sun set behind Burmery's west wall, the party approached the port, marked by a large lighthouse standing at the water's edge. As Lerissa and Liber head towards the Harbormaster's office, Olut and Prince hang out on the docks, and at Olut's direction, approach a man standing away from the few dockhands working at this hour. With a wink and a nudge, Olut asks about Davren, and what the man knows about him. The dockworker is suspicious of Olut's intentions but says that he'll get a message to Davren, and let the man himself decide. Olut scribbles down the name of a nearby tavern and a request to meet at 2:00 pm the following day, signing the note with his Blade Name.

Liber and Lerissa approached the Harbormaster's office and knocked on the door, taking a step back a few moments later when a Half-Orc stuck his head out of the door and introduced himself as Uloth, the night manager of the port. Suspicious of the pair at first, Uloth explained that the harbormaster Molgom won't be around until the morning, but he could answer some questions in his stead once Liber explained that they were visiting on Council business. Uloth described the circumstances that made the dock a focus of the Council's investigation on the Devil's Tongue smuggling when a boat carrying fabrics from the Etonford branch of the Chasewater Shipping Depot was found to be carrying a shipment of the drug tucked into one of its boxes, about a month earlier. Liber asked Uloth if sailors from the boat were still in town, and the dock manager said that he would review the crew manifest and get a list of names to the party for further investigation. Liber thanks the half-orc for his help, promising to return in the morning to meet with Molgom himself, and the pair at the harbormaster rejoined with Prince, Olut, and a very late Haeni to share their leads.

As the party walked back in the direction of the inn, Liber relayed the information from the dock manager. Lerissa piped up at the mention of Chasewater, telling the group that she works as a clerk in their Burmery location, and could perhaps find information for them using her contacts within the depot. Olut told the group that he contacted Davren for a meeting the following afternoon, to the surprise of the rest of the party. With a plan set for the following day and nothing more to do but wait, Prince and Olut suggested one more stop before turning in for the night, an attempt to follow up on a thread from their previous quest, taking the goblin hands to the local mystic for a palm reading in an attempt to learn more about their history.

Rewards Granted

• Lerissa takes 20sp, bone statue, and potion from the locked chest
• Receive a reward of 160gp from Michis. 100gp from the job, and 60 as a finders fee for the 2 dozen barrels of mead
• Olut cuts the hands from the goblin's corpse
• Haeni busks in the Gnomish Flea Market for 9CP

Missions/Quests Completed

The Wild Wolves

Character(s) interacted with

Michis Liadan
Tarla Bruden
Uloth Ironhelm
Brom Bruden

Created Content

Pretty much everything