First Days

The next morning we set out to continue exploring. We met another student, one Haibram Thodja. He asked us to go into the city to try to buy some rare types of chicken, Ojofiri Chickens, from a traveling market. He gave us a description of them. Asking around we were able to find the market and were also directed to one Makena, a merchant in the market. Asking about any poultry we were able to find out that she had 6 chicks. She asked for 5gp per chick. The haggling ended with us getting 5 of the chicks for a total of 20gp. Unfortunately, along the way one of the chicks passed away from the cold. Haibram took the rest inside. We decided to head to the kitchen for a meal. Laraena spent the rest of the day helping the cook and flavoring food with prestidigitation. Amara and Orkbolt decided to go for a hot bath. They found 2 small lizard creatures in the baths, hissing in a hostile manner. Orkbolt was able to identify these creatures as Spellskeins. After much running about and gathering both Gazzean & Sevastin, the Spellskeins noticed the bead strand on Gazzean's armor. They nuzzled him and stood down, ending the threat. However, Amara did notice some cloth wrappings hidden in the baths. Detecting them as magic they were able to identify these as +1 Handwraps of Mighty Blows. The group discussed how to deal with treasure and how everyone saw their role should we get into any combat. Then we decided Laraena could best use the Handwraps as Argent gained the benefits of them as well. The rest of the day was uneventful.
The following morning the students met Esi outside. She explained we needed to oust some Gremlins from the school grounds, without harming them. Instructor Zofu had called them Pugwampis. She explained that another student had run afoul of these creatures in the past. Sevastin and Laraena thought back on what they knew about Magaambya lore. Laraena recalled that this student, one Uduak Basni, took it upon himself to embark upon a genocidal attack on all such creatures on the campus. He was expelled... Orkbolt, Sevastin, Gazzean and Laraena recalled some information about this type of Gremlin. However, they disagreed on some of the details. After some discussion about what they knew as a group it was decided that they should try to gather up some bells to try to scare them away. We would resort to beating them down only as a last resort. We headed to the Powder Pile. There we were able to buy a total of 16 bells. 2 for Laraena, 2 for Argent, 2 for Amara and... 10 for Gazzean! When we arrived we quickly found the Gremlins. Using our bells we were able to move them along, capturing one of them by knocking him unconscious. We took him off the grounds, then woke him up so Orkbolt could question him. He started trying to find out who this "her" it had referred to earlier was. Apparently there was a female Gremlin that had asked them to cause trouble at the school. After some more interrogation Orkbolt released him. As he ran away he called back that he would return & yelled a name - Kurshkin, presumably their bosses name.
The following day we met by 3 members of the Cascade Bearers, Anchor Root, Marianna & Shizeri. Marianna explained we needed to do "finger wiggly magic" to help repel things like the Gremlins. Anchor told us what we needed. 3 types of oils. Then she directed us to where we could find the ingredients to make the oils. Then we would need to combine the ingredients. We asked for some bones at the kitchen. The Cook sent us into town to the Butcher to retrieve some bones. We brought these back to Anchor so she could pick out the "lucky" ones. She then asked us to go carbonize the bones & then create the oil from them. Amara was able to burn them sufficiently with her fire spells. We then rendered the ash into oil. Next she sent us out to gather Scarlet Cap mushrooms. She showed us on a map where we should be able to find some. She also explained that they usually grew at the top of a tree. Gazzean expressed his feeling that this must be some sort of trap as it was a Gnoll sending us out! We tried to understand why he felt this way. He said because Gnolls had attacked his people for a long time & could not be trusted. We eventually set out, making our way to the wilderness that Anchor had indicated. As we approached a tree that looked like it might have what we were looking for, a mushroom creature dropped from the tree. It immediately attacked! After a brief battle we smashed the Mushroom to bits. We climbed the tree and collected the mushrooms. Argent also noticed a small cache of items hidden in the tree. We then returned back to the Magaambya. Once there we were able to render down the mushroom for it's oil. Laraena & Gazzean were stricken by some poison or disease, from the Mushroom creature apparently, when they returned to the Magaambya. Amara took some time to look them over. It turned out that the Myconoid had infected them with Purple Pox, which could be quite fatal within a few days. We chose to go sell the magic items we had just found so we could afford several Remove Disease spells. Some other students were willing to practice the castings, luckily. Soon Laraena & Gazzean were feeling healthy again! We then returned to Anchor, who showed us once again what the Caterpillars looked like & showed us on the map where to look for them. Arriving in the area Amara quickly spotted some Caterpillars & Orkbolt knew just how to gather the best ones, using his Insect Lore! We returned to the dorm and got the last of the oils ready. The other students then prepared the ritual using some cold iron bells from earlier. When we asked about it they taught us the ritual & allowed us to cast it. Orkbolt was the Primary with Laraena acting as the Secondary. Marianna took the, now enchanted, bells to place in the storeroom. We spent a bit of time decompressing before turning in for the day.