Session 43: Christmas Morning, Via Egil

We get back to our room after talking to Egil, and it's about 2am. Jade is unimpressed with Egil and is going to sleep.
 
Quell decides to cast Commune to ask "is T'kari still alive?" She gets a faint whisper of "unclear" in response. "Should we seek her for help?" She asks. After a moment, she gets a sharp but hesitant "yes". Her last question is "can we trust Egil to help us destroy the shards?" The response is "don't know".
 
Wulf lingers in Egil's doorway for more stories and Egil tells him tales for another 20 minutes or so. Wulf swaps some stories with him as well, and they discuss death and why people feel the need to worry about what happens after that. Egil says it's good that we're taking care of this quest, not many people would be willing to do it. Wulf says this is what Stirk sent him out to do, maybe this is the purpose he was talking about. They both decide to go to bed.
 
Cali wakes first with the sunrise, and finds a small leather-bound chest under their bed. They find a key in the lock, with a note that says "for your journey" in familiar writing. They open the chest after reading the note, and inside are 4 sets of fur lined nonmagical gloves, 2 healing potions, an orange silk drawstring bag with magic, a silverwood flute, and a small cylinder that also seems magical, and some other magical items: a leather-bound book, a dark lantern with octopus tentacles, a shortsword with a goat hilt, and a small statue of a griffin. The cylinder, when touched, lets out light, and the sword has a note that says "this was his, may it do you some good". Cali lays everything out on the floor and Jade wakes up.
 
We all discuss what our characters wear to bed out of character. Jade has some really elaborate nightclothes, Cali wears exactly what they fall asleep in except sometimes take off their armor, and Quell puts on her clothes for the next day and falls asleep.
 
Jade looks at the book while Cali does a little toot on the flute, which alerts Wulf from the next room. He knocks on the door and Cali yells at him to come in before Jade reminds them that the door is locked. When they open the door, they announce that "Egil left us some gifts" and excitedly hold up their newly gloved hands.
 
The book is a manual of quickness of action, with enough study it increases your dex score by 2. The drawstring bag has 20gp, and is a small bag of holding. Cali keeps it to put their gold in. Wulf gets the sword that deals fire damage to it, then gives it to Jade. The griffin is a statue of wondrous power. Wulf picks up the flute and does some toots. The silver cylinder is some kind of magical key, probably for one specific purpose. Quell tries it on every lock she can find until she gets bored but ultimately decides it's probably for exactly one lock. Cali looks at the lantern and discovers that it's a lantern of revealing. While lit, it sheds bright light in a 30ft radius, invisible creatures and beings are visible for as long as they are in the light. Wulf takes it since he is usually in the front.
 
After awhile, we go downstairs to eat, and we all order porridge with fruit, except for Wulf, who gets the porridge with shrimp. Jade inhales her food before disappearing back upstairs to magically bond with the sword. Quell finds a note that says something about The Artful Raven, and Cali asks if that's a shop or something, and Quell confirms that it's the ship we're going to get on.
 
Egil is nowhere to be found, so Quell and Wulf set out while Cali stays inside to wait for Jade. Quell and Wulf follow the directions from the note Quell found, and they come across a woman who seems to be expecting our party. Quell asks what the plan is, and when we all need to be there to depart. She says we should be leaving tomorrow, they're still loading the ship up for now. She yells orders at the crew in between questions. She says we need to be there before noon tomorrow to make it on time. Wulf offers to help work on the ship, and Hathi (huh-thigh), the woman, says as long as we're not cursed to draw in sea serpents, she doesn't care whether we work or not. She does ask them to go to the cave market and ask around for some amber stones. Wulf is excited at the prospect of bringing something back to Stirk. He holds up his harpoon gun thing, and all the sailors seem really impressed by this, so Wulf catches a bird with it in front of them, which makes them all cheer, and Hathi rub her temples. Wulf gives her the bird, and they head toward the cave market.
 
Quell and Wulf start walking, and Wulf is hit by a crossbow bolt out of nowhere, from a narrow alley between two buildings. Wulf takes off in that direction, followed by Quell. He can't find anyone once he gets there though, but Quell sees a scrape on the wall that she discerns is from whoever shot Wulf, and she uses her clairvoyance to look inside the building. She doesn't see anyone inside with a crossbow, so she tells Wulf to pull out the lantern he just got. It illuminates a creature slipping out at the end of the alley, and they take off toward it. They see it run, and Quell tells Wulf to go faster as it disappears from range. Quell casts Dispel Magic on the creature the next time they see it in the lantern, and the invisibility falls off. Quell immediately starts questioning him and Wulf shoots at him with the harpoon but misses. He then jumps up onto the stack where the guy is, and tries and fails to grapple him. The three enter a combat, and "sneaky goon" enters into a flurry of swears, as this was not in the plans. "Quell is never in the plans >:D"
 
Eventually the goon yells "this has all been a misunderstanding!" and tries to say that she mistook them for... uh... someone else....... A weird fire creature asks if they should attack still, and makes it clear that "contract is over whether I attack them or not". She says that they thought Quell was a girl that tried to kill them in Nag and offers gold and to talk it out.
 
"You've seen someone who looks like ME??" -Quell
"Not from this angle!" -Sneaky Goon
"...Was it the hair?" -Quell
 
The woman admits that her pirate captain fucked over an Orchid Priest, and then people from that side starting coming after her people because of a cheated business deal. She killed some people in self defense, and she thought one of the ladies who works for the Orchid Priest was following her, but it turned out to just be Quell. Quell is very invested in the details of this woman who looked like her. The woman says her name is Varna, but Quell determines that she's lying about her name, and says that she needs to come meet the rest of the party. They argue over this, so instead, Quell casts zone of truth on herself, Wulf, and the woman, and asks lots of questions. Her name is actually Ayenna.
 
"I won't try to kill you again, I'm not an idiot." -Ayenna
 
She gives them a name of a location to go in Dria under the promise that they'll let her go. She then admits that "I didn't confuse you for somebody. You're on a list. I wasn't expecting to see you, and I definitely wasn't expecting you to catch me." She says she serves "The First Council", she serves Dria. She doesn't know why we're on the list, she's just been told that we need to be killed. Quell tells her to tell her friends that we are not worth the trouble coming after. She then leaves to go find mushrooms.
 
Meanwhile, Cali starts to realize that Jade is going to be upstairs for longer than like an hour, so they start to wander the streets and find theirself back in the cave market. They'd forgotten how much money they had and would like to buy something cool and magical if they find something to that effect.
 
EOS