Act III: Diplomatic Relations
8/10
The group meets the mysterious Lord Saclor, and sews the beginning of new business relationships between the town and the kobolds, as well as the Stoutforge clan of dwarves.
The group left the monastery in the safe hands of Chief Kibbo, who told them of his initial plans to move the kobolds from being raiders into farmers, and hoped they would help him in this endeavor. They were able to return to Eagle's Landing and return the butcher's boy, the seamstress's daughter, and the prostitutes younger brother, back to the town and gave them each five gold, before setting their sights on returning the wizard's child and Lord Saclor's son, who both lived in the rich area of the town on top of the hill. The wizard's son, Narth, seemed cold and distant, and the group seemed to think there was something else going on there, and that his father, Lord Vakius Orivor, may not be a good guy. Narth promised to send Bob a letter later, explaining the situation, before returning to the tower, walking through an illusionary door. Making their war to Lord Carmen Saclor's manor, they found it to be very well taken care of and lavishly decorated. Meeting with the Lord, he explained that he has numerous problems, and has concerns about a group of new adventurers and traders coming into the town where they might cause him further trouble. On the other hand, he expressed a desire to not be in their debt for the return of his son and their general heroics in the town, and asked what he could do for them to balance the books. Theo replied that he should feed his people better, while Bob wanted the seal of the lord so that they could move about and do business in the country without problems. They learned more about Lord Saclor's position in the country's politics, that he's not very popular with the other lords or the King himself. Lord Saclor agreed to allow them to trade their wares in the town without his interference, and in the spirit of greater trade and improving the town's access to commerce, he's decided to get rid of the high market and allow everyone access to trade, freeing up the markets. He invited them all to dinner the next day to discuss the future and how they could work together for everyone's benefit going forward. Yasias inquired about opening up a branch of the Ishieka Taphouse in the town, Lord Saclor was not opposed to such a venture, but worried it might cause other legal problems, but expressed a desire to pursue the venture further if when it was a viable option the laws had changed. He also arranged for for a cask of wine to be sent to the Flaphouse for their celebration. The group made their way back to the Flaphouse and within a half hour the cask of wine has been delivered. Bob used his magic to summon the town for free drinks and the people flocked into the streets for the free wine. They spoke of the greatness of Bob and his heroic friends in finding the plague cure and saving the children. The people begin to party in the street. While the rest of the party engages in regular partying in the Flaphouse, Bob goes a bit overboard, getting super drink and making it rain gold coins at the town brothel, the obedient gentleman. The 8th day of New Autumn, 1288 AYD. (8.NA.1288 AYD) While the rest of the party woke up in the morning and enjoyed a great breakfast, Bob woke up on top of a building, and walked off it in a drunken haze, thankfully he was not injured. He eventually tracked down his cart, which had been wandering through the town, as his donkey was also drinking that night. He made his way back to The Flaphouse and caught up with the rest of the party. The group went to check the market. Yasias went off to go find a tailor while the rest of the group sought out more information on the poisoning of the well. They found Hardy Rootseeker, also hungover from the free wine of the night, at her shop. She provided Bob with a hangover cure, and then they began to question her on the event of the Firelung Plague. She explained that she thinks someone deliberately poisoned the well, as someone dropped a diseased human corpse in the well. They were unable to identify the corpse, but they knew it was not a local. She explained further that the Sheriff burned the body after searching it for clues, but this person was likely poor and abusing illicit substances. She also explained that for more information they might want to question either Lord Saclor or the Sheriff. After leaving the shop, the group debated who would have an agenda to get the town sick, including the Altaieshians, the Jegorians, and the local Sheriff. Alan and Bob knew that Eagle's Landing was in a bit of a precarious position, as it is a border town, but that there are no defenses in the town, or any of the King's men, just the Magistrate and The Sheriff, all the town guard and the like are provided by Lord Saclor. Bob also knew that there was some type of ancient agreement between the King and Lord Saclor, meaning that the King could not just replace Lord Saclor, but Theo found this idea suspect. The group sought out Lord Saclor, and told them of the kobolds, and he agreed to travel north with them to meet the new kobold leader. When they arrived at the dwarven monastery, they found the the kobolds had already begun to construct huts outside of it, and had set kobolds to watch for visitors/enemies at the top of the monastery's bell tower. One of these kobolds led them to Kibbo, and they found him to be quite different than they had left him, he looked stronger and more confident, and he was wearing the same crown and cape as the old chief, and had an adamantine warhammer at his side. He told them all a story of how he dreamt that he was a great dragon, and that the god of the dwarves had given him this power to protect his people and the mountain. The hammer did seem to be magical and of dwarven make. Lord Saclor was impressed and the two talked about what he wanted to do, Kibbo had already begun plans to move his people to being an agricultural tribe, he wanted to get into farming as opposed to raiding, and establish trade with the other settlements. Lord Saclor agreed to help Kibbo, but said it must be done in secret, and recruited the party to be the go-betweens. He agreed to help them acquire a plow and other farming materials and have them brought to the new settlement. Once the party and Saclor had arrived back to Eagle's Landing, Lord Saclor sent them to find the two dwarves who sought to build an armor and weapons store in the town. He has previously refused to allow them to build a shop in the town, but admitted that he had asked for too much money. Convinced that his town could have economic growth with this new kobold settlement to the north, he told the party that he would be willing to allow these dwarves to build their shop at a reasonable rate if they still wished too, if the party could locate them. Making their way north again, they were able to find a mighty wagon made of iron, pulled by magical iron horses, being attacked by bugbears. The group intervened and helped the dwarven caravan owner, Thurdain Stoutforge, to kill the bugbears. He thanked them and they began to talk, they soon realized he was the dwarf they were looking for, and when he heard the story of Kibbo, he insisted they make haste to the monastery. When they arrived, he was fascinated with it, telling them it was a great find and that he could make a new home for his people here. The dwarf and Kibbo met, and they agreed to help each other, the dwarves would take the monastery and rebuild it, and the kobolds would live outside of it, and together they would be stronger, and the dwarves could help the kobolds learn how to acclimate to society and farm. Thurdain also bought all of the things the party was looking to sell, insisting that his wife could sell them in a far off land, as she was a powerful priestess who could teleport. He also agreed to open the shop in town once he got more of his kin here, and they would restart the mine. The group reported back to Lord Saclor, who was very pleased with this news. After they left, they received a note delivered to them by a random child who did not know who the letter was from, inside, in what looked like different letters and scripts taken from other writings, was a note telling them to meet the letter writer at a specific secluded location outside of town, after dark, if they wanted to know more about who caused the plague. The group decided that they should not tell anyone about the odd note, and that they probably wanted to get Amara in case things turned deadly. They weren't quite sure where she was though, she was not in the Flaphouse, but after asking around Yasias was able to determine that she had been spotted outside of town near the abandoned schoolhouse. The group made their way to the schoolhouse, where they found Amara talking to Kaylin Bramor, a local cleric of The White Lady who was living out here in a tent, trying to get funds together to rebuild the schoolhouse. They sat and Amara made them all a delicious stew, and she told them about how she was forced to live outside of town because the people of the town preferred The Baron, an evil deity that was worshipped across Jegoria that was not seen as evil by most Jegorians. She still had hope that she could help people here if they would come to her, expressing regret that they did not seek here out for help with the plague. Bob offered to try and help with rebuilding the schoolhouse, Kaylin expressed appreciation but told them that she lacked funds or supplies, but they were insistent they could help, and figured they might be able to get the Stoutforge dwarves to help. Amara agreed with the party that this note was a dangerous endeavor and that she should accompany them, and they decided to try and get to the meeting a few hours early to catch the notewriter off their guard. When they arrived at the clearing indicated in the note near the burned down orphanage, they found a man in black robes and a hood that obscured his face waiting for them already. He lit a ring of fire around him as they approached, the fire was made from oil on the ground, he had apparently also been expecting them. He tried to convince them that the local wizard Vakius Orivor had dumped the body in the well to get everyone sick, and insisted that they should kill him immediately, but offered no proof. The party tried to question him on this, but they were soon ambushed by a group of zombies from one direction and a group of skeletons from the other. The black robed man suddenly went quiet as this happened. The battle was tough and bloody, but in the end they were able to kill all the foul undead. The black robed man did not do anything, or even move, during the whole battle. After putting out the fire, they were able to approach the black robed man, he still did not respond, and after removing his hood, they found his eyes obscured by glasses, and that while the robe was man sized, the person in it was actually a child standing on a tall box. The child's eyes were made of twine, and the magically inclined among them were able to determine that this was a Twine Double, a type of magical clone that had no real powers of it's own, but could be controlled telepathically by it's owner. They recognized the child though, he was Narth Orivor, son of the local wizard Vakius Orivor and one of the children they rescued from the kobolds. They were also able to determine that if the twine double stopped responding, it was likely because it's creator couldn't respond anymore. Fearing the worst for the child, they headed back to Eagle's Landing with haste, Yasias sending his raven ahead to Lord Saclor with a letter explaining the situation. Having sent Yasias's raven ahead to warn Lord Saclor of the dangers of the wizard Vakius Orivor, the group headed directly into town, electing not to tell anyone else about the dangers. Given the proximity to the tower, they first tried to talk to Lord Saclor, but were turned away by his guards, who explained that he was out. Making their way to the wizard's tower, they found the gate through the stonewalls open and the previously hidden front door very visible and ajar. Theo made his way into the courtyard, where several floating fire orbs shot off into the sky and exploded like fireworks, he was able to deduce that this meant they had most likely alerted the wizard to their presence. Making their way through the front doors, they found themselves in a well decorated entrance chamber, beyond that was a small hallway with several suits of armor and weapons. These were actually phantom guardians, which came to life and attacked the party. Thankfully through the skilled swordplay of Alan and some contributions from the rest, they were able to slay the guardians, and were faced with two doors. The first door they checked led to a small room that smelled of kobold with a straw mattress on the floor. Hidden under the mattress was a spellbook, written in an untidy scrawl. The other door led further into the tower and to a dining room. From there the group located the kitchen (Alan also spotted a hidden door to the outside), servants quarters with no one in them, a living room with a bar for entertaining (and a set of stairs leading ), and a library. After the library there was another hallway, more dimly lit and clearly not as cared for, which led to two tiny rooms. The first room seemed to be a room for practicing spells, Yasias was able to identify a number of spell components, including a large pile of barely touched ones relating to necromancy spells. The other room was a small bedroom, containing a writing desk, a dresser, and a human sized bed. The group was able to determine that this was likely Narth Orivor's bed, due to the painting that was nailed into the ceiling, depicting his friends and himself: Carmen Saclor the II (Son of Lord Saclor), Melan Blyston (The slow witted butcher's boy), Colin Kaybadan (The woodcarving brother of the local prostitute), and Isala Miraven (Tomboyish daughter of the seamstress). On the frame, below the picture, is the word "Friends" was inscribed. However, there was no sign of Narth or his spellbook. The group made their way up the stairs, being briefly detoured by a small room containing a chest with a sign that says "Do not touch". They elected to take the sign's advice and move on, going through the main doors of the second floor. They found in the main chamber, a wizardly looking old man in black robes, giving orders to a group of skeletons and wielding a staff. When he say them, he started to ramble about The Black King and the coming darkness and the age of undead. Alan burst into the room, acrobatically flipping over all the skeletons, and the fight began. The wizard proved to be made of tougher stuff than they thought, but his attempts to beat them to death with his staff were mostly futile. Yasias created a pit in the middle of the room, killing or trapping many of the skeletons. Theo joined in on the fun, but had some difficulties in getting past the wizard's magical defenses. Bob, Morgann, and Amara meanwhile, found themselves busied with a swarm of zombies that burst from another room. Eventually, after much combat and blood shed, the undead were defeated, and the wizard set ablaze by Yasias's flaming sphere. As the sphere burned the wizard, the room filled with steam. Alan and Theo were able to note that where there should be flesh and bone of the wizard's dying body, there was only melting snow. Exploring the rest of the upstairs, they found a number of disturbing rooms.
- The first room contained what could be best described as a corpse pile. Discarded remains of humans, unfit for necromancy, littered the room, as well as fresh blood that ended at the door.
- The Master Bedroom seemed to have been looted in a hurry. A terrifying painting of an aberration devouring a planet hung over the bed, behind it, an empty hidden drawer. They were able to identify the painting as the type of thing a follower of The Black King would have.
- The first room off of the master bedroom contained two enslaved women, Amadara and Mahamai, who were chained to the wall and bound by magical collars of obedience. Theo was able to free the women, who told them they had come to this country from a far away land, and intended to burn down the tower once they were done.
- Another room contained a sort of magical bathroom, protected by a lock that only opened if you spoke Necril, the ancient language of the undead.
- They also found a library full of evil books and necromantic rituals.
- Another room contained a set of jail cells, with three dead skeletons hanging in the cells, sporting the colors and insignia of the Altaieshian rebels.
- Another room contained a summoning chamber and there was dried blood on the floors.
- The final room contained a scrying pool and all the walls, the ceiling, and the floor, were painted black.